La Creperie - Home of the Hags!

[QueenLush]

Are you all nursing hangovers or just clearing up the post Christmas mess?

Well, it doesn't sound like a Dyslexia-type problem.

It sounds like he just can't see the point of doing that type of writing, like many young (and older!) boys.

Is it that he finds it hard to imagine a situation to write about? Or is he just bored with writing the details in a piece of writing? Does he find non-fiction easier than fiction?

I think he is bored with writing desription. He prefers non-fiction to fiction although I am trying to get him to read more fiction and we had a mini break-through at Christmas when he read Harry Potter and it dawned on him that description is important because you can't see it like you can in the film.......(IYKWIM) I have been trying to find history fiction for him to read as history is his thing, in the hope that might help. It's just very frustrating.

Sounds just like a normal boy

DS likes history fiction (and so does DD!) I think they have read every book ever published about WW1 and 2! Our local libraries are a good source, plus The Book People often do sets of books, sometimes history.

We used to read to / with DS a LOT to get him interested in reading and he is now a good reader. It is beginning to pay off in his writing too - now he is in Y6

Sounds like ds.....he can bore for England on phalanx formation and the relative merits of one shield formation over another (rolls eyes...), will happily read pages and pages of an encylopedia, hoping from one thing to another as it takes his interest.....
I guess I should stop stressing about it :)

BD, ds (7 this week) has announced he HATES literacy and writing. He extra-specially hates Thursdays because they make him write a story and "mine has to be longer than everyone else's". No words of wisdom, sorry.

MrsS, 17 euros for a big bottle of Huile Prodigieuse? I may have to book a trip on Eurostar soon. With an empty suitcase.

Have just got the details of dd's French exchange partner - who is due here at the end of March. Well, they've given us a name and address. Nothing else. And dd is grumbling because she can't find this person on FB and may therefore actually have to write a letter. Like in Ye Olden Days.

Oh Huffy I bet my ds would LOVE your ds :)
Last week they were doing pantomimes and had a map of the UK and had to list where all the pantomimes were on, so ds, geography head on, put a dot and a line out showing exactly where in the UK they were on. This was apparently wrong and he got shouted at and has to do it again........

Oh and re: boys and their reading habits - ds is v. fond of comic books such as Tintin and Asterix, but one of his favourite books at the moment is "8000 things you should know", which his granny gave him for Christmas. This means that he now likes to follow us round the place saying "Did you know .." and then coming out with some obscure and not always tremendously interesting fact about sharks. Or something. Granny has also been responsible for introducing the Mitchell Simons books into our house.

Oh yes, ds got something similar for Christmas, as a result I now know Delia Smith made the cake on the cover of the Rolling Stones LP (shows her age...)

Yes, BD, I think they would get on v. well :)
Hmm, not sure what to make of the teacher shouting at your ds for putting a dot and line on the map. Even if he hadn't done the "right" thing, doesn't sound like anything worthy of teacher-shouting..

I have got my courage up to ask the relevant authorities if I can go in and observe some mod langs GCSE and A level classes. If I don't run away screaming back to my office in the loft, maybe I can think about doing some supply teaching. Maybe. Possibly.

He came home and sat in the kitchen and cried. I know he sometimes doesn't listen as well as he could, but I did think this was a bit harsh.

Oh, do you speak foreign languages? Ds wants to learn Japanese ;)

It does sound harsh. Maybe the teacher was having a bad day..

I am a former (very former, gave up when I had dd) MFL teacher. But aside from the names of karate punches I do not know any Japanese. Only boring old German and French. MrsS is our languages expert here. She knows loads of interesting ones

Huffy, tell me more about this French exchange - how did your DD get into the exchange programme? I did my first one aged 12 and am still friends with her - we go and stay with them every year as they live in the Alps (cheap skiing holiday ) I am dying to get one organised for DD!

BTM, the exchange programme is through the school. They do exchanges with schools in Nantes, Madrid and I dunno where their German partners are. German exchange on the cards for next year, if dd decides to keep up with her second FL (which she will do if I have any say in the matter :)) . If your dd's school doesn't do any exchanges, what about trying to organise a private one through yr old exchange partner. How fab to still be friends with her! I had 4 exchange partners (2 French and 2 German) and they were all not friend material. Or maybe I am just hideously difficult

DD's school don't seem to have cottoned onto the value of exchanges, but maybe I can spur them on! But I am going to also look into trying to organise something through my friend. DD is not keen on the idea of an exchange with some "random" as she puts it!. And she prefers Spanish to French.

I went to France every summer for at least 10 years - met some other girls (and boys ) but didn't click with them in the same way as with my friend and her lovely extended family.

The new fridge-freezer is now finally installed and getting colder by the minute. I can relax

BTM, am v relieved that Frigidity has Resumed

Yes, BTM, may your new fridge-freezer live long and prosper

I suspect this French exchange will be v. culturally enlightening for dd. We live in a very white corner of the country, where until very recently "diversity" was represented by someone who came from Somerset.

I have bad memories of Exchanges. We did a German one when I was 14. The family I stayed with in Aachen were nice enough, but for the "return leg", my exchangee couldn't make it, and I ended up with an awful girl who was a good two years younger than me, who spent the whole week hanging out and giggling with my 8yo little brother - I couldn't wait for her to go home again.

Hooray for new fridge freezers! Our new sofa is arriving at 7am tomorrow morning - not a moment too soon, as my ancient knees can't cope with climbing out of a beanbag for much longer.

Evening, Hags. Have far too much to do, at work and home before my trip to London (mostly sorting out my work schedule as the main meeting I was coming back for has fallen through and I now have Alarming Gaps in my schedule).

I have Groucho night scheduled for Thursday, so cannot say what state I will be in on Friday, although we have agreed that We Need To Drink A Lot Less this time.

Oh hello all, glad to hear about freezers and sofas and stuff. Latest stress in our house is we think our skip has been knicked! Delivered Friday, and dp came home today and after half an hour in the house thought 'hang on, how come I could park on the drive?' Skip had gone about 7.30 yesterday morning - he can't recall if it was weekend hire only, or call us when you have finished....if the latter some bugger has pinched it!

Junk Ruby? It was full of carefully selected 'can't take it with us' items :) (which had already been raked through twice by Sunday evening....)
I think, unfortunately, we are liable for loss of skip. (I am living in hope they came to collect, which whilst a pain, as we hadn't finished, means we don't have to pay for it).

If we are meeting in bar and kitchen for drinks on Friday is it a case of just trying to spot the most likely group of women of a certain age? (only one I will recognise is MI so she had better be early....)

BD, our old fridge-freezer disappeared off our front yard - good luck to anyone who can make it work - but a skip is much bigger and heavier......
Was it full?

Yes, crepey spotting on Friday! Dukes recognised me from the boots I had linked to on the thread, but I'm sure the wrinkles, gunt and hairy chin were a dead giveaway anyway