Making it up

one of the women I work with helps her mother out with Rainbows. I was saying to her yesterday how we’d never been able to get involved in that kind of thing because of the travelling and she said she would ask the brownie leader whether they had any spaces. They do, and Big can start after half term. That’s how it is supposed to work, isn’t it? Knowing someone who knows someone?

We’ve never really done that kind of thing before as we’ve never really known anyone local. Feels like quite a momentous occasion

Small wants to go to Brownies when he’s 8 as well

Amusing day at school today - it’s interesting trying to manage children without a voice. I’ve no idea where mine has gone, but it’s no longer with me, there’s a rumour that this is what happens when you work in the children’s house as the previous directress frequently lost her voice too. Ah well, here’s hoping it’s back at least to some extent tomorrow. Off to rest up now to give it a decent chance!

BBC NEWS | Politics | Rubbish charge trials to go ahead

Trials of a scheme to tax householders who throw away too much rubbish are to forge ahead, Downing Street has said.

I’m fascinated by how that would work in this area. There’s next to no recycling facilities - the area we’ve come from was collecting glass, cans, paper, garden waste and cardboard, with optional paired shoes and textiles (if you bagged them and put them out on recycling day) and black bin rubbish on alternate weeks. Oh, and we had a compost bin for food waste other than meat. Here there’s a black bag (not even a bin, we had to buy that ourselves) and when I mailed and asked we got a green bag that can take paper and thin cardboard, and a black box that takes glass. That’s it.

So everything else I’m collecting up and stacking in separate piles in the ex coalhole (apart from compostables, which right at the moment I’m sorrowfully binning - suppose I could take it to school and bung it in the bin there) for the moment when I’ll feel up to going and finding the local recycling facilities other than those at tesco. Although at least Tesco has a recycling bin for juice boxes, so I’ve been taking those every so often for the past few months. I need to find somewhere for plastic, cans and heavier cardboard. Not so much to ask is it?

Really ought to get outside and do some gardening - think I might grab half an hour once I insert the children into bed. Given how loath they are to get in the bath that might be some time away yet. They need it though - due to several late nights they haven’t really bathed and certainly haven’t hair washed - we’ve been spiritually keeping up with the campers At least we’ve had a fairly relaxing weekend though, and fitted quite a lot in, including yet another shoe shopping trip for Big (she now has some very nice trainers for bike riding after another 45 minute session in Clark’s. I feel like I should be getting names and addresses from the shop assistants and sending them birthday cards!), another party for Small (bit of a busman’s holiday with so many children from school who seemed to think that I was there to assist! One of the mums bought me coffee though ), catching up with a sister and cousins and finally managing to walk both children to the park.

The park was heaving, with one family from school, which was quite nice as the boychild, N, has a bit of a crush on Big, and it was good for the mother to finally understand who she is and another family from where I used to work, also good to play catch up. Did point out to him that I might be up for some emergency cover given our current slightly strapped situation - Tim is away on another job interview, thumb holding appreciated (tomorrow at 10).

And that’s about as much as I have energy for given that I’ve still got to get the kids into bed, excavate the kitchen, find the mending and do it, and crack through some paperwork. At least we’ve got darker curtains on the bedroom window now so I ought to sleep past dawn!

From the story Tim links to below:

To those who see him as out of touch, he stressed his “ordinary” upbringing, knowing hardship, and the friends he still keeps from Kirkcaldy schooldays represent today’s Britain.

Ordinary upbringing?

From wikipedia:

Brown was educated first at Kirkcaldy West Primary School[13] where he was selected for an experimental fast stream education programme, which took him two years early to Kirkcaldy High School for an academic hothouse education taught in separate classes. At age 16 he wrote that he loathed and resented this “ludicrous” experiment on young lives.

That sounds very ordinary. I don’t know whether being a son of the manse was a good or bad thing, certainly we seem to have ended up with an awful lot of scottish personalities who can claim it in the background, but again, not enough to call it ordinary.

Do you think we need to send him a definition of the word? I’m also wondering how many friends he’ll have retained from Kirkcaldy who weren’t in that academic hothouse - in other words, not that many ordinary friends.

