Don't we look pretty when we're dancing, So early in the morning?

-Folk Song

Turn on the phonograph or radio, or use the Rhythm Band.

You can do circle dances, or Follow-the-Leader dances, or Free-Expression dances-everyone for himself.

You can pretend you are Bears or Tigers or Clocks or Cowboys or Popcorn Popping or Flowers Wilting or Diesel Engines, or whatever you like to be most

And you can skip, run, hop, walk, jump, march, leap, tiptoe, gallop, trot, stretch, sway, twirl, twist, get up, sit down, rise, fall, shake or shimmy.

And you can

Make a Conga line, do the Hokey Pokey, Skip to My Lou, dance "Farmer in the Dell," or "Ring Around the Rosy," or "London Bridge."

And you can

Help them to learn to relax, which is a useful thing to learn while they are still little. They can fall or plop on the floor or sofa, and try not to move for a whole minute. Or they can lean heavily against you with all their weight, just as if they were rag dolls. Or they can take deep breaths, and then crumple, like a popped balloon.

One Word of Warning-You may think this is your great chance to dance yourself, with an appreciative audience. But some children cannot bear the sight of their parents dancing. Or sometimes they like to watch Daddy dance, but scream when Mother dances. Or they like you to dance holding them in your arms or on your feet.

Day After Day Routines

In winter I get up at night And dress by yellow candle-light, In summer, quite the other way, I have to go to bed by day.

-A Child's Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson

Getting Dressed

A tiny child would just as soon stay naked. Here are some things you can do, to help him change his mind.

Put your squirmy, kicking, one- to two-year-old on a high piece of furniture (hold him, naturally). The height will subdue his struggles.

Divert him by telling him funny things, or making funny faces. Play: "Where is your nose? Oh, there's your nose! Where is your tummy? Oh, there's your tummy!" This sounds elementary, but it is surprising how grim a mother can become when she engages in a dressing struggle. Don't let him think he is bothering you, if you can help it

Buy, or make for him, loose, uncomplicated, comfortable clothes, that suit his way of life. Boxer trunks, for example, are more convenient than trunks with straps and buttons. There is nothing more harrowing than taking a well-dressed young boy to a public rest room if his costume consists of trousers that button onto straps that cross over his back, and fit into slots on his shirt with a slipover sweater over that, and topcoat over all.

Your ultimate aim, of course, is to help him eventually to help himself. As your child grows older, it helps to talk the dressing, as you dress him. For example: "Now we put on your underpants, and now your undershirt, and now we pull up your trunks, and now we put on your shirt, and now we button it"

There is no point in keeping the process a mystery to him. Try to dress him in the same order each time. You can also let him fasten the last button, for practice.

It also helps to give a young child his own dressing table, even if it is an orange crate. A mirror, hung low, a brush and comb, and low hooks on which to hang clothes, all enable him to dress himself sooner, at least when he feels like it.

Design a boy (or a girl) on the floor, out of the clothes he will wear the next morning. Put his undershirt on the floor, then his top shirt over this, then his underpants underneath, then his jeans over this, then his socks under this, then his shoes under his socks. If you have a doll's or stuffed animal's head, or a coconut or orange or ball, use it for the head. And you can put a hat on this, if you want to. Then, when he awakens in the morning, there is the "boy," already to become a real boy.

Or, he can help you lay his own clothes out the night before.

It sometimes helps to mark the front of garments with a cross, mark the shoes for each foot, and fasten mittens to snow suits.

Buy boots or galoshes that are easy to slip on over shoes, like the ones that have zippers.

A shoehorn encourages him to put on his own shoes.

Scratch the bottom of new, slippery shoes with a knife or fork for a new walker, so he won't fall.

Put everyday clothes out where he can get to them. Put clothes you don't want him to wear, except for special occasions, out of sight, particularly if he is a Clothes Horse.

For dawdlers: If your child has to catch the nursery school bus, or make another deadline, but you just can't seem to budge him, it sometimes helps to draw a clock on a paper plate, and point out the time relationships between dressing, washing, and breakfast.

Children will dress themselves because they think it is fun to dress themselves. Don't be surprised if your child dresses himself completely, except for shoelaces, at the age of three, and at the age of four waits around for you to dress him.