Little Italy 24

[BananaGio]

Ciao tutte!

Hi Sput , how are things in your end of the world ?
Well went this morning and said no to place in the private school ( well parastatale ), think dh and I felt relieved as it was the right thing to do - for all concerned. However its a good school sop we have put her down for the medie.... If its the right thing to do for her then , then it is , if not then we will say no again !
We then walked for a coffee to the fondamente nove ( rather wind exposed) thought I would have frozen to the bridge if I had stopped.... Mind you right now its a nice cold......Am preparing English classes and bored can't get any inspiration.....

Things not bad here, kids are glad to be back in school, DS got another certificate last week :)

Good to hear all is well at the sputnik's. Are you busy with your new business?

I wonder how gio is doing too, hope all is well.

Rosa, sounds like you did the right thing, also it is great they have medie, as often medie are tricky, such a difficult age nowadays too!

Have you come up with an idea for your lessons? What age?

Very cold here too... Winter's arrived!

hi all, all good here. ds happy to be back in school and i am happy that ds is back in school ....
che palle re the schools Rosa. I am having to sort ds for prima as well. I think am going to send him to the one attached to the materna he goes to although there are the same issues re a few bad teachers there. Trying to decide between tempo pieno and modulo. He does til 1 at the moment so think tempo pieno will be a shock to the system but going tempo pieno will make things so much easier for work for me. His best friend is going to a different school and I darent tell ds, he will be gutted plus I think his other friends from materna are all doing modulo so he will be on his own. Am I being too PFB here- he will be fine wont he.
Just been watching TG re ship. . Horrendous isnt it.

Ciao Gio!
Oh I can't bring myself to watch anything about the ship, how tragic. And what an imbecille that captain is

What kind of hrs is the modulo at your selected school? How many afternoons do they have? I don't know much about the modulo, there is only one sezione per year (and they just started 2 yrs ago, as before then there was no option for it) in our school that does it, the rest is tempo pieno.
Mine go to tempo pieno. I've always been a great fan of tempo pieno, but I think that sadly, after the cuts (Gelmini I haven't forgiven you!!!) all the exciting things about tempo pieno (the laboratori, for instance) have decreased consistently, therefore it might be a "long day" for some children... iyswim.

Having said that do keep in mind that usually the prima elementare is pretty much always a shock to the system, no matter how many hrs they do.

Hi Gio can you not increase ds to afternoons as well so he can get used to it? DD1 loves the afternoons as she gets to do more fun things. I am about to start minirosa doing the odd afternoon but I have to pick a day that I know she will eat the lunch or she will be a bear by 3.30. Also she has to get rid of this nasty cold that seems to have popped up. DD1 started coughing mainly at night and first thing in the morning. Minirosa stated last night and this am and now is all blocked up... will see if DD1 is the same at 4! DH is back working FT so I will see if I go teaching domani. I eventually decided on the Face for this week and either the rest of the body or clothes to follow. Then will probably do my fave which is the hungry caterpillar!
As for the nave part of me wishes that there was a small technical hitch so its not just another Italian cretinata. With the salutare of the isola and the captain being a wally. Mind you I wonder how much will be loaded onto the captain even if it is not his fault. More to the point will we ever know? Mind you the organisation on the ground doesn't seem to be much better with dispersi being found at home ...Surely everybody who was loaded onto a traghetto should have been named / listed and recorded? Its not that easy to get off GIglio....I went there about 20 years ago lovely place with 2 roads if I remember correctly!

Rosa, how are the colds doing?
I agree with rosa, gio, you might want to leave him at materna for maybe 3 afternoons a week, i think you are able to do so.

I also agree with you re the nave. Che tragedia. I remember i saw adocumentary on the bbc about the Estonia, that sunk in the 1990s, so incredibly sad and upsetting.

Well I kept minirosa at home . It doesn't actually seem too bad. Last night she was very blocked so I gave her baby rinolo. It is great stuff . NO idea what is in it apart from Paracetamolo and some kind of decongestant but it means that they can sleep. She is now asleep probably the best thing . I might recoup domani if she is ok . DD1 seems to have a cough and a slight cold but it is all moving ( along with her) so fingers crossed there.
Rather cold and damp here which I am sure helps the germs but pazienza! DH seems to have gone to work with 2 sets of thermals on !

Never heard of baby rinolo, good to know it exists! Mine have been snotty for months, I blame the air pollution!
I read that flu season has started with the arrival of the cold weather, I am keeping my fingers crossed as ds is supposed to go to scuola natura for 5 days on monday!

Dh is working from home today, and we have just had a surprisingly nice indian take away!

