free books, yo

I got an exciting email tonight.

I've been selected as a giver for World Book Night 2013.

So I will have in my possession 30 copies of "Girl With A Pearl Earring" to distribute, free of charge. How awesome is that? Verily, it is mighty awesome indeed.

World Book Night giving is important to me, and I'll tell you why.

My grandfather died about a year and a half ago. He was very sick, and I stayed up all night with him, and all of the following day until he finally passed, holding his hand. The nurses were very kind, and let me use a vacant room to sleep in, but I very much wanted to be with him when he passed over, particularly as I knew he was afraid of dying.

He was drifting in and out of consciousness, and at time he was also experiencing a different reality to me. I think partly because of the morphine, and partly because he was straddling the parallel worlds of life and death for quite some time.

There was a small 'library' (book shelf) at the nursing home, which was largely filled with trashy romances and detective novels. One title stood out to me, though - "One Day".

Inside the jacket, there was a "World Book Night" label. This was an event I'd heard about before, and was excited by, so I decided to take the book to my grandfather's room and read it. I read almost the whole book that night and morning, and it is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read - and believe me, I've read a LOT of books. And this one will always be precious to me, because I spent the last few hours of my grandfather's long and dignified life holding his hand, and being comforted by the lives of two flawed, wonderful, complex characters in paper and print.

So this year, I'm going to distribute thirty copies of Girl With A Pearl Earring, in memory of my grandfather, in nursing homes, hospitals, clinics and waiting rooms. Because the right book at the right moment can make all the difference in the world.

making snakes, starting projects, and spending a fortune in the oxfam bookshop

GIANT CONNECT 4!!! And the discs look like massive fruit polos!! We were quite excited by this.

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Today, we were making snakes at home-ed group, in honour of the new Chinese year of the snake. We did paper spiral snakes, and cuddly toy snakes made from old socks. Bee's creation was epic! She even did most of the sewing herself (I started her off and tied the knots).

We then missed our bus home - as we do nearly every week - so we had a mooch around the local charity shops and I accidentally bought about a million books in Oxfam. So many books, in fact, that we had to buy a cheap overnight-bag-trolley thingummy from another charity shop because I realised we couldn't actually carry them all home!

I also visited a (very overpriced) craft shop to buy supplies for my new project. I think I'm going to start with my favourite character: Han Solo. I am slightly intimidated by the scale of the project (14 characters to make!!) but if I don't make a start, then I'm guaranteed to fail!

And we had lunch in the cafe we often stop in (where a very sweet young man always flirts with me, which I enjoy because it reminds me that I'm young!) and read some of the new books together. Bee's reading has improved considerably since last week, despite not having done any at all... not even Reading Eggs!




We've been so busy being sociable, lately, that we've only really had time for bedtime stories, which are usually "big books" that I read *to* her, rather than "little books" she practices reading with me.

I was reminded of an important part of the learning process, which my Bestest refers to as "percolation". Whenever Bee learns something new - or goes through an intense period of focus on learning a new skill - she'll suddenly back off from it completely (and sometimes claims she doesn't know how to do whatever it is at all) and turn her attention to something else. During this period, all the new ideas and skills gently settle-in and fall into place, in the background of her mind.

Then, after a certain period of time, she'll surprise me by having it all worked out! Whatever skill or idea it was has settled down, put out roots, and found some context. It's germinated.

Minds are mysterious and awesome treasure-troves, aren't they? Though admittedly mine is mostly full of Lego, unicorns, and boobies.

gee thanks, kid

Today, Bee and I have been knitting together - she's been winding the yarn around the needle, while I take care of the fiddlier bits. I had forgotten until she suggested it, that I'd done the same when I was her age, with my lovely Nana/Bee's Greatnana, who we don't get to visit as often as I wish we could.

"Are you the nicest Mummy ever? Even nicer than Greatnana?"

 
- "I don't know. What do you think?"
 
"I think Greatnana is, definitely. You are nice, but she is the nicest ever. Let's phone her and tell her that, Mummy."

Since we're nearly in the month or lurrrve, we did a quick valentinesy craft today - just a little sewing card made from a cardboard box, which Bee decided to hang in the window when she'd finished. 

We've also been playing a lot of Reading Eggs and Star Fall (which is free and quite fun, but confusing for English children as all the phonics sounds are American!) to supplement Bee's reading practice. And look who I remembered today...

 

I loved that guy.

As for *my* reading - I'm revisiting Wuthering Heights, to see whether I still love it as much now I'm no longer a dramatic teenager. And I came across this wonderful quote:

"He was, and is yet, most likely, the wearisomest, self-righteous pharisee that ever ransacked a Bible to rake the promises to himself and fling the curses in his neighbour."

Isn't that wonderful?

And look what arrived today: our first fruit and veg delivery! And oh, doesn't it all look scrumptious?! And we're FINALLY almost well again, so I reckon this is just what we need.

So now Bee's in bed, I'm going to have a cup of tea, and get to work ripping all the CDs my bestest has leant me...here are about a quarter of them. Yeah, that's gonna take me a while.