They must give up much of their social duties to attend to the development of the child's mind. They must spend hours with the youngster in his own or her play, so that there will be woven in with that play, a subtle teaching. They must deny themselves material and spiritual comforts so that those whose destiny is in their hands, will be correctly prepared to meet life.
There are several chapters to the book of childhood. It is the complete volume that counts—not just one page. Follow your child through all his chapters of childhood, enter into his play and study and ambitions. There are so many little incidents that remain in the memory and permanently change the behavior. It is one thing to be just a parent, quite another to be parent and friend. Let your child see that you are interested in all his activities, and your influence will have a great deal to do in the shaping of his future manners.
AMUSEMENTS
"Be as careful of the books you read as of the company you keep; for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as by the latter." This bit of wisdom from the pen of Paxton Hood reveals one great duty which confronts every parent. The child must have its own library, and one that will correctly develop its mind and manners. Even if it is only one shelf of books in the nursery, it should belong to the child itself. The pride of personal ownership increases the value of the books.
Books should be chosen with care, but there should be sufficient variety to enable the young boy or girl to select the subject that he or she is most interested in. Fiction should be of the better kind, "Robinson Crusoe," "Little Lord Fauntleroy," the "Jungle Books," "Grimm's or Andersen's Fairy Tales," "Alice in Wonderland," etc. Boys will like "Plain Tales from the Hills," "Bob, Son of Battle," "Treasure Island," "The Sea Wolf," "Huckleberry Finn," "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," etc.
There should be special attention given to the classics. It is unfortunate that so much of the time devoted to them should be spent altogether in the schoolroom for books that one has to read are rarely the ones that one likes best. Dickens, Thackeray, Shakespeare, George Eliot, and a mighty host of others are waiting for the child who is old enough to understand them. The parent should watch the tendencies of the mind of his child and should keep him supplied with books that will develop and expand the little intellect in accordance with its natural preferences. The best way to teach a child to care for books is to keep him surrounded with them and to read to him or tell him stories from time to time and to be patient if he is slow in manifesting a desire to use the key that unlocks the treasure that lies between the covers of books.
Music is one of the best means of developing the child's emotional nature and of subduing wayward impulses and of bringing about harmony in the home circle. The writer knows of one family—and there are many others—which sometimes in the evening finds itself all at sixes and sevens. Nobody agrees with anybody else; the whole group is hopelessly tangled. The mother goes to the piano and begins playing a song that they all know. One by one the members of the family join in and it is not long before they are all gathered around the piano singing song after song and the petty disagreements and the unpleasant feeling of discord have vanished into thin air.
Much is to be said in favor of the gramophones. Through them the best music is accessible to almost everyone. But it is not wise to depend on them altogether, for children have talent to be developed, and there is a charm about music in the family that is like, to use a crude comparison—home-cooking. It cannot be duplicated elsewhere.
LET THE CHILD BE NATURAL
After all, the greatest charm of childhood is natural, spontaneous simplicity. Stilted, party-mannered children are bores. They are unnatural. And that which is not natural, cannot be well-bred.