French
children start school quite young, at 3 years old and when Iona and Joe
were in the 'Maternelle' class (from 3 - 7 years old) throughout the
year there would be numerous events that bought the youngest and the
oldest people of the commune together.
The Mardi Gras 'carnival' was
always a great afternoon!. The children would dress up and walk round
the village whilst the older members of the village would prepare crepes
and hot chocolate and wait for the children to barge into the village
hall!. Everyone would then sit at long tables eating crepes and drinking
hot chocolate (I seem to remember that the older folk would also knock
back a fair bit of Rosé !!) The elderly would admire the childrens'
costumes and the children would speak so easily and freely to the older
people. Everyone benefited from these occasions.
A
retirement home in Brittany has taken this idea one step further. When
the commune could not meet the parents demand for a crèche the
retirement home offered part of its building to be used as a crèche.
Within the building there are some communal areas where the elderly
residents and the children and meet and share stories!. They also enjoy
joint workshops on cookery, arts and crafts, and music.
Care
home residents find the children give them back their joie de vivre and
the crèche workers have seen that the children are a lot calmer and
gentler when they are with the elderly residents.
