Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-12
A VACATION SCHOOL
For Parents to Enjoy With
Their Children.
WHAT ONE WOMAN DID
SET HER SIMMER CHARGES TO
PLAYING GEOGRAPHY.
Interest Excited in the Great Battles
Playing Stories Was
Mothers Way.

| spiritually no less than physically, anu
count it among the blessings of vacation
| that 1t gives time to make friends with
their very own. Whether the summer
days are spent at home or abroad, no
mother who truly loves her boys and
girls can afford to overlook the opportunity
| of summer leisure If she can manage to
make herself comrade. and leader in sports
the problem of family government is In
| tair way of solving itself.
Comradery and leadership require some
thing of tact and forethought. There must
be nothing which smacks of infringement
| upon the true holiday spirit. Suggestions
| even squirting at school work are not to
De endured. At the same time 1t is easily
| possible to make summer play nix ana
fructify winter lessons. One woman at
| least found it SO. She had summer charge
| OF nine children between the ages OF eight
and twelve. A shallow stream ran over
clean pebbles in front of the cottage, with
| other pebbles heaping the banks. There
| she set her charges to playing geography,
| that is to say. to making of pebbles and
| water, islands, peninsulars, continents,
capes, promontories, bays CULTS, straits,
seas, even oceans. At first single things
satisfied the continent builders, but long
before the summer sojourn ended they had
built hemispheres, with rivers and noun
tain ranges duly running through. And 1t
took nothing from their enjoyment of the
| building, that Chicago lad insisted upon
having Lake Michigan bigger than the Pa
cific ocean. nor that the Mississippi ran
for once without the suspicion of a crook
between mouth and source.
| From abstract geography the transition
was easy to cities, and especially to battle
| fields. Here the titular mother showed her
self invaluable-she knew about soldiers
and generals, and had books which told of
military formations and the CONFORMATION
of battle scenes. Battles themselves in
evitably followed. 1t was thrilling to see
lironC Nf %1I -, IL
| neuvered by three naughty British generals
and one private, advance to assault peb-
ble-cotton-bale breastworks. behind which
feminine General Jackson waved a
kitchen knife sword, and shouted to her
rifiemen, who like herself, wore skirts:
Aim for the whites of their eyes,
A Naval Hero.
Perry at Lake Erie was played lower
down, where the shallow stream ran into
another quite three feet deep. The flag
ship was a gorgeous thing of sails and
| paint-chips, chunks and bit of plank.
along with tin cans, leaking badly through
| the holes in which their stick masts were
stepped, made up the rest of the fleet.
Only the boys fought in the naval bat
tle-wading in boldly to touch off the fire
| cracker cannon high on deck or slung at
| the masthead The girls Were sadly anx-
| ious to be Indian allies, with paint and
| feathers stuck. inl the hair, but since both
| the bTlllSH anu Americans HOuteu them,
| they ran Off with. their heads very high,
| and spent the Whole afternoon working on
| the book of leaves.
The book of leaves was going home to
| the littlest girls papa, who knew every
| thing about all the things that grew All
| the children could help with it, under GER
| tain restrictions That is to say, If they
| were sure they wanted to badly enough to
| do careful work and keep their hands very
| clean. The book was stoutly bound with
| roughish blank pages, grayish white and
| of fair size. Leaf prints went upon one
| side of each page. TO make them, fresh
| leaves well wilted were pressed against
| paper which had been evenly blackened
| by holding it over the flame of a lamp.
! By rubbing the leaf delieately it left its
| image in white lines upon the black, but
that did not count From the black paper
| 1t was lifted into its place In the book,
backened side down, covered with soft
! paper. and rubbed all over with a bit of
| cotton, tied in thin silk. 1t came away
leaving its picture upon the book page.
There were few or many a page, &C
| cording to size. The littlest girls papa was
| to name and classify the pictures-a very
| good puzzle for him-and then the book
was to go into the library of a private
| school.
| The work proved SO fascinating several
| of the youngsters made leaf books of their
| own. Another among the older ones was
moved to skeletonize leaves and fill big
| ger book with them. Printing leaves on
| sensitive paper was also tried, but the lit
| tie people did not care for it, as they did
| not know how to fix the pictures after they
were made. But they got no end of pleas
| ure out of cheap drawing pads and plenti-
full colored crayons.
| Sometimes the tituar mother told or read
| them something; making it as short and
plain as possible and letting each nearer
| picture his idea of what he had heard
Some truly astonishing creatures resulted
but the story teller found the pictures
wonderfully instructive. They were indeed
fairly accurate index of the great tenn
| peramental differences in attention and
| comprehension. Some of the children to
whom spoken words seemed to convey
the least were able, after seeing pictures
in a book to come much nearer reproducing
them than others. who. working by hear
| say, had done much better.
The Children's Turn.
Indeed. 1t is not too much to say that
If for ten months in the year parents edu-
cate their children, throughout the other
two normal children do a deal toward edu-
eating their parents. This of course,
when they have real parents so fully
| grown up they are glad to be in part chill
herself unable to go out through a whole
summer kept her five children wholesomely
happy and content by playing stories with
them. She got the best and brightest
books-none of them juvenie-and read
| them to her flock a chapter each morning.
After the reading the youngsters were
permitted torchoose who in the story they
would be. tFirstn choice was the prize of
all-around good behavior and no choice at
all the seversst punishment. Whatever was
chosen the ehooser had to live up to as
nearly as possible until next morning One
| of those children feels to this day grew
ance against, fate In that she was never
lucky enough to0be the fat boy in Pick
| wick. -ffs.
| A whole season of story playing is, of
course, impra ctieable outside ones own
home. But for a day or a special occa-
sion 1t might serve very we'll Children
love nothing better than acting-witness
| their close imitation of those around about
them. In the family as in the state the
least governed are commonly the best. gov