3 Hours Outside?

Welcome to my second "Old-Fashioned Friday!"  (Click here for my first Old-Fashioned Friday post.)  My dad might cringe when he reads that today's tidbit came from a book he read in his childhood:  "The Junior Instructor."  I occasionally like looking through antique shops for interesting old books, and bought Book 1 and 2.  When I showed it to my dad, he said he recalled reading these at school.

Cover of The Junior Instructor Book 2

These books began in 1916, but my volumes were published in 1959.  It's like an encyclopedia, or general reference book, for children, with lots of pictures, rhymes, and small paragraphs on anything from birds to the circus.

One of the sections, titled "Healthy Children," includes a "letter," written as though from a child to the mother.  Read it and see if what caught my attention the most, sticks out to you as well:

"Dear Mother,

 I need outdoor exercise to stay healthy.  All small children should play outdoors at least three hours every day, in good weather.  I need the right equipment to help me exercise my large muscles.  The small muscles of my hands and fingers are not yet well developed.  I need a fence or a jungle gym to climb on, and bars to hang on  I like to run and skip and dance.  I need to slide on a slide and swing on a swing and ride a tricycle.  After I am five years old, I will need roller skates and a jump rope."  

Page with Letter to Mother

So, what stood out to you?  For me it was the 3 hours outside every day!  Now that I think about it, that sounds ideal for my active little guys.  Decades ago, children did spend more time outside, and it probably did them good.  But we're lucky if we manage just 1 hour a day.  I let household chores, errands, laziness, and other things get the better of me, rather than making sure we're in the yard or going to a park as often as possible.  And as I wrote in my post on how much time should children spend outside, modern specialists only suggest a little over an hour for kids of about 2 years old.  But, inspired by this little "Letter to Mother" that I found, we've been making more of an effort to get outside.  The other day it was just 30 degrees outside (Fahrenheit), but we bundled up and spent an hour at the park.  It sure paid off at nap time!  

On a warmer day:  Chalk, cardboard boxes, and toy cars... all enjoyable outside, too! 

Time outside does wonders for kids' gross and fine motor skills, as that letter touched upon.  Get outside, if possible, and... 

Happy Friday!

Old-Fashioned Fridays: "Food and Family Living"

I've decided to start a new, little portion of my blog, that isn't necessarily devoted to all things twin.  It's just for my own fun, and maybe yours!  I'll call it "Old Fashioned Fridays," in which I write about baby and child care, vintage-style.

Hughina McKay, my 3x great aunt.

Recently, I learned that my great-great-great aunt became a professor of Home Economics at Ohio State University.  (Oops, sorry sports fans in the family...um...Go Pack Go!)  Hughina McKay (known as Aunt Eny to the family) was born in 1880 in Ontario.  The family ended up moving to the States, she never married, and eventually wrote several textbooks in her field.  One such book is called "Food and Family Living," published in 1942.  Believe it or not, there are 4 left on Amazon!

What kind advice might there be for feeding your kids in 1942?

There's an entire chapter on teaching kids good eating habits.  The advice seems good to me:

"A happy mealtime.  Let the child's associations with food be pleasant.  Do not pay too much attention to his eating.  Children need to learn social customs.  The best way of teaching good manners is by example.  Good conversation in which the child is free to join if he has anything to contribute adds zest to even the plainest food and is a fine tradition to establish for mealtimes."  

"Children enjoy helping themselves at meal time if given the opportunity."

The book also suggested planning one meal for the whole family, and you just adjust how much and what is given to each family member based on age and needs.  I admit I don't always do this, and often feed the twins simple foods, and then my husband and I eat something entirely different.  But getting your child to eat what you eat is a good way to introduce them to new flavors.

"Small servings of the family dinner may be given to the two-year-old."

For babies, unsurprising ideas:
For infants under a year old, "Food and Family Living" suggest breast milk, artificial milk if necessary, well-cooked cereal, and soft, cooked and strained fruits and vegetables for later in a baby's first year.

For babies, surprising/old-fashioned ideas:
1/4 teaspoon of egg yolk to a 5 month old (Raw?  Yikes!), spoonful of orange or tomato juice (for Vitamin C, they say), and cod-liver oil (yum).

For toddlers, the book groups children 18 months to 5 years old into one category called "Preschool Children."  It suggests they basically eat what adults eat, but in smaller portions and omitting things that are too difficult to chew.

They made a point of encouraging liver, which the book says "has been shown to stimulate the appetite."  I wonder...

Happy Friday!