Once upon a time...

....there were two brothers.

One Friday the elder brother, Ferdy, made three wishes: the first was to not go to school; the second was to be 'magicked into fairy tale land', and the third was to watch Solo.

Luckily for the two brothers they had a (fairy god)mother who said she could make these wishes come true, on the condition that Ferdy completed three tasks:

1. Some numberwork before breakfast:

2. Read a whole story to his little brother and mother:

3. Write the beginning of a fairy story.

In order to complete his tasks Ferdy researched number bonds, read lots of fairy tales and discussed how fairy tales start: once upon a time; one fine day; long long ago; there was once.. Influenced by the fairy tales he had been reading at school, Ferdy then made up his own:

Once upon a time there were three little pigs, and one day they planted three little seeds and they had one little house. One day the big bad wolf came back but not the big bad wolf from the three little pigs but the big bad wolf from Little Red Riding Hood. The wolf saw them but luckily it was the day where the beans had grown into three beanstalks. One of the pigs climbed up a beanstalk, and the other two climbed up with him. They climbed all the way up until they found themselves at three castles, they had crawled up to the next fairytale: Goldilocks and the three bears! So then they knocked at the door of each house. A baby bear appeared out of one of them, then a Mother bear appeared out of one of them, and then out of the biggest one appeared a Daddy bear. And of course, the three little pigs knew that those bears had got weaker and weaker because they had eaten all their grass like the three billy goats gruff but this time the troll didn’t eat goats, it ate pigs. So then they climbed up, up, up the highest one of all. They stopped and they knew it was Little Red Riding Hood, so they climbed up the smallest beanstalk of all. And when they were tired they sat on a giant leaf. Then they saw that the beanstalk went up the clouds to the moon! They stopped at the three billy goats gruff but this time, instead of the troll, the three billy goats gruff were the enemies! And if you went up to them, they would charge you into the water. So the troll leapt across the river instead. The troll could leap across until there was no water or food left. Then they went to sleep. The End.

Impressed by his story, the (fairy god)mother waved her magic wand (started up the car) and transported the three of them to fairy tale land (Sudbury Hall).

The magic began in the woods where Ferdy and Gil both became characters from some of their favourite stories, first The Three Little Pigs, followed by Little Red Riding Hood. And then, before their very eyes, a row of trees transformed into a beanstalk. 

Jack killed the giant

The magic didn't stop there. All around them they realised that they were seeing objects from lots of different fairy tales:

tl clockwise: The three bears; 'who is the fairest..'; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; a knock at the door; the golden ball
from The Princess and the Frog; the woods; stones Hansel picks up; a cage for Hansel; (middle); climbing up a chimney.

They even found a room devoted to telling stories, so they made some of their own, and enlisted their, now rather weary, (fairy god)mother to read them more stories

One their way home, they listened to even more fairy stories and watched Solo. All of their wishes had come true and they lived happily ever after (until Saturday).

The End.

P.S. Our day and stories are ever so slightly influenced by Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book by Lauren Child