Glacier County Chief

RURALITES URGED TO MAKE GOOD TIMES
COLLEGE SPECIALIST SAYS "BUILD A RICHER LIFE WHILE DOING IT"

Where a Person Lives, What He Does for a Living, or the State of His Finances Have Little to Do With His Pleasure, Expert Explains.

"Make your own good times and build yourself a richer life while doing it," is the suggestion Mrs. Margaret H. Tuller, extension home management specialist at Montana State college, makes to Montana rural families. Leisure hour activities if properly planned, she said, offer an ideal opportunity to draw the family closer together and at the same time bring cultural benefits that may be enjoyed throughout life.

Where a person lives, what he does for a living, or the state of his finances have little to do with his pleasures if he is resourceful, has an active imagination and uses a little ingenuity. Mrs. Tuller said. Abraham Lincoln had a sound philosophy, she pointed out, when he said, "I have noticed that folks generally are about as happy as they have made up their minds to be."

Mrs. Tuller urged parents to join their children in play not only for the enjoyment it will give the parents but also because it will impress on children that good times may be had at home as well as away from it. "Children who go outside the home because of the natural desire to be where 'something is doing' will be as happy to stay in it when the parents realize the full possibilities of the home," she said.

What to Do

And what can the family do to have fun at home? Here are some suggestions Mrs. Tuller makes.

Music, because of its universal appeal, is probably one of the best paths to pleasure and entertainment at home. Too, nearly every home has some kind of musical instrument. Along this line, Mrs. Tuller said, there is group singing for which inexpensive collections of good songs can be used. And for those with developed talent there is part singing.

Where there are smaller children in the home a rhythm orchestra offers wide possibilities. The instruments used in the rhythm band are limited only by the ingenuity and cleverness of those taking part. "Oat meal boxes, blocks of wood, pie tins, two blocks covered on one side with sandpaper—in fact anything that will lend itself to the purpose can be used in the rhythm orchestra. Little children learn to keep time very readily and a piano, violin, horn or even the radio may be used for accompaniment.

For those families where group singing is not feasible, Mrs. Tuller suggests a verse reading chorus. This is not more than a group reading verse in unison and as experience is acquired it will be found that some lines be read by one person and various forms adopted to bring out the expression. Verse speaking choruses are very popular now, the extension specialist said, and nearly every college has its chorus which appears on numerous occasions.

Games Popular

Games are one of the most popular forms of entertainment for an entire family and in them all can enter into the real spirit of play.

Reading is another activity which the whole family may benefit from. A very worthwhile feature is the giving of book reviews by different members of the family. This is excellent memory training, Mrs. Tuller said, and a book stays in the mind longer by telling others about it. Reading aloud is another good activity.

Closely allied with the enjoyment of good music and good reading is appreciation of good pictures, Mrs. Tuller said. Having good pictures in the home teaches us to enjoy them, she said. County and community libraries have books containing reproductions of well known paintings and short articles about the artists, she said.

Handicrafts and hobbies are other sources of pleasure, but Mrs. Tuller warns that these should not be practiced to the exclusion of many other things that are worthwhile doing.

Other sources of family fun Mrs. Tuller suggests are picnic suppers at home, listening to worthwhile radio programs, and, of course, the celebration of special events such as birthdays, anniversaries and holidays.

By using a little imagination and ingenuity, everyone can look around his or her home and find many worthwhile things to do that will develop a person's cultural side and at the same time provide many enjoyable hours, Mrs. Tuller believes.