Another Beginning

Children's Hospice

Several times over the past year or so I have tried to contact the local Children's Hospices to see if they would like me to come and tell stories - for free, of course.

Last month one of them contacted me - and yesterday I made my first visit.

It was one of the most difficult storytelling sessions I have ever experienced.

This week is a special one for the hospice - they only have 4 unaccompanied  teenage patients, who have multiple sensory problems and are there for a week of sensory experiences. Having seen my videos, the staff thought my style of telling would be just right for them. That was all I knew. I had never visited a children's hospice before.

One of the 4 had a fit in the night and was still asleep - so there were only 3 children plus various staff members.

All 3 were in wheelchairs and obviously had very limited movement. Their hands were curled and unmoving. They had no speech and were either completely or partially unsighted. I am not sure what they could hear.

For over an hour and a half I told various stories - the staff loved them - but there was no response at all from the children even when I let the soft toys touch their hands and faces.

As you can imagine, I felt pretty useless - but the staff then assured me that the children's stillness was, in itself, a sign of their approval. If they had been bored or upset they would have made their feelings felt.

So, apparently, it was a success.

Normally, of course, the hospice has a wide range of children and families in residence and storytelling would be much easier.

Now I am about to apply for a grant so that I can become the resident storyteller for our 3 local children's hospices for a year. Wish me luck! 

The Magical Blue Feather

The Magical Blue Feather

Here is my version of Papa Joe Gaudet's lovely story about a little girl struggling to survive all alone...

More Videos

More Videos

Having learnt how to create and upload simple videos, I am embarking on a project to record several of my stories.

Here are two of them...

Pocamondas

Father Mouse - the complete story

Milk and Sugar

Another Beginning - Milk and Sugar

After the festivals, things have been very quiet - and in this quiet time I was introduced to a legend from Gujarat in India. Having read it, I couldn't stop telling it! It is unlike any story I have told before and it was haunting me. I was telling it to everyone I met.

Their responses were so positive that I began to wonder if there was any way to get this story to a wider audience. Then I remembered - I have a small digital camera that records to tape.

Having found the camera, tripod and assorted cables, I sought out a suitable corner for filming. The first attempts were hopeless: the sun was too bright from the window; my chair was too low; the camera was too low; I kept stumbling over the story; I'd forgotten to put batteries in the microphone and then forgot to switch it on!

By the time everything was sorted out and rehearsed, it was dark outside and I just had to switch on all my domestic lighting and hope it would be enough.

The result pleased me... it reminded me of storytelling by firelight - definitely not high definition, but useable.

After a little editing to tidy up the start and finish (another quick learning curve!) I managed to upload it to YouTube... and here it is...

https://youtu.be/3hrEsdGXzco 

And if you enjoy it, please go to YouTube and Like and Share it, so that others may enjoy it too.

Now that I have discovered how to make videos, I plan to record more stories and I shall, of course, post them up here.

A story extract

A Sample of my Storytelling Style

I've just discovered how to add videos here... so here is a brief extract from Father Mouse.

Festivals - Day 7

Festivals - Day 7

Back again to that lovely venue, sitting in the shade of a great tree, by a high garden wall, at the top of a gentle hill overlooking the marquees and knot garden below.

The atmosphere was different this time - instead of crafts and food this was a design fair and there were very few children around.  There was still a children's craft tent, now sitting close to me at the top of the hill, so parents and children did wander my way, but it was much quieter than the previous occasions.

The stall-holders, too, were different - as I walked with Archy, the great horned owl puppet, he caused quite a sensation as the quality of his design was appreciated just as much as the animation.

Several of the stall-holders had brought their children with them - and this was the third day of the design fair, so the children were already bored and eager for something new. They formed my core audience for the day, returning frequently to demand another story.

Mostly these were pre-teen girls who seemed more sophisticated in their approach than I am used to meeting. At one point, instead of choosing a story from the basket, they asked me to select a story that was funny but not silly... I can't remember what story I chose, but they seemed satisfied. Then they asked if I had a sad story - so I told Papa Joe's 'The Magical Blue Feather' which really held them gripped. 

That group of girls then ran off to be replaced a few minutes later by another group demanding to hear about the Blue Feather as their friends had told them it was such a good story.

