Changing Rooms

It's half term for Little Z, Big J and I, and as Chris also has a week off work, it's been the ideal opportunity to have lots of family time, which can be difficult when we are all at school or work (or both!).

It has also been a good chance to work together to get the house tidy. I find it hard to get motivated to do it when I am on my own, mainly because I so rarely have time on my own that when I do, I want to use it to sit down with my Kindle.

By yesterday, we had managed to tidy the living room, dining room and the surface in the kitchen which always gets cluttered with bits and pieces that don't seem to belong anywhere and which don't quite make it to the kitchen bits-and-bobs drawer.

We were so pleased with what we had achieved, we went a little crazy and decided to have a go at the conservatory. You have to have have seen our conservatory recently to really appreciate the extent of this job, but when I say we couldn't see the floor, I mean just that.

It had become a dumping ground for my teacher resources (files & folders, loose paperwork, laminates, stationary, photographs, puppets etc.), which occupied the right hand side of the conservatory, not only in approximately 6 boxes stacked up on top of the toy storage unit, but also all over the floor where bags or boxes had split and let paper simply spill out over the carpet.

The other side of the room was filled with toys and clothes the children had grown out of. We had intended to do a car boot sale (not even last Summer, but the one before!), but had never got around to it and so what was neatly arranged bags and boxes, gradually became split bags and torn boxes and 'I don't want to get rid of that' toys were left untidily on the floor after a quick pull-from-the-bottom-of-the-pile-and-play,-while-no-one-is-looking.

We spent all day clearing the conservatory of junk, and although there were some lovely, "hey, come and look what I've found," or, "Great, I've been looking for this!" moments, it was very hard work.

We now have another room which can actually be used. It's amazing. When it was full of rubbish, I don't think I really appreciated that it was a whole room we could actually be using as living space. We haven't used it as a room for at least 2 years and I wish now that I'd done it a long time ago.

It's already making a difference. Big J likes to have some time to himself; it's something we taught him to do when he was younger if he was getting angry and needed to calm down. The conservatory is the perfect place for him to do that. It's a quiet room to sit and think without all the noise of the rest of the family. He has taken in some of his pencils for the art table we've set up, which he is keen to start using, and he spent 20 mins in there practising his karate kata.

I have no doubt we will all benefit from the additional space in our own ways. Me? Need you ask?

Sign of the times

Am I the only one who looked at this and wanted to correct the grammar before laughing at the joke?

The Blog Bug

I have spent quite a few hours over the past week updating and reorganising my blog, making use of the new features now available. It's good to give it a fresh look every now and then, especially after being away from it for such a long time.

Apart from changing the template, I have put more links down the side, which will be helpful for teachers as well as parents helping their children to learn. I have also moved some of the external pages onto the blog, using the tabbed additional pages.

It seems I am not the only one in the house who enjoys blogging...

Little Z has had her own blog for a while now, although she too has somewhat neglected her blog for the past year or so and is only now getting back into it. She spent hours yesterday just changing the design of her template. My next task is to encourage her to write posts more frequently, which will boost her confidence in writing and generally improve her basic computer skills. She is already a very good speller and a regular reader, but writing regularly will hopefully help her to make appropriate vocabulary choices and to organise her ideas.

Big J has a blog now too. It is a well known fact that many boys are turned off by the idea of writing creatively, but I know that many of them would enjoy writing more if they were excited by what they were writing about. So, although he is not yet 13 and cannot really have a blog of his own, I have set this one up, which I can supervise and he can use as his own. He has the incentive of having links to all his favourite games and websites on there, so he will keep going back to it!

Last week, a teacher said to me "There's nothing like writing for a purpose." It is so true. This week, I worked with a 10 year old boy who wrote an outstanding letter to a company to give his opinion on a new concept he'd read about. His use of language was amazing for a boy of his age- better than many adults. It made me wonder what I could do to encourage Big J to become such a competent writer; to become 'a writer' as opposed to just 'a boy who can write'. That's when I decided he needed a blog.

I have already seen an improvement in his editing skills. He has started reading his sentences back to himself, correcting mistakes and making improvements to his sentences by varying his sentences starters and by adding adjectives, adverbs and connectives. These are all things he knows how to do, but when writing his own thoughts on his own blog, it is more important to him that he gets it right and he doesn't need prompting. He has only just started, but as a boy with an amazing imagination, I am looking forward to seeing how his writing develops.

My next job is to convince him to put some of his fantastic pictures onto a page of his blog.

Mirror,Mirror on the wall.....

