For the last few weekends A's time has been taken up watching the Six Nations (rugby) - not just the England matches either. This means that any little chores or going outs have had to be fitted in round the TV schedule. Yesterday I asked for the TV from 5pm so I could watch the highlights of the cricket - New Zealand v England. At 5.10 I wandered into the living room to find A watching Wales v France (I think, they were in blue), so I wandered back out again and into the study to check e-mail, write some blog posts, and play Civ 4. Apparently I should have announced my presence as I could then have had the TV.
No sooner is the Six Nations finished than F1 starts! Now I don't mind watching that, up to a point. A likes to listen to all the innane chatter, you know the sort of thing "How do you think Lewis Hamilton will feel if he gets on the front row of the grid today?" mindless stuff that seems to be the height of serious reporting today. I like to get to the action and don't sit down till the grid has formed up. So anything I want to plan for us to do at the weekend will have to fit in round the F1. The things I do for a quiet life ;-)
Then of course there's the occasional ten-pin bowling competition that A takes D to. A has ten-pin coaching/instructing qualifications and is to be found most Saturday mornings down at the local alley helping the Youth Bowling Club. Our county association has a YBC tournament that happens every month or so at various venues. Then there's the South of England competition (January-ish), the Nationals (May), plus any others the club sees fit to enter.
Any weekend that has a bowling tournament AND F1 is a complete disaster as that just leaves Saturday afternoon to get anything done.
Yet I'm not complaining, not too loudly anyway. He's not down the pub every night, not working 12 hour days (fingers crossed it stays that way too), and he is very attentive at all other times - once I've nagged him half a dozen times about something that needs doing.
I wouldn't trade him in for the world.
Sunday, 16 March 2008
Saturday, 15 March 2008
A sad indictment on our society
Julia Hollander has been in the media recently.
http://www.lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,,2263328,00.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/india_knight/article3511898.ece
I am not going to get into a debate on the rights and wrongs of what she did. There is enough of that out there on the web as it is. My gripe is that the social services find endless ways to deny help to parents of severely disabled children - there have been enough sad stories in the news in recent years of parents at the end of their tether killing their children and, quite often, themselves - yet when that same child is placed with a foster family they are queuing up with whatever is needed. If the social services can provide and fund the services to the foster family then they should do the same for the parents. It beggars belief that in a caring, developed nation such as ours that this is the logic applied by the organisation set up to watch over the most vulnerable in our society.
http://www.lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,,2263328,00.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/india_knight/article3511898.ece
I am not going to get into a debate on the rights and wrongs of what she did. There is enough of that out there on the web as it is. My gripe is that the social services find endless ways to deny help to parents of severely disabled children - there have been enough sad stories in the news in recent years of parents at the end of their tether killing their children and, quite often, themselves - yet when that same child is placed with a foster family they are queuing up with whatever is needed. If the social services can provide and fund the services to the foster family then they should do the same for the parents. It beggars belief that in a caring, developed nation such as ours that this is the logic applied by the organisation set up to watch over the most vulnerable in our society.
Back to what passes as normal here
I've been a bit under the weather for the last couple of days but am back to my usual chaotic self today. I blame Thursdays. Not any particular one, but ALL of them. Thursday is the day that our local Home Education group runs its Maths and English GCSE sessions, and I encourage two of the Maths students. I use the word encourage because I am not a qualified teacher and I do not teach in the traditional way. My role, as I see it, is to explain what isn't understood, remind them of deadlines for exam entries and coursework submission, and check their coursework, make observations on its suitability and content, and just generally crack the whip. If they don't hand in work for me to look at then I assume that all is well. I do check on what they're doing and comment accordingly. It's not onerous or time-consuming, yet I find myself exhausted.
My two students are very well-behaved. They just tend to find other things more interesting sometimes - like pulling silly faces at two girls who sit near by and who respond in kind. But, you know, I like them both - even though one in particular is needing some frequent whip-cracking. I really hope they both do well this summer.
