Half Term Thoughts

Half Term Thoughts

Last week was amazing - exhausting - a valuable learning process.

On the Monday I was booked to tell to a WI group meeting - my first adult audience in ages. And it was brilliant! They loved the stories - they loved my dogs - they bought copies of my book - and they boosted my confidence. I had begun to doubt my abilities as a storyteller. The difficulties I was finding in telling to the pre-schoolers was beginning to drag me down. I really needed this boost.

Then the Wednesday pre-schooler session worked well. I was feeling more in control and able to relax and enjoy myself a bit.

On Thursday I was in a primary school, telling first to Key Stage 2 for an hour, and then Key Stage 1 for 30 minutes. It was another confidence builder. The school is small - just 65 pupils, and they are very disciplined and friendly.

On Friday I was in another small primary school - just 44 pupils! Again an hour for Key Stage 2 and 30 minutes for Key Stage 1 plus pre-school. Not quite so disciplined this time.

My sessions with the local pre-school have helped me to feel much more comfortable about telling in schools. I was able to select a basket of stories that I knew would work for Key Stage 2 and another basket of stories appropriate for Key Stage 1 - all of them stories that I have been telling in the pre-school. 

With my more relaxed approach, I found I was becoming more expressive - but by Friday I was very tired - not just because of the storytelling. My house was full of builders - I had no kitchen and everywhere was blocked with kitchen furniture and piles of food, crockery etc. Even the dogs were feeling the stress.

So I don't think I was telling as well as I could on Friday - it was not as happy an occasion as on Thursday - but the children and staff seemed happy. 

The stress affected BumbleBee and she found it hard to settle down on her rug during the Friday sessions... this was a bit distracting until she finally settled under my chair so that, at the end, it was HoneyBear who had to cope with all the love as every child needed to come and stroke her. She is not so keen as BumbleBee on such attention, but she bore up well - pretending to be fast asleep with her head on my foot. I could see her thinking, 'If I keep really still they will all go away...'

After half-term I will be with another pre-school group for 3 sessions. This should be a smaller group and will give me a chance to improve my telling without needing to find yet more stories for this age-group.