Why I'm walking to support Help for Heroes

Brown Bear had his first sleepover with the Scouts last night. Very little sleep occured, but he came home exhausted and happy. They had put up a tent, watched a movie until late at night, slept in sleeping bags and this morning he took part in a church parade for remembrance Sunday. They also observed a silence in commemoration of the fallen. At school on Friday both Blue and Brown Bears took part in a school service of commemmoration and they stood in silence to remember the fallen. Hubbie and I were home this morning when the Cenotaph was shown on TV. He scooped up Blue Bear and we all stood watching the service and even managed to keep him quiet.

A few years ago we took Brown Bear to see the poppies at the Tower of London and we talked to him about what they meant and explained that the silence is a sign of respect. He was very young, but it seems to have struck a chord with him and he still loves to talk about it. At school his project this term is WW1 and he has taken a great interest in the topic.

I worry that talking to my children about war might frighten them. That they will be sad to hear about the young soldiers and the killing and the loss. Instead remembrance is a time to talk about bravery, sacrifice and pride. I am proud that my grandfather was in the army. I never got to meet him, but I know enough about him to feel a sense of gratitude for his service. It is also important to tell my children about those who return from service. Those who have served and might now need help to manage their lives.

It is with his in mind that I wanted to tell you that Hubbie and I are raising money for Help for Heroes.

"Help for Heroes supports those with injuries and illnesses attributable to their service in the British Armed Forces. No matter when someone served, we believe that those prepared to put their lives second, deserve a second chance at life.

Every course and activity we offer aims to empower them to look beyond illness and injury, regain their purpose, reach their potential and have a positive impact on society.

How we do it

Working with a vast network of professionals and partners, we help our Veterans and their families through physical and emotional rehabilitation, identifying new career opportunities as well as financial and welfare support.

We know that those who served together, recover better together - supporting each other, enjoying the camaraderie and sense of fellowship once more.

The Nation has united behind our Armed Forces. During our first 10 years, we’ve directly helped more than 17,000 individuals and their families in this way. Offering this to thousands more who need it remains possible thanks to our supporters, and specialist charity partners."

I hope you agree that Help for Heroes is an amazing charity doing fantastic work. If you can support our fundraising efforts I'd be delighted: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tiswaz

A sea of poppies and a huge hippo: What we did with our 'extra' hour

Having an extra hour in bed was never an option for us with a boy who has always been an early riser and a cat whose internal clock tells him it's always time for a meal. We had already planned to visit the Tower of London today to see the remembrance exhibition today so as we were all up so early we decided to go first thing to avoid the crowds. It was worth the effort of getting out as there was very little traffic and the boy was able to travese Tower Bridge with barely anyone else on it.

When we arrived at the moat we explained to our boy that he had to be respectful and not toot his scooter hooter while we looked at the tributes as some people would be having some quiet time. He did very well and listened as we told him what poppies signify and that there are thousands of poppies to mark all the lives that were lost in the first world war.

The last time I was at the Tower of London was during the epic Honkopoly adventure earlier this year when I scootered around with a lot of other bloggers to raise money for Comic Relief. I sympathised with my boy scooting along the cobbles as it's not that easy. He wasn't too keen to be photographed with a Beefeater though and went all shy so we don't have that classic picture. We do, however, have some lovely memories of the amazing spectacle of thousands of ceramic poppies to commemorate the loss of life in the war.

I'm not sure how much my son actually understood, but when we got home he drew some pictures of the poppies and we talked about what they meant. He recalled that they were in memory of people who had died and when we talked about how it felt to see them he said he was sad. He asked about this image of the bugler playing during roll call and we talked to him about family members who had been in the military and how important it was to us to remember their service.

It's just as well we also did some fun things with our extra hour this morning. After the seriousness of explaining the meaning of remembrance we went for a stroll to St Katherine's Dock. This crazy character is "HippopoThames" and it's an installation that is apparently moving around the dock of its own accord !!

After meeting the hippo we were heading back to Tower Bridge when we spotted this giant sundial which we have never seen before. The boy didn't believe us when we told him it wouldn't turn around, so he did give it a go. Well, why not ?

In the past I would have spent my extra hour in bed, but I'm so glad that we went out and started our day early today. We got to do so much more than we expected and I hope our son has some idea of what it meant to us to do this together. 

This post is being shared with the epic #outdoorfun #countrykids linky hosted by the wonderful Fiona of Coombe Mill