Archive for July, 2008
Can I buy you a present mummy?
July 31st, 2008 | 
Author: After an awfull trip around our local Tesco’s today, where Asha was screaming and everything. Just as we were about to leave Asha said to me.. Can I buy you a present mummy?
Rather dumbstruck I replied, yes, what do you want to get me? At which stage she pointed at a box of Celebrations. Well what can a woman say!
When we got to the till, I put them on first and gave Asha the money to pay for them.. No she didnt have money on her :d Though we did make an “event” out of that a bit, just the two of us.. Asha was made up to have her own receipt.. Funny thing, I think that is actually why she wanted to buy me something, and I am the proud eatter currently of a box of chocolates.. Yummy.. anyone want one?
box of chocs to share
Popularity: 17% [?]
Bodnant Gardens.
Everyone has always told me how fantastic they are, but to be honest:-
Disabled Parking, used by anyone who thinks they are disabled, no badges in site. I had to park somewhere else then move.
Wheelchair access diabolical and no signage for alternative routes.
Food provision for an Asha – fruit salad, out of a tin.. It “should” be o.k.
The producation by The Chapter House Theater group, was o.k., but i wish it had said in its blurb it was aimed at 4 – 8 year olds, and not sold as an outdoor production of sleeping beauty.. It was slightly confusing, I wish they had omitted the stork and the baby bit, and it took me about 3/4 of it to actually enjoy it.
Asha however loved it.
PDF file on Bodnant Garden and Estate
Popularity: 26% [?]
Police in schools.
Link to Guardian on police in schools.
The schools minister, Andrew Adonis, called on police forces yesterday to permanently draft officers into schools to cut violent crime. He said constables could frisk pupils for weapons, drink and drugs and generally keep children safe.
At least 450 secondary and primary schools in England already have a police officer permanently on site.
Adonis said he had asked forces to free up an officer for every school that wanted one. He told the teachers’ union Voice, at its annual conference in Daventry, Northamptonshire: “We have moved beyond the debate about whether it is appropriate for police to be in schools.” Police were no longer regarded as outsiders in schools.
He said headteachers were “warmly supportive” of appropriately trained officers carrying out searches.
As a human being, I can only see this as evidence of the lack of control and helpfull systems in place in schools.
Why are children … our children… being put under this regieme? Why are we allowing our kids to be frisked, without our knowledge in school time? What other actions are happening without our knowledge. Has your childs school got a police officer in it?
Popularity: 13% [?]
One black, one white.
How cool is diversity, and natural selection hey :d
Parents of new twins in Bristol have had no problem telling them apart as one is white and one is black.
Popularity: 16% [?]
Two New PDF’s
I have uploaded two new PDF files tonight. One is information about some of the butterflies used in the RSPB summer project. The other is a short peice on the lighthouse “Roman Rock” in Simonstown, which Steve’s Grandad used to be the keeper for.
I hope you enjoy them both, as much as I have enjoyed creating them!
Vicki xx
Popularity: 19% [?]
Paint Job?
Well we all enjoy the effects of a newly painted house, but do you fancy the challenge of painting a light house?
BBC Penmon lighthouse on Anglesey
The Penmon Lighthouse on Anglesey seems a fair challenge, but what about Roman Rock in Simonstown, where great grandad used to work?
Roman Rock lighthouse is the only lighthouse in South Africa to stand on a rock. On account of high tides and gale-force winds, work could only be carried out 7 days a month and consequently it took 4 years to build – from 1857 to 1861.
Roman Rock lighthouse in 1910 with the lighthouse keeper and his assistant. The lighthouse keepers in 1910 were Charles H and Jeremias B.
Great Grandad at work
pdf article on Roman Rock Light House
Popularity: 34% [?]
What did I do today?
I watched TV with Daddy. I played with my daddy. I ate coconut and drunk coconut milk.
I played medicine and cook and I made a house for the borrowers called Poo , Harmony and Little Harriettee.
I have also done some playing on my own. I watched the borrowers on television with my daddy, and Ice with Daddy.
Popularity: 17% [?]
so what is home education?
Home education, de-schooling, education otherwise… There are loads of different terms used to describe those of us who educate outside the “school system” and then there is flexi schooling.
Where we live none of the shools do “flexi schooling”. But then our LEA has no information on its web site about home education either!
so what is home education? Well I have no interest in formal, 9-3 sat at a desk all day education. that isnt education for me, although there are some home edders who do that. for me home education is providing opertunity to learn, facilitating learning experiences and helping the child to develop there own cognitaive and social skills.
Sounds good.. but in reality? Well at the moment it is loads of play with outside toys, reading books, looking at insects and the world around us and enjoying life to the full.
