This week the children were so excited as our celebration day at the care village gets closer and closer. We continued to create some decorations for our event which everyone joined in with. The children and their older friends created some masterpieces which we plan on hanging from the ceiling. The purpose of our project was always to bring the old and young together and create reciprocal relationships. For some children, these connections happened quickly and they found one special person to spend their time with, for some they enjoyed the company of different friends throughout the year and others enjoyed watching on and observing, choosing to work with both their nursery friends and older friends. However, even as we head into the last weeks of our 2025 project, we observe children making more connections.

The project has developed children’s confidence, language and listening skills as well as developing their curiosity about the world and the people who live in it. The children have developed an understanding of how to be play around our older friends which they often reiterate, “walking feet”, “kind hands” etc. The children are supportive of their older friends, moving tables and equipment to ensure they can join in with whatever is happening. This has not been ‘taught’ by the adults and instead children have been observant, they have been kind and caring and recognised that these older adults want to ‘play’ but need a little support to do it. These moments make us realise the impact this project has had on everyone. To observe the kindness and compassion from three- and four-year-olds is something really special as well as the joy and awe we see in the older adults faces when they spend time with our children. This really has been a wonderful intergenerational year!