Are N.Z. Children too Practical ?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 818, 12 November 1929, Page 4

Are N.Z. Children too Practical ?

I'll iry l a les aml DayDreams Have Value CHECKING MATERIALISM In the practical, materialistic aj;e iq which " • arc living the two things which nh must not allow to desert us arc a sense ot humour and our imag- ! ination. says done Stratton Porter in a contemporary journal I believe ue should begin with the development of a child's imagination by reading to U j the best fairy tales of our time. ; There should be crowded into the J child's nnnd all the imagery, the tan- | tasy. and the whimsicality possible. As ; ho grows older there will be little time lor romance, sentiment, and imagination. and too much time for practical j and material business duties. Hut if we tan instil into his mind ! some imagery or vision, a little of it : is sure to r. main with him through the 1 years, and it w ill help him over rough spots on the road: it will help him to ! keep faith with his friends, and it will help him to remember that the daily, monotonous grind of w ork is not everyj thing in life. KEEPING IMAGINATION ALIVE tVhen a little child conics to you and j tells you, as a little child once told me, I that she has been riding through the j clouds on the back of a huge bird and has seen a lovely city with flowers, trees and birds peopled with hundreds of beautiful fairies, you must not punish . The child lias only been day-dreaming, and you will make a serious mistake if you do not allow her to dream. I once put into a book all the childish tales and verses which I made uj> for the entertainment of my little grand-daughter. In it I put all the stories she loved, which included one about “How the Flowers Were Made.'* I said the world was Old Mother Nature’s house, and that she used moss and grass for her carpet, bushes and trees for walls, and the sky for her roof; the sun for light by day. the moon for her lamp at night, and all the stars for candles. Much to my surprise. I received a letter from a minister who said I was teaching children to believe lies, and that such information and influence was very harmful to childish minds. I simply cannot understand a brain that works that way. Personally, 1 am willing for all my little folk to believe that a rainbow is a band of fairies in gaily-coloured draperies, dancing across the sky. ltis much more beautiful and understandable than a lengthy explanation of the real phenomenon—there is plenty of time for them to learn what it really » is. Why fill childish minds with cold* hard technicalities? LETS PRETEND! Among the most delightful games o£ childhood are the games of “Let's Pretend" and “Make Believe.’* I was taught that the fungi which grow on stumps in the woods were ballrooms where the fairies danced at night, and I used to decorate them with flowers and ferns, arrange seats of toadstools for the guests, and make a platform of moss and lichens for tb€ fairy orchestra. As I did these things I pictured to myself the costumes they might wear and the dances they might do. I even asked my mother to go with after dark, and many times we waited almost breathlessly for the fairies to arrive, but none ever came. Still, I did not lose faith. ESCAPE FROM THE HUMDRUM In the comfortable living room, where a wood lire snapped and crackled every evening, the soot which burned on the back wall of the fireplace Was not merely soot burning, it was the firefairies enjoying their evening dance. Have you ever lain flat on your back among the clover under a blossoming apple tree and watched the sky through the clouds, the flowers, the birds and the insect life around you? It is the best way T know to detach your fancies from the busy routine of everyday life and allow' them to roam whitlier they will so that they may return to you refreshed and inspired to conquer new worlds. So let us keep our childhood’s belief in fairies and inject all the sentiment possible into the ideas and ideals which govern our daily life. We need to keep a bit of poetry in our souls, a bit of song in our hearts, and many ; fairies dancing through our imaginaj tion. NECKLACE NOVELTIES GRADED COLOURS One of the most charming of the new necklaces is made up of row upon row of tiny beads, each chain hanging a shade lower than the last row. and each three or *>i;r chains taking a deeper note of the same colour. Each row of aeads is joined to the one and same buckle or c.iasp, which is of the predominating colour. In the shops these chains of chains are being sold at anything from seven-and-sixpence to one or two guineas, but they are very simple to make. You can buy beads quite cheaply, and coloured glass clasps about an inch square. The beads should be worn so that the clasp is on the shoulder, where once we should have w orn a spray; and, of course, they should only be worn with a collarless frock. • One of the most charming seen had a yellow glass clasp—which need not un-clasp, by the way, as the beads go over the head. The rows of started in a biscuit shade, and went through yellow, saffron, beech-brown, and so on to nigger. Three rows of each colour. Why not grow cress in boxes? A , kerosene-case sawn iu halves will make two flat boxes of suitable size ; and depth for the purpose. Bore a few holes in the boxes for drainage ' and almost fill them with fine, sandy soil. Water well, then sow the cress-seed fairly thick on the surface and cover with a quarter of an inch of fine soil. In three or four days the young plants will appear if kept moist with tepid water. In less than three weeks the crop should be ready for cutting. Tt is advisable to have three small boxes and sow the seed in each box in succession, allowing a j week or so between each sowing.