Ibn Sina is very much concerned with games at this age, as well as in primary education. He shows us the role of exercise in education and its necessary place in the child's life, and explains that exercise differs according to age, and also with the child's ability. For exercise may be much or little; it can be very vigorous, demanding considerable physical strength; it can also be slight; swift or slow; it can be rapid, combining strength and speed; and again it can be relaxing. Each of these types has its own appropriate place and necessity in the life of the young child.

But Ibn Sina is as concerned with play and exercise at this level of education as he is with ‘musical education'. We know that Ibn Sina was skilled in this art, both as a composer and a performer. So it is in the capacity of an expert that he mentions the feelings of pleasure, joy, purity and the sense of exaltation which music brings about in the child: and also the way the child can learn to perceive harmony and discord, treble and bass, and how this comes about. Ibn Sina speaks at length about music, its composition and rhythm, and the instruments used.

So sport and music are the most important components of the method in this stage. They are the two methods of instruction which prepare the child for organized ‘primary teaching' in the next stage, when he reaches 6 years of age.

The child should first recite the rajaz, since it is easier to remember. The verses the child memorizes must make plain the usage of good manners and of learning, and the disgrace of ignorance and foolishness; it must encourage respect towards parents, acceptable behaviour, hospitality to guests, and high moral standards. This means that the poetry which Ibn Sina wants to be presented to the child at this stage is literature with a message, which contributes to the boy's training, and giving him that moral education which Ibn Sina considers to be the human being's goal and the source of his happiness.

The curriculum put forward by Ibn Sina reminds us of society's concern at that time with Islamic culture and its basic elements: the Qur'an, poetry, devoutness and ethics. On the other hand, he does not ignore the child's need for play, movement and diversion, so that his curriculum does not really differ very much from that followed by the modern child in the majority of Islamic countries today, except for its concentration upon ‘memorizing the Qur'an' and in giving this learning ‘absolute priority'.

Ibn Sina divided the education of his day into theoretical instruction and manual or practical instruction (trade, jewellery making or another craft). This practical learning ‘is acquired by diligent practice in the activity of that craft', or by being trained in it. Theoretical education, on the other hand, is that which is acquired from ‘speech heard or understood, which naturally conveys a belief or an opinion, or creates an impression which did not exist before'. This theoretical teaching is also made up of two kinds: ‘transmitted' theoretical teaching, and intellectual or philosophical theoretical teaching. Each type of theoretical or practical teaching—and likewise every form of transmitted or intellectual teaching—has its means and methods which prepare the individual for specialization in the chosen field. We would wish that Ibn Sina had spoken in greater detail about these three methods of teaching (transmitted, intellectual and vocational). Unfortunately, he restricted himself to drawing attention to them, which does, however, indicate their existence at that time. His subsequent writings speak at greater length about the methods by which the students of the intellectual sciences were taught.

The teaching required by a woman was such as to fit her to be a wife, mother and sister. It appears that it was customary in Ibn Sina's day for this education to be carried out at home and to be taken care of by the girl's family or by a private tutor assigned to this task. It is clear that Ibn Sina acknowledged this individual style in teaching girls, and left their teaching to their families, who would give them whatever moral, religious and cultural preparation they desired.