Hell is an ice skating rink.....

...due to unforcast cold snap.

The impossible happened.

I made a crafty thing.

As a hysterical displacement activity.

Cos MIL was discharged from hospital still psycotic.

Why?

Cos they x rayed her and discovered her hip has a hairline fracture.

Only in mental health do you leave hospital BECUASE something is broken, to the background noise of the health service frantically washing their hands of a geriactric, bed blocking, walking (well, wheelchairing), talking (without ever stopping to draw breath, possibly she has evolved to inhale through her ears thus ensuring the stream of warped conciousness never ceases for a millisecond) Medical Encyclopedia of Maladies.

But still, never mind, I shall not fall into a heap this time and not cope, having to slink off into internet hibernation while licking wounds and muttering darkly to myself, cos......look what I made (bursts with pride and fancies self as the soon to be discovered Picasso of the ...what is this decade? The teenies? S'not the noughties anymore is it ?

As the decade's artistic genius I want a special name for MY decade. /haughty sniff.

If you are on Pinterest tell me you handle so I can stalk follow you.

Where did the fecking spellchecker go?

Don't want upgraded blogger dahsboard if my crap spelling is going to be revealed in all,its dislecsick glory.

Dislecsick English teacher. It's like I set out to make life as hard as possible for myself (:

Nearly a year?

I shut up for nearly a year?

A personal best.

Very quick update. Five minutes after I paid for all the books for the next school year Son of Thor decided he wanted to go back to school. So he did. And to cut a long story very short (for now) this is where he is going next year.

 Inter High online secondary school.

Officially this is still home education so the testing, the being overseen by the school, the paperwork, it begins again. And it is still home ed where Italian epics\grammar\various other language arts, maths in Italian, Italian focused history and geography is concerned. But The Sock Dropper has really stepped up to the plate this academic year with homework. And discovered he is utterly brill at one to one teaching. Getting the child to not only learn in the understanding sense of the word, but also filling it with giggles and enjoyment. He is amazing at achieving the parrot fashion learning thing too, which should make exams easier. So I'm dumping all that on him next academic year.

The blog will now be focused on life as it happens, with massive school based whinges until June probably, then home ed, but also all the other aspects on my day to day headless chicken impression.

I just didn't enjoy being sucked into the home ed political, philosophical thing. So I want to step back from that and avoid getting pulled back in to the debates again by not identifying primarily as a home educator \ homeschooler. My son's school experience sucks, but that doesn't mean school sucks. Home ed is a great solution to our knotty problem, but it is not the One Great Educational Solution (IMO) and is not without its drawbacks, weak spots and risks.

I don't want to be boxed in by focusing on my being "A Something", not an expat, not a home edder, not a carer for a mentally ill person (back in hospital with mania, but she had a great Christmas, we slept for two days solid after she left LOL)...just a woman alternatively blundering, waltzing, dancing, clod hopping through daily life and trying not to fuck her kid up too much ( :

So I'll write about that.

And pilgrims.

Blog No More

This blog is now closed.

I'm leaving up the content in case any of the info is useful for anybody, and the stuff that isn't useful I'm leaving cos I'm too lazy to trawl through it to delete.

I am not a freebie relocation consultant.

Forgive the tone but I am deeply pissed off. One harpy has brought a simmering heap of resentment to a head.

Here is the deal. I am more than happy to answer emails from people looking for more information about home educating in Italy. I did it all by myself, in the dark, all alone and that experience has made me very pro shining a torch on the process.

BUT

I have a job, I home educate, I have a household to run and a geriatric, severely mentally ill mother in law to care for which at times can be overwhelming. The last, when a crisis hits, can be so time consuming that the three previous roles end up a bit squashed, meaning their recuperation is my number one priority immediately after things calm down. My bulging inbox is low down the list of priorities when the house is a tip, my son needs my attention in all spheres and my pile of student's homework to mark is towering.

So,

Rule one, have realistic expectations of me. I am not a home education fairy and your wish for information is not my command. There will be times when your wish for info isn't even anywhere close to being my priority. Just like you, I have a life and it can get in the way of my availability to answer questions. You number in the hundreds and I am just one (buzy) woman.

