NaBloPoMo: #2 Day One

One day old. One glove off and one glove on. So tiny. All I could do was look at her.

NaBloPoMo

For all those not 'in the know', NaBloPoMo stands for National Blog Posting Month in which we are encouraged to post every day. There is a website and various activities for those who wish to sign up but I don't need any more encouragement to blog, in fact I blog too much, so I have simply set myself a challenge.

For NaBloPoMo, I will try to post a picture of the Baby Angel everyday, starting with early ones and working up. I get to see so many pix of lovely kids that it makes me nostalgic for the days of my baby, toddler, little person. To satisfy this craving for my kid...I will indulge myself with some dipping into the past. Many of the early pix were analog of course so hopefully they will scan in ok.

For those with close connections, I hope you enjoy the walk down memory lane. For others, well, you know what will be here so if you don't do nostalgia photos I will also continue to post on items of Flaming Sword interest, family news and hot topics.

So I give you....November day 1....(only its day 2 here)......NaBloPoMo

Birth




These are pretty graphic, hope that's ok! Actually there are some even more graphic ones taken by the midwife against my wishes :-) She claimed that I could always throw them out but if she didn't take them, the moment would have been gone. I hide them in my album behind these more tasteful (relatively) shots.

Theme Thursday: Madonna (Mama)

I love this photo so much. Of course its scanned in from the analog so its noisy and imperfect but I just love what it captured. Himself says I should send it to him and he'll fix it for me...but I know he's got better things to do so....

A friend took it in Brittany in France. At sunset. By the beach. The light is incredible and I'm not sure we realised it at the time. The Baby Angel was asking me something or telling me something........I'm not sure which but I sure didn't know my photo was being taken.

It was a fantastic holiday that year. The BA (aged 3) and I drove from Cherbourg down to the Dordogne to meet my sister and brother-in-law and some friends. We stayed in a gite which is an old farmhouse...in this case I think an old barn, converted for the tourist trade but still rustic and full of charm. And bugs.

The trip from Cherbourg was stinking hot in my non air-conditioned car (cars in the UK do not place as much stock in cooling as we do in Australia and the States!) and the two of us had a fine old time listening to kids tapes as we motored along the autoroutes and back roads. I realised that I was not going to make it all the way in one day with a tired 3 year old so we stopped in Poitiers to camp. I put up the tent while the Baby Angel cavorted and helped. I can tell you, she was a damn fine travelling companion. We cooked on a little 2 burner gas stove and got on our way again the next day, bright and early.

We spent a fantastic 5 days in the Dordogne and then took off again, just the two of us, for Brest in Brittany. On the way we stopped at Carnac where we again found a campsite in a happening French seaside resort. What a wild party atmosphere that was!! We went to the campsite karaoke that night and the Baby Angel had a swim in the pool and a play on the playground. It was magic. Just the two of us. I look back now and remember with a lump in my chest how incredibly bittersweet it was. Here we were, with so much love between us, having a great time in the most amazing of romantic holiday places but with no-one else to share it with.

Nevertheless, we travelled the remaining miles to Brest, then on to Perros Guirec where this photo was taken and then the 5 hour drive back up the coast to catch the ferry back to the UK.
A total journey of over 800miles. Just us two.

These are the things I treasure and keep in my heart.
And now put on my blog. :-D

For more Beautiful Mamas check out Theme Thursday at Picture This.

Here's To Halloween Past

The first time we dressed up for Halloween, the baby Angel was about 4. There was a party at a friend's house (the Brits don't really do public trick or treating..or if they do they preface it with a flyer to all the intended houses warning them that the ghoulies are coming. If you don't want to participate you put the flyer up in your window!! Very organised) and we had to throw together a costume. Being fairly broke at the time, I opted for recycled and home made costumes.The robe was a velour maternity smock from the second hand shop, gathered at the neck with elastic and shortened appropriately. The cape was an old black half slip of mine (probably inherited from mum!!), cut up the middle with a silver tie added. I think we also decorated it with glo in the dark and puffa paints! The hat. Well, it was a good idea but we ran out of time. Lovingly constructed out of cardboard, I had intended to paint it black but left it to the BA to colour instead. You can see her efforts. But she was very happy with the hat and I figured...why knock myself out? Perhaps she is a white witch!! It would be fun to photoshop it now and mske it black!! The face painting was the 'piece de resistance' I think :-D No matter how homemade we looked, we had a great time at the party and the dress ups were used again and again in many different guises over the years.
This is two years later and involved ME going to a Halloween party!!! Similar makeup you may notice. I had managed to pick up a cheap black plastic hat so I looked a good deal more glamorous than BA had in her white cardboard hat heheheh. Somehow I don't think she minded and I think she inherited the hat in her dress ups anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In a way I miss the old 'opportunity to dress up'. On the other hand it simplifies life a lot not having to come up with something different year after year!

