Strut Your Stuff for Charity

At the end of last week, a friend of mine invited me to a charity shop fashion show she had organised at her church in aid of Naomi House. Anyone who knows me knows that I hardly ever go out socially and usually stay at home with the family. However, I thought it sounded like fun and decided to go. Little Z said she would like to model something on the catwalk, so we went shopping. I was very impressed with what I managed to buy:



The first outfit she wore was a French Designer Dress (actually, I don't know if it was designer, but it makes it sound better!) It cost £1.49.

The pink trousers were originally from H&M and the top originally from Next. I bought them for £99p and £1.99. So the whole lot came to less than £5.

Little Z enjoyed herself on the catwalk, she got her feet massaged by another of our friends who is a qualified reflexologist and she also managed to win £5 for being voted "Most Fashionable"!

We all had fun and most importantly my friend raised a lot of money for charity!

Leaving School

This week has been very busy, although I have not done any supply at all.

Little Z has left infant school and will be going into Year 3 in September, so I bought cards and gifts for her teacher and LSA. I did not buy a gift for her headteacher, (I refer you to an earlier post!). Buying gifts for teachers, especially as Little Z's teacher is retiring, is difficult. I try to find something which they will not just put onto the car boot sale the following weekend, yet do not want to spend a lot of money. I am afraid I decided to buy chocs for the LSA and found a lovely gift book for the teacher. Little Z also painted them a mug each and put a message on the bottom. I think they liked the gifts, although you can never tell, as they are hardly likely to say, "I am afraid you can take these gifts back, because I just don't like them. What were you thinking?"

Now we have six weeks ahead of us with no getting up early to take Little Z to school. I am looking forward to spending some quality time with her while Big J is at nursery.

And relax...

It's a Dance

I would just like to say, to Little Z.

Larry & I went to see her perform in the Highfield School of Dance Summer Show at Cantell School on Sunday and we thoroughly enjoyed it. She was a field mouse in the story of "Snow White and the Eleven Dwarves.

Although we have to pay out a lot of money for extra rehearsals, costume hire etc., it is worth it when we see the enjoyment she gets out of performing. I admire the way she dances on the stage in front of hundreds of people without any sign of being nervous.

I am now saving for the next show!

A Bad Day continued...

I thought the day had been fairly bad so far, having spent most of it sorting out the PayPal transaction I had not made and getting the bank to do some giving rather than their usual taking! I can't say it got worse, but it didn't get better.

Little Z had had a dressing up day at school. They were having a garden party and had been asked to dress up as "anything to do with the garden". Little Z had gone as a garden gnome. She was very happy as we collected her from school and was excited as her best friend, Little M, was coming to play at our house and stay for tea. They had fun playing dressing-up and painting mugs and after dinner the girls and Big J went out into the garden to play on the swing, slide and trampoline. As we have bark down instead of grass in the garden, it didn't matter that the weather had been wet, because they weren't going to get muddy.

What I didn't know is that we'd had a recent visit (probably several) to our garden by a fox or a cat (probably both) leaving deposits of something which could not be seen because it was all the same colour as the bark. So, in addition to having it stuck to the bottom of my shoes and the children's shoes, the children had managed to get it on their clothes (including little Z's white dressing gown!) as they slid down the slide onto the bark and had also brought it all through the ground floor of the house, across the road play rug (sorry Seany, again!) into the hallway, up the stairs, across the landing and into the bathroom! Lovely. The smell was disgusting and it took all evening to clean it up. The most difficult thing was not so much the cleaning as stopping the children walking through it and spreading it further! Again, I suppose I can consider myself lucky that we don't have carpets in any of those places. Lucky me!

A Bad Day...

The last Friday 13th I wrote a post on a crazy superstition I had read about on the internet. Although I still have no time for such silly superstitions, after my Friday 13th experience yesterday, I am beginning to wonder whether there is something unlucky about that day.

After taking Little Z to school (dressed as a gnome - that's another story!) and Big J to nursery, I dropped off a birthday present at a friend's house and came straight home. The first thing I usually do when I get home (when I am not working) is check my emails. My email box is often full of junk sent by people who think am I interested in increasing the size of my manhood(?) or that I am desperate for a cheap supply of viagra(??).

However, the email which caught my attention was the one from PayPal telling me that my payment of $220 had been made for some photography equipment. Nothing unusual about that, I suppose, apart from the fact that I have not bought any photographic equipment and had not authorised a payment through PayPal.

