StoryTelling Course with Anak Chintan

Early this year, Jo signed up for Anak Chintan Theatre's program - Living Stories. She really enjoyed each session, and looked forward to Fridays. They played lots of drama games and eventually prepared a story to tell for a Living Story Showcase on the 12th June. Some chose fables, some worked collaboratively, Jo chose to write her own story to present.

Here's the story she wrote and told,

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Darryll. His dream was to fly one day. Wanting to fly so badly, he began to experiment.
First he tried flying out a window with a huge paper kite, taped to his back. Lucky for him, his neighbours had left their trampoline outside and he fell right on it.

On his second attempt, he stood on the very top of his house, with chicken feathers in his hands. He had chased his mother's chickens around the house just to collect feathers. So he stood on top of his roof ready to fly. On the count of 2, the ceiling broke, causing a huge hole. He fell right through and landed on his own bed. That made his parents really mad.

On his third attempt, he lay flat on the floor with  a backpack. On his backpack was attached lots of balloons and birds. As he lay on the round, he was slowly  lifted up into the air, but the birds soon got tired of the burden and pecked all the balloons. So POP!POp! he fell through the same hole in the ceiling and again landed on his bed.
His mum was  very angry when she found all the birds in his room.

Finally his mother decided that she would take him on a holiday to soothe his restless mind. But on the way to Australia, he  grabbed his mum's high heels and smashed the plané's window and clambered out onto the plane's wings. It was very cold and the air pressure was high...Shocked he fell off the wings, down into the deep sea. Luckily for him, there was a beach nearby and he swam to shore.

It so happened there was a guy on the beach who came over to the boy and said, "Wow! YOu're excellent at diving! Would you like to join my daredevil club where we do all sorts of daredevil stunts such as parachuting and jumping from planes?"

The boy was so happy because it involved flying. So he said yes, and lived happily ever.

Photo taken from Anak Chintan's Page

She was pretty sad when the three month course concluded and has asked me to look for similar classes.

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2015
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Bali Ubud writers Fest Part 2

Awoke early to see more behind the scenes preparation at the temple across our hotel. Ladies dressed in beautiful Kebaya, men in their sarongs and prayer "caps", sound of gamelan droning gently on and on.



We decided to embark on another touristy thing. Why not, since it's not everyday that we're in Bali. Here we are on the Campuhan Ridge Walk. We started out pretty late, so the sun was high and scorching, and there was hardly any shaded path. Thankfully Jo had her pink umbrella, so K and she stuck together most of the way. Some beautiful scenery on the path, actually if not for the heat, it'd be a really love walk,  but because of the heat, our goal was to get to the end for some delicious lime juice at Karsa Café.

Beautiful Padi fields along the way.

Three quarters into the walk we came across some artists galleries. We really liked the works by Wayan Rana, and his works were going for very reasonable prices.

Here's egg painting by Wayan Rana, and he has lovely Balinese paintings too. We asked if he'd teach us how to paint, and surprisingly he said yes. So we made an appointment with him.

Well we made it to Karsa Café, enjoyed our drinks by the padi field and made our journey back to town through the same heat again. We then rushed the children for their first workshop, James Foley's Dragon Workshop.  Children had fun drawing their own dragons, listening to Mr. Foley read a story about dragons, watching him draw a dragon etc.

Kids ended the day with a swim at the pool with their friends, and later we walked up to Naughty Nuri's to have a taste of their delicious ribs and chops! YUmmmmmssss!!!!

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2014

Photo Collage- Lines and Curves

Just a brief summary of today..today we did chapter 2 from Teaching Emotional Intelligence, and learnt about body language and feelings. Activities were mainly in the form of discussion and lots of mime. :)

Nel's been collecting boxes and making all sorts of things with the boxes. She's asked for more boxes. Will post pictures once she's finished. She's finished her 12th Nancy Drew book now and looking for more.

Jo's been working on her opera.  She's written the synopsis and divided her opera into 3 scenes. We improvised some lines today and created the story as we went along, all in the form of recitative and arias! :) (No speaking was allowed!) Nel's been helping her design the backdrop.

