Mixed day

Tue Jan 6 2009 – 22:56

After the post this morning we retired to the kitchen for some more maths. Small did another 20 additions with the base 10 blocks, and we found what level he begins to struggle at, so now we know where we need to be working :)

Big was another story. We’d been doing fractions at school, so I ran upstairs and printed off a number of fraction worksheets from a rather good site that automates worksheets for you. Unfortunately, I appear to have judged it totally wrong, and when I gave her what I considered to be the easiest sheet, I was horribly wrong. It turns out that she doesn’t really understand equivalences, or not in terms of working them out if you haven’t got set ones and a whole load of insets in front of you. And she doesn’t really understand basic mathematical operations, nor have a good grasp of number facts.

:( I knew that it wasn’t good from our work together last term, but I hadn’t realised it was that rough for her. We had an hour or so of wailing, stropping, screaming, shouting and storming out of the room, and eventually we compromised on some work on a timestable, and the wailing, screaming etc etc moved topic on to the fact that she couldn’t find any socks to wear to go out. Hohum.

I’m still finding it a lot easier to be calm with the wailing than I was last term when I was getting it at school with other children to deal with too. I know we’re only on day two here, but I feel in control of myself, rather than hopelessly out of place and running to keep up, so I have every confidence we’ll get there in the end. I shall be pondering our mathematical direction and probably writing up some more about it soon.

After all the wailing and the scrubbing of the extremely smelly shoes, (I gave up in the end and he wore wellies) we went into town. Big had seen dolls in a charity shop yesterday, and it turned out she was right to want to go back in a hurry, two had gone already. The megablocks set that Small had been ogling had gone as well, but he was satisfied with a Troll game, and eventually Big made a choice and came home with another china faced doll. Can’t say as I understand the fascination, but she loves them.

I was very restrained and saved a whole £2 - I had hardback versions of Shaman’s Crossing and If I Pay Thee Not in Gold in my hands, and I put them back on the shelf. I figure I ought to stash that money away, but I think I’ll just keep track of it, along with anything I make from selling books we don’t need any more.

Got home and gave up on the saving money for the day when I finally registered for my OU courses. I’m doing MST 121 and MS 221 which together give me an HNC apparently, as well as putting me well on the path for my degree. :)

Big and Small disappeared upstairs to play things with dolls when we got back so we still didn’t get any science done. I’m thrilled with how well they are playing together atm, so I’m not really into the idea of interrupting. I was cross later when I discovered that Small has already managed to lose the protractor from the geometry set I bought him yesterday (£1 in tesco, and it includes a stencil with loads of science type shapes in it, and even better, it’s exactly the same as the one I made him leave at school, much to his dismay!). That was slightly after I was cross when he attempted to bite my hand for no apparent reason after getting himself all excited at bedtime.

This evening I’ve finally got the christmas tree down, and the cat has hobbled round the room looking shocked after coming back from the vets following his desexing operation (well, that’s what they refer to him as now, male, desexed :) ). I’d have felt slightly guilty about it had I not found concrete evidence of his spraying habits in wet form on a carrier bag shortly after I dropped him off there, as it was I very nearly rang them and told them to do it without anaesthetic. :evil:

And that was day two. Gosh I’m writing a lot here again aren’t I?

By Jax | Posted in Big, Jonny had two apples, OU, Small steps | Comments (1)

Big’s plan

Tue Jan 6 2009 – 10:57

Sitting down with Big to work out what she thinks she ought to be doing during this home ed lark. This is being typed pretty much as we speak, so will be somewhat disjointed :)

We both think that maths should be a regular activity, as maths gets easier if you practise it.

She wants to do cooking, she’s looking through her cookbook again. I think it would be good if she cooked for us at least once a week.

She does plenty of reading, and I’m trying again with the suggestion that she should keep a list of what she reads, and perhaps review some of them on her blog as well. I’m hesitant to link to her blog from here but she would enjoy more ppl reading it, must have more of a think about that.

She is suggesting a tv/ computer free day once a week, which would probably work better when the weather is less cold. Boy is it cold out there. I walked past a house this morning with a heavy trail of ice outside it, looked like someone had poured a bucket of water down some steps and it had frozen instantly. It was thick and bubbly, wish I’d had the camera with me.

