There's a great quote of St. Jerome's I once used in a letter to the editor. It was taken from a letter to a Roman matron who had written to him about the difficulty of helping her young son learn to read. St. Jerome suggested she have some small blocks made and the letters put on those blocks so the child could, "make play a road to learning." I would say he was a very wise and kind man.
Sounds like a great quote. Almost Montessori like.