Some may ask, what is it that you do in the care village or what do the children and residents get out of working together. We can not begin to describe the amount of learning which takes place and how the interactions between old and young create such a magical atmosphere, but we will try!
Being together provides opportunities for children to learn about personal space as well as learning from knowledgeable, older adults. It is not only the adults who teach the children but the children are able to teach their older friends many new skills. We often hear, “yes you can do it” or “team work makes the dream work” from these three and four year olds as they encourage their friends to ‘give things a go’. Our friends are often surprised by some of the activities and reminisce on their younger years, smiling and laughing as they tell their own life stories, much to the children’s delight.
Literacy, language and communication play a huge part within our day. The children are keen to share stories with their older friends and in turn their friends provide them with something special, time. They have all the time in the world for their little friends and love to engage in story time. They enjoy ‘putting on voices’ to add to the characters and asking questions of the children and if they attempt to change the story, even slightly, the children know! The children are also able to read some of the more familiar stories back to the adults. They love nothing more than sharing an information book together, developing their understanding of a new subject and gathering new knowledge. We often hear comments such as, “did you hear that? I didn’t know that” from the older adults as they engage in the information books together.
The children are kind and considerate, thinking about their friends, old and young, as well as themselves. Today, one of the children was ensuring all of his friends had a ‘healthy green’ temperature with the thermometer whilst another child used the handheld hoover to clean up after lunch. The photo above shows a practitioner sharing a baby scan photo with a child. The practitioner wanted to take the scan photo in to share with the residents because as the bond between the children and their older friends have deepened so have the friendships between the residents and practitioners. They are all definitely part of our ‘Childsplay Family’.
The children and residents are also masters of singing and dancing. Here is a sneak peek of us working on something special ready for our celebration day later in the year.
