Running wild on World Book Day

When I asked Ferdy this Friday what he'd like to do to celebrate World Book Day (his proclaimed favourite day of the year apart from his birthday), he said for me to read him 1216 books.

So after some fractions with birthday cake (it was Billy's birthday) and apples, we read: A Friend Like Simon; The Chocolate Tree; Ian's Walk and The Great Kapok Tree.

We learnt a little about the Mayan rainforest last week when we went to the chocolate factory, so we all really enjoyed, and spent ages looking at the Great Kapok Tree, the story of a man who tries to cut down a giant Kapok tree in the Amazon rainforest. As he takes a rest, the animals who live in and around the tree plead with him not to destroy their world, citing its importance for many things including shelter, food source, rainwater soak and habitat. It helps that it's beautifully illustrated so we talked about the animal community and studied the different layers of the rainforest.

We're also just finished Michael Morpurgo's Running Wild (mentioned last week), and despite it being a different rainforest, many of the themes surrounding nature and the human destruction of it are the same.

After all that serious stuff, it was time for a bit of our own running wild.

tl-clockwise: balancing; playing with the dollshouse; the rabbit we spotted; playing hide and seek;
storytelling; through the story tunnel

Sudbury Hall is one of the boys' favourite places so we go there a lot. There is lots of space for exploring and running around, and there is a museum of childhood with a plethora of toys, and most importantly, more books to read. Heaven.

Gil was also excited to spot a rabbit, who didn't move (probably out of fear) when we went up to it, and when Gil realised that our storytelling session we'd booked in to at the museum, was based around a story about a rabbit, he was overjoyed and keen to tell everyone in the room about his rabbit sighting. He's definitely no longer the shy boy we knew a few months ago...

Later on, Ferdy wrote a rather elaborate tale about how the God of earth (named Wikit) brought bamboo to earth, but was challenged by a man called Greendo who disguised himself at Wikit and tried to get the people on earth to shoot arrows at the real Wikit. A story very much influenced by the Story of Chocolate we read, although slightly more complicated.

Including the books at Sudbury Hall, I probably managed about to read Ferdy about eight books. Just 1208 to go then...

Ferdy and the Chocolate Factory

Ever since Ferdy was about four, he has loved Roald Dahl. It began with the Enormous Crocodile and the Giraffe the Pelly and Me, and he then swiftly moved onto Fantastic Mr Fox, the BFG and The Twits. He even had a Roald Dahl party for his fifth birthday.

Food at Ferdy's Roald Dahl party

Most of this he discovered via audiobooks but now that he can read, his love of these books is being revived by reading them aloud. He's currently reading Billy and the Minpins to me, a book I've never read before.

Over half term we went to see Roald Dahl and the Imagination Seekers, a play inspired by the works of Roald Dahl about the invisible Wurblegobblers who are stealing all the words from the Roald Dahl stories. Only the ancient guild of the Tale Tenders, with the help of the children in the audience, can revive them..

We've also been thinking about chocolate recently (or perhaps not just recently) and Ferdy was interested in where it came from (and how the Romans could enjoy themselves without it), so it seemed appropriate to visit a chocolate factory. Before we went we learnt a bit about the Mayan civilisation and Cortes, who brought the cacau bean to Europe.

One the way, we read an extract of Boy about how Roald Dahl used to test chocolates for Cadbury's when he was at school in Repton, and how he imagined 'a long white room like a laboratory with pots of chocolate and fudge and all sorts of other delicious fillings bubbling away on the stoves, while men and women in white coats moved between the bubbling pots, tasting and mixing and concocting their wonderful new inventions'. (Boy by Roald Dahl p183)

Mouths watering, we had a very rainy walk to the chocolate factory.

Upon arrival, we entered into the south American rainforest to meet the original Mayans and Aztecs who discovered the cacau bean. We learnt about how they used to trade in cacau beans (we even managed some division using cacau beans without Ferdy noticing he was doing division..) and we ate some chocolate. We found out about the many stages a cacau bean goes through before it becomes a chocolate bar, we watched chocolate being tempered and we ate some chocolate. We travelled around a cocoa bean village and we ate some chocolate. We wrote our names in chocolate, we danced on chocolate sweets and splodges and we ate some chocolate. We even rode on a virtual rollercoaster through chocolate. Oh and we ate some chocolate, did I mention that?

