CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENTS AWAY FROM HOME
There are many delightful ways of entertaining children away from home, and out-of-door parties are especially wholesome. Motion pictures parties for children that are old enough are very pleasing if the picture is a good one. This is a point that should be carefully attended to beforehand. It is no time to "take a chance." At the party out in the woods or down by the bank of the creek refreshments should consist of picnic fare. The motion picture party or the matinée party might be followed by ice-cream or by a simple dinner. But however many of these entertainments one may give one must remember that there is after all not a great deal of art in amusing people when the amusements are furnished by someone else, and also that the art of entertaining charmingly at home is perhaps the greatest art of them all.
CHILDREN AND DANCING
The dancing school teaches the youngster a great deal more than merely a few dancing steps. From no other source is it possible for the young boy or girl to acquire the grace, the poise, the charm of manner that the dancing school imparts.
The writer knows a very lovely young miss of twelve years, who has so charming a manner that one delights to be with her. Yet, her parents confide, that two years ago she was so nervous and fidgety that they were ashamed to take her anywhere. They attribute her present grace and ease to her lessons at dancing school.
There is no reason why boys should not also be registered at the dancing school. A young man who, in childhood learned the little formalities of the dancing school, will not be likely to feel ill at ease in the formal drawing-room, or at the elaborate dinner. He will know how to conduct himself without embarrassment or self-consciousness.
In training our children's manners and speech, we must not forget that their physical development is most important. Etiquette requires that the child know, not only how to act at the table, how to greet visitors and how to be well-behaved and mannerly, but also how to appear polite and polished. Dancing gives them just the right foundation for grace and courtesy of manner.
A WORD TO PARENTS
In your hands has been placed the destiny of a child, or of children, to be molded, developed and formed into a perfect being. Do not make the mistake that so many parents make—the mistake of thinking that the child is a miniature of yourself, a pocket edition of yourself as it were. You have certain tastes, habits, hopes and desires cultivated through years of experience and education. The child has a young mind to be expanded and developed, a young body to be molded into lines of grace and charm, a young life to be made fine and beautiful.
It is not an easy task, this leading a child through the correct channels of early life. The young minds are so sensitive, the young memory is so retentive; evil influences are so easily made, and become so readily a part of the boy's or girl's life. Someone once said, "Motherhood is made up of denial." All parenthood is made up of denial—for from the time the youngster first opens its eyes in its cradle, the parents must deny themselves everything that is necessary to make that child a perfect man or woman.