![Picture](/uploads/2/6/0/7/26072013/47309.jpg?343)
Ellenor Fenn, highlights
Fenn published both anonymously and under the pseudonyms "Mrs. Teachwell" and "Mrs. Lovechild".
A very successful and prolific author, she wrote introductory spelling books for the very young as well as some of the first graduated readers.
Fables in Monosyllables (1783) are stories for the 3-4 year old, written entirely in words of one syllable.
Cobwebs to Catch Flies, her famous book, is a graduated reader in two volumnes for children of 3-5 years and then 5-8 years, in the form of dialogues.
Fenn was an early and influential grammarian. Some of her most popular books
were for mothers on how to instruct their children, both male and female, in a subject usually reserved only for male teachers of boys at school.
She was very aware of the impact of the overall look of her books, as well as of the needs of her new little readers, employing large print and many pictures ("cuts" or woodcuts).
Her use of idyllic country house settings reveal her comfortable status. The charming interactions of her characters built a middle class "mythic norm" family. Unusually, she occaisionally included a father figure gently taking part in their children's education.
Although unpaid for her work, Lady Fenn was an astute marketer, creating a sense of urgency about mothers educating their children with her books.
She was a proponent of Locke's idea of educating through entertainment. With great insight into how children learned, she advised mothers to take advantage of any moment of their children's curiosity to teach, and with publisher, John Marshall, created some of the first educational toys for sale, incorporating flash cards, spelling and memory cards (what we would call a "concentration" game), and grammar games. In short, she was an early proponent of what we would call a child-centered education and wrote the books to make it possible.
Fenn published both anonymously and under the pseudonyms "Mrs. Teachwell" and "Mrs. Lovechild".
A very successful and prolific author, she wrote introductory spelling books for the very young as well as some of the first graduated readers.
Fables in Monosyllables (1783) are stories for the 3-4 year old, written entirely in words of one syllable.
Cobwebs to Catch Flies, her famous book, is a graduated reader in two volumnes for children of 3-5 years and then 5-8 years, in the form of dialogues.
Fenn was an early and influential grammarian. Some of her most popular books
were for mothers on how to instruct their children, both male and female, in a subject usually reserved only for male teachers of boys at school.
She was very aware of the impact of the overall look of her books, as well as of the needs of her new little readers, employing large print and many pictures ("cuts" or woodcuts).
Her use of idyllic country house settings reveal her comfortable status. The charming interactions of her characters built a middle class "mythic norm" family. Unusually, she occaisionally included a father figure gently taking part in their children's education.
Although unpaid for her work, Lady Fenn was an astute marketer, creating a sense of urgency about mothers educating their children with her books.
She was a proponent of Locke's idea of educating through entertainment. With great insight into how children learned, she advised mothers to take advantage of any moment of their children's curiosity to teach, and with publisher, John Marshall, created some of the first educational toys for sale, incorporating flash cards, spelling and memory cards (what we would call a "concentration" game), and grammar games. In short, she was an early proponent of what we would call a child-centered education and wrote the books to make it possible.