During half term week, Jacqueline did her regular holiday Drama Week.

It always amazes me how much children can accomplish in a week. This is a group of 8-12 students who only see each other for Drama in the school holidays and each time there are different students, yet they put on an entire production from start to finish in under a week.

They script their own production, create costumes and props, learn all their lines and put dance in there as well!

It was a very enjoyable performance to watch.

Amanda Goldston

Tags: children, drama by Amanda
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Today,  we went with Stephanie went to see “How to Train Your Dragon” at the cinema. It is a really good film. Jacqueline went to see “Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang” with a home-educated friend – all at half price, courtesy of Orange Wednesdays!

As a home educator you can receive free film resources from www.filmeducation.org .There are lots of ideas on using various films to cover different areas of your curriculum.

We downloaded some activities on Nanny McPhee and also had a disc with other activities on Dragon Training and Vikings sent to us.

You can also get free tickets to films which are shown to school children during the film festival later in the year. You do have to book as soon as you can for those because the places go quickly.  There are films geared towards all age groups.

Whilst on the subject of free tickets, a lot of theatres offer free tickets to y9oung people under 24, on selected performances. This is supported by the Arts council and is designed to encourage young people to go to the theatre.  It is called ” A Night Less Ordinary” and You can find vmore information from the website – http://www.anightlessordinary.org.uk/

This is open to all.

Stephanie is going to see  the show “Wicked” again in London in a couple of weeks. We are looking forward to the open air theatre season starting again soon, with our favourites, Heartbreak Productions and Illyria having a good line up for this summer.

With abundant blessings.

Amanda Goldston

Tags: drama, fun by Amanda
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I am delighted to announce that Stephanie and Jacqueline received their latest LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) Results for Speech and Drama. They both did really well.

Jacqueline got 63% ( a very high pass, almost a merit for her Verse and Prose) and 70% ( a Merit) for her Devised Performance. This are pieces that she learnt and performed (verse and prose) and pieces she wrote herself and then performed (devised). These were grade 4 and grade 5.

Stephanie got 59% (Pass) for her Grade 6 Verse and Prose, so she has got her second medal and a few more UCAS points and 80% ( distinction) for her mime (grade 5).

And all of this done at home with the teacher coming to us each week!

Well done, girls! We Are really proud of you.

Amanda Goldston

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The Results for the last LAMDA exams finally came through last week. Both girls got a High Pass (almost Merit) in one exam and a Merit in the other.

We are really pleased with both of them and very proud of them both. Stephanie has passed the first of her Grade 6 (Bronze Medal) Level exams, so she got a beautiful little bronze medal and her first 35 UCAS points towards University.

Well done girls!

Whilst on the subject of exams, we have now booked Stephanie in for her for first four IGCSE exams in November

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Last week we went to see a production of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”, performed by Heartbreak Productions.

It was an outdoor production, so it was a great opportunity to take a PROPER PICNIC. This was the first time that we have had food left over after one of these shows!

“As You Like It” is one of Shakespeare’s comedy plays and it is only when you see it performed that you realise how bawdy and crude it can be in places.

It is another of those plays where there are numerous love stories intertwined into the plot and several of the characters are pretending to be someone else in the story.

What made this particular production really good was that there were only five actors/actresses playing all the parts, so most of them were playing several parts.

The production really drew out the themes of oppression and secrecy that were prevalent in Duke Frederick’s court and gave them a thoroughly modern twist. You certainly felt like you were being watched! Hmm, wonder where I have had that same feeling recently!

We had prepared for the trip by finding out a bit about the play. We had bought a book of Shakespeare stories when we went to Stratford-upon-Avon last year, so that was very useful.

In my view, Shakespeare is best understood by seeing it performed.

There are a couple more that we will be attending over the summer.

Have a great day.

With abundant blessings.

Amanda Goldston

Tags: children, drama, home education by Amanda
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It seems hardly 5 minutes since the girls took the last lot of LAMDA exams in March and now they have come around again! At least they were at sensible time of day this time, instead of 9.30am on a Sunday  morning in Nottingham!

Both girls took Acting and Spoken English. The Acting exam is the first of Stephanie’s Grade 6 Bronze level exams, where the marks also count as UCAS points for University.

We are eagerly awaiting the results.

They are now preparing for their next ones in November, which will soon come around.

Amanda Goldston

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The girls had a very interesting Speech and Drama lesson, as they were working with masks. The idea was to pretend to be the animals concened and to be able to create the characters without having facial expressions to help.

It was a very interesting lesson.

Great fun was had by all.

Have a wonderful day.

Amanda Goldston

Tags: drama, home education by Amanda
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Hi

We spent most of the day preparing and writing talks for the Spoken English component of the next LAMDA exams.

