The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1938-06-09
Buddy Leurns About
Doodles
NnInII AYnIO
EDITH BRANDS

"What shall l do with this little boy
who asks questions all the time"
wondered Mrs. Sandusky. "If ! answer
his questions | shall get nothing else
done all day. This is never going to
do"
She asked other young mothers and
found they could not help her very
much Then she asked the kindergar-
ten teacher to whom Buddy would go
in another few months.
"Be glad he has an active mind"
said Miss Gaines. "If he were a stupid
little boy you wouldn't like that either.
My guess is that part of his urge is
the desire to be noticed, but that by
far the most Of it is what we call in
tellecutal curiosity, and that is the
base for the quest of all knowledge.
So then, the first thing to do is, at all
legitimate times, to satisfy his desire
to be noticed, and gradually replace
that with an interest in the objective
things around him. This will give his
mind the food it needs"
She made other suggestions which
Mrs. Sandusky carefully noted.
The next morning Mother gave
Buddy his breakfast in peace and har-
mony, having waited until his older
brother and sister had gone to school,
so he could have her full attention.
After breakfast, his face and hands
washed, his little playsuit on for an
hour out-of-doors, his questions began,
and it was not hard to see that he did
not want to go away from her. But
this was her problem, and she set
about solving it at once.
She remembered that she had heard
the older children mention colony of
Doodle Bugs" in the soft sand of the
driveway. When Buddy's barrage of
questions began, she took him by the
hand and they went to visit the
"Doodles."
She showed Buddy one Ant Lions
funnel-shaped trap. Then she sat
quietly on the grass by the driveway
and allowed him to find all the rest
of them for himself. When he had done
this he counted them and told her how
many there were.
Next she told him that when she
was little girl she used to talk te
the Ant Lions, or doodle Bugs
"Could they talk to you?" he asked
"No, but they minded what said
I said: Doodle up! Doodle up! ano
Mr.. Doodle would come up out of the
ground, where l could see him."
"Show me, Mother!"
Mother and son knelt in the clear
sand and spoke to a Doodle in the
largest funnel-shaped trap. Mother
said it first and Buddy repeated he1
words: "Come Doodle. Come Doodle
Doodle up! Doodle up!"
The sand at the bottom of the tral
stirred. "Oh, Mother, he's coming.
And he did come-a small brown bug
all dusty from the sand in which HI
lived. He waited at the bottom of tn
trap, then went back.
"You see, Buddy, you can call tn
Doodles, too. You don't need to have
Mother Now I'm going into the hous'
to do the dishes, and you can go tt
every Doodle house and call them all
Tell them it's time to get up fo1
breakfast"
Internationally while washing ant
wiping the dishes, Mrs. Sandusk!
watched the small earnest figure kneel
ing with nose close to the Doodle
traps. When her work was finished
she went out to him, happy in the re
alization that her son had taken stel
in the transfer she so much wished fol
his development. He had found fo
a little while an objective interes
apart from her.
He said, 81 called them, and ever!
one came up."
Editors note: In our next issu,
"Buddy Learns More About Doodles'
and his mother learns more about littl,
boys.