I then noticed another email from PayPal telling me that the seller had issued me with a full refund. That's okay then. I guess I could consider myself lucky that I was getting the money back. Couldn't I?

The problem though, is that debits go out almost immediately, whereas refunds take several days, so the money is going to debit my account on Monday and the refund is unlikely to reach my account until Wednesday, which would not be a problem if the account had fund in or an overdraft facility, but, as it is not my main account, it has neither. So, I called the bank and spoke to seven different people who between the told me that because this was not my main account and it has no turnover they were not prepared to arrange a temporary overdraft facility for £40 (which was all I needed) for 2 weeks. They also told me they could not stop the payment going out as it had been authorised already, they told me they would not waive the unauthorised excess fee and that PayPal needed to contact them to stop the payment going through.

I had already phoned PayPal who had been very helpful and given me immediate instruction on how to flag the unauthorised transaction to them and how to change my passwords and what precautionary measures to take etc.. They had said that the banks would usually waive any fee once they knew it was unauthorised. They had asked me to contact the bank to let them know PayPal were investigating it and said they would get back to me within a few days.

So, after being passed around at the bank and explaining my situation to seven different people and explaining that PayPal were not going to stop the transaction as they needed to investigate it first and by the time they had done that the money would have come out already and in addition to this, the money was already on its way back because the person who had received the money had realised it was not his and had refunded it (breathe!), I got through to someone who actually listened to what I was saying and agreed that under the circumstances I would not have to pay an unauthorised overdraft fee unless I made another withdrawal which took me overdrawn. Finally!

I completed all the necessary online forms for PayPal and changed my passwords etc. so having spent all morning sorting this out, I then spent most of the afternoon downloading anti-spyware software and running deep scans on my computer. There was nothing there, but I am now quite confident that I have even better protection against anyone trying to obtain my personal details.

Oh Well. All's well that ends well! Or is it???.....

You will answer my questions...

I thought The Doctor might have come to save me. He didn't. I sat there in the Deputy Head's Office at a table with the Deputy Head and the Headteacher being interrogated, thinking that at any moment they were going to unzip their foreheads and reveal themselves as members of the slitheen family. They started by telling me they were looking for someone quite specific (yes, schools usually are!?) but that they did not know exactly which year group they wanted to employ someone for or in fact what the role was going to be yet. Then the ordeal began. When they started asking questions, such as "Tell us about your teaching philosophy" and "How would you ensure the children were making progress?" I said I was sorry but that I had not prepared to be interviewed. They apologised, slightly, but said they needed to see someone and talk to them as they would know who they wanted from seeing the person rather than reading what that person puts on their application. They asked difficult questions for which I had, funnily enough, not prepared answers. I feel I did quite well, but I don't think it really matters. I did not go to the school with a good impression and I have left with my suspicion having been confirmed. Witnesses would probably report having seen me running from the scene. Sorry, I shall not name the school, but I am satisfied that a few of you know which one I am talking about. I am so right to be picky about the schools I apply to, even if it has left me with no job for September!

Who the cook are they?

After watching Most Haunted Midsummer Murders last night I didn't fancy going to bed straight away as I would lay awake looking at the shadows and listening to every creak the house made, so I did a bit of tidying up and Larry turned over to "Big Brother's Big Mouth" guest hosted by Dan Wright and Stephen Marsh. I'd never seen them before, but thought they were quite funny and were doing a good job of hosting the show. A few minutes after turning over, Larry said, "Hey, it's Big Cook Little Cook!" I didn't think it was them. Okay, Little Cook Small has a ginger mullet-style haircut as does Dan Wright, but Dan Wright is quite tall and Little Cook Small is, as his name suggests, only about 3 inches tall! It couldn't possibly be him. Also, Big Cook Ben, although having a similar northern accent to Stephen Marsh, wears bright coloured clothes. I was convinced it was not them, especially as they were both swearing lots and making comments of a sexual nature and I know Big Cook & Little Cook would not use that kind of language.



How wrong I was! How shocked I was! It turns out that Little Cook Small is not really 3 inches tall, that it is just a camera trick and that really he is taller than Big Cook. Having done a bit of research on the internet and found their showreel it also turns out that there are more things we would not want our children to know about their favourite TV cooks. I Don't know what to believe any more. It's got me thinking that maybe Bungle wasn't a real bear after all!

