| When it's in season, if it's available and conditions are right, mud is glorious. If you don't have mud, but you have a sandbox and a hose, that's good too. Remember some of the basic of learning by feeling and touching—textures, effects, the excitement of messiness—and try to be generous and patient. Childhood is brief. |  |
Kes's mom wrote:
It’s the shadow of a piece of seaweed on a chalk stone. He took the photo because he spotted that it looks like a mermaid 🧜🏼♀️ (a steam punk mermaid perhaps). Taken at Holywell beach, Eastbourne.
Sandra says:
That's on the south end of England, halfway between Brighton and Hastings, for those whose map of England comes from history and literature. (← That was me, until I got to go and run around there some.)The rock above the chalk mermaid is flint. There are medieval churches built of flint. It was mined, underground, by stone-age people.
Be with your children, but don't expect their thoughts and emotions to always be with you.
Flex your make-believe.
| If you touch your child gently, softly, lovingly, he is more likely to be gentle with others. He will have learned not from words, but from his own lived experience, from your example, how to touch gently. |  |
