I’ve documented our reading journey plenty over the years. Two children who found reading became magically easy at 8ish and who are now, by and large avid readers. One who learned to read all on her own at 6 and yet has never, even at nearly 13, become someone who reads for pleasure. One who […]
Sponsored Video: Choosing wisely for a bright future.
We flowed from the high of GCSE results day to the final decision on what Sixth Form Fran would attend, to last minute tweaks and changes to A Level choices and the scheduling in of enrichment activities around personal commitments. And all of it, for the first time, was judged up against the future. Lists […]
And now she is 10.
My youngest little girl is ten. One of my friends said something yesterday that I’ve been thinking all week. When my big girls were ten, they were practically grown up. Josie is still just a baby. Surely, she is still just a baby? But she isn’t. She is, as all ten years old girls are, […]
Back to school. All change for Puddleton.
Back to school has happened. 3 schools, 4 different uniforms, a school run that takes 45 minutes minimum twice a day, a sixth former for the first time and an awful lot of school uniform. I always leave it late, always. This year I managed to leave it to the last 2 days, which was […]
The results are in.
I have so much to write about, big and small. And so I’m hardly writing at all. But today was a big day. A very big day indeed, the first full public exam results day. Fran and I drove in to town first thing and got there at 9. There followed one of the trickiest […]
The end of (this year's school) days.
We made it. Only just and not without some pain, but we made it. It’s the end of our first full year of schooling all of them. I’m pretty disgruntled about it, as I said before, but there are positives too. None of them want to leave so I suppose that is a positive. They […]
School Perks.
I find myself quite conflicted about our schooling life lately, even more so than I was at the beginning. It has been imperfect for the younger two girls in some ways (as we expected it would be, that’s why we didn’t used to send them after all!) and although Josie is settled and Fran is […]
Oh, Gove Away! Frustrations with School
I’ve had this post in draft for a while, trying to find a time to write up some of the nagging doubts that are resurfacing about having our children in school. Debating the Paul Kirby blog post (a former advisor to the government) yesterday caused me to say, among other things, this:- This man may […]
Let Down.
When there are a lot of the children in the house, a lot of needs to be met, meals to cook, places to be, abilities to nurture and worries to ease, there is normally something that gives at each stage. Sometimes a hobby goes, or a chink of time together, or a relationship falters a […]
School Life Lessons #homeworkfail
There are some lessons that my daughters are learning pretty quickly about me. a)I don’t iron and therefore if you leave your uniform in a heap, you (not me) will get bellowed at by your headmistress the next day. b) I don’t do instant, so if you tell me about a school trip/lunch money/ sports […]