Reports

The advantage of not having my own class at this time of year is that I haven't had to spend the last month staying up all night writing reports. I do however get to read Little Z's school report and feel I can now appreciate how much work the teacher has put into putting it together, albeit cutting & pasting from last year's year 2 reports!

I was very happy with Little Z's report. She has worked very hard this year and has made really good progress. At the end of year 2 she has come out with level 2A in reading, 2B in writing, 2C in maths and level 2 in science. I cannot ask for more than that.

Just to explain a bit about the levels for the non-teachers who read my blog, Reading, writing & maths grades are assessed by the teacher using statutory tests towards the end of year 2. Level 2 is divided into three sublevels for reading, writing and maths 2C, 2B and 2A with Level 2B being the nationally expected standard for most 7 year olds. Level 2 in speaking & listening and science is the nationally expected standard for most 7 year olds.

So, I am more than pleased that little Z is where she should be at the end of year 2. Although I know it doesn't really matter at the age of 7 what grades she gets, I was concerned that if she went to Junior school as one of the lower achieving children, she would be pigeon holed as such and may not have the opportunity to achieve her full potential.

I can imagine for some parents it must be a nerve wracking moment reading their child's school report. However, I always enjoy reading the teachers comments. She said that Little Z is a "delightful girl who has worked hard this year and made steady progress.She is a happy and sensitive girl who enjoys the company of her friends. She is often laughing, skipping around and having fun. She is polite and well behaved and is always willing to help others. She has been a very responsible "playground friend".

I am very proud of her and wonder what Big J's first school report will be like? hmm! I don't really want to think about that yet!

Nothing much...

I've had quite an uneventfull week:

I have had two and a half days' supply at three different schools, one of which I have never been to before and would definitely go back to. It is coming towards the end of term now, and having spent quite a lot of time at St Mary's Primary Foundation Stage, I am quite sad to be saying goodbye to them all for the summer as some of them will not be there in September.

It is looking increasingly like I will not have a job to start in September. As I have posted previously, I have applied for jobs, some of which I have had interviews for and some not. Many schools have not even bothered to write to say "sorry, we have not shortlisted you for interview, but thank you for applying." Considering the applications take hours of work as each one has to include a 2 page tailored personal statement, it is very frustrating to have put in so much work to receive no reply at all.

I feel disappointed, to say the least, that I have not got my own class for September (again!), but I just keep telling myself, I am doing the right thing by being choosy about which schools to apply to and not just applying to work anywhere. I am also a bit frustrated, because many of my friends who I trained with last year, are now completing their NQT year. Some have not enjoyed their year, jhowever, and some have dropped out, so I am sure I am doing the right thing by holding out for the school which suits me.

Plan to take the kids swimming this weekend. The rain has stopped (it seems?!) so may have to go to the pool for a swim!

Hope you have all had a good week.

Wet Playtime

Saturday mornings are always quite hectic. Although, I don't have to go to work, Little Z has no school and Big J has no nursery, Larry (previously known as PP) does go to work which leaves me to entertain the children by myself, which is easier said than done, especially on a rainy day like today. After realising that having a quiet morning at home always ends in tears (usually mine), shouting and frustration all round, I decided a few months ago to take the children out every Saturday morning. It worked. Saturday mornings are now great, unless we decide we are all a bit tired and don't fancy going out, in which case all is fine until about 11am and then Big J starts to get restless and goes into mischief mode and Little Z, not knowing what else to do, follows!

Our usual Saturday activity is swimming, but if we don't get there early enough, the pool gets too busy and Little Z is still trying to build her confidence in the water, which is difficult with lots of people splashing around her. Today we were not in the mood to rush, but knowing that my sanity was at risk if we stayed in the house, I tried to think of something else we could do. As the weather was so wet and had been for days, it was not easy to think of something to do which wouldn't cost too much.

I chose Serendipity Sam's Play & Party Centre. Big J has not been there to play before. Last time we went was for Little Z's 5th birthday party and Big J was still a cute little (actually, quite big) baby in a pram! Why have I not thought of this before? Before I had finished paying, Z & J were already in the giant cage-like structure (a cage for children - great idea!) which has 3 or 4 levels of slides, soft play things, ball pits etc... I found myself a comfy seat on a sofa and sat. I sat and relaxed and sat and looked around and sat and relaxed more. I was not the only one. Many parents had brought their children, sent them off to play and then settled down to read a book or newspaper and drink tea.