The day progressed in a steady flow of listeners - sometimes just a couple of adults - sometimes a mixed group of parents and children - sometimes a group of those pre-teen girls. I did manage to get a half-hour lunch break, but that was all.

Having started at 11am, I was scheduled to end at 3.30pm but at that point I had a group of slightly younger girls clamouring for 'just one more story!' - and so the session ran on for another half-hour. They still wanted more, but I pleaded exhaustion - justifiably I think.

And that is the end of my summer season of festivals. Unless some late bookings come in, I have nothing now until the beginning of October, when there is another two-day festival.

It has been a good season. I have learnt a great deal, built up my stamina and my confidence.

Now I must start to learn how to get more bookings to fill up my new, empty diary.

Festivals - Day 6

Festivals - Day 6

After an evening spent drying all my clothes, costumes, papers and props it was a relief to wake up to some sunshine and I set off feeling quite optimistic.

This time I found a sensible parking space - though still at the wrong end of the field.

In the sunshine it was mayhem - there seemed to be at least a thousand children playing, dancing, watching - trying all sorts of new skills and generally having great fun! It was quite tricky manoeuvering basket and dogs through all the crowds, performers and stalls.

Once at the tipi, I worked out how to increase the size of the entrance to make it easier to get inside - and I had had the sense to bring a large plastic sheet to cover the wet grass and bits of carpet that had had no chance to dry out overnight. Then I discovered how to open the tipi flaps to let some air inside as the day was getting pretty hot.

Before I could set up, the audience was already arriving - all ages from babes-in-arms to the occasional grandparent - and throughout the afternoon, as soon as some people left others came in to take their place. It was non-stop stories for 4 hours! Though I did manage to sneak out with the dogs for 5 minutes - just long enough to find a cup of tea.

Now my efforts with the pre-schoolers really paid off - so many times it was those simple stories that got chosen from the basket - and there were always some toddlers in the audience. As I am becoming more confident at handling the stories so I am finding they really do work for everybody. Pocamondas, The Old Woman and the Piggy, and Turtle of Koka were much in demand and had everybody laughing - even the teenagers. And then I found that, after a simple story or two, many of the toddlers were able to sit and listen to the more difficult ones. Quite clearly they didn't understand everything, but they were prepared to listen.

I am finding a different kind of confidence too... when noisy newcomers interrupted a story, I would simple pause and wait for them to settle down. When some pre-teen girls were dragged away from their friends, they kept on returning to say their goodbyes again and again, with lots of hugs and kisses - and I stopped telling and asked them to leave. When the amplified music suddenly reached intolerable levels, I went out to the music stage to ask the volume to be reduced - and it was.

And... a real confidence booster... there was a teenage boy who had heard me telling last year and now had come specifically to hear me again - he stayed all afternoon. Several other people came because they had heard of me - and many of them came back several times during the afternoon to hear yet another story, despite all the other exciting attractions going on.

So, by home time, I was tired and my throat was sore from competing with all the ambient noise - but I was happy!

Festivals - Day 5

Festivals - Day 5

The Met Office said it would be a few scattered light showers - I wasn't worried... I was going to be telling at a PlayFest in a tipi in a quiet corner and had a special parking permit to let me park fairly near at hand.

Really! There was no parking space nearer than a good ten minute walk away. As I parked, the rain started. I packed everything neatly into my large, wheeled, wicker basket, put on a rain coat, gathered up the dogs and set off along the wet grass.

As I turned a corner onto rough ground, the wind got up and blew the cover off the basket and several of my soft toy/props scattered into a puddle.

After gathering them up and trying to make the basket secure, we struggled onto the playing field - despite the rain it was packed with children, stilt walkers, clowns, dancers etc amongst all the stalls - and amplified music everywhere.

No one knew where I was supposed to go... but I recognised the tipi at the far end of the field and made my way across. The entrance was so small, I had to get down on hands and knees and then try to drag the big basket inside without spilling everything again.

By now I was wet... the dogs were wet... my props were wet... and the tipi flaps were open, so the inside of the tipi was wet - and the amplified music was blasting out close by.

No matter - I set up and put out my sign and chalked the start time onto the little slate - and the rain washed it straight off again.

The rain never stopped all afternoon - a steady, drenching, wind-blown rain.

But soon the audience arrived, eager to get out of the rain - only to find it was raining inside the tipi. They all managed to find reasonably sheltered spots - I was the only one fully exposed to the elements.

