The broad heading of “Drill” in Mason’s Programmes, covered a variety of subjects. The three main ones were Drill, Dancing, and Games. Under Drill fell Swedish Drill, Musical Drill, and Marching Drill, as well as a few other more interesting forms, such a Grecian Drill and Indian Clubs! Then Dancing included Folk Dancing and English Country Dance. The Peasant Dances and Songs of Many Lands that Mason used in Forms 2-4 included dances from many different countries, such as Japan, Italy, and Russia! English Country Dances (linked is a short article on the History of ECD and it’s American counterpart) are similar to contra dancing or square dancing. The Games portion in the programmes included musical singing games and recreational games for the younger forms (see the Drill Scope and Sequence Page for links to books), as well as skipping which appears to refer to Skipping Rope. Then in the older forms for afternoon occupations, students were encouraged to play 1 seasonal, athletic sport per term, such as Hockey, Tennis, Lacrosse, etc.
To understand more about how Drill and Singing were included in the PNEU time-tables for Mason’s morning lessons, please go to my Scheduling Page to see the time-table details!
I recently wrote a series of articles for Charlotte Mason Poetry about the Principles and Practices of Drill – particularly Musical Drill, which is the focus here on Miss Mason’s Music. If you would like an in depth look at Drill as it relates to Music, I highly recommend you jump over there and read or listen to the audio blog version from that series of articles! For the time being these articles will give you the best, most in depth look at the musical portions of Drill in the PNEU!
Part 1: Worship, War and Musical Drill by Heidi Buscbach (Drill Principles)
Original Parents’ Review Article: Rhythm in Music by D.L. Walker
Part 2: Musical Drill Practices by Heidi Buschbach (Drill Methods)
Original Parents’ Review Article: Education is the Science of Relations ( including a quote about how Drill was done to Music)
On Miss Mason’s Music I will be covering the Musical aspects of Drill dancing and Games. If you would like more information on Drill as a Physical Education aspect of the PNEU, Dawn Duran has done some good research on Swedish Drill, which was one component of the broader heading of Drill. She is a physical therapist and has put together a nice, brief e-book that can help you understand Swedish Drill and some safe ways to incorporate it into your school days now. She also has written a few blog posts with Videos to help you on your way!
Here are a few videos of historical reenactments of Gymnastics (Drill) from the 1860s-70s and 1920s -30s to help you see what Swedish Drill with and without music might have been like:
Boys:
Boys: