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Show Your Chili! CLAUDE C, RUCH Educational Director, Childcraft Advisory Service. Chicago, 111. There is more joy for a child in "The Land of Make Believe" than even the happiest adult can ever be privileged to know. A little girl talks to her dolls as though they were real persons. per-sons. A little boy's toy airplanes take him on Imaginary trips above the clouds. The time children spend in playing store, or house, or train, is a time for them of learning and of developing skills and imagination, im-agination, as well as a time for fun in "The Land of Make Believe." Be-lieve." Parents can be a big help in this regard by providing the necessary ne-cessary space for creative play and furnishing1 requested supplies sup-plies and materials, whenever they can. Probably more than any other one thing, play making and acting act-ing give a group of children an opportunity to develop its varied var-ied talents for story weaving, costume and scenery designing, and character interpreting. Merely the suggestion on your part, that your little son or daughter and his friends start a "theatre group and give a play," may lead to many happy and constructive hours for them. Moyne Rice Smith, director of the Children's Community theatre, Princetown, N. J,, recommends rec-ommends that children in play acting groups "trade jobs so that everyone gets a chance to do different things." She also suggests that they build their plays from characters charac-ters and stories that are well-known well-known to them and the perennial peren-nial favorites of children everywhere. |