I have now been a web developer for almost twelve years. I must admit I am getting really fed up with seeing crass incompetence like this. Incredibly it is, if anything, getting worse in spite of the huge improvements in browsers.

“Brown carries can for poll debacle but more problems on the ho”. Give me strength.

BBC NEWS | Education | Teachers jeer children’s minister

Rona Tutt, a delegate from Hertfordshire, had asked the minister what she was going to do to reform the “test-ridden education system”.

Ms Hughes responded by saying headteachers’ views were important “but it’s not the only perspective”.

She said: “The views of parents are also important.”

They really are making it easy to get political today. Headteacher’s views are indeed not the only perspective. There are class teachers, the majority of whom think the tests are too much. Parents, who think the tests are too much. Children, who think the tests are too much. Are you spotting the pattern yet? In fact, about the only group who seem to think the tests are judged right are politicians, many of whom don’t have a clue what mainstream education is like as they didn’t go and they didn’t send their children either.

(Incidentally, the article appears to have been edited while I was writing this and now reads very differently to how it did 45 minutes ago. Sorry.)

I’m tempted to say that I think our children’s education is far too important to be used as a political football, and that only ppl who have actually have experience of it should be involved in deciding policy, but I think you get a whole load of fools involved that way too. What I am sure of is that the current system of plucking ideas out of the air and implementing them across the entire country without paying any attention to the stakeholders (parents and their children, and to a lesser extent, teachers) is absolutely ludicrous and should be stopped.

But I can’t resist responding to this:

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he understands people’s “hurt”, in the aftermath of Labour’s worst local election results in 40 years.

Mr Brown told the BBC it had “not been the best weekend”, adding that voters were worried about rising petrol and food prices and utility bills.

“I do understand this and I feel the hurt that they feel,” Mr Brown said.

Do you really Mr Brown? Do you really worry about whether you can afford to fill up the car to get to the job that pays you £3.90 a day after you’ve paid for childcare? Are you sure that you feel the pain of rising utility bills - do you actually pay them, living in 10 Downing street, which is after all, offices as well as a flat? Are you sure that you are concerned about the price of every day items, given that you can charge many of them on expenses?

Do you understand that removing the 10p tax level while replacing the money in tax benefits that many ppl can’t bring themselves to claim because of the incompetence of the agency involved means ppl standing in supermarkets looking at food they can’t afford?

You know, I don’t think you do. Because you are paid £187,000 and your two houses are rent free, so you aren’t feeling the pinch of disappearing mortgage deals either. You probably haven’t noticed that while the base rate has been cut, credit cards are currently raising their interest rates, and I doubt very much that you stress about the credit card shuffle or wake in the middle of the night as you suddenly remember a bill you’ve forgotten.

Mr Brown, please don’t say that you feel our pain, you haven’t got a clue.

We have a bookpeople rep come round to school and usually I try to avoid looking at the books. The children don’t. So tonight as I was trying to leave, Big was enthusing about one and Small was moaning about another and I ended up putting £7 in to the envelope and hoping Ailsa would find another pound (she said she would, but whether she’ll remember between now and Tues morning!) to pay for Beautiful Doodles (Buster Books) and Ten Little Dinosaurs (Wiggle Eyes). Can you guess which one is for which?

Another long day. It’s got a lot warmer, and in a child led environment, that means you spend a lot of time outside. One of my children (keychild for those in the know, which just means I’m named to keep track of her observations and so on) had some injections yesterday and was feeling particularly in need of attention, so a little hand kept snaking into mine every few minutes and there were lots of cuddles. It is nice to feel wanted, particularly when my own children (the actual ones I gave birth to) seem to ignore me as much as they can!