Scuola Natura that sounds fun. If the flu is coming if it could come now I would appreciate it so we can get rid of it before Feb 14th..... Also all the Carnevale things that both dds are excited about. There is a 'topo' party ( as in pantegana ), it is the symbol of Cannaregio and they make a big one and make it 'fly' of a bridge . It was a piss take on the volo della colomba , which happens in San Marco on the first Sunday and it is normally some velina or something that comes down from the bell tower on a wire. This is on Feb 5th ( the flying rat)then the 1st weekend of proper Carnival is on the 11th and they are both planning costumes!!! I picked up red riding hood in Saisnburys and I just need to get the cape lined and possibly make minirosa a cape as she insisted she had Snowhite . I did get age 5-6 but I am not sure how much stuff I can get underneath it. I still have a lovely bee costume that would fit her but I doubt I can persuade her to wear it !

I like il lancio del topo!
How exciting carnevale in venice! The girls will have a wonderful time!

i would love to come to venice for the carneval. Must be wonderful.
Unfortunately i dont have the option to leave ds at materna for afternoons. There is only one class doing modulo and the rest are all tempo pieno and they dont mix them. Got a meeting there next week so will go along and check out the teachers

Hello!
Ds left this morning for a 5 days trip with his school... Yesterday night he was all cuddly and worried about missing us...
Today he saw his friends and off he went, he almost forgot to say "goodbye"

I hope everything goes well.

Phew glad he made it. I expect on Wednesday you might get a tearful phonecall ( I remember scout camp). But if he likes the food and the activities I am sure he will be fine ! Where has he gone? I have been to Coin and bought some sheets in the 50% sale . The colours are not really my liking but the prices were.

I am sure they'll have a wonderful time, I just hope he doesn't get too anxious at night time.

Oh Coin, I forgot that Coin usually have some nice bargains at this time of the year!!!

Omg, I just felt a scossa di terremoto! Bloody scary

Really ...off to look at Skytg hope all ok

Crikey there was one in Verona last night which was felt also in Venice ...I diddn't feel a thing..

all seems ok, but i got bloody scared, we live on the 6th floor and it shook a lot. Spookiest thing is the "bang" noise before it all started to shake... I got so freaked out that I ran downstairs to the portinai!!!

I asked Dh if he felt anything but he said no. Funny though minirosa woke just after midnight for no real reason at all ...... As for the bang I would have been like you out of the place like a shot !
Just made my oh so simple apple cake the profumo is great ! And DH gave me an early birthday present - a soft angry birds toy !!! Thing is I had ordered it ( and 2 others) for SIL and paid for it with my paypal account !!!!

rosa, is it your birthday??? See, the bad thing about having deregistered from fb is that I am not aware of birthdays anymore!

NO not for another 3 weeks... I hope to be in the sun with dh and the girls and spend the day with them and drinking a nice bottle of Cava in the evening... Why/ when did you leave FB ?

Sounds like a good plan !

I deregistered in December, I was wasting too much time and also got by posts of strangers on La Repubblica forum...

Scary Franca! Have you felt any more since. Stay safe! Under a doorframe or whatever useless thing you are meant to do. I remember before the L'Aquila one being woken up by the initial noise before the shaking. It was the eeriest experience, like a moaning noise then the shaking.
Went for the prima meeting this evening. Boh! We wont know which teachers are doing which classes until Sept! All I know is that modula is with 1 rientro only which is not enough for ds with my work situation so tempo pieno it is. At least tempo pieno has 2 teachers as well so I would hope that at least one is ok!! One thing am very impressed with is maximum number of kids in a class is 21 which seems a good amount when compared to what I hear re UK classes. Anyway meeting turned into a free for all, all the parents shouting questions at the president re who the teachers will be etc, then arguing amongst themselves. Am just going to enroll for tp I think and hope for the best! The school is ok from what I hear, not brilliant, not terrible but its round the corner from our apartment and wont be a total change for ds in the sense he associates it with being his school still as is the same building as the materna. Speriamo bene!

No, I haven't felt anymore. The bizarre thing is that while it was all shaking, I couldn't move at all. I just spent those 20 seconds (not sure how long it was really), holding to the table (which was moving) in disbelief! And when it was all finished I got my bag and ran downstairs
Dd didn't feel it, but then all the school was taken outside in the garden, to wait for a while.

Gio, I think you are doing the right thing re school. There is always plenty of time for a change if things don't turn out ok.
My advise is to keep your eyes open, chat to as many parents as you can, you will soon learn who to trust (never believe 100% of what other parents say!).

Expect ds to be knackered the first year of primary, so don't sign him up for too many activities after school. And always pick him up with a good merenda!
He'll be fine!!!