Poetry - I went to speech and drama and had to learn and recite a poem a week. I want her to do similarly, I think poetry is wonderful for that. We are however, negotiating this one. I’d like for her to copy out a poem each week for learning, which would also give chance to improve her writing, but she’s balking about the writing out bit of it. Hohum.

History is not something I need to worry about, as long as I don’t mind her only knowing about Victorians. She’s fascinated by them, and got yet another book out of the library yesterday on the subject. Still, guess that we can broaden that out as and when.

Science we’ll cover in projects - I think we shall be doing some horrible science this week. I’m not even particularly worried about them recording it, I think that will come in time. Languages we’re debating - Big has wanted to learn Spanish for a long time, and we’ve not done anything about it. I bought Muzzy chinese, which must rank easily as my most expensive pointless purchase, although I’m hopeful of getting some of the money back on Ebay (unless anyone knows anyone who wants to buy it direct? No? Didn’t think so :( ) Tim would prefer her to learn German on the premise that at least he can speak it, but I guess if we learn Spanish we can all learn it together.

Ah, I think the conversation is over, she’s been distracted by something Small is watching on cbeebies about how mummies grow babies in their tummies. Can I call that science? ;)

In the middle of all of that, she read loads of poems out of The Oxford Treasury of Children’s Poems, including one of my faves, Escape at bedtime.

By Jax | Posted in Ages past, Big, Jonny had two apples, Puters!, reeling, writhing, speaking in tongues, things that go bang, won't cook, can't cook | Comments (3)

Library haul

Mon Jan 5 2009 – 15:01

Got some great stuff today.

Small is very happy with Planet Animal: Saving Earth’s Disappearing Animals, Monster Book of Manga Fairies and Magical Creatures and Smasher for bedtime. He’s decided that Planet Animal is so good he wants a copy for himself, which is a fairly standard reaction to a library book, and we’ll just have to see.

Oh good, Captain Mack has finished and we’ve moved on to Curious George. I like Curious George.

I got a good selection too. Thought I’d see if Meat and 2 Veggies: How to combine meat and vegetarian meals without having to cook separate dishes offered any dietary inspiration. Have had a quick look and a bit disappointed to tell the truth. However Giant Book of the Body looks better. And Beastly Body Experiments has got plenty to get us going, along with Disgusting Digestion for good measure.

I got a couple more books to preview as well. Not sure about I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree for Big any time soon, but I’m building a list of novels about different historical times for when she finally tires of the Victorians. Also thought I’d try The Wind Singer although if it turns out to be good I’m going to be very irritated as they didn’t have part two, only part three. Still, that’s what the reservation system is for :) Also got myself Mockingbird (S.F. Masterworks). Well, it had Masterworks written on it, so I thought I’d better give it a go.

Rounded out my selection with one that I thought Big might like Jazzy Jewellery: Recycle Materials to Make Cool Accessories (Ecocrafts). She got herself a whole set as well, including a poetry book, more on puberty and more on Victorians. Not sure that she got any story books this time, but then again not sure she’s finished the ones she already had here.

Right, Curious George has finished, and I’m trying to pry them out for another stroll down into town, this time in search of a wall planner. I think I may be being successful, so I’d better go.

(Oh and don’t worry, I’m sure the blogging frequency will drop off as I get used to this being at home lark again ;) )

By Jax | Posted in It's where it is | Comments (1)

Cookbook correction

Mon Jan 5 2009 – 11:12

It’s this one: The Children’s Step-by-step Cook Book - I found it this morning in one of the stashes of stuff still unhomed after the christmas excess. She was very pleased to see it, but too busy making flowers to look through for a recipe for lunch, so I guess it’s sandwiches again.

Small agreed to do some maths, much to my surprise as he never did when we were at school, and then sat for about 50 minutes with the base ten blocks doing simple addition. Wow. Have I got a falls over backwards in shock emoticon? He wants to do two rows of sums every day because he’s good at them. Eek.

I’m now hiding while trying to remotely chivvy them into getting dressed, I’d like to do library before lunch while the sun is still shining. And I’ve done a load of washing already. Coo, how productive are we??

