Show I CHILDRENS HOUSEWORK THE MOST SUCCESSFUL KIND OF hOME AMUSEMENTS Fasciani lag Form of Washing Cooking untl SeiTlng Rcuelpta rO I for CIitlilK I Housewifery I A fair proportion of orderly happy busy contended house lfe Is held by j wise mothers to be indispensable in tile bringing up of children Especially I Especial-ly of little children r Open air exercise athletics study I must play their part in the lives of children but conservative mothers say I that there is danger of the modern lit tie girl becoming discontented with i quiet life in the house j No doubt the modern little girl is avery a-very active being The old regime of I j the sample the piece of patchwork j the overandover seam is not for her j The kindergarten system recognizes the childs leaning toward construction construc-tion Imitation and active occupation More than une mother feels the new education on the air and resorts intuitively in-tuitively to housewifery housekeeping play as entertainments for her hId i One mother invented a washing day for her small daughter oIl very tired of toys She bought an outfit of tubs and bench wringer and I I clothes rack washboard and clothespins clothes-pins stove and boiler and pails none I of them so small as to disgust the child There was a cake of soap a tiny box of starch a grain or two of I real indigo tied up in a rag for a bluing I blu-ing bag to squeeze color into the last rinsing water And there were I small Irons an ironing sheet and d l clothes basket There was no make believe anywhere excepting in the matter of lire in the stove But the child was quite willing to fill her tubs and her boiler from a large tin teakettle tea-kettle supplied with hot water from the bath room To this outfit a square corner in the mothers sitting room was cheerfully devoted every Monday and on Tuesday for the ironing Next the most fascinating weeks washing was contrived From the scrap bag was procured pieces of gingham like three of the childs4 frocks and flannel like her chubby skirts and drawers Out cf these pieces were cut in outline paper doll fashion three gingham gowns vkn long sleeves and tunnel drawers and skirts all as nearly like the childs own as possible and of fair size to make believe with without doing too much violence to the young imagination imagi-nation Out of white goods were cut night panties night gowns two white frocks white aprons and to crown all were a white guimpe and a lownecked buff chambery a fac simi lie of the childs favorite dress and the wash held beside some eating aprons and some stockings cut out of black stockinette This wash was the childs own weekly wash in miniature It altogether was the careful work of an hour or two of the mothers timei No sewing was done the pigmy wash was simply cut out in outline to represent the various articles for everyday wear in the childs own wardrobe For a year this bit of housewifery has been an unfailing amusement for the child She washes on Monday and Irons on Tuesday week in and anr week out She would doubtless have tired of a few bits of cloth in a basin but not of this most realistic laundry listTrouble Trouble And a Utter Yes but what Is a mother for If not to take pains for her child And what is a home for If not serve as an ideal place of comfort and joy Many mothers of late have been adding ad-ding to the always popular playing tea party various substantial delights for their little girls In the line of making mak-ing simple real dishes for their tiny tea tables this Is always possible with children 5 6 and 7 years old Ever child cannot have such a wonderful little stove as Daisy had in Miss Alcotts Little Men but the use of the ordinary kitchen range will do just as well and with a few small pans and a stout plated silver teaspoon and tablespoon to do service for the usual iron or wooden cake spoon and measures a little girl can have her own cakes and puddings making them herself The following are some of the recipes re-cipes that have been > used In this childs housewifery housewlfery I The tablespoons and teaspoons used for measuring in place of cups or ounces are the modern large ones I not the narrow oldfashioned sort and a dessert or soup spoon will not do at all in place of the teaspoon or table < spoon The children are taught to keep to the exact proportion hA egg being the chi ° f incr ° rlipnfr w likely to be troublesome to measure the word beaten should be understood under-stood to accompany the quantity named in every case Break an egg into a coffee cup Insert a small beater and beat i until yolk and white are well mixed The average sized em will in this form measure three table I spoonfulls and so a half or a third or fourth of an egg is readily measured readiY measure The tops of large baking powder cans I the edges greased and the bottom covered with a circle of paper will be a good makshift for the tins used to bake layer cake In TINY TEA TABLE CUSTARD To onehalf a well beaten egg add six tablespoonfulls of milk and sweeten with a heaping teaspoonful of sugar add tne drops of vanilla Bake until the top is turning brown In a moderate oven CHILDS BREAD PUDDING Make a custard as before put i Into a tin or china dish just the size to allow al-low the top of the custard to be covered with little squares of stale bread buttered on the top When a rich golden brown the pudding Is done LITTLE MOONSHINES Mix with onehalf an egg flour enough to roll easily and a trifle of salt Roll the fry in lard like doughnuts dough-nuts then open the balls and fill with jelly jellyTINY TINY CRACKER PUDDING To one half beaten yolk of an egg add four tablespoonfuls of milk add one third of a large soda cracker well rolled and one and onehalf teaspoonfuls teaspoon-fuls of sugar This is to be baked or sugr DAINTY POPOVERS Take onequarter of an egg well beaten three tablespoonfuls of mill onequarter cup of flour and a pinch of salt Bake in large toy tea cups To be opened when hot and eaten with sauce made by adding to onehalf teaspoonful tea-spoonful of butter enough powdered sugar to make a thin paste and three I drops of vanilla extract APPLE PUFF i Remove the skin and core of a baked apple and beat the piip to a froth adding ad-ding sugar to suit taste Put In mounds on little saucers with a dab of jelly on each FRAGRANT COFFEE CAKE Take a piece of bread dough after the first raising and when kneading In the four to make it the right consistency add a little sugar and six or eight chopped raisins to a quantity which will be baked in two or three scalloped patty pans Put in the little