Chatting and (Baby) Stepping, (Baby) Stepping and Chatting.

[Scout19075]

A place to have a chat, drink and relax from Stepping (or not). All chatters are welcome, Stepping or otherwise.

Come on in and enjoy the company!

What are you doing for the fourth of July Scout?

My best friend lives in Houston now so I imagine they will be celebrating too.

I am glad you are feeling better Adora. It sounds like quite a bug.

Arti does your work slow down over the summer holidays? What are you planning to do with them?

Yes Carrots it is nasty. We're blaming a business contact of OH's for bringing it back from USA, took him a month to shake it off.

I started off well, but it's turned into a duvet day. I'm breathing better but CBA. I'll do the bare minimum just before I get the DDs they finish late today.

Not good Adora although a duvet day sounds delicious (not with a bug though)!

Evening all!
Just finished work for the day!

Carrots - it does sometimes slow down a little but not as much as you might think because:
a) I take my fortnight "proper holiday", which only leaves 3 to 4 weeks
b) If I have anyone doing 11+ they often have extra lessons as the exam is in September
c) Quite a few of my students ( particularly those "catching up") carry on with holiday lessons.
d) I use any spare time to do all the calculations for doing my tax return - boring tedious stuff like working out how many business miles I have done in the car! Then I submit my tax return on-line.
e) I can carry on doing my church gardening during the summer and sometimes get to do a bit more than in term time ( if it ever stops raining!!)

With all of these, it means I am doing not far off a normal term time workload.

In my "proper holiday" so far, I am going to a cousin's wedding in Cambridgeshire and then visiting a friend who lives in Essex for a few days. If the weather is reasonable I will probably also try and get a few days away somewhere by the sea either camping or youth hostelling. I'm currently wondering about Anglesey as it has some nice seaside but isn't too far away!

Sounds fab Arti.

Dd has to practise her violin over the summer as she might be sitting her exam in November. I am a bit about how regularly that will happen but she might surprise me.

Preparations for the 4th are going okay. Every day this week we've made something patriotic and made something caterpillar (to learn about our caterpillars that arrived on Monday). So far we have an Uncle Sam and Statue of Liberty table decorations and an Uncle Sam "hat" (I still need to put a paper band on it but Toddler's done the coloring and I've cut it out). For caterpillars TS has made a caterpillar out of an egg carton and he colored a caterpillar made out of circles. Tomorrow I'm hoping to make a paint caterpillar out of cups and to make red/white/blue fireworks out of paint with straws on black paper. I am ambitious.

I'm taking daily pictures of the caterpillars, of Toddler doing a caterpillar/butterfly project and of the end result of the project. I've also been taking pictures of the final projects for the 4th of July. Of course on the day I'll take lots of pictures of Toddler in his tee-shirts, waving his flag, etc.

We're going to go to RAF Feltwell. MrScout has offered to collect Toddler after the fly-bys so I can stay for the fireworks (TS loves fireworks, too, but a 10 p.m. start is way too late for small boy). I haven't decided about that yet but I'm excited to go on base, enjoy the celebrations and maybe even get a Root Beer (YUM!). And I'm always up for a Spitfire fly-by (my soon-to-be BiL flew one for his 50th and MrScout & I went to watch -- it was awesome) and a Red Arrows display.

The Olympic Torch comes to town next week, too. YAY! Toddler and I will go (MrScout is NOT into the whole Olympic thing). He's going to have both his Stars & Stripes and Union Flags to wave -- my thinking is the Olympics is a global gathering so he should be able to express his enthusiasm for both countries.

I'm still grumpy. I woke up in a huff and the day just didn't get better. It didn't get worse but it didn't get better.

Yes, Scout Toddler absolutely should wave both flags. We're eating out tonight because I just can't be doing with cooking.

I agree, both flags are the thing to do. A large side of our family is Spanish and we would do the same. Dh was screaming at the tv last night because Spain were playing football.

I am going out today for a fancy lunch with some mums. We are treating ourselves pre holidays as it will be a different sort of dining when we are with the dcs.

Today is also the day we find out the teachers for next year (they go to meet them tomorrow and then we break up for the hols). I hate that they leave it to the very last minute.

Ds is very sad to be leaving his current teacher. She is one of the special ones and he has had a great year with her, despite all the problems we have had in other areas.

Dd is praying she will get the head and depute head. She had them a few years ago and they had a fantastic year with them and learned loads and loads too.

Brace yourself for my post after school today!

Good swimming session, even though Toddler's BFF wasn't there today (they're on holiday this week). Usually when T isn't there Toddler's quiet and subdued and I can't get him to do anything much. (Apparently T is the same way when Toddler's not there.)

I'm pausing for a few minutes for lunch.

Carrots - hope the teacher allocations work out well.
Scout - glad that TS had a good swimming session even without friend.

carrots, how did the teach allocation/s go?

Hi everyone!

I have had a bit of an afternoon.

The dcs got their teacher allocations this afternoon. Our problem was that they went straight into "Meet The Teacher". Ds is in a great class with a teacher who is fine and will probably be good for him so all that is good. Phew!

Our hiccup is that he has NO male friends in the class.