Small’s triumph of the day was cracking pedalling the big tricycle - I’d find a picture but I’ve no idea what make it is. It was ordered for the elementary class and Small has just got big enough to cope - so he was pedalling, Big was standing on the platform at the back, they came hurtling (well, moving faster than a slow walk) down the playground, he turned the handlebars and they dismounted in spectacular fashion. Somehow they didn’t hurt themselves (much) doing that - he put a hole in his elbow when walking “sideways in a dramatic fashion” a little while later

Other than that, the day was without incident - apart perhaps from mentioning that I left within half an hour of my projected leaving time, lol. Guess it might be me rather than the jobs? Tim has been down to renishaw and recovered more items, though he didn’t find the stick weaving frame that I was hoping for, meaning that we can’t set up to weave our own rag rugs yet. (I was rather taken by the idea of a group artistic project where the children’s house could take to weaving their own rag rugs for floorwork )

And then we came home and the children made friends over the walls with two girls two gardens up. our house fronts onto one road, and there are two roads perpendicular with gardens back to back, and these two 8 years old were out in a back garden next door but one to us. So I walked the kids round and the big sister walked them back 20 minutes or so later, but a good time was had by all I think. It’s the first time they’ve ever just played out like that rather than me arranging playdates or at a campsite, so I thought it was quite a momentous occasion And a good note to end a blogpost on

Anyone who has studied with the OU, how much time does it really take? I’m looking at doing a maths degree, maybe with computing, starting with courses that will give me a certificate/ diploma to bolster my qualifications in that area for our next venture. But I’ve never actually studied with the OU, and I’m a bit intimidated by the idea that it’s 360 points, and that most courses are 60 for a year, so that will take me 6 years, a bit longer than I had in mind. Can it be done quicker alongside a full time job?

Ta.

the kids got me up at 2.24 this morning - Big came in and told me that Small had been sick. I hit the ground running at the far side of the bedroom (as you do) and got into their room in seconds, to find that he hadn’t been sick, he was just quietly sobbing to himself as I hadn’t come in to kiss them goodnight. So I kissed him goodnight and went back to bed. In my defence, I’d point out that I didn’t get home til after 10 last night - I was at a training session at school until 9 and then doing stuff with A after that.

Anyways, middle of the night wake ups make getting up that much more difficult and we had absolutely no leeway in our leaving time when we all piled down to the pavement to discover that the wing mirror had been seriously rearranged on Tim’s car, and the aerial snapped on mind. Rude words. At least both cars were still drivable, so got in and drove to work, to find some delivery lorry parked at the pub next door, blocking the entrance to the school car park unless you drove up on the kerb. More rude words. The driver is really lucky that I couldn’t find him to tell him what I thought of him - I tried.

After that, the day was a doddle, just the usual forays into class management, materials, coordination and wondering where the day has gone. Took one of our volunteers home and brought her back again - she’s doing a maths class after hours. Oh yes, that reminds me, apparently I did nothing 92 - 93. I thought I was doing a year of degree level maths at Nottingham university preparatory to a year long PGCE - I transferred back to Durham for that. But I applied for a transcript - in the hope that I could use some credits against a full maths degree - and they have nothing. They know what date I arrived, they know what date I left, and they know that I didn’t get a PGCE.

Good to know that counted for something then. At least I did get something nice in the post (thanks Em and yes, collection seems a much better idea ) which has cheered me up this evening. And I found some more good articles. There are some books recommended within that look really interesting, like ‘The World in The Palm of Her Hand’ Geography and History for the Young Child, The Montessori Approach, but that seems to be out of print and somewhat rare - does anyone happen to have a copy I can borrow? There’s also Celebrations of Life which doesn’t even get an Amazon listing. I’m sure I’ve seen this, Nurturing the Spirit: In Non-Sectarian Classrooms, recommended somewhere else as well, can’t for the life of me remember where though.

Anyway, somehow I seem to have used up another half hour of my sleep time waffling about nothing much on here. I do remember that I said I might blog about my montessori training - I’ll start having a think about that this weekend I hope.

Another one of those silly quizzes. Arse Or Elbow

Sorry about lowering the tone and all. I scored 10/14.

I’d really like to try capoeira - has anyone any experience of it? I’ve so far found three groups within the area, though unfortunately non under 10 miles distance, which might pretty much rule it out. I’ve got Leeds Capoeira who practise on a Weds evening; Group Senzala, Thurs, and Capoeira Yorkshire who actually have weekend classes. Having said that, the way that my weekends are stacking up at the moment (these birthdays are getting out of hand!) middle of the week might work better (if I think I can stay awake that long anyway ).

Appreciate comments and advice!

ETA, ooh, have found one in Hudds!

