Match of the Day

There are lots of ways to promote wellbeing, from playing a game together or listening to someone’s story to learning something new … and the children used all those ideas and more, when they made their bright yellow fortune tellers.

Then it was a quick walk (being active can also contribute to wellbeing) over to Manor Farm, where the residents were waiting eagerly for the children to arrive.

After a quick game with the fortune tellers, the children got down to telling the residents some of the stories they’d discovered about Lowestoft football teams  and showing them their beautiful drawings.

Whilst Eva explained to Mike how the words ‘the Waves’ influenced her picture, Allisha and Dave talked about all the different elements in Allisha’s drawing, and how they both ‘lost’ themselves in their art.

Dave explained that he used to play football ‘just for fun’ and when Allisha told him that she did gymnastics he advised her to keep it up  because ‘it’s a form of art, too, you know.’

Janet, another Manor Farm resident, chatted to Xavier about his drawing; ‘You can tell it’s a footballer as they all have whiskers,’ she said. That led to a discussion about Argentina FC and Janet’s four brothers, who all played football locally.

Berry really admired Summer’s crochet work, saying she’d like to ‘buy’ one of the purses and treasure it forever, whilst a fellow resident discovered that the pupil sitting beside her shared the exact same birthday – although not the same birth year.

Georgina admired the drawing of the Co-Op Ladies Football team and wondered if perhaps her mother might have played, as she used to work for the Co-Op, and Ken told the children seated at his table all about the horse he used to have in the army; the horse was called Landmark and Ken looked after it for 20 years. Apparently, it had a reputation for being a difficult animal, but it was as gentle as a lamb with Ken.

As the children lined up outside to walk back to school, one of the girls turned to me and said excitedly, ‘I loved hearing about Ken’s horse’.

Back in the room, Ken was clearly delighted to have had the chance to talk about Landmark, whilst Berry sat holding a small crochet purse, saying she just couldn’t bear to part with it just yet, so was borrowing it until the next time the children visit.

Having something to look forward to also contributes to a sense of wellbeing; I look forward to seeing the children and residents again this week, to begin work on our embroidered archive pictures.