As for Friday Art, we continued from last week's class on  lines and curves with a photography exercise. The girls had to go round the house and take pictures of lines and curves, and then make a collage out of it. I did the same. We also reviewed the colour wheel in painting and painted our own colour wheel today.
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Anyway....here's our collage work for today. All based on lines and curves only.

1) This is stuff I did to show the girls.

My first collage which I also used to review  symmetry with them.

This was my second piece of work based on lines and curves.

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2) This piece of collage below is Nel's Work. She took her own pictures, and then I allowed her to edit them using Digital Photo Pro. At this point I stepped out of the room, coz I knew that if I stayed in I would be tempted to give ideas and critique too much. So, she did this thing entirely on her own, the editing and the collage. Again, it's all based on lines and curves.

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3) The work below is Jo's work. She too edited everything on her own, and as you can see, she's made everything pink and purple!!! I helped her move objects on the page according to her directions. I present, her collage.  :)

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Yup that pretty much sums up today.

Jo: Mum, are you one of those parents who help children colour their homework?
Me: What do you think?
Jo: Ummm...I think no.
Me: You guessed right.
Jo: ahhh...(sighing) I knew it.

While I was  trying to steal a sip of coffee (doctor's orders no coffee for me).
Nel: Mum! Are you trying to take coffee again?? One more sip and you might die! Stop drinking coffee mum!

Who's the mother now??

Learning about Opera (Music Appreciation)

A few months ago while browsing through a CD shop, I came across Das Rheingold, an opera by Richard Wagner. I decided to purchase it just to add to my pathetic collection of music, and also to watch since I don't get to go to concerts very much nowadays. The  version sold at the shop was one directed by Otto Schenk, and this review very much sums it up,  "

Traditional staging of Das Rheingold 

Otto Schenk's version of Das Rheingold may appeal to fresh Wagnerians who just want to try and understand what is happening. For advanced opera goers, this DVD probably will cause a loooong yawn. Nothing is very exciting on this DVD. The singers are OK, James Levine is faster than could be feared, the costumes and set pieces unimaginative."

Here's an excerpt from the Vcd.

This is an opera that lasts about two and a half hours, without intermission and entirely in German. With all this, I predicted that my children would not last through the show and would probably walk off by the first quarter.

To cut a long story short, there were yawns among some of us, but Jo surprised me. She sat down, watched the entire thing TWICE in a day. Then she watched it again the next day. And  now she's watched it 4 times. Just today, I was so tickled when from downstairs I heard cheers of encore and applause coming from my little one upstairs after watching the Rheingold again. I thought to myself, "This is Ridiculous! To watch this opera so many times through and still clap like that!"

You know golden moments, where a child is inspired to learn? This was one of it.  I decided to use her current fascination as an opportunity to do some music appreciation with her. So today, we sat down and discussed stuff like the definition of Opera, Libretto, Leitmotif, Scenes, Recitative, Aria and also we also learnt a little bit about Richard Wagner.

While discussing motifs from Das Rheingold, we used this site Synopsis with musical excerpts, where we listened to just some of the more distinct motifs, and discussed how music can represent characters, how music can carry different moods and colours, and how it is important in opera.

We also discussed the plot, scenes and characters. When giving her a quiz (while I peeked through the translation of the libretto), I was surprised by her knowledge. She knew the story better than me, was able to describe the scenes and characters quite accurately.

Having discussed the Rheingold, we searched online for interesting opera sites. WE found this very interesting interactive site that has an activity to help children learn more about opera.
http://creativekidseducationfoundation.org/html/handg.php

 This interactive game is so wonderful in that, it has great music and singing. It also has teaching notes to help children understand the role of music in opera, and to help focus listening. There are also buttons to click to help decide on costumes, props, choreography, lighting, movement etc. 

Here Jo had to decorate the witch's cottage, and then drag the knob to determine how fast the witch should pop up.

She really enjoyed the activity a lot and also in doing so, learnt more about what goes on in directing an opera. (Go ahead, click on link, and let your child enjoy it!)

