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ADs are elite athletes and can run very fast

999 replies

BogRollBOGOF · 03/01/2021 16:32

Another thread in the saga filled up (so no forwards link)

I think maybe we're endurance athletes, or maybe multievent like a decathlon Grin

OP posts:
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Lifeinaonesie · 06/01/2021 06:39

Late to the party but...dyslexia. yes do get diagnosed especially if going to uni as you get a lot more support. I have students I suspect dyslexia of but can't give them any dispensation until they have a formal diagnosis and support plan set up.

LivinLaVidaLoki · 06/01/2021 06:42

Can I just add, we do celebrate Christmas in December in Greece, just a lot more low key (Easter is generally the huuuuuuuge celebration). We also celebrate epiphany (Jan 6th) and that's a much bigger event (obviously not this year), so because that's a bigger event its often referred to as Greek Christmas, but Christmas is Christmas still, just different. Hope that makes sense and hasn't derailed the thread.
Epiphany in Greece for anyone interested includes "The service of theGreat Sanctification of Water" which is held near bodies of water across the country (seas, lakes, rivers – the biggest celebration of all takes place at the port of Piraeus).
Following church services, people gather by the edge of the water, which the priest blesses by casting a cross into it.Young men then dive into retrieve it; the one who makes it through the cold water to the cross first, and returns it to the priest, is awarded with a special blessing.
It's a very special holiday that celebrates not only the baptism of Christ, but Greeces history and relationship with the sea.
My usually very feisty aunt is starting to feel down about the all the traditional family celebrations she is missing this year as she worries she may not see many more.

She made a [half] joke that she hopes it's all mostly over by 25 March, as that is Greek Independence Day and the traditional saying for that day is quite relevant now too.
Ελευθερία ή θάνατος
Pronounced Eleftheria e Thanatos
It means....

"Freedom or Death"

LivinLaVidaLoki · 06/01/2021 06:43

And welcome back @TooManyButtons hope you enjoy your later Christmas x

LivinLaVidaLoki · 06/01/2021 08:35

I have just got in the office and received an email stating that if I want to be in here (I am currently in 2 days a week), then I cannot be allowed in without taking part in the random testing available. Which is at the other end of town.
There is literally just me in here most days, we have allocated desks and I am the only one in my team here the only other people I have seen here are 2 people at the other end of a massive open plan office.

I come into the office for my mental health. My job can be very stressful and very upsetting and it feels like I cant escape it when I am at home all the time, even just those couple of days where I have a drive in and a drive home helps me create a psychological barrier between work and home and helps loads.
I dont really have an issue with testing I suppose but I feel like I have just had enough forced on me this last year.

Am I being ridiculous?

Sonicthehedgehogg · 06/01/2021 08:56

I get it Loki. It's the sense of having to jump over hurdles to do something which used to be simple. You can't just do anything anymore. Shopping means remembering a mask and checking a light above the door before entering, watching arrows on the floor. Going to a NT (something we used to do a lot just as a local park) now means logging on and booking your arrival time. We used to drive into work, make a coffee and settle in at the desk. Now we have to check a rota, wipe down the desk, sign in on Teams rather than at the admin office. Everything takes just a little more effort and mental load, not a lot in individual moments, but the cumulative effect is wearing.

110APiccadilly · 06/01/2021 09:04

I agree about jumping over hurdles. It does make everything so much more hassle. In addition, DH is so down about the whole thing that when I suggest we do stuff he'll normally say he'd rather not do it than do it with the hurdles. Which is how he copes I guess, but I'd rather cope by doing what I can even when it's a bit of a faff. So anything that involves both of us, like a meal out together (back when that was allowed) just isn't happening at the moment.

This isn't me rolling over and him just getting his way, this is me accepting that one of the two of us has actual depression (and it's not me), and therefore choosing to lean more towards his coping mechanisms than mine.

BogRollBOGOF · 06/01/2021 09:05

No you're not ridiculous.

