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Description

by Bertha Johnston

PREFACE

The plan of this book has special reference to the Mother when comes the woful plaint, "I don't know what to do! Mama, what can I do now?"

Is she busy in the kitchen? She has right there material for the little one's happy employment. Is she mending the stockings? She can give him needle and thread and, with the aid of this book, a word of suggestion. In spare moments both mother and children can together prepare papers, cards, etc., for future occasions.

It will be found upon examination that although some of the articles described herein require material peculiar to certain localities, very many more may be made of things to be found in every home, whether the city flat or the remote country homestead. Usually a choice is possible. One may use the cardboard, paper, etc., saved from the scrap-basket or may send to supply houses for material partially prepared. It is an undoubted advantage for the child to be trained to see the possibilities in the raw material lying at hand. It stimulates his inventive imagination and makes for efficiency and the power to cope with emergencies.

The child accustomed to looking upon odds and ends of wire, paper, weeds, seeds, and grasses as hiding delightful secrets which he may learn to unravel and utilize, may be readily trained to regard all Nature as a vast storehouse open to his investigation, and a continual source of inspiration.

The child, habituated to mastering the raw material of his immediate environment, will not be discomfited if thrown upon an unknown shore, whether arctic or tropical. He will recognize everywhere about him possibilities for shelter, food, clothing, and transportation and will know how to use them.

But the child must be trained to perceive the beautiful and the ideal as well as the useful. Into each article here described, even the simplest, enter the elements of beauty, proportion, harmony of line and color, and good, true workmanship, leading surely, even if unconsciously, to an appreciation of the best wherever found.

In making an article as a gift for child or adult, thought for others is cultivated and the frequently needed help of older brother or sister encourages the spirit of goodwill and kindliness.

The festival occasions are especially valuable in developing the sense of interdependence and large-mindedness.

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