Little Ted said... 5 minute stories for under 5s

Little Ted said... what's a windmill?

July 10, 2021 Moyra Harvey
Little Ted said... 5 minute stories for under 5s
Little Ted said... what's a windmill?
Show Notes Transcript

Little Ted is learning about windmills and wants to visit one but there aren't any nearby. Then his Daddy comes up with an idea...

“What’s a windmill?” Little Ted asked his Daddy “Jamie said he saw a windmill on his holidays but I don’t know what they are.”

“Well the clue is in the name” replied his Daddy “it’s a mill – that’s a building where grain is turned into flour – that is powered by wind. The windmill has big blades, although I think they’re actually called sails, which turn when there’s a breeze. ”

Little Ted listened to his Daddy’s explanation but he still felt confused.

“Can you find me a picture of a windmill” he asked “that might help me understand what you mean.”

Little Ted’s Daddy, although slightly deflated that his explanation of a windmill had gone a bit over Little Ted’s head, did a quick search online and brought up a photo of a windmill.

“Wow” Little Ted said “that looks big.” The windmill was next to a tree and towered above it. “Can we go and see one?”

“Lots of places have windmills although many of them are no longer working but unfortunately there aren’t any near here. You need to go to Hollan if you want to see windmills – they have loads of them.” 

“Can we go there then?” Little Ted asked.

“Not any time soon. We’d need to get on a plane or boat to visit Holland.”

Little Ted looked disappointed. Now that he knew what a windmill was, he really wanted to see one for himself. Then his Daddy had an idea…

“But I’ll tell you what we can go and see – the modern version of a windmill. This one generates electricity and uses the same principles as traditional windmills. The blades turn and create electricity via generator called a turbine.  There’s a wind farm not that far away from here -  we can go and visit it if you like.”

And that was why on Saturday, Little Ted, his Daddy and his Mummy set out in the car to go and see the wind farm. His Daddy had shown him some pictures of the wind turbines and although they resembled the windmill a little, they were even bigger and looked like a big shiny tube with some  sleek looking blades at the top. And his Daddy had explained that when there were lots of wind turbines together it was called a wind farm. “And do you know the best thing about generating electricity using wind turbines” asked his Daddy “its that we’ll never run out of wind and it doesn’t pollute the environment.”

Soon Little Ted could see the wind turbines on the side of the hill in the distance. They looked enormous and got bigger and bigger as they drove closer. There was a car park near the wind farm and his Daddy stopped the car.

“Come on Little Ted, there’s a path we can follow that will take us close to the wind turbines. Then you’ll really be able to see how tall they are.”

When they got near, Little Ted stopped and looked up at the giant towering above him.

“Wow, they’re massive. I feel like a tiny tiny ant next to them. Why is there a door at the bottom?”

“That’s so the engineers can go inside to do maintenance work. But you’d have to be very good at climbing a ladder, there will be lots of steps to get to the top!”

“You have to climb all the way to the top?” Little Ted said sounding shocked. “No way. I get tired climbing the stairs at home“ and this made his Mummy and Daddy burst out laughing. 

 

The End