A Healthy Child Is Active
CHILDREN are a constant proof of Aristotle's theory that life consists in movement. They soon tire of having nothing to do. Their nature is essentially restless, and they are always happiest, and consequently less troublesome, when continually occupied with some form of practical or mental activity. Childhood is the proper time of life for experimenting. Children enjoy being taught and encouraged to try to do new things, and thus you can learn what they are able and what they like best to do. It is a pity that all children can not have the advantage of living their youth in the free, open country. Then it is impossible for them not to feel the brightness and the joy of living, for there is happiness and joyousness in nature. Our boys and girls who have learned the secrets of nature can give lessons in endurance, simplicity, and enterprise. Their harder lives have taught them independence and resource. There is no playground in the world to be found with such a variety of games as Dame Nature's. It is always filled with things worth knowing how to do, and object-lessons the value of which we can not calculate. In the matter of occupation at home, nothing will arouse interest in a child's mind so much as work about the house or garden, especially when he is given a small proprietorship in things. Tell your boy that a certain portion of the garden belongs to him, and give him the necessary implements for its care, and see the interest, pride, and industry that will develop from that sense of proprietorship. Let your small daughter come into the kitchen once or twice a week, and shoulder the responsibility of a simple supper. Her interest in the work will be greatly enhanced by her sense of ownership and responsibility. It is useless to expect children to like work for its own sake any better than you do yourself, but you can prevent them, by judicious management, from taking a dislike to work that they will later on in their lives certainly find necessary. The world needs persons of talent, of energy, and, above all, of rightly directed industry.—Selected.