T-Bird Anni Rides Again

Even teh **** cat is hormonal now….. she’s wailing to go out all the time in a particularly whiney sort of way and making serious houdini efforts to streek through the door every time it’s open and gone all PreMenstrual phycho on me.  Obviously she’s NOT going out until she’s had a small surgical proceedure done, one kitten is quite enough!  Must clip those claws though….. I don’t suit the perforated like a teabag look!

In other news

We were at a small girl’s birthday party today.  She’s one of the girls on the street and is at school. therefore I was treated to the whole school gate maffia treatment from the mothers who identified me imediately as Not One Of Them.  Was illuminating though to hear some of the comments they were making about the Reception and Year 1 teacher at what is touted as the best school in the area.  Sounds like a right cow, makes me glad I didn’t join!  Birthday Girl’s dad stired it all up nicely by shouting "School stuff hey?  Bet you’re glad you don’t need to deal with that!" causing a smug smirk from me and puzzled looks from them as qutie obviously Aprilia is much to big to not be school age. 

I’m still cantankerous but have decided to put it down to knitting baby stuff for my neice making me broody and maybe premature PMS (unless I can’t count 4 weeks any more… suppose there’s always that possibility!)

Ho hum, you know you’ve been grumpy when your husband walks through the door and stuffs chocolate in your hand before uttering a single word  

Brown’s case was not helped by England’s loss in a major soccer match at midweek that meant that England, home of the modern form of the game, had failed to qualify for next summer’s European championship.

I know we can blame him for everything up to (but perhaps not including) the bloody awful weather we had this summer but the football team doing rubbish????  Come on chaps….

u-huh.  And I’ve not improoved much as the day dragged on neither.  No reason, no hormones to justify this gloom, just one of those gray miserable days that makes me wonder if the sun is ever coming back.

And November ends far too soon leaving me with still only that 1 pressie bought, no ideas for what to get for Duke (who is hopeless at giving me any clues)

Nor do I have any ideas for any of his family except his mum (who is wonderful and direct and TELLS each individual what she would like so she gets stuff she wants/needs rather than a flotilla of floating candles etc)  I’d love to do the alternative Christmas stuff with them (you know, I’ve bought a goat for someone in Darkest Africa on your behalf) but Duke hates the idea.  I hate the idea of all the crap we come home with from them at Christmas but I smile nicely and I think they should do the same (did I mention I’m grumpy?)

For my mum I’m knitting slipper sox as she keeps admiring Aprilia’s.  But that’s not much so I need to add to it.  I wondered about completing the ensemble with fingerless mitts as she really suffers with the cold.  And it’s her birthday in just over a week but she’s having home baking for that.  It’s become a tradition, I even get requests for specific items.

My Dad is having a wooly hat and gloves I think as he’s taken to cycling recently as physio after his knee replacement and as I doubt I’ll get him to wear a helmet he needs something to keep the draft off his solar panel.  Need to add to that really too but what on earth do you get for people who are comfortably retired and have everything?  Actually, the goat in Darkest Africa thing could work….

Aprilia is easily sorted although I’m still in shock at how much I’ve spent on her.  I’ve never spent a huge ammount on her but this year I’ve got her a DS plus carry case etc and (obviously) a couple of games to go with it.  It’s double what I spent last year I think! 

All I’d really like for Christmas is the house elves to sneak in and tidy up.  Or a spell or two to keep teh house clean.  Failing that I’ll settle for anything really! 

Following on from Jax blogging about the plans the Conservatives ahve to introduce reading tests at 6 (or was it 7?) is this in the Independent

So, are the Tories asking too much of our pupils and teachers?

Yes…

* Between five and 10 per cent of children won’t be able to read by the end of Year One. The new test will make them feel failures.

* Teachers need time to master the new method.

* His plan is political gamesmanship, positioning the Conservatives as dynamic and Labour as slow to change.

No…

* Phonics is the most effective way of teaching children to read quickly, so a test will ensure it is happening in the classroom.

* Teachers are dragging their feet in introducing the phonics reforms. These proposals will force them to get a move on.

* It will prepare young children for life at secondary school.

Obviously I have little to say about the "yes" points… (except perhaps that  they almost seem to have been offered as Aunt Sallys)

As to the No points….

Glossing over the fact that the intention is to test a full year earlier than the current Literacy element of SATs is tested, thus giving children less time to "get it" before stamping them as thick….. 

Phonics may well be a good way to learn to read for most children.  For some it may be the ONLY way to learn to read, for some it JUST WON’T WORK!  As for teaching them to read qucikly, what’s the rush exactly?  What does it prove if they can decode the vast majority of the English Language if they don’t have any clues as to how to extract the meaning from any of it?  I can "read" Italian reletively fluently (it uses a system of phonics very similar to Spanish, and being a Latin language is actually phonically regular), I’ve no idea what I’ve just read though!

A test of a child will ensure that the teacher is doing his or her job?  No pressure then hey? Non on the kids to "do well for Mrs Teacher" or to "be ill" on the day of the test (as a boy on our street was invited to be on SATs week as the poor lad is really struggling with reading and the teacher felt it would be better not to put him under the additional pressure of performing)  Non on the teacher to prematurely implement a system they may be totally new to and would prefer to actually get a grip on before fouling it up totally for the kids. 

