Fairies, blackberries and toadstools

For the last few days of the summer holidays I'm looking after 2 of my grandchildren. I try to make their time with me interesting, fun, enjoyable. Usually I try to make sure that my husband is available to help on some days, although he is not fully retired yet, so that is not always possible. We don't do big days out with them, the sort of thing that costs the earth, we might go to the seaside or visit some local attraction but nothing too expensive and most of the time it will be going for walks, doing things at home--craft work, gardening, shopping, going to the park. And really they seem to be quite happy with whatever we arrange for them.  They can be hard work, occasionally naughty, but it's mainly  just their high spirits which can be tiring for us.


One of my daughters bought me a book for my birthday called  'Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars' . It's a great book aimed at grandparents, with lots of activities and interesting things to do with your grandchildren. It is American so some of the things are not appropriate for us in Great Britain, but it's easy to adapt some of the activities.

Today my 7 year old granddaughter and I looked through this book and she wanted to make a fairy garden and house.  We went round the garden looking for things we could use like leaves, twigs, acorns, flowers and seed heads and some shells and pebbles from the house.

Her imagination ran wild, I just provided the basics for her as she made a garden in one  terracotta plant saucer and a house with a lounge, bathroom and bedroom in another.  We placed these in a little corner of the garden under a tree.  Meanwhile my 5 year old grandson who was not the least bit interested or perhaps did not have the imagination, was doing what he does best--running around the garden, digging and raking with his own garden tools and generally just enjoying himself in his own little world.

Not wanting him to feel left out, later on we sowed seeds in a tray with both children's names. I filled a seed tray with moist compost and levelled it off.  The children marked out their names in the compost with fingers or a twig, then we sprinkled seeds in the marked areas.  I used some mustard seeds or you could use grass seed.  This was then covered with more compost.  Hopefully the children will see their names appear as the seeds grow.

Later on we went out for a walk and picked blackberries, another simple activity, but one which they really enjoyed doing.  We even found a toadstool which they both thought might belong to the fairies.