NATURE is very liberal in giving us materials that can be used by the children in their work or play with very little expense. In fact, we hardly realize how much we have ready at hand unless our attention is especially called to it.
The materials vary in different parts of the country; for instance, in the South there are the pine-needles, the palmetto, the corn-husks, and the blue grass of Kentucky, the wistaria, grape-vines, and the rushes. An ingenious teacher, mother, or child will find many others when the possibilities of those mentioned above are learned. For more details visit to www.greatindustrialguide.com .As one goes farther North, one finds more beautiful grasses, rushes, birch bark, twigs from the trees, willows, grape-vines, and also the corn-husks, which have very beautiful coloring. Nature is indeed good to us if we know how to use her wealth.

Chains
Very attractive chains can be made by the little people from materials which they have gathered. The haws from the wild-rose bushes may be strung together, using a large needle and rather coarse thread. Red ears of corn, dried and shelled, supply excellent material for another style of chain. Dried peas and squash or pumpkin-seeds, used
together, and strung in different combinations, are exceedingly pretty. Acorns and maple wings alternated with pieces of coarse grass about one and one-half inches long form another chain. Horse-chestnuts of small size can also be used, with or without the coarse grass. We might enumerate any number more, but from these suggestions the children will find something that may be used to form the bright pretty chains that they all love so well.

Fruit-Basket
All through Italy and Switzerland, as the trains pull into the stations, the hot and dusty traveler sees bands of little children with trays riled with the daintiest baskets, full of the luscious grapes of those countries. These baskets are made of grape-vines, and are woven in the following manner:
Cut five four-inch pieces of the heavier vine; take two of these and split them in the center for about one and one-half inches. Slip the other three through this slit. Take a long slim piece of the vine and, beginning at the smallest end, wind it over and under the crossed spokes, going twice around. Then insert another weaver of about the same size and make three rows of pairing; fasten the ends by working them into the weaving. Do not try to press the weavers close together, as in rattan weaving. These three rows should make the bottom about three inches in diameter. At the side of each spoke insert a spoke of vine about sixteen inches long. If the pieces are rather small two may be put in together. The largest end of the vine is pushed in at the side of the spoke. Bring each spoke, or group of spokes, under the one to the right, over the next, and under the next, and down to the lower edge of the basket, leaving a loop which stands up about four inches.

Continue in this manner all around the basket; the last two spokes will have to go under, over, and under the first two groups that were used. When all the spokes are down at the bottom, finish them with the following border: Take the first spoke and place it under the next one to the right, over the -next one, and back. Do this all around the basket, working the last spokes in through the loops formed by the first. Cut off the ends that are left. For more information logon to www.dream-revealed.com .Cut two lengths of vine about seventeen inches, and push them into the bottom nearly to the center, on opposite sides of the basket. These pieces are to form the handle. Bring them up on the outside to the top of the basket, twist the ends together, and then bring them over to the opposite side from where they started. Tie them by working the
small end in and out of the weaving and around the handle itself. This finishes the basket. Fill it with a grape-leaf and a bunch of grapes, and you will have a very artistic combination.