A girl named Mary Frances

"Mommy, I got hurt!" How often do we as mom's hear this phrase? Some moms jump up with a gasp and rush to their children to inspect their injury. I, on the other hand, usually tell my kids,"aren't you glad bodies heal?" or "show it to Nanny next time we are there." My oldest son politely suggested a couple weeks ago that I learn more about how take care of hurts. I am planning a human body study next year and thought this might be a good place to start. I was also ready for a more spring-like (light and home-makey)book. What could teach us about first aid, introduce the human body and fulfill my need for a light, home centered story? Enter "The Mary Frances First Aid Book." This book was perfect! I love Mary Frances.

When Aubrey was about five we read "Mary Frances Housekeeper." It comes with paper dolls and furniture to cut out and advice on wallpapering and carpeting a home, etc. We created a little paper doll house and decorated it as each new piece of advice was offered in the subsequent chapters. Earlier this year Aubrey read "Mary Frances Cookbook: The Adventures Among the Kitchen People." She worked through many of the recipes as she followed the story. We loved the story and all of the recipes.

So, I knew the First Aid book would be just as good. In this story Mary Frances has had a birthday and her brother, Billy, promises to play anything she wants for a whole day, so she asks him to play with the dolls' house and she will show him through the play all the first aid she knows. And so the doll family begins with a runaway automobile, which has brakes that have gone out.

We spent several mornings and several afternoons reading this book-the whole thing in about a week and a half. One afternoon the children, who have no muslin squares, used their play silks to practice bandaging different parts of the body, It was rather amusing to see them with bright blue and green bandages on arms and legs, hands, feet and heads. A free online version of this book can be found here http://www.archive.org/stream/maryfrancesfirst00fryeiala/maryfrancesfirst00fryeiala_djvu.txt.

We enjoyed this book so much that I ordered "The Mary Frances Gardening Book." We have been studying botany this year, and this book will be the perfect conclusion to that study and introduction to gardening, along with just great summer reading.