living and learning: February 2016

Monday, 15 February 2016

'Does she do textiles at school?'

Since they went back after Christmas K & M's Scout pack have been working on their pantomime, Sky Blue and the 7 Robots, written in rhyme by Chiron, their Scout leader. Neither K nor M wanted to take part by performing, but K decided that she wanted to make the costume for Queen Alice (the wicked queen).

I got the impression that there was some doubt as to whether this was an achievable undertaking, so K asked if she could use my sewing machine and made a miniature version of what she was planning. This was clearly enough to convince Chiron, so she started work on the costume itself.

The 'mini' skirt (it's about 4" long).

She spent hours working on this, based on a design that she had in her head. She used an old curtain and an old sheet along with some wide ribbon, all of which we had already. She first made the skirt which she did with absolutely no help whatsoever. Once that was pretty much finished, she started on the top, a sort of waistcoat/bodice to be worn over a white t-shirt. It was based on measurements given by the boy who was playing Queen Alice, although more on that later and again K worked from an idea in her head. I made a couple of suggestions, for example that given she and the actor weren't massively different in size she try it on after she'd pinned pieces together before sewing, so she could see if it was likely to sit right. There was just one thing that I did do for her, which was the button holes (a first for me too and it took a while for me to work out and lots of attempts on a practice piece of fabric before I managed it) through which the ribbon was to be threaded.

To return to the measurements, one thing that wasn't taken into account (perhaps he hadn't decided when he gave them) was that the actor was going to stuff a pair of balloons down the top! However, apart from meaning that the ribbon wasn't long enough to lace the bodice up as planned, it really didn't matter. I was a very proud mummy when I overheard someone comment about how good Queen Alice's costume was on her first entrance (even if he did have the skirt on back to front! K sorted that out by the time she came on again).

The evil Queen Alice!

The pantomime was very entertaining and very much enjoyed by the audience and I think the cast too. M had organised Queen Alice's disguise (a shawl and a walking stick, borrowed from a neighbour), baked for the cake stall and helped sell the cakes too. And to answer the question that I was asked by one of the other Scout leaders who had clearly forgotten that we HE, no, she doesn't do textiles at school, but it doesn't seem to be holding her back!

And the designer in her own creation.

Thursday, 4 February 2016

More writing.

I've been encouraging my girls to do a bit more writing lately.

K doesn't need much encouragement to write at the moment as she's doing some most days on her book. I'm not allowed to read any of it until it's finished though, so I have asked her to do some writing that she is willing to let me read, so we can talk about anything she might need to work on. I asked her to focus on punctuation, as that was what was very much lacking the last time we did a similar exercise. Today she gave me what would go on the back cover of the book she's currently working on. It's an interesting premise! While the punctuation has definitely improved, she still has a tendency towards overlong sentences, so I've suggested keeping an eye on that. The spelling was also a little bit wobbly, but nothing that impeded comprehension.

M is less willing to do much writing generally, although she does occasionally surprise me. When I suggested earlier this week that it would be helpful if she could do some (along with some suggestions of what she could write), so that we could see if there was anything we needed to do some work on. I'm not too concerned, since K was similar and it seemed to resolve itself almost spontaneously, but M's writing is still pretty messy with a mixture of upper and lower case letters. Given this, I suggested she concentrate on her handwriting when she did the writing. She grumped a bit, disappeared and reappeared to tell me she'd done some handwriting and then showed me her hands on which she had written (the correct way round) 'Left hand' and 'Right hand'. Later on, however, she gave me an origami swan, which when I unfolded it turned out to be the start of a treasure hunt.

Go to the staircase that Bends

there you will find your feline friends

Now go to the lowest room in the House

There you will find a little Brown mouse

Go to the Door that has something you Ring

then Go Just Below to find a

..........THING

While there were still a few random capitals there weren't any in the middle of words, which is an improvement and the writing was pretty neat. Here are the clues, my feline friends, the little brown mouse and the THING, which turned out to be two things, a button tree and a tiny trophy.

Tuesday, 2 February 2016

Two contrasting days out.

A had a very busy January with a big deadline on Tuesday and is travelling rather a lot next month, so he took a few days off and we had a mini-trip away.

On Thursday we went to Bletchley Park. The girls and I had been before and at the time they had said that we must go back with Daddy. It was about 15 months ago last time and they were absolutely right about taking A, all of us found it very interesting. The girls once again really liked the interactive guides, as did A and I (I chose the adult option rather than the family one this time).

M having a go on an Enigma machine

One of the Enigma machines

We also got to see the bombe in action, the machine that cut down the many billions of possible rotor wheel, positions and plugboard setting down to a number that meant it could be cracked in combination with a likely crib, a word or phrase likely to be in the message.

Something new since the girls and I went previously are the displays of props, costumes and information about the film The Imitation Game, some of which was filmed on location at Bletchley Park and which A and I had seen and enjoyed last year.

One of The Imitation Game displays.

On Friday, we went somewhere new to all of us that we have been talking about visiting for almost 3 years, The Making of Harry Potter. We've had various friends who have been and all have been very positive about it. It did not disappoint.

K & M went well prepared, with their wands and robes and we arrived in plenty of time for our entry time slot, the first one of the day, 10am.

Ready to go in!

The whole experience was brilliant. We are a family of Harry Potter fans both books and films, which is clearly a good starting point, but even taking that out of the equation, seeing the level of detail and all the processes which went into making the films was absolutely fascinating.

The cupboard under the stairs.

The tour starts off with a short film in a cinema, after which the screen raises and the door to the Great Hall is revealed. It was all still decorated for Hogwarts 'In the Snow'. The door is opened and you go into the Great Hall, where there is a brief talk and after that the tour is self guided.

Waiting to enter the Great Hall.

Hufflepuff costumes.

Rubeus Hagrid.

The marvellous Severus Snape.

Minerva McGonagall and Albus Dumbledore.

Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody.

Once you pass out of the Great Hall, there's so much to see! I can't possibly do it justice, but here's a flavour of some of things we saw.

Some of the main characters' wands.

There was a near disaster when K lost her wand, but fortunately one of the members have staff had seen her with it earlier and returned it to her when it was found. Of all of the wands we saw there, ours are probably most like Hermione's.

Hermione's wand is the top one.

Hers is the one I like the best I think, and I'm really tempted to try to make some more!

The working Goblet of Fire!

It's chosen the champion!

There are two of these, the original was carved from a single piece of wood which was then used to make a cast from which this one was made.

The original Goblet of Fire.

More costumes including the invisibility cloak.

The Gryffindor common room.

Snape in the potions classroom.

Snape's hair.

More wigs!


Some of Harry's costumes.

And how to distress them with continuity in mind.

Various props.

The Tri-wizard cup with the egg from the first task.

The Headmaster's office, with the Sorting Hat on a shelf.

And some of the portraits of the Headmasters of Hogwarts.

Inside the Burrow.

The Weasleys' clock.

There was the opportunity to ride a broomstick, but K & M were not impressed and had no interest in doing so. The broomsticks you could ride had seats on them (and did look a lot more comfortable as result, but clearly not as authentic, even though the seats were hidden by robes when ridden). As M told me, they've got their own brooms at home thank you very much.