How was your day?

[Bondee]

Heard from the doctor yesterday about my recent blood test. My vitamin D levels are a bit low so I've been recommended supplements and to get another blood test in 3 months.

It was a nice day today so I thought I'd give it a natural top-up. I went for the walk by the river and to the chippy that didn't happen yesterday. Got home and did a bit of tinkering and tidying. Applied some beeswax to the recent aquisitions and gave them a nice polish. Quite productive, all said and done.

I'm now eating toast & Marmite and watching a driver's eye view video of the Picadilly Line.

[amanda]

A driver here in Melbourne does those of all our lines and I love them. There are some of the older lines (two inner city, now converted to tram routes) and recently I saw a video of part of a tour along a country now goods-only line between two towns, but where all the bluestone buildings survive at the stations. (most sold off and now private property)

[tetsabb]

We got our covid and flu jabs yesterday morning. By evening both my upper arms were aching as if I had done a load of heavy lifting.
We visited the local Saturday market, where we chatted with a couple who live quite close to us. He does wood turning, producing beautiful bowls and walking sticks. She grows plants fir dyes for the wool from her sheep, that she knots very beautifully.
He had made her a bowl with a cunning spiral slot in the side, through which one feeds the wool from inside the bowl: very effective anti-cat measure.
I should have taken a picture.

[alexanderhoward]

Yesterday morning spent helping to clean and tidy the church inside and out (including lots of throwing things out), and walking mud all over the carpet when doing so. I would never have realised that coffee dregs can block drains so badly.
Afternoon writing emails after a meeting over the week where somehow people wanted me to do things (surely meetings are about talking and not acting?)
Evening at a dinner function. I ran into my MP there - the third time in a week; he must think I am stalking him.
This morning realising that eating before going out to a function where heavy food was supplied is not such a good idea.

[RLDavies]

Oct 20, 2024 9:12:24 GMT tetsabb said:

We got our covid and flu jabs yesterday morning. By evening both my upper arms were aching as if I had done a load of heavy lifting.

Got my double jab on Thursday. By Friday I could hardly move my arms, was going hot and cold, and was kind of woozy and falling asleep all over the place. Yesterday was just feeling very flat and sorry for myself. Considerably perkier today, and getting ready to do some of the chores that have been piling up around here.

[jenny]

We went for a leaf-peeping drive today - beautiful weather and a warm day. I've uploaded images of trees to my page on Imgur (only just discovered this app, about five years later than everybody else!) imgur.com/a/fall-colors-x9oIsNb

[crissdee]

Oddly enough, I went for a small constitutional yesterday, and found the trees by the river looking fairly photogenic, so I snapped a couple of pics on my phone, but nothing like the glories of Maine...

[amanda]

Here I've found that trees in the cooler areas (so the valleys/mountain regions) have the better and more stunning yellow/orange/red leaves.

[jenny]

It seems to be the sugar maples that get the most spectacular colours.

Today I went swimming and did three lots of laundry (not at the same time) and I am about to have a Zoom meeting with my publisher about my book that is coming out in April. Tomorrow I am packing and on Wednesday I am leaving for the UK, landing on Thursday morning. Hooray!

[crissdee]

The door of WYEBODDA is ever open, should you make it this far...

[amanda]

7.40 am here, have to leave by 8 for an official work day at the history library. Was a bit concerned I'd over sleep, until at 6.45, the little butcher bird outside started his call.

[amanda]

And my day got worse from there.
Got to the station at the normal time, to see the main street police-taped off, a car diagonally across the street and a burnt out shop front - another victim of the ongoing tobacco wars here. Thanks to no state Government legislation about it, the black market dealers are getting rid of the competition.

Then on the train an announcement comes over about apologies for an earlier disruption halfway along the line, equipment fault. So far, my train had been ok. Until we hit the area with the fault and take 30 minutes to crawl through two stations. Service resumes at the time I'd normally get to the inner city station close to the library so I send my colleague a message and think of the various stations along the line from which I could get a bus to the other train line which is closer to the library.

