I made a deal with Scarlett last night. If she wants to sleep in our bed she can but it means she has to give her dummies up. Of course this could have backfired big time but I was trading on how much she adores her dummies. And guess what? It worked! 🙂 She appeared in our bedroom at around 6.30am (Ady’s normal getting up time anyway) saying ‘I did it! I stayed in my room all night and now it’s morning time!’ So hurrah 🙂
By the time I came downstairs they’d already got stuck into the plasticine I bought yesterday and Davies had made a rather good array of W&G characters.
He was really pleased with them and decided he wanted to put on a film for us so Scarlett and I settled down to watch it but it quickly became clear that he hadn’t done much preparation and we were really just watching him play. 😉 So I explained that films are made by creating a story and a script first and planning it out. I talked through the plot line of Were Rabbit with him about introducing the characters, the place they live, what their interests are if it’s relevant and the beginning of a storyline. Then suggested that something scary to add suspense or funny to add humour is always good, then usually something dramatic like a car chase or other action before finally tying up all loose ends with an ending to the story. (We’ll cover soundtracks and sequels next time 😉 ). Got some paper and told him about the idea of a story board which he has actually seen on some of ‘making of’ dvd extras he’s watched so we divided a sheet of paper into 12 squares and I got him to start planning out his storyline.
Then once he was happy with his plot line I got him to have a few practise runs with his characters.
Meanwhile Scarlett and I made some figures too. Anyone guess who they could be by the distinguishing features? 😉
Then we settled down to watch Davies’ new improved planned out show and I brushed Tarly’s hair while we watched. Can’t say it really followed his story board but he confessed he’d been happy with it but then changed it as he went along! Ah well, the idea has gone in anyway. 🙂
Dad arrived then so I shot off to the local post office and the children put away the plasticine, Davies showed Dad his storyboard and they went back to playing with the geomags. Mum arrived a while afterwards bringing stuff for lunch so we all ate and the children had TV on for a while, while we chatted.
After lunch Mum and Scarlett played with the plasticine again and made some baskets of fruit
While Davies and I finally got out the owl puke he had for Christmas and read the book about owls and then gathered all the various bits we needed for disecting the owl pellet.
Davies really enjoyed that and we dug out loads of bones and bits which he really enjoyed using the book to identify and sort. Scarlett came and had a little dig about too and they both delighted in grossing out their grandparents with their graphic talk about eating rodents, owls puking up like cats and how all the stuff around the bones in the pellet was dead animals fur! Mum didn’t seem to grasp it was genuine and kept saying how good the shrews skull was, bless her :-). He did get bored towards the very end and although we sorted all the bones I can’t imagine we’ll do any skeleton reassembling – it looks too fiddly for him to do himself, particularly pre-reading and I don’t think I really want animal skeletons cluttering the place up anyway! Good little ‘experimenty type’ kit though.
Ady came home while all this was still going on so he was chopping wood and stuff while I sorted the kids tea, then everyone seemed to disappear and the kids were still bouncing on space hoppers so I got them pj’d up and read them the pile of library books we got earlier in the week to calm them down a bit. The firm favourite was a Quentin Blake Mrs. Armitage book – we’ve read one about her previously and it really captured them both then.
I’ve also made bird food in tins to string on the tree outside as we are now getting regular bird visitors which I want to encourage.
Just before bed Davies went round the house gathering up all the various W&G stuff he has collected and set it up as ‘a display’ which he then insisted on taking photos of:
Mum and Dad left, the children are asleep and I’m about to get dinner sorted, enjoy a bath and a glass of wine and try to stop being nervous about all those children tomorrow! To add to my stress levels I’ve invited Mel to bring Liam and Lily over for tea after school! We’ve not seen them since before Christmas and as much as i hate the tidying up after one of their visits it will justify not bothering after Jack and Maisie come and give Davies a fix of older than 3 year old playmate which I think he’ll enjoy! 🙂
Oh and I’ve added pics to the post below too.
Have you got the film education Were Rabbit resources DVD rom? If not would you like it, I’ve got it and we’ve finished with it, so as long as I can find it it’s all yours … it all looks great, glad you’ve had a good day 🙂
Comment by Sarah — 02 March 2006 @ 8:11 pm
Ooh yes please Sarah, that’d be fab 🙂
Comment by Nic — 02 March 2006 @ 9:20 pm
I’ll tick those boxes for you!
Comment by Roslyn — 02 March 2006 @ 9:31 pm
Love that plasticine couple, ROFL!
Comment by Joanna — 02 March 2006 @ 9:58 pm
Thanks Ros, I’ll be back on the blogring at this rate 😉
Comment by Nic — 02 March 2006 @ 10:10 pm
um, I looked earlier, can’t find it anywhere 🙁 It was a good one though, with storyboard stuff on it, just what you’ve been doing – if i were you I’d ring film ed and ask for one, i’m sure they’ll send it to you – in the meantime I’ll keep looking. And yes, if Alison can go back on the blogring I think you can too 😉
Comment by Sarah — 02 March 2006 @ 10:27 pm
Love the self portraits!
Comment by Joyce — 03 March 2006 @ 7:57 am
Cor blimey 🙂
Comment by Merry — 03 March 2006 @ 9:48 am
Oh, you know we had that owl puke set a year ago – we did mount the skeleton onto a piece of dark blue card, just with pva glue, and then labelled it with white crayon – it looked really really good. I found it in the cupboard yesterday while clearing out and it was still *completely* intact, and I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away! I know it might seem like overkill but it’s a nice way to record the end of the process, iyswim.
Comment by Sarah — 03 March 2006 @ 10:02 am
That sounded like great fun Nic. Spontaneous HE is so satisfying as well as the children actually completing something you have bought or prepared LOL xxxx
Comment by karen b — 03 March 2006 @ 11:40 am
I got one of T’s friends that owl puke for his birthday and both his Mum who had to help and the friend she had over at the time were completely disgusted, Boy loved it though LOL! Sounds a very well rounded day, impressed at that storyboard, its great logical thinking to be able to plan something out like that.
Comment by SallyM — 03 March 2006 @ 7:10 pm