Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1911 — GIVE THEM PLAYROOM [ARTICLE]

GIVE THEM PLAYROOM

CHILDREN NEED A PLACE FOR THEMSELVES. « ; • > Entire Family Benefited by the Arrangement—Simple Furnishings Always the Best for Such an Apartment.

The first good result of , a playroom is the freedom and peace it gives to the entire family. The children have a place where they legitimately belong, to which they may be sent when family councils make their presence undesirable. They also have a place for their playthings, which will cease to litter the house at large. As soon as they have a room of their own they may be taught to 'understand something of the rule of mine and thine. A child without a room of his own is in an ’unenviable position. He lives In a place where he has no rights and no interest. He takes his meals in the dining room and he sleeps in a bedroom —probably shared with someone else, but in neither of these has he any possessions or any interest except eating and sleeping. The living room is a precarious place to start anything in, as it is uncertain when it will be needed by some one else, and if anyone is already there, play is sure to disturb him. He has nfo place to do anything. When, in desperation, he takes one he becomes an annoyance.

The ideal playroom has nothing in it except what is needed. It is a room that grows. If children are young, bare whitewashed walls are best. They can be decorated to suit the varying fancies of the children, and a fresh coat of wash each year will at a small cost present a new clean surface for the next stage of their development. When they are old enough to want wallpaper, let them select it. Let it be the cheapest possible, so that it may be renewed at a small cost. As for pictures, the unframed prints will satisfy aesthetic tastes for many a year, and when the desire for framed finished pictures comes the fever for passe-partout will come also and give an inexpensive method of decoration. If the roofn is a warm one no carpets are necessary, and in any event washable rugs are the best floor covering. An unstained table of white wood, a good-sized closet and a couple of chairs of the right height are the only furnishings needed. The toys of the children will make the room complete, and extra furnishings will come as the room grows.—Harper’s Bazar. \ *