The Real Wild Ones

Anne-Celine Jaeger - 2 Aug 14

1. IS THAT MUD ON MY WALL?

Anyone else ever have think: “How am I going to entertain my kids for six weeks,” at the beginning of the summer holidays?

Trust me. You’re not alone.

Last night my sister and I lay in a double bed at my parents’ house (in a way we hadn’t done since sharing a bedroom in primary school), giggling, talking about all sorts from whether we prefer Ryan G to George C to who does more domestic chores in our respective relationships. Our kids (four between us) were asleep in the room next door, when suddenly the rain came down so hard outside, landing on the slanted window above our heads, it felt like the entire house might just float away. The animals marched on two by two, I thought, and then: “What on Noah’s Ark earth are we going to do with the kids tomorrow?”

The next day came along with slightly brighter weather, as well as serious puddles and mud tracks in my parents garden. The kids had slept so badly between them we didn’t know weather to laugh or cry about it. I think we did a bit of both. Rather than just letting the kids splash around in the puddles, we felt like bringing the mud into it too. If you can’t beat the sodding weather, join it.

This is not sludge I thought, remembering a picture of a mud-painted classroom in India I’d seen recently, it’s paint. Let’s use the gunk. Grab a bucket kids. Grab a spade. Find the wettest, stickiest, dirtiest mud and plop it right in. Add water. Squelch it around with your hands. Done. Who needs Windsor and Newton paint? Their “painting” started gingerly enough. Some delicate hand prints, a few swishes of the palm, but it was clear soon enough that they had more of a Jackson Pollockapproach to making their mark. Within minutes they were hurling the mud at the wall, excited, giddy, feral. It was abstract expressionism – of the backyard variety. The mud went splat, phisssht, pffop. It swooshed out of their hands and onto the makeshift canvas. They weren’t painting a thing, they were feeling it.

What you need:

• A receptacle to mix and carry mud in
• Water
• A wall

Top tip: It’s really worth incorporating the “clean up” mission into the event. Who doesn’t love hurling buckets of water at a non-moving object? Bobby also turned into a chim chimney sweeper, singing chim chim cheree, as he slid the broom up and down.
Top quote: “Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.” Jackson Pollock

2. COLOURING OUTSIDE THE LINES

Nobody likes colouring inside the lines… In fact, why stick to paper, when you can explore all other kinds of surfaces, including your body. The other day, Bobby and Minu had a blast mixing up paint and slathering it all over themselves.

“I’m going to be a lizzard, a dinosaur, a chameleon,” said Bobby. “I’m a flower, a tic-tac-toe game, a sea monster,” said Minu. We didn’t have any body paint to hand so we just used your bog standard watercolour paint you get in the shop. I thought, if it’s fine to get on your hands, it’s fine to get on your chest, arms, legs and bum. So the kids went crazy.

What you need:

• Your Body
• Some water colour paint (but if you don’t have paint just use mud and sludge. That might be even more fun. I might try that next time)

We’ve got a way to go before we get to the standard below (see last pic), but that’s nae bad for camouflage is it? For more inspiration, take a look at some of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s early work. She is more of a polka dot kind of girl. Or check out some of the amazing body art of the Surma people in Africa (see pics below).

Top tip: As Elsa sings in Frozen, “Let it go.” Just roll with it.
Top quote: “The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting.” Vincent Van Gogh

3. DO THE RIGHT THING: HAVE A WATER FIGHT

It’s been seriously hot in London. Heat in a big city always reminds me of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, where people sit on their stoop and kids play with water from the bust fire hydrant to cool down.

One of the best thing about summer when you’re a kid, is being naked. Everything is more fun naked, we just grow out of the habit. It’s liberating. It’s our natural state. It makes us feel free. And there’s no better way of feeling that freedom on a hot day than having an almighty water fight in your garden.

If like us, and most of the rest of the world, you don’t have a pool, whip the garden hose out. Or if you live in the city and don’t have access to a garden, fill up some water balloons and take them to the park. Let the battle begin! The kids will squeal, scream, laugh, giggle, shake their wet hair about.

What you need:

• A hose
• Water
• Or water balloons

Top tip: Let your youngest child hold the hose first.
Top quote: “Man’s naked form belongs to no particular moment in history; it is eternal.” Auguste Rodin

4. GET THEE TO A CLIMBING TREE

Want your kid to feel alive and nimble? Get thee to a climbing tree.

There’s a poem by E.E. Cummings which describes perfectly how we feel when we get those moments so full of the joys of life that you want to burst into song, when we feel like swinging our arms into the open, skipping backwards for no particular reason or punching the air because everything feels just right. I think of it when the kids have immersed themselves into the landscape, by grappling, climbing, moving threw the elements like panthers.

There’s no better playground for a kid than a climbing tree. It challenges their balance, strength, agility and courage. Of course there is always an element of fear if you are the parent. Will they fall down? Will they break an arm? Is it too high? But giving kids a longer leash is a skill us parents have lost somewhat. Even I struggle with it sometimes, then I remember: What am I thinking? When I was their age, I was leaping from brick wall to brick wall, in an adventure playground near my house, and climbing a big 20 metre high globe that had been half boarded up because it was deemed “unsafe”. They’ll be fine on a tree…!

Here’s the poem:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

E. E. Cummings

Top tip: Barefoot is often easier than with shoes on, as the soles of feet have a better grip on the bark.
Top quote: “What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?” E.M Forster, Howards End

Psst. Discover more inspiring outdoors ideas, plus amazing photos at Anne-Celine’s blog Real Wild One

Anne-Celine Jaeger

Anne-Celine Jaeger is an author and journalist based in London and is the mother of three children, Bobby (7), Minu (6) and Annie (21 months). She is the founder of the blog Real Wild One and also of the Kensal Review. Her book Image Makers, Image Takers: The Essential Guide to Photography by Those in the Know is published by Thames & Hudson. Anne-Celine contributes to a variety of newspapers and magazines, writing on lifestyle, art and travel. She is a wonder woman.

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