Today seemed to work very well; i’ve got out of the habit of going to work on a Monday as it just doesn’t seem to kick the week off very well. Instead, we made a plan of how we wanted the day to work, figured out what each of us needed to do in that time and then set about doing it.
TV went off early, before 9am and everyone was dressed then i gave everyone a spelling list; Fran uses Year 6 ones from a school site, Maddy Year 3 ones from a different school site (less per list, not so scary!) and i found some basic literacy ones for Ams. Josie ended up with some letter copying stuff from the never ending pile of workbooks i bought for Fran, about 7 years ago! She loved doing that though 🙂
We’ve got into this habit of spelling lists being writing practice, then Fran writes a story using the words and then types it up. She spent ages on hers today and got very into it, so much so that when it got to typing, she decided the beginning wasn’t good enough so she is rewriting it. As a structured bit of “English” it works quite well; the typing up is a good opportunity to try and tighten up the grammar and punctuation, she writes the lists in joined up and the story in print if she gets tired hands.
Today Maddy joined in too; lately she has said she hates writing (she always adored it when she was younger) but the idea grabbed her and she managed a whole A4 side of story too. It was very encouraging 🙂 As a ‘reward’ i set up a new blog for her 🙂 We also ordered some new “I Can Read” books – she picked Level 4 as she thought Level 3 was getting too easy now. 🙂
Amelie read; she was faking illness, so i made her lie on the sofa with books as a film would be “too tiring” i felt 😉 She miraculously recovered, until asked to do ETC, then felt achey, till i mentioned she’d be too poorly for gym, then did everything i asked her too at once!
Lunch, then we settled down to watch Ballet Shoes (2007 version with Emma Watson and Victoria Wood). Really good adaptation i thought, very little altered in the plot at all and no dumbing down to appease the political correctness of the 2000’s either. My children went into fits of horror when Sylvia lit up a fag!
Much discussion about who will be which Fossil; Fran wants to be Posy, but so does Amelie, Maddy wants to be Pauline and Petrova, Josie wants to be Petrova. Did point out i actually quite liked them as they were… but it fell on deaf ears…. 🙄
After that we had just a little time to work on the first scene of The BlueBird before going out.
As an aside, if i ran a drama week at a youth hostel, would anyone be interested? It would probably be aimed mostly at 7+ ish, i suppose but could be flexible and be “as normal” for most of the time but i’d rehearse a small play with them for a couple of hours morning and afternoon. What do you think?
Went to Jazz… girls very excited that belonging to this class means they’ll be in all 3 shows in November, picked up our embroidered BM/PM polo shirts, then dropped them at gym. Maddy has been moved up to the Gold group, so she is thrilled.
And now i have to go and do some work…. see you later 🙂
We’d definitely be up for a drama week, Charlie would love that. He’s is loving Stagecoach so much and works on scripts for the drama part every week as soon as he gets home. You would be so good at it too!
You must surely know madam would be delighted to join you. xx
I would be happy to help within the limits of my abilities. Bearing in mind how limited my abilities are!
I’m pretty sure D would be up for that 🙂
Drama week sounds a great idea. C would really enjoy it.
Mine would definitely be up for that – how many would depend on when! I will have to send you a copy of the programme Violet & Gwenny made for our recent HE group production – it’s hilarious 🙂
would like to say mine would be interested and I suppose A might do it, but I’m not sure. M def wouldn’t! We could be the audience though 😉
I can think of one small girl who would probably love to do a drama workshop!
I love the idea of spelling lists for handwriting and then story practice, have filed that away for when she finally admits to herself taht she can read and we can stop flogging that dead horse every day!
Where would you do it?
Not sure if mine would be up for it or not, but it would depend on location anyway…
Merry, just one word of warning: if Violet offers to write Fluffy Bunnies Part 3 for you to produce, say “no” 😆
Mine would be very interested.
Alison, giggle.
Alison, Sarah, if you can find out your half term dates for autumn term, i’ll see what i can do. Otherwise i might try a YH for very soon after Xmas, before school restarts. I think having Violet and Anna in the equation might be good! From this list, looks like i might have enough people to do it. I suspect i would try to find a YH we’ve already used though, so i know i’d have a room big enough to rehearse in.
Potentially would be very interested, I like that idea. F will be 7 this year. Depends where it is though – public transport, distance, etc.
Half term is Mon 27 – Fri 31 Oct – Sarah’s is the same, I’m sure, as we were already planning to do something together! And school starts again on Mon 5 Jan 2009.
There were squeals of excitement from all of them when I told them of your idea, and Violet thinks you are “very thoughtful” for thinking of her and the TRBs 🙂
Hannah says she’d be interested, so long as she didn’t have to write anything :rolls:
Oooh, this sounds promising then 🙂 Alison, does that mean half term would be out if you already have plans?
PS, you can tell Violet it is less thoughtful and more requiring a vocal sidekick!