The Saturday Stories children have discussed and approved a new – very extensive – project that has already begun but which will get under full steam in October, November and during 2015.
We began quite simply with the topic of Clanwilliam on a Saturday. We talked in advance about whether the children would work as a group (as they successfully did when they wrote songs with Croc E and Anele during the winter workshops), or individually. The decision was unanimous. They would work as a group.
We began by looking at other group writing done by Grade Sevens as part of the Parliamentary Millennium Project (PMP) where stories were created by children in all nine provinces of South Africa. Specifically, we read and discussed a story called My Day which gave a contrast between a school day (rushed and harried) and a Saturday (sleeping late and looking forward to treats and fun).
Already, in the animated discussion that followed, we were addressing some quite serious issues of living in Clanwilliam – although the group all said how much they love the town. Writing will proceed next week, when we will also be taking to Main Street to record the festive atmosphere when people come into town from the farms for shopping and socializing.
The project will be a focus of the Spring holiday workshops (6 and 7 October) when we will start to think about the ways we can expand from a specific time in the town outwards to the river, the Clanwilliam Dam, the valley of the Oliphants River from source to the sea, and to topics associated with the Cederberg Mountains and the Cederberg Stories project that has been on-going since September 2013.
