Small Places, Close to Home

It's hard in today's Britain to remember that human rights are not privileges. Where and when we are born is accidental and human rights seek to even out the inequalities between those of us who are lucky enough to be born into wealth, and those of us who are not. It's easy to lose sight that human rights are not privileges in today's Britain, when the poor are on the end of the message that their situation is down to the fact that they just don't work hard enough. It's the narrative that this man wants us to believe:

In his own words, 'never underestimate the determination of a quiet man'. Indeed, it's the quiet ones that you want to watch; he's doing quite the job of creating poverty whicle telling people it's their own fault. What a man. 

Singalong of the Week

Our Emily loves a good singalong, so it's fortunate for her that she has access to so many right here at home! She goes through phases of loving one in particular before she steamrollers onto the next, so I thought it would be nice to share with you all what she's loving right now.

This week has seen a good few turns of The Magic Train Ride. It's a standard feature of Barefoot Singalongs that they are REALLY CATCHY. My other half just asked me if I'd been having a sneaky dram in the bedroom as I came downstairs singing about monkeys and outer space! You can judge for yourself, and thank me later....

You might notice that all the train stations have numbers - Emily insists that she gets to announce each one which is very sweet, and it's a nice way of practising number recognition without labouring over it. She loves spotting all the little details in the pictures and I often have to pause while she describes what's going on. There's been a good deal of sisterly bonding over it with her big sister as they take the train from room to room, always a welcome sight!

You can find the book on my Barefoot Page here x

Wilbur's Book of First Words

I'm always on the look out for books that will engage Abigail (who is 6 and not that fond of books), so I was quite pleased when I found Wilbur's Book of First Words in Emily's man-sized pile of books that she wanted to bring home from the library today.
Wilbur, if you've not met him before belongs to Winnie the Witch, a bit of a hapless witch who lives in a black house. Abigail likes her because she like silly things and that's a very good description of what Winnie gets up to. Silly. Emily quite likes her too, even though the books are a bit long for her, which I guess is why this was in 'the pile' at the library. There are a whole series of Wilbur books but I stuck with the first words as our taking home one as it's one of those books that you can file under 'two birds with one stone'. Emily take it can quite happily on face value with its silly pictures and opposites to look out for; Abigail can use it as a simple independent reader which features characters that she is familiar with. I do find it difficult to engage her with independent reading because her comprehension is far above her reading level. This book gives her the satisfaction of being able to read a Winnie book all by herself; even though it's not a 'whole story' as such, it is definitely more engaging than just a list of words. We all know that a happy reader is one that will read more, so I'm quite sure we'll be working our way through this series. I'm also hoping Emily will use her pester power to get Abigail to read it to her. There's something special about seeing the two of them snuggled up sharing a book.