Before anyone rants about knowing where your children are etc. I did keep my eye on them and made sure I caught sight of them every 5 minutes or so, getting up every now and then to find Big J longingly watching other children on the money operated Thomas ride.

After 2 hours of running around, the children were tired out and I was relaxed. I think we will be visiting Serendipity Sam's more often.

What to do in an emergency...

Every now and then, one of my children does something which makes me so proud I want to cry. That has nothing to do with what I am about to recount, but is worth knowing...

Before getting his PJs on for bed, Big J always goes on the potty. He wears a nappy at night time still (not unusual for a child of his age) but still tries on the potty or toilet as it gets him into good habits for when he does finally sleep without a nappy.

After sitting on the potty for about 10 minutes reading his "My First Thousand Words" book, he stood up to announce he had done a snake! He always subjects to close scrutiny what he has created and assimilates it to something like a train or snake or mountain depending on the shape. Because he pays such close attention to it, imagine his horror (and mine) when he saw that, having stood up without everything having, shall we say, detached itself, part of his "creation" had fallen to the floor and landed on his road play rug (incidentally a birthday present from Uncle Seanie). "It's on the road", he exclaimed. Then, seeing that it was a serious situation which needed urgent attention, he reached for his toy fire engine and started to "drive" it towards the obstruction in the road. Luckily, we were able to intercept the fire engine, before it reached its intended destination. Phew!

Clear Expectations?

Okay, I know I should put it behind me and move on, but I can't rest until I can work out exactly what went wrong with my lesson at my interview on Friday.

Usually, the schools give you a guide as to what they want you to teach, but this time the school was quite specific. I had to teach a group of mixed ability year 1 children the learning objective "To investigate and learn how to spell verbs with -ed (past tense) and -ing (present tense) endings" for approximately 20 minutes.

My first thought was that this is too much to teach in 20 minutes, so after discussing it with a few teacher friends, I decided to focus on one of the spelling rules of adding -ed & -ing to verbs. As I planned my lesson, I was also aware that if this were my class, I don't think I would be teaching -ed & -ing together, but didn't really want to take more out of the lesson for fear of being told I had not really achieved the objective of the lesson.

In hindsight (stupid hindsight!) I was right. They said the lesson was a bit confusing and they didn't feel I moved the children on. I take responsibility for that, but it would have been helpful if they had made their expectations clear (surely one of the first rules of teaching?!). I assumed they were not expecting me to teach everything in 20 minutes, but I didn't know quite how much or how little they wanted me to do.

I would really appreciate any teachers' comments (Please don't write "See me!") on this. Am I right in thinking I should not have tried to teach -ed & ing together and that that is what confused the children? I tried to plan the lesson in line with the new CLLD guidelines which are apparently the latest thing to be occupying teachers' time. If you are interested, here is my plan. I'd be happy for anyone to give me their (constructive) opinion.

As always, I have learnt from this experience. The interview part went very well, which is, as I have mentioned, something I have struggled with in the recent past, so I am now much more confident in my ability to "articulate the wider aspects of the job" as one interviewer describes it, and I feel I can now talk the talk much better. Are my legs starting to give way though?

Le Meme Chose (The 'Meme' thing!)...

I sat down to look at my blog this morning after a busy week of supply teaching, personal statement writing, application completing, interview question prep, interview lesson planning, interview, dealing with little Z's nose bleeds (not, I hasten to add, caused by Big J) and a few mundane things. It's not unusual to have no comments on my blog, so It was nice to find that my reliable Big Bruv and my 'neglected by me but not forgotten' blog friend, Kerenza, had both left comments without me realising as I have not had chance to check my emails either this week!

I thought it was about time I visited Kerenza's blog and while looking through her recent posts found she had created herself a "Meme". Having no idea what this was, I decided to do a bit of finding out. On my search I found the daily meme which, if you also do not know what I am talking about (please, someone say you have never heard of it), gives a clear explanation of what a meme is. So, I thought I would have a go myself at Kerenza's Meme. It was harder than I thought, but here goes...



1. Dr Who - usually catch the repeats as well.

2. Torchwood - watching back episodes. Can't wait for new series.

3. Hotel Babylon - same as above.

4. Grey's Anatomy - Haven't seen this recently, but really would like to make time for it.

5. Teacher's TV Primary Zone- lets you into other peoples classroom to see how they teach. I love seeing expert teachers doing things I do - it makes me feel really good about my teaching.

