Common Sense has hosted it's first Pre-schoolers event which was a TEDDY BEARS PICNIC! The event was hosted by Laine, who will be running these sessions regularly, and a few new families came along to have fun. We will publish some photos here as soon as we can. For more details, usual contacts apply. The next session is on Friday 31st August from 10 til 12 at the Bournemouth Community Church, Calvin Road, Winton. It will be TUMBLE TOTS!!

We are thrilled to announce that we are putting on an AFRICAN DRUMMING WORKSHOP!!
on 23rd September from 10:30 til 1:00 at the Bournemouth Society for the Visually Impaired in Bournemouth.

The BSVI have very kindly offered us their facilities for free, and we hope to become more involved with what they do as well.

The workshop is being run by Percussion Works (www.percussionworks.co.uk).

Common Sense are arranging a trip to Adventure Wonderland near Hurn airport.
 Monday 13th August at 10:30 meet in the carpark.

For details, call Sarah on 01202 676388 or email Mel on www.commonsense-uk@hotmail.co.uk

Well, I haven't posted for ages, as my computer has been a nightmare, but things are moving forward with Common Sense, and I thought I would mention some of them now. Firstly, Common Sense is no longer under the umbrella of the DBA (Dorset Blind Association), but we are still on friendly terms with them.

FRANKS TALK: On Saturday, our long awaited Q&A with Frank McFarlane is happening! I will update on this afterwards.

GRANTS: As we are no longer being supported financially by the DBA, we need to raise funds for ourselves. I have had great help from Mel, and we have so far applied for a grant from VICTA and a Community Champions Grant. We are finding out about more that we can apply for. We seen to have hit a hurdle because we do not yet have a Child Protection Policy, nor do we have a Health and Safety policy. This is all a bit odd, as for each of our groups, the parents will all be present, but we need these to get money - so we are working on it! We are also getting together a constitution so that we can apply for charitable status.

Bank account: Iain has kindly started setting up a bank account for us, which should be ready for any money (please!).

Alliances: We have joined forces with 'Moorvision' (support group in Devon), and with 'Changing Herts' (support group in Hertfordshire) to create documents with anything parents with a V I child might ever want to know. I will keep you all updated on this.

Music Workshop Sat 17th Feb.

This was our first organised event. The workshop worked on the story of The Enormous Turnip, and the children were encouraged to pretend to be a character in the story, they played with different instruments, and used a microphone to change their voices. They also told a group story (of sorts!), and made up a song. We had lots of people come, and it seems to have been  successful! We had 11 children, about half of whom are visually impaired, age ranged from 12 months to 12 years. Everyone seems to have had fun, and I think it's definitely something that we will do again. We were funded by the Vision support service at Dorset council (Thanks Evelyn!), and by the Dorset Blind Association.  The workshop was run by Lucas' music teacher Gren and his partner Isabel (www.inspiritionmusic.co.uk), and they did a stellar job. We eagerly await CD's of the day which we will send to all of the children. We had a dialog with BBC South Today, who couldn't make it to film the event, but they would like to cover the next event that we do. Hopefully we will get some coverage in the local paper also. I was so pleased that so many turned up (even if they didn't RSVP!), and I am thrilled that some of the other parents are keen to get involved and help run Common Sense. I have been told that one little boy sang the whole evening after he got home, and another girl slept for her longest night yet! Onwards and upwards! Our next big date is Sat 28th April, when we will have a talk by Frank McFarlane.