Despite all this, the stories were warmly received and we managed to have some fun. Eventually someone came to close the tipi flaps,  I found a stall that could provide a cup of tea, and the damp storytelling continued. Everyone gave up eventually and the event closed down an hour early.

The forecast for tomorrow is a lot better.

UPDATE

UPDATE

Surprise! A late night email from from the organiser of that food & crafts festival asking me to do another day next week... no explanation... perhaps the other storyteller cancelled... perhaps he had good reports of my storytelling... but I am delighted!

And, I forgot to mention a lovely moment under that chestnut tree - A cheeky, silly joke/story had been selected from the basket, one concerning pirates and a brave captain donning his red shirt. Only children over the age of 10 get the punchline unaided and, as it implies uncontrolled bodily functions, I no longer offer to explain it myself. (I was once severely reprimanded by a parent for daring to explain!) 

This time not one of the children got the punchline - but an eavesdropping father nearby was convulsed with laughter. So I asked him to explain... but he would only agree to whisper to his daughter. She then collapsed in giggles and agreed to whisper the explanation to her friend... and so the explanation travelled like Chinese Whispers  along the length of the line of children until every one of them was laughing out loud. It was magical!

Festivals - Days 3 & 4

Festivals - Days 3 & 4

Another festival - this time it was about food and crafts - in the grounds of a small stately home 65 miles away again. I was not scheduled to start until 11am, but if I wanted to get my car onto the site I needed to arrive before 9.30am - so a very early start!

I had no idea what to expect... all I knew was that their usual storyteller couldn't do these two days and that I would be the sole storyteller and expected to tell stories until 3.30pm, drumming up an audience with walkabouts.

Once again the traffic was kind and I arrived early and was permitted to park in a tiny space hidden behind a marquee - but where was I supposed to be telling?

It was a wonderful, prominent site - at the top of a sloping lawn, under a great chestnut tree, in front of  a high garden wall. There was a large display of plants for sale nearby, so most people came up to have a look.

There was a small stage and amplified music... but I couldn't hear it from under the tree.

Arriving so early allowed me time to walk the dogs, explore the stalls and have a cup of coffee. Then it was time to drum up an audience. I was told the usual storyteller used a conch shell, or something similar, to summon an audience to him, but that is really not my style.

I took my lovely Great Horned Owl puppet, Archimedes, for a walk around all the stalls - everyone wanted to talk to him as he blinked and bowed and swiveled his head, which gave me the opportunity to announce quietly that storytelling would start in ten minutes.

By the time I had put Archy back to bed, gathered up the dogs and picked up my storybasket, a small crowd had gathered under the tree and the stories started - and went on and on... some people would leave after a few stories, but others would take their place. It was fun to watch adults nearby pretending not to listen as they inched closer and closer. And there were always some behind me, listening but not part of the crowd.

I did manage a very brief lunch break and then had to drum up an audience again, but I was telling stories, almost non-stop, for 4 hours!

The next day took exactly the same shape... but with more people and an even shorter lunch break. I sold several books and CDs and had lots of compliments.

The selection of stories in my basket is now just right. There are stories for all ages and even the simplest, silly ones intended for the pre-schoolers seem to work for everyone (much to my surprise!)

I am very tired. These three festival days have been long and exhausting. There are two more days to do this week, but I do know what to expect. I shall be in a tipi and they have promised that it will be in a quiet spot away from the music. The venue is only 35 miles away and I don't have to start until 1pm, finishing at 5pm.

I will let you know how I get on.

Festivals Day 2

Festivals - Day 2

This was essentially a small music festival some 65 miles away - which meant allowing 2 hours for the journey as the roads are narrow and the holiday traffic can be heavy.

I was a bit nervous as I really had no idea what to expect but the advance information seemed very thorough - and I would be working with 4 other storytellers. The schedule said I would be doing 3 sessions of just 20 minutes each over a 5 hour day - a really easy task.

The traffic moved smoothly... so I arrived early, which was helpful as the storytelling marquee was not in the place listed in the advance information and no one seemed to know where it was.  Eventually a map of the site was found and the marquee identified - not far away and quite attractive with one side wide open and plenty of rugs and cushions scattered around - but is was quite a distance from the car park so I was glad I had

packed everything into a large basket on wheels.