6. Extras - Back episodes again (the wonders of technology!)Ricky Gervais really makes me laugh in a "How does he get away with it" sort of way.





1. How to talk so Kids will Listen, and Listen so kids will talk by Faber & Mazlish. (predictably my no.1)

2. The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler. Not a week goes by when I don't share this with children in the classroom or read it at home with my own children.

3. Belonging by Jeannie Baker. She has done a range of lovely picture books for older readers. Really good for class discussions on a range of environmental issues. Really worth a look.

4. Pete My Story by Pete Bennett. Somehow I expected this book to be better than it is. Interesting reading about his childhood though.

5. How to Create and Develop a Thinking Classroom by Mike Fleetham

6. Waiting patiently for the new Harry Potter to be released. I shall confine myself to the cupboard under the stairs then read & read until I have finished!




1. Julie Andrews

2. Emma Thompson

3. Catherine Zeta-Jones

4. Gwyneth Paltrow

5. Juliet Stevenson

6. Catherine Tate - Foul mouthed and not at all glamorous, but she makes me laugh out loud and I need that sometimes.



1. David Tenant

2. Alan Rickman (yes, I know how old he is, buut he has the certain something)

3. Orlando Bloom

4. Johnny Depp (sexier as he gets older)

5. Colin Firth

6. Val Kilmer (Forever!)





1. Love Actually

2. Nanny McPhee

3. All the Harry Potter Films

4. Truly Madly Deeply

5. Sliding Doors

6. All the Aardman Animations Films - Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run etc.




1. Talk to my husband!

2. Go Canoeing

3. Learn to play the Guitar (I started, but didn't get far)

4. Learn Polish (Am learning slowly, but would like to have more time to do it)

5. Go to the gym (finances allowing)

6. Tidy the house (of course it's at the bottom - it's less fun than the others)




1. Peanut KitKat Chunky

2. Cadbury's Chocolate Buttons

3. Millionnaire's Caramel Slice

4. Thorntons champagne Truffles

5. Nesquik Chocolate Milkshake (Makes lovely smooth hot choc too!)

6. Thornton's Cranberry, Orange & nuts chocolate bar.

Job?

Interview? Yes.
Job? No.
Feedback? Not really.
Confused? Very.

Thank you Sarah & all my friends at St Mary's Primary Foundation Stage who helped me prep for the interview lesson and helped console me afterwards.

What has gone wrong?

In my job, I get to work with a wide range of children from a wide variety of backgrounds. I am at a school at the moment (yes, it's the one I am always going on about - hopefully I haven't named it in previous posts?!) where lots of the children come from deprived backgounds and although that is not an excuse for poor behaviour, it is often part of the cause of it.

So, What sort of weekend am I having then, when I would prefer to be there than at home? A weekend where my own children, who are definitely not deprived of anything, are just out of control and PP and I just don't know what to do next.

When doing my PGCE I read that "All teachers need to remember that however frustrating a pupil may be, he or she is somebody's precious child." This works, unless they are your "precious" children. Then what do you do?

So, What have we tried?

1. We have house rules:
- We do not hit
- We walk in the house
- We do not interrupt when someone is talking
- If we don't eat our dinner, we don't have dessert
- We do not shout
- We do not swear
- We tidy up after ourselves
- We speak to others how we like to be spoken to
- We are responsible for our own actions
- We respect each other
- We share things
- We use our manners
- We do not throw things
- We help each other

I know, it sounds a bit like the rules you get in a classroom, but they do work, or should I say, they did work. We have had these since before Big J was born and little Z helped to make them.

2. We have family meetings.
Every now and then, if everyone seems unhappy and things seem to have got out of hand, we have a family meeting. We all get a chance to talk about how they are feeling without being interrupted and we usually manage to get issues resolved. It makes us all more aware of how everyone else is feeling. Big J has always been too young to join in. Now he is three, he is old enough to join in, but won't sit down for long enough and doesn't really understand about not interrupting and respecting others' opinions.

3. We say how we feel.
We are open about our feelings and encourage the children to express their feelings too. This is harder than it sounds as it is sometimes really hard to remain calm when you are bubbling with anger inside, but part of expressing your feelings is about saying that you are bubbling up. The other side of this is accepting other peoples feelings and allowing them to express their feelings. This sounds like a load of touchy feely nonsense, but it's not. It does work!

4. We give them a choice.
The children are given responsibility for their actions. If they are not behaving how we expect them to, we give them a choice. They then take the consequences for their choice.