And of course, we NEED to test the kids to ensure teacher compliance.  Not that we don’t beleive that if a teacher records that the whole day was spent in the manner recorded in their endless paperwork then that is what actually happened?  We need to test the kids to see the teachers are being good girls and boys and doing what they are told.

Forcing the kids to take a test will force the teachers to "get a move on" and introduce these old, er, I mean new, ideas.  Oh gee, that would make me feel SO valued if I was a teacher (NOT!!) 

And the icing on the whole cake…. it will help our 6 and 7 year olds to be ready for secondary school.  Because of course, they need to do this a good 3 or 4 years before they get there don’t they?  I mean, really, if they haven’t sorted out who are the successes and who are the failures by the time they finish Year 1 then how on earth will they know their place when they get to Big School? 

You know, this is almost angry enough to be banished to the ranty blog….. but it’s relevent so it can stay! 

I’ve set up a GMail account.  I’ve set my groups to go to it so as I reply to stuff you’ll be able to pick up my new addy (cos transfering my address book didn’t work too well so I don’t have half you addresses!)  Old one still in use for a while until things wend their way over to new one.

We filled the day, not sure how though…. there was much Hama beading (using up a lovely little bag of mixed pink and girlie beads with some glow ones) and a trudge round the shops but not a lot else!  She was too spluttery to swim, I’m all for swimming to gently steam a cold (we go to a warm pool) but not for those for whom breath comes in ragged gasps!

HP is still doing wonders for vocab development but not so good for my head, these marathon reading sessions are taking their toll on me, even with teh glasses it’s still ridiculously hard work but then, I suppose I need to keep "in training" ready for my next course in January. 

If you were to happen to click on the link in my sidebar and buy anything at Yellow moon then you would be doing my Rainbows a great favour….. the link *should* put our code automatically into the order.  Not tried it out mind you….

Aprilia was decidely second-hand for most of today after a rough night coughing.  Wish MediSed worked for her so I could dose her up and let her sleep through.  Anyway, it didn’t start well when she got up just as Duke was leaving adn he didn’t take the extra minute to meet her half way down the stairs to give her a hug.  a Quick wave and blown up the stairs kiss just does not cut it for my CuddleMonster, if you are there, you are available for cuddles!  So she wailed after him having thrown herself down the stairs and out of the door in her nighty just in time to see the car turning out of sight.  This made her cough which really didn’t help.  Much cuddling in my bed (and half a box of tissues) later, she recovered enough to decide she was quite happy to "do school" as long as she didn’t have to move from Daddy’s side of the bed.  I can live with taht you know…..

After Bed Ed came Bed Stories - pretty much a whole day of them!  We alternated between Roman Mysteries and Harry Potter.  It was a pleasant way to spend a day whcih looked pretty wet and yeuck outside anyway.  The standard of language in both was good enough that I can consider them "educational" and I assume that some of the words that I need to explain for her sink in!

I managed to coax her into clothes in time for Rainbows and headed off there.  The second adult was LATE by which I mean 10 mins after the meeting started, she’s supposed to be there 15 mins before.  That meant that I couldn’t go and get all the girls from After school club until late, in fact the teacher herded them all over just as second adult was arriving all flustered thus saving me from needing to explain why I hadn’t gone over!   Paper dolls (from Making Friends) went down really well, took up all the time (meaning I hvae spare activities for another week) and they were so excited to show them off taht we forgot to sing the Goodnight song (phew!  you have no idea how much that pleased me!) 

Bedtime stories were a continuation of the day really along with her making a valient attempt to return the favour and read to me.  She’s now coughing and spluttering herself to sleep….

Some shots of the kitten because today was so boring you don’t want to hear about it!

Thanks to a helpful Freecycler I now have a working oven.  Very simple really, the sensor that goes into the flame had got loose and wasn’t in the flame any more.  So, after giving the whole thing a good clean (you do NOT want to know how vile that oven bottom was!!!!) it was a 2 minute job to mend!

Wayhey! 

Whilst I was at it I shoved all the oven racks adn any other removable bit in the dishwasher on the longest wash cycle and declared that my domestic duties discharged for the day. 

Other events today….

by way of a change Aprilia watched HP 1 (after watching HP 5 naturally…. sigh) There was also the last of the Sarah Jane Adventures with a plot twist so limp even Aprilia thought it was.  How on earth can re-booting the computer make the cyrstaline life-form at it’s core suddenly re-boot and have a new purpose in life? 

She spent a couple of hours working through the pattern tile sheets that came with our tiles, seemed to have an almost meditative effect on her, bit like knitting does on me I suppose.

I sorted out all the dry washing, put mine away, piled Duke’s on his side of the bed and Aprilia’s in her clean washing bag which she empties every time she runs out of something.  It’s not a perfect system but it beats argueing about her putting it away!

She has just come to me with a little love letter which I will photograph and put on Flickr.  It’s the first time I think she has sat and worked out how to write something without any help and you know what?  It’s lovely.  Makes me feel like home ed is really working (and we shall ignore the fact she should be asleep in bed…..)