A closer look at the life of a child growing up in Britain during World War II...

Created by: Jaime, Siyanda, Asemahle, Alex

This magazine was created for people nowadays to know what happened in World War 2. It shows how children were forced to adapt to moving and surviving without their parents. We explain to you about daily life for children during war time, there are pic-tures to help you comprehend what is being explained to you.

In Britain once war had been declared the children would leave to board a

train heading for the country side , leaving their parents behind for it was

too dangerous for a child to live in the war zone. Each child was given a

tag with their name and age on them. They did this so that when they went

to the country side the locals that chose a child to live with them would

know their name and age. Some children strongly disliked the country side

due to the fact that they are in a different environment, but other children

enjoyed the new environment because they could run around and discover

new things.

In the beginning of the process the children were shy, nervous and a bit

unstable because of leaving their parents, being in a new environment and

having to get along with different people that they did not know. They were

extremely anxious due to the fact that they did not know whether their

parent were dead or alive, coming into a new environment was the worst

During wartime daily life for the children was extremely different to their

past daily life, they would see soldiers patrolling the streets and houses that

were turned into rubble. They would have to carry around a gas mask all

day for their own safety incase of an emergency, every afternoon everyone

had to put up black curtains called blackouts over their windows incase

they were going to be bombed. If

they were at home and any danger

came their way the entire family

would have to run to the basement

to keep safe, if the children were

at school there were large

underground areas where the

children were kept safe incase of

emergencies such as bombs and

air raids.

Somehow the children didn't seem

to mind about what was happening around them because this was their

daily life and it was all they knew. They would play games like hopscotch,

pick berries and sometimes the soldiers would entertain them. They all still

had smiles on their faces (most of the time) and laughter, they also knew

how to have fun.

The best thing for

children in the

beginning of the war

was that the summer

h o l i d a y s w e re

extended but in the

middle of September

schools reopened.

A week before school

all the evacuees were

seated in a hall

where they were

asked their age and

if they could read or

write to determine

which education

level they would be

placed in.

A few extra teachers were hired due to the rising level of pupils.

The children who already lived in the country side all went to the same school

as the evacuees.

During the war the children all learnt basic first aid and how to use a gas mask,

this was all in case of an emergency.

Both girls and boys learnt the same thing in school.

Once the boys had finished school they would leave to join the army and some

girls would leave to go and help the injured soldiers in the hospitals while the

other girls would stay at home to look after the children and the evacuees or to

have watch duties around town.

During the war it was really difficult to import food so the locals started many

campaigns such as the“ Dig for Victory”

campaign and “Lending a hand on the Land”

campaign.

In these campaigns many of the children would

take part to help find and collect the different food

sources such as wild fruit, black berries, crab

apples and mushrooms. These fruits and plants

were all eaten raw, cooked or made into preserves.

Children also took part in collecting wild rosehips

which they turned into a syrup which they gave to

the children as a source of Vitamin C.

In this time they also rationed which meant that

they could only buy a fixed amount of food in a

week, in this way they were being economical.

During World War 2 there was a point system where instead of using money they

used points to buy groceries. This system was introduced in December 1941.

They each received 16 points but later it was changed to 20 points, they would go

to the shops and compromise with the points they got to buy groceries.

For example a tin of soup would be

6 points and a jar of fruit would be

24 points and other luxuries would

be 10 points.