I am exhausted.
~ Big J hits us and blows raspberries when we say "no" to him.
~ He hits Little Z when she freaks out at him going near her.
~ Little Z whinges constantly about how hard done to she is.
~ She encourages Big J to do naughty things when we are trying to calm them both down for bed.
~ and the list goes on and on and on....

I look at other people's children, and I'm sure some of them are worse at home behind closed doors, but lots of them seem to be much better nehaved and easier to cope with than Z & J.

We don't smack them and we hardly ever shout, so what went wrong. What have we done to make our children behave like this?

I have run out of ideas.

Thanks for listening. Feel free to make suggestions...

Letter have it!

Little Z came home with her school newsletter today. I usually enjoy reading it as it tells me what events are coming up and what is going on in school. However, after reading the letter today, I was not impressed.

Having recently applied (yes, this again!) to little Z's school (no, I'm not naming the school as I want to be rude about it!) for a year 2 teaching post, I had received no letter or acknowledgement and so had to assume I had not been shortlisted for interview.

I didn't expect special treatment simply because I am a parent at the school (and wouldn't have got any even if I did!), but I don't think it would have hurt to have let me know, seeing as I am at the school every day and have given up quite a lot of my own time in the past to support the school. I felt I had been very professional.I had not told any of the other parents I was applying; I had not discussed what I had seen on my walk around with the head teacher and I had not mentioned to anyone that the vacancy was due to retirement of one of the year 2 teachers (although they could have found this out by looking on the LEA Website).

I had spoken to the office manager and asked if, instead of going to look around the school (which I was already very familiar with), I could make an appointment with the head or deputy to briefly discuss their expectations etc. I was promptly told that this would not be possible as the other candidates would not have the same opportunity and that it would not be fair.

Here comes the best bit: In the newsletter today, the head has announced the appointment of Mrs K who had worked as an LSA there and had left the school last year to do a Teacher Training Course. Well, I'm sure she was appointed in a way which did not give her an unfair advantage over the other candidates.

As far as I'm concerned they can stuff their job. If that's the way they work, I wouldn't want to work there anyway.

No. I still haven't. Don't even ask!

I recently had another interview back at the school who told me I could teach but couldn't talk about it. I really thought I had it this time, but although he said my interview was a lot better, I they said I was still not articulating the wider aspects of the teaching job. He did say, however, that they had not appointed anyone and told me to "watch this space!" Is he seriously expecting me top apply for a 3rd time? It took courage to phone them up to apply a 2nd time. No, I think I have to accept, I will not be working in that school. Not yet, anyway!

Two days after that interview I received a call from another school inviting me for an interview on the first day back after half term. AGAIN, I came very close to getting it and he couldn't really give me a real reason why I hadn't got it, except that they had to choose someone and they felt the other candidate had shown off her skills more.

It is really sole-destroying. I keep being told, these things happen for a reason, but that never helped in the past and it isn't helping now. Knowing that my perfect job is "just around the corner" is not very reassuring and it doesn't pay the bills.

On the positive side, I have to consider that I have now been observed by several different headteachers who have all said my lessons were very good. That has boosted my confidence and has given me the encouragement to keep applying for jobs.

The hunt continues...

If only...

A three year old boy from Southampton,
Just didn't care what toys he stamped on
he would spit, hit and kick,
and behaved like a (naughty boy),
and so now the front lawn's being camped on!

There was a young girl from the south,
who just could not control her mouth.
She thought it was funny,
to shout at her mummy,
and now also camps outside the house!

The Preparations

With Big J's birthday only 1 day away, I have a lot of work to do today as I am working tomorrow so won't be able to prepare anything during the day. As it rained all weekend, I also have lots of washing to do today.

* The balloons are inflated (although 1 has popped already - probably the first of many!)

* The cake has been taken to nursery (for him to celebrate with his little friends)

* We have bought another cake for home (after much discussion with Little Z who does not like plain sponge or jam and wanted to get a chocolate one instead of the Thomas the Tank Engine one for that reason, despite it not being her birthday and knowing that Big J would almost certainly prefer the Thomas one to a rather dull looking chocolate one!)

