Lest we forget

I wonder what your average 7 year old thinks about Remembrance Day ?
When I ask my little one, she says it's to do with the war.
She isn't wrong, but I'm not sure that most children really understand what it means to 'remember them'.

Sadly the understanding of "what was given by so few for so many" seems long gone. Maybe that is because this generation, except for a few, probably don't actual know anyone who was in the second world war. My Grandad was. His brother was. I was always very aware that they were the men that went and fought for their country. My country.  Although, war is war, maybe children see war differently these days. With media playing such a big part in how we see and understand modern day conflicts, maybe children have become slightly removed.

So how do you bridge that gap? How do you make them, remember them ?

Our latest project is one I think is so important in the busy, consumed world we all live in. We were asked by the local British Legion if we would like to look after the little memorial garden at the top of road from the school.
We have been planning it for some time, and the trouble with time is that it runs away with itself! But with November just weeks away, we decided that everything else had to stop and for a week. We had to concentrate on this small patch and make it a fitting memorial for all the men and woman that are lost fighting in the name of our country.

This was how it looked a couple of months ago. Bind weed had taken over the back and weeds had rooted themselves in the paving stones.
The question now was what to do and how to involve the children? We know we have to set all our projects up so we know they are safe for the children to get involved in. So where to start?
Like all things we do, we start off with a plan and then simply rearrange it until we think that looks nice. So there was a plan. We juggled it. The result we think is fitting. A place we hope people will stop and reflect every day not just remembrance day.

Gone are the weeds and in its place artificial grass that we felt represented all the battle fields where wars were fought. Simple boxes for bright plants to add some colour. Angie and her magic paintbrush took Alison's idea of poppies and combined the two.
So now we just have to get the children involved. The plan is that the children from gardening club will maintain the flower beds and look after what is growing there. We have a big bag of bulbs which we will get them to plant so that in the spring the planters will have daffodils blowing about in the breeze.

Its odd how a few days and the muscles of Rachel, the ideas of Alison and Angie and her paint brush can turn a area into something important again. Our war memorial's shouldn't just blend into their surroundings. They should stand out and make us think.

This remembrance day, as always I will think of my Granddad.
Of our trips to the cenotaph on a chilly November day.
The silence and the memories, of those both past and present.
Those who came home.
 Remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice and didn't make it back.

We hope that people will feel its somewhere to go and remember their love ones no longer with them and lets hope that it will make the children that pass it everyday to school stop and think...........We Will Remember Them.

As always a massive thank you to Easigrass, Wickes - Langstone Road and Wyevale Garden Centre.

On our Twitter page & Facebook page - The welly wizards - there are more photo's of the project and how it came along.