June 5, 2000

The Japanese government recently decided on a target of raising the food self-sufficiency rate–that is, the ratio of food consumed daily by the Japanese that is supplied by domestic production–to 45% by fiscal 2010, a five-percentage-point increase over the fiscal 1998 level of 40%. The goal is based on the idea of food security, by which a country should endeavor to ensure the minimum necessary supply of food in case of poor harvests at home or abroad caused by such factors as abnormal weather conditions, or in case of an unexpected situation, such as a state of war. Japan is the first developed country to set a numerical target for food self-sufficiency. From now on the government will make all-out efforts to increase the production of agricultural and other products. But it will face many issues in trying to reach the target, as the main causes of the decline in the self-sufficiency rate are, after all, such factors as a shift to Western-style eating habits and a near-zero recycling rate for leftovers, nearly all of which are discarded as waste. Web Japan

10 April 2008 IPS “The only way for China to be spared the consequences of global food shortages and food price hikes is to remain firmly self-sufficient,” declared an emphatic editorial in the 21st Century Economic Herald last week.

The warnings come as the whole of Asia is rattled by the surge in the price of rice — the continent’s food staple. Prices have doubled since January, prompting Asian farmers to hoard rice, while export bans have sliced off a third of the global rice trade.

As far as I know, we have no policy at all on this. The best figures I could find suggest we currently only produce 60% of what we eat. That really does not seem wise.

Doing some more research while trying to write up a gifted and talented policy and I’ve found this:

The Young Gifted & Talented (YG&T) programme is provided for gifted and talented learners in maintained primary and secondary schools or colleges. Learners who are home-educated, in non-maintained schools/colleges or educated overseas also have access to the programme. Perhaps your child is one of them!

The website is here.

Further info as to how to identify whether you are dealing with gifted and talented children:

The DCSF strongly encourages schools and colleges to maintain their own G&T register.

A secondary-phase register should include all learners who:

* were previously members of the former National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY) and who were transferred across as members of YG&T in autumn 2007 during the first phase of the YG&T programme launch; and/or
* were not previously members of the former NAGTY but nevertheless are judged by the school/college to meet the former NAGTY eligibility criteria; and/or
* while they may not meet the former NAGTY eligibility criteria, have been identified by the school/college as gifted and/or talented because their ability is developed to a level significantly ahead of their year group within that school/college, or because they have the potential to develop such ability.

Key areas may include one or more of the following: subject-specific skills, “cross-curricular” skills (such as creativity, leadership, communication), vocational skills, entrepreneurial skills.

A primary-phase register should include all learners who:

* have been identified by the school as gifted and/or talented because their ability is developed to a level significantly ahead of their year group within that school, or because they have the potential to develop such ability.

Key areas may include one or more of the following: subject-specific skills, “cross-curricular” skills (such as creativity, leadership, communication), vocational skills, entrepreneurial skills.

For further information, please see the DCSF guidance on identification.

Still trying to work out how to apply this to a school that has only one child in several of the year groups, but I thought I’d drop the information here in case it’s of interest to any of you out there as well

started disgustingly early as I had a training session yesterday morning on Autistic Spectrum Disorders. Fortunately it was just down the road in Halifax, so I only had to fall out of bed at 8.20. First part of the session was very average, whole load of stuff on the difficulties pupils (not ppl apparently, pupils) with ASD have in forming friendships. Given that social interaction and communication are two of the three areas of impairment in ASD, this didn’t come precisely as news to me, and the lecturer didn’t actually given any hints on how to deal with any of it, just going through names of techniques rather than how to employ them.

Was beginning to wish I hadn’t crawled out of bed at all, but after coffee the second part of the session changed my mind completely. We were listening to an abbreviated form of a talk by Dr John Biddulph and Fiona Biddulph that focuses around a timeline of their life, with signposts to his autism and then goes on to discuss their relationship together. I was trying to find a link because I’m sure when I googled yesterday I found it as a paid training course that lasts a day, but can I find it today? I’ve found some biographies anyway. It was utterly fascinating - they are both very good speakers, and to gain insight into the life of an autistic person (and I’d like to point out at this stage that that is how John preferred to use the terminology - he said he wasn’t a person with autism any more than he was a person with maleness - so autistic person it is from here on out, though I’m having to correct myself every other sentence!) and how his thought processes work was well worth the early morning and £5 entrance fee. I’ve also added a few more recommended books to my wishlist, including Loving Mr Spock: A Different Kind of Love. Really wish I’d bought his CD there though, as it’s £8.99 to have it posted out. Might buy the downloads and burn them myself

