Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-01-17
NATIONS AND MAIDS.
BAD-WEATHER ADJUSTMENTS
FOR CHILDREN.
Indoor Pastimes Which VIII Teach
Practical Lessons Decorations of Rib
bon Cleaning Pots and Pans--A Coun-
try Maid-Custards.
Amusement for Children.

Amusement for Children.
Every mother whose time will pcr-
NIT should form supdry plans Tor en-
Pertaining her children indoors dur
ing stormy weather, and if these
rainy-day pleasures can be kept quite
distinct and separate from those that
are part of the fair weather hours,
they will be imbued with rarer
charm than will ever belong to the
more commonplace ones, and the wor-
ried woman need not feel that a
cloudy sky portends domestic storm.
The mother who has never thought
of getting up a regular rainy-day
regime, says the New York Telegram,
is naturally aggravated when twilight
sets in to have tired little head
nestle into her lap and small, hot
hands tug at the work she is trying
so hard TO finish while querulous
voice demands to be amused.
She is n busy, human woman and is
annoyed because she is disturbed in a
task she is ambitious to complete
while daylight lasts. AS she has never
planned rainy day progr am all that
she can do is to battle the feverish
cheeks, substitute slippers for shoes
and distribute clean aprons and col
lars with lavish hand. Clean faces
and clothes exercise wonderful ten
dency toward behavior in keeping,
and tangles out of the curls mean very
frequently tangles out of the tempers
as we'll. This is all right to do after
the children have been tried to their
utmost, but an ounce of prevention is
always worth pound of cure, and a
few amusements are here suggested
that will so fully employ the restless
minds and bodies that night will come
on all too quickly, and they will wish
for rainy days more frequently.
In every househo Id there are daily
accommodating empty spools Save
these and the amount of quiet fun
the children can get out of them will
more than repay you for the little
thought and labor their collection has
entailed. Every child enjoys playing
''keep school," and the spools are the
most docile scholars that can at
a moments notice be metamorphosed
into gay soldiers, whose doings will
perhaps be more pleasing to the lit
tie brothers.
Even patchwork can be made %
fascinating employment if the mother
says only two, or, at the most three,
blocks can be sewed toge ther in one
day, and if the ultimate OBJ ject of all
the careful stitching is to be charm
ing spread for Miss Dolly's bed, then,
indeed, the prosaic labor proves more
than fascinating.
But the all absorbing and most en-
crossing indoor entertainment is scrap
book making. 1t means dreadful
litter unless managed right, but If
provided for as you would the weeks
sweeping or baking it proves boon
to the mother and gives many an
hour of wholesome enjoyment to the
little folks. 1t is absolutely neces-
sary that a certain an d definite place
be provided for this messy amuse-
ment. 1t would indeed be more trou-
BILE than profit if chairs and tables
had to be dragged out of their places
and then put away in hurry again,
to say nothing OF the necessary brush
ing up incumbent upon the litter
made by countless snippings that..were
allowed to fall unheeded upon the
floor. If you possess a broad, low
table use that; if not, the leaf of the
family extension table will answer.
Set this in corner with sheet over
the carpet, waste basket conven-
iently near and a large box appropri-
ated for the use of pic lures, books
and papers needed for the purpose.
The sheet will save the carpet from
dripping and dabs Of paste, and the
waste basket will swallow up most
of the litter. What little remains
outside of it can be shaken from the
sheet into the waste basket, and all
evidences of untidiness thus dispelled
in one moment.