It's yet another layer of tick box imposition that doesn't really achieve anything (possibly counter productive as it increases your social contact) and just makes life even harder.

I'm worn from feeling like I'm told how to think and feel all the time.
I do know what is good in my life, but gratitude is a pretty empty thing really, and I am mindful that millions (billions internationally) have it in far more challenging circumstances. But self flagellating about that achieves nothing and dismissing my feelings and covering up is not healthy.

I do not live in fear, do not want to live in fear and that is unhealthy. We spend our lives risk assessing and mitigating hazards for the maximum benefit.

OP posts:
Worldgonecrazy · 06/01/2021 09:10

@LivinLaVidaLoki thank you for the Greek information. Really interesting.

Dyslexia- I was shocked to find out that parents need to get a diagnosis privately on our local area. The council don’t pay for it. Do children from families that don’t have a spare £700 are penalised.

Feeling shit today. Lockdown until at least 31 March. Not sure how many will be at school with DD. Single children are having a hard time not being able to meet their friends. Hanging out on zoom isn’t quite the same.

Hope everyone is finding a positive somewhere. We started the Caroline Girvan Epic program yesterday. Any exercise enthusiasts looking for a bit of a challenge - I recommend it.

Howyoualldoworkme · 06/01/2021 09:14

Ok, this is probably ridiculously unimportant in the Grand Scheme of Things but my drawing classes have been cancelled AGAIN! I've managed three since last March. I have a mini studio so could draw at home but it's the atmosphere and interaction that can fire up inspiration and I'm finding it so difficult to get motivated.
I've managed to be upbeat and chivvy my family along (whilst inwardly being highly cynical about the whole thing)
I've not seen my mother or my two older sons and my grandchildren for nearly 15 months (distance and transport issues) my husband had a minor heart attack in June which uncovered two life limiting illnesses (he's doing ok) but I've kept on an even keel because that's my nature.

But I've had enough now. I love my drawing classes, I'm really good at it (according to my tutor) It's MY thing, the only other things I'm good at are baking and sarcasm Hmm
I'm really fortunate, we both took early retirement, own our house etc etc but this is my last straw. Because I'm retired this skill was part of actually remaking an identity aside from wife, mum, gran, library person etc.

And that's not even factoring in the very low numbers in my area according to the ONS which are really making me wonder why we are being treated like this.

Apologies for the wandering and ranting. I don't even drink so can't go and drown my sorrows Grin

Curlygirl06 · 06/01/2021 09:31

@Howyoualldoworkme

Ok, this is probably ridiculously unimportant in the Grand Scheme of Things but my drawing classes have been cancelled AGAIN! I've managed three since last March. I have a mini studio so could draw at home but it's the atmosphere and interaction that can fire up inspiration and I'm finding it so difficult to get motivated. I've managed to be upbeat and chivvy my family along (whilst inwardly being highly cynical about the whole thing) I've not seen my mother or my two older sons and my grandchildren for nearly 15 months (distance and transport issues) my husband had a minor heart attack in June which uncovered two life limiting illnesses (he's doing ok) but I've kept on an even keel because that's my nature.

But I've had enough now. I love my drawing classes, I'm really good at it (according to my tutor) It's MY thing, the only other things I'm good at are baking and sarcasm Hmm
I'm really fortunate, we both took early retirement, own our house etc etc but this is my last straw. Because I'm retired this skill was part of actually remaking an identity aside from wife, mum, gran, library person etc.

And that's not even factoring in the very low numbers in my area according to the ONS which are really making me wonder why we are being treated like this.

Apologies for the wandering and ranting. I don't even drink so can't go and drown my sorrows Grin

I don't drink but I'm thinking of starting! My daughter and I have come up with an idea to do my grandson's home schooling on the day I look after him and his baby sister, so will see how that goes. Many years ago my children thought that home schooling would be great, as a couple of their Brownie friends did it. I know what would have happened, they'd get up late, I'd be listening to pop master/ watching Homes under the hammer, making tea, they'd be messaging their mates, nothing would get done and I'd be shouting. Let's hope things are better now! I'll report back.
Howyoualldoworkme · 06/01/2021 09:42

Curlygirl06 I can't drink, I'm allergic to alcohol Sad
I'm quite interested in this new Gordon's non alcoholic gin though!

