Secret plans and clever tricks

Both Ferdy and Gil love a prankster.

We've just finished reading the Wicked Tricks of Till Owleyglass by Michael Rosen. I was quite surprised about how much both boys enjoyed it, despite it being set in 14th century Germany. But practical joker Till is their hero, just as much as contemporary mischief makers, Dennis the Menace and Horrid Henry and particularly for Gil, creator of secret plans and clever tricks, the Enormous Crocodile.

Ferdy also loved how he recognised some of the themes and tricks Till plays from other fairy tales he knows, like Hans Christian Anderson's Emperor's New Clothes, or in the story How Hlakanyana Outwitted the Monster in his collection of African Folktales.

So when we heard about Banksy's new picture appearing in a hospital this week, both boys were fascinated and immediately wanted to learn more about the elusive prankster of the artworld.

They loved that no one knows who he really is, and that he does his paintings at night ('is he nocturnal?'), and they especially enjoyed the story of the secret shredder inside the painting sold for 1m at auction.

Of course this meant that our afternoon consisted of reporters from various newspapers (played by yours truly), haplessly trying and failing to find the culprits behind the mysterious chalk drawings appearing on the walls and pathway around our garden. Who knew that one of the Banksy Brothers (apparently, Banksy is actually two brothers) wore monster slippers?

The Enormous Crocodile was one of our books this week

Asking questions

We had a better week at home this week.

It all began with a birdwatching walk; we didn't actually see any birds so Gil renamed it a 'birdlistenin' walk'.

Other activities included: planting radishes; managing to play some online maths games (our internet connection has been atrocious but seems to have improved); learning about dynamics in music (ff was popular); creating a new 'find the country / continent' game with our globe; measuring the length of things (Ferdy was delighted to find that his foot was exactly the same size as his Mr Gum book - 18cm); lots of reading (surprise, surprise) and teaching cousin Magnus about dragons.

Ferdy also pointed out to me that if his written work was based around the Beano, his daydreams about the Beano would no longer be a distraction when he was writing...

I wasn't really sure what this would entail but he decided that, for his writing - we are trying but not always succeeding to do some writing every weekday - he would ask me some questions about the Beano.

Much to our surprise, Ferdy and I realised that we were able to read his questions! Because he wanted me to answer them, he'd made an effort to make them legible. Could this be the start of him realising that there may be a benefit to writing clearly?

On  Tuesday, he requested questions from me about the Beano. I'd forgotten how enjoyable a read the Beano is.

On Wednesday he created some questions for me about How to Train Your Dragon. I like these books

On Thursday he composed some questions for me about Mr Gum. To Ferdy's delight, I only got 4/6 right.

On Friday Mum needed a day off from answering questions.

Ferdy Draws (Day)Dreams

There has been a lot about dreams in the media this week, especially vivid, some say, because our waking lives have become more dull, others because we have additional time to be reflective, or perhaps due to changes in routines and sleep patterns.

We have also been doing a lot of sleeping and dreaming in our household. Both boys are sleeping really well. Ferdy now sleeps better than ever; he has always struggled with getting to sleep and has tended not to sleep until quite late, sometimes even after us, but he currently falls asleep at around 8:30-9pm and we don't hear from him until about 7am. And Ferdy and Gil are recounting elaborate dreams involving Captain America, Dennis and Gnasher, the Hulk becoming a baby (‽) and Gil and Ferdy fighting villains in Mummy and Daddy's bedroom (Gil's best person in it was Gil).

Coincidentally, our new reading book (the one I read to the boys every lunchtime, not the one that Ferdy is reading to me aloud daily which this week is Horrid Henry's Stinkbomb, or the 16 books I have to read to them each morning), is Marianne Dreams.

I used to love this story, about a little girl who is spends her spring and summer in bed recovering from an unknown serious illness and draws pictures with a magic pencil, which come to life in her dreams. Her plight currently seems strangely familiar:

'Marianne wondered what she would be like at the end of such a long time as an invalid. She didn't see why staying in bed should alter her character very much, but yet she didn't feel exactly the same as she had even so short a time before. Somehow the feeling really ill had made a gap between the person she had been then, and the person she felt herself to be now, just as the six weeks which were to come (...) seemed to separate her from the person she would have been if none of this had happened.' (Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr)

Ferdy's dreaming has spread into his everyday life, even more so than normal.. Especially when we try to do maths together:

Me: 'Ferdy did you listen to what I just said about subtracting 50p from 77p?' Silence. Me: 'Ferdy, did you hear what I just said?' Silence. Me: 'Ferdy, are you listening?' Ferdy: 'Dennis!' Me: 'Sorry?' Ferdy: 'oh I was just thinking about Dennis and Gnasher chasing Softy Walter'...

I may have mentioned before that it's not easy to be Ferdy's teacher.

When left to his own devices however, Ferdy comes up with some great ideas sometimes even putting pen to paper without realising it's really hard work... Dreams and drawing featured again in a lovely book we read this week called Harold and the Purple Crayon,, wherein a little boy draws (again with a magic crayon) and stars in his own dream story. Ferdy decided then that he and Gil would draw their own.

It looked a little like a cartoon strip too, influenced I'm sure by the incessant Beano lessons he has been having. His favourite part was the blank page where he and Gil got lost in the mist.

We don't know what the world will be like after this, or what kind of people we will have become. But we will still have Dennis and Gnasher to daydream about, so we'll probably be ok.