[Nicole]

Our tiny school is marvellous. We fund several SSO’s to help children with learning and emotional issues.

We are also very lucky to have several volunteers (ex schoolies) who run an extension program.

Tildy is back on her feet and back at school but now Liddy is unwell. So far the Twins have avoided it and Hugo is away kayaking.

Jed (my hubby) rarely gets ill. Possibly as he is knee deep in sheep poop every other day. 😉

[cybele727]

Good luck with that costume.

Wow… who’s so rude as to say you look seedy? I always teach my kids to never comment on appearance unless it is a positive thing to say. We are still working on that. Tuesday, we were out at a restaurant, and the (male) server had those things in his ears that expand your lobes and give you those open holes. I have no idea what they are called. My son had lots of questions, which I don’t mind, but the “ewww” that came with it, I do mind.

My son’s teacher is very kind and sweet and a not very bright. Combine that with having a certain rep as his mother, and it is tough.

I have a “reputation” in the school district because during our most recent contentious budget fight, the board was willing to cut 28 instructional positions and cut no extra curricular activities. I am of the personal position that school is in the business of education, not entertainment or babysitting. I regularly got up at the meetings and castigated our board for their boneheaded decisions. So I am widely known throughout the entire district as a shrew who fights to the death. If we are on the same side, great. If not, well….

The principal “warns” my son’s teachers. She says this: “she’s tough and demanding. Give it time, and you will grow to love her.” (That is because I don’t just castigate board members, or send homework back incomplete with notes about the invalidity of the exercise- but because I volunteer, donate, and come to all kinds of events.)

I wish I could homeschool. Everyone but my bank for my mortgage would be much happier! 😉

Oh well, grumbles. Time to make the donuts, as we say.

[Sarvi]

The earlobe extender are commonly called gauges, but I expect that’s short for something.

What kind of extracurriculars? I get what you’re saying as far as not wanted to cut what is probably already very squeezed instructional time, but do you really think of extracurriculars as mere entertainment or babysitting? Perhaps you’re talking about a private school where everybody has a lot of options, but I grew up with a single mom of modest means and went to pretty crappy public schools. For a lot of my classmates, school was the safest and best place for them to be and their families didn’t have the resources to offer a better option. I mean, another way of saying entertainment and babysitting is enrichment and childcare.

Not commenting on the specifics of your situation and your school … obviously you’re the one who has the complete picture there, but just giving another perspective on the general topic.

In completely thrilling news on this end, my earache is easing up at last. It’s amazing how not even feeling good, but just feeling not-sick is such a huge relief. On the downside, my doc told me I have high blood pressure and all I could hear was ‘old people problems’. I am not too opposed to aging, the farther I get from my broke, confused, aimless youth the happier I am, but oh, the physical indignities! WIth much grumbling I skipped dessert last night and did crunches and squats instead. Such a good cookie too, with lots of extra dark chocolate bits.

[cybele727]

I know how important afterschool stuff is. I didn’t mean to totally wash it away. But cutting 28 teachers and spending 250K on a football team that benefits at most 60 kids? (That 250K is about 5 teachers who benefit more than 60 kids, for example. I don’t mean to pick on football or sports, either.) To me that cost benefit analysis doesn’t wash.

Also in my district, we get poverty funding and lots of kids are on free and reduced lunches, breakfasts. We have the homeless. We have kids whose home language is NOT English. Kids who are so unprepared to go to school you’d cry to see 5 year olds who’ve never opened a book or learned the alphabet.

But then you get the mom that stands up and I will quote her, b/c this is totally burned in my brain from a meeting, “you can’t cut sports programs. They have already been cut to the bone. This year, my son’s basketball team didn’t get brand new jerseys. They had to wear the same ones from last year. How much more can you cut?” That is what “cut to the bone” means to some parents while others have children who are starving and education is their only door out. That is what gets me.

OK, sorry for the rant. LOL.

I am glad to hear about your ear getting better. The aging thing is so much fun! 😉 I am heading down bifocal lane, myself.

[Sarvi]

I love your rant! Rant away, it’s a welcome change from a lot of the apathy I see. That is so heartbreaking about the 5 year olds! It always gets me in the weepers to see the little ones who are so innocent go without and makes me hug mine close. So, so, so grateful for the good life we have — not lighting our stove with $100 bills or anything but we have lots of books and a safe place to be.

Man, “brand new jerseys”! Maybe she should consider starting a charity group for brand-new jersey donations!

I guess the plus side of having been myopic my whole life is that aging is correcting it, though I imagine bifocals are not far behind for me! Let me know if you come up with a stylish string of beads for your glasses, I’ll be needing it soon, haha!

[cybele727]

Sarvi.. ha! My vision is improving! But I will still need those glasses to go over my contacts! 🙂

We are lucky too. I try to remember gratitude and teach it to my kids.

Oh on a funny note, I desperately pray that when my son goes to religion class he does NOT say, you know Osiris and Jesus must have been the same guy, since they both lived, died, and were resurrected. That is exactly the kind of thing he says at just the wrong time.

