Home Occupations for Boys and Girls Part 13

=Nature Pictures=

Let the child fill one sheet thus with blue, a picture of the sky.

Another sheet may be covered with green, a meadow. Still another sheet may have the upper part blue and the lower green.

EXPERIMENTS WITH COLOR

=Prism= (_Secure gla.s.s prism from kindergarten store or from some candelabra you may have at home_)

Place in sunlight and let child observe colors and the order in which they appear; always in the same order--the cold colors at one end, the warm ones at the other. Let the little child try to catch and hold the lovely "light-bird."

=Pigments= (_Water-color paints_, _gla.s.ses of water_)

Dissolve a little red, yellow and blue paint in three separate gla.s.ses.

Then, by mingling these--the primary colors--show how the secondary colors--orange, green and violet--may be obtained.

=Transparent Papers=

Get at a kindergarten store the transparent papers and isingla.s.s used in color work. By overlapping one upon another different hues may be obtained. This may be done also, though less effectively, with colored tissue papers; but these are not so pure in tone.

=Color-Top=

Color tops may be procured at kindergarten stores. With the top come paper circles, of standard colors, with their tints and shades, giving a great variety. These are so slit that by placing two or more on the top according to directions and revolving the top, any tint or hue may be mathematically produced.

If the child has made his own b.u.t.ton-mold top, let him cut circles of white paper and slip them over the axis of the top. Make a dab of color here or there on the paper with paint or chalk. Whirl around and observe the effect. This will lead up to a better understanding of the above-mentioned color-top which is manufactured by the Milton Bradley Co.

APPLIED ART

=Toy Wagons and Houses=

If the child has made wagons or houses of wood or cardboard, let him paint them in broad, free strokes. It is desirable that the little child be given work which involves the free movement of the larger muscles which such work demands. This may not appeal to one as belonging under the head of art, but we learn from Mr. Pennell that in Sicily the wagons of the peasants are beautifully decorated with landscapes and other pictures, and that the artists are particular to make their names conspicuous.

In any case a certain artistic feeling is required in choosing the colors and rightly applying them even in house-painting and wagon decoration. And meanwhile the child is learning how to wield his instruments.

=Place Cards=

Take a clover leaf and practice painting from it until able to make a copy good enough to paint upon a place card for the table. If the drawing be correct, just a flat wash of color will do for the painting at first.

An autumn leaf will do for a Thanksgiving card.

See Festival Occasions for other ideas.

=Tops=

If a b.u.t.ton-mold top has been made, it may be painted in concentric rings or the entire surface may be neatly colored.

=Match-Safe=

This has been described upon page 34.

=Designs for Rugs= (_Paper, brown or white_, _paints or chalk_)

Let child draw or paint design for toy rug he is making for doll-house.

He may make an oblong of one color, and at each end draw lines across, which are to be woven in another color. There may be one line at each end, or two, or three, etc. The arrangement of these lines and their distance apart allow much scope for taste and judgment.

=Designs for Wall-Papers, Oilcloths, Etc.= (_Parquetry papers_, _paste_, _etc._)

1. Have child observe oilcloth designs and then with kindergarten parquetry papers try to make similar ones for doll-house.

2. Having made pasted designs, let him copy same in water-colors.

=Design for Stained Gla.s.s Window= (_Transparent paper_, _scissors_, _white paper_, _paste_)

Cut a circle out of the white paper. Fold it once, which gives a half-circle; fold again, which gives a quarter-circle. Holding it folded, cut several ellipses, triangles, etc., into the folded edges.

Open out and you have framework of a rose-window. On the back of this paste a piece of transparent paper (see page 75), red or green or yellow, and let the light s.h.i.+ne through. Hang in window for transparency. Suitable for Easter gift. Vary by cutting like cathedral windows. (See ill.u.s.trations in dictionary under "Tracery.")

PICTURE-STORY

=Chased by a Goose= (_Pencil_, _paper_)

Once some boys lived in a house (make a dot) surrounded by a strong fence (draw circle round the dot). A short distance off was a large pond (an oval, a little below and to the right of the circle). One day the boys ran down to the pond (draw curved line from house to pond) and began to splash in the water and to throw it at each other (a number of oblique lines from right hand end of pond). Some distance off lived some Indians in two wigwams (two oblique lines meeting at the top and next to them a similar pair, like two tents, just below the pond). When the Indians saw the boys throwing the water out they began to chase the boys, running up a zigzag path (from each tent draw an oblique line to the right for a short distance and then turn to the left till it meets the pond). The boys ran as fast as they could up a winding path parallel to the one they ran down (draw curving line parallel to first one), and then ran to the left partly around the fence surrounding the house. They had to run around the barn, too (an oblique line to the left and then another to the right till it meets the circle again), and when they looked behind them they found they had been chased by a goose!!!

[Ill.u.s.tration: Chased by a Goose]

A little practice will make this easy for the story teller. The original dot and circle form the head and eye of the goose. The curving path is the neck. The water splas.h.i.+ng out makes the tail feathers. The wigwams and the zigzag path form the legs and feet, and the path around the barn makes the bill.

CHAPTER VI

DOLLS AND DOLL-HOUSES