Category: Children

Child-experts don’t see eye to eye:
Is the teacher to blame–or I?
I often wonder, while they preach:
It couldn’t be a bit of each?

by Ray Romine Thursday, September 29, 1949

“We’re trying to prove,”
Said the Bunny,
“I’m not the only one
Who’s funny.”

….

Just one hump , the camel boasts–
The dromedary two;
Or is it two the camel has–
I wish I knew, don’t you??

The giraffe, sir, owns a longer neck
Than either you or me:
Which goes to show us what can come
Of craning, things to see.

The lion is the King of beasts,
A sort of jungle-terror,
Who muchly scares the mice and hares,
Unless I am in error.

The monkey is a silly ape
With curiousest habits;
He has a whole lot longer tail
Than any Easter rabbit’s.

And there’s the sassy Billy-goat
Who has a Van-dyke beard;
And all because he lazy is,
And never shaves, I’ve heerd

. . . . . . . .

And so we end our Zoo’s “Who’s Who”,
I’ve been a little bored, have you?
It’s your turn, now, to help the Zoo:
With crayons see what YOU can do!

by Ray Romine Friday, April 30, 1943

What makes me rave
Is to have them behave
The way I did
When I was a kid!

by Ray Romine Saturday, January 31, 1953

Two things that will not mix at all
are Gasoline and Alcohol;
Two more that give most parents jitters:
Their Budgets and their Baby-sitters.

by Ray Romine Tuesday, November 8, 1949

When it’s over, said and done,
Their new blackboard and chalk is
Hardly more than half the fun
That writing on the walk is.

by Ray Romine Thursday, November 10, 1949

He sketches on the cupboards;
He doodles on the walls;
He draws in basement stairways,
And in stuffy upper halls.

He decorates the lampshades
And the windows in the den.
He didn’t miss my magazine
On pages nine and ten.

He maybe lacks the proper touch,
The swing, the stuff, the movement;
But on the bathroom mirror
I think I see improvement.

Praise for such artistic bent
Comes to mind unbidden.
However, don’t refer to such
Talent, please, as “hidden!”

by Ray Romine Sunday, August 19, 1951

When Junior is thirsty, excursions nocturnal
Are made, and described by his dad as infernal.
But it isn’t providing the water that rankles–
It’s the draft and the playthings on paternal ankles.

by Ray Romine Thursday, November 3, 1949

A normal, healthy, curious tot
Will ask in any day a lot
Of earnest questions: “What is salt?”
“Why is a crack in earth a fault?”
“What makes sky blue?” “How long’s a year?”
“How do birds fly?” “What is a tear?”
“How close to Saturn does earth get?”
“And where, exactly, is Tibet?”

So, keep our old encyclopedia
In reach, with other knowledge media.
Kids learn by asking? Underscore:
Parents learn a whole lot more!

by Ray Romine Tuesday, January 15, 1952

Our tolerance is of a kind
That stretches somewhat; for, we find,
It’s hard impartially to view
Our own as “neighbors’ children” too!

by Ray Romine Friday, January 18, 1946

A bit of why and some of wherefore
Educate our children; therefore ,
We, as bewildered parents of them
Read to stay one notch above them.

by Ray Romine Monday, October 9, 1950