Rule two, like everybody else I get my share of spammy, speculative emails. Given the nature of my blog many of them will have generic "homeschool" or "home educate" subject lines. So if you want information please use "wanna home ed in Italy" in the subject line. I'll set up an email rule, so those emails go into their own folder, immediately separated from the piles of dross, which should eliminate the handful of emails that get buried alive, never to be opened under a pile of crap.

Rule three, of the hundreds of emails I have received a good number seem to think I am a freebie relocation consultant. I am not an American, I am an EU citizen, I haven't been through the process of getting visa's\work permits etc. and answering those questions is basically asking me to do the research that you should do yourself. Ditto claiming citizenship based on a relative having emigrated from Italy. Questions about employment, housing, lifestyle, dietary requirements are also well beyond my brief. Please ask those questions at the expats in Italy forum. I can only deal with the home ed questions, not cos I'm being shitty, but because I simply don't have enough hours in my day to research and respond with a detailed answer to emails where 3\4 of the questions have nothing to do with home ed.

Rule four, if you don't get an answer, first check that you haven't created a need for your email to be put to one side until I have more time to spare because you have asked an avalanche of questions that have nothing to do with HE, chances are if you did, I'll get distracted by life and forget it is lurking in my drafts folder. If it is just HE questions, you may well have written to me at a time when it has all gone bent and I am up to my ears in crisis management. Try sending it again in a week, be patient, send it again if you have to. I'm not ignoring you, I just haven't noticed you because a spitting, hissing, self destructive old woman in full blown mania having florid psychotic episodes is huge competition when it comes to catching my attention.

Rule five, if you throw a hissy fit because I missed your emails (that were 3\4 about relocation issues like visas, work permits etc), and the only communication of yours that I manage to dig out from the pile is the one where you liberally insult me for not doing your bidding on your timescale and attempt to hold ME responsible for the fact that you weren't in a position to take a job because you chose not to pay for time sensitive expert advice, well...your email address will be blocked. Cos life is just too short.

And I would caution against moving to Italy if you are going to get so wound up about missed communications from a voluntary, informal source. Boy, do you ever have massively unrealistic expectations with regards to Italian bureaucracy if you get apoplectic about a few emails slipping through the net. The "vanishingly rare"nature of home education in Italy means you have to have the ability to self direct and the personality that lets you take leaps into the dark. Because there is no huge precedent that goes before you, nor is there a well established network or association to closely support you. You are creating a need for a school to venture into uncharted territory, they probably won't like it, they will probably feed you misinformation, as will many other official or unofficial sources of misinformation. If you can't hold your nose and leap anyway, homeschooling here is probably not going to be within your comfort zone. Expat life in Italy possibly won't be either, in general misinformation is the rule rather than the exception in these parts.

Rule six, everybody else keep on asking what you need clarified. When I can, as far as I can, I'm happy to answer questions. Just bear in mind that I don't sit in front of the computer all day with my tongue hanging out in anticipation of home education related emails and cut some slack if you don't hear from me, because I'm probably dealing with a mentally ill old lady in a system where mental health provision is not seamless by any stretch of the imagination.

Rule seven, I'm not the only point of info on the web, this is great place to start, I know her, she is lovely, her English is perfect, in fact...go there first.

And here I will gather together the most common questions and attempt to answer them so those who need info in a time sensitive manner don't have to hang around waiting for MIL to be well.


Can I home school just in English ?
No. You have to do an Italian curriculum that is approved.


Can I unschool ?
Your child will be tested annually, if you fail two years running you will have your permission to home ed revoked. So yes, you can unschool, BUT only if you are 100% sure that the method will produce the results that the school is looking for in terms of reading, writing (in ITALIAN) and maths at any given age.



Are the rules different for children with SEN ?
Unchartered waters, since I don't know anybody home edding a child with notable SEN here. One school might be completely cool about it, another may kick up a right fuss based on their belief that you cannot possibly have the technical ability to take on their education. Unfortunately it is a question of "suck it and see what happens". You can always dereg from one school and register with another to try the process again if the first school is being difficult.