Jacqueline has settled on “My Dream Holiday” and “A hobby” (for which she is doing Stagecoach). The dream holiday sparked off some very interesting ideas.

Stephanie finally settled on “Rottweilers” for her free choice piece and “Aliens” for the subject from the given list.

We talked about Rottweilers as a breed of dog in general, as well the public perceptions of them, and then decided how we can bring our own rottweiler, George, into the talk.

Is he a typical rottweiler? If yes, then how does he fit the mould and if No, how is he different?

Aliens was another very interesting subject and I think we will be doing a lot of research into the presence of aliens, or not, in our society.

This will probably include looking at ancient buildings that reputedly had some influence by beings from out of space, such as the pyramids or Michu Pachu (Peru).

No doubt Roswell and the flying saucers will also come into the discussion.

I am sure at some point we will manage to include Jeff Wayne’s fantastic film and music, the War of the Worlds. Greg (husband) and I saw that as a show a couple of years ago and it was absolutely brilliant.

We also talked about aliens in films and TV programmes, including things like Doctor Who.

Having discussed the Speeches, we turned our attention to the acting pieces. Stephanie’s cockney accent is coming on really well.

After the Drama lesson she told me that, for the other acting piece, she needs to listen to me in full flow of my best Devon accent.

It doesn’t come out very out very often, so maybe I need to practise some of the Wurzels’ songs or read some Pam Ayres poetry! Cider anyone?

It looks like we may have found an opportunity for Stephanie to do a theatre-related work placement, so that is looking good.

We had another SINGSTAR come today. This one is boy bands vs girl bands. There are some great songs on it and Greg and the girls really love it.

Their singing is coming on really well!

Greg is shortly going to be teaching the girls to make pastry, so I can feel some excellent pies, pastries, apple turnovers, strudels and cream horns coming on. Yum!

He has also just completed building a Orrery, which is a working model of the solar system. He has done a great job with it, so we shall be having some conversations on Astronomy (and maybe some Astrology thrown in for good measure) very shortly.

Have a wonderful day.

Amanda Goldston

Tags: children, drama, english, home education by Amanda
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Today, Jacqueline went to a workshop on the Greeks, which was organised by our local home-ed group and led by a person who does a lot of History Workshops.

This was the 1st one where we had funding for the workshop from the Family Learning Unit. The Home Educating Families have rather tentatively accepted the funding. It remains to be seen what strings end up being attached to it.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the day.

Today is Stephanie’s birthday! It is exactly 2 years since we started home education, and it has really been an amazing journey. The only blot on it is harassment from officialdom!

However, that did not allow her to escape Maths this morning. She spent a good couple of hours on rearranging equations and algebra, with worksheets and exercises that we got from the CIMT Plymouth Maths site.

She was very glad to see the post arrive because it brought a copy of “My Fair Lady” that we ordered to help her with her London accent for one of her Speech and Drama pieces.

She spent an enjoyable afternoon laughing at Eliza Doolittle’s wonderful vowels and trying to sing in a cockney accent. It was quite entertaining to listen to.

Her dad is taking her to see “Wicked”, the Musical in London later this week. We went this time last year with a couple of friends and she loved every minute of it. She has practised singing the songs for hours on end.

We have also started looking into this year’s open air theatre productions. We went last year to see “Midsummer Night’s Dream” as performed by Heartbreak Productions and “The Merry Wives of Windsor” as performed by Illyria.

They were excellent. Highly recommended. Take a substantial picnic!

That’s all for today.

Amanda Goldston

Tags: drama, home education by Amanda
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The girls have worked incredibly hard this term for their Stagecoach production. They have had songs, dances and drama pieces to learn from several musicals. These included Cats, The Lion King, Spamalot and Mary Poppins.

They learnt the entire song to “Supercalifragilisticalidocious”, including all the hand and leg movements to make all the letters- in all the right order!

The term finishes next week with a workshop and guests are invited, so one of Jacqueline’s home-education friends is going along as well.

As usual, it was terrific to watch!

Cats

Stephanie's solo in the Lion King

Stephanie and Jacqueline in Spamalot

Jacqueline in Supercali...

Stephanie as Bert in SuperCali....

Just for the record, the teachers who teach Stagecoach are all eminently qualified in Singing, Dancing and Drama.

Their academic and professional qualifications, as well as professional experience in their respective disciplines, are far too numerous to list on this blog, so here is a link to them on the Stagecoach page.

I would highly recommend Stagecoach. It is great for confidence building. It really does stretch the children, as well as encouraging them to express themselves.

To round off our week of home-education, Jacqueline went to Drayton Manor Theme Park on Saturday with a friend from the home-ed group and Stephanie went ice-skating with some non-home-ed friends.

Tags: children, drama, fun, music, sport by Amanda
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