Reading and Writing

Animal Fun began one evening when, instead of reading the book we’d got from school, which had been read several times and wasn’t that interesting in the first place, we decided to read from the six year old’s own books. We weren’t in ‘lock-down’ mode at that point, but we’d socially distanced from the six year old’s grandparents who had the role of collecting him twice a week and reading with him. On a whim, I suggested ‘shall we do this as a radio programme?’ and the six year old was ecstatic. We made an audio note on a mobile phone. I played the xylophone and he said ‘welcome to . . .’ there was a small pause while we waited with bated breath to see what it was we were welcoming people to. ‘Animal fun’ popped out and that was that.

He loved the performance and the idea of broadcasting to the world. He loved watching the sound waves flow in relation to his own voice while he talked. It became a thing. And we’ve been doing it for the last couple of weeks now. The idea of doing an website came because the six year old kept asking about his ‘listeners’. He wanted to believe we were broadcasting to the world. How could I prove we were? And, I thought, well, why not?

Now, we are all working from home and/or learning from home. Animal Fun has become a moment in the day when a few things from the flow crystallise just for a few moments of the day. It’s a way of finding time or making time to turn something from the hermetically sealed inside into the outside again.

Our sound files are unedited. They are hokey. We don’t have high hopes for a big listenership (well, one of us doesn’t!), in fact six is plenty enough. But, by putting these reading sessions out into the world, we feel a little less isolated than we otherwise would. So, really, thank you for listening!