By Jax | Posted in Big, Jonny had two apples, Small steps, won't cook, can't cook | Comments (8)

A very quiet day

Sun Jan 4 2009 – 20:39

Today has been a very quiet day, not least because when I went to get up to sort out the table Small had “poured milk all over!”, I made it to the landing, grabbed my dressing gown off the rail and then fell over, very ungracefully and in slow motion, backwards, staggering back through the doorway into Big’s bedroom (where thankfully she’d cleared the floor on Friday or it could have been rather more disastrous) and sat down heavily and somewhat surprised. I still don’t quite know what happened. Somewhere in the middle of it I caught my hand on something hard and smashed a nail up, but that was the only sign. So I gingerly put myself back to bed, and stayed there for another three hours.

When I got up, I still felt woozy, so Tim brought my toast and marmalade on the couch, and we didn’t have a family lunch together :( Ah well, it was never going to happen every day. Then we had a family day of watching many movies. They were just finishing Doctor Who, the Christmas special with Donna in it, and then after they’d lunched, we watched Peter Pan [2003]. That was good, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The children seemed to as well. Once we’d finished that, we went on to The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking [1988] which I didn’t like quite as much, but was still bearable. Big amused herself during this one with a tissue paper flower craft kit, which did give rise to one shouting session - she shouted at me, I sat here calmly - but overall went well.

Round about the end of the film, Tim came down from his bath, and I went up to enjoy it, coming back down to find them on their second run through of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2 Disc Special Edition) [2005]. I am wondering if a look behind the techniques of something like stop motion animation would be good for Small - I do want to do more art with him, just to get him to experiment a little more. He is very interested in the various how to draw cartoons/ manga/ monster type book in the library and I said I would work through one with him, so we’ll go and choose something tomorrow.

They’ve had tea now and are crashing around in the bath - do other ppl’s children crash in baths or is it only ours? Small has been warned he needs to come back down though - he forgot to clear his plate off the table at teatime, which was unfortunate as it had a chicken bone on it and we have a cat. The cat is now safely (and rather crossly) outside, and the plate and debris are waiting for Small to come and fix - we want him to understand there is a reason for clearing up at the end of a meal.

Tomorrow Tim is off on another round trip to London. I have vague plans - the best kind I feel :) The christmas decorations are coming down, not least so I can do some excavation on this room, which also needs airing out for a while. I’ve washing to do, and I’ve promised them a library trip, which will get us out and about. We can make a start on our body project and Big can do more craft kits if she feels inclined.

I need to decide whether I can afford the full hit of the OU courses I want, and if so ring in and get them arranged, and make a start on gathering paperwork together to get it in some sort of order. If we can find Big’s new cookbook, which I think is this Kids’ First Cook Book (Dk Activity Guides) we’ll discuss some meals and maybe walk into town for some ingredients, and that will probably be enough to break us in gently. Must think some more about maths for them both and if I’m going to order anything, get it ordered. Oh, and I want a wallplanner - we’ve got a white board but it’s magnetic and currently covered in poetry tiles that Small is using so I don’t want to repurpose it just now. Should be possible to get a wallplanner cheaply now that it’s already January, or I suppose I can use some of the drawing paper we’ve got all over the place and make my own, month by month. Actually, I could get Small to do it, which might get us somewhere with his understanding of how the year works.

That sounds like a plan, doesn’t it? But not too constricting a one :)

By Jax | Posted in Big, Doodling, drawing and decoration., Small steps, reeling, writhing, won't cook, can't cook | Comments (3)

In response to Gill

Sun Jan 4 2009 – 15:12

How could I resist this? I started to respond in a comment, but it got rather long, so I thought it better removed to a post.

There was a highly amusing thread on Brightkite as to what orgoplanning is - it’s a term that was coined by mazportico some years ago to describe the perceived difference between two types of home educators, the “orgo planners” and the “lazy buggers”. So it’s not only UK home ed, but peculiar to the blogring, and given that it’s a few years back, it was a much smaller ring then too.

Myself, I’m not so sure there’s that much of a difference a lot of the time. Few of us require our children to sit and learn at given times, although we might want some basic skills to be practised regularly. These are often described as “normals” following Merry’s practise. Then again, the children might decide to do this of their own accord anyway. Most of us follow our children’s interests and try to provide materials that might spark those interests to give us something to follow, whether we describe ourselves as planners or not.