The web also provides follow up activities for children such as the cut out below, which can be used for creating ones own puppet show.

As I write, Jo's busy cutting and sticking it together. We will be making a puppet version of an opera tomorrow!

We also printed the following, (just an excerpt here) and discussed questions.

and we also explored additional links on the site such as  Forms of Music .

I can see this lesson going in many directions, from staging her own puppet opera tomorrow, to writing librettos, to possibly composing motives, learning more about Wager, Romanticism, the orchestra, history, Germany and of course, other operas.

Jo's remarks at the end of it all, "I loved the quiz about Das Rheingold, and I love making my own opera. Let's learn more tomorrow mum!"

Writing in the jungle

Continuation from previous post (where we focused on photography).

This year's been a slight struggle for Nel, as far as story writing is concerned. Some of you have read, she's my dreamer who loves reading and fixing things. It's funny how she loves reading, but finds writing a dreadful chore. To help change her perception about writing I decided on something different, thus a  trip to the jungle to inspire creativity. (can't believe it took me this long to do this!)

Our first stop was the deer farm. The children spent a lot of time here, just feeding and petting deer.

 

As we continued to trek we also stopped to collect leaves for our collage project and gave the leaves special names like "star leaf", "sparkly purple leaf" etc. (all part of creativity.)
10 minutes into the forest reserve, the road became quieter, with hardly anyone in sight except for the occasional passerby on bicycle.  I whispered to my children, "Let's pretend!"

Putting on a worried face, I said,  "Children!! We're....we're lost in the jungle! I think we've lost our way...it's getting dark, we've  hardly got any water left....."

Jo replied in a practical, logical voice/face, "Mum, the way out is the other way. Just turn back."

"Shhhh, Jo!! (Act along will ya!!) If you talk loudly, the magic black panther is gonna get all of us, he will EAT Us UP!! Quick, we must seek shelter!"

Just then, an aeroplane flew by and I shouted like a mad woman "An Aeroplane, an aeroplane! Wave children wave!!! Stop airplane ! HELP US! We're LOST! We're here!!!" My children grinned as I waved my hands wildly.  Of course, the air plane flew by not stopping for us, and I acted upset and worried.

With that, Jo and Nel got sucked into the story and we began our imaginary journey through the forest. It's funny how when acting scared all the sounds in the forest become alive. Alas, our imagination came to a halt when Jo, over excited, tripped, fell and cut her knee against the tar road. ;(      *sigh* Well, the poor girl cried, while I gave her tissue and told her to press it hard to stop the bleeding. You'll see later, how she used this learning experience in her story.

Once consoled, we continued by looking for the magic dragon (bus/tramp) which would transport us magically back home.

Back at the entrance, we sat down, had  lovely ice-cream, and together Nel and Jo wrote a story. It's wonderful to note how they included their experiences in the story, (the leaves, deer, the falling down, ants and all).  Here's their work for the day (edited once with Nel). Not perfect with lots of room for revision and correction...but a good start to creativity!

 I'm glad to say in  the end Nel said "Mum, I never knew writing could be so fun. I enjoyed it." That's all I wanted to do, to inspire her, and I think we succeeded in doing that today. :)

Story by Nel and Jo.

 It was a nice and glorious day when 3 friends named Rose, Marigold and Cheese decided to go for a walk in the forest. Strolling hand in hand, Marigold, the oldest girl with dark brown hair, talked gently to a baby squirrel on her shoulder. Kind-hearted Rose, who was 10 years old, chatted with Cheese, the youngest, about cheese and mice.

While  walking in the forest, they chanced upon a baby deer. Marigold tried to coax it towards them but it ran away. The frightened deer thought they were trying to trap it when actually they just wanted to play with it. Because it was so adorable, Cheese decided to follow the deer, and so the girls followed. Without realising it, they went deeper and deeper into the dark forest.

