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Wild Child at Five

To preserve the children's privacy the initials of their given names are used rather than their full names

Wild Child started more than five years ago (June 2020) and was originally intended for children from 6 - 9 years old. Because of COVID all children were home-educated and, after schools resumed, Wild Child continued for those who were home-educated at the wish of their parents.

The upper age limit was increased a bit as some children did not wish to "retire". We still have a few Wild Children who joined in 2020 and are now eleven years old or more.

A comment from “N” a 13-year old Wild Child: One of the things I don't like is that the age group could be higher, maybe 15 would be better as long as you are willing to learn and be around a lot of younger people. 

Here are some comments from “Le” now age 14 and who retired from Wild Child a couple of years ago. Since then his younger brother and sister have joined Wild Child.

“I spent a really great four years attending the Wild Child group every week at Noakes Grove. I enjoyed the blend of freedom and education as well as the opportunity of doing things that one doesn't usually get to do. 

I really enjoyed handling the mice and voles that would get caught in our overnight traps, setting up the camera traps and seeing what wildlife would pass in the night , exploring moth traps, discovering new types of fungi looking in bird boxes, picking and juicing apples, long hikes, watching the newly born lambs gambolling behind their mothers and in general roaming free through the woods.

One of my most special memories is when it snowed and we spent the whole afternoon having a huge snowball fight, and also the overnight camping trip we had with folk songs and a campfire.

Having a space in which I felt free to explore and do as I wanted but also having David there to teach us about the nature all around us, was a really unique experience and I have great memories!.

Catching things and learning a bit about them was universally popular – especially the small mammals we caught in catch-alive traps.

"Lu", an eight-year old who joined Wild Child only a few weeks ago, wrote

It was so interesting to look through the mouse traps and observe wood mice.

Drawing by "Le". Yellow-necked mice are bigger and fiercer than wood mice	"Le" found the first wasp spider at Noakes Grove. This is his drawing.

Almost as popular as the mice were the moths – the big hawkmoths being the most exciting. “O” a long-standing wild child member explains why:

My best memory of Wild Child occurred in Noakes Grove on a warm sunny afternoon. David opened the moth trap that revealed the largest moth specimen in the UK. The magnificent Privet Hawk-moth! I can still picture its striking stripey pink abdomen. I had the chance to hold it on my finger. It started crawling up my arm. It felt amazing! We let the moth go on the side of the barn. It stayed there for ages warming up its wing before flying free again.'

Privet hawkmoth - the largest moth resident in Britain

And other things to catch?

“E “ enjoyed “using the microscope” to look at pond creatures

while “K” recalls bigger game:

I really enjoyed …. setting up the camera traps and seeing what wildlife would pass in the night:

Camera-trapped night fox

Plants as well as animals were interesting:

"K" said "I really enjoyed discovering new types of fungi"

We took photos of the fungi and emailed them to the Essex fungus recorder for identification. He came to inspect one which turned out to be a rare “red-data book” species.

The children's favourite was called the Dog's vomit slime mould.

The following two paragraphs emphasise that it isn't just open-air natural history that counts but also the chance to play with minimal interference from parents. In other words, as like as possible to the true “Wild Children” of the 1950s and 60s who could spend hours at complete liberty with only a few young friends as companions, Today's version is that parents are present but socialise amongst themselves. They know in advance what their children are likely to do and agree to the level of risks they may take.

"K": I have been a Wild Child from the start. Over the years we have done fun camping trips and I particularly like the moth trapping and finding out which species live in the nature reserve. I enjoy playing with my friends and making dens. One day I would really like to make some jam with Noakes Grove Sloes, do another 10 mile walk and make Oak Gall ink.”

Story Time

Sometimes the stories were quizzes or games but K and N were old enough to have helped create a story set in Stone Age times.

	Not a best-seller but a local teacher wrote to say how much her year three pupils had enjoyed the book. All her class sent drawings or stories based on the book. Here's one, it shows the "kiss feeding" of Stone Age babies.

"Lu" wrote: I like picking berries and nuts, running around in the wild and making apple juice. I enjoyed designing the apple juice label. (His is on the left, on the right is K's)

“ I really enjoy coming to Wild Child because I get to run around, climb and sit in the trees. I like making the apple juice and mouse trapping and finding out which rodents are in Noakes Grove. I once found a badger skull! I would like to go camping there.” Says A age 8

It's time we had another camp; about half the present group have not yet camped, made nettle soup, sung round a campfire or listened for bats with a bat detector

Sometimes we venture outside our nature reserves:

"B" One of my favourite things was walking from Ashdon to Noakes Grove in September 2023. David showed us a path along the River Bourn. First, we walked to the bus stop from Noakes Grove.
	Then we drove to Ashdon, where we started walking along the River Bourn through a woodland . Afterwards we walked through a village and stopped at a beautiful place on a hill top for a picnic. Finally, we walked back to Noakes Grove.

"K" wants "to do another 10 mile walk." The "Dinosaur Walk" was actually only 8 miles - from Noakes Grove on footpaths to Kings Field. I was surprised that even the six-year-olds completed the walk without complaints. Eight miles is 13 km which is 13 million millimetres. The children were asked to imagine that each mm took them five years back in time. A mere 20 metres took them back to when Neanderthals hunted mammoths but it took 13 km of walking to get to the time when the last dinosaurs lived here (65 million years ago).

Essex about 100,000 years ago	The Dinosaur walk reaches Bendysh Woods - just 35 million years to go

"F" has the same favourite activity as many of the rest of the group: catching mice but her plans for this winter are her's and her's alone.

"I like being able to explore the places we visit. We caught some mice recently in catch and release traps, that has been one of my favourite activities. There isn’t anything I dislike about Wild Child. I would like to make Christmas wreaths this year out of materials we can find."