The Mini Malpi

How are you Dad?

#Blogtober18: Just be yourself #worldmentalhealthday

Putting Dyspraxia in the spotlight

#Blogtober18: Gross Motor Skills #dyspraxiaawarenessweek

This week (October 7th-13th) is Dyspraxia Awareness Week.

It is described by the Dyspraxia Foundation as “a form of developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a common disorder affecting fine and/or gross motor coordination in children and adults. It may also affect speech. DCD is a lifelong condition, formally recognised by international organisations including the World Health Organisation.”

Hitting the headlines at the moment as the new Doctor Who series features a character with the condition, Faith didn’t need the science-fiction series to tell her that people with the condition can be out of this world with talent because many of her fellow Zebedee Management models continually prove that, whatever challenges their diagnoses present, they can’t help but be fabulous.

Evie H
Follow her story on Instagram at @evie_h_2009.

Jade A
Follow her on Instagram @jadekimzebedee

Joseph H
“Joseph was diagnosed about three years ago with Dyspraxia and motor oral dyspraxia” says mum Karen. “It was quite difficult getting the diagnosis as he has Down’s Syndrome and some of the common “traits” are very similar. He really struggles with coordination and gross/fine motor skills. He falls over often and cannot coordinate riding a bike, he can either pedal and not steer or steer and not pedal, he cannot proceed the two together. He can use a spoon but struggles with a knife and fork, and really struggles with things like buttons, zips, writing and balance. His oral dyspraxia affects the way his lips, tongue, palate and mouth function making speaking and eating difficult and hard work for him. However he will always try his best to overcome any difficulties in anyway he can.”
Follow him on Instagram @joseph_hale_zebedee_model

Kiarni O
“Kiarni was diagnosed with dyspraxia later than his previous disabilities but it is one of them he struggles the most with, it’s a daily struggle!” says his mum Angie. “He is unable to use knife and fork, constantly trips up or bangs into things, at school he finds it hard to write and keep up with his peers as unable to hold a pen in a tripod grasp so uses a laptop to do his work. But to the eye it is hidden so raising awareness helps others understand the person more.”
Follow him on Instagram at @Kiarnioxley_zebedeemodel

Want to find out more about Zebedee Management’s journey? Read: Making the opportunity to be represented.

Tail tales

#Blogtober18: Forest creatures #nationalbadgerday

In honour of today’s National Badger Day, the #Blogtober18 prompt is Forest Creatures. Rather serendipitously the mini ones afternoon drama group provided appropriate inspiration as one of the leaders handed out these fabulous clip-on tails.

A fox, badger and wolf design, the catching tails provided a spirited game of chase.

Apparently the tails are from Flying Tiger Copenhagen so I might just be paying them a visit to get our own set too!

Forest creatures weren’t the only animals the young actors embodied today as Clare Bevan’s poem Queue for the Zoo was also used as inspiration and saw them growling like tigers, skipping like hares and jumping as high as a kangaroo.

Are you a fan of the forest? Help the Woodland Trust celebrate the power of trees to inspire on Tree Charter Day, Saturday, November 24th, part of National Tree Week. Click here to find out more.

“Children’s author tells children to learn how to lie”

#Blogtober18: Education #worldteachersday

MMWolf Multi-award winner, former Children’s Laureate, charity founder, OBE recipient for services to literature and supreme teller of tales, Michael Morpurgo suggested the title of this post himself.

Speaking at the Lincoln Drill Hall as part of the Lincoln Book Festival at the end of September, the author of more than 100 books was giving advice on becoming a writer in response to audience questions.

As well as joking about being good at lying – and that that would be the line that the local press would pick up on – Morpurgo also had other suggestions to share.

To live life, listen, learn, travel, meet new people and experience as much as you can was his most heartfelt guidance.

He also recommended keeping a diary or journal of sorts – not necessarily a detailed account of the day but just one or two sentences everyday about something, be it an event, a conversation or an image, that had left an impression. And not to worry about spelling or grammar or punctuation, but to just get it down on the page.

MMFlamingo It was advice I’d love my son to hear in future years. Earlier the same day as the event he had referred to himself as an author and, whilst he may currently need extra support with literacy, it certainly hasn’t dampened his desire to tell stories – which, after all, was an oral tradition to begin with.

A former teacher, Morpurgo honed his talent in the classroom when he discovered that making up his own stories to tell to his pupils was an even more effective way of engaging them than reading those of other writers and clearly his storytelling prowess stretches to both page and spoken tales.

The sell out audience – which included a good smattering of those “dreaded Year 6s” – had bought their tickets on the basis of their love of his books and were rewarded by a spellbinding evening of verbal narration of the factual and fictional, embellished and merely hinted at, extraordinary and everyday that have been gleaned from his lifetime and the lifetimes of those he has encountered along the way. He even further treated the theatre-goers to a closing rendition of Only Remembered from War Horse, encouraging them to sing-along too.

One of the first speakers to appear at the Lincoln Book Festival some years ago, let’s hope he’ll return to speak at a future event again even sooner. I’d certainly like the minis to have the chance to hear him when they’re a little bit older.

