We always start with the need for food, and the children suggest all the wild fruits they know, often leaving out nuts till asked if there is anything that can be stored for winter.  Roots are not always given, but buds of trees is a frequent answer.  Children in the country ought to explore and to dig, and in our own playground we find at least wild barley, blackberries of a sort, cherries, hard pears, almonds and cherry gum.  Killing animals for food is suggested, and the children have to be told that the animals were fierce and to realise that in these times man was hunted, not hunter.  Little heads are quite ready to tackle the problem of defence and attack.  They could throw stones, use sticks that the wind blew down, pull up a young tree, or “a lot of people could hang on to a branch and get it down.”  When one child suggested finding a dead animal and using it for food, some were disgusted, but a little girl said, “I don’t suppose they would mind, they wouldn’t be very particular.”

The idea of throwing stones starts the examination of different kinds, which have to be provided for the purpose.  Flint is invariably selected, and for months the children keep bringing “lovely sharp flints,” but there is much careful observation, observation which has a motive.  “I would put a stone in a stick and chuck it at them” is followed by much experiment at fixing.  String is of course taboo, but bass is allowed because it grows, also strips of skin.  We very often get the suggestion “they might find a stone with a hole in it,” which leads to renewed searching and to the endeavour to make holes.  To make a hole in flint is beyond us, but in a softer stone it can be done.

Then may come the question of safety and tree-climbing, and how to manage with the babies.  Children generally know that tiny babies can hold very tight, and have various ideas for the mother.  How to keep the baby from falling brings the idea of twisting in extra branches, which is recognised as a cradle in the tree, and the children delight in this as a meaning for “Rock-a-bye, baby, in the tree-top.”  The possibility of tree-shelters comes in, and various experiments are made, sometimes in miniature, sometimes in the garden.  Out of this comes the discussion of clothes.  Animals’ skins is an invariable suggestion, though all children do not realise that what they call “fur” means skin.

Skin is provided, and much time is taken in experimenting to see if it can be cut with bits of flint.  How could the long-ago people fasten on the skins, brings the answers “by thorns,” “tie with narrow pieces,” and the children are pleased to see that their own leather belts are strips or straps.  Sometimes much time is taken up in cutting out “skins to wear” from paper or cheap calico, the children working in pairs, one kneeling down while the other fits on the calico to see where the head and legs come.  The skins are painted or chalked, and pictures are consulted to see whether the chosen animals are striped or spotted.