The Northwest Times

Your Child
A WEEKLY COLUMN
conducted by Claud C. Ruch
Educational Director
Childcraft Advisory Service

Indoor weather can be a problem for you mothers of active girls and boys, who are not prepared with suggestions for quiet play.

The young school-age child particularly, when left to his own devices, can turn the house into a shambles in no time at all, by moving about furniture, rolling up rugs, and unintentionally turning over and breaking things.

By dinner-time, the living-room floor is marred, the sun parlor windows smudged with dirty finger prints, and the curtains are awry. And you are unnerved from the noises made by bottled-up children who have been playing "Run, Sheep, Run," "Hide and Seek," or "Tug of War," in every room of the house.

Most of this confusion can be avoided by guiding the child into constructive channels of indoor play.

In preparation for such times as these, he should be encouraged to have a special drawer, or shelf, or corner of the room in which he can keep games and toys for quiet hours.

In Childcraft books, Ruby Bradford Murphy suggests "a Rainy-Day Box or a Mystery Bag, that can be filled up by the child and put away for just such an occasion." The box or bag should be big enough to hold an assortment of blocks, small bottles, buttons, beads, toy planes, marbles, a mouth organ, anagrams, dominoes, a game of authors, toy animals, and a favorite doll.

Building with wooden blocks and working jigsaw puzzles will keep children amused for hours when they have to stay indoors. Alphabet and word games and picture writing also offer many interesting possibilities. And, of course, there are always clay modeling, crayon drawing and coloring, and cutting out pictures from old magazines.