What if I'm only here for a short time?
Well then you are in luck ( =
The kids are tested annually and they have to fail two years running before your home ed status is at risk. If you are here for a timescale where it really doesn't matter if they pass or not, then once you've gone through the process of sorting out with the school that you are a homeschooler, just home ed as you see fit safe in the knowledge that you will be gone before it is an issue.

Can I home ed under the radar ?
Of course. However you will be running the risk of the police and social services on your doorstep. How much of a risk depends on so many factors like what kind of nieghbours you have, where you live (huge city v small town) and how gung ho the local school director is. Again you have to suck it and see what happens, on the basis that you think your risk factors appear very low and if it all goes bent you feel sure you can sort things out without getting sucked into the legal system. I am absolutely not going to recommend it, on the basis I don't want to get the blame if it all goes horribly wrong.

I need info on visas, work permits, employment, housing, dietary requirements, availability of SEN facilities....
You need to go here.
Unless you are demanding, shouty person who thinks you have a devine right to the info you want, being what you want, when you want it, on a platter in which case I think they'll probably tell you to bog off too.

Oh and to the ridiculous number of people who email me wanting to know if they can just come and stay with me for a few months, on the basis that we both home ed and they fancy a virutally cost free way of living in Italy for a bit,

NO, you cannot stay with me, I don't know you from Adam and the fact that you would ask a total stranger to put you up incidcates to me that I am not going to be your cup of tea.

boots

Please excuse mess, am going to funeral, not cleaned or tidied.

Just concentrate on the boots.

And yes I know my legs are too skinny for them.

But I like them anyway.

Lick my face, or I won't cry.

A few years ago my father in law died. At lunchtime. In August.


Have you ever tried getting a funeral director quickly in Milano at that time, during that month ? Fat chance.

The paramedics had made a mess, it was an emergency, that it just how it is.

My father in law was a proud and dignified man.

The only practical thing I could do to help my husband and my brother-in-law was spare them seeing him at the end of his life disheveled and stripped of his dignity. So I washed and dressed him. Not something I was every culturally prepared for, but it helped that I knew, that if he knew, he would have appreciated being touched and handled with respect and care.

And I don’t think I cried, I just did it, it felt right and I knew I was doing the right thing and I was the only family member who could it. I liked having something useful i could do that made things better,or at least stopped them being worse.

And yet tonight, when Rosie, my littlest doggie, my first ever doggy, slipped away like we knew she would, I buried her with no stiff upper lip to be found.

If you had given me the scenarios in the hypothetical I’d have told you that I simply couldn’t do the first, cos I’d fall apart at the seams, and the second would be easier cos I have had to bury pets before and the first cut is the deepest.

But I was wrong. I haven't built up any immunity at all.

Maybe I just like animals more than humans. Although I don’t think that is true. But maybe I don’t know myself as well as I thought I did.

Or maybe I can only grieve openly and unreservedly if a enthusiastic face licking and trying to trip me up twenty times a day is part of the relationship.

Mario already leaves his clothes lying around everywhere like deathtraps. Maybe if he slobbers on my face instead of kissing me in the morning he’ll up his chances of a properly mournful widow.

Cos I have already decided he is going first.

Because I want to lay him out, so the last hand that ever touches him on this earth is the one who loves him the most.

Although I’m not sure he is too happy about his placement in the queue of mortality organized behind his back.

Do I make sense ?

Probably not.

Is my heart broken ?

No.

My son, who will have some unhappy news in the morning, is snoring loudly, which means he is breathing and I have kept my sense of proportion.

I have a stubbed toe, not a broken back.

But it hurts, it really fucking hurts.

Am Queenie, pass the ermine.

I just got crowned !!!!! (means my review was supperfabbydozy and a bit special !!!!!!!!!!)

For my review of Mudd Mask.

If anybody else want to earn a bit of pin money (also in the form of amazon.co.uk vouchers for us expats with no UK bank account) just drop me a line at my email address sarahfonto AT alice.it)

This is fun ( =

I've never done any sponsored posts cos
A) Never been asked to
B) asummed it would be boring and I wouldn't be that good at it.

I may have to have a rethink now I am regal LOL

Obvously I can't write straight so this is my slightly tittersome version of reviewing a product.

Advantages: works brilliantly if used regularly


Disadvantages: no "sparkle" and no jumbo sized tube option.


