Kenilworth Castle: Time Travellers Go... Rogues and Villains

We always make the most of our English Heritage passes by making frequent visits to our local Kenilworth Castle throughout the year. During the summer holidays, English Heritage sites run a series of Time Travellers Go... events for children. Each week there is a different theme, and the children have a Time Travllers passport which they collect stickers/stamps in each time the visit. Once they have collected two stickers, they get a medal, once they have collected four stickers, they can fill in their details and post off to English Heritage who send them a reward.

This was our second trip, so each of the Small People got their medals. This week the theme is "Rogues and Villains". We arrived after lunch thanks to a delayed morning start, and having to wait for the next available bus out of our village. Robin Hood was already in full sword-fighting swing in the Chapel Ruins, so the Small Person went and joined in. She was extremely enthusiastic, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few adults sporting injuries, despite the swords being made from foam!

We followed straight from there to meet the Highway men (or highway man and woman), who expalined the concept of an ambush. The Small Person volunteered herself (before knowing what she was volunteering for!) and took on the role of part of a coach :) So the Coach had to make it's way from the rocky outlook, through the monkey forrest, through the village/town an over the bridge without being ambushed by highway men. After a while they introduced the soliders who were there to prevent highway robbery by themselves ambushing the highway men. The children could choose if they wanted to be soldiers or highway men, plot amongst themselves and then select a spot for the ambush. The Small Person chose to be a crook every time (and they won)! Not quite sure what that says about my daughter...

The highway ambushes carried on for a full half an hour, through the short but frequent rain showers, and the Small Person wasn't the slightest bit bothered - she was having far too much fun. The Smaller Person, stuck in his pushchair, took great pleasure in shouting out "Ali" every time the human coach whistled by. He was starting to get fed up by the time it was over though, so he was released to join Robin Hood's band of outlaws, to fight against the grown ups.



Lady Marion

Lady Marion found Sir Zacky very difficult to keep under control, and she labelled him mad. I would agree with that assessment :) First Robin instructed his archers (the older children), then he instructed the next group, but I didn't quite catch what they were supposed to be doing as I was trying to chase the Small Person back into the arena! I do remember they had imaginary swords though, and the audience were the sound effects team: "Sching" as they drew their swords, "shonk" as they holstered (is that the right word? Probably not.) them. Then came The Small People's team who were the littlest. They were the outlawed knights who had traded sides to fight with Robin. They had to gallop up on their horses with foam swords and fight the evil grown ups. They each got a  Knights school certificate. Zack just thought it was great to be running around free with a weapon!

That was the last event, so we started to head back up into Kenilworth Town. We were going to go to the cafe for an hour until Mr Bogert finished work and collected us (saves on bus fare!), but then it starting raining again, so we took refuge in the gift shop until it stopped. Half an hour later, we left the gift shop with lollipops, a new bag of marbles for the Small Person, and big, brightly coloured bouncy ball for the Smaller Person. There really wasn't time for the cafe, so we made a quick stop into the library. The Small Person chose a book with stories from Egypt, and I got the Smaller Person his very first library card. He got a book about animal noises (he likes those - especially "Mooo!" and "RAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!"). I checked out a couple of crochet books which have some lovely projects in. Will any of them get made? I might just Oooo and Ahhhh at them a bit, if I get time to make anything, I'll be sure to post my efforts, but for the time being it's back to "The Politics of English" for my uni work!

Woosh! There Goes March!

So, what wooshed by?
Mr Bogert had a birthday, became ill, got better, injured himself several times, recovered and then the small person fell down the stairs. Just a few bruises and some tears - very lucky. Lots of fun at toddler group including photos, an unpleasant disagreement, crafty things and giving out easter eggs. LOTS of coursework, making new uni friends, attending a tutorial and two assignments written, marked and returned. The Small Person has been super busy with dance classes, swimming, apple club, dance exams and an audition, which means I have been busy following her around all of these places armed with hairspray and grips and various kit bags.

It's been a busy little month. It's that time of year where my Open University courses start doubling up again and I lose all sense of time and reason. (This time last year, or maybe a little earlier, I disappeared from bloglan altogether. I'm trying hard not to do that this year!)

My university resides in two canvas bags: one containing the current books for Children's Literature for this week, and one containing this weeks books for Worlds of English, a linguistics course. If I leave the house, one of the bags goes with me. I may not have time once I reach my destination to take anything out of the bag, but it has become like a security blanket. The books must travel just in case there is a tiny 5 minute slot I can cram some reading into. The bags accompany me to bed every evening. They ride on the pushchair to toddler group. They take the bus to town. They really get out and about.

