Homework serendipity

I'm not a massive fan of homework for five-year-olds - the poor mites are knackered enough by the end of the week, without having to spend their spare time practicing spelling (not to mention their poor exhausted parents ...) But I eat my words this week.

The very day I'd picked up a leaflet for Greenwich Theatre Festival and seen with a pang that there's a puppet show of The Velveteen Rabbit, Little A came home with a project to find a story about toys, and draw a character from it.

The Velveteen Rabbit is one of my favourite children's books, but Little A has never been interested, which made me sad. This Friday, though, all because of homework, we spent a happy hour curled up on the sofa under a fleecy blanket, reading the story of the rabbit who was loved so much by his boy that he became Real. Little A clutched her own beloved toy rabbit, who peeked over the edge of the book and is surely destined to be hopping through meadows herself one day.

Happy hoppy happy.

PS also discovered through homework this week The Magic Paint Brush by Julia Donaldson. She is a complete genius.