No time for real posting! But this vid hit our news and I thought I would share.
This is an American Idol type comp in Britain (Britain's got Talent), and this unassuming guy just blew the judges away. They took one look at him initially and seemed to think he would be someone just there to say 'I was on the TV!' Then he opened his mouth.... I love this song and I cried!
THis little girl is with him in the final. 6 years old. You have already probably heard her, but if not....
Whew! I waded through 2 hours of parent teacher interviews today!
All good for the most part too.
It was a testament to just how VERY different my two oldest boys are, (I know all siblings are different, but as those who know them would agree, these two really are VERY different!) that out of the four teachers I saw from their stage, that only 1 actually realized they were brothers. The other three were astounded!!! They thought they were really good friends with the same last name.
No, actually, I am wrong. One teacher had found out at the beginning of this week, when she picked up Spindle's sports jacket and it had Roly's name on it. When she asked if he had bought it from Roly (we have a swap shop for uniforms at school), he said "No, Roly is my brother!"
LOL! I find that hilarious!!
Now, ages and ages ago I was challenged to share several things about myself.
Here goes (to the three people who still read my slightly abandoned blog! :)
1. When I was about 12 I ate a side salad in a Kenyan hotel. (disobeying my parents, who always told us to leave a salad, 'cause we didn't know if it had been washed well.
As a result, I developed Hepatitis A, and boy was I sick. I turned yellow, even my eyeballs jaundiced and I missed a bunch of school. I remember that I was so weakened by it that it took me three months before I could kick my feet up to my bottom (it's a kid thing!) The up side was that I was given a ton of American candy and delicious instant porridge sachets by well wishers.
2. That first night that I began to feel sick with the hepatitis, I was so hot. I quietly went and lay on the cold tiles in the bathroom floor, without telling my parents, because in my fevered delirium, I thought God was punishing me for being bad!!!
3.My first language was actually 2 languages. I learnt English at home, but all my friends were Somali, so I was fluent in child's Somali!
4. My longest crush on someone was on Boris Becker. The mere thought of the young German tennis player made me wobbly at the knees! I had a photo album made up of him that went everywhere with me. *blush* I even practised hitting and serving the ball like him for hour in our backyard!
5. My favorite genre of books is crime fiction. Every book I read is so formulated, I can pretty much tell what will happen in the end, but I still read them! This is a conundrum because any real life crime has me deeply distressed, and I pray regualrly for people I hear about in the news who have been kidnapped etc. The thought of crimes being perpetrated on thousands of children around the world that I cannot assist keeps me awake at night. I wonder if it is maybe the closure that a crime book brings in the end, the baddie getting his justice that keeps me reading.
6. I had my first car accident whilst driving a Road Safety van with the words Road Safety emblazoned on every available space. I was in the wrong lane to turn right on a roundabout, and hence I crashed into a little old lady doing the right thing! Passersby chuckled unsympathetically at me, standing there in my Road Safety uniform by my Road Safety vehicle. Even the police cracked a grin! It was a humiliating experience. I recieved a Christmas card later that year from the dear old lady which began 'We met accidentally....
7. My dream in high school was to be a photo journalist. You know, like for National Geographic! I worked on the Yearbook committee and all! I applied to and even got a place at Pepperdine University, which I only just realized in in Malibu! LOL!
But it was not part of God's plan!
8. My wedding ring has not fitted on my finger for years. For maybe 4 years! I have only managed to get it on in the last month. Yeah!
Oh My! I only have 5 days left of teaching! It has been a blast, and I have thoroughly enjoyed myself. Actually doing it successfully has been a morale boost. I love taking on a challenge that is far off in the future (so far off, that saying yes to doing doesn't seem to scary until it is a week away!), and actually being able to cope with it when it does eventuate! But I will be very happy to go back to my old life!! I just hope that this energy will continue after the job is finished.
Last week, the school asked me to stay on as a teacher, for the same hours, but now with extra curricular expectations and parent/teacher interviews. I explained how hard it would be , and they said that if it helped, I could choose whatever day for stage 1 (years 1 and 2) to have as a homeroom day (that is, my day off, when the kids stay in their homeroom and don't come to different teachers for numeracy or literacy). So saying no made me feel even worse! I would love to have you think they were being so flexible because I am just the best teacher around, but no! LOL! Diva's teacher has unexpectedly had to leave at the end of this term, due to her hubby being transferred with the airforce. And it is a case of last-minute teacher seeking, and 'better the devil you know'. But I felt wanted anyways!
As for the rest of life? Topsy gave us a diabetes scare. He has been drinking a lot for winter, and falling asleep early and in odd places, so I took him for a prelim finger prick, which gave an abnormally high result.
Then on Tuesday he had a fasting blood test, which the nurse botched, and I had to come back for 2 hours later. My hungry child endured more unfruitful poking and prdding till finally the child specialist they called in from his day off managed to draw blood! GRRRRRRR!
But the result was good, so he is not diabetic! I think my sister and Mom breathed a bigger sigh of relief than me, as I was in a bit of denial, and did not do my usual research on the internet to find out how having a diabetic child wouold change our lifestyle.
so, thanks Lord!
