GENERAL PRINCIPLES; MATERIALS
In toy-making in schools it is very necessary to design toys that can be
made from materials which are easily obtained. The Board of Education in
a report on handwork in the London elementary schools says: "The range
of materials used is limited, as a rule, to paper, cardboard, clay, and
'prepared wood' or 'stripwood.' It is perhaps unfortunate that these are
almost entirely 'school materials,' in other words materials which are
not likely to be much used outside the school, either in the child's
home or in after life."
There is truth in this--to give the child too much 'prepared material'
tends to make him less inventive, resourceful, and painstaking, and
prevents him from continuing his work at home, where he has not got
prepared material. Any series of toys made from the same material--say
a series of toys made from match stales or from 'stripwood'--has very
limited educational advantages. Toys made from a combination of waste
materials are the best--match-boxes, cardboard and wooden boxes of all
sizes, mantle-boxes, reels, corks, broom-handles, silver paper, etc.,
can all play a part in producing an effective, even a beautiful toy.
Most of the toys described in this book are made from so-called 'waste
materials.'
With regard to infant school work, squares of white paper--cartridge
paper or ordinary exercise paper--which the children can colour
themselves are better than a too slavish use of the coloured gummed
squares supplied to schools. Further directions with regard to materials
will be given in connexion with the various toys. It is advisable to use
as few tools as possible, both because the fewer tools the less expense
and because the fewer tools the more thought and ingenuity required.
To have a perfect instrument at hand for every need paralyses work,
thought, and happiness. Most of the toys in this book are made--if for
little ones, with scissors, if for older ones, with hammer, saw, and
file.
A graduated course is necessary. Generally speaking, the little ones
from five to seven make their toys of paper, clay, plasticine, and
raffia. Children from seven to ten can make simple wooden toys. Wooden
toys are the best; many things can be done with wood, impossible with
cardboard or paper, and they are so lasting.
Cardboard modelling is always difficult, and as a rule should not be
attempted by children younger than nine. Except that they provide
practice in accurate measurement, toys made of paper and cardboard by
children of nine or older are disappointing, they crush so quickly.
Quite strong toys can, however, be made from a combination of wood,
cardboard, and paper.
If really strong paper toys are required (for example, the various
articles of doll's furniture, the table and chair, etc., are more
valuable if strongly made), an excellent medium can be made by pasting
(using ordinary flour paste) two or three sheets of paper together and
allowing them to dry thoroughly under pressure. Both or all three sheets
must be pasted over before they are brought together to avoid subsequent
curling. This will, however, prove too stiff a medium for children
younger than five.
=Skewers= will be found very useful in toy-making. Any ordinary metal
skewer is useful for boring holes in cardboard and corks, while the
short meat skewers, three inches long (cost twopence per dozen), are an
excellent substitute for bradawls when the children are making the early
light woodwork models; later on in woodwork a fine workman's bradawl is
required, or a drill.
Wooden skewers are useful for axles of all kinds.
Another useful boring tool (for making holes in paper, corks, or
cardboard) is the metal pin stopper supplied with tubes of seccotine.
This bores a hole in cardboard or paper that is the right size for a
match. When boring holes in cardboard the children will find a cotton
reel useful to bore upon; their meat skewer or seccotine pin stopper can
then pass through the cardboard into the hole in the reel.
=Methods of joining Cardboard and Paper Edges.= (1) Leaving a flange. In
Fig. 1 the shaded portions represent flanges--flange A is for joining
side of house B to C, flanges D, E, F, G are for holding the roof;
they must, of course, be bent at right angles to the sides B and H.
(Note flange in socket of candlestick, Fig. 49, Chapter IV, and in
pigeon-house, Chapter X.)
[Illustration: FIG. 1]
If Fig. 1 is made of cardboard, flange A must have the surface of the
cardboard pared away, otherwise the joining will be clumsy. The dotted
lines represent bends only in the case of paper, but half cuts in the
case of cardboard.
[Illustration: FIG. 2]
With regard to the size of the flange, this will depend upon the
strength of the adhesive used and the stiffness of the material.
