Others read aloud from the picture book collection or 

 join in animated parent talk. ("What do you do when 

 your kid throws a tantrum?") Beyond the baby-fence, 

 a laughing, shouting, jostling group of preschoolers 

 explores the possibilities of an imaginative play struc- 

 ture composed of differing heights, open-ended hard- 

 board tubes. Created by Don Skinner, designer of the 

 exhibit, the tubes have clear plastic tops which en- 

 close bright, intriguing objects: silk leaves, fishes, a 

 moon and stars. At the base of each tube, an open 



Dr. Fredelle Maynard, a specialist in family life, is a writer, lecturer, 

 columnist, and radio/TV broadcaster based in Toronto. She has 

 taught at Harvard, Radcliffe, Wellesley, and the University of New 

 Hampshire and has served as educational consultant for the U.S. 

 National Assessment of Educational Progress. She is the author of 

 several books, the most recent of which is Tree Houses and Tarn- 

 bourines: Raising Creative Children, to be published this year by Pen- 

 guin Viking. Other books include Guiding Your Child to a More 

 Creative Life, The Child Care Crisis, and two volumes of memoirs: 

 Raisins and Almonds and The Tree of Life. Her articles have appeared 

 in Maclean's, Woman's, Day, Parents, Reader's Digest, the Atlantic, 

 and numerous other periodicals. 



doorway invites movement and invention. "This 

 could be a space ship!" "It's a forest!" "No, it's our 

 house. " 



What's happening here is lively evidence of the 

 Field Museum's enlarged sense of purpose. For almost 



Diane Alexander While 