Today is World Teachers’ Day and this year’s theme is “The right to education means the right to a qualified teacher”. “This theme was chosen to mark the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), where education is recognised as a key fundamental right. A right that cannot be fulfilled without qualified teachers.” Hands up all those who would have liked to have been in Michael Morpurgo’s classroom!

Tale of treacherous travels is a theatrical treat

#Blogtober18: Ditty #NationalPoetryDay

“Stick Man lives in the family tree.
With his Stick Lady love and their stick children three.”

StickManTheatre Julia Donaldson’s perilous tale of a morning’s jog gone wrong leapt off the page on to the stage – and around the auditorium – to the delight of a rapt young audience.

Performed by Scamp Theatre at the Lincoln Drill Hall as part of the Lincoln Book Festival at the end of September, Stick Man saw the author’s rhythmic verse brought to life with inventive staging, puppetry and live music in a mix of styles with the space for the child’s own imagination to join in too.

My six year old enjoyed the chase scene around the auditorium as park warden followed dog followed Stick Man and loved the beach ball being thrown through the audience too and my three year old was thoroughly caught up in the drama of Stick Man’s every increasingly hazardous travels that include him being mistaken for a flag pole, a sword and kindling among many other things.

Advertised as “most suitable for children aged 3+ with their friends and families” I wasn’t sure the more darkly lit than most children’s theatre show would capture the attention of my one year old but she loved the sparkly light effects of the underwater and wintry scenes.

Today is National Poetry Day and the theme this year is Change which the tale of Stick Man certainly embodies so, if you have a copy of the rhyming story at home already, it would make perfect bedtime reading tonight!

Is Stick Man being performed near you? Click here to find out.

Would you like to see more Julia Donaldson tales adapted for the stage?
Tall Stories will present The Snail and the Whale at the LPAC in Lincoln on Thursday, October 25th.
Freckle Productions will perform Tabby McTat at the New Theatre Royal in Lincoln on November 4th and 5th.

Has this traumatic celebration of the numerous ways a stick could be used fuelled your desire to go on a collecting spree on a walk through some trees? My previous posts:
Stick Inspiration
The Stick Book
might give you further inspiration on what your woody haul can be magically transformed into – just make sure they’re just sticks and not Stick Men!

The major Malpi

#Blogtober18: Couples #nationalboyfriendday

Did you know it’s National Boyfriend Day today? No? I didn’t either until I saw today’s #Blogtober18 prompt.

To answer many people’s next question, National Girlfriends Day is apparently August 1st.

Cowboys — Cowgirlfriend and cowboyfriend

Quite why someone decided that Valentine’s Day or your first date anniversary wasn’t enough to celebrate I don’t know. Maybe someone’s mum didn’t teach them that sharing is nice and they wanted an it’s all about me day on top of their birthday?

Daddy Malpi and I actually share a birthday so perhaps I shouldn’t be so cynical about the possibility of an all about me day although I’d have to wait until next September for Wife Appreciation Day whereas he’s only have six months for Husband Appreciation Day in April. And we already have our first date anniversary then so, sorry dear, that month’s already spoken for.

Wedding — The day he stopped being a boyfriend or fiance and became a husband

We’re very much a quintet rather than a couple at the moment though and have managed about two date afternoons and one date night in the last six years since the minis started arriving.

Perhaps that’s another reason I should welcome any opportunity to put us as a duo in the spotlight a bit more often – after all the mini Malpi wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for us major Malpi – but that’s often easier said than done and most of the time I’d probably just settle for being able to finish a conversation with each other never mind anything more logistically complicated than that.

In a few weeks we will be celebrating our ninth wedding anniversary which means 2019 will be a marital milestone for us – perhaps if we start organising now we could add a second date night to our post-minis’ tally?

How do you make time for yourselves as a couple within your larger family unit? Let us know in the comments below…

New charity aims to offer better cancer screening

#Blogtober18: Boobs #breastcancerawareness

Can you imagine making something positive out of a incurable cancer diagnosis?

One woman who’s reclaiming her power and doing precisely that is 65-year-old Barbara Delacy-Wrisdale.

Following beating breast cancer nine years ago, she’s now been diagnosed with incurable secondary cancer of the liver.

But she’s determined to help others escape such a fate if possible and has co-founded a charity that aims to offer cancer survivors better screening.

Her niece, writer and editor Samantha Curtis, explains:

“Barbara has been galvanised into action. She has founded a charity which she hopes, with enough funding, will be able to offer cancer survivors a full body screening service, to aid the early detection of secondary cancers, should they occur after the five-year all-clear point.

“The Bessy Foundation breast cancer charity stands for Better Extra Screening Service for You.”

Sam has written more about Barbara’s story here – Listen to Barbara and live each and every day to the full, you can click here to like the charity’s Facebook page and, if you are able to help financially, click here to visit The Bessy Foundation’s Just Giving page.

If you’re based near Lincolnshire you can even enjoy a night out while helping to raise funds at the end of this month. Elvis tribute act Tony Elding will be dedicating the proceeds of a raffle held during his show at Boston Football Club on Saturday, October 27th to the new charity.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Find out more at Breast Cancer Now and don’t forget to check yourself.