Diary of an (ex)London mum

As I said in an earlier post , I have been looking more closely at our footprint on the earth as I have been thinking about what sort of world I would like to leave for Baby and his descendants (if he decides to have any).  Recently I have been looking at how to reuse things in the kitchen so as to minimise waste. We buy a lot of things online and consequently have a lot of cardboard boxes.  We recycle these via our local recycling scheme but we also reuse some of these for e.g. storage in the loft.  Recently I have started to make cat activities out of cardboard containers for our cat, a bit like the one described here .  Mine don't look anything as fancy but basically my imagination is my limit and the cat will never run out of new toys. I have also been steadily ridding the family of disposable sandwich bags, cling film, etc.  We do take lunch to school/work so we have switched to using reusable things.  These beeswax wraps are fabulous, and we use...

Until I started teaching in earnest a few years ago, I had not given uhh thought to what makes a good teacher.  I undertook a number of teacher training courses and learnt the technical aspects of teaching.  That did change my perspective as I was more used to thinking with my professional hat on and that did not necessarily make me empathetic to my students’ needs.  It seems simple to say now but I knew where I wanted my students to get to in terms of their learning and taught in the manner that I had observed people who taught me teach me the same material.  In other words I was a good mimic but that did not take in to account what my students needed to help them learn.  So the courses were useful but I found observing good teachers very useful too.  The best observations are the ones done when the teacher is just doing their thing, unaware that they are being observed or that the observation means much.  I found watching the various teachers that B...

Easter has come and gone but the kids are still off till the end of the week.  This is prime time for visiting London.  We did the same from our current home city, to see friends, go to events, visit some of the sites that Baby was too young to go to before.  Having lived there before, we did use our “inside” knowledge to help us get around a little bit more easily. For the last few months I had been travelling between Home and London for work on the odd occasion.  Although work paid for transport, I try to be economical.  Rather than look around too much, I use the Trainline app on my phone to help me look for the cheapest way to travel and to manage my train bookings.  I now book all family train tickets using the app as well.   Most tickets can be issued electronically so you really only need them on your phone to travel- no more digging around for paper tickets or having to collect tickets at the train station.  This works really well and t...

I have been a bit quiet over the last few months because I have been busy moving cities.  I am no longer in London.   The move was less stressful than I thought it would be.  I had always put this off on the basis that moving the family would be a nightmare but it all turned out OK.  On the professional side, it helped to have jobs that were relatively transferable.  On the personal side, it helps to have an other half who is pretty unflappable, and Baby who has adapted very well to being in a new city, with a new school and new friends.  I have been very fortunate.  And it has made me appreciate London more.  I have no regrets moving out of London- being in a less busy city where the commute to work is much shorter means I have a lot more time to spend with Baby.  When I go to London, I see it from the point of view of a visitor and I am there to do things that I want to do.  Gone are the hours spent worrying about trains being la...