Roly and Spindles were in the Eisteddfod with their class today. Eisteddfods are competitions that involve testing individuals or school groups for singing, dancing, acting and musicianship. This part of the competition was for spoken verse. The kids recited two poems and they won! It was such a boost for them!
And Diva has decided that she would like to be homeschooled. After presenting her arguments for this, we saw her point and agreed.....
....being homeschooled on Saturday will be a fantastic idea! LOL! Though when she came to me with the request, I must say, I felt a little sorry for myself. I do it all week, and every Sunday: please give me one day's rest from it!!!!
Oh and I have lost 10 kgs. Please be happy for me. It mean I did not need to buy any more new work clothes! I could wear the dressy clothes I bought before I got pregnant with Topsy!
I have missed being regular with posting, but something had to give: family or posting.... so well...! I have enjoyed reading what you are all up to! *hugs*
And as far as I can see, the next three weeks will be great. Not too taxing. no new concepts to teach in literacy. which is great.
The funny thing is that, because the last theme we did (poetry) was two weeks long, I just assumed that the next theme (procedures: recipes, instructions for a game, steps to get ready for bed etc) would be two weeks long too!
Never assume anything, right?
So I crammed a whole heck of a lot of things into the last two weeks.
I should explain that I get an hour and 15 minutes with these kids. In that time they do 25 minutes of spelling activities, 25 minutes of reading activities, and 25 minutes of storywriting.
So the teaching time I have is only about 15 minutes before they write a very short 'story' (or in their case a sentence) in their story writing book.
In this time, in the past two weeks we have:
1) learnt a new game by following a set of instructions,
2) learnt to draw a cartoon figure using a set of simple instructions,
3) done a procedure for doing a leaf rubbing,
4)written out our own procedures for getting ready for school, and
5) for getting ready for bed.
6) Done a funny exercise to learn that clear simple instructions are the best.
7) Looked at how disastrous giving vague, wrongly sequenced instructions can be.
8) I read a story accompanied by a set of wrongly sequenced illustrations. Then the kids cut them out on a smaller worksheet, and resequenced them correctly.
9)They also set out a procedure of their own making, listing the materials they would need, and then the set of simple steps.
And then today, with the promise of 5 parents coming in to help, I set up the grand finale for the procedure fortnight; a morning of fun procedures that required all 5 parent helpers on board: first we would follow a set of instructions to make and decorate paper helicopters. And then we would be making and eating funny face biscuits.
So my excited cherubs filed in and looked around expectantly for the parent help. Um, only one granny showed up! Go the grannies!
After the spelling test, we got stuck into the paper helicopters.
The kids were perfect; the paper helicopters behaved themselves and did exactly what they were supposed to.
After the helicopters were finished, we sat back down to hear the procedure for decorating out faunny face biscuits. Due to food allergies, I had had to send out a letter of warning to parents saying that we would be eating plain biscuits, frosting, jellybeans, lifesavers, and 100s and 1000s.
We went outside to make the funny faces, to be kind to the cleaners.
The kids all had a paper plate with their name on it that had a biscuit with a blob of frosting and a plastic spoon.
After spreading the frosting, they used the lifesavers for eyes, the jellybeans for nose and mouth, and the 100s and 1000s for hair.
When everyone had completed their funny face biscuits, they came back inside, and I read a story for the last 8 minutes, while they ate the biscuits, and finished decorating their helicopters.
A resounding success.
The only hiccup was the amount of kids torn between eating their biscuit themselves, and wanting to save it for Mum.
I told them that on the last day of school we will do it again, and bring sealer bags so they can make biscuits to take home and share.
And guess what? After all that, when I enquired what theme I would be teaching next week, because my program does not elaborate; the teachers said "The procedure theme goes for another 3 weeks, 'cause it is so intense!"
Uhhh, you're telling me!!!!
LOL!
In other news, both my older boys came back from their separate adventure excursions (aeach on different ones, Spindle's first one!) today in great spirits. They had a ball. A totally positive experience with lots of great male role models leading the bonding and adventure activites.
Tonight we had a clelbrations feast because the kids reports came in, and each of their techers said that they had done their very best all term. What more can we ask for *chest puffed up in pride* And Roly, my brilliant child whose concentrations span used to be so bad that he once wandered out of his classroom altogther, and was found sitting on a bench daydreaming, has improved out of sight in the area of concentration and organization. His true potential can finally be tapped as he is able to focus and work. Yay!!! Thanks Lord! Thanks fish oil! Thanks Mozart and alternative therapies! Thanks patient, consistent teachers, and thanks Roly for persisting!
Now, here is a pick of what Topsy did when I said 'touch your eyes!':
Ah yes...... 'nuff said! And this is what he looks like when he says 'bath', or in Topsy speak: 'Ba, Ba, BA!'
And every night during his bath, he hops out and runs stark naked around the house in search of Diva in the hopes she will play his favorite game 'tea with the Queen" with him. Tonight she did!
Talk soon!
Ah yes...... 'nuff said!