Due to some good luck, I got there at 9.50am. (open at 10)

Then on the train back, I again hear another message about a different disruption due to a police request. Again, so far on my trip home, no issue until we stop outside the terminating station, for 10-15 minutes, then when we finally pull in, I see about six police, one holding a broom and a suspect nearby. No idea what that was about.

[tetsabb]

Was the police officer with a broom part of the Witch Squad?

[jenny]

My day involves packing, and a Zoom meeting with my publisher since yesterday's planned one didn't happen.

[suze]

I won't quite pass you somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, but we're off to Tenerife tomorrow.  I like the two week October half term that we have at my school !

Elz and family will join us on Sunday.  Since Jessica knows that I'm a teacher, I expect she will want to tell me all about this new-fangled "going to school" that she started doing a few weeks ago.  Her parents are being responsible and waiting until her half term to leave the country.  I imagine they suppose (and quite rightly) that I wouldn't approve of them taking her out of school in term time, although in theory they are probably "allowed" to for this year only.

Jessica was 4 in July, so she isn't actually required to attend school until next September.  It is by now standard in England that you can start school the September after you turn 4, and that you must start school at the beginning of the first term after you turn 5.  Does this mean that it's not actually compulsory to attend during the year of being 4, or do you enter into a quasi-contractual obligation to go, once you've been given a place?

[amanda]

Can't speak for the UK but generally in Australia (which also has different things per state) it's once the child turns 5 unless other things are at play. So I'm a November baby, my sister is March.
I started Prep - year before Grade 1 - the February of the year I would have turned 5.
My sister was nearly a whole year behind most her peers but schools seem to accept this, as long as the child isn't struggling majorly. Some parents keep such children back a year so that they start school the year they turn 5.

Also in my sister's time was a trend to keep kids back in Grade 5- so they'd be an extra year older to 'blitz' scholarship exams for high school.

[crissdee]

While in general I agree that taking a child out of school to go on holiday is a Bad Thing, which should not be necessary if it were not for the holiday companies rank profiteering, I can't help but think that, at the age of four, with intelligent and caring parents such as Elz and (some chap whose name escapes me....), then Jessica is not going to miss anything of profound importance if she does. As I mentioned in our previous home, my overwhelming memories of school at that age were little more than vaguely directed play at the best of times, and a week more or less of that is hardly going to affect her future development.

[jenny]

I sincerely hope that Jessica has a curriculum mainly devoted to play. I think only-just-4 is far too early for anything much more than that.

I went to a wedding in Denmark many years ago, and sat with a couple of teachers who were aghast that our children started formal learning as early as 5. Their children start at 6, and the curriculum at 5 is mainly devoted to things like ensuring children can dress themselves and take themselves to the toilet and cut with scissors and sit and listen to a story and talk about it and have lots of scope for imaginative and artistic play. One who was a primary-age teacher pointed out to me that if you teach children subtraction with a carrying figure when they're six or seven they need a lot of repetition and reinforcement exercises, whereas if you wait until they're eight or nine, a half hour lesson is usually enough. The Danes seem to do well enough educationally speaking!

[tetsabb]

Just round the corner  from our house is a crossroads.  Skippers Hill runs east/west, and has priority.  Stonehurst Lane comes from the north, and Holly Beech Lane from the south.
Yyesterday a chap in a van shot across from Stonehurst Lane  and stopped near me. " Have I just shot across a junction?" he asked. 
"Yes" I replied.
He said there were no advance signs to advise him.
Today I walked some way down Stonehurst Lane and confirmed he is right. Also, the road markings to indicate one should give way are pretty well worn off.
I have raised these issues with the Council on their site.

That is my good deed for the day done.
I shall go back to being a complete bastard

[jenny]

I am in that countdown period where all is ready for my departure from home to drive to the station to catch the bus to Boston to catch the plane to Heathrow. Another hour and ten minutes to go...

[suze]

Oct 23, 2024 7:10:59 GMT crissdee said:

I can't help but think that, at the age of four, with intelligent and caring parents such as Elz and (some chap whose name escapes me....), then Jessica is not going to miss anything of profound importance if she does.

