The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1919-05-06
TRAINING LITTLE CHILDREN
Suggestions by Mothers Who Have
Been photographers.
BY MRS. JANET W. MCKENZIE

gun at home unconsciously by botl
mother and child. It has its begin
nings in the answers to the first
questions familiar to every mother
such as Mother, what color is this ~
GLOW many are there?" (Which is
my right hand?" (Which is heavier?'
Ii mother will take little time
to play with her children, as Froebel
urges, the first question about color
can be made the nucleus of a little
game. Let the child find something
of the same color as that which first
interests him, then something in
each of the six standard colors
count the articles found; classify
them as smooth or rough, heavy or
light, and so on.
In the same way the three type
forms of solids-the sphere, cube
and cylinder-can be shown the
child, and articles around the house
classified as cubical like the cube or
block, round like the sphere or ball,
or cylindrical like barrel. The size
of objects should also be noted.
Color, form and number can east
ly be made into games if mother has
time to play with her children.
When mother is busy with the
pressing routine of homework, per-
haps a box of cranberries and
long thread in a coarse needle would
entertain a dear little meddler, ana
give mother a free hour to work.
Cranberries may be scarce, but but
tons flourish in every home; also
inch pieces Of macroni which can
be combined with circles or squares
of colored paper cut out of bright
advertising pages.
When baking is under way, and
little hands have to be kept from in
terfering, piece of colored string
a yard long with the ends tied to-
gether will afford much delight.
Wet the string and make as perfect
a fiat surface. BY pushing a point
in the circle to the center, we change
what looked like full moon into a
crescent; pushing in three places
makes clover leaf. The variations
are endless. And the child can learn
with an occasional suggestion from
mother, to make familiar symmetric-
al outlines in this way.
Perhaps it is bread that is being
baked. What possibilities in small
lump of dough! It can be made in
to loaf just life mothers, or roll
ed into tiny biscuits.
Toothpicks have many possibilities ,
as play material. With them pic
lures can be made in outline of
houses, fences, furniture, boats or
stars, and it is material that can be
lsed over and over again.
Chains of paper are made by
slipping one short strip within an 1
'ther and FASTING the ends. Col
red strips may be alternated with :
he white strips that have been saw
d from rolls of narrow ribbon.
Coloring with crayons, cutting out
'ictufes and FASTING are all kinder
,arten activities that can be carried
IN at home.
A handbook in which pictures of
urniture have been pasted for each
DOM of house give delight that
lave seen last all summer. How
agerly the advertising pages in
magazines are searched for the
'itchen cabinet, bath tub, parlor
'arlor suite, crib or bedl How care
ully the selected pictures are cut !
lnd pasted ON the proper pagel
With a hat-box as the frame for I
dollhouse, and cardboard par I
Itions making four rooms, a child's 1
nterest and attention may be oc- =
upied perhaps for several months.
he house can be furnished as to
occupants and rugs from the mag