American Agriculturist, August 2, 1924 
Teaching Children to Concentrate 
Suggestions for the Busy Housewife from Other Home Makers 
H OW long do your children keep at the 
things they are doing? Do they 
always finish what they start? Do they 
cnovv how to concentrate? 
Business men tell us that the one great 
trouble with the young folks they employ 
is their lack of the habit of concentration; 
] ie y cannot get results because they have 
not" learned to focus their attention. 
Teachers find the same difficulty. Of 
course, they do their best to correct the 
fault, but this is not easy because the 
trouble started during babyhood. 
Take the baby a year old, for example. 
Mother puts him on the floor and empties 
a whole box of playthings before him. 
What happens? The child grabs a fuzzy 
dog, turns it about in his hands once or 
twice and throws it down. Perhaps he 
stacks up two or three blocks and gives 
them a kick. Soon his resources are 
exhausted, and mother wonders why he 
can't content himself with his playthings. 
The fact is, he is in the position of an 
adult who has been attending too many 
entertainments in succession •„ the program 
has proved too hectic for his nervous 
system. It is a case of too much happen¬ 
ing at once and, as a result, nothing is 
enjoyed fully. 
No Three-Ring Circuses 
Give the baby one thing at a time to 
play with and make that thing interesting. 
If he has a dog, let him have a little 
blanket to wrap it in or a ring to slip on 
and off the dog’s neck for a collar. There 
should be some association between the 
toys. 
If he is playing with blocks, let him 
build a garage or a schoolhouse where 
brother goes to school or Daddy’s office, 
or even the cupboard where mother keeps 
the cookies 
In any case, if the central theme of 
playtime is to be “dog,” insist that the 
child stick to the theme, or if “blocks,” 
then keep his mind on that subject. 
When Mary starts to color a picture in 
her drawing book, see that she finishes 
it before beginning another. If Bobbie 
decides to make a Noah’s Ark menagerie 
with his modelling clay, encourage him to 
finish it before he makes furniture for 
sister’s doll house. 
Yet, while doing this, we need not force 
monotony into playtime. By merely 
keeping an eye open mothers may guide 
the children in such a way that without 
friction they will form habits of concen¬ 
tration even in their playing. “Finish 
what you begin” is a slogan every child 
should learn and follow, for it is the hap¬ 
hazard young folks who were the scatter¬ 
brain children. 
upstairs for a fresh bungalow apron. 
Jane was tired and so was father. 
“What’s the sense,” mother suddenly 
wanted to know, “in keeping the towels 
at the end of that long pantry? Or the 
kitchen aprons upstairs?” 
Morning, and Linda rested and ener¬ 
getic, was making beds. Clip, clip went 
her endless quick steps. “Linda,” said 
mother, “when Nurse Hardy makes a 
bed she walks round it just once. Did 
you ever notice how she does it?” Yes, 
Linda had noticed and she’d try doing it 
that way. 
Mother began to jot down ideas in a 
little memoranda book. And when she 
was back down stairs she started cutting 
down those endless steps. 
“I felt so useless just lying there while 
my family worked so hard,” she said. 
“But, after all, I doubt if I ever did more 
to help them than I did when I listened 
to the steps they took in doing their daily 
tasks!”— Alice Margaket Ashton. 
Take a piece of tin, 5 or 6 inches in 
diameter and fashion into a fan-shaped 
wheel, put this wheel on a blade and 
spindle. Now push a stake about 5 
or 6 feet long into the ground near a 
cucumber hill and put this little wind¬ 
mill on top. The wheel turns with the 
slightest breeze sending into the earth 
a strong vibration that a mole can feel 
for many feet around and Mr. Rodent 
loses no time in making his get-away! 
Since moles are sightless, they have 
to depend upon the sense of sound for 
protection and they have developed this 
to a wonderful degree. You can demon¬ 
strate this by walking over territory 
where those animals are burrowing. Upon 
your approach they are gone in a mo¬ 
ment and will not reappear for hours. 
