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IDEAL HOME LIFE |
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In the third place, the plans and drawings are simple and easy to understand. Too often articles on this subject are confined to vague description or else they are so technical that it takes a trained mechanic to understand them.
Finally, they can be executed with a few tools and with inexpensive, home-found materials.
Ready-made toys possess but a passing interest to the children for whom they are purchased, while the mechanical principles upon which they are constructed receive little or no consideration. On the other hand, a crudely fashioned toy made by the boy himself necessarily requires a careful study of the mechanical principles upon which it is based and it possesses an added value proportional to the effort expended in its construction.
The wise parent looks beyond the temporary amusement of the child and is concerned for those forms of recreation which help to develop character and add to his educational equipment.
In the field of manual training the results of careless work are at once apparent. This is not true to the same extent in other phases of the child's experience. He may make mistakes in reading or in arithmetical operations and after correction produce a satisfactory result. Let the saw slip or a nail be driven at the wrong angle and the bungled job confronts him at the end, impressing upon him the lesson that painstaking care and absolute accuracy is the only way in which a workmanlike product can be secured.
There comes a time in the life of every normal boy when the desire to build something seeks expression. If checked or thwarted this desire disappears. Given an outlet it may develop and result in determining his life work. A box of tools and a work-bench are a small price to pay for this knowledge. Many an expert wireless operator can trace his interest in his work back to the crude instrument fashioned in the home or school shop.
Success in construction projects involves a consideration of the age and special interests of the child. The authors of this section have had a wide and varied experience in deal- |
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