The Rise of Learning, page 30.

A number of diversions have been included in these chapbooks, to make learning more enjoyable for the child. For centuries educators have found that by devising entertaining games, for learning the alphabet, a child can maintain their attention towards the task.

John Locke wrote in 1693 that to make learning more agreeable, an educator should make it an enticing game. As early as 1594, Hugh Plat had devised a dice game to teach the alphabet.

These early nineteenth-century chapbooks employed similar ideas to instruct children. These diversions include: illustrations, a “pinning” game, and transformative images.