While children are small it seems to me it is better to teach them to look for pleasure and happiness in their own home. I've heard children cry to go some place until after about so much of it the mother would say, "Oh, go on if you are going to make such a fuss about it." I wonder just what kind of grown persons those children will be.
We have two boys, one in school and one pre-school age. Money has been a scarce article with us the past two years, but I've tried to make home a happy place. In the evening there are always stories to tell or read, and games to play. I've helped our older boy with his school work till his grades are quite good.
"Read a story, Mamma," our four-year-old often says in the evening, and I recite something I learned in school days.
"Your turn, Daddy," he says when I finish, and Daddy recalls something from boyhood days.
"It's your turn, Buddy," he says next. And brother always has something to add to our bedtime program.
"Now it's my turn, Four-year-old, and it's surprising how many rhymes and bits of songs he can repeat.
Then there is the Book of Bible Stories we bought several years ago when times were better. How much good we are getting from it now! Brother is learning Bible history and has his favorite stories which he likes to have read over and over.
In spite of hard times, I'm trying to add a few new things to our home, pictures, some new drapes, and little touches that count. I think children like an attractive home and can be taught to care for home furnishings.
There are so many things on the farm to enjoy--things that can't be bought. We love to watch "the sun go to bed," to watch the clouds and the new-fallen snow. There are squirrels in the cedars and birds looking for crumbs. It seems to me we can be happy while waiting for prosperity.--Homemaker