Ailsa and I chatted with him at the end - he’d noticed us on the registration form and we wanted to talk about how Montessori may well be a good education style for someone with an Autistic Spectrum condition (again, he didn’t like the term disorder) as it allows them to focus on the interest of the time without causing stress by wanting to move them on to something else, as well as being completely individual and not group oriented. Ailsa also wished him a Happy Birthday having noticed from the timeline that he was 53 yesterday We’ll be pondering afresh how that applies within our setting and I may well blog further over the next days or weeks.

So, after my morning out I came home for a large lunch, then ran out to do present shopping. Also stopped in Gap to look at their sale goods, can anyone explain how I can be a size 8 on the bottom half and over a 14 on the top? No? Didn’t think so. I know I’ve toned up a little recently (I think it’s the stairs and the fact that I rarely sit down these days) but I think I may need to actually work on the area where there should be a waistline. Drooling over the idea of a wii and wii fit, although I’m not convinced it would be nearly as effective as finding my callanetics book and working that into my daily routine.

Day finished late as we went to the wedding reception of an ex colleague - he’d sent out an invite to everyone in support before I left and I’d mailed with him to check the details. Turns out he’s left now too (that’s three java analysts and a call taker in the space of two months, what a recruitment and training nightmare they must be having right now ) which could explain why no one else turned up. According to his wife he was made up that I’d come out, and I overheard him describing me as his ex boss. Which isn’t quite how I tag myself, but given I recruited, trained and managed him is fair I suppose!

Kids had a lovely time running around the empty dance floor and scoffing buffet food right up til the point that the disco proper came on and the volume suddenly elevated. At that point Small had his hands over his ears and was whimpering so we beat a hasty retreat. It was nearly 10 pm by that stage anyway, so we hardly left early!

Late night doesn’t appear to have sparked late morning for anyone but me - Tim’s out shopping just now and the kids are playing with Thunderbirds Soundtech Tracy Island, recently received from a friend whose son didn’t quite get into it. It may be difficult to peel them away to go out, but we’ve another party to attend

(Nine minute long vid).

Randy Pausch (born October 23, 1960) is a Professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and Design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In September 2006, Pausch was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer. He pursued a very aggressive cancer treatment that included major surgery and experimental chemotherapy; however, in August 2007, he was told the cancer had metastasized to his liver and spleen. He then started palliative chemotherapy, intended to extend his life as long as possible. At that time, doctors estimated he would remain healthy for another three to six months. Randy Pausch Wikipedia entry.

Doing a bit of research on the type of thing that is being looked at in terms of Montessori atm, and have come across a couple of books I need to read, so dropping some links here so that I can find them

Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius looks particularly interesting, if a little American. Research lining up how Montessori fits with pyschological understanding of children’s development (if I’m reading the blurb right).

Gifted and Talented in the Early Years: Practical Activities for Children Aged 3 to 5 - I’ve taken on the Lead teacher for gifted and talented role (hence the long conversation with an NAGC adviser yesterday - turns out that she is a trained Montessori teacher who ran her own nursery so there was plenty of common ground for discussion ) so I need to do a bit of research and write up a policy for the handbook.

On a more personal level, I’m wondering whether Aspiring Author’s Journal and The Aspiring Artist’s Journal might be good indulgences for the offspring - Small’s art is going from strength to strength and I’d really like to inspire Big to do more writing as she’s very much enjoyed it when she has. Anyone any experiences with either of them they’d like to share? I’m wondering whether a journal might be a bit much for Small given he’s not reading yet, and whether something like this, You Can Paint Like Van Gogh: A Complete Kit for Aspiring Artists with Other and Paint Brush and Paint and Booklet (Artist in a Can) might be more suitable. Decisions, decisions (I’m still trying to spend the £16 I got through doing surveys, you’d have thought that would be easy, wouldn’t you?