My two students are very well-behaved. They just tend to find other things more interesting sometimes - like pulling silly faces at two girls who sit near by and who respond in kind. But, you know, I like them both - even though one in particular is needing some frequent whip-cracking. I really hope they both do well this summer.
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
Over to you
To encourage more comments - I like to see them and it shows me that people are actually reading my blog - I'm asking you all to tell me all about the famous people you have met. As in gotten close enough to speak to. I can't offer a prize for this particular audience participation post, but you never know in the future.
This is mine. OK you can stop having hysterics at the hair, it was a long time ago. The man in question is Jason Connery who played Robin Hood in the TV series in the mid/late 80s. Very nice man, happy to have his photo taken.
I would have had another one this time of me with Bon Jovi but the one and only opportunity to get my hands on the gorgeous Jon was scuppered by some morons making death threats. This caused all backstage passes to be declared void. I was somewhat upset, as you can imagine. Again this was back in the 80s.
About 5 years ago A and I were in London for a few days R & R without the kids. We were walking through Leicester Square in the driving rain when we bumped, quite literally, into Maurice Green the US 100m sprinter - think he's retired now. This was in the August a few days before the big Crystal Palace Grand Prix when he was going head to head against Dwain Chambers - in the days before we knew that Dwain's performances were chemically enhanced. Dwain beat him just as we told Maurice he would.
So dear readers, who have you met? Over to you.
This is mine. OK you can stop having hysterics at the hair, it was a long time ago. The man in question is Jason Connery who played Robin Hood in the TV series in the mid/late 80s. Very nice man, happy to have his photo taken.
I would have had another one this time of me with Bon Jovi but the one and only opportunity to get my hands on the gorgeous Jon was scuppered by some morons making death threats. This caused all backstage passes to be declared void. I was somewhat upset, as you can imagine. Again this was back in the 80s.
About 5 years ago A and I were in London for a few days R & R without the kids. We were walking through Leicester Square in the driving rain when we bumped, quite literally, into Maurice Green the US 100m sprinter - think he's retired now. This was in the August a few days before the big Crystal Palace Grand Prix when he was going head to head against Dwain Chambers - in the days before we knew that Dwain's performances were chemically enhanced. Dwain beat him just as we told Maurice he would.
So dear readers, who have you met? Over to you.
It's done! And other educational ramblings
At last! All the coursework for the upcoming exams in May/June went in the post this afternoon. We are all feeling light-headed and very silly, and very relieved of course.
I always thought that coursework would give my two the chance to get some marks squirreled away before the exam proper. It's worth an average of about 20-30%, though in ICT it is much more (60+%). Instead it is the source of much head-banging (by me), tears and tantrums (by K), and leaving everything to the last minute (by D & K). D got his tears and tantrums out the way two years ago when he did GCSEs in maths and chemistry. He still wants to leave it to the last minute but at least understands (vaguely) what is involved. All in all the stress levels in this house climbed exponentially as the March deadline approached. So tonight I will be making inroads into a bottle of wine - if any of you catch me on MSN then please excuse the wild sense of humour and awful spelling.
Getting the coursework done and marked seems to be the hardest bit of doing exams when home educated. The powers that be don't consider us 'alternatives' when tinkering with things educational. I understand that coursework is to be dropped and replaced with some sort of in-school tasks. Quite how we're supposed to manage that I don't know - makes me glad that mine will be beyond GCSEs by that time.
Next year (2009) K will be taking IGCSEs instead - in maths, chemistry and maybe physics. There are two different exam boards that offer them, Edexcel International and Cambridge International. There are more exam venues that sit the Edexcel version. The difficulty lies in finding somewhere willing to accept you as a private candidate. We've been quite lucky there. A secondary school in Portsmouth will happily accept private candidates for GCSE. However my two are doing the Cambridge IGCSE for English and my options are tiny. There are very few places in the UK that do them so we're invading Bristol on two Friday afternoons in May.
