When I was a little lass my best memories of childhood were set outside. We lived in a real world where blackberries and apples grew on bushes and trees and were ripe for acquiring as autumn treasures.
These days Apples and Blackberries are devices that us children of the 1970s sadly now communicate on, in a virtual world where you seldom get a grass stain, rosy cheeks or anything for free.
Recently I took my class of four and five year olds foraging in the local churchyard. These little farm children still have apples in their cheeks and blackberry bushes as a larder.
We plundered the blackberry harvest, got prickled, enjoyed the last beams of late summer and the “Oohs” and “Ahhs” of this merry band as they came upon hidden whoppers was equally delicious for us to hear.
We went back to class with our gemlike booty, washed our hands, washed the fruit. We passed a bowl round and measured the flour out in handfuls, added a little butter and shared the rubbing in job and sprinkled a little sugar on for good measure. Then we went off to read and paint and model make for half an hour and then the crumble smell brought everyone to order.
We shared our lovely wild berry pudding and some even asked for seconds and thirds. We washed up and went home smiling.
Life that day really tasted as sweet as I remembered it when I was five, when apples and blackberries and the best things in life were still free.
Clare Neal
EYFS teacher
Grayrigg CE School
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