Yep, this museum really IS named after Lambton Worm! We also have a "Green Dragon" (pub), "Lambton Castle" (another pub), Lambton Road and a Green Dragon Yard.
Today there was an event organised at the museum, a storytelling. It's near the end of the Easter holidays here. Holidays are a good time for children's events. The event was organised by the museum, in conjunction with a local nursery. It's only a small museum. They've just made a Victorian childhood room in the museum. It's a very small room though! In it they have children's costumes for dressing up in, and a selection of books and toys. Upstairs some tables had been laid out with printouts for the children to colour and a table piled high with fresh fruit and veggies for the children to tuck into. This event was also free!!!
The storytelling was downstairs in the art gallery. There was a storytelling rug laid down, a few chairs, and a selection of toys.
The storyteller was Pat Renton, a colleague of Chris Bostock's that I had seen earlier this year. Pat is a part-time teacher and part-time storyteller. I had a good chat with her - I explained that I was interested in learning storytelling. Pat was really helpful - she gave me lots and lots of tips!!!! It looks like the small percussion instruments that I picked up yesterday will be really useful in attracting the children's attention - Pat uses ones that are similar.
Pat was an excellent storyteller. She gave three sessions during the day, each about half an hour long. All of them were traditional folk-tales. She was very interactive. Lots of talking to the children and amusing them and praising them. Most of the children enjoyed it. I say most, not all. Some of the children were too young for the event. The two youngest wandered off to play with the toys instead. The other children all enjoyed it though. Pat told me that the organisers should really have taken those very small children away and entertained them somewhere else. But they didn't, so she just had to get on with it. The organisers tried to put her in the Victorian room after lunch, but it was obviously too small so we all trooped downstairs again. It was good to see some of the drawbacks and to see how Pat coped. She told me that this was the hardest age-group to tell stories to, because of the lack of concentration of the children, and that sometimes she struggled to find suitable stories.
I found this a very useful day indeed and I thoroughly enjoyed talking to Pat. By now I have seen quite a few storytellers so I knew people to talk about. A very good day!
Green Dragon Museum storytelling
Very nice. I wish you well in your advocation.
Thank you roseone. I think the storytelling will take a bit of a back seat for the next few weeks as I will probably be very busy again.
This is going pretty good, you've been able to meet experienced story tellers, and being able to find them so helpful. Soon, your time will come!
Thank you Doris. Yes, this storyteller was really helpful. I'm going to have less time for it for the next few weeks again though.