Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1885 — PARENTS AND CHILDREN. [ARTICLE]

PARENTS AND CHILDREN.

Keeping Children Busy. i ' The busy is generally the happy child, and the happy child is generally the least troublesome of the species. Indeed, we hafre often thought that the maxim, “Be virtuous and you’il be happy,” might in the case of children, if not only in that of grown persons, be reversed and made to read, “Be happy and you’ll be virtuous.” Certain it is that the unoccupied child is unhappy and often indocile and mischievous.—New York Tribune. A Way to Keep Children Quiet. “I wish there was some tray to keep those'children quiet on a rainy day, or when it is too warm for them to be in the Bun playing,” said a weary mother the other day to her friend neighbor. “I always notice what little trouble you have with your children, although yon have three more than I have; and I thought perhaps you could tell me how you managed it.” “A very easy matter, my dear,” replied her friend. “Children must be amused or they will become cross and naughty; so would you and I. Suppose we were doomed to stay all day, or half a day, in one room, were not allowed to read, write, or sew, could only sit on certain chairs and handle certain articles, there was no one to talk to or nothing but a game of solitaire for us to play. Why, we’d be almost crazy. Any one, man, woman, or child, in good health, must have something to doduring their waking hours. Yet how few mothers try to furnish this something to the busy hands and active brains of the little ones. You notice children out in the street or garden. Are they ever quiet? No. It is true they find amusement in the most trivial thing. Now I have thought about all this, and have fixed up one room in the house, the play-room, exclusively for my children. The room is the large one on the top floor. It is all I had to spare, and as I could not afford a good carpet I painted the floor and left it bare. A poor carpet would be worn, out in six months. In the winter the room is heated by a little circular stove and over this is put a wire screen, so there is no danger of the children burning themselves. The walls are painted a delicate gray with a pink border, and I have a wainscoting that is one of the chief charms of the rpom. “What is it? Well, I collected all the pictures I could out of magazines, illustrated papers, etc., and pasted them on the wall from the floor almost as high as the mantel. Pictures of animals and birds, and those of child-life, are, of course, the greatest number. I put the colored prints down near the surface, so that the smaller children could enjoy them, and they are pasted on so nicely that tearing them is impossible. “Then,” continued this nice little mother, “I have five boxes in the room, all of different sizes. These boxes have covers that fasten down, and are padded on the top, with a flounce around the edge, so that when the box is closed they have the appearance of little ottomans. Each child keeps his playthings in the box, and it is his particular property, A nursery rug with all kinds of animals cut out of cloth, with the name embroidered underneath, is among the furnishings of the room. “My children amuse themselves for hours in that room, with only excursions now and then to the kitchen for something to play ‘tea party’ with, and I flatter myself that they learn considerable from the pictures, as well as neatness and order with their playthings.” —New York Morning Journal