A bee at the Honeycomb

Books written by children of Botswana aged between 5-11 years.  What happens when you get a teacher and an author in the same room? A lot of chat and a wealth of ideas. Add coffee, cake and the down to earth voice of a business manager and suddenly dreams and visions become a tangible reality and The Honeycomb Wood – where stories come out to play - is formed. Amazing food provided by the Iskon Temple Whilst teaching, some of my favourite lessons to teach were writing books when children could let loose their creativity and let their imaginations run wild. The only drawback within schools was time and the necessity to include the specific learning objectives for that term – connectives of the week, adverbial openers and punctuation that even as teachers we weren’t entirely sure what it was for! Beautiful hanging bee mobile we on sale made by local artisans. This one is now a beautiful addition to The Honeycomb (with 2 more on order for friends overseas!)...

Tiny Town at The Honeycomb Hub.  What shall we "Let's pretend" today? ‘Let’s pretend we’re teenagers and we’re going to visit each other at our houses.” “And let’s pretend that I’ve broken my leg and we have to bandage it” “yes, let’s make the vets a Doctors now” “or we could pretend that we’re both Jaguars and you’re the Doctor Jaguar” Let’s pretend – wonderful, magical words that are used so easily by youngsters yet as we grow, responsibility seems to shrink those words out of us. Our tongues forget how to form their shape and we lose access to the magical worlds they create. “Play keeps us vital and alive. It gives us an enthusiasm for life that is irreplaceable. Without it, life just doesn’t taste good”  - Lucia Capocchione      I feel so fortunate that I get to hear those words so often here at the Honeycomb Hub. The traditional ‘Let’s pretend’ inspired by the rooms of Tiny Town as children become parents looking after their babie...

At The Honeycomb Hub we are very fortunate to work in a place filled with lovely people, varied days and tasty cake - thank goodness for the fitness classes! Sharing reccommendations at our books exchange.  Just like Maria in the Sound of Music, we have an ever growing list of favourite things at the Hub, though perhaps not quite so lyrically put. -Fitness classes and the feeling of achievement, virtuousness (and occasionally relief after a tough one) when you complete one; Future chefs in the making! -Chatting with the visitors who come both new and returning – we always have time  for a tea and chat! -Being honoured to host birthday parties and making the day extra special for birthday boys and girls; -The smell of freshly brewed filter coffee (especially our vanilla one in the mornings); -Hearing those magical words ‘let’s pretend’ over the walls of Tiny Town; -Getting to don the story wizard’s hat and read stories at 11am each day … I could go on ...