Did it rain?

This weather! Cold and windy, it rains and it rains. What can you do with kids when it rains, eh?

Well, you could wrap yourself up, make sure you're warm and dry, then bundle your kids down to that point where the river meets the town.

Then you'll see what your kids can do when it rains. They run at that river, energy bursting like sparks. They'll pull off their shoes and socks and, if they're attentive to anything you say, they might slow down their eagerness just enough to don their wellington boots.

Unless your child - like Shark - delights in feeling the river stone hard under their soles and the rippling green water flow over their toes. Why would anyone ever need wellington boots when you can have that?

Then the other kids come.

The dog too.

And the tiddling nets come out, the trousers are rolled up - or slip off altogether if you are aged three - for now we are wet in river flow and rain splash, and water can merge altogether to drench and soak.

Let them stay there then, bounding and jumping in water, filling their boots and swinging their nets, until it is four o'clock. The adults with their cold faces buried in their dripping hoods, and their hands pushed deep into warm pockets, can shout Time's up! Now the kids and the very wet dog think of dinner, and clamber out the river to trek back home through the town, running and sloshing happily or, if they are aged thirteen, inching forward on hard pavement, giggling, because who needs shoes when you have feet?

And the never-ceasing rain, it pours down on us all.

I could say, That's our education. That's our home education.

But I won't.

I'll say, That's childhood.