And after camp, that has mainly involved sitting infront of the tv, as Asha has had something with milk in it, and listening to the borrowers. She has listened to it as a book, a few weeks ago, listened to it as a tape this morning, and this afternoon she is watching it with daddy on T.V.
Tomorrow / later today, we may well make them a home :d
That is what I call home education.
Popularity: 24% [?]
July Camp Gallery
Boot Camps for under 5’s?
Children as young as 4 are expected to write in sentences and use punctuation under the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework – widely described as a “toddlers’ curriculum”.
This sets 69 goals and more than 500 development milestones that children in England should reach by the age of 5.
They are supposed to use mathematics to solve practical problems, retell stories in the correct sequence, understand right from wrong, read simple sentences on their own, sit quietly, be able to use a computer and understand that other people have different views, cultures and beliefs that need to be respected.
I am sorry but this isn’t education it is goverment approved child abuse!
Popularity: 18% [?]
Chosing friends.
For a while now, Asha has been battling with some of her smaller friends.
She loves them, but isnt happy with some of their behaviour (nor is mummy)
Asha now knows which behaviour she likes being around, and which she dosnt.
The result? She says if she wants to play or not. And when she dosnt.. thats o.k.
Popularity: 23% [?]
Bara Brith – Gluten Free, Wheat Free.
Bara Brith.
I never realised how easy this cake was to make, or how cheap! I use the cheapest dried fruit mix I can get hold of, as you are soaking it overnight in tea!
10 oz Mixed dried fruit.
2/3 pint of hot tea. I made it in a pyrex jug. No milk!
3oz Soft brown sugar.
Grated rind of 1 lemon
12 oz of gluten free flour. (I added a tsp of gluten free baking powder as well)
1and a bit of a large tsp of mixed spice.
1 large egg.
Soaked dried fruit overnight in tea.
Next day, set oven to gas mark 4, and greased some small loaf tins (I doubled up recipie again)
Strain the fruit, and keep the liquid.
Mix fruit and other ingredients in a bowl. Add liquid untill a soft dropping consistency. Pour mixture into tins, and bake for about 45 mins (depending on cooker, ingredients and stuff)
Cool and serve sliced and marged :d
Popularity: 17% [?]
Camp Food…What worked – what didnt.
We didnt have a cooked breakfast every day. We did have baked beans and Sausage some days.
We did have cereals, however Mummy ran out of cows milk.
We did eat loads of home made cake.
Carrot cake made with gluten free flour is fine, I used a delia recipie adapted
I used sunflower oil, in place of groundnut oil, and dove farm self raising gluten free flour.
I adapted a recipie out of one of the
Welsh Teatime Recipes
Traditional Welsh Cakes, for both Bara Brith and Anglsey Cake.
Having looked on line, at others it appears to be missing some ingredients, however Asha enjoyed it.
We didnt eat as much fruit as i would have liked, however as I put fruit and veg in all the cakes, yes even the chocolate one, i didnt worry too much!
Frozen stew re-heated worked well. Trying to make a curry was hard work.
We will look into canned veg for the next camp. Fresh veg, is too hard to prepare in the wind and rain.
Crips worked well to keep us going. We didnt eat any of the lentils or tins of assorted beans.
Oh well, looks like cake and tinned food next camp.. Oh and fresh coffee, we need to take enough for three a day, not two!
Popularity: 16% [?]
Learn Nothing Day
http://sandradodd.com/learnnothingday/
Not really possible for an Asha, as even though she has been full of cold, grouchy and infront of the TV for most of the day, she has still been asking me questions all day!.
Examples of questions from todays mindless tv :
Noddi – Why is it spelt ddi in welsh and dy in english mummy?
The Bee Movie – Why isnt the hive a real hive mummy?
Disney Princess – Why dont the animals move like real animals.. whata a cartoon character mummy?
Now without any intention on learning, more on just trying to keep her rested and quiet I have ended up with three indepth questions to answer… anyone want a 4 year old with a far too active brain for my ability 
Popularity: 17% [?]
Homewards bound.
After a week, nearly of incessent pain on mummys front. Very little sleep for Daddy, and Asha waking up most nights either crying due to cramp, or nightmares, we called it a day today.
Camp has been wonderfull, but we are all suffering too much. Mummy can hardly walk again. Asha now has a snotty nose. and daddy is rather bad tempered. The kids and other parents have been great. The hosts have been truly angels, in what they have done for us. And I am greatfull for all the help and support. But I am suffereing.
So what did we do today?
got up. Steve and Asha had breakfast, I cant face it at the moment. I had cake later!
Slowly packed up, sorting out the washing, and things on the way. Asha fell asleep on Daddy for a while. She also couldnt stand up on the trampoline, her poor legs are that tired.
