allow them to talk to you about any thing that interests them, they are pleased, whether you communicate to them any new information or not.  This single thought, once fully understood by a mother, will save her a great deal of trouble in answering the incessant questions of her children.  The only essential thing in many cases is to say something in reply to the question, no matter whether what you say communicates any information or not.

If a child asks, for instance, what makes the stars shine so, and his mother answers, “Because they are so bright,” he will be very likely to be as well satisfied as if she attempted to give a philosophical explanation of the phenomenon.  So, if he asks what makes him see himself in the looking-glass, she may answer, “You see an image of yourself there.  They call it an image.  Hold up a book and see if you can see an image of that in the glass too.”  He is pleased and satisfied.  Nor are such answers useless, as might at first be supposed.  They give the child practice in the use of language, and, if properly managed, they may be made the means of greatly extending his knowledge of language and, by necessary consequence, of the ideas and realities which language represents.

“Father,” says Mary, as she is walking with her father in the garden, “what makes some roses white and some red?” “It is very curious, is it not?” says her father.  “Yes, father, it is very curious indeed.  What makes it so?” “There must be some cause for it” says her father.  “And the apples that grow on some trees are sweet, and on others they are sour.  That is curious too.”  “Yes, very curious indeed,” says Mary.  “The leaves of trees seem to be always green,” continues her father, “though the flowers are of various colors.”  “Yes, father,” says Mary.  “Except,” adds her father, “when they turn yellow, and red, and brown, in the fall of the year.”

A conversation like this, without attempting any thing like an answer to the question with which it commenced, is as satisfactory to the child, and perhaps as useful in developing its powers and increasing its knowledge of language, as any attempt to explain the phenomenon would be; and the knowledge of this will make it easy for the mother to dispose of many a question which might seriously interrupt her if she conceived it necessary either to attempt a satisfactory explanation of the difficulty, or not to answer it at all.

Be always ready to say “I don’t know.”

5.  The mother should be always ready and willing to say “I don’t know,” in answer to children’s questions.