His name is Chris, although Elz quite often addresses him by his surname.  This always seems odd to me since it is of course her surname too, but he went to public school.

I'm sure your basic point is correct, but one may as well get into good habits from the beginning.  If Jessica knows from the outset that during school term you go to school and not on holiday, she won't act all surprised about it when it continues to work like that in her teens.

jenny said:

I sincerely hope that Jessica has a curriculum mainly devoted to play. I think only-just-4 is far too early for anything much more than that.

I don't really know what Jessica does at school yet, but I'm sure she'll tell me over the coming week. You don't stream in Year R, and as a July baby Jessica is "expected" to be a bit behind the winter babies - but she presented at school with a non-zero knowledge of reading and able to write her name legibly, which places her above some.

She's also above most of her peers in stature, despite being a July baby. Girls usually are taller than boys until the age of about 12, and Jessica has two tall parents which is surely relevant. The old saw that you double the height at age 2 to get the adult height isn't really very accurate, but it predicts that she'll be a six footer. Maybe we need to get her a basketball ...

In general I more or less agree with Jenny's vague assertion that we start kids at school too early in Britain. They start a year later in most of the US and Canada, and two years later in Finland. Education-ologists get cross if you ever mention Finland, because that country does "everything wrong" ... and gets better results than all the countries which do it "right". They start school at 7, there is no uniform, no national curriculum, no exams, and very little homework - and it is consistently found to be the best education system in Europe. Whether this is because or in spite of the somewhat regimental nature of Finnish society and the very complicated language is a subject on which those education-ologists can come to high words.

[crissdee]

I should have remembered that name really! In my defence, I had an idea in the back of my mind that it was something I should have remembered, but I wasn't so convinced of the idea that I was going to make a guess!

I can see the merit in your reasoning about getting into good habits from the start.

[Dix]

Oct 23, 2024 14:12:19 GMT jenny said:

I sincerely hope that Jessica has a curriculum mainly devoted to play. I think only-just-4 is far too early for anything much more than that.

I went to a wedding in Denmark many years ago, and sat with a couple of teachers who were aghast that our children started formal learning as early as 5. Their children start at 6, and the curriculum at 5 is mainly devoted to things like ensuring children can dress themselves and take themselves to the toilet and cut with scissors and sit and listen to a story and talk about it and have lots of scope for imaginative and artistic play. One who was a primary-age teacher pointed out to me that if you teach children subtraction with a carrying figure when they're six or seven they need a lot of repetition and reinforcement exercises, whereas if you wait until they're eight or nine, a half hour lesson is usually enough. The Danes seem to do well enough educationally speaking!

I had to look up what actually happens at age 6 in Denmark. For one thing, it became mandatory a few years after I started school and my school didn't offer it at the time so I went straight into "real" school at age 7. The other reason is that politicians love to tinker with the school system. There's no major meltdown if they get it wrong and it makes them look like they're achieving something.

The age 6 introductory year was initially called "Børnehaveklasse" (kindergarden year). Some started to call it "year zero" and try to sneak in more teaching but they're now reverting to Børnehaveklasse to ensure that it's very clear that it's still mainly play-based and not formal schooling.

The main purpose is to ensure that the children are ready for school.
There are documents available online that details what the children are expected to "work" on and there are some focus areas and targets. Knowing numbers, being able to count; being aware of language, knowing the letters, a bit of writing, story-telling and listening and being able to have a conversation. Also "art" in the form of expressing themselves via drawing/painting/whatever else is available in the art cupboard. Science comes in mainly via observing nature and asking questions. Plus there's useful knowledge such as basic hygiene, finding their way around the school, how to behave in traffic, healthy eating habits, and physical activities.

It's interesting to note that the battle of teaching v play that I remember being discussed when this extra year was introduced was mainly staff-based. If you ask childcare personnel to do teaching you'll get hit by a ton of bricks thrown by the teacher's union. And vice versa.