Ferdy was also excited to spot Samual Pepys, who wrote about chocolate in his diary and he wanted to find out whether it was before or after the great fire of London (it was in 1657 so before the great fire).

That evening, we didn't eat any chocolate (the chocolate bars we were given have been hidden by mean Mum), but we did watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

On an ethical note, we are currently listening to Michael Morpurgo's Running Wild, a story about a boy who gets lost in the Indonesian rainforest and befriends the animals that live there. He is captured by an evil man who is slowly burning down the rainforest for his palm oil plantations. We were rather dismayed to realise that most mass produced chocolate contains palm oil, something naturally not mentioned on our visit to the factory, but definitely something to think about.

'We marched up the Roman Road that's known as Watling Street'

Mostly, when I ask Ferdy and Gil what they would like to do on Fridays, we have to find a compromise: go to Narnia becomes go to the woods; meet some dragons becomes make some dragons and I haven't yet found one for fight Storm Troopers.

So when Ferdy informed me that this Friday he'd like to go to Watling Street, where Boudicca's battle purportedly took place, I was pleased to realise that this was something we could actually do.

But first we did some division games:

We commenced with a division grid game (a bit like scrabble but with numbers) and then Ferdy set me a division sum, his task being to subsequently swap around the numbers to make them into a times sum.

Next, Gil had a tummy bug so Ferdy decided to read him all his new Alfie books.

After all this sitting down (Ferdy isn't a fan of sitting down unless it's to read books), Ferdy needed to do some dancing to his new Horrible Histories music.

He has perfected the sword fight with Commander Paulinus.

Watling Street is very long, but it part of it runs near us so we went in search of it and the Roman ruins nearby.

I wasn't sure whether Ferdy would be disappointed in what we saw (was he expecting so see men in sandals and togas, and traders lining the streets?), but he was excited to find a street sign (albeit in front of some very modern looking houses) for Watling Street.

And in the ruins of the town Letocetum, which consisted of a bath house and a mansio (hostel) with a cobbled street leading to Watling Street running inbetween them, an elaborate game ensued involving Emperor Nero, his mother and a plethora of slaves, legionaries and, of course, Queen Boudicca (my role). I should have known that Ferdy can rely so much on the stories in his head, he doesn't really need many props...

Ferdy stands next to the bath house with the mansio over towards the chuch

Over a coffee and a brownie (Ferdy was a little bit shocked to learn that chocolate hadn't been discovered in Roman times and that they mainly had boring fruit for pudding), Ferdy invented a quiz about the Romans. My reward if I got 10/10? A cuddle and a bit of brownie.

1. What did the Romans believe in?
2. Who did not want his Mummy?
3. Who wanted to kill the Romans?
4. Where was the battle?
5. What was the only thing the centurion (in Horrible Histories) didn't like about Julius Caesar?
6. What did the Romans invent?
7. What did the Romans wear instead of hats?
8. Who were the traitors in the battle of Teutoburger Forest?
9. What did the Romans use to wipe their bottoms?
10. Were ladies allowed to be in the Roman army?

I got 8/10. I got a cuddle (because that's a good try, Mummy) but not even a crumb of brownie.

Ferdy has requested that for our next trip we find where Boudicca is buried. Archaeologists believe her burial site may be in Kings Norton, under the McDonalds, so it'll be a dormouse big mac to accompany our history lesson next week then...

