Two speakers were welcomed to the November meeting, together with one new member.
Rachel Lucas, Nursery Teacher at Woolavington School, had come to talk about a school project to create nursery rhyme boxes. These are used to improve speech and language skills and are made up of cards which tell the story and various knitted items featuring the characters and items in the stories. She had brought some for us to see. The Humpty Dumpty box contained Humpty, the wall, a horse and a soldier. These boxes have proved to be very popular with the youngsters and Rachel asked if we would like to be involved in making more.
Having completed the project for the 4-40 Volunteers 40 Commando Taunton families support group, several members agreed to take part, starting in the New Year. Rachel gave some suggestions for stories which could be portrayed. It would be interesting to see if we could complete “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”!
Our second speaker was Andrea Talbot who introduced us to Extend – gentle exercise, which may be carried out either seated or standing. There was much hilarity as some of us failed miserably in following the instructions, let alone being in time with the music. A large, not very bouncy beach ball proved even more of a challenge as we endeavoured to bounce it across the circle or pass it as quickly as possible towards another person. Lots of fun and laughter whilst showing us that you don't have to go to the gym as there are some easy exercises which you can to do at home to keep active and mobile.
Despite the fact that these were all gentle movements most people discovered the following day that they had given some underused muscles a workout.
Next meeting is the Christmas Party to get us in festive mood and we welcome back Walton WI at our January meeting when they will once again help us to enjoy Kurling, an indoor form of curling.