One of the other storytellers was booked to do walkabout stuff and had his own marquee, so we never actually met. Another was an author who needed to get away early - so the schedule was already useless. That left 3 of us and it worked beautifully... we took turns to tell stories or sing songs and all 3 of us stayed in the marquee together most of the time.

It was very relaxed - a constant flow of small groups of audience, both children and adults - and I thoroughly enjoyed having a chance to meet and work with other tellers - but.... this was a music festival! 

The main stage was on the other side of the field, but the volume was so loud it made it very difficult to tell stories and before long my head was pounding and my throat suffering from trying to compete.

Festivals - Day 1

Festivals - Day 1

Well... not really a festival. It was a weekend camp for people with special needs, their families and carers - and I really didn't know what to expect.

I packed the storybasket with stories and props suitable for primary schools plus a few of my favourite pre-school tales and this proved to be just the right mix.

Usually I ask audience members to select the next story from the basket, but thought that on this occasion I would need to choose the stories myself once I had a chance to see who had come to listen.

As usual - I was wrong. The moment I uncovered the basket someone was leaping up and pointing to the small bunch of flowers I use for The Empty Pot - so that was the first story. From then on everyone was eager to choose a story, ending, after an hour, with Turtle of Koka, which had everyone (all ages - all abilities) laughing and joining in.

This has boosted my confidence. I feel that I now know what stories to take to the festivals. It was a really helpful start to this summer season.

Thoughts

Thoughts 

I have survived the long series of sessions with pre-schoolers. The staff say they are very happy and have invited me to return next term for a one-off special storytelling.

Certainly I have made many mistakes - but that is what learning is all about - and many of my difficulties were the result of having the same children over and over again. Somehow I had expected that they would love to have the stories repeated, just as they do with bedtime stories. I was wrong... they wanted new stories every time, which stretched my abilities and forced me to do a lot of research.

Now that was very good for me! It has stimulated me into reading and finding more stories for my main storybasket. I had become lazy. With over 12 hours of stories in the basket, I was happy to keep on telling those old favourites. It is time to find new ones.

The next stage of my learning starts now. I have been booked for 10 days of community festivals over the summer - just the sort of events I have found most difficult because of the confusion, noise and the presence of very small children in the audience who do not enjoy most of my stories.

That was my main reason for  trying to learn how to tell in a pre-school, and I am feeling better prepared. There will be some suitable stories for the very young ones in my basket. I have now had lots of practice in coping with a distracted young audience. Let's see if I can start to enjoy telling to mixed family groups.

The first festival is in a few days - a camping weekend for people with special needs, their families and their carers. It should be great fun. I will let you know...

Third Group - Final Session

Third Group - Final Session

So... here it is... the last session of this learning process.

It was the large group again, with all the familiar faces, so I was glad I had managed to find new stories for them.

First I introduced a new magic story sound - from a lovely, small, odd-shaped gong a friend had made for me. It has a beautiful ringing throb that I love.

 The children loved it too.

Then, into the stories, starting with The Old Woman and her Pig - an old traditional tale that can be found in the Joseph Jacobs collections amongst many other places. I remember loving it as a child, even though the book I had then included the gory bits with the butcher, the hanged man and the rat. For this audience I adapted the story to miss out all that stuff and the sequence went: pig, dog, stick, fire, water, horse, horse-fly, spider, cat, milk, cow, hay. The sequence was, perhaps, a little too long. It held their attention up to the horse, but then some became fidgety and the rest of it was hard to get across.

As expected, there then came the familiar demand for Mighty Mouse... but I was prepared. I repeated the section from last week - Mighty Mouse and the Lion, as some of the children had missed it, and then added a version of another Aesop Fable, The Bull and the Mouse, with Mighty Mouse teasing the bull - and continued with my own addition - Mighty Mouse and the Elephant, in which the now over-confident and cheeky Mighty Mouse teases the elephant, eventually running up inside his trunk to nip the inside of his nose. this was popular, but, again, just a little bit too long. I must learn to be happy with shorter tales.

Another of Papa Joe's tales came next, Pocamondas, about a little boy making stupid mistakes. This worked well even though some of the children were getting tired and distracted.