[meleliza]

OK, a total change of topic – I am clearing out and looking to destash fabric I know I’ll never really use. Quilting cottons for one, but also a very rare oop Heather Ross double gauze in a color I know I’ll never wear. Does anyone have a sense about whether etsy or ebay is the better place to do that? I have patterns I’d like to get rid of too.

[lattemama]

How funny Cybele and Sarvi. I just ordered bifocals (bifocals light she called them – to lessen the blow perhaps?) for me as well as pair of “monitor glasses” to use at my work computer. And Score! because my employer pays for the latter pair.

[sayiamyou]

I need a new pair of glasses too, Lotta! This reminded me 🙂 I use contacts for work, but usually rip them out when I get home, and I’ve been able to use my glasses from college. But now they don’t seem to be as crisp as they were just, say, a year ago. (insert crying emoti here!)

[Tamara]

I was supposed to have my optometrist appointment yesterday. I crept up fast and this time I will choose new frames as I haven’t changed them since 2009! I had an unwell kid so postponed the appoinment.

Cybele727 I think as parents we can only do our best to get the message across that we are their first educators. I always get very annoyed when a teacher thinks they know more about my kids than I do. No one knows your kids the way you know them but having said that some kids have two personalities so they might show the teacher traits that aren’t seen at home. That’s why it is critical there is a team situation. It makes it very very difficult when you get a rep though and with each consecutive kid that comes along you have more teachers running and hiding from you.

School cannot override your decision about your child. That isn’t working as a team so what you are doing is basically making them sit up and realise they are not the only one’s in charge of this child’s education and that they could potentially stuff up his education by not listening to you. I don’t blame you one bit for wanting to homeschool. I have often thought of it too. Yet there will be just too many sacrifices and not everyone would ge happy with the decision.

[Nicole]

I have glasses for when I am pregnant, how strange is that? I don’t need them otherwise,and then its only for close up work.

Melanie, I don’t know how Etsy works but I would think it was a more ladylike option. You could have a shop button on your blog.

I sell a lot of things on eBay, and it adds up, but it is really a buyers market and there is so much garbage to wade through.

Just a few thoughts.

After reading the comments here I am very happy with our school. I have had the odd grumble but my eldest is in year 11 and I have only had to ‘go’ into the school 3 or 4 times about an ‘issue’.

[lattemama]

I read ok without glasses. At least if it’s not too dark but for everything else I’m pretty much walking around in a fog without them.

I wore contact lenses a few years ago and loved them, but then my optician wanted to change my prescription and that made me have to change the brand and the new ones were a pain to put in. They kept collapsing and folding on themselves.

So glasses it is.

[Tamara]

I loved contacts also but I only had disposables and wore them pre kids. I am thinking of getting them again but I live in a very dusty environment and really don’t know how they would go doing sheepwork. I think if I had dramas I would go get the specs as you really still need both. I just like the idea of wearing sunglasses that aren’t prescription because when you can only get one pair of specs a year on health insurance it can be a bit of a pain. Still, when I go in a little over a fortnight, I am hoping to not need a prescription upgrade, just a frames one – the lens ate slightly scratched.

I do need to wear them all the time though. It looks a big foggy without them. The clarity of details just aren’t there.

That is peculiar Nicole, to only need to wear glasses whilst pregnant. I have never heard of that before.

The costume was officially ridiculous. All the ribbon fell off bar two and I didn’t get them back. Not that I am sorry I don’t really use alot of ribbon these days. But it seems as though running through the rules with him helped and I heard no reports of meltdowns (I read that we really cannot rely on children to be very in control of emotions until they are at least nine – he’s only eight turning nine in July). It really annoys the heck out of me to have my child be the topic of conversation at staff meetings or in the staff room. Having grown up around teachers I know what goes on when the kids and parents aren’t looking. How can we build a child’s emotional intelligence if they are constantly being criticised and compared with other children at school? We are encouraged as parents not to do it so really teachers shouldn’t do it either.

Anyway, I am putting myself through a course to make sure I am not making the mistakes that are leading to my child acting this way. Just to make sure it isn’t “coming from home”. And I am still yet to get hold of the doctor – they must have all gone on holiday and forgot to put the answering machine on.

The printer has just finished printing out the t shirt patterns. I had to purchase it again because it was a winzip file and I was clicking the wrong button all the time, deleting the file. Anyway I conquered the jolly computer and its games and now have two more patterns to stick together. I think Murray will be pleasantly surprised when he gets home to find he is getting new t shirts without the need to actually go shopping!

We had no power for most of the day and it came back on at lunchtime. Apparently someone ripped the power in town as they are doing a bypass road for heavy machinery and half the town is ripped up. I guess we won’t be running for tidy beautiful town of the year this year – looks like a dog’s breakfast.

[sayiamyou]

Nicole, prenatal vision change isn’t uncommon; mine changed while I was pregnant too.

[Sarvi]

I’m surprised that’s not more common, actually. Everything else changes so I would imagine the eyes swell a bit too, changing the shape and therefore your vision. Tip to would-be first-time moms, if you happen to be reading: don’t buy those expensive boots until after you know whether your shoe size goes back to normal! I might’ve considered foot corsets to get back into the pair I bought right before I got pregnant, but happily about a year after I gave birth they were all the way back to normal.