Little Z is easily scared and has, in the past, had a recurring scary nighttime experience of seeing mummies (egyptian style) in her room. Initially, I thought it was just a nightmare, but she was sure she was awake each time it happened. She has not had this 'nightmare' for a while, but it has taken quite a while for her not to feel nervous about being on her own upstairs or having the lights off at night.

So imagine my 'delight' when she started asking about Bloody Mary! Someone at school has been talking about saying 'Bloody Mary' 3 times in front of the mirror and summoning a spirit. Of course, there is always someone on hand to back up the story and say they know someone who has tried it. Bloody Fantastic!

Naturally, she didn't keep this lovely piece of information to herself, but decided to share it with her 6 year old brother, encouraging him to try it out. Needless to say, they have both now scared themselves silly and I have had to remove the mirror from the bathroom as well as turning around the mirror in Little Z's bedroom.

I hope they sleep soundly, but would not be surprised at all to have a knock on the door in the middle of the night. The problem is, I will be too scared to walk passed the mirror to answer it now!

Keep up!

Oh, Steve , you would be so proud of me. I did 50 mins' exercise this morning walking to school and back. I feel great for it...

Supernanny, you would not be so proud of me. As we left the house a few minutes later than I like to when we are walking, I felt like I was nagging Big J to keep up and telling him repeatedly that we didn't have time to stop. I also had frequent mini-rants about the children talking over each other or interrupting when I was talking, so it wasn't quite the quality time it could have been.

They did, however, get some fresh air and exercise though, which gives them a great start to their school day.

Here Wii Go...

I blogged last April about a new exercise regime to lose weight. What I don't think I did blog about, was that by July I had lost 2 stone 7 lb and had dropped 2 clothes sizes (not dress sizes - I almost never wear dresses!). Lots of people asked me how I was doing it, thinking that I must be spending £60 a week on some amazing 'lose 3 stone overnight' milkshake or maybe that I was going to the gym twice a day between teaching, planning, housework and school runs. In fact, I was simply taking good old Steve Miller's advice of exercising more and being more sensible with what I ate.

As I am sure any teachers reading this will appreciate, by July I was exhausted; work took over my life and I stopped going out for my walks and stopped doing the Wii fit+, both of which had had a huge positive impact on my weight, fitness and general health. My intention was to get back into routine during the summer, but the summer holidays came and went and then before I knew it, it was Christmas and I still hadn't started.

In all that time, I hadn't dared get on the scales, because I just didn't want to know that all that hard work I'd put in had been undone, but after finally making myself get on the scales this weekend, I realised I had gained 1 stone 9lb of what I had lost. That still puts me 12lb lighter than I was when I started, but having given away all the larger clothes that no longer fitted me I didn't want to put any more of that weight back on.

So, yesterday we walked to school. That's about 50 mins exercise for me as I also have to walk back after dropping them off. Today it was raining so we couldn't walk to school, but I did 30 minutes of aerobic exercise (step, boxing, hula-hooping) on the Wii Fit Plus instead. I feel great now I've started and it's not a chore, because I do actually enjoy doing it. I just need to make sure I stay as active as I can during the day, only eat at mealtimes and make time for the extra exercise sessions on the Wii Fit.

The Black Hole

This was forwarded to me via email and I thought it was so good, I decided to share it. I can't say more without spoiling it. I love the idea of it though...

I'll be very careful in the resources room from now on!

The Book Thief

No, this is not a solution to my challenge, it's the name of the fantastic book (yes a real paper one!) I have just finished. Thanks to JJ for lending it to me.








The_Book_Thief written by Markus_Zusak

Highly recommended.

It evokes strong emotion from the start and is not a book you can easily read in a couple of days, but I loved the characters, who were well developed throughout the story and enjoyed reading about what life was like in Germany during WWII. This thought provoking story, will stay with me for a long time.

Oh, apparently you can't really write even a short review of this book and not mention the unusual fact that it is narrated by Death.

Kindle Ueberraschung!

Last year, I treated myself to the much talked about Amazon Kindle 3G+WiFi.

I won't ramble on about what it can do, I'll leave you to look at it yourself...


But I will say that I have hardly put it down since I bought it and that, despite costing £150+ it has been worth every penny. It's not for everyone and if I didn't read so much, I would not be able to justify splashing out so much on what is, for all intents and purposes, a gadget. But I do and I did!

I love the fact that I can finish a book and download the next one without having to go back to the PC. This does obviously have its own financial implications (see my earlier post) and although it is so easy to finish one mid-series book and go straight on to the next one, I have had to set myself some rules about how many books I can download per month.