Sometimes a product comes along which you never knew you needed. (Hint, click the pic)

Small didn’t want to go to school this morning, so he went back to bed and Tim brought him in later. That seemed to work fairly well as when he did appear he was in a lovely sunny mood. Big then lost it five minutes later when we realised that her wellies were in Tim’s car, and apparently her shoes were suddenly far too tight for her to wear. So that added the prospect of a trip to a shoe shop this evening to what was already stacking up as a busy day.

Another interview, office based day, paperwork, new child, and an hour long conversation with the NAGC helpline adviser (who turned out to be a trained Montessori teacher who had previously run her own nursery, so at least we had plenty of common ground!) and suddenly my day had nearly vanished - rounded it off with a run out in the minibus as I’m driving it on Thursday for our first outing

Collected the kids and whipped off up to the White Rose Centre to find a Clarks shop - only took about 40 minutes to get both kids happily togged up in there :wall: Honestly, I felt like I should tip the woman serving us handsomely, as she maintained a sunny demeanour as she lied through her teeth to Small (no I’m sorry, we don’t have those in your size) and coaxed Big into making a decision about shoes. Then we went into Marks to see if I could find something I’d be happy to wear as my sole cardigan is deeply horrid and I don’t like wearing fleeces to school, don’t think they look smart enough really, but Big said everything I tried on looked terrible so I put them all back again

Final stop was in Smiths to spend some of my giftcard - bought Small Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer Annual 2008: Rise of the Silver Surfer Annual (Fantastic Four Annual) for 99p, and picked up a rather lovely hardback copy of Party Shoes for Big. Although I might read it too

Rounded off the evening by getting lost on the way home from the White Rose, adding at least 10 minutes to what should only have been a 20 minute journey. So by the time we got back I was shattered and the children were frayed, but bowls of shreddies all round rescued the evening and they went off to bed. Tim has fed me comfort food (fried eggs ) and I’m feeling much better now, although I shan’t be doing that again in a hurry!

Fascinating. Lecture by Elizabeth Warren.

If you don’t fancy a vid: Harvard Magazine covers some of the ground, but no pics.

Given the recent change in my life from java support team leader to deputy manager and Children’s house directress at a Montessori school, Montessori is a hot topic of conversation with most ppl I meet atm. I find it easy to be enthusiastic about it, though I’m often surprised by which bits ppl know about and which bits they don’t. So I thought I’d amuse myself today by going on about it on here, from my new point of view.

First of all, most ppl have seemed to know bits about Montessori materials. They may have heard of Pink towers, or Sandpaper letters, or Golden beads, and even made and used materials of this type at home with their children. (Remember that many of the ppl I’m talking to are home educators!) What doesn’t seem necessarily to have come across from the reading they’ve done is that Montessori is about far more than just materials. The community of children, working for global peace and harmony, Grace and courtesy in how we move and speak and handle ourselves around others, these are the things that aren’t nearly as easily quantifiable, and can’t be presented on a tray to be taken home in quite the same way.

A Montessori children’s house is a community. The children learn to look after each other, and learn that hands are for helping and cuddling, not hurting. That if feet need to kick then we need to go outside and find a ball, that if hands need to hit then we go outside and find a bat. (I’m also thinking that we might need to bring in some wood working and other tools that could explore these urges.) Jumping and bouncing, shouting and running are all also done outside, we walk and speak quietly in the classroom so that we can keep each other and our beautiful materials and work safe (occasionally I feel like an episode of Dora ). The materials and the pre-academic skills that come from using them are important, but the skills for independence and social existence in a community are even more important, and completely central to each day.

This can lead to a slightly fraught Jax. My natural demeanour is not a completely smiley happy one, I’m sarcastic as all get out, and nice is not my middle name. Which is why we work as a team - it can really help to have another member of staff catch your eye and smile as you’re dealing with the tenth incident of running in the classroom or flattening a friend (these are 2 1/2 to 5 year olds I’m with all day!) and if we ever really can’t deal we swap out to let someone else take a turn. There are times when I really do need my 30 minutes lunch break - I’ve got into the habit of taking two cups of tea up as it’s often difficult to get a cup during the day.

Do I regret the change? Not at all - my stress levels are lower, I smile more and I believe in what I’m doing now - it has a positive effect on ppl and the world. How could I regret that?