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Swagger Inn Thread 109. The Back to School & Back to Wenching Thread

999 replies

SparklesRedHotChileLeather · 31/08/2015 04:27

It's a new term so early to bed for the little darlings & back to the Muskeperving for us wenches. New pupils always welcome if you are taking Musketeers A-Level. You 4 new boys in leather can come & sit at the front where I can keep an eye on you And no guns in class. Now FOCUS you lot.

Swagger Inn Thread 109. The Back to School & Back to Wenching Thread
OP posts:
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129
MadamedeChevreuse · 04/09/2015 13:16

Hehehe bads - no I dont, and not project x either!

I am interested in all your opinions though.

I think there are valid reasons for trying to encourage boys in particular to read - cos they are generally never as good at reading as girls.

However I agree, best way to get any child to read is to read to them fun stories that they like, expose them to books that they like, etc. Early readers are all dire cos the language is so graded and limited. I suppose they have their place at school, but my ds doesnt seem to get anything from them at home, apart from a dislike of reading.

Yesterday he brought home his first reader. His reading has way come on over the summer cos we've been reading roald dahl and at one point he decided to "read the bfg himself". (It was on hol with my mum and we were bickering instead of reading his bedtime story, so he picked it up and started reading himself! I was )

But last night it was the usual fight to get him to read the bloody thing (the series is Collins bigcat or something) and he came out with the usual "I hate reading". Makes me so sad.

He cant read great yet and he's in year one. I think I already knew how to read before I started Reception.

Personally I blame phonics. and boys brains We read Roger Red Hat etc when I was at school and I remember loving it. That was pre-phonics of course.

Would be interesting to hear the views of teacher wenches?

Badders123 · 04/09/2015 13:28

Phonics is great for some kids...ds2 is doing really well with it, but ds1 just didn't get it.
Is your ds a summer born by any chance?

MadamedeChevreuse · 04/09/2015 13:33

No, january!

Phonics is good for most young ones really. Im just moaning about it cos I hate the phonics based early readers.

SisterHelenoftheEternalCatchUp · 04/09/2015 13:41

DS enjoyed 'Easy Phonic Words (Usborne Very First Reading)' book even though it's just lists of words & pictures and I think it helped him grasp the concept. We spent a lot of time in the library finding books that he wanted to get out, even if they were way beyond what he was capable of reading and extremely tedious (from my point of view) And he's always seen us with our heads buried in books, which I think helps too.

I don't have a problem at all with things designed to get boys interested in reading - anything that gets them hooked into it is good. Though I may be guilty of double-standards because I hate the 'lego friends' range being all pink and girly to try and entice 'pink girly' girls to play with lego.

I don't know, I have no idea. I do have to do hoovering now for impending visit of my friend (who won't care in the least that the house is messy. But I care, so I need to hoover and make space on the sofa for people to sit without perching on books and random toys that are lying on it.)

Laterssssss

MadamedeChevreuse · 04/09/2015 13:50

Pink lego is just bullshit imo! Grin

Ds has always loved books. Problem is he cba to make the effort to read himself!

Badders123 · 04/09/2015 14:01

I have a real issue with gender specific stuff tbh.
It's just patriarchal bullshit.
i have started taking my menopause vits....am hoping to feel like a new woman soon!

HaydeeofMonteCristo · 04/09/2015 14:02

I have dd desperate to get to just choosing her own books, which she likes to did anyway.

School were insistent last year that she had to slog through all the "set" books first, but maybe will be different this year.

ApricotCrush · 04/09/2015 14:09

I don't fecking believe it! I've completed one mending job, one alteration job and am in the middle of another and DH has come home and says his trousers have split down the inside leg. Someone rescue me from sewing hell!

SisterHelenoftheEternalCatchUp · 04/09/2015 14:11

Just realised I hadn't finished current job, hoovering will have to wait...

ApricotCrush · 04/09/2015 14:13

Hope they work for you Badders . If they do let me know what they are and I'll try them. I've given up with it all and just put up with everything now.

Badders123 · 04/09/2015 14:14

Getting a headache....:(

ApricotCrush · 04/09/2015 14:15

Thanks Helen.