I've lost five stone on a low carb diet but I've indulged in lots of sweet stuff over Christmas. I'm not too fussed though because I know when I go back to my WOE I'll carry on with the weight loss.
I've got all there nice new clothes and nowhere to wear them though. I'm wandering round the house in all me finery like a mad old Hollywood diva! Grin

MaudesMum · 06/01/2021 09:45

@Howyoualldoworkme I totally understand. I started doing a pottery class in September, which managed to keep going throughout the autumn term, on the grounds that it was an adult education class which really couldn't be done online. Apart from learning a new skill, it meant there was a fixed point in the week where I got out and sat in a room with other people, talking and being mutually supportive. So, again, unimportant in the Grand Scheme of Things, but a really big part of what made me feel connected to the world.

ISaySteadyOn · 06/01/2021 09:54

Schools not back until summer now apparently.

ISaySteadyOn · 06/01/2021 10:00

Because children don't matter. Only scared adults. Fine.

@110APiccadilly, what you PMed me about homeschooling was very helpful. Do you think you could post it on the thread?

BogRollBOGOF · 06/01/2021 10:03

I'm like that with my fitness classes.
And the DCs swimming/ karate which are the only two activities to have returned face to face.

DS2 has already been chased around the house, captured and carried to the laptop and made to sit on my lap.

Just like round 1, it's like catching two cats at the same time. If I try to do one at a time he's distracted by the thought of his brother entertaining himself. And they need too much attention to do both at the same time.

It hurts because I care. Because they are bright with good potential but need to work at it and both have their weak spots. They're not the type to stroll into school and pick it all back up.

I do wonder if there's something ND about DS2. Not to the same extent as DS1, but his reading/ writing isn't brilliant and I really can't tell anymore if his attention span is normal range because there isn't much normal going on.

OP posts:
DrRamsesEmerson · 06/01/2021 10:05

@ISaySteadyOn

Schools not back until summer now apparently.
Is that definite?! I know they refused to rule it out yesterday, but assuming they don't fuck up the vaccination programme (ha!) what possible justification could there be for keeping schools closed next term?
Howyoualldoworkme · 06/01/2021 10:08

MaudesMum Thank you for understanding. That two hours on a Monday morning inspired me and kept me going for the rest of the long dull week.

ISaySteadyOn · 06/01/2021 10:16

If they haven't ruled it out, it will probably happen. I have observed this over the past months. So best to assume no school.

Seriouslymole · 06/01/2021 10:19

I've just tried to google that Sheffield school which classed all it's children as vulnerable. The pages have been taken down.

What the hell is going on with the media at the moment?!

Seriouslymole · 06/01/2021 10:21

They've capitulated. How very very very sad.

www.thestar.co.uk/education/sheffield-school-classing-all-pupils-vulnerable-reopen-announces-it-will-stay-closed-3085608

I feel so sad about everything at the moment. I feel so out of control and so cross. They are taking away every element of our civil liberties and we are just letting them.

ISaySteadyOn · 06/01/2021 10:43

I am so angry. Our children are worth nothing.

Seriouslymole · 06/01/2021 10:45

What can we do about it? I'm also so fucked off that the BBC are reporting the lockdown is law when it hasn't even been voted on.

How do we stand up against this? I can't believe that we will still have the children working from home in the summer term - it's horrific.

Mrsfrumble · 06/01/2021 11:01

If schools are not back by summer, they HAVE to suspend the curriculum, surely?

I’ve just been helping DS with his literacy for the day. They were supposed to start it, have a class call meet up to discuss, then finish the task. During the class call the children in school were sharing their ideas, which were much more interesting and sophisticated, obviously because they’d been able to have an in-depth discussion with their peers, teacher and TA, while sitting in their usual learning environment. Of course I do not begrudge keyworker and vulnerable children, but I do begrudge the pretence that children who are at home are not being disadvantaged by having such a different experience of learning.