Perhaps the main difference is the way orgo planners peruse websites searching for resources, books to enlighten, computer programs to titillate, the way they share catalogues, and plan buying excursions, share tips and loan materials out. Though I’m not sure that lazy buggers don’t gather stuff they think their children might enjoy too, maybe even the same stuff from time to time.

Having two children who’ve just come out of school, albeit an extremely child-centered, small school, my attempt at orgo planning is in response to the need that they both have for some sort of structure to their life. As I said in that earlier post Big likes to know what is coming next and always has done. If I’ve got a set of resources or some ideas, then I don’t have to respond in exhaustion as I so often have before, “I don’t know”. My plans will be loosely woven as I find too much structure restricting for myself, and if I plan too tightly I set myself up to fail, which will do none of us any good.

So far, I’ve thought of a body project, and we borrowed resources from Jan yesterday. Small sat in the middle of the floor last night and learnt about germs and bacteria (oh it was a good thing, him deciding he would read). We will draw diagrams and label them as he very much enjoys doing that, and Big will open her new cooking book and provide fuel for us to learn with. (Today she asked why we eat, and what would happen if we didn’t, what do they teach them at these schools? ;) )

I cannot and will not defend our home educating style - we do what we have to to be happy in our lives. But I hope that this post goes someway to shedding light on the term orgo planning. It probably doesn’t, I’m a bit of an amateur really. But it’s as good as you’re going to get from me, and that will have to do.

By Jax | Posted in how we do it | Comments (7)

Lovely day out

Sat Jan 3 2009 – 23:23

Jan suggested meeting at a local cinema to see The tale of Desperaux, which sounded like a good idea, so we did. It did of course mean that the one thing I’d planned for today, a library visit, only occurred as a hit and run - dash in, drop large pile of books on desk, dash out again - but I decided I could cope with that ;), and Big easily gave up the idea of craft kits when faced with the alternative of an afternoon with M and C.

Small didn’t want to go out to begin with, I can’t quite remember why. But he came around to the idea quite quickly and really enjoyed the film, even if he did talk all the way through it - sigh. Just as well we weren’t in some packed cinema somewhere, I guess cinema etiquette may be another item to add to the list of required educational targets ;)

After the film we retired to sotp homebase for soup, obviously :grin: The children ran off to do shouting and screaming which all seemed to go pretty well, and Jan dug out a pile of resources for our first project. We caught up on my last two months of bizarreness and played with my new toy some, while commiserating on relatives and christmas excesses. All in all, it was a very lovely day, here’s to many more of them.

By Jax | Posted in Getting to know you | Comments (1)

Defensive orgo planning

Fri Jan 2 2009 – 21:56

For pretty much as long as she has been able to talk, Big’s last question of the day has been “what are we doing tomorrow?” and my standard answer is “I don’t know yet”. I’m not a person who lives by plans, and my children are, so I figure that this time around with home ed, I’d better have a good idea of what’s happening next.

This is not going to mean lessons to a timetable - I’m more of a seat of your pants person than that. I would hardly have a blog with this title otherwise ;) But I do need an idea of what we need to cover and a shape to the week or Small will run wild as well. I’m going to get a planner up on the wall showing when we’re going away and stuff of interest like that - it helps him a lot to be able to count down to events he’s looking forward to. It will also help when he begins to understand what a week is and what a month is - I foresee lots of that type of work in his near future :grin:

So I’m looking at Nature detectives club - I like the idea of a weekly activity and of that being based around the natural world. Both the kids thrive on the outdoors, so the more we have planned that draws them outside the better. One way or another there will be gardening, although as there’s likely to be at least one and more likely two moves in the year, it may be small scale gardening to begin with.

For maths I’m looking at Stile for Small at least. He likes the system and he works at it independently, so it would be a good way to get him going. He’s pretty much unteachable a lot of the time, so it has to be something that he can learn from with minimal input, although he may let me extend it if he’s enjoying it.