I stick several of those windmill 
stakes in my cucumber patch and I 
never have a hill damaged by moles.— 
D. C. Ray. 
Left-Over Pickle Juice 
I T’S always a question with every cook, 
as to what to do with her left-over 
pickle juice. The juices are so rich in 
sugars and spice, it is almost a waste to 
throw them away. You can use the 
juices to flavor meat, to thin a thick 
salad dressing, to baste either a whole or 
a slice of ham, to flavor candy or baked 
beans, to change the color of your salad 
dressing, and to flavor cake fillings. A 
R 
Do You Know That—? 
UBBING fingernails full of soap be¬ 
fore beginning to garden will prevent 
their becoming stained and discolored. 
* * * 
Have you ever soaked silverware or 
tarnished copper and brass articles over 
night in buttermilk to make them clean 
and bright? 
* * * 
Throwing away the water from cooked 
rice, macaroni, or vegetables isn’t a state 
What Mother Heard 
M OTHER had been very ill indeed. 
Now she was on the happy road to 
recovery and while she must remain 
quietly in bed for some time the stir and 
bustle of the household were entertaining 
and— as it happened—instructive. 
She passed the otherwise tedious hours 
by following the familiar household ac¬ 
tivities by the various sounds and amused 
herself by her ability to discern whose 
step sounded on the walk, who closed the 
front door, who was setting the table for 
supper. 
Steps, steps, steps! When she was up 
and about why had she never noticed the 
ceaseless round? How she wished she 
might be down there helping with the 
work which she knew was so hard for 
them all. 
Jane had spent the morning ironing 
and now Linda was putting away the 
clean things — the length of the pantry 
with the towels, upstairs with the pile of 
starched aprons and housedresses. “How 
about a clean towel?” father inquired and 
then his slower steps traversed the length 
of the pantry and back again across the 
kitchen. In the interval before sitting 
down at the table Jane came rather slowdy 
Easy Styles for Amateur Seamstresses 
An apron designed to please the beginning housekeeper and the expert too 
is No. 1716, which is easy to make or launder or wear. The pattern comes in 
three sizes, 36, 40 and 44 bust measure. Size 36 takes 214 yards 36-inch 
material. Price, 12c. 
Another simple style for amateur dressmakers is No. 2106, small brother’s 
play suit. It may be used for better wear, too, by using nicer material. 
No. 2106 comes in sizes 3, 4. and 6 years, size 4 taking 1 fi yards material 
with yard contrasting. Price, 12c. 
Becoming to the stout woman is No. 2070, which has long lines to 
give a slender figure Little or no fitting is necessary because of its 
straight hanging lines. It cuts in sizes 36 : 38, 40. 42, 44, 48 and 48 
inches bust measure. Size 36 takes S l A yards rf 40-inch material with 
lfi yards contrasting. Price, 12c. 
TO ORDER: Write name, address, pattern numbers 
and sizes and send correct remittance in either stamps 
or coin (stamps are safer) and send to Pattern Depart¬ 
ment, American Agriculturist, 461 Fourth Avenue, 
New York City. 
10c brings you our helpful summer catalogue. Ask for it. 
teaspoonful may be substituted for lemon 
or vanilla, when baking. Beet juice or 
beet vinegar can be used to prepare small, 
thin slices of ham. Fill the frying pan 
with the sliced ham and pour over enough 
of the beet or pickle vinegar to cover it 
well. Let it boil hard till the meat is 
tender.— Pauline Carmen. 
To Scare Away Moles 
M OLES are usually very destructive 
to cucumber hills. I keep those 
little rodents scared away by a very simple 
method. 
I have my son make a quantity of tiny 
windmills, the kind you have seen placed 
on top of poles about farmhouses. 
prison offense, but it is an offense against 
the family pocketbook and nutrition. 
* * * 
A new edition of “Household Insects 
and Their Control” has been issued by 
the State college at Ithaca. Want a 
copy? Ask for H 134. 
* * * 
Those 1095 dish-washings a year will be 
less monotonous if the sink is the right 
height and set so you get a glimpse of the 
out-of-doors. 
* * * 
Less sugar will be needed if sour 
fruits are first boiled only a short time 
with a good sized pinch of soda, and 
then this is drained off and fresh water 
put on them. 
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