MN Little Italy 7

[francagoestohollywood]

Ciao, hello, welcome!

oh 3 months and a half (broody)

Hi happy, I was nr Fano at the end of August!!! Went to the Jamboree festival in senigaglia

My friend went there. Senigalia is sooooo far away I decided to stay on the beach. The summer has gone, it's so depressing. I hate the winter here!

I remember you Pippi too, BTW my son's loves you and is always singing your song. PiPiPiPiPippicalzelunghe etc....

'oh 3 months and a half (broody)' - sorry franca but ... WHAT?????

happy your son's got great tastes !! we've got here a pippi cd with games for toddlers... dd is hooked!!!

I have always thought Fano was quite lively (ish) even during the winter months. Have i got it wrong?
The weather is great here in northern Italy (have moved back to Italy last christmas), is it not nice there?

Where do I get it. He'd love it.

Pippi, somehow I was convinced she was a little bit older. And you know that I can't resist small babies!!! Yes, I do feel broody when I think of small babies. I'd love to have a brand new one, but don't think it'd be a great idea...

I remember you ex Mary pop! As I worked a season in Senigallia and drove through Fano about 6 times a week.

Pippi you could try say 1 private session to see if she enjoys that but I wouldn't continue if she hates the group lessons maybe wait a bit and try again next year. We want to start dd again but we just do not have the time to take her right now ( guilty parent emotion )

I didn't know you were Marypop Happychappy. I can imagine Fano being quite dull in the winter months, I've been there in the spring before and it's been quite quiet. Nice for a short time but I can imagine boring if you're there all the time.

Pipp, agree wikth the others. Loads of DD's contemporaries started lessons this year and have already chucked it in, mainly because they do the forcing of heads under water thing, which appears to be common practice in no-parents-present groups. I was going to teach DD a bit myself or maybe have the odd private lesson, or group lessons where a parent can go in too. I think children only groups is too soon for a 3yo.

Rosa, do you regularly buy off Amazon.co.uk? Do you get stuff delivered directly to you in Venice?

Looks like I'll be in Venice for the 1st of nov, will email you

Have been panicking for the decreto Gelmini on the schools, have even emailed the Viminale, but I don't think this will make any difference. They are destroying our primary sector .

Actually, while I take ds to swimming lessons there is a little group of 3-4 yrs old, and the teacher is very nice. There is a little girl who cries and they don't force her at all to go inside, they give her some pentolini and she plays by the pool. She usually joins in the last 5 mins!

sorry franca did you mean dd2? she is 6 months, you were right. I thought you were talking about dd1. accept my most sincere apologies !

well dd1 does love swimming, she liked the lessons as well untill they forced her to swim 5 meters without armbands. she saw so many kids crying that she got scared herself.
I think at this age as activities go she should only do what she want to do. so unless she changes her mind I have wasted 60 quid!

You mean about the the maestro unico? Or the sacking of 87.000 teachers because all the education budget is going on salaries? Maybe if Gelmini and her colleagues took a pay cut then there's be the money for these teachers plus the odd book, no? She reminds me a little of Sarah Palin, although much less crazy obviously.

Swimming lessons were lovely at the pool you take yours to. I used to watch when I went and the children were always treated gently and enjoyed themselves. I'd have sent DD for lessons there had we still lived nearby. It's the regimented imperonal groups I think are no good for that age group.

I've ordered from amazon and they will send abroad, but ime the delivery cost was always very high. Things arrive in time and it's reliable though.

Franca old e mail address is probably shut now as I don't use it . Let me know yours as mine has my full name in it so rather not publish and I will drop you an e mail. Yes I use Amazon a fair bit from the Uk . Also Letterbox ( who have a 20% sale off everything). I have had a few things from Bumpto3 as well. I have never had any problem about delivery to be honest- yes it can get a bit caro but I try to get a few things to try to keep the price down.
Re the new regole x scuole they say that only 2 ( I say ONLY2) schools will be up for closure but the thing is all the elementare in Venice city are full there was a huge panic start of this school year as there were not enought spaces.

Pippi ... and at dd1 being already 3 and a half... gosh time flies... we need to meet up again. Anyway, I totally back you up, she is too young to be "forced" in any activity. She might ask you to go back sooner than you expect!!

Brange, yes, I mena everything. The maestro unico is the biggest stronzata ever, and will destroy the nature of tempo pieno (1970s activist emoticon), plus the primary teachers have been specializing in one area for the last 15 yrs, so they'll have to train again . Plus, who believes in the maestro unico anyway? Given that the majority are precari, they'll change every year, alla faccia del maestro unico. Plus classes will be deprived of the maestro di sostegno (what will they do with sn children or those who don't speak italian?), etc etc etc. And breathe.

