MOTHER-MADE TOYS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 59, 1 June 1927, Page 5

MOTHER-MADE TOYS

I saw a very happy small person bowling a hoop along the broad gravel walk in the park the other day. Her cheeks were rosy, and her bobbed golden hair whipped back as she ran. Clearly, the hoop was a much-treas-ured possession—and no wonder! It was made of wood, and had only cost sixpence, but it was different, because it was a “mother-made” toy.

The wooden circumference was painted with bright, glowing colours—red, orange, yellow, blue, green, violet, and as the hoop rolled the colours merged and blended, giving a wide range of pure shades. Such a toy expresses the individuality of the mother, who not only loves her baby, but takes every opportunity of giving her amusement and pleasures. The child unconsciously learned quite a lot of the theory of colour-mixing from the hoop, besides rejoicing in a toy that was her very own. Home-made toys need not be amateurish, and they can be ever so much more educative than many of the useless and ugly toys found in the shops. Even some of the Montessori toys, designed by the great Italian educator, can be copied at home. The buttoning and lacing frames, for instance, which are used in the Montessori schools to teach the tiny child to dress himself, can be made very easily. A wooden frame, which has held an old picture or the border of a wooden slate, may be used for the rectangle of wood needed for this toy. At top and bottom, pieces of material may be nailed. Thcdr free edges meet down the centre, and are fastened together by buttons and buttonholes, hooks and eyes, or paten t fasteners, according to the type of fastening mother wishes the child to master. For the small boy who wears leather gaiters, the material may be leather, one piece bearing the buttons, the other the buttonholes; for little girl? who cannot hook their coats, hooks and eyes may replace the buttons and buttonholes. This is only one of the many cheap, educative and individual toys which may bo made at home by mothers who understa id the needs of their children. “Mother-made” toys have a lasting effect on the character of the child, and keep him happy and busy for hours.