He managed to maintain his composure through the "meet the teacher" but then went back to his own class and sobbed for the rest of the day He has sobbed most of the evening too

The school has done well for him in the circumstances (they are a horrid year group) but try explaining the complexities of that to a 7 year old who suffers from anxiety and depression

Luckily dd's class is exactly what we wanted. [relief]

oh poor DS carrots - do you know who the other boys in his new class are? can you meet up with them during the holidays to give him an opportunity to (try to) make friends before september?

I've been to parent's evening for DD1 tonight (all good), put the bins out, found something in the freezer for tea & am thinking I should probably goto bed soon.... I have done MN, FB & Pinned. What more is there to do? Oh yeah, photos....

One of the little boys is one of my closest friend's son. They get on fine but are not "good friends" in that nothing sparks between them iykwim.

There is a little boy he is keen to make friends with but his parents are never in the playground and may not speak English. I wish they gave us more time - tomorrow is the last day.

There is one other boy whose Mum I speak to now and again. No one else speaks to her and I don't know why. I often see her in the shop so I might see if we can try to build that friendship.

It has made me a bit as his IEP's focus was to make friends with the other P3's.

All of that said, I am delighted he is in the more peaceful class and a very small class. We can't have it all.

Well done to little bessie on a good parent's evening

Carrots

Glad DD's class has worked out well and I hope DS can make some friend's in his new class. My two break up for winter holiday next Friday, that's 2 weeks. They can spend lot's of time laying wit the puppies. I bought tennis balls today, bounced them around the kitchen and both puppies tried to pick up both balls in their teeth. It was really funny to watch.

I finally got out and got my bits of shopping. It rained hard and is due to continue until Tuesday, it's bleedin freezing too.

I've been wondering why I'm so tired today and then I remembered that the bank called for OH, at 3am, they forgot about the time difference. Neither one us needed that. He's under stress with work as well as fighting this virus and I'm just plain whacked because of this virus. Still, after tomorrow we can all lie in, Monday is a holiday although OH will work. I've hardly done a thing today. I did intend to vacuum up the tufts of puppy fluff from their battles, but OH beat me to it. He's learning, ha ha.

I'm struggling to focus now, so I'm giving up.

Morning everyone.

I have just been to the end of term church service/prize giving. They always leave me feeling a bit sour, they used to at work as well. The same kids seem to get everything, every year. They are up and down like human yo yos while everyone dutifully claps.

I made a big push when I was still working for dcs to be recognised for effort and progress rather than inherent talent iykwim. A system was begun but then we changed head teacher and he chucked it out the window. By then I was expecting dd so couldn't really fight the fight.

I have heard so many kids say before these events, "What's the point? We know so and so will win it again." And they do!

I took Toddler to "osticks" (that's gymnastics for those among us not up on ToddlerScout speak) for the first time. I think he loved it -- he certainly spent most of the time grinning and laughing and was talking about it on the way to the car. It's run at the leisure center by the town's gymnastics club. Mostly just free "play" on the equipment but the did stretching activities and had people there to help with the equipment. It was good fun.

I'm having lunch now then will go back to the grindstone.

carrots, what sort of awards are given? It's such a UK thing (I think) -- the end-of-term/year awards (and such competitive Sports Days but that's another thread).

Hi Scout. Some of the awards are fine imo. For example the previous head teacher started an award for the most improved pupil ie a child who had worked hard to overcome and issue they may have had. I feel that warrants an award.

There was also an award for citizenship which I feel is a great award to give.

However the awards for being born good at something make me feel uncomfortable. We all know who the winners will be before they announce anything. They are not like Olympic athletes who have worked hard for their position. They are just naturally good at a particular thing eg running

If they trained to run and became good because of it that would be different but they don't. (I know as the winner of this years award is the daughter of a friend of mine and she can just do it.)

I feel it sends the wrong message. I know life is unfair but there is nothing to strive for if you know who the winner is before you even begin.

I don't say anything as it just sounds like sour grapes but it doesn't rest well with me.

Toddler has had a very artistic day (mostly his choice). My FB albums of his 4th of July and his caterpillar/butterfly work are quickly filling up!

carrots, are the awards for academics?

In Secondary the awards are academic. In our Primary some of the awards were academic.

If dh had been at a school that did prizes then he would have won all of them, every year, without lifting a finger. I don't think that does anyone any good, not even the prize winner.

I will stop ranting about it though. I do see the value in Olympic medals and Booker prizes, etc but they have been strived for (if that is an expression).

I promise I will stop ranting now

I'm glad my school didn't do that!

I don't remember my school having any annual awards for anything other than attendance! They did used to dish out "merit" badges every week which was quite good for getting immediate reward for hard work, and of course meant that many more people could get one.

No idea what they do in the schools round here. DD1 occasionally comes home from pre-school with a sticker if she's done something special!

I love the stickers. We had them in Secondary too and even the fifth years loved to get a sticker, especially the boys

I wish we got stickers for making a nice evening meal or for good packing

That is an entirely different thing - it recognises hard work.

Some of the ones given today were for built in skill, not hard work. It was like saying, X gets an award for having curly hair and Y gets an award for having blue eyes etc. It makes me feel a squishy.