Emma J. Gray - Fun For The Household

Fun for the Household.

A BOOK OF GAMES.

groupo of people playing a game, one man blindfolded in center of room

BY
EMMA J. GRAY.
PUBLISHED BY
THE CHRISTIAN HERALD.
Louis Klopsch , Proprietor,
BIBLE HOUSE, NEW YORK.

Copyright 1897
By LOUIS KLOPSCH.

Emblem: PRESSOFJJLITTLE&CO ASTOR PLACENEWYORK

When children have passed beyond the rattle age, they reach out their hands for baa-lambs, woolly sheep, cows with bells, cats that meaw, and dogs that say bow-wow.

The next advance in amusement is to play with a toy that goes on wheels, and therefore for a half hour at a time, little folk will be content by drawing around the nursery such toys as trains of cars, horses with long tails, express wagons, etc., etc.; and then follows the period when pretty lady dolls must go out to drive in a pretty carriage accompanied by mistress baby, whose chubby hands push the dolls carriage ahead, and nurses ever vigilant eyes keep watch, so that neither baby nor the babys doll, like the historic Jack and Jill, fall down and break their crown. And mechanical dollies are also in demand,lady dolls that lift their veils, smile and bow; gentlemen dolls that are orchestrian leaders; boy dolls that can turn somersaults and effect other athletic feats. And about this time if nurse is careful to keep sharp eyes on the scissors, colored pictures may be cut out and pasted in scrapbooks, or paper dolls may be arrayed as their youthful mothers desire. Or bright pieces of silk may be sewed together, provided the thread is tied into the needles eye, so that it cannot be pulled out. Or wonderful castles may be built with packs of cards, or towers and steeples with building blocks. Noahs ark will do great service, as will also tops that spin, and hoops that may be rolled or twirled, and drums that may be beat, and whistles and horns that may be blown.

But, notwithstanding all the toys and amusement therefrom, there will be heard the oftentimes plaintive wail, Play with me, please play with me. And then it is that the wise mother or nurse will introduce a simple game. Perhaps Puss in the Corner, or Blind Mans Buff, or perhaps hide behind a large chair or screen and call aloud, Where am I? and such a mischievous laugh will follow when the toddling child finds the one who has thus hidden!

From this period game follows game, just as naturally as year follows year, and even when the little tot has grown to womanhood or manhood, the cry is still heard, Play with me, please play with me, thus illustrating the trite words, men and women are only children grown up.

Therefore the variety of games within this book: Games suitable for all ages, for all temperaments; games for the house, and games for the field; games for the girls, and, games for the boys; games for the young, and games for the old; games for St. Valentines Day, games for Christmas Day,games for all seasons, games for all climes. Thus may the year be filled with jollity.

Several games in this volume were originally published in the periodicals of Messrs. Harper & Brothers, and are reprinted by their kind permission.

Emma J. Gray.

Invite both boys and girls for a short frolic. Between three and five oclock in the afternoon would be excellent hours.

Provide for their entertainment, flowers, birds, worsted and rubber balls, dolls, tea-services, horses, whips, and music. If you have a music-box it will prove very serviceable. The children will be much interested; some of the shorter ones will stand on tiptoe, the better to discover the way the wheels go around.

Two or more grown people should be present; those who understand little children, and have a knack in amusing them.

The toys will greatly aid in getting the children acquainted. Play ball with the boys, throwing it lightly back and forth. Set out the tea-services. Show off the dollies. Put a small boy on a hobby horse, and start the horse on a trot, and after he has his ride, give another boy his turn. After a while play polkas and waltzes, and then

Change the amusement. Show them flowers, canary birds, butterflies, anything you may have to attract, always remembering the toys and going back to them again and again.

Low chairs and hassocks will make it easier for the little people than to have to climb into the great chairs and sofas used by older folks.

Refreshments should be exceedingly simple, and a souvenir, such as a cornucopia or handful of motto-papers, gayly tinted and full of candy, will be much appreciated.

A Motion Game.

Let all the players form a ring, with a boy in the centre for farmer. After the song is sung through, the farmer must choose two players to clasp their hands and raise them, thus forming an arch. The ring having broken, now forms a long line, and one by one each individual passes under the arch, singing as they go,

Oh, who would not be a farmer lad,

and with the last word of the verse the arch falls, and thus some one is caught, and he or she is now farmer. A ring is then again formed, and the game proceeds as before.

This being a motion game, the words of the song must be acted. Every child has seen farmers sow, reap and bind, and while singing those words they must copy the farmer (the boy in the ring) as nearly as possible, also remember to clap the hands, turn around, etc., at the proper time, indeed lose no opportunity to act the words as well as to sing them. Tune, Oats, peas, beans, and barley grows.