The joy of simple things

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Little One has plenty of things to play with – plasticine, Lego, a train set, sticker books – you name it, but although she says she loves all those things, sometimes simple (and free) things are best. In the school holidays she spent one entire day making things out of cardboard boxes, toilet-roll inner tubes and egg boxes, cutting them up, painting and decorating them, and sticking them together with the addition of a few lolly sticks. She was also amazed and as pleased as Punch when I cut out a string of traditional paper dolls for her. A few days ago on a walk through the woods she picked some grass and wanted to make a grass person – no idea where that idea came from. But anyway I managed to tie up a piece of grass into something not dissimilar to a miniature version of the traditional ‘corn dolly’, and then we found a different bit of leaf and made a partner. Again she was chuffed to pieces and played with them afterwards! When I’m in the garden she can spend ages making ‘potions’ by mixing leaves and flowers together in a bucket of water, or playing with stones and fir cones. She spends far more time with those than with the expensive plastic gimmicks. The key thing, though, is that often she likes to do these things while we are doing things nearby. Free components, some imagination, and a bit of company are all that's required! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2018.