And then I made a mistake... instead of finishing at that point, I allowed myself to be persuaded to tell another story. I chose the old joke, The Wide Mouthed Frog. At first it went fairly well with those children who were still enjoying the stories. But others had had enough and I wasn't able to reach the end. I still have much to learn but I have gone as far as I can with this group.

Third Group - Second Session

Third Group - second session

Surprise! - this time it really was a small group... just 5 children.

I had managed to find several new stories... but started with a new 'story sound' - a small Tibetan Singing Bowl. The sound is magical and they were all enchanted. 

The first story was a version of The Bat, The Beasts and The Birds - an Aesop fable. I was inspired by Papa Joe's variation and managed to create my own using the props I had to hand... a bat, a chipmunk and a swan. The children listened, though I am not sure if they understood.

Next was a silly tale of a frog - no idea where it came from. A frog, who lives in a well in the country, is unable to believe his cousin's description of his own home by the sea. When the frog actually sees the vastness of the sea, his head explodes.

The children loved it and I was forced to keep on repeating the explosive finale.

Then came the expected demand for Mighty Mouse... but I was prepared. I had found an Aesop fable The Lion and the Mouse and adapted it to fit Mighty Mouse as she continued on her journey after moving the mountain. This proved satisfactory, but I was instructed to tell more Mighty Mouse stories next time.

To end with, I tried out another Papa Joe story, Mr Wiggles and Mr Waggles - very simple - no props, just my hands - and lots of repetition - and lots of laughter.  It is a story I would not have dreamed of attempting when I started this journey. I think I am learning a lot.

Third Group - First Session

Third Group - First Session

Oh... the best laid plans... etc...

This group was supposed to be smaller... and with different children... so my basket was full of the most successful stories from the previous sessions.

But it proved to be a large group again, with lots of familiar faces. Some of them had changed their day so that they could come and hear stories. Very flattering, but they wanted NEW stories! And, it being a lovely sunny day for a change, they were all full of energy and very vocal.

I started with Turtle of Koka, which they enjoyed despite complaining that they had heard it before.

Then I moved on to Chanticleer and Pertelot which worked because I had found some new dolls to add to the props.

Now there were loud demands for Mighty Mouse again - and then complaints that the mouse I had with me was not the mouse they wanted. The original mouse is really tiny - no more than two inches from nose to tail tip and I had swapped it for a larger, more expressive version. But it wouldn't do. I had to promise to bring the proper mouse next time.

Next was supposed to be The Five Threads, but again came the protests at yet another story they already knew - so I offered to tell them a new story I had never told before, explaining that I had no props for this one as I had only read it for the first time that morning - as, indeed I had. It was on the Storytell List. Papa Joe had given us his version of Aesop's The Ants and the Grasshopper.

It was very much an improvisation. I had only read it once and had not planned to tell it. But it is a simple little tale - and a much friendlier version than the original Aesop. The children enjoyed it and then told me what props I must find before telling it again... not sure where I can find an expressive ant or a grasshopper!

So, a bit despondent, I came home to start researching more stories for this group. The current discussion on Storytell was was very appropriate and led me to various sources so that by the next morning I had found (and almost learnt) 6 new tales to tell!

Perhaps the next session will be happier.

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.

New Term Session 6

New Term   Session 6

The last session with this group - and I was feeling a bit more confident. I had fount 3 new stories to try!

The success of 'Turtle of Koka' last time prompted me to start by asking if they wanted to hear it again. The answer was a resounding, 'Yes!' - and the story worked beautifully, just as before.

This put all of us into a good mood and I was encouraged to move on to the new stories. First came Margaret Read MacDonald's 'Turkey Girl' - a simple tale of a girl who loses her turkeys because she wanted to dance. I had only the one prop - a bright, soft turkey - but there were lots of opportunities for turkey gobbling noises and a bit of drumming on the arms of the chair. It worked ok and I will try it again with the next group.

Then came 'SuLi and the Elephant', based on 'Unanana and the Elephant' by Papa Joe. Lots of props in this one... SuLi, her Little Cousin, her 3 children, various animals and a huge elephant - plus SuLi's cooking pot and her sharp knife. In this story SuLi has to rescue her children from the elephant's stomach - a variant on Jonah and the Whale and other such tales. It worked well but I could tell it better. It is good to now have a series of three SuLi stories.