Big is another story. Sometime over the last couple of years she’s lost her nerve with maths and although I’ve gone someway to repairing that, we’ve still a way to go. I think we’ll work Montessori style, I may be building manipulatives or buying a few in (note to self, must ask S, Tim’s s-i-l where she got the test tubes from that she used in a flower arrangement a while back). We need to nail basic maths facts, get a real grip on the decimal hierarchy and spin out into measuring, estimating and real world problems, which we should mainly be able to do with crafts and cooking.

Big got a fab cookbook from Tim’s family for christmas. Apparently it’s the one his nieces used to learn to cook, and having tasted their cooking, I’m more than pleased to follow their lead. I think that at least once a week she will be preparing us a meal from it (or other sources) and we should be trying to fit in some more baking as well.

Our first project is going to be based around the human body, nutrition and exercise. I need Small to understand that man cannot live on bananas alone ;) and I also need him to understand how to work on a project. His work will involve plenty of labelled diagrams, he’s good at that sort of thing, and once he’s diagrammed something, he doesn’t seem to forget it.

For history and geography we may well make use of resources I already have. 120 Great History Projects strikes again. Actually one of the things that Big did when home education was first mentioned again was go and get it out and start daydreaming about what she could do from it, so I think it will go down pretty well.

Did I miss anything much out? They both read like there’s no tomorrow, I may try to persuade them to do some book reviews as I think it’s good to keep a list of what they’ve been perusing. I’ll try for some readalouds as well, they enjoy that kind of thing, and I got more into it at school. For science I’m planning on finally getting round to my Power House kit - I’m looking forward to it, dunno what the kids are going to think ;) Exercise wise, well, there’s walking to the library and walking to the park, running around the park, walking back again (moaning because it’s uphill, you get the idea). I want to try to get them swimming a couple of times before Centerparcs, but we’ll see.

There will be piano playing on Big’s part, much crafting and drawing from both of them, continual fighting over the computer to improve their bearvilles and hopefully rather more calmness and happiness engendered all around.

I can hope, can’t I?

By Jax | Posted in Ages past, Big, Doodling, drawing and decoration., Jonny had two apples, Making things, Montessori minded, Puters!, Small steps, Where did you say you were going?, fainting in coils, how we do it, reeling, writhing, rhythm of the day, things that go bang, won't cook, can't cook | Comments (11)

Books of the year

Thu Jan 1 2009 – 19:51

with a nod to Ann Aguirre, I’ve scanned back through the books I’ve mentioned this past year, and come up with 10 worth mentioning again, plus it meant I got to play with an Amazon widget :)

I’m hoping this doesn’t do anything too horrid to the blog, please let me know if it does!

By Jax | Posted in Book club | Comments (1)

Happy New Year

Thu Jan 1 2009 – 1:31

May 2009 bring you everything you deserve.

:-)

By Tim | Posted in It's where it is | Comments (9)

Christmas no 2 and a birthday.

Wed Dec 31 2008 – 23:53

It’s Princess’s birthday today, so we gathered in a softplay area and gave her presents. We gave her a pack of books and an England supporter kit, and other ppl just kept on giving. I lost count of how many presents there were, took up several bags when we went to carry them all out anyway.

After an hour or so of playing we retired to K’s house to exchange Christmas gifts with ppl we hadn’t seen yet. There were 6 children, many of whom had already had most of their Christmas presents from this side of the family. Despite this there were 4 red sacks, several bin liners and a large number of carrier bags. I quickly lost track of who was being given what, and my camera batteries gave up as well, so I couldn’t even get pics of the unwrapping. Then I ended up pinned to the couch under a pile of my own presents and with another bag at my feet that I couldn’t reach down to open.

It was all a bit over the top tbh. Well, no, it was extremely over the top. I thought we’d gone a little overboard with 6 presents each (and that included a pack of underwear, a couple of books and the traditional video each) - they got more than that from J and from mother, and I don’t think K was that far behind. Small got a castle larger than the one Big got from us as her main present last year, and Big got a dressing table. (Anyone who has visited here knows it’s staying in the box for the duration, there’s absolutely nowhere to put it in her room, and I’m not exagerating , that’s why we bought her one of those cabin beds with drawers and stuff underneath.)