We sat and talked a lot, as none of us have a rush in us!. Steve played with the kids, and I pottered a bit. Eventually we got everything in the car, and went and dropped off some clothes someone had left by mistake, on the way home. We also opted for tea at petes eats, as we realised we had nothing in, and I couldnt face a shop!
Exhausted we got home. Asha had first bath, then spent two hours fighting sleep.. The silly girl.
Night all!
Popularity: 34% [?]
I dont know..
Mummy suffered today, so she spent most of the day in bed, whilst daddy looked after Asha and Mummy with a load of help off the others.
Mummy has very little idea of what happened today. However mummy did make some creams with Asha and we did enjoy making them. I had just woken up, and went looking for everyone.
After that, I read to Asha and she went to bed fairly early tonight.
Making creams and tinctures, is certainly fun!.. great workshop, and all the kids loved it, old and young!
Popularity: 24% [?]
Biometric ID – some ramblings.
Source BBC NEWS – 20th july 08
The DfT said from 2009, new biometric ID cards would be introduced for people who work airside in the country’s airports, “allowing an individual to be linked more securely to their own true identity, helping protect against crime, illegal immigration and terrorism”.
source BBC news- 20th july 08
Prison chiefs have dismissed renewed claims that a biometric identity system at a Scottish jail failed so badly it let inmates have a free run.
The issue was raised in a House of Lords exchange on biometric ID cards.
[Source: BBC News- 20th July 08 ]
The government has already spent £32m preparing for its ID card scheme even before it becomes law.
That means spending rose from £25,000 to £63,000 a day in the last six months of 2005, the Home Office said.
And now for the scarey stuff!
According to no2id,
To begin with you need to get them to come to you.
The government’s solution to that problem is to make
people report themselves when they get a passport.
As part of the creeping move to state identity control in Britain, ID interrogation centres are being set up all around the UK . To begin with there will be 69, on top of the existing Passport Offices. A company called Mapeley, which owns the offices of HM Revenue and Customs
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2263208.stm The Inland Revenue has confirmed that it sold its estate of more than 600 buildings to a company based in a tax haven, and admits it wrongly announced the properties were sold to a UK firm. ………..All are part of Bermuda-based Mapeley Holdings Limited, a company ultimately owned by George Soros and US group Fortress Investment)
(HMRC), was given the job of setting them up. Planning applications were mostly in by the end of 2006. Operations started tentatively in 2007, and by the beginning of 2008 over 50 centres were open.
from 2007 onwards when people as young as 16 apply for their first adult passport, they will* have to attend their nearest interrogation centre. There they will be subject to background checks, questioning to test their story against official records, photographs, and, before long, fingerprinting. Registration on the national ID database(s) – the ‘National Identity Register’ or NIR – will follow.
[Source: http://www.no2id.net/ Accessed July 2008]
Now consider this factor.
GP – medical records on database…
Social services records on data base
HMRC records on database.
Banking records on database.
Shopping records on database – tescos, clubcards
Some shops ask for postcodes when purchasing goods – pc world for vat recipts, Brantamo, for shoes. for example.
Leisure cards ownership = on database.
Library cards = on database.
Every book you purchase from a high street store, with credit cards, can be checked back.
If who you are becomes a problem, then so does your ID.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Woosh…
And today its rocket making..
Plastic bottle, cork, one bycle inner tube, and a small valve. Wow the effects were fantastic.
the kids loved them, the older kids. thought they were brilliant, and all the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
At night, we had a communal food, which we got to late, as we had to nip home to feed the cat. We did however stay up far too late, and have a great evening.
Popularity: 27% [?]
Nursery Rhymes.
Since Asha was tiny and we introduced her to nursery rhymes, there is one edition which I have really loved…
Little Miss Muffet,
Sat on a Tuffet
Eating her Curds and Whey
Down came a spider
And sat down beside her
and gave her a lovely bouquet..
Asha shouted at me one night last week, as I said the old words.. And frightened miss muffet away, she informed me “spiders arent scarey mummy, you have the words wrong”
Popularity: 20% [?]
Play day, but mummy I want to watch.
Along with all the unstructured and just home play things which were going on, one of the mums had made a play up with the costumes which were there.
They included things like space suits, princess costumes, and animal costumes.
Most of the children got involved, but Asha didnt want to. She tends to shy away from doing things in large groups, and I am reluctant to force her.
Anyway, when I asked her if she wanted to do the play, she replied. “no, because if i am in it, I cant watch it”
The play was wonderfull. Asha got to play with many of the great toys outside for much of today on her own, and she also locked mummy in the toilet.
It was a pit, and it needed a catch on the outside, so that the wind dosnt blow it open, however Asha thought it would be great fun to show mummy she could lock it.. Mummy wasnt impressed, and daddy had an Asha delivered to him, to deal with!
Popularity: 24% [?]
