“When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.” J M Barrie
Recipe: Credit Crunch July 23, 2008
technically this should be called Chocolate Credit Crunch but it doesn’t have the same ring to it…
Serves: Makes 12-15
Prep: 15 min, plus setting
Cook: 5 min
Cook: 5 min
Ingredients
50g Butter
100g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
5 tbsp golden syrup
80g cornflakes
Kung Fu July 21, 2008
So we went to see Kung Fu Panda last week which was great, the boys all came out kicking and throwing themselves around and seemed to get some of the basic elements of chinese martial arts when we bored them to death with it. Nige and I both dabbled in the ancient art, him more recently and me in my I-love-everything-chinese phase (born in Hong Kong, studied mandarin at university as a night class, martial arts, nearly did a Masters in Beijing but met Nige instead, aah).
I definitely want to train again (classes will be packed with parents wanting to impress their offspring…?) and Nige and I have been doing some Tai Chi Push Hands (martial side of Tai Chi) in our front room! The thing I loved about these types of martial arts is that they use a soft energy rather than physical strength: Wing Chun Kung Fu was developed by shaolin nuns travelling across China and they needed a defense system to protect them from attack that didn’t rely on brute force. Using the opponents strength and your own softness and go-with-the-flow-ness, you can absorb their attack and thrust it back on them (Po the Panda uses his enormous belly to help him absorb the force and wobble it back out).
My week has been a bit crazy to say the least, finalising my ad for Tatty Bumpkin in the Yellow Pages, getting ready to take Tatty to Trowbridge Pump Festival (great folk festival), last week of school with teacher presents etc, playgroups and the like having parties and inviting Tatty to entertain them etc. I have a tendency to hit these things head-on rather than with a softness any self-respecting martial arts master would be proud of. Po the Panda (and indeed the Tao of Pooh / Te of Piglet if you ever get a chance to read them) could teach me a thing or two…
Early-years writing lessons ‘do no good’ July 18, 2008
Education: Early-years writing lessons 'do no good' · Research runs counter to ministers' curriculum plan · Report is inconclusive, says government Polly Curtis, education editor Monday July 14, 2008 The Guardian Teaching children as young as three to write short sentences and use punctuation has little effect on their literacy skills later on, according to research which raises new questions about the government's plan for a curriculum for the under-fives. Tutoring children in nurseries to read using basic phonics and write simple sentences does not improve their success once they start school, but encouraging them to talk and communicate does, the unpublished government research has found. The research was released under a Freedom of Information Act request by the Liberal Democrats, who last night questioned why the government had previously chosen not to release the findings, which run counter to its plans for an early-years curriculum. The Department for Children, Schools and Families insisted it had published more substantial and conclusive evidence to back up its policy. The research, commissioned from academics at the Institute of Education, University of London, compares how children score in the early learning goals, which from September become compulsory, with how they score in literacy and numeracy tests once they reach school. Controversy has surrounded two of the goals, which suggest that children should attempt to read using phonics to break down the words by their sounds and to write "simple sentences" including some basic punctuation. Childcare experts have argued it is rushing children into formal learning too soon. The research says that these two goals "did not seem crucial" to high performance once children arrive at school. Instead it suggests that "language, communication and thinking" skills are strong predictors of a child's ability to read and write early on. "Overall the data suggest use of spoken language is important to becoming an accomplished writer," it says. Children's disposition, attitudes and social development are also important predictors, it adds. The documents were not published because they were deemed "inconclusive", according to the letter accompanying the research to the Liberal Democrats from the National Assessment Agency, which oversees national testing on behalf of the government. Annette Brooke, Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for children, said: "It is clear and very different from other research by the government in that it shows that making all children learn what is effectively reading and writing hasn't produced benefits once they start school." A DCSF spokeswoman said the report was a "very small-scale piece of internal analysis" which had looked at only six schools and was not conclusive. Last week, the children's minister, Beverley Hughes, announced that the two goals in question would be subject to a review of the primary curriculum being conducted by Sir Jim Rose. They will still be made compulsory from September while they are reviewed. Parents will also be allowed to vote to let their nursery opt out of the curriculum in a move designed to allow some freedoms for Steiner and Montessori settings, which emphasise learning through play.
And she’s back… July 13, 2008
Above Glastonbury…
The blog is back and what a long 4 months it’s been. We went to Spain in April and climbing a mountain and lived there for a few days in a yurt (the kids loved it though Jude kept asking where the bath / TV / toys were – honestly what a City Boy). We visited my parents which was great, lots of beach time and reading and kids mooching about.
We’ve relaunched the Bristol Storytelling Cafe night at La Ruca which has been great, lots of opportunity to practice stories which are coming along nicely for both adults and kids. We did a fundraising night for the Precious Drops (breast milk bank for neonatal babies) – stories and music which was great and of course the Pirate Convention which was a jigging, sea shanty singing, ale swishing kind of night with spectacular costumes and a great pirate punk band, the Surfin’ Turnips. Loads of storytelling project ideas on the go too…
The kids are great and coming to the end of Reception and pre-preschool year. We went to Glastonbury which they loved and did Tatty Bumpkin sessions there, we attempted to go to Sunrise but got towed out by a tractor through the mud 
(. Tatty Bumpkin has gone from strength to strength but more of that anon. Nige is doing some environmental play ranger work which he’s enjoying.
“Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.” July 13, 2008
I read in recently an idea to help you focus on what’s important to you so you don’t get involved in a million random things that you should make a mission statement, you can do it as a family as well. I know, I know, it smacks of American self-help books but hey, I’m going to give it a go. I haven’t done it yet but it’s brewing but to help me I came across these quotes which I thought might come in handy… I especially like the last one, it being a bit piratical and all…
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To laugh often and love much… to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to give one’s self… this is to have succeeded.~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.- Aristotle
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You must be the change you want to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi
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Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.- Mahatma Gandhi
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Success consists of doing the common things of life uncommonly well.- Unknown
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Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down.
- Charles F. Kettering, Engineer and Inventor -
A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.- Hugh Downs
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If you’re going to be able to look back on something and laugh about it, you might as well laugh about it now. – Marie Osmond
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What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm. – Sir Winston Churchill
- Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats. - Voltaire
Money-saving decorating idea July 13, 2008
Save wads of cash by buying a cheap canvas from somewhere like Rajanis in Bristol, get some oil paints and get creative, this was my effort for our living room wall (quite big). I did it and then afterwards interpreted it in a befittingly pretentious way as it representing love (heart), the universe (circle) and man (Da Vinci’s square type thing). Seemed quite a cool take on my own 5 year old like artwork to me. Give it a go.
