The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-15
AMUSING CHILDREN.

AS the cold weather advances, aud the little
ones are obliged more aud more to seek
amusement indoors, the mother looks around
for ample sources of entertainment to keep
the busy fingers employed, yet ont of mis-
chief. Ii she can have her family room in
perfect order, with four or five children
playing round and happy all the time,
she is a very remarkable woman, aud
the secret of her management would be worth
knowing It seems TO be necessary. in order
to keep the tempers of the little ones uuruf-
fed, that chairs should stand upside down
toys be scattered hither aud you, aud offer
inps continually made to the Goddess of Dls-
order or laid on the shrine of chaos The
smashing of cups, plates, window-paues,
play things, lamps, and dolls heads is also
essential SO their perfect felicity. Allow
ance should be made for all these things just
as is made for their growth when new clothes
gre cut out for them. One corner of the sitting
room or kitchen should be given up TO the
children. where they may have liberty to do
everything not absolutely sinful. a peck of
clean sand in a tight box, with a funnel and
tin cups is capable of giving some children
great deal of pleasure. Hammer aud tacks,
with bar Of soap instead of wood are also
good things for boys. An ounce of parti-
colored beads. doled out a few at a time, with
needle and thread to string them. will amuse
most little girls or boys for many hours.
Slate and pencil, or paper and pencil with a
set of cEeup drawing cards for models, are
very fascinating to children four or five years
old. A set of building blocks, costing from
one to three dollars, is an excellent invest
ment for bevy of Juveniles.
Investment Of some sort there must he, if
peace and quiet are to be preserved, either of
money in the purchase of toys, or of time in
making them. or, greater than all, of patience
and good temper in bearing the penalties
that the parent must suffer who makes no
adequate provision for keeping idle hands out
of the mischief Satan will surely find for
them TO do Dolls, tea sets, hobby-horses,
picture-books-these are as indispensa BILE in
the nursery as are milk, cribs, and hannels.
There must also be due proportion Of fin
ger-marks on the doors, thumps on little
heads, scratches and bruises on little bodies
to make up the perfect round of child-ife.
The mother may fancy that she will be
happier when her boys and girls are grown
from under her constant watchfulness: but
the general testimony is that the period OF
playthings of measles and whoOping- cough,
of walking. stick horses and tongues and
poker ponies, is happiest for the mother aud
often for the child. When her offspring are
all about her, their noise may distract, their
incessant wants weary the mother; but she
does not worry over them as when, later in
life, they go she knows not where, and they
do she knows not what. 1t is best, therefore,
to enjoy the period of infancy and childhood
as it passes numbering only it's joys and
forgetting its annoyances, smoothing rugged
paths for tender feet and helping young
hearts to choose the good, and growing minds
to seek and love true wisdom.