MISCELLANEOUS
Thimble Biscuits (See [page 104])
Drawing Scissors (Scissors, paper, pencil)
Give the child scissors and paper and let him place the scissors on the paper and draw the outline around them. Then tell him to cut out this outline. Make several such and play at keeping cutlery store. Draw scissors open at different angles and tell names of angles; right, acute, obtuse.
Guessing Distances (Ruler or tape measure)
Let the children guess the height and length of various objects in the room. Verify by measuring with the tape-measure. Tell them of Oliver Wendell Holmes, the great poet, who, whenever he drove into the country, carried a tape-measure with which to determine the girth of any large tree he saw.
Let children measure the size of the panes of glass, window-frames, etc.; have them tell how many feet it would take to carpet the floor.
Tell them to put father's hat on the floor, near the wall, and guess its height.
Such little exercises develop the powers of accurate observation in a way that may prove very helpful in an emergency.
CHAPTER V
THE PAINT BOX
or
Expression with Pencil or Brush
Let the child early be given charcoal or colored chalks, and later the three pigments—red, blue and yellow—wherewith to express his ideas. Allow him some choice in the medium he uses—as pencil, charcoal or brush—as one may be best suited to his purpose one time, and another one at another time.
Encourage the child to tell a story by painting or drawing. The earliest graphic method by which man conveyed messages to one at a distance was through picture-writing.