(title of blog from The Battle of Watling Street song in Horrible Histories the Movie)

Conquering Rome in two days

Last week, before Ferdy got ill on Friday (hence no blog), he and I just managed to have about an hour in the Dewa Roman Experience in Chester.

tl clockwise-middle: food; Baths; a warrior in his chariot; a slave in prison;
meetingthe legionary; poo sponges; watching a drummer;
swapping hats with the legionary; holding a shield

We had listened to Horrible Histories: Rotten Romans on the way, so it felt like we arrived having already amassed a vast knowledge of these ancient warriors. We learnt that they used sponges on sticks to wipe their bottoms; that they ate hare, dormouse (ahhhh nooo), lobster, wild boar, flamingo and ostrich; that they wore NO underpants; that they went to the Baths naked (no swimming costumes) and that they washed their clothes in their pee.

As well as dressing up as a Gladiator and making me into a slave, Ferdy was thrilled to discover the poo sponges at the museum. He also delighted in meeting a real Legionary who swapped Ferdy's Storm Trooper hat for his own Roman helmet and sword and didn't even ask for any denarius...

This Friday, we carried on with our lesson on the Romans.

Picture by Gil

And because the Romans seem rather a misogynist bunch (women were not allowed to vote or fight or hold political office), and I think it's important for my boys (who have no sisters), to appreciate and respect strong women, we learnt about Queen Boudicca and her powerful army. Ferdy was slightly disappointed to learn that, despite her army being a lot bigger she was eventually overcome by the Romans (he was on the side of the Celts), but cheered up when we learnt about the battle of Teutoburg Forest in which the Romans were defeated.

He then requested that we go to Teutoburg Forest, so we did (kind of).

After being chased by Claudius's legionaries and finally taking shelter near a stream ('let's pretend it's the sea because the Romans thought that monsters lived in the sea so didn't like it'), we had a rather tame picnic tea of no flamingos or baby pig, just chocolate chip biscuits and carrots.

Later on, after Ferdy had randomly written his own Aesops Fable, and we had done some division, for Friday night family film night (a ritual introduced by the boys), we watched the very funny and at times gruesome Horrible Histories movie. Ferdy's favourite bits were the feminist anthems sung by Kate Nash as the fiesty and empowered Queen Boudicca and Gil's favourite bit was Derek Jacobi's Emperor Claudius falling off his sofa.

I don't seem to have learnt much history in school, so some of this is pretty new to me too, but I'm thoroughly enjoying us learning about history (herstory?) through its gory and quirky details.

The Romans conquered Africa, the Romans conquered Europe, the Romans conquered Britain, why did they stop conquering? 

Because they ran out of conkers....

Looking to see where the Romans marched and conquered

Fred the Frog's Adventures

Most good days begin with a story. Ours began with two.

Today's first book was Fred the Frog, a stone frog who lives in the Chinese garden at Biddulph Grange Garden. One moonlit night he comes to life and goes on an adventure around the garden with his friends, Bill the Buffalo, Dragon, Chi the Dog and Sam the Squirrel.

And because we were going to be visiting the Chinese garden, and it is currently Chinese New Year, our second story was the story of Nian, the Chinese monster and origin of the story behind Chinese New Year.

Then it was time to head out to China and to meet Fred the Frog and his friends.

"Look China is this way!"

The Victorian Biddulph Grange Garden is a child's paradise. It features tunnels, bridges, steps leading up towards little follies, ponds and lakes teaming with fish, stepping stones and a temple. One garden leads to another, sometimes through passageways and one even via a topiary pyramid.

Meeting Bill the Buffalo and Dragon

Through some upside down tree trunks, we found China, Then it was off to Egypt to find Thoth.

Left: the friends find Thoth's temple. Right: Ferdy finds Thoth's temple.

Thoth is a baboon dog and not dissimilar to Nian, according to Ferdy.

It took a long time, and oodles of tenacity from Gil (Ferdy and I were willing to give up), to find Fred the Frog, but eventually, after clambering up countless steps, running in and out of tunnels and finally resorting back to our book to check what his surroundings looked like, we did!

We also discovered fossils in the geology gallery, and got very lost so met all of the animals quite a few more times.

Eventually we found the cafe where Gil and I were treated to songs about the 2, 10 and half of the 3 and 5 times tables by another rather strange creature.

