Play Reaches The Habits Most

From A Child's Play, We Can Gain Understanding Of How He Sees And Construes The World--what He Would Like It To Be, What His Concerns Are, What Problems Are Besetting Him.

A Parent Who From His Own Childhood Experience Is Convinced Of The Value Of Fairy Tales Will Have No Difficulty In Answering His Child's Questions; But An Adult Who Thinks These Tales Are Only A Bunch Of Lies Had Better Not Try Telling Them; He Won't Be Able To Related Them In A Way Which Would Enrich The Child's Life.

The Delight We Experience When We Allow Ourselves To Respond To A Fairy Tale, The Enchantment We Feel, Comes Not From The Psychological Meaning Of The Tale (although This Contributes To It) But From Its Literary Qualities-the Tale Itself As A Work Of Art.

The Goal In Raising One's Child Is To Enable Him, First, To Discover Who He Wants To Be, And Then To Become A Person Who Can Be Satisfied With Himself And His Way Of Life. Eventually He Ought To Be Able To Do In His Life Whatever Seems Important, Desirable, And Worthwhile To Him To Do; To Develop Relations With Other People That Are Constructive, Satisfying, Mutually Enriching; And To Bear Up Well Under The Stresses And Hardships He Will Unavoidably Encounter During His Life.

Although We Like To Think Of Young Children's Lives As Free Of Troubles, They Are In Fact Filled With Disappointment And Frustration. Children Wish For So Much, But Can Arrange So Little Of Their Own Lives, Which Are So Often Dominated By Adults Without Sympathy For The Children's Priorities. That Is Why Children Have A Much Greater Need For Daydreams Than Adults Do. And Because Their Lives Have Been Relatively Limited They Have A Greater Need For Material From Which To Form Daydreams.