Newsroom 985-2131

A DIFFERENT PRE-NATAL CLASS

r

NEWS photo Enc Eggertson

A TRIP to the Vancouver Children’s Festival is a must if you are planning a family, it is
here you can observe children and learn to relate to the things they enjoy, and the way they
like to be treated. This is the last weekend for the festival.

1 THINK all grown-ups, particularly those who
want to have children, should have to spend at least
one day at the Children’s Festival. Not dragging
some borrowed child about, but just watching, and
listening. In a day there you can learn a lot.

For instance, did you know
that with children’s games,
the simpler and bigger the
better is a pretty safe rule to
stick with? The games
organizers at the festival have
taken that rule to the limit
and provided the two best
games I’ve ever seen.

The first, best and
simplest, is the Tent Kite. It’s
just a great, huge, square
piece of cloth with ropes at-
tached ‘to each corner. When
10 to 20 kids get on the end of
each rope, and pull, it floats
up in the sky, resembling a
beautiful patchwork
parachute of black and blue
and red. The game is to guess
when it’s going to come down
again. When it does,
everyone drops the rope and
runs underneath the falling
cloth. It then becomes a tent,
supported by 50 or so
children. With the next gust
of wind it becomes a kite
again, and so on. Children

Prints displayed

MAY is the chance to see an

exhibition of work by 24
British artists from the
Greenwich Printmakers’
Association of London

The exhibition continues to
May 27 (luesdays through
Sundays, |] am to 4pm )
at the Dundarave Print

Workshop, 1640 0 Johnston

Street, Granville Island

By KELLEY JO BURKE

will cheerfully play this by
the hour.

The other great game is the
Maze. This construction of
pipes and platforms is the
perfect maze, because while it
is very hard to find your way
off, it is completely open at
the sides, so it’s never scary.
If you get tried of trying to
find the path off,.you just
climb off. Anyone who’s ever
been lost in a hall of mirrors
can appreciate that advan-
tage.

My other big lesson came
from watching the vanous

performers. Did you know
that you shouldn't talk to
children? If you have

something to say, you should
talk to people that happen to
be children. Peter Alsop, an
incredible children’s singer,
showed me that difference.
In the earlier shows I'd
seen, performers had said

Open

Tonight — 7:30 p.m. ¢

SECTIO

ENTERTAINMENT
T.V. « MOVIES - WGO

Learning from children

things like, ‘I’m going to do
this now,’’ and ‘‘let me tell
you about it.’’ Peter Alsop
says what would you like me
10 do?’’ and ‘‘What can you
tell me about this’? and most
importantly ‘‘Yah, | feel that
way about things too.’’

Alsop doesn’t pretend to
be a child (another
nauseating trick some
children’s performers try to
pull) but he makes it very
clear that‘he is an interested
equal, who wants to sing
about their concerns, instead
of telling them what they
ought to be concerned about.

Which ts a rather con-
voluted way of saying that he
treats them like real pepole,
and they respond by having
the time of their lives in his
shows. Two little girls in
front of me did something |
thought only happened in
commercials. Singing along
with Alsop’s song ‘‘l Am a

Pizza’’ they hugged each
other and forehead to
forehead sang the chorus

together, giggling.

Alsop’s music ts what the
festival is about. The main
thing is that children are im-
portant, they ought to be
listened to, and they are to be
learned from as_ well as
taught.

iOUSE |

ki

you are Invited to come and
See the work of the children H
Speak to teachers about the great 1A
alternative we offer In the educathu:. i

of your child

hear a talk Dy Hans Gebert trom the
Waldort Institute of Mercy College In s

4
Detroit. Michigan on How the waido.+ §

SCNOO! prepares chitdren for today s

wortd

WALDORF SCHOOL
2725 ST CHRISTOPHER Ss kU
N VAN
985 7435

TS Waal WW TET