Generally speaking, the larger the flange the better, for a narrow
flange tends to turn up and must be held down longer than a wide one.
A good general rule to remember when joining two pieces of material is
this--that it is always the thinner of the two that is to be pasted
or glued. This must be borne in mind when using the second method of
joining cardboard or paper edges.
[Illustration: FIG. 3_a_]
[Illustration: FIG. 3_b_]
(2) Using paper hinges. The hinge should extend the whole length of the
edges that come together, as in Fig. 2, where pieces of cardboard A and
B are joined by the hinge _a b c d e f_. Before pasting the hinge must
be folded along _b e_, care being taken that _b e_ is at right angles to
_a c_ and _d f_.
The sides, bottom, and roof of the Noah's Ark are joined together by
paper hinges (Chapter X).
(3) Wherever it is necessary to join curved edges, the flange must be
cut as in Fig. 3_a_, flange _a b c d_. Fig. 3_b_ shows paper curved and
flanges bent down ready for pasting.
This is the method used for fastening on paper funnels, the bottom of
the paper mug (Fig. 57, Chapter IV), etc.
=The Making and Fixing of Wheels.= If it is desired to attach movable
wheels to any of the toys described in the following chapters (in the
early chapters for greater simplicity the wheels are gummed to sides of
carts, or to matches, etc.), the following methods are suggested.
(1) The wheels can be rigidly fixed to the axle--that is, a match end
is pushed tight into the cardboard wheel and the axle is free to turn
in loose bearings, as in Fig. 4, fixed under the cart or other vehicle
or to the sides. These bearings can be cut from cardboard or cartridge
paper.
In Fig. 4 the paper is bent at a right angle along the dotted line, and
the rectangular portion is gummed under the cart. If the rectangular
portion is gummed to the side of the cart no bend is needed. The parts
of the match sticks that pass through the holes must be rounded with
sand-paper so that they will turn easily in the holes.
[Illustration: FIG. 4]
(2) The axle can be glued to the bottom of the cart and the wheels left
free to revolve. The wheels are kept in their places by the following
plan. Cut some small cardboard washers, seccotine one near each end of
the axle as in Fig. 5_a_, taking care that they do not come under the
cart. Slip on the wheels, taking care that the centre hole is punched
large enough to allow the wheel to revolve freely. This will be the case
if a steel meat skewer (size about 7 inches long) has been used to make
the holes. Fix washers outside the wheels to keep them on, as in Fig.
5_b_. These washers keep the wheels from sagging.
These wheels will revolve if the match stick has been rounded with
sand-paper.
[Illustration: FIG. 5_a_]
[Illustration: FIG. 5_b_]
With regard to the arrangement of the toys in this book, roughly they
are described in order of difficulty, but for convenience sometimes this
order has been departed from. For example, match-box toys have been
grouped together, cork animals, etc. The teacher must select her own
models from different parts of the book and use them in accordance with
her children's ability and her own taste.
Another important principle to follow is this. The teacher should give
as few directions as possible, be as silent as it is possible for a
teacher to be. The child has an excellent opportunity in these classes
of learning from his own mistakes. This opportunity must not be taken
from him; he must be given the chance of finding out his own mistakes.
Moreover, every difficulty should not be anticipated for the child; nor
should too many warnings be given. Let the children set to work as soon
as possible and use their tools without too many instructions about
them. Let them ask, let them have the pleasure of discovering; every
child wants to learn, but not every child wants to be taught.
All models should be made as large as is reasonably possible; this
should be insisted on from the beginning. Lastly, great accuracy (though
much to be desired) must not be expected from the child; careful work
must be insisted on, but one must learn to recognise the careful work of
a child (which is so different from that of the grown-up person) and not
heedlessly blame him or her for not reaching perfection.
Accuracy is so often the outcome of 'lack of vision.' The child so often
has that 'vision,' that imaginative outlook on life that floods the mind
with ideas, but lacks accurate power of expression, while the grown-up
person has the accurate power of expression, but has lost the fresh
imagination of youth and all its ideals. We must see to it that we do
not dim our children's vision.