The Testing Ground....... for a pure clay, deep cleaning (with no exotic "dead sea" heritage) facial mask.

I've been using Mudd Mask as long as I can remember, at least two decades, but currently it is applied to a 42 year old face, which is being deeply unfair to its owner by suffering from blemishes PLUS wrinkles.

Rather than combination skin it is more what I'd call "downright fickle about what state it wants to be" skin. It randomly changes from fairly dry in places (with oh so attractive flaking) to quite oily for my age group.

The face still gets spots despite its advanced years, in the main caused by environmental factors. Like getting covered in a fine layer of ash daily when emptying three big fireplaces.

Also gets a fair bit of garden ground in to it, thanks to my struggling with neurotic pumps down wells. Usually in the dark, while it is raining. Ending up with me falling flat on my face cos the Italian Sock Dropper has wandered off with the torch for fear that his Armani socks might get a bit damp. It's not helped by me sometimes falling off the non smoking wagon due to the stress of an extended pilgrim invasion.

The above guarantees a lack of effortless clear skin. I'm at constant risk of blocked, oversized pores, blackheads, small angry zits and when the ciggies get thrown into the mix...massive acne like spots too.

(God I sound attractive. Almost feel like throwing the Mudd Mask away next purchase and just sticking the bag on my head.)

The instructions on the tube are really sparse, so I've gone into more detail to give an idea of the use and what the product is like.

Pre application

If you don't use it regularly the mask is almost TOO effective at deep cleansing and drawing out impurities and for the next couple of days after application some new spots can pop up to join the ones you were trying to get rid of. So I'd say avoid using it a couple of days before a big event if you don't want to risk "post mask breakout" angst.

You need to rinse and dry your face to clean it first, in my experience steaming and other complicated prep makes no difference to the effectiveness of the mask.

Application

This product can separate a bit in the tube. At first squeeze you risk a sudden squirt, of what looks like a bad case of food poisoning affecting the lower digestive system, shooting all over your basin. Over time this squirty phase can mean the remaining product gets too dry and clumpy. So always shake the plastic tube of the Mudd Mask violently before you unscrew the lid.

In two decades I still haven't worked out which storage conditions cause this. I've kept the tube on window ledges, in total darkness (lost under laundry mountains in the bidet), in the wide variety of climates offered by Southern England, Yorkshire, Bangkok and various bits of Northern Italy. Makes no difference, it seems to separate according to its own personal agenda, when it feels like it . So good idea to always shake.

You squeeze the product onto your hand. How much can depend on the weather (on a hot and dry day a too thin layer on the face can cause a strangled yelp as your skin gets sucked backwards at warp speed 10 with no warning).

You also have to think about the size of area you want to cover and if you wish to use a slow drying facemask as an excuse for a quick nap.

I go for a pencil thick line, about as long as my palm diagonally, so I'm looking at something that resembles a shrunken, three day old decomposed slug that caught the sun. Greeny brown, a bit moist still, with a suspiciously clumpy texture. Luckily it doesn't smell of dead slug. Just a subtle, clean, but earthy, natural scent.

I stick my finger in the slug and apply generously to the T-zone. Just enough to cover the skin completely, not so much that I look like my face is melting.

The eye area needs to be given a wide berth, I aim to look like the negative of a deeply shocked panda.

To the rest of my face I apply what little product is left on my hand much more thinly, just a whisper of coverage. Unless I am having a random dry and flaky phase, then I avoid the more dehydrated areas, like cheeks and neck, altogether.

Processing

I have a low boredom threshold, so during the wait for the mask to dry I creep up behind my unsuspecting spouse, yell "GWWHAHWHAHWHA !". Then wet myself as he shrieks like a girl and leaps ten foot in the air at the sudden sight of my "Shrek's swamp" coloured, monster face.

About ten minutes of hysterical giggling later, more or less, I get the "Joan Rivers" feeling and know the mask is dry. It is uncomfortable cos the dried mask pulls on your skin and makes smiling, let alone laughing quite twingy.

That means the end of fun and games, so I pull my husband's fingernails out of the ceiling, lower him to the floor and then pootle back to the bathroom.