There were craft kits galore - mother has taken on board that I’m not fond of tat, so she got two card kits, a pop art t-shirt set, Paint Your Own Statue - The Wind in the Willows - Badger, as well as the requested and much longed for Barbie Toffee and Puppies. There were loads of other things as well, but I haven’t a clue what they all were.

Small was in his element. He got Hulk Gamma Rage Hands, that he’s been ogling in Tescos for ages. There was also a Spider-Man vs Sandman which he’s taken to bed with him to open in the morning, as well as a Batman New Batmobile. There were all sorts of other things, including a Paint Your Own Statue - The Wind in the Willows - Ratty, a book with 1000 (get that, 1000, that’s a lot that is) stickers in it and enough other things to require we pack the boot with three bin liners and two carrier bags. Given that we hadn’t taken the sleeping bags or case of wine out from last week, and there were also the two large boxes to fit in, we struggled to fit it all in. I ended up with Hulk’s hands on my knees.

Despite the present excess, it was a surprisingly pleasant evening. I did take a while out and go up to the stables with K to give her a hand. Been a while since I’ve mucked out but it appears there are some skills you never lose ;)

And then we came home. Now we’re companionably laptop/ netbooking while half watching tour of duty. Nearly midnight, and I’ve just finished my cup of tea. Not sure I can be bothered to go find any alcohol now, Happy New Year to you all.

By Jax | Posted in It's life Jim, It's where it is, Small steps, family, ranting or raving | Comments (6)

Happy birthday little sister.

Wed Dec 31 2008 – 9:56

Katrin would have been 29 today. I’m thinking of her. Her daughter is 6 today and for her sake, we will gather together and smile. I’ll shed my tears somewhere else, alone.

By Jax | Posted in It's where it is | Comments (9)

More Christmas Beach Antics

Tue Dec 30 2008 – 20:19

Some photos from our walk on Sunday. Bracing would describe it with an icy East wind off the sea. Big and Small loved running on the beach and scampering up and down the groynes. We finished off with hot chocolate when we got back to my brother’s house.

Just wondering how old you have to be to remember the Cadbury’s “hot chocolate, drinking chocolate” ad campaigns?

Included especially for Marcus and Michelle, who have been impressing with their hardiness as Christmas campers. We will expect that next Christmas …

By Tim | Posted in It's where it is | Comments (6)

Christmas no1 nearly done and dusted

Sun Dec 28 2008 – 22:46

Yesterday S and D were hosting a party for their daughters and daughters’ friends, and we were invited. Small was having a not quite on this planet day though, and all of us were still suffering/ malingering (depending on your point of view) with this cold/man flu so we gave it a miss. Turned out to have been a very wise idea when there was a toilet incident that ended up requiring a shower (and even that limited information is probably tmi, but there you go) and I think all of us were good for a quiet day. I ended the day steaming my head with menthol and eucalyptus (must do it again soon) and slept really well, right the way through to 10am. Must try that again soon too!

Today we’ve vegged - late brunch turned into lunch and was followed by Bee Movie [2007] and then a very brisk walk in an extremely brisk wind on a not particularly deserted beach. I took more pictures, and will deal with them when I get home.

After that, Christmas cake and more flickering images, this time of Kung Fu Panda [2008]. This proved to be very well received, and we spent some time going through the extras on the DVD as well, although we couldn’t really get the game working. Small was thrilled at a Po of his own and then it was time for more food and finally wandering back to put tired children to bed.

And very soon tired parents as well. Tomorrow we shall be wending our way northwards to be ignored by a cat (who is really going to love me the morning after when I take him to get jabbed!) and then I’ve to arrange to see my family and do it all over again!

By Jax | Posted in It's where it is, family | Comments (4)

Christmas movies

Fri Dec 26 2008 – 17:36

Today we’ve watched Jack Frost [1999]. It’s done Small good to sit and watch for a bit - he’s had a fair bit of running around as well, we’ve been to the beach today. Boy it was nippy though - stopped on the way and bought them some thinsulate gloves! Other than that it’s been a quiet day, more good food obviously and good company, although I could wish that Baby Annabell had better manners! Still, Big is well pleased with her, so I guess that’s the main thing. Still a console-less family I’m afraid, I hope we’ll be OK when we come to the various camps!