* We have bought the party food (which has filled our fridge to the brim and which we will probably take several days to eat, bearing in mind I am going to attempt to stay within the guidelines of Weightwatchers)

* I have filled a couple of party cups with "lucky bag" type Sweets & Treats, although Big J and Little Z are the only children coming to tea as Big J doesn't really have any friends apart from the children at nursery (I can't exactly invite 50 children to the house!) and the little girl in Little Z's class who we invited (as both Z and J get on really well with her) can't come as she is already going to another child's house for tea!

It does sound like I have done most of the preparation, but I still have to do another load of washing, clear the dining table so all the party food will fit, wrap the presents, write the card, iron my work clothes for the week, make sure Big J has clean ironed clothes for the week (I wouldn't normally bother too much but he is having photos taken this week and so need to make sure he looks presentable!) and get my supply teaching bag ready for the week.

So, if I have all that to do, what am I doing updating my blog?

Good point....

News & Opinion update !!

I haven't blogged for about 3 weeks, but it always seems to be that if you have time to blog, you don't have anything to blog about and if you have something to blog about, you are so busy doing it that you don't have time to blog about it (?? What a load of nonsense!?). So, I have tried to organise my post into some kind of order, although this is not what I am best at so it will no doubt stray from the point every now and then. Here goes...

Purchases:
The most exciting thing I (we) have done in the past 3 weeks is buying a campervan to replace the one we have already. The one we had (and still have actually) was about 27 years old and needs quite a bit of work doing on the body (don't we all?). We decided rather than keep ploughing money into the old one, we would look for a new one. It is, of course, not brand new, but it is considerably newer than the last one and in much better condition. We have not yet been off camping in it but intend to very soon having been (or about to be) given joint membership of the Caravan Club for our birthdays.





Opinions:
I don't often watch the news, which means I don't usually know what is going on (anyone who knows me does not need me to tell them this!) and so do not usually formulate an informed opinion about current events. Sometimes I happen to be in the room when Cartoon Network has not automatically taken control of my children and so am able to watch some grown up stuff. After watching the news, I pondered to myself, 'since when has it been acceptable to leave a 3 year old in their bedroom while I go out for a meal?' and 'does it make it okay to leave your children alone if they are locked in and if you are only a few hundred yards away?' and 'If I had spent thousands of pounds on IVF treatment, would I not take a little more care over where I left what I had paid for?' I know, you might say that doesn't necessarily make the child more precious, but I think, from experience, it means I would be more protective.

Complaints:
I received my Driving Licence back this week endorsed with 3 points. I was pleased to note that they had decided (for whatever reason) not to fine me. Under normal circumstances I would have been satisfied, however, the letter was dated 20th April and it had arrived on 10th May with a yellow sticker on the front telling me there was £1.24 to pay as Her Majesty's Courts Service had failed to put a stamp on it! I was lucky enough to have been let off the charge with PP working in the office, but decided to phone HMCS to complain anyway as they had sent an important document without paying postage, risking losing it altogether! They did apologise and offered to send me a stamp (how generous!). I accepted the apology but declined the offer of a stamp.

Work:
I have done a lot of work at an inner city primary school in their reception class. It has been chaotic but lots of fun. They even let me take Little Z on the trip to the farm as her school was closed for polling day (We are trying to raise standards and every child matters so lets close lots of schools for a day so we can use them for polling!) I have now been volounteered by a friend to do supply at her (scary!) school in year 5. I will be team teaching with a very experienced teacher, so should learn a lot, but am a bit scared as I generally turn down schools like this. I am looking at it as professional development and think I am actually going to enjoy the challenge.

Jobs:
No, I don't have one yet. Stop asking!
I applied for two jobs I really wanted and didn't even get interviews. Stupid schools. I am not going to take any old job though (or any for that matter if I doin't even get an interview!) I am sticking to my decision to be picky about where I apply to. I want to do my NQT year in the right school and with the right support.

Diet:
I am still doing weightwatchers. I have lost 10lb so far. It is hard but am trying my hardest to stay with it as I know it works.

Birthdays:

Big J will be 3 on Tuesday. My Birthday is the following Tuesday and then PP's birthday is the following Wednesday. Poor Little Z always feels a bit left out at this time of year and so we do our best to involve her in the celebration of Big J's birthday and to play down the adult birthdays as much as possible. We do notice her behaviour get considerably worse though at this time of year and have to try really hard not to make matters even worse by getting angry with her.

Well, I think that is about all for now. I am sure I will edit this a few times over the next few days as I remember other things that have happened over the last 3 weeks, but I don't suppose anyone will notice.

Bye Bye Campers!