Removal

I rinse vigorously in warm, running water for what feels like a month of Sundays. Paying attention to creases as it tends to get stuck there. It takes ten times longer to get off than it takes to get on. If I'm having trouble getting it off completely I have to use a bit of facewash along with the elbow grease. It feels like you are getting nowhere for ages, and then suddenly it all starts to come off and you are finally done.

This is why the packaging says to expect to be a bit pink afterwards I think. Nothing to do with the mask in my opinion and everything to do with the effort and rubbing involved in getting the stuff off you.

Moisturize, abundantly in my random dry areas post mask, to avoid feeling tight around the gills.

Results

I always see an immediate, vast improvement in pore refinement which lasts until I get hot and sweaty cooking dinner, but for two to four days after that my pores still look clearer and tighter than before the mask.

Over the next few days the old, odd spot usually speeds up their disappearance. A few zits can suddenly pop up within the next 48 hours or so, which is why I avoid using the mask a few days before a party. I always find that, when washing and exfoliating for the next week, any stubborn clogged pores and blackheads liberate themselves in a jiffy.

Used regularly for a couple of months I find I hit a point where I can maintain fairly clear skin by preempting any breakouts by keeping my pores clear of what would have caused the spots to develop.

Verdict

I feel the product only really lives up to its full potential if you use it as per the instructions. Which is regularly enough to get past the "post mask break out" cycle, so it can function as a preventative, refining measure, rather than trying to manage spots and blackheads with it in an ad hoc fashion.

When I do maintain the routine for 8 weeks onwards my skin is brighter, cleaner looking, fresher, less break out prone and far freer of blemishes. It also helps refine the general texture of my skin, which helps my make up sit better allowing it to enhance, rather than struggle to cover up.

Niggles

I'm married to an Italian who has the famed defective gene that leads to ever optimistic, excessive bottom grabbing. Given the heightened risk I run of being hobbled with my tights half down and falling over in my efforts to avoid third party contact with an unsightly bottom, Mudd mask is perfect for when my rear has been encased in jeans or tights for weeks of winter and is not at its silky, smooth best.

As long as I remember to turn up the heating, to avoid chilly fluffy bits during the process, nooks and crannies carefully excused from participation, I can get a lot nearer to a perfect peach texture compared to pre treatment.

Given this additional usage I feel the mask should also be sold in considerably bigger tubes. Especially if I've been hitting the cake.

The other whinge is that the Mudd mask is so very basic in cost, packaging and presentation, making no attempt to frilly itself up in any way, that it leaves me open to infidelity with posher, less effective products as an attempt to seek out a "pamper" factor. Which then don't work so I am spotty AND poor. I feel they could try harder to inject just a little sparkle into the product.

Conclusions

It might not be pretty, or flashy or "spa" like, but despite the low cost (or maybe because of it) it works, and gets the results I want in terms of clearer, healthier looking skin. Top and tail. It only costs me about 5 Euros for a tube that seems to last for ages (during the parts of the year when I restrict the use to my face only, like a normal person) making it fabulous value for money.
Perhaps because it is so "hospital matron" there is a lack of incitement to make a beautification performance art piece out of the its use. Which lends itself better to the busy life of a working, home educating, wandering hand avoiding, time crunched woman. Who needs to squeeze in her skin care in a day which could do with at least another six hours added to it.


Summary: I may cheat on it, but I always come back to my staid and sluggy, honest Mudd

Mumsnetitus

I have it.

I can’t stop. I go just to have a peek and the next thing I know I’m embroiled in both a debate about home education v school and FFing V BFing, all at the same time (hey what can I say, I’m attracted to the “shoutier” debates)

This is not good for the house as I wander around listlessly flicking damp kitchen towel at epic disaster type burned on crap on hob. Muttering to myself, honing my next point, that I’m convinced absolutely needs to be made despite hours and hours of my life already have been spent on saying the same thing 50 times over.

What is it about the chance to argue the toss with other people that is so attractive ? It’s not like I don’t have plenty of opportunity to do word battle with the Sock Dropper, at length, in my own home.

I have a horrible feeling that this is the final proof that I am a grumpy old woman.