My friend B keeps telling me to just skip this stage and go straight on to Open University. It certainly hasn't held her 3 boys back to have no GCSEs. One of them is off to university! I know she's right but part of me just can't let go of the traditional mentality. D has done and passed an OU short course but I don't think K is quite ready to try them yet. We may give one a go later in the year.
I always thought that coursework would give my two the chance to get some marks squirreled away before the exam proper. It's worth an average of about 20-30%, though in ICT it is much more (60+%). Instead it is the source of much head-banging (by me), tears and tantrums (by K), and leaving everything to the last minute (by D & K). D got his tears and tantrums out the way two years ago when he did GCSEs in maths and chemistry. He still wants to leave it to the last minute but at least understands (vaguely) what is involved. All in all the stress levels in this house climbed exponentially as the March deadline approached. So tonight I will be making inroads into a bottle of wine - if any of you catch me on MSN then please excuse the wild sense of humour and awful spelling.
Getting the coursework done and marked seems to be the hardest bit of doing exams when home educated. The powers that be don't consider us 'alternatives' when tinkering with things educational. I understand that coursework is to be dropped and replaced with some sort of in-school tasks. Quite how we're supposed to manage that I don't know - makes me glad that mine will be beyond GCSEs by that time.
Next year (2009) K will be taking IGCSEs instead - in maths, chemistry and maybe physics. There are two different exam boards that offer them, Edexcel International and Cambridge International. There are more exam venues that sit the Edexcel version. The difficulty lies in finding somewhere willing to accept you as a private candidate. We've been quite lucky there. A secondary school in Portsmouth will happily accept private candidates for GCSE. However my two are doing the Cambridge IGCSE for English and my options are tiny. There are very few places in the UK that do them so we're invading Bristol on two Friday afternoons in May.
My friend B keeps telling me to just skip this stage and go straight on to Open University. It certainly hasn't held her 3 boys back to have no GCSEs. One of them is off to university! I know she's right but part of me just can't let go of the traditional mentality. D has done and passed an OU short course but I don't think K is quite ready to try them yet. We may give one a go later in the year.
More Wind
Just when I thought it was safe to venture out again the strong winds are back. On the upside it's also clear blue skies and sunshine, but probably not a good day to hang washing out - not unless I want to be fetching it back from Portsmouth.
According to the weather forecasters the worst of the weather is supposed to be further north this time, so all of you who live north of Oxford (ish) batten down your hatches and make sure you have plenty of buckets for the leaks.
According to the weather forecasters the worst of the weather is supposed to be further north this time, so all of you who live north of Oxford (ish) batten down your hatches and make sure you have plenty of buckets for the leaks.
After the Lord Mayor's Show
On Tuesday evenings at least one member of the family bowls in a league. The last two times I took part I did really well, getting 200 one week and 190 the next week. My average is mid-130s or thereabouts so, as you can imagine, I was over the moon.
Last night I went to the bowling alley ready to do something like that again. Silly me! Normal service was resumed with a vengeance. I was lucky to get above 100 in each game. (sigh!) In my defence my brain was spinning and I couldn't settle and get into 'game mode'. It was either thinking about the coursework marathon today or the fact that I ate a large helping of toffee cheesecake and was on a sugar high. And I'm supposed to be on a diet too.
Our team lost spectacularly but it wasn't all my fault. The other team members had a bit of a stinker in the first game, then only fired intermittently for the other two games.
Think that was one night to forget.
Last night I went to the bowling alley ready to do something like that again. Silly me! Normal service was resumed with a vengeance. I was lucky to get above 100 in each game. (sigh!) In my defence my brain was spinning and I couldn't settle and get into 'game mode'. It was either thinking about the coursework marathon today or the fact that I ate a large helping of toffee cheesecake and was on a sugar high. And I'm supposed to be on a diet too.
Our team lost spectacularly but it wasn't all my fault. The other team members had a bit of a stinker in the first game, then only fired intermittently for the other two games.
Think that was one night to forget.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)