I did hear a presentation once, by (I think) a psychiatrist re schooling and age. His main point was really that it was silly to start everyone at the same age because children will be ready at different ages and once they're ready they'll catch up very quickly. Same point as Jenny mentioned: start too early and they'll spend ages getting not very far (and probably hating it) and there's very little gained. He said boys tend to be ready a bit later than girls and he thought that some boys would benefit by starting a year later than 7.

[crissdee]

Of course, the problem with starting kids at school later, is that it leaves at least one parent unable to rejoin the workforce, or they have to find somewhere that isn't school for the kids to be supervised until such time as they go to school. which has to be paid for at some point. When SWSOIWLTB was a nursery nurse, she told me of more than one of her charges whose mother was spending her entire salary on funding the nursery place, so she could go back to work, so she could....afford the nursery.....

[amanda]

That's what it's like here, childcare workers are a bit underpaid and undervalued as it is often seen as glorified babysitting by the general population. Especially if the mother returns part time to work, most of her wage goes on the fees.

Whenever there's a call for a wage increase for the childcare workers, there's also the concern that some kids will be withdrawn as the fees are beyond the parents wage. If another adult/parent is also working, their wage usually goes towards mortgage/rent and other things.

[celebaelin]

Oct 24, 2024 20:19:51 GMT crissdee said:

Of course, the problem with starting kids at school later, is that it leaves at least one parent unable to rejoin the workforce, or they have to find somewhere that isn't school for the kids to be supervised until such time as they go to school. which has to be paid for at some point. When SWSOIWLTB was a nursery nurse, she told me of more than one of her charges whose mother was spending her entire salary on funding the nursery place, so she could go back to work, so she could...afford the nursery... not lose (much of) her place in the pecking order.

FTFY

[Dix]

Oct 24, 2024 20:19:51 GMT crissdee said:

Of course, the problem with starting kids at school later, is that it leaves at least one parent unable to rejoin the workforce, or they have to find somewhere that isn't school for the kids to be supervised until such time as they go to school. which has to be paid for at some point. When SWSOIWLTB was a nursery nurse, she told me of more than one of her charges whose mother was spending her entire salary on funding the nursery place, so she could go back to work, so she could....afford the nursery.....

That's all down to how you organise society. Keep the entry age of 5 but change the contents and you'd have something similar to Denmark where there's a (funded or at least part-funded) provision for pre-school years and the uptake is very very high. It's separate from actual schools and the staff has different qualifications (there are separate educations for those that deal with early-years development and learning).
Call age 5-6 provision whatever makes the parent and politicians happy, place it where it makes sense, but there really is no big advantage in starting formal sit-down-in-class learning at age 5.

[crissdee]

@cel. There was probably an element of that as well...

[suze]

Oct 25, 2024 6:47:46 GMT Dix said:

That's all down to how you organise society.

The issue there, of course, is that Danish taxes are rather higher than British taxes.  Denmark's tax system is unique and I shall not even attempt to explain something that I don't understand myself, but the bottom line is that a typical person pays tax at an effective rate of ~45%.  In Britain that is 28% (bearing in mind that National Insurance is tax by any other name) - and the incessant narrative from both media and politicians is that even this figure is obscenely high and is akin to communism.  Both this year and in 1997, a supposedly socialist party had to promise in blood not to raise it in order to get elected.

Since we in Britain won't pay for anything we can't have it.  Therefore children must go to school from birth so that both parents can be at work.  Staying home to look after one's children makes one a worthless drain on society, because anyone who does that gets benefits.  The rest of society are required by law to cross the street in order to avoid the sort of sub-human leech who gets benefits, and most of them are illegal immigrants anyway.  So staying home to raise one's children is not to be encouraged.

[jenny]

I was very lucky when my children were young in that my husband earned a reasonable income and I could either not work outside the home when they were very tiny or work part-time. Once I started in adult education I could fit round his time at home, and later when I worked at Penguin I was home in the major school holidays and their dad was able to take my working days off during half term, so I rarely had to pay for child care.

Now my daughter’s children are 5 and almost 8 (next week!) I can see her and her husband performing the same kind of juggling act and being slightly ships that pass in the night, as her dad and I often were (though to a slightly lesser extent).