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.
If a button-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 Glass 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 shine through. Hang in window for transparency. Suitable for Easter gift. Vary by cutting like cathedral windows. (See illustrations in dictionary under "Tracery.")