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Woman's home companion
Vol. LXIV, No. 6 (1937)
McKinnie, Adele
Vacation time, pp. 28-[30]
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Page 28
28 ADELE MchINNIE- (NS C H MI D r K ~L4 The conditions that make camp life delightful can be obtained at home VACATION time is here again. What a joyous feeling of freedom the last day of school brings, when books go bang on the top shelf and all outdoors is ours. Wise parents will capitalize this enthusiasm at the start, before it palls as it so frequently does, be- fore son says, "Oh gee, what is there for me to do around here?" or daughter complains, "All my friends have gone away and I have no one to play with." If it is possible to send your children to a camp, this is highly desirable. It is usually beneficial for a child to get off on his own, away from his parents for a time, and a good camp is geared to the needs of children. If a camp is not possible or advisable for your family, there is no reason why some of the conditions that make camp life delightful and valuable cannot be obtained at home. The first goal is to make vacation a health-building period. Sunshine, activity, rest: these are vital needs for growing bodies. All outdoors is the healthiest playroom of the year. If a beach or lake or river is out of the question in your locality, father could, at little expense, make a concrete pool in the back yard or make or buy a canvas one. Boxes and barrels from your grocery and boards from the lumber yard, a swing and crossbar in the tree, yield endless opportunity for the strength and pull and development of torso, leg and arm muscles. Little children should also be given a place in which to dig, even though it means sacrificing a part of your flower garden; or a sandbox can be made or bought. A second goal for vacation should be provision for constructive adventure and experimentation. When little boys break milk bottles against the curb, or little girls mess up the kitchen mixing flour and water for dollie's supper, it is time to think of more con- structive outlets for their restless energies. Fix a game of quoits, archery or basketball in some convenient spot for the boys, and plan a batch of fudge for the girls. These strivings of their energies are natural and deserve a satisfying expression. The third thing a summer vacation should produce is definite achievement in the things that interest your children. All children learn eagerly in doing things that have a special appeal to them. Simplification of life is one of the luxuries of summer. Both health and expediency dictate a minimum of summer clothes for children, provided by sun suits, bathing suits and shorts. Summer menus can be simplified. Use lots of fruit and fresh vege- tables. Informal meals eaten on the porch or in the yard are never-ending sources of joy to children and go far in supplying adventure. Let them plan and carry out a picnic. They will love to decide on the food and help make the sand- wiches and lemonade. They can invite the guests and select the picnic spot. If a fire is built they will have adventure foraging for wood. With their mother to guide rather than to govern, they will have the fun of planning and carrying out their activities. _ NO TWO days of summer will be alike, but it would be well to outline the few essentials the daily routine should contain, as they do at camp. If children are old enough they will enjoy writing out the day's schedule and tacking it up in their rooms or on the back porch, as every camp does. Getting the children's cox)peration in this gives an opportunity to talk it over with them, discussing the values of health, outdoor play, a quiet time for relaxation, the desirability of accomplishing something during the summer. Rest is especially important on hot summer days. If the child will not take a nap after the noonday meal. plan quiet things for him to do. Make a list and let him choose the one he wants to do each day. He will then pursue it with keener relish. Reading, writing, drawing, cutting and pasting scrapbooks, doing puzzles are all enjoyed. Collections are especially fascinating to children. Rocks, shellsor seaweed; leaves, wild f lowers, bugs; birds, animals and fish, ferns, feathers or bark are only a few of the many possibilities. A camera extends the range of these. Save all the boxes, cardboard and transparent paper that come into the house for mounting the collec- tion. Shelves or racks in garage, barn, attic or cellar provide easy ways of storing, and stim- ulate neatness and order early in childhood. For the younger child, scrapbooks made tIp of pictures from magazines on any of a myriad subjects interesting to his age, give excellent practice in selection, discriminat ion and manipulative 'kilk -I . . Responsibility is an important phase of a child's life but one for which it is necessary to take the age, circumstances and individuality of each child into account. We are increasingly sure, however, that children thrive under the proper amount, planned for individual need. At camp a child is given some responsibility for the care of his cabin, the camp grounds, his clothes, camp equipment and camp animals. Children equally benefit from taking real responsibility for the home. Animals provide one of the most rewarding of re- sponsibilities and give.a child a sense of belonging and possessing something all his own. A neighborhood project like the one a group of boys in a midwestern city carried through, has its own particular merit. These boys induced parents and friends and neigh- bors each to buy a baby chicken in the spring, which was given a name and put into a common chicken run. The boys took turns keeping the brood in their own back yards for a week. "Shirley Temple" and "Jackie Cooper" peeped and scratched with "Clark Gable" and "Minnie Mouse.- In exchange for rais- ing and feeding the chickens the boys assumed a half interest. Then a budget for food had to be made out and various resources drawn upon. At the end of the summer the chickens were sold as broilers and the prof- its divided between original purchasers and boys. Here was a coxperative project, involving arithmetic, respon- sibility and fun. Try it out in your neighborhood. > SINCE variety is the spice of life, you will want to plan opportunities away from home occasionally. There can be trips to see a railroad, a big boat, a bridge, a lake, a waterfall or dam. If town is a novelty, or even if it isn't, there is the station, the Post office, the fire house, the roundhouse, the zoo or the markets. If you can dig up pictures or books about them, the subject can be enhanced, the experience prove really educational. If the trip is for overnight or only for a day, some child in the family will be interested in mapping it out. A boy of thirteen took an automobile trip with his grandmother last summer. Before leaving they blue- penciled the route, added tIp the mileage, ligured the oil and gasoline consumption, the meals and overnight stops. A check was made out for the whole amount, the boy was taken to the bank and shown how travelers' checks are issued. On the trip he took entire Charge of current expenses and came home full of vivid experiences. He felt the trip was of his own making. These are only some hints of what a summer vaca- tion might mean to voti and your family. But it should stand for these important things: better health, adventure and some achievement the child can meas- tire in the end. Perhaps not a lazy indolent summer for parents, but oh such a worth-while one, all will agree.
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