HOW TO AMUSE THE BABIES
Every mother who has babies of her own, and everyone who has other people's
babies to mind and care for, is aware of the fact that when a baby is wide awake
it must and will be amused. It is not only necessary for the peace of the
household, but promotive of the health of Miss or Master baby, to amuse him, or
her, as the case may be. It awakens the intelligence of the child, it exercises
its limbs, and all the muscles of those limbs, for baby is a very demonstrative
person, and his delight is expressed by a great deal of gesticulation. Even
crying has some compensating good in exercising the lungs, but laughter is
always useful by promoting the general circulation and digestion in particular.
For the wee-wee earliest young, sounds alone suffice, as with the triangle
in our picture. Without any instrumental aids, animated movement, tone of voice,
and manner, make up the chief attraction; but babies of two or three years old
generally hare a keen perception of the humorous. They criticise from a
different point of view from what we do, and they see fact and fiction in a
totally different light, a vaster range of being than in after years is true and
real for them. Babydom is a world separate from ours, and comparatively fow
amongst us hare power to understand baby language, to sympathise with baby
thought, and still less to compose works or use language mith sufficient merit
to meet the approval of baby censorship. Few, if any, of us remember how we
thought and felt, and from what point of view we regarded such things in our own
child days. Success in amusing or interesting is best gained by observation of
what things have most eff'ect on young imaginations. The keenest touch of wit,
the rare tit-bits of fun contained in baby games and rhymes, seem to most grown
people arrant nonsense. But happy he or she who can enter into the fairy world
of the little ones, and bring the bright light into their little eyes and the
rosy smiles on their dim led cheeks, and the merry laugh from their musical
voices. There is more art and merit in composing a single nursery rhyme, mith
the genuine ring about it, than in stringing together a whole sensational novel,
or in writing volumes of verse such as the critics call poetry in these days.
What intense fun and amusement always exists in the juvenile mind in "Pat a
cake, pat a cake!" Can any baby resist bursting into a merry peal of laughter
invariably when it comes to "mark it with B" ? or fail to go into a fit of
uproarious fun when the little pig "cried tweek! tweek! tweek!" in the game of
the three little pigs? . . .
. . . . To amuse baby children requires considerable histrionic art. Eloquence
and action must he infused into all that is said. "A plain unvarnished tale"
will not suffice to interest them. It is the manner in which the rords are
spoken that gives effect to the drama, or points to the tale. Various comic
voices must be assumed, and sensational gestures
descriptive of the words employed.
For instance, say quietly and tamely, as in ordinary reading :-
This little pig went to market ;
This little pig stayed at home;
This little pig had roast beef;
This little pig had none;
This little pig cried, "Tweak! tweak! tweak!"
It wil1 have little or no effect on a very young child.
But mark the difference. Take the baby hand in one of yours. Spread out the
hand. Point to the
thumb, and say decidedly, yet confidingly-
1. "This little pig went to market." (Grunt and let it be an ordinary
pig's grunt.)
Point to the next finger and say, in the deepest bass you can assume-
2. "This little pig stayed at home." (Give a morose bass grant and
frown.)
Point to the next finger and say, with an insinuating tone and smile,
elevating your eyebrows and bowing-
3. "This little pig had roast beef" (and add three quick little grunts
of satisfaction).
Point to the next finger and say, in a voice just ready to cry-
4. "This little pig had none." (Give two low grunts of weariness, and
look ready to cry.)
Then pointing to the little finger, say very pleasantly, in a shrill, droll
voice, laughing meanwhile, "This little pig cried, 'Tweak! tweak! tweak!'"
pinching and twirling the child's finger gently, as if you had hold of the pig's
tail.
This makes a complete harmless drama of the story of the pigs, and rouses
baby's feelings, sensations and ideas in a healthy manner. Five distinct
emotions are raised: 1. Interest; 2. Fear; 3. Pleasure or sympathy; 4. Grief,
almost to tears; 5. A sudden reversion to mirth, and "All's well that ends
well," a great desideratum in baby estimation. We must remember too, that the
feelings during babyhood are ephemeral in the extreme, light and evanescent. . .
.
. . . A number of children of two or three years of age may be very well
diverted with "the well-known toys," "the dancing sailor," or the celebrated
donkeys that have been advertised as creating "roars of laughter." If the child
or children are in cradles, a string may be tied from one leg to another of the
table, and a figure or two of this sort suspended from it. The string across is
not to be quite tight, so that by attaching another string long enough to reach
where she is sitting, the mother may, from time to time, renew the vibration by
a dexterous pull.
Here is another way of amusing a child, or a whole room full of them, by a
performance sure to have "a long run" in babydom. All that is wanted is a sheet
of paper, four large highly coloured figures, and a couple of common rattles. A
common green lamp shade will be better than the sheet of paper. Pin the four
figures round the shade, fix the shade over the jack, which must be suspended
from the ceiling by a rope, and have a weight attached, such as the kitchen
scales will afford, or an old flat-iron, to cause it to turn round. Below the
weight set the rattles at the same distance with string. As the jack turns and
shows the figures alternately, the rattles will knock against one another and
make a noise.
A moving diorama may also be constructed by the help of two jacks enclosed
by cardboard cylinders, and fixed at opposite sides of the room. For durability
the panorama had better consist of paper pasted on calico. On this paste all the
coloured pictures you can get - figures, birds, flowers, fruit, etc. - after
having neatly cut them out. An end is to be fixed to either of the jacks. Roll
up one to within the length required, then roll up the other, hang a weight on,
and the performance will commence. When it is desired to stop the performance,
the weights must be removed. For a charitable institution no doubt friends would
be willing to contribute the necessary materials.
A simple way to amuse young children is by cutting rows of figures out of
white paper, old letters etc. The paper is folded as many times as the scissors
will cut through, and a whole row of young ladies, or milkmaids with their
pails, brought into existence by a single cut of the scissors. The two ends of
the paper should be held, and the young ladies or milkmaids caused to dance on
the table.
Children of two years to five years old can be taught to amuse themselves
for hours by pricking pictures. Draw an outline of any object they can
understand - a man, a woman, a house, a bird, a cat, a fireplace, etc. and fix
the corners by four pins over a pincushion. Then show the child how to prick all
round the outline with a pin, pricks at regular intervals. When finished, the
pin-picture is held up to the light, which comes like rows of little stars
through the pricks. Printed outlines for pricking can be bought at a small cost.
The Kinder Garten is eminently suited for amusing, training and teaching
very little children, especially when brought together in numbers. The little
employments with sticks and peas are readily entered into by children from two
to four years of age, and it is wonderful the ingenuity some of them soon begin
to display. Of more value, whether at school or in the nursery at home, are
various play games, such as "Here we go round the mulberry-tree," which promote
healthy exercise and mirth.