Pulborough Brooks in the morning. I was expecting a big turn out as the weather was so lovely (clear, crisp and sunny, if still very cold) and we’d been hoping to finally cross paths with a localish Home Ed family we’ve made contact with online and been told by various people we have very compatible children with but sadly they didn’t make it.
Davies and Scarlett declined spotter sheets so we decided to just look for signs of wildlife generally and hope to catch up with some other HEors along the way. We found some deer footprints and some fox poo and then came to the area where adders hang out when the season is right. Sure enough there were three curled up along the path, all being photographed and exclaimed over by people. Davies spotted one and alerted the photographers to it, Scarlett was sad she’d not spotted one herself but did spend time chatting away to the various people along the route quite happily 🙂
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We finally caught up with someone we knew coming the other way so stopped for a brief chat with them before continuing and coming across Julie, Jack, Maisie and Lorna. They were quite happy not to continue their circuit and carry on with us back to the visitor centre and playpark.
We had lunch in the sunshine, the four older cousins viewed a group of school children on a school trip rather suspiciously and visibly relaxed once they’d left, then it was time to head for home. We bid Julie & co a farewell and took the scenic route over the downs which only adds a few minutes to the journey and is beautiful taking in stunning panoramic views of the sea, the south downs and all that’s lovely about where we live. Particularly lovely to see all the lambs already turned out into fields with ewes :).
We had time at home for a quick cup of tea for me before going to the library for Chatterbooks. It was the fourth session of six and after last week’s debacle I had assistance in the shape of Cara, the Childrens Services Librarian for our area. When we arrived she was in the throes of putting together some new furniture for the childrens library – Scarlett was horrified at the thought of the old furniture leaving and it looks like we might be adopting the book boxes :rolls:. Davies spent about half an hour assisting with flatpack assembly and offering what seemed to be helpful suggestions and input while I got everything ready for Chatterbooks and Tarly tidied the junior library up.
I briefed Cara on what the session was to entail and we assumed Chatterbook positions ready for the onslaught ;). Today was Storytelling and I’d deliberately planned for lots of input from the children and plenty of mixing them up with each other and breaking up the troublesome little cliques. Much to their horror ;).
I explained that we all have plenty of stories we carry around with us, from remembering books we’ve read and films we’ve watched to knowing fairy stories off by heart. I said that books are fab but being able to tell stories without books is just as good and we will probably tell them slightly differently each time and that each person would tell a slightly different version to each other too. I checked that they all knew the ‘classic version’ of 3 Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf and then read two alternative versions: and which between them perfectly illustrated humorous deviations from the story, merging different well known tales, repetition and familiar storylines, a story told in verse and plenty of twists in the tale.
Next I split them into groups of my choosing (very specifically chosen) and tasked them with telling a different section of the story each using different methods. First we had a group telling the beginning of the story where the mother pig sends her 3 little pigs off to start a life of their own – this group used a narrator and mime / acting. Chapter two was a house made of straw being blown down by the wolf and the group working on that used plasticine to create models to tell the story. Chapter three was the house made of sticks and the group used comic strip style storyboard illustrations to tell this part of the tale. Finally the last group got to make up their own twist in the tale and do whatever they liked with the ending, the wackier the better! They had no props although I suggested they write their section down to help prompt them in the retelling.
Cara and I worked our way round each group suggesting and supporting them with their ideas. The mime / narrator group worked well together – Scarlett was in that team and the three of them were all coming up with ideas and discussing how to do things. They quickly nominated roles and got on with practising. The plasticine group also did well – Davies was in that group. I put one of the stronger and slightly more difficult children in that group on the basis that Davies would ensure they didn’t take over and he has been pretty silent but strong in sessions so far. They worked out who was doing what and worked well as a team. The third group were less cohesive and tended to do their own drawings seperately without working together so well, the last group had the strongest child in it and she was getting frustrated by the inertia of the other two. I was hoping she’d rally them but they needed a fair bit of support (which Cara gave them) and the quieter two didn’t participate so much in the final retelling although they did have input in the ideas.
The children had about 15 minutes to do that and then we regrouped and told the story as a group. Unfortunately the library seemed to have filled up with about 5 people in there selecting books (we obviously remain open) which didn’t help with noise levels or concentration but the idea worked and the children all said they enjoyed it and got the idea of telling stories without books, using different ways of telling them and being inspired to get creative with your own spin on stories.
Davies, Scarlett and I had a chat with Yvonne in the staff room afterwards before heading for home. The chickens had laid 6 eggs yesterday so I collected them and was in the process of doing the kids’ tea when Ady arrived home. He’d been on a charity shop trawl and come home with a load of old videos including Flipper/Flippers New Adventure 
I nipped out to get a few bits for my dinner (Ady was having leftover curry from when Mike and Rose came round to not swing with us on Saturday). We all watched Lambing Live and the kids went to bed. We cooked our dinner, watched a few episodes of Lead Balloon on dvd and then I fell asleep on the sofa which accounts for why I’ve sneakily changed the time stamp on this email ;).