In January, as my financial situation looked increasingly bleak, I set myself a new challenge (and registered it with Goodreads to help me stick to it)...

My challenge is to not buy ANY books this year! Here is how I plan to do it...

1. Read books already on my shelf (including my e-bookshelf) that I have not read.
2. Re-read books.
3. Borrow from the library.
4. Borrow books from friends.
5. Download some of the 'FREE' books for kindle.
6. Hope I get the 3 books I desperately want to read this year for my birthday.

See how I'm doing here.


So, if anyone can help, by recommending a FREE Kindle download or by lending me a book, I would be very grateful.

I think my Kindle will be getting a much needed rest, though, while I reacquaint myself with 'normal' books again!

Talking Books

My posts over the past couple of years have been sparse to say the least. Much has changed, but there's nothing more boring than another blog post filling in the gaps of what I have been doing.

However, if I had to say one thing that has really changed, it's that I have started reading like books are going out of fashion. I have always enjoyed reading, but I think I can now safely say I am in the 'avid to slightly obsessed' category, which started around the time Breaking Dawn (Twilight Series) by Stephenie Meyer was published.

My then 10 year old daughter came home telling me her friends were reading the Twilight Series and, thinking to encourage her to read more literature appropriate to her age and ability, I bought them. The plan was for us to read them together (I read a bit, she reads a bit), but she just didn t get into the first one. They were still a little too difficult for her and she didn't really engage with the text, so discussions about the characters and events were painful. And truthfully, I was glad, because I had started to read ahead and couldn't stop.

Finishing one book, I quickly started the next until I had read the series (4 books) in 2 weeks. Having nothing equally appealing ready to move on to, I found myself in a state of 'withdrawal', desperately searching for recommendations. After a week, having had no recommendations that appealed to my interest, I started the Twilight series again!

I had never read a book twice, I realised, and found that there is a lot to be understood from a second reading. Once I put down Breaking Dawn for the second time, I had to find something else. That's when I found Goodreads.

I don't have time for a real bookclub where people get together once a month, so I wanted a group I could take part in or not, depending how busy I was, and where I could decide not to read this months book if I didn't like it. Goodreads allowed me to do those things and more. On Goodreads I found some groups of people who were reading similar books. There are discussion threads for almost any book you might be reading and by reading what others were reading, I easily found recommendations for books I would like. It's not like Facebook where you collect friends who you once knew (or maybe still see every day), but have very little in common with. I only have a couple of friends listed and they have similar taste in reading material, but through the groups, I can discuss books with anyone irrespective of whether or not they are listed as my friend. There is no obligation to do anything; you can participate as much or as little as you want.

One of the great things for me, apart from recommendations, has been the facility to keep track of which books I have read. Being able to come across a good book and add it to my 'to read' list is fantastic.

But don't take my word for it, have a look for yourself..

Want / Need

Money is very tight, yes, everyone is telling the same story. We are having to cut back on lots of the things we would like to have as well as some of the things we need. But, where do you draw the line between want and need?

Having put down a £60 deposit and paid another £55 deposit on Little Z's school trip, I am loathed to lose what we've paid already and tell her she can't go because we can't really afford to pay the other £165 (yes, the 5 day trip to IOW really is costing £280 not including all the kit she will need!).

Both of the children do one activity outside of school. Big J does karate, which is having a huge positive impact on his confidence, behaviour and attitude. That costs £4 a week, but then he goes to grading every 2 months, which costs £19 plus £4 for the new belt. He is doing so well, it would be a real shame to stop it, but is this a need or a want?

Then there's ballet. Little Z has been doing that for 6 years and it has helped her immensely with her coordination and balance, things she naturally finds difficult. That costs about £54 a term (£4.20 / week) on top of all the kit. Our recent trip to the dance shop, purely for things she had to have for ballet (ballet shoes, character shoes and a new tailored character skirt) cost £42. So, again I ask, 'need or want'?

I guess it comes down to how desperately tight money gets. I speak to some people who say, " ooh, money is really tight. we'll be lucky if we get to go on holiday more than twice this year!"

That is so far from my world, I think they might actually be on another planet! Then there are people, who say, "I can't afford to go on holiday this year." Well, that's more like it, I think, until the follow that up with, "I think I'll have to get the money from my mum to pay for my holiday." Unbelieveable!

In my world, 'being tight for money' means it's hard to pay the bills and buy the weekly food shopping with the money we have coming in. Holidays? If you can even consider affording holiday, you are not 'struggling' quite like some of us are!