Right, I'll try to relax wasting money on amazon

That's exactly what I thought. All the teachers I know are precari and don't get paid in the holidays anyway. Mind you, isn't there a new law wrt contratti a tempo determinato? That you can't renew them more than a tot? Maybe that's why they're doing this.

I'm sure it won't go through, none of the school reforms proposed in recent years has ever gone through to full implementation.

As an aside (because I don't know how Italian school works) how many maestre are there for each primary class now?

I like Letterbox, practically have shares in them. They're my main source of Xmas and birthday pressies for children in the UK. I've never tried having them send out here though. Never really been brave enough.

Now they have 3 maestre for 2 classes (for instance ds's maestre of the area linguistica teaches english in another class and they get this class's maestra to do "arti figurative). In ds's school all the classes have 20, max 21 pupils per class. With the riforma there'll be bigger classes .

I loved letterbox, I bought ds a wooden castle off it.

Rosa, change put your more recent email address on your profile and I'll cat you

Now they have 3 maestre for 2 classes (for instance ds's maestre of the area linguistica teaches english in another class and they get this class's maestra to do "arti figurative). In ds's school all the classes have 20, max 21 pupils per class. With the riforma there'll be bigger classes .

I loved letterbox, I bought ds a wooden castle off it.

Rosa, change put your more recent email address on your profile and I'll cat you

Gosh, in DD's class at materna there are 25. 20 does sound good. Arti figurative also sounds good.

So there is no specific teacher for maths etc., or it would be someone else's form teacher anyway, right?

I really don't understand the point of maestra unica, after all with Berlusca's decreto re the teaching od English and informatica from materna they're going to need specialist teachers for that anyway, n'est-ce pas?

How's your DS enjoying his English class btw? Is he finding it fun even though he knows everything? What do they do?

Ok, in ds's class they have:
1 teacher di ruolo for Italiano, Inglese (one sad hr a week, thanks mr Berlusconi) and Soria
1 teacher (not di ruolo!) for aritmetica, scienze, geografia, informatica () and scienze motorie (ginnastica)
1 insegnate di sostegno (like a teacher assistant), which they share with another class.
Plus, they get a teacher from another class for "educazione all'immagine".

And of course 2 hrs, and I said 2, for religione. Of course all the teachers of religione are di ruolo .

Yes, the maestro unico is a cavolata, as teachers have been specializing in 1 area (say the area linguistica) for the last 15 yrs.

Ds doesn't talk much about school , but it appears that the only activity he doesn't enjoy is colorare and they do lots of colouring in (for fine motor skills) and writing. He loved last week's English lesson as they played a game with two teams and of course he had to be the referee ... he felt he was the boss and loved it!

OK I need ideas for dvds in english for the kids, maybe a bit didattici...

soria is storia

Only 1 hr for English and 2 for religione. Well, someone has certainly got his priorities right there.

All DD does every day is colorare, according to her. I ask questions like did you learn any new songs, did you do any new dances etc. and the answer is always no, only colorare. She ahs now moved onto the stage of pictures with a bit of grass at the bottom, a bit of sky at the top and nothing in between.

What kind of DVDs were you thinking of? I have things like for instance a Mr Men DVD which teaches letters of the alphabet, plus a CBeebies mix with "educational" stuff on it. If you're going to be buying from Amazon they have a Jolly Phonics DVD and I think a numbers one, but iirc nothing much else specifically didattico. Try ebay, I got a kids' programmes mix from there for about £3 (with Wiggles, Bob the Builder, Angelina Ballerina etc.). Not didattico per se, but every programme has a message IYSWIM.

Would you like to borrow the Mr Men one? I also have the Planet Earth collection in English if you're interested.

Bless!! Dd loves to colorare as well, she comes home on fridays with a pile of disegni or just colouring in. She actually draws very well (while ds must have taken after my family ).

Yes, i'd love to borrow the mr men, please! Yes, I think the best "didattico" ones are those for little ones (I favour Maisy), but ds feels he is too grown up for those. I put a letterland dvd on my list.
Luckily they both enjoy charlie and lola.

OK, I'll email you. I'm supposed to have an appointment in Milan on Friday morning, so if it doesn't take all day maybe we can meet up for a coffee/panino/whatever then. I'll bring a few other DVDs too, maybe your DC will like them. Do they/you like Wallace and Gromit?

Yes, it'd be great to meet up, but I might be with children as there is a strike looming. I also need to go to superpolo as I have people for dinner on sat and was thinking of cooking something spicy.
No, they haven't tried any wallace and grommit yet. what can I bring you? I have maisy if you want, but on tapes! or the aristocats in dvd.

Strike? What strike? OMG does that mean I might have to bring my DD to my work meeting? Oh Fuckity fuck. It's no problem for me if your DC are there, I can interrogate them in English if you like.

Don't worry about bringing me anything. I no longer have a VHS so can't do tapes and Aristogatti we have on the computer. Would you like any books as well?