Right, I’m not even going to try to fiddle on with the pics I’ve taken today - this thing has a card reader so I can get them on here easily enough, but I don’t have much in the way of editing software so I’m not going to fiddle on with them. (I know, there’s always an excuse as to why there’s no pictures. I’ll do better next year ;) )

ETA - uploaded Tim’s favourite pic to flickr, so here you go after all. Enjoy. Boxing day on the beach Hope everyone else is having an excellently relaxing family time too.

By Jax | Posted in It's where it is | Comments (5)

here’s looking at you

Fri Dec 26 2008 – 17:21

from the netbook

Picture taken with netbook camera, blogged eventually with netbook over wifi :)

By Jax | Posted in It's where it is | Comments (2)

It’s Christmas!

Wed Dec 24 2008 – 17:45

We went to the seaside, so we had to go to the beach. Dusk and the sea was flat calm. Big and Small were thrilled, Jax and I were mainly cold.

Merry Christmas!

By Tim | Posted in It's where it is | Comments (2)

Small and reading.

Sun Dec 21 2008 – 19:52

Have just tested Small’s reading level here He didn’t miss much until he got into the square with image, and then didn’t hit anything after that, giving him a score of 56, which is a reading level of 5.6, which is US age 10 - 11. It’s slightly higher than I would have assessed him, but not a lot, having seen the sort of thing he’s now reading, and he could well be capable of reading more than I’ve seen him read iyswim and all pretty much without any help, although he did use Stile trays at school.

Not that I’m sure I could have done much more to help tbh. I’m considering getting the Stile numeracy stuff in as he’s hugely resistent to being taught, but he does like Stile, so if I get that and put it on a shelf he might use it at some point. He is an interesting child.

By Jax | Posted in Small steps, reeling, writhing | Comments (5)

Bailiffs get power to use force on debtors

Sun Dec 21 2008 – 18:44

The government has been accused of trampling on individual liberties by proposing wide-ranging new powers for bailiffs to break into homes and to use “reasonable force” against householders who try to protect their valuables.

Under the regulations, bailiffs for private firms would for the first time be given permission to restrain or pin down householders. They would also be able to force their way into homes to seize property to pay off debts, such as unpaid credit card bills and loans.

The government, which wants to crack down on people who evade debts, says the new powers would be overseen by a robust industry watchdog. However, the laws are being criticised as the latest erosion of the rights of the householder in his own home.

“These laws strip away tried and tested protections that make a person’s home his castle, and which have stood for centuries,” said Paul Nicolson, chairman of the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust, a London-based welfare charity. “They could clearly lead to violent confrontations and undermine fundamental liberties.” Times

“If a person locks himself in their home, it might be reasonable to break open the door, but probably not to smash a hole in the wall,” Her Majesty’s Courts Service guidelines.

By Tim | Posted in It's where it is | Comments (4)

Reading is all I’m up to

Sun Dec 21 2008 – 17:32

Feels like someone has pulled my brain out of my ears and replaced it by slightly too much cotton wool, which is pressing uncomfortably on my ear drums and making thinking far too difficult. So I have done next to nothing yesterday and today, except a little light reading. I’m on a quest to find books that I can recommend to Big - much of what I read when I was her age doesn’t appeal to her, it’s too dated in either language or content :( The classics stand the test of time and she’s lapped up things like Streatfield, but others don’t even get past first base.

So I got a couple of children’s books out of the library and I’ve read them this weekend.

I really enjoyed Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson, I’ll be looking for more of her books for me, never mind Big! and that to me is the ultimate recommendation of a children’s book - that it should be accessible to children, but still worthwhile and enjoyable for adults too. This book was pure enjoyment, nothing particularly heavy or unexpected, but beautifully crafted and exquisitely put together both story and language wise. Heartily recommended :)

the other one I read this weekend was The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. This one didn’t really stand out to me at all - too much like so many other little girl lost stories. And the wolves don’t really feature at all, which disappointed me rather. Although I’ve discovered there is a sequel, and I will order that at the library. Still waiting for them to get Chalice in for me - no sign yet.

By Jax | Posted in Big, Book club | Tagged , , | Comments (7)