The children insisted on one more story and I had found a very short one - Margaret Read MacDonald's 'A Lover of Dragons' - it is very simple indeed - a rich man loves dragons and has paintings and sculptures of them everywhere - but is terrified when a real dragon comes to call. Again, I think I could tell it better and will work on it for the next group.

Only the very youngest children drifted away this time. I did have to suggest a couple of the others put their books away until we had finished, which was a shame as they were sharing a discussion about the pictures, but it was very distracting.

New Term Session 5

New Term  Session 5

Much better!

This time the staff had obviously recognised some of the problems and made improvements. The story corner was arranged more formally, with some chairs and cushions arranged in rows. Most of the toys had been cleared from the area and the children had just spent half an hour or so outside playing 'assault courses' and were tired and relaxed - and ready to listen.

BumbleBee, though still very keen to come with me, made haste to hide herself under my chair, safe from most of the continuous and overwhelming petting.

In my research during the week I had found 'The Turtle of Koka' in Margaret Read MacDonald's 'Start Up' book. It is very simple, repetitive and fun - and I just happened to have a lovely, expressive turtle in my prop cupboard.

The story worked perfectly! Everybody was involved - though I am not sure that they understood the plot, simple though it was. they just loved the turtle, dancing and singing and fooling the villagers.

Then I moved on to Papa Joe's 'The Magical Blue Feather' - again pared down to little more than bare bones. This is a longer and more complex tale, with lots of dramatic tension. The older children were totally absorbed but the younger ones began to drift away from me, though staying close at hand.

The third tale was 'The Sun Sisters' - again, very simple and I have some good props: a moon, a friendly sun, some delicate embroidery and a pad full of needles. The thought of needles being thrown into people's eyes really caught their attention!

Fortunately I had put some spare stories into the basket as the older children would not let me finish without just one more tale. So I picked 'The Cracked Pot'. It has no visuals except for the pot itself, but by now I was able to maintain eye contact with all but the youngest children - and so they listened.

New Term Session 4

New Term  Session 4

Frustrating, difficult, depressing - this really is a steep learning curve.

There was still a great gale blowing outside, after two days of noisy buffeting... I think we were all a bit stressed.

We started with my own Tale of the Tintagel Dragon - reduced to almost bare bones as it was clear the children couldn't follow any of the subtleties.

As planned, I introduced all the props first: a friendly, soft, young dragon, a cuddly jackdaw, a glittering crystal pendant and a small jet fighter plane. They were greeted with great excitement. Every one wanted to touch every item. Unfortunately this created a new game; from then on almost all the children were focussed on trying to sneak up on me and touch whatever prop I was holding. If one succeeded, then everyone else had to try straight away. it was impossible to get them to actually listen to anything.

So that experiment failed! But the small tray itself is still a good idea - it creates a flat platform on my lap where I can put props down and yet still keep them under my control.

There was only time for one more story - the simple tale of the lion cub from Papa Joe's story of Jinook the Lame. This has only one prop - a sweet cuddly lion cub - so much easier to keep control... and some of the youngest ones had moved away, so there was less disruption, but it was still not a happy experience. Some of the older ones had sensed victory in a power struggle and were not prepared to give in by being seen to listen.

It is clear that a group of 12 children with ages ranging from 2 to 4 years is just not appropriate for my kind of storytelling. I cannot maintain eye contact with all 12 of them at once - and without that eye contact, my words alone are not enough to hold their interest.

It feels as though every skill I have developed - vocal control and expression, story structure, pace, tension, emotion, shared references and understanding with the audience, subtle jokes and hints - none of them are of any use with this group. 

The staff say that the most popular stories are the two, very simple SuLi ones. Is that because the SuLi doll, though not pretty, is very expressive and friendly? Or is it just that the stories could not be more basic? In the first, the sky is still sitting too low on the earth, forcing people to bend down all the time, so SuLi prods it with her cooking stick until it breaks up into little fluffy clouds and flies up high. In the second the village is threatened by a dragon that wants to eat young maidens and frightens away all the brave men - so SuLi volunteers to be the next maiden sacrifice and, with her father's hunting dog and sword, slays the dragon and marries the king.

Perhaps I can find some more such basic tales and create a series of SuLi tales. I will try.

There are only two more sessions with this large group, then, after the half-term break, it will be a new, much smaller group. There will be only 3 sessions with the new group - so I can use just the most successful stories. Perhaps that will work!