110APiccadilly · 06/01/2021 11:01

@ISaySteadyOn I'm really glad it was helpful. Have posted below. I'm not an expert, just someone with a bit of experience being home educated (and a bit of experience helping/tutoring home educated children.)

Overall, I had a really good experience, and I'm that fairly rare thing, someone who was home educated all the way from pre-school to sixth form. I'm very pro home education, when parents choose to do it. (Very much not pro parents being forced into it!) Here's some thoughts, take anything that helps and leave the rest.

I have a brother close to my own age and we did a lot of stuff together - if you have 3 under 11 I would definitely do as much as possible with all 3 of them together rather than trying to do different things with each. This may actually pull the younger ones along quicker than school would as they want to do what older siblings are doing. That was definitely the case in my family. So you could get them all doing the same thing (e.g., writing a daily diary entry) where obviously you'd expect a bit more from an older child but everyone has the same task. Or you could all do a basic science experiment together and then one child draws a diagram of the equipment, one writes up how to perform the experiment, and one writes up results.

My parents actually favoured a fairly formal education - we had a timetable, mum was very hot on grammar and spelling, and indeed I learnt Latin! I suspect that wouldn't really be an appropriate way to proceed when educating as an emergency during school closures though. I'd recommend a basic routine though - starting, finishing and having breaks at the same time each day. On the subject of routine, you should be able to make your "school day" shorter than an actual school day because schools have a certain amount of unavoidable wasted time. At primary level, we worked 8:30 to 10:00 and 10:30 to 13:00, with maybe a nature walk or some craft or gardening or something in the afternoon, or maybe a completely free afternoon. Certainly no sit down reading/writing style work in the afternoons (unless, very rarely, we'd been misbehaving horrors in the morning, played up and not got the work done when we could have - this also motivated us not to play up too much in the mornings.)

Mild bribery is absolutely a fine technique. (I don't remember this but apparently I learnt the alphabet by being given a raisin when I could match a letter to a sound!) I'm pretty sure at one point my parents bought stickers for reward charts wholesale. This is ideal for when you need one child to get on with something so you can give attention to a different child - offer a reward/sticker to the first child if they quietly get on with the work.

A bit of inter-child competition can also work, but obviously you know your children better than me - if that's likely to lead to one child always "winning" and being unbearable about it, for instance, then no. As an example of what I mean, my brother and I had our own age/stage appropriate mental maths workbooks. We'd compete over who could (correctly) answer more questions in 10 mins.

Something that's definitely worth doing is reading aloud. Our mornings used to end with this, and it's a great memory I have - I'm already looking at books and imagining how much fun it will be to read them to DD. I wouldn't worry too much about them being great literature - I'd pick a book you like (which is age appropriate) as they'll probably enjoy it if you're enjoying it. They could colour or play with something quiet (Lego doesn't work!) while you read.

Oh, and if you want to do baking - you can extend that to cover maths and literacy if you like. Give them ingredients in lb and oz and scales in kg, and a conversion graph and that's some maths, and get them to write up the recipe afterwards, and that's literacy!

Khan academy has excellent maths resources that a 10 year old at least could probably work through by themselves - they have video explainers on a topic and then self-test questions. It's a free site.

That was very long, I hope there's some stuff in there that might help (and that it's not all just ideas you've thought of already).

thefallthroughtheair · 06/01/2021 11:02

Hi again all
Been on these threads since the very first one, with various breaks and namechanges. Won't be posting much I imagine as I've decided that I can't read anything on SM without being sent insane, but just wanted to add weight to the AD numbers. This whole thing is such a fucking disgrace.
Wrote to my MP and the PM this morning + finally made a complaint to the BBC about the Duffel interview. Probably all I can manage for one day.
Hope you're all coping as well as possible.