One morning this week, Miranda stood in an empty forest getting it all prepared for the day a head. With a blink of an eye, empty water jugs became full, with a click of her fingers the art table and books arranged themselves beautifully and with the twitch of her nose, the tent was all cosy and set for taking a nap in during the day. She was just about ready to magic herself a cup of tea before the children arrived when she realised she was not alone! The parakeets were in the tree as they were most mornings but something else was trying to get her attention with the faintest little “squeeeek!” She wondered over to the base of the Plane tree and there it was... on the floor was a baby squirrel. It looked injured, as though it had fallen out of its nest. It was taking laboured breaths and letting out that tiny little “squeeeek”. Beside it, was it’s sibling. This one, completely quiet and not moving a muscle. Without making direct contact, Miranda placed them into a box and left them beyond the children’s play area but close enough to the tree in case their mother came to claim them as instructed by the wise oracle...Google.
The children were shown pictures of the baby squirrels and it was explained why we couldn’t go near them and disturb them - if they were going to stand a chance of being reclaimed by their mother, they can not smell of human or she will not recognise them as her babies. The children got on with their morning of play, making art prints and reading stories, every now and again asking an adult “has the mother come yet?” And one child said “maybe the mummy went shopping and the babies just really wanted to go with her!”
Our playworker Sam occasionally peered into the box and was noticing less and less movement or noise and just after lunch she looked over at Xiao and said those fateful words “I am really sorry...we did everything we could!”
There is a lot to learn from nature and the cycle of life is one of them. Now these little bambino’s had passed away, we escorted little groups of children over to peer inside the box (still no touching allowed) but they could spend time looking and discuss their thinking with each other and adults.
Then suddenly something extraordinary happened!
Mid sentence about why things die, the scrappy baby who had first caught Miranda’s attention stirred, wiggled a little too much and fell out the box! She was alive!! But she was also now on the grass, weak and squeaking for help! “We can’t touch her” shouted the children to their adults, still in very high hopes the mummy would return. And so, another piece of magic happened that day as our little forest folkers assembled around and cheered her on! With painstaking effort, she made it back to the edge of the box but didn’t seem to be able to climb. She tried, but fell back onto the grass, screaming for help.
Some birds of prey started circling overhead....
“You can do it?” “Come on, you can do it” roared the children. The baby squirrel made another attempt to climb up the edge of the box and this time, victorious, she fell back inside with her cozy paper bedding and sibling.
As children ventured off to wash their hands, excitedly talking about the magical squirrel, there was a moment of complete calm by the tree. Miranda looked up into the tree, wiggled her magical finger and a moment later, a brave mummy squirrel came running down the trunk and run straight over to the box. “Time you got those babies home and time I had a cup of tea” said Miranda, pleased the children had enjoyed another magical day in the forest.
As nature introduces us to life cycles, our time together also introduces a time to say goodbye. Holiday camps have come to an end and some of our children have reached the end of their time in the forest and look forward to the next adventure that awaits at school. For those parents who supported us and chose us for holiday camps - thank you so much. We felt so fortunate that we could run these safely and it has been wonderful to see children come in a play as though the crazy outside world is a million miles away. To see them get lost in play, exploration and friendships has been one of the best outcomes we could have hoped for. To those parents who have supported us all year but are now leaving with their children who are attending school - we thank you too. We at Twickenham feel we have met some of the warmest, loving families and we have loved getting to see you all everyday, come rain and shine and sharing stories about your children’s day. We wouldn’t be who we are without you.
And with that, we are about to shut our gates for the weekend and open them again to a new September and new families! Buckle up....this is going to be a fun ride!
We hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Twickenham