Have a great Halloween all my American Blog Buddies!!! We're thinking of you!!!!

In Which Year 8 Fail To Grasp the Concept of a Test.

I am so OVER Year 8!

Today we had our usual nightmarish last two lessons of the day Maths class. (no one should ever timetable Maths for the last two lessons of ANY day). We like to play cards on Tuesday afternoons because really, we're not up to too much else! Today we had a topic test before playing cards. The deal was simple, finish the test and then we play cards.

Now, with this group I make a practice of explaining the questions as they are the bottom 10% or the year group and several have learning difficulties. Thus if a question says;
Plot and label these coordinates on the same set of axes.....
I will usually be asked, "What does that mean?"
(and yes, of course we've done it before in class......)

So I will say;
"What are axes?"
"Those graphy, liney things with numbers"
"Good. Draw them first. Now, show me the coordinates."
(vague pointing at the sets of points eg (4,-5)...)
"Well done, how do we read those sets of coordinates?"
"Along the corridor and up the stairs."
"Fantastic, so you know which axis you read first. Now what does it mean to plot the coordinates?..."
And so it goes on........

My reasoning behind this labour intensive strategy is that at least I get to see what the kids actually DO know. Often, they are so stumped by the wording of a question ("What does evaluate mean??? I don't know what evaluate 6+4 means!!!") they will not attempt something I believe they can do. If I take away the language barrier to the problem, I hope that they will demonstrate their mathematical knowledge for me.

Today this got past a joke.

Sometimes with these kids I feel I am dealing with leeches or some kind of parasite which sucks and sucks until it kills the host. As you extend a helping hand, they pull on it so hard the arm comes out of its socket. They fail to see the assistance they receive as a blessing and look on it instead as a right which they all demand in ever increasing quantities. At least one girl had the grace to say laughingly, "Why can't you just do the test for us Miss?" which just about summed the situation up.

After a reasonable start they began putting their hands up and as I was helping one, the others started chatting amongst themselves!
Me: Hang on, this is a test, what is all this chatting about?
Them: We're waiting for you to help us!
Me: But you don't talk in a test. What could you do if you don't understand a question?
Them: Wait for you?
Me: NO, move on to the next question. Ask yourself, what does this question want me to do? Try and think of questions we've done like this in class.
Them: (blank looks) But we need help!!!!

At one point, one of the more obnoxious girls, who had received help and then immediately put her hand up again, said when challenged:
"But I'm waiting for you! I really want to pass this test and you won't tell me what to do!!!!"

At that point I 'spat the dummy' and told them there would be no more 'help' and they could work on for the last 5 minutes alone and in silence!!! I was met with calls of 'unfair' and at least one child who kept coming up to my desk for directions even after I had repeated that I was not giving any more HELP. (*pant, pant, pant*)

Need I remind you folks that this is a TEST!!!!!!???????????

Suffice to say the results of said test would be about as reliable 'evidence of learning', as a 2 year old's estimate of the amount of money in a jar full of 10c pieces!!!!!! (Do you have that kind of competition where you are?)

I am now off to further my journey towards slashing my wrists, by marking the accursed things.

Wish me luck.

Best Shot Monday: School Fete

Here's my Baby Angel with her two best mates on their stall at the School Fete. As you can see the braids are out and apart from needing a jolly good trim, her hair seems back to normal (whew).
This is the whole stall in all its glory. Basically the blue tray was full of paddlepop sticks (ice lollies? icy poles? what do you call them???) stuck into some sand. You pick one and pull it out and if it has a coloured spot on the other end, you get a prize from the three colour coded prize trays. Ingenious :-DAnd here she is on the camel which was giving people rides around the school ground.All three on the camel!!

Apart from the pretty wild weather which set in later in the afternoon, the fete appears to have been a success! The Baby Angel certainly had a good time.

As always, click this button to share in a multitude of great photos over at Tracey's.

Weather

Good grief! It is blowing a gale here!! I can see white caps on the ocean and that is 3 suburbs away!!!! They are seriously big waves!!!