Feeling tired after walking, Cheese sat down on a broken tree  trunk. Unbeknownst to her, an invincible, blood-sucking spider lived in that trunk. Suddenly, Cheese cried out in pain, as her legs began swelling and bleeding profusely! She had been bitten by the spider, and slowly she began to pass out. Rose panicked and quickly took a giant leaf and pressed it hard on Cheese's leg to stop the bleeding. Marigold splashed water on Cheese's face, but Cheese did not wake.

Cheese lay motionless, her face was pale, her lips dull purple. They didn't know what to do.

Suddenly a fairy appeared in the sky and asked "What happened?"

"Something bit Cheese on her knee, we don't know what it was." said Marigold.

"I've got eyes all over the place, I know who bit her. It was the nasty, mischievous spider, always biting everybody! Well, to help Cheese, you have to collect star leaves, fern leaves, purple and rainbow leaves. We'll use these to make a magic potion.  This potion will stop the bleeding. Then, go find Mr. Dragon and ask him for a drop of his tears and wash it over Cheese. Cheese will wake then."

Quickly, Rose and Marigold rushed to find the dragon. While looking for the dragon, it started to rain. Strangely, it rained only on them and nowhere else.
"Something's wrong around here" said Rose.

They looked up and saw a dragon crying, sitting on a branch because there was a thorn in his foot. "Quickly put up their bucket to collect the tears," said Marigold to Rose.

While Rose collected the teardrops, Marigold looked up and saw the thorn. She took pity on the dragon and asked the dragon if she could help him. Mr. Dragon said "Yes" and let down his long tail so Marigold could climb it. Marigold had a difficult time climbing the dragon's tail, and kept slipping. Finally she got to the top and tugged the thorn out of the dragon's foot.

The dragon was so grateful
The dragon lived in a big gigantic tree, and in this tree there was a  gigantic nest which belonged to him. And in this nest were all sorts of leaves!

"Awesome man!" said Rose. "Where did you get all these leaves?"

"Oh I went to Korea and collected all this during autumn. But these are heavy. I don't think you can carry all these back by yourselves. Need help?"

"Yes," said Marigold. So the dragon carried the sack of leaves in his mouth and flew the girls back to Cheese. They took the bucket of tears and poured it all over Cheese. 

Cheese woke suddenly and asked "Where am I?"

They gave the leaves to the fairy who put it all in a hot pot of boiling crystal purple medicine. It formed a greenish concoction. The fairy warned that if human hands  touched the medicine, their fingers would drop off and only a hummingbird could touch the medicine.

So Marigold whistled a little tune and a little hummingbird came flying. The little bird dipped its claw in the medicine and hopped on Cheese's wound and suddenly the bleeding stopped. They cried "Yippie" and thanked the fairy, bird and dragon.

Wondering how to go home, they saw some marching ants on the floor and asked if the ants could lead them home. The ants nodded their heads and led the girls safely home.

The end.
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Some other random shots by yours truly.

 Saw this beauty a drinkin when we passed 'im by

 This is not funny . I called em deers and said "Heiya, could I take a picture of you guys and gals?" and they all turned their backs on me.

 This was the sweetest thing there...a little babe, shy of us but observed us from a distance. So pretty indeed. :)

 To end the exciting day, we decided to make fire

using a magnifying glass.

Story Telling -The sleeping Beauty (Dormouse)

My children love stories, and because of that we're members of 2 libraries which we visit frequently. It's a lot cheaper to borrow then to buy tonnes of books, plus my nose would get terribly runny with all the dust from books.

Today at the library, Jo picked up this book entitled Sleeping Beauty, only Beauty here is a Dormouse. I placed it on my piano and decided to do an impromptu story telling, singing and telling as it came. Well..they loved it so much, they made me do it twice. It worked at getting their attention. :)

Story telling should always be attractive and captivating to the listener, ..it has to attract the child. So one should use the voice, facial expression and hand gestures freely. You could also include props, puppets, pictures or piano as I did here. You'll know what your child loves best. :)

Here's part of what I did for story telling today, video a little shaky, taken by my child.. (I do realise that I was reading a little too fast here...well, was afraid batteries would run out, and it did!)