Telling Tales

Ferdy loves stories. He spends a lot of his time in the world of stories, be it Star Wars, Greek Myths, the Moomins, Beatrix Potter, Roald Dahl, Lego Star Wars... In fact, if I need him to listen to me (he doesn't listen to me very much), starting my sentence with 'Once upon a time' will often guarantee his attention. And he has become such an expert at concocting stories, I cannot discern if they're fact or fiction. Apparently in one of the school church services all the teachers dressed up as Star Wars characters; and all the new girls in his class are called Emily, Bemilie, Gemelie and Shemelie.

But despite this, he is not keen on reading. And we've been worried that making him read books will destroy his love of them. So we're trying to work out ways for him to enjoy learning through stories.

It was a rainy, cold day this Friday (sorry blog is late due to half term) and we attended assembly, then did what we often do when it's rainy: visit Derby Museum. They had an exhibition on WW1 and although it wasn't that kid friendly, we looked at the medals and Ferdy told us all about what the women did during the war (worked on farms), which he'd learnt at his school trip to the Arboretum.

But the best bit is the nature gallery. Not only is it full of unusual stuffed animals like a pangolin, echidna and a sun bear, but it also has a whole array of animal books and other resources. We read an encyclopedia on reptiles, a book about insects and a story about animal habitats.

Then it was time for some drawing. Gil drew an eagle, I drew a zebra and Ferdy drew a stick insect larvae.

Using the Encyclopedia as reference for stick insect larvae

And we played with the story cubes for ages, Ferdy even read all the words without realising he was reading.

Once upon a time there was a parrot, and it hunted an octopus with eight legs, but the octopus only wanted to play in the jungle (peals of laughter).

Back at home they wanted to do playdoh. All in all a good day for those fine motor skills. And perhaps we'll try and write a story with story cubes soon.

In other news, our letter to Luca has arrived! It only took 6 weeks and 5 days.