‘THEY PLEASE A CHILD’

Evening Star, Issue 22685, 26 June 1937, Page 27

‘THEY PLEASE A CHILD’

HOME-MADE AHD SIMPLE Children who arc quickly bored by old or new toys often show a surprising interest in some simple home-made contrivance that is such an old-fashioned kind of toy as to be either forgotten by or unknown to modern parents, states a writer in an exchange. A young family was delighted when an old friend from tho country rolled and twisted her handkerchief into a rabbit with long cars—a feat long since forgotten by the children’s own elders. The rabbit was a substantial enough wad to 'stand being thrown about the room, and then there was fun in causing it to vanish (or disintegrate) by pulling its ears. Another game taught by a domestic help who bad grown up with few toys was that of “ cats’ cradle,” played with a long loop of string on tho hands. A person who “ knows the ropes ” and can ring tho geometrical changes on the criss-cross lengths of string looped over fingers and thumbs can be a most successful entertainer of a lonely, bored, or convalescent child. And when she goes away she can leave the piece of string and imparted knowledge of ways of using it. Reintroduction of parents to a once familiar form of self-amusement came when a friend brought to a child who had reached the sitting-up-in-bed stage a disc of cardboard threaded through two eyelet holes close to its centre on a loop of string about half a yard long. When the first two fingers of each hand are inserted in tho ends _ of the loop (the knot being kept behind one pair of fingers), and the disc slid into position halfway along the string, it is only necessary to twist the string a few times by a rotating movement of tho hands in order to he able, by alternately tautening and relaxing the

twisted loop, to work up a swiftlyspinning movement of the disc, first in one direction and then in the reverse, and to produce a steady humming sound. Parents as well as children can enjoy practising their manipulative skill on such a device. A largo button with two holes can be used instead of tbo cardboard, or a disc of the latter kind can be chalked as if it were tho top of a top.. Such “ properties ” have tho great advantages of being usable and of causing no mess when they are in action. And more than many educational toys they please a child by calling bis lingers, eyes, and brains into ploy- ~