pans filling fill-ing them half full and set to rise covering cov-ering with a napkin When the bread has nearly filled the pans bake Make an icing of three teaspoonfuls of powdered pow-dered sugar water enough to make it soft and two drops of vanilla Spread over the top and when nearly hard mark wedgeshaped cuts on the top A PLAIN CAKE This can be used for loaves of cake or baked In layers t be filled or for a short cake to be spread with fruit I Mix well one level teaspoonful of butter with two heaping tablespoonfuls of sugar su-gar Add half an egg two tablespoonfuls tablespoon-fuls of milk onethird cup of flour onehalf teaspoonful of baking povder and ten drops of vanilla if it is to be baked In little pans for loaf cake For layer cake omit the vanilla and bake I In layers Spread the layers with Icing Ic-ing making twice as much as abovementioned above-mentioned or with chocolate three I heaping teaspoonfuls heated with milk enough to form a paste and sweetened to suit taste For short cake bake two layers for each cake put the icing on I both layers and add crushed and sweetened sweet-ened strawberries or any other fruit while the icing is still wet eth mothers present their little I cooks with a set of large cords on I each of which a single recipe is printed print-ed Mothers of this sort do not think it a hardship to accompany their small i i daughters to the kitchen for the testing test-ing of recipes and ovens nor do they refuse a hassock at the tiny tea table when all Is done and ready to be served serv-ed I BUSY BOX WORK Another mother has for her children a busy box which stands for all sorts of household arts and employments Into this fascinating busy box go I I all pieces of old garments and scraps of silks bits of lace and artificial flow I ers The box holds also some common paints a bottle of gilding an old knife some bluntend scissors various picture pic-ture cards bits of colored papers wire coarse needles and thread in brief there can be found almost everything needed for any mending or sewing or tinkering which children may like to do Perhaps the oldest thing in the box is a little bag containing slips cut out of celluloid on each of which is painted the name of some pieceof work dolls hat honp for ring toss dissected map dissected picture paper dools sheets pillow cases blankets blan-kets crochet The little girl who is wandering about aching for something to do and who declares when told to say what she I wishes to do that she doesnt know I is given the bag and she puts in her 1 hand and draws out a slip j I And then she must do what it says So much for choosing work Now for the work itself So far as may be the children in this household are encouraged to make their own games One they like very much is ring toss I can be bought in the stores but there is a zest given when one makes a game for oneself A half of a broomstick stuck In a hole bored in a thick square of wood the I whole painted gaily serves every purpose pur-pose Different sized rings from four to eight or nine inches in diameter di-ameter two of each size are made of old hat wIre or whalebone whale-bone fastened In circles They are the wound tightly with strips of gay colored cloth or bits of wool or worsted worst-ed until the wire is all oovoral To I each is fastened a very small tag of celluloid or pasteboard and on each tag is a number ranging from ten on the largest hoops which are more easily thrown over the stick to fifty II or one hundred as preferred The count for each person is made of course by adding the numbers of the rings he has thrown over the pole standing several yards away They make many of these lingtoss outfits to give to their friends or to children less fortunate than them selves These children make naY scrap screens The foundation Is a toy clotheshorse clothes-horse about thirty inches high On each of the three folds are hung sheets of paper muslin These sheets are cut of the exact size to fold over the top of the frame the centre of each covering cov-ering the fold the sheets hanging down to the lowest bars of the frame Thus each piece of muslin toes duty for two leaves of the scrap screen The f fdt fold is I fe yo flatHead i stainable obtainable ob-tainable at a stationers On he leaves are pasted all sorts of pictures cards verses anything the children may desire de-sire to put on Often each hid Uces as he likes about one of the tels the screen calling It his own and exercising his particular taste upon the decor As each leaf is looked at it may be thrown back over the top of the screen falling down behind Both Fides of the cambric can be used so that vnen the leaves have all been looked ever on one side the screen can be turned and the reverse side studied This is a good plaything to show Ittle viMtnra and it serves as a book chart and board when the children play school i I is frequently used their mother has observed to conceal a pie of play things hastily left In a corner of a room I In the same household sewing has I been taught by giving the little girls good sized doll bedsteads for which they make the bedding from the busy box mattresses sheets blankets blank-ets spreads pillow cases and all Old muslin and linen is furnIshed iecause i is easy material to sew and the work is meant to be a pleasure not a penance Lace is overhanded on the pillow piow case hems Blankets are cut cut of soft old flannel skirts and neatly but tonholed ar rnd the edges with silk or worsted A tiny comfortable is made of cheese cloth tacked with baby ribbon A Filr u i lino I > i i and edged with a strip of velvet and a border of lace All sorts of garments for all sorts of dolls are made of scraps found in the busy box The boys do the rougher sorts pf work They whittle out the cleats that fasten the sides of wonderful cardboard board together and glue them in place afteU ey have cut out the pieces of cardboard with their sbarp I knives They make jarJInieres for lower pots by sewingnew rope round like the straw In a hat The rcpe Is all m one piece and Is sewed together with stout linen thread For vans ton these pieces of rope are braided then the braid Is sewed as If i were plain rope These rope jardinieres are bronzed or gilded or left plain according accord-ing to taste The most successful amusements for children In the house are not expensive expen-sive or troublesome or farfetched I can be seen from those here described they turn upon homemaking Ideas and the materials are not dlillcult to hand find but He close to the mothers MARY MAXWELL ANNIE ISABEL WILLIS |