I was aiming to avoid them following me on holiday. I have a one week reading break scheduled for both courses from Easter weekend onwards, the week we are away on holiday. I REALLY wanted to be a little ahead so that I could write my next linguistics assignment ahead of time. I was going to take the Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness with me to read ready for my Children's Literature EMA (End of Module Assessment) which focuses on the last book in the series: Monsters of Men, but I always have a book to read on holiday so wasn't really counting it as work. However, I am 2 weeks behind on my Children's Literature course, and although I'm up to date on the main course reading for linguistics, I am 2 weeks behind on the linguistic toolkit that accompanies the course. It's not looking all that hopeful :(

I really don't know how some OU students do it, with kids, two courses AND work ( I don't even have to worr about work!). I also can't believe I am actually just over half way through my degree! Go me!

In a more positive view of Uni work, I got the results back for my last 2 assignments, one for each course. This was TMA05 for Children's Literature (only one more to go now before the EMA) and focused on how illustration works with text in Peter Rabbit (Beatrix Potter) and Voices in the Park (Anthony Browne). I absolutely loved writing this assignment, but could have written so much more. Those darn word limits! I achieved a mark of 85%. Just touching distinction which makes me one very happy student.

The other assignment was TMA01 for Worlds of English. I struggled with this. Anyone who has ever taken a course with the OU will tell you TMA01 for any course is always an unkown entity. You don't know what the tutor expects, you're new to the subject matter (even if you've taken a course in the same subject previously, it still feels a little alien when tackled on a different course) and you're just generally feeling your way around what you should be doing. This was even worse for me this time. I'm so used to writing for Literature, I found it hard to work out the best way to word my essay and structure it. Linguistics is far more scientific. Harder still was evidencing my words. With Literature you have your texts (novels, poetry etc) to scan and source your own evidence from. With this course I felt that I was just throwing back at them what they've given us in the course books. I can't find my own evidence because I don't have any other texts, and because it is more scientific, the required examples are very specific. I don't have the expertise to draw my own examples from Old English texts. I managed to agonise over what at first glance seemed like a fairly straightforward question. It seems I shouldn't have been as concerned as I was, because I managed to get a mark of 78% which I'm very pleased with. At least TMA02 shouldn't be as daunting now I have a feel for it. I'm really enjoying the subject, but I think I'm going to miss Literature when Children's Literature ends in May.

I will at least have a little more time then though. Back down to one course. Until September that is....

Christmas Countdown - 21

We didn't watch a movie tonight because Mr Bogert had a photoshoot at the theatre and we didn't want to watch it without him.

The Small Person had a friend's birthday party to go to at an indoor play centre just down the road from us: Jam Jam Boomerang. It was 4-6pm. We took the Smaller Person along and paid for him to have a seperate play session. It was sooooo funny! He just didn't stop! He loved every minute of it and he played for the full 2 hours. By the time the party was finished and it was time to come home, his hair was soaked with sweat from the effort he put in running around and climbing! He completely tired himself out!

At home he had a bath and went straight to bed - early. And, do you know what? He went right to sleep. I've told Mr Bogert, we need to build one of those in the back garden if it makes bedtime this easy!

So with Mr Bogert of picture taking and the Smaller Person fast asleep, The Small Person and I watched "Kirstie's Homemade Christmas" (both episodes)  and did our activity.

Our activity was to decorate the Small Person's special tree with all of the decoartions she has been given since she was born. There's some very special and individual ornaments on her tree. Some of the ornamnets were bought in the first couple of years of having the tree to fill it out a little, just like we did with the Smaller Person's tree last year, but there are only 6 truly special ornaments on her tree, and the 7th will join it on Christmas Eve.

We also ate pancakes which deserves a special mention in itself, especially seeing as one of the first things she did this morning was taunt her poor Daddy with the fact!

My genius (if boring) plan for once she had gone to bed was to do some study for EA300, my Children's Literature course I'm am doing with the Open University as part of my degree, and have a look through my new course books that have just arrived for U214 which I start in February. That didn't happen. I made a cu of tea, sorted gifts and wrapped everything apart from the Small People's gifts whilst watching "It's a Wonderful Life". Before I knew, it was gone 11pm and Mr Bogert was home.

I felt guilty and read my U214 course guide in bed. There, I've done something studious!

Nearly here...

Only 4 sleeps 'til Christmas!