Diary of an (ex)London mum

Sometimes clarity comes from the most unusual of circumstances.  One of my job roles is to help students who find themselves in difficulties- either emotionally or academically.  The idea is that I talk through the issues with the students and offer practical help (counselling, financial advice, study skills workshops, etc) either myself or by signposting to services offered by my institution, so that the problems are resolved and the students can get back on track with their studies.  In speaking with the students I sometimes catch myself thinking, well I say that to them but I manage to practise what I preach?  In some ways talking to the students, and reflecting on my own experiences, has helped me understand myself a bit better and focus my mind on how best to handle problems that I encounter. One example is friendships.  I listen to the stories of conflict between friends making life at university difficult and find myself thinking well if the relations...

Getting out of bed in the morning is harder than waking up.  Particularly in the winter months when it is nice and warm in bed, its much nicer to be protected by the duvet from the cold than to have to struggle into a robe that has been left out in the cold.  Having a shower is nice; coming out of the shower is not.  In contrast to all this, walking out of the house into the cold, crisp morning is rather pleasant.  Being woken up by natural light and having your head cleared by chilled air is a good way to start the day.  So much so that it is worth walking a little distance to a bus stop a bit further away from my usual one, just to be able to enjoy this for a while longer.  There are a number of schools down my street and its cheering to hear the sounds of children chatting and laughing on their way to lessons.  An extra 5 minutes of pleasure before its time to focus on the day ahead.  This is my favourite time of the year.

In the run up to the start of the new school year, I talked about various things we did to prepare Baby for school.  This is his first year in school and part of our preparation involved preparing him for the move.  Followers of this blog will know that Baby has been in nursery from a very young age.  He is used to spending time with nursery teachers and other children, with significant chunks of the day during the working week away from us.  He is, therefore, also used to being dropped off and picked up by us at the start and end of the day, respectively.  There has never been any trauma at drop-off or pick-up.  As school will have a very similar routine, we did not expect him to have huge problems settling in.  Indeed he has settled in very well and he loves school. Our major concern, in the run up to the start of term was that he would miss nursery.  He had spent the best part of 4 years at the same place, surrounded by people that he had gr...

Baby started at reception at the beginning of September and we were told to expect homework in his book bag.  This was going to be predominantly phonics work in the first half-term as the teachers are concentrating on reading skills at the beginning of the school year.  We were briefed on the teaching system they would use at the parent's evening and waited for the first piece of assignment. This did eventually come in the second week and there were two bits of work to do.   One was a worksheet which contained words which relate to a particular alphabet and the sound(s) that are associated with the alphabet.  There were a couple of lines for writing practice and a picture to colour in.  The second piece of work was a little book of words which Baby was supposed to read himself using his phonics skills.  Associated with the book of words is a record book on which we were to note how we thought Baby did.  We thought both pieces of work were for a week...

Baby started Reception about a month ago and so far his reaction to school has been very positive.  He loves going there, loves his teacher, and has made friends.  There has been a class election and he was elected class representative of for the school council.  I am not sure he understands what that means but I am trying to explain to him that there is job description (albeit brief) for the position and that is to help with organising e.g. charity drives etc.  He will get it evenutally but right now he thinks all it means is he has to wear a badge to school.  I am really happy that the school has chosen to mimic society at large by organising elections even for young kids.  Overall I am impressed by the school's general attitude that kids will rise to the challenge if you give them something to do, with appropriate guidance where necessary.  I think children behave better when adults treat them as equals rather than speak down to them all the time. ...