One of Fred's friends we hadn't been able to locate was Chi the Dog, and upon being informed by one of the guides that Chi had been sent away for repairs, Ferdy announced that he was going to write a story about Chi's adventures.

Chi's Adventures: After Chi ran away, he got on a plane at Heathrow Airport. The aeroplane was going to Africa. It landed; Chi ran out and found himself in a jungle. There were parrots, monkeys, lizards, chameleons and everything that you see in a jungle. Suddenly a lion came through the bushes, it sprang at Chi and... just wait and see.

Ferdy goes to work

By Guest Writer: Billy (Daddy)

Now that Ferdy is seven, we decided it was high time he started to make a contribution to the household bills. So, without further ado, he was packed off to the family cardboard tube business for his induction day.

First of all he needed to brush up on the basics like checking the tubes are the correct size. We may have to find a slightly smaller tape measure at some point because he could only just lift this one.

Next it was time to learn the correct terminology for the parts of a circle, (i.e Diameter, Arc, Radius etc.)

There is a lot of high tech equipment at the factory to get to grips with. Ferdy can be seen here mastering the latest in word processors.

Before we knew it, tea break was upon us and it was imperative to learn about putting ones feet up and how to replenish our energy with raisin bread.

As with all factories, Health and Safety is paramount and it is vital learn a few dos and don'ts. Running on the factory floor for example is frowned upon, even when a pee is about to come out. Also, it is not a good idea to walk two inches behind your Daddy and not pay attention; this can lead to crashing into Daddy's back. Learning from your mistakes is important as was demonstrated in this instance. Eventually.

Top: glue machine, bottom left: makes the tube go round,
bottom right: the paper at the start (photos and captions by Ferdy).

After all that excitement it was lunchtime. Employees are not normally supervised when on breaks but it was noted that Ferdy ate his pudding first, which is most unconventional, and may require some monitoring in the future.

With lunch over it came as a pleasant surprise to Ferdy, that on Fridays we finish at 2pm so there was just time to pack away the untouched writing books and maths puzzles before racing off home (where he was most unhappy to find that the writing book made an unwelcome re-appearance). This working lark isn't so bad.

"What was the best part of the day Ferdy?"

"When I went inside the delivery lorry."

Shifting shapes

Our day commenced with a shapes game. Ferdy's learning about 3D shapes at school and, despite putting maths in a list of things he hated about school (he's had a bad first week back so we decided to compile a list of things he hated and things he liked about school), he proclaimed that his hatred of maths doesn't include learning about shapes.

We sang a song about shapes, and we had to run around the house collecting the relevant shapes.

Spheres, cylinders and cuboids were easy, cones and cubes less so. We had no luck with a tetrahedron, and no Gil, my head is not a square based pyramid.

We attempted to draw some 3D shapes.

Ferdy also did some comprehension questions about Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which we have just finished reading. He seems to rather enjoy answering questions with a book by his side, and is getting rather adept at finding the part in the book which corresponds to the question.

Hard work completed, it was time for some shape shifting and some shape searching at a trampoline park.

tl-bl clockwise: spheres; cubiods; a cylinder; almost a square based pyramid

This was one of those rare days where everyone was too busy to go trampolining so we had the whole park to ourselves. For one glorious hour we could use all the equipment with unbridled freedom; we even had the ninja warrior assault course opened up for us. Ferdy taught himself some new moves, including landing on his bottom and then back onto his feet, Gil practised lots of balancing and they could both race, leap, jump, bury themselves, fight, slide, climb and bounce to their hearts' content. I even became ever so slightly obsessed with mastering the tightrope (I only managed half way across much to both of their delight).

On our way home, we started our new audiobook, Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. Both boys were thrilled to make the acquaintance of Pantelimon, Lyra's daemon and an excellent shapeshifter.

Ferdy's been finding this week back at school really hard; perhaps due to the excitement of Christmas, and the fact that we've seen lots of friends and family so it's seemed a long time away from school, but passed very quickly. He's very cross and grumpy with the world and no one has been able to cheer him up.

Fingers crossed for him that next week is a better week.