Review: The tiger who came to tea

Q thoroughly enjoyed watching the Sesame Street live show Elmo’s Green Thumbs and since then, we’ve been fortunate to have been able to take him to several shows and today we caught another gem of a show: The Tiger who came to tea.

Based on the book of the same title by Judith Kerr, this show/book is a lovely story about an unexpected and magical day after lil Sophie and her mother welcome a tiger that turned up on their doorstep. And as hungry tigers go, he eats his way steadily through all the food in their house and all the drinks in the house including “all the water in the sink”. And just as politely as he came- with a flourish and a bow, he makes his exit. And when dad comes home, he takes his family out for supper and the next day, they even bought some tiger food, just in case the tiger ever came back… “but he never did.”

With great story telling and easy repeatable songs that Q managed to catch on by midway of the show, The tiger who came to tea (show) was a delightful way to spend the afternoon. The kids- and parents- were duly entertained by the talented cast of three and I hope you have the chance to take your family to catch this Olivier Award nominee (2012) when it next hits town.

 

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Letter of the week- A

Q has been able to do his 123s quite well already: he’s been able to count (1-10 and back again) and count things with a fair amount of comprehension and with really really basic addition and subtraction. On the parallel side, he’s been able to sing his ABCs, though with little comprehension.  And since he loves the ABC app on the iPad so much, I felt it would be fun to begin exploring the alphabet with him.

And so we began our Letter of the Week “program.” One day a week, usually Tuesday, we’d examine a new letter: uppercase, lowercase and the sound it makes. We use the Zoophonics series (because someone gifted us a complete teacher learning pack) but I have many friends who swear by the Letterland series too.

Anyway, I sat down one day and made learning packs for all 26 letters: cutting out the letters and the bits that would make up the letter craft of the day. Yes, the cutting almost killed me and you can most certainly make each letter as the weeks go along but I know myself that more often than not, my laziness will get the better of me and I’d wig out and change plans. I filed all 26 x 2 letters (upper and lower case) in a big file.

So, today we learnt that A is for apple, alligator, ape, armadillo and it makes the sound “Aeh”.

Flashback: Little girl, choose well…

I wrote this ages and ages ago… seem relevant still…

There was a little girl with a great big dream:
To climb the mountains, wade in the stream,
To cross the wide valleys and ride on the stars,
Touch the pale moon, and maybe travel to Mars.
She wanted to meet the world and feel its might,
Spanning the expanse of day and night.
And she set forth one nice summer day-
Not really knowing how she’d find her way.
She roamed the wide deserts, stared into space,
No one, no home, no time, no place.
Until one day, she met with a man
Who said he saw eternity in the grain of a sand.
He gave her a pouch and whispered in her ear:
“The powder’s magic, its precious, my dear.”
And like magic, in the whisp of a breath
The man disappered, leaving the gift he bequeth.
So the little girl took her new bag of powder
Sprinkled it about, from there to come hither.
The powder was magic, as the old man proclaimed
It healed the blind, the mute, and the maimed;
It brought forth the harvest, good fortune, good will-
No one fell hungry, not one soul took ill.
Everything was perfect, or so the little girl thought,
Pleased with the good luck her magic powder brought.
But, you see, the old man failed to tell her one thing:
That the powder changes the soul of each thing-
It crumbled the perfect, made weak the strong,
Turned perfect to naught, right turn into wrong.
And the perfect world the little girl built,
Battled and raged, took things to the hilt.
Something so broken, no way it could last
She silently watched Beauty crumbled to dust.
Tears ran down the face on her soul,
Everything that glitters may not be gold.
The wolf in sheep’s clothing- the deceit and lies-
Was heartened at the echoes of the world’s futile sighs.
The Beauty and Grace the girl’s world had lost
Came at an astounding, unimaginable cost.
How do you fix something so broken inside?
For time stopped ticking and still is the tide.
Nothing hath breath on the now cursed soil
This villain, to the hero, a perfect foil.
Then in the grave silence something said:
“You could choose hate, but choose Love instead-
For love can bind wounds, rescue and restore,
It can heal, make perfect, even hate’s score.
So how, little girl, the world bids you choose:
Would you loosen hate’s shackle, untie deaths noose?”
For a long time, the little girl did not speak
Then said: “It is not vengence or hate that I seek,
Alone I’m found wanting, with Love made complete.
Love let your magic knock Hate off its feet.”
And so it came to be as the little girl chose,
Finally she earned life’s bittersweet repose.
You see, we own nothing, not even our name,
We only own our choices in this treacheous game.
So choose well and wisely with help from above
For all life’s grand options, always choose Love.