Grandparenting duties.

We see quite a bit of our newly eight year old grandson in the school holidays, it's a wonderful age. He's dropped off at our house in the mornings before his parents start work. He comes with a load of equipment; paints, marbling kit, modeling clay, puzzles, construction kits. scooter, pogo stick, (I'm sure it has another name these days) the list goes on. I think how simple and uncluttered my own childhood was, post-war austerity left us to make good use of our imagination. So I was amused, and quite delighted, when he ignored his wealth of equipment and played for a long time with two of my clothes pegs. He has various jobs when with us, one is to set the table. As you can see in the photo, he made an off-the-table placement for his cutlery with the pegs and then set us the challenge to do the same but in a different pattern. I was only too happy to delay lunch, he was so involved and happy exploring possibilities with us.

Trips to the beach involve another load of clobber; goggles, snorkel, large flippers, body board, ball and bats. 'You want all that, you carry it' says Nana. And he does.

What does he play with the most? See the old metal spade with the worm-eaten handle, at least half a century old? That's the plaything that sees the action!