Novel Ways Of Entertaining Young Children!

As grandparents we have a bit more time in which to entertain our grandchildren than we had when our own children were small. As busy parents just getting through the day without a disaster was a major achievement. Of course some of the things that amuse the grandchildren are not always meant for their delectation and delight like the time the hose connection came off giving ‘Gramps’ a thorough soaking, our grandson laughed so much it wasn’t only his grandfather who needed a change of clothes!

Young Elliot (2) has spent quite a lot of time with us recently in the run up to the birth of his baby brother Toby. He is a good little lad and easy to please. We own a septic tank and have discovered that by giving it weekly handfuls of yeast tablets, the bacteria eats the solids and we don’t have to have to have it emptied so often. Young Elliot enjoys ‘feeding’ the loo with the tablets, the easiest way of getting them into the tank. The other day he made me laugh when dropping one on the floor he was reluctant to put it with the others, "because it isn’t nice to ‘eat’ anything from the floor". He obviously thought we were giving the toilet nourishment!

On one of our walks we spied a pile of white feathers in our neighbour’s field, when Elliot asked me about them I said that maybe the naughty fox had eaten the neighbour’s big white hen! This fuelled Elliot’s imagination like nothing else, and he has had a great time speculating as where the fox might be hiding, I have never looked under so many bushes and cars in my life in our quest to find ‘Bad Mr Fox’, who has so far proved very elusive! I suspect that if we ever do catch up with the creature, Elliot might be a little disappointed by how small a fox actually is. He probably thinks a fox is the size of our neighbour’s Irish wolfhound! Incidentally the reports of the hen’s demise were premature; I saw it as large as life the other day, but have not mentioned the fact to Elliot, why spoil the lad’s fun?

On Shrove Tuesday and Elliot will be spending the day with us. He is looking forward to helping me make the pancakes, no doubt the pancake tossing will excite him greatly, especially if ‘Gramps’ manages to land one on the ceiling as he did one year!

Who needs hi tech children’s toys to amuse the kiddies when you have a septic tank, foxes, hens and pancakes to keep them entertained?