How a Missionary Mother Plays and Works With Her Children by Sister W. R. Smith

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 22, 1914

How a Missionary Mother Plays and Works With Her Children

By Sister W. R. Smith

[The following suggestions from Sister W. R. Smith, of Korea, are so practical and helpful that I am sure she will pardon me for printing them in the Home department.—Mrs. C. C. L.]

I look back upon the hours I spent with my babies in their play as time very pleasantly and profitably used. I also look forward to the time when our little babe will be old enough to play.

From the time that our little boy was a year old, we were building, at times for several months; so, naturally, from seeing his papa and the carpenters working, he would want to drive nails. As it was in the wintertime, our play had to be in the house. There were only two small rooms, with cracks that let in an abundance of fresh air. He would want to hold the nails for me to drive into a board. A little later I stood the nails in the large cracks of the floor, and soon he learned to drive them quite deftly. When the warm days of spring came, he would sit by the hour on a board, driving spikes into the hard earth with a light wooden mallet.

Another of his chief pleasures was on baking day. I made him a little cook apron. He had a small rolling board, and, sitting in his high chair by the table, could with a bottle roll out his little biscuits or cookies. He never would eat them alone.

I used to roll up his sleeves so he could wash his hands. Then he would show them to me for inspection. If they were not clean, I showed him where they were dirty, and he would wash again and return with the question, "Keen now?" In a short time he could wash his little hands and arms very well. He was only two years old at the time.

On afternoons we often went to the creek near by and threw stones into the water. He would laugh with glee to see the splash, and enjoyed watching the little waves chase one another to the farther banks.

It requires considerable time to join the children in play; but when they are taught to help about the work, it is as interesting to them as play, and in a short time they learn to do things so well that they are really a help.