I find M’hell more and more depressing. Friday afternoon, last one in November and it was absolutely heaving. I’m reasonably sure it wasn’t that busy even 5 years ago – mother and I used to go regularly on a Friday with Big (when she was little and before there was a Small) and it used to be quite a pleasant day out. No way you could describe it that way now. And the traffic on the way there is horrendous – are there more cars on the road than there were 5 years ago?
Anyways, must get myself organised and work out what I’m doing for the present side of Chrimble. I’d love to just tell everyone that I’ve become a Pagan and am no longer celebrating it, but as I can’t find certainty in myself for that set of beliefs (or indeed any other) I guess I can’t. Don’t think the kids would go for it either.
Haven’t told the kids but we were supposed to be heading up to Meltham today. Given that I am upright only through copious application of painkillers, and still hurting slightly, and Tim is no longer upright at all, it’s not happening. Not quite sure what’s felled him, but I’ve got a stinking head cold. I might not have been so bad if I hadn’t been woken at 7.15 by shrieks about the cat wetting on the end of Big’s bed (guess we’re back to the shut door policy after all) but then again, maybe I would be. Have spent the morning in bed reading
. But I finished it now, and Tim needed to lie down, so I’m up.
Kids so far seem unaffected by any of these bugs, but are suffering from a surfeit of tv and computer games. Although there is a part of me that is determined that they should continue enjoying them as much as they want, in defiance of the latest diktats from the idiots in Westminster. It’s a shame that none of these ppl can understand the studies that are causing their panics, none of the papers seems to have a problem.
The Times says:
As the study measures comparative performance of reading among 4,000 10-year-olds in 40 countries, there is no evidence that reading standards have fallen in England, only that other countries have caught up and overtaken English children.
(Although they don’t go as far as noticing that if other countries are able to improve and overtake our standards, presumably we should be able to improve our standards as well.)
I read around about the EYFS stage yesterday after Michelle’s post on the topic. Pretty much all the papers had the same coverage, but I couldn’t find anything on the EYFS site that actually told me what they were worried about. Figures. Why would the government actually be open about this stuff? The bit that’s confusing me is that all the EYFS stuff was announced a year ago and it doesn’t take affect for another year. So why is the panic rising now? Odd.
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