Looking After Lily

Beep! Beep! The school bus was honking it's horn outside our neighbours house but there was no sign of anyone home. So I went over and collected a slightly bewildered 3 and a half year old little girl from the bus. I carried her back to our house and she soon relaxed once we got a box of toys out to play with.

A little girl who doesn't know a word of English and me an "empty nester" with limited French. I found the box of J's old cars and roadways. Lily got stuck into it straight away.

Lily's mum and dad both work and her dad had got delayed. He was very grateful. Then when her mum got back from work she came over to say thank you as well and gave us a dozen fresh eggs. We have since shared several delicious meals with them.

Now we look after Lily whenever we can. Mr B and I think up different ideas to keep her amused. The forest has proved to be a great source of ideas. We found twisted sticks that looked like snakes and spent a happy afternoon painting les serpents for Maman and Papa. Another time we collected an assortment of leaves and Mr B drew a huge tree for Lily to stick the feuilles onto.

It reminded me of my 70's childhood when we made "handicrafts" using old cereal boxes and loo rolls and when Blue Peter was must watch TV where you could make amazing things with an old coat hanger and sticky backed paper. The time before Ipods, Xboxes, Wii and even before the internet.

I've dug out the paperback Puffin book which was part of my childhood called "Something to Do" full of exciting ideas to do all year round. If it was a rainy day or we dared to say we were bored out came the "Something to Do" book. There was a different chapter for each month with a themed little poem, activities, nature, recipes and games. Pom-Pom making, how to make a dolls house out of shoe boxes and even conker toy furniture.

Something to Do (Young Puffin Books) by Septima

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Just looking in the "Something to Do" book has unleashed lots of happy memories not only from my childhood but from the GG and BB's too. We always had a box of "junk" on stand by to make castles and space ships from. The kitchen walls and fridge door proudly displayed the latest creations.

Kids don't need the latest electronic toys to have fun. I am glad that we had lots of fun with the world around us and I can now share that with little Lily.

And it's helping my French too!