I went Shopping!!!

I love shopping!  I love shopping!  I love shopping!

As it is school holidays, I went to EDSCO on the weekend and I was thrilled to see that they had their warehouse doors open.  This made space for a number of "Specials" tables.  I was so excited! I just had to text my teaching partner.

I bought teacher textbooks about brain based learning, posters, spelling games, a maths game, cut-out letters, class readers, flash cards, stationery and planning books.  It was glorious!

After EDSCO, I bought new shelves for my classroom (need somewhere to put all the new stuff I bought) and a few things for home.  It has been brilliant.  My credit card is really tired.  I am so over stimulated.  What to play with first?

Hagrid's Sleepover

Hello everyone, 

M is typing this for me because my paws just don't work on her silly laptop keyboard.  I wanted to tell you about the sleepover with #4.  I like #4 and he likes me.  We play together when he comes over and he gives me loads of cuddles.  I really enjoyed our sleepover because we had a picnic on the rug in front of the TV.  #4 even shared his strawberry jam on toast with me.  It was really yummy.  We watched movies together and listened to M read some stories.  I watched #4 play on his DS (I was going to play too, but the buttons were too small for my paws).  I was really sad when my little friend went home early, because we were having so much fun.  The rest of the gang had a great time too.  We all jumped on #4 when he went to bed and snuggled under his blanket in the morning while we waited for M to wake up.  I missed out on breakfast though.  Rice Bubbles are one meal #4 won't share!  M took lots of photos of us.  But this one is my favourite!  

#4 and me having an indoor picnic

You guys are awesome!  Keep reading the stories we put up here.  If M doesn't blog, I gotta listen to her tell me everything she is thinking!  Stay tuned there is another week of holidays and another sleepover, so it is likely that you will hear from me again soon. 

☺ Hagrid

Sleepovers and Storybooks

On Tuesday night, my nephew (number 4) slept over at my house.  He has just turned 6 and about three months ago he looked at me with those big eyes and in the most polite voice he could muster, said, "M (not what he actually calls me), can I sleep over at your house?"  What a sweetheart.  I replied with, "On the holidays, if you are good, you can have a sleepover at my house."  So, last week, my sister and I got emailing and set up the magical play date.

#4 has a few issues with understanding how the world works and he can be a bit wilful (can't we all?) so all the doors in the house have traffic light signs on them.  Red for rooms that are no go areas.  Green for rooms that are open season and Yellow for rooms that are okay if an adult is there.  So, my room is yellow, the BFF's is red etc.  This worked a charm.... the little darling was standing outside rooms examining my rough sketches and shoddy colouring for ages.

We watched several movies and Mr 6yo ate a pile of fruit and rice bubbles and it was 9pm.  I was exhausted (not all that unusual for me), so I brought out the big guns. Story time!!

Together we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle,  which is well known to #4 and joked that he is a "very hungry caterpillar" too because he eats so much.  He; made predictions about what was next, read along with me and pointed to pictures and words as we read.  I was so pleased to see how much he knows about text these days.  Only 6 months of Prep and he is telling me about exclamation marks, identifying letter names and assigning a sound to them.  He sounds out words (for fun) and asks me to read more!  As a teacher of reading, I am over the moon about his sudden jump into the world of books.  I know that his literacy has been developing for some time now, but when I start to see things falling into place for a kid (who, let's face it, struggles a bit) I want to do star jumps!

Of course this lively experience of The Very Hungry Caterpillar was a bit too stimulating because #4 asked for another story.  So out came, a Mem Fox classic: Time for bed.  In other words, "take a hint kid, M is tired!"  So in my best sleepy sing song voice I read my little one off to sleep (almost).  A big grin on his face as he recognised the repetition and a finger pointing to the pictures put me on a high.  After the story was done, a delightful little boy was very sleepy and asked me stay until he fell asleep.  Oh, what an angel!

While these little actions may seem insignificant to a reading adult, every little step in the reading process is important.  I was reassured to know that #4 is well on his way to being an independent reader.  My bright little button can't wait to read another book!

In the morning, I turned #4 into a mouse (yes, it's about time I admit it... I'm a witch), and we took photos and sent them to his mum.  I had a great time and I hope he did too!

:)

Little Ado About SOMETHING

Five things that deserve far more attention

1. Literacy and Numeracy rates diving deeper than the Titanic
2. The end of the world
3. Pain:in every form
4. Relationship breakdowns
5. Church

Some of the items on my list are big issues that require realistic solutions and instead we sweep these issues under the carpet.  If we do discuss them we waste time talking about what a tragedy they are and we tell of our own experiences.  But we have not solved the problem.  If anything we have simply made it bigger! 


Two items on my list are not problems so much as things that require our consideration.  Think about them and at the very least, have an opinion.

Much Ado About Nothing

Five things that get far more attention than they deserve
1. Sitcoms
2. Apple itunes (all Apple products for that matter)
3. Marital Status
4. Social networking websites (e.g. facebook and twitter)
5. The latest "big idea" in pedagogy!