That's the wine not the glue. Grin

Badders123 · 04/09/2015 14:20

I've gone with menopace - the bio one. One tablet am and pm.
There are more expensive ones but boots do 3 for 2
I really hope they work :(

SisterHelenoftheEternalCatchUp · 04/09/2015 14:29

The glue would have been Wink

Alibabsandthe40Musketeers · 04/09/2015 14:31

Apricot our dry cleaners do repairs for a very reasonable rate.. Grin

Badds hope you are feeling better soon, it is utterly crap to never feel completely well.

I think books are one area where I don't mind some gender focus if it helps to get children started on enjoying books. But that said, children should then be able to choose to read whatever they like without being told 'oh no that's for girls/boys'.

Original poster
SparklesRedHotChileLeather · 04/09/2015 14:44

Hello wenches.

I can report that Santi & Tom were at the theatre seeing a very worthy play last night - basically a monologue on grief with a lot of it done fully-frontal nude.

Let's hope they were there for RESEARCH PURPOSES, eh?

God I'm blardy freezing!! On my To Purchase list currently are cropped cigarette-pant style trousers in black & navy for work. Plus fitted smart jumpers, same colours. Plus some flat black suede ankle boots. I already have a lovely new navy coat to wear with.

I also have Bretons in every colour under the sun & as you know, swear by my M & S jeggings for the winter. Always buy knickers to match whatever bra but invariably end up in bog-standard t-shirt bras as they're the best for me, just v boring. Still have lots & lots of pretty ones because they do make me feel nicer. Santi, please assume

OP posts:
SisterHelenoftheEternalCatchUp · 04/09/2015 15:01

I think I'd rather see Cinn's play to be honest, though then again, I'd rather have the audience from last night

I swear by my thick thermal socks, and am thinking about putting them on at the moment... though obvs would prefer to just snuggle under a duvet with a HBF to keep me warm...

FancyFancy · 04/09/2015 15:16

Afternoon

I am chuckling (and my apologies to him) at a mental image of mrApricot arriving home with a wildly flapping trouser leg.

I'm with you on the gendered reading badders, I know what they're trying to do & why, but it does feel like reinforcing the idea that boys can't be expected to like things that don't specifically cater to them, cos y'know girls and their interests are beneath them. But then I frequently berate the tv for churning out cartoons in which male characters are over-represented so I generally have a bee in my bonnet about this!

Research sparks? In my dreams....Sadly I think if anyone was doing research it would've been Tom and not Santi. No sightings of Ali (nto)?

Badders123 · 04/09/2015 15:38

Hmm...I need some new clothes...speak to me of jeggings. Are they only for thin willowy people?
Also, what tops are we liking ATM?
I went and picked da up as Dh is in the man shed.
I need to pop out for a Jiffy bag...oh the excitement never ends! :)

FancyFancy · 04/09/2015 16:15

I think jeggings can work work on most shapes badders - although teaming them with crop-tops is probably best left to the very young & trim!

IssyStark · 04/09/2015 16:25

Bads I would be lost without all of various leggings and jeggings and I am not sylph-like at all!

Re books for boys (sorry, haven't worked back through pages yet, deparately trying to cling on to thread as it rushes past), ds1 read the Biff books with reluctance but was much happier with factual books, and will still often read factual books in preference. I'm desperately trying to get him to read more fiction as he's a bit emotionally unaware at times, as a child's version of Beowulf, which he had as a reading book in yr2, really seemed to switch him onto fiction and then he discovered Horrid Henry and Roald Dahl and now he's probably 50:50 fiction:nonfiction.

apes you have my sympathy. My current mending pile strategy is leave it long enough that the dc have grown out of whatever it was Hmm

Badders123 · 04/09/2015 16:32

Any particular brand?

FancyFancy · 04/09/2015 16:46

issy, I love your mending strategy Grin

What I do not like is the absense of pretty on this page.

Swagger Inn Thread 109. The Back to School & Back to Wenching Thread
Original poster
SparklesRedHotChileLeather · 04/09/2015 16:52

M & s 5-pocket ones Baddz! £22.50

OP posts:
Alibabsandthe40Musketeers · 04/09/2015 16:53

I wear jeggings and skinnies and I am really not sylph-like. Bizarrely I find Sainsbury's really good - and cheap. Varies in there from £13-18ish for a pair.

Issy DS1 is the same, his favourite thing to do is sit and read his encyclopaedia. He does like the BeastQuest books, and Roald Dahl, and I've also introduced him to Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman who both write/wrote some things for children.