Grammar, Human Body, Lagomorphs, Differences

Sunday May 12th
Freya has a last-minute invitation and spent the afternoon with friend N at N's brother's outdoor birthday party and had fun. The first form of the invitation was to spend the afternoon in N's house with N and no adults, so some discussion had to be had, but think we faced that fear/milestone and are ready for it when it does happen now. In the event, N's family's plans changed and meant the outside party was a better prospect.

Monday May 13th
MMs group, now monthly and struggling to break even, was nice to see people though. Hoping to meet people in parks over summer. Afterwards we met J in Brighton and went to see the new Star Trek film! Really enjoyed it, had a slow bit in second quarter, but last half was all good, I like how they are doing this new sequence of films very much actually, looking forward to more.

Tuesday May 14th
Took Freya to LGP creative writing, which seems to have been good. I had work on the go, was a rainy windy horrid weather day I think.

Wednesday May 15th
Forest School cancelled due to high winds at the site. 
Freya had been feeling she wasn't learning much lately, so she did the grammar test for 11 yr olds that I'd seen on the BBC news site. She did really well, though not doing it as a test, her grammar is good, also her spelling and vocabulary. Hurrah! Do need to get some more educational things going though, just difficult when there is a lot of out and about, combined with me working.
I made 2 difficult phone calls that went really smoothly, leaving me slightly euphoric as I just hate all that bladdy (Apprentice is back! watching it regularly with Freya for Wednesday night bedtimes) grown-up stuff.

Thursday May 16th
Livewires on Human Body - Good session, though low on numbers for various reasons. Some great resources and activities (taking your pulse before and after exercise, microscope, little models of bodies with organs, etc.) and good enough weather for ending up outside for a while. I had a lovely hand massage with tea tree and lavender oil, very soothing on quite a tricky day.
I had been up till 1am working and then stayed up another 2 hours putting together a True/False facts activity and a Place discoveries on a timeline activity. Printed and cut out in the morning just in time to go. It always ends up like that! I can't imagine preparing earlier really.
Freya had Guides in the evening, we ended up a bit late as she was having a hormonal day (in my opinion!) with much stress and upset and she was on her 2nd outbreak of wailing of the day, the first one having been about not doing as many activities/groups as her friend N, and this one being about shoes as had to have sensible black shoes for Guides and there were issues. Got there though, they were meeting in the Paddock and doing tents. She enjoyed the session, though I don't think either of the groups quite got their tent up, but fun was had and some familiarization with the process, all good!
I was worn out when I got home and J took over bedtime duties so I could just not have to do anything apart from work and book club prep.

Friday May 17th
Book Club - our first meeting in about 2 months I think, as I had been ill and had to cancel one and it was an unusually long break anyway - the reunion after such a long gap brought a certain giddy mood to the proceedings I think!
Our theme was Difference and we had read Wonder by R J Palacio. As it had been so long, we started with a quick warm-up activity to remind us a bit of the book. I used my phone to find random passages and read them out and then they had to go to one wall if they thought the voice was one named character or the other wall if they thought the other. 
Then we had our main discussion of the book, usually I prepare about as many questions as we have people and they choose them out of a cup but I got them to make up a question each, which was great - they came up with such good questions, and the discussion was really complex and interesting. We covered many aspects of the book, including:
 the ending being a bit too easy - one girl suggested that a better ending would be if the main character just felt very sure of his main small group of friends and knew he could go forward with them securely and tackle whatever the future would bring, rather than everyone in the school being positive towards him, which seemed less realistic to the group.
 August's sister's complicated situation, her feelings towards him and about him - the group were really aware of the conflict she felt and understood it and named all the different feelings she had, the protectiveness, the anger, resentment, embarrassment, etc.
 the strength of a character like Summer, who just ignores the nastiness and lives above it somehow in a way that many people struggle to do.
Trying to remember their questions, I know there was one about the ending, one about favourite characters and why, one about what passage/quote do you remember most from the book. Wish I could remember more, they were insightful and excellent, I thought they were mostly better than the questions I usually give them to be honest, more specific and interesting.
It was then lunch time, so giddiness levels rose by about 50% from that point, as various 'shows' were put on in the lunch break, songs sung, etc. Did have to stop them using snooker table as a stage!
After lunch we did a game about inclusion/difference/similarity - each girl had a paper cut-out doll, with various characteristics - hair colour, clothes colours, surname, eye colour. Their goal was to play cooperatively to bring all of the dolls together in the middle of the table, starting at the edge. The rules for their movement were that they could bring forward any dolls sharing one named characteristic with their doll. So when it was their go they could say 'everyone with red top' as long as their own doll had a red top. All those dolls moved forward 1 step. The challenge for them was to find the best similar characteristic to bring the furthest or most dolls forward. I represented a force for division, throwing the group apart, each time it was my go I randomly picked a characteristic and pulled those dolls that had it out by 2 steps.
It worked OK, especially given had only invented it at 2am that morning (as with Livewires I'd been working again).
Then we studied some passages and quotes about difference and prejudice, first some from Wonder, then some others including Shylock's speech from The Merchant of Venice. This offered many chances for reading aloud and becoming increasingly uproarious. Finished up with looking at quotes including Ani DeFranco, Bell Hooks, Gene Roddenberry and A.A. Milne one with Pooh and Eeyore, then ending with them deciding to sing "I Am What I Am", lyrics of which I had included in the quotes sheet, and which led them to do an impromptu conga round the snooker table.
At some point things they were saying led me to do an exercise with them where one wall marked 'not wanting to fit in at all' and the other represented 'really wanting to fit in at almost all costs' and they chose where they stood in relation to that, being as honest as they could. One girl was right at the 'not wanting to fit in at all' edge, having earlier said 'why would anyone want to 'blend in'?' in some bafflement, and another nearer the other wall. A cluster in the middle - in fact there is a kind of meta-level in that if you really want to fit in you might not be brave enough to stand in that position and go to the middle instead. I showed where I was at their age (not far from fitting in wall) and where I was in my 20s (with the girl at the other extreme) and where I am now, in the middle but slightly towards the not fitting in wall. Really was good and they gave it much thought.

Got home and had to go out again a bit later to go to Post Office to send off some documents to do with mum's house sale. Had interesting conversations with Freya about types of teeth for different dietary use and names of types of teeth. And she introduced me to the word 'lagomorph', which she threw into the conversation as casually as if it was everyday verbage. I LOVE new words!
After I had done my Post Office task, we had a quick stop at a cafe and back home.