Cos as a hobby I actively seek out situations where I can vehemently disagree with people and make my disagreement known.

Which means any minute now I’ll probably sprout a floral pinny, a tight perm, a mouth like a cat’s bum and feel the need to sweep the road outside my house all day to improve my opportunities to tut, huff, puff and look for the opportunity to have random rows with passersby.

Am I being unreasonable to conclude that this is the final phase of me transmogrifying from a shiny young creature into an old woman ?

Or is that just excuse making and what I really need is a 12 step programme to wean me off my addiction to arguing the toss with strangers debating ?

swelled

I was trying to persuade the honeysuckle to go up the fence and something attacked me...I think wasp.

My hand went down yesterday, but during the night it has come up again.

Thankfully I forgot to put my wedding ring back on after yesterday's swelling or we would be on our way to get it cut off right about now.

EKK !

Whimpering about how painful and itchy whole hand is, especially unfair when having to concentrate on properties of numbers.

I'm in the mood for ..IKEA

My mood board, I went to IKEA on Thursday and got the bulk of the stuff I needed, matresses, bed linen, pillows, duvets etc and the Alvine pillow that is the central thing I have built the room around.

next to buy is the expedit and the assorted boxes to go in them for the long wall, I really like that vase on top too, wonder what plant that is and if do they do it in unkillable plastic ?

Considering using little Billys for bedside tables.

ohhh, nothing to do with the bedroom, but that pole arrangment I'm going to make for the hall. 

This is going to form my fake vanity table, cos I haven't found a real one I like. Going to hang an oval mirror just above the table top. 

My bed is now red, thanks to the Alvine influence, but I want the mosquito net.

Nearly there, just a few more hundred euros to spend and a husband to drive to distraction with my shopping obsession ( =

Junkie of the free software for kids kind

Slobbers on screen.


NB, this is not a sponsored post. I found this myself and just started using it half an hour ago. Not that anybody ever asks me to do sponsored post (mega sulk commences). I mean why does nobody ever ask me ? I'm unimportant aren't I ?. Don't answer that please, a girl has to hold onto whatever minor bloggy self esteem she has.

Have found a really easy to use DTP programme that basically allows the kid (or overgrown one in my case) to use create a school project, a poster (printable or online), a newsletter....anything really ...... with some really nifty features like easy photo cropping and masking, recording your voice straight into the page (nice for cutting down on eons of text if you have a reluctant writer and takes into account the "speaking" objectives of the literacy curriculum) and animating just about any part of your project that you fancy.

And it is FREE !!!!

Here is a video to show you what it can do. If you are home educating I think you'll find it a great "ITC" alternative to lapbooks, unit studies, files of study note. If you have a kid at school I'd consider it to help your kid consolidate a subject whilst providing imaginative and interesting revision resources.

Given that I think this the direction with will be seeing more and more production software going any kid that uses it even occasionally is going to have an edge. Because it seems some schools (here anyway) are very much into using dinosaur age packages.

Swamped

Knee deep in sorting out an IVA number (VAT), creating publicity materials, timetables, course outlines, tests to work out levels, book choices, pricing etc. etc. etc.....

My mini school is due to go live in just a few weeks and I feel like I am knee deep in quicksand.

If anybody has a spell as to how to create an extra ten hours per day and couple of extra days per week..I'd be most grateful.

On a more optimisitc note IKEA has halved the price of the tables I want for my classroom, so that's good.

Less fun is the eternal search for a whiteboard of decent proportions, cos the Sock Dropper has veetoed the interactive whiteboard until I have earned enough tax to be able to write off the cost...or something complicated like that, which sounds like him being a big meanie to me cos I neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed an interactive whiteboard. I love them, they are so much fun.(sulks)

Ohhh I wonder if I can count new clothes and a diamond necklace or two against "costs", I mean I have to have a certain image don't I ?

Aristocratic Art of Distraction.

Why does a child have to die in order to generate enough focus and manpower for her siblings to be saved from protracted abuse ?

How many unaided and invisible children were left high and dry while one family suddenly got the attention and action they needed far, far too late ?

How come the social workers involved having an average caseload of 50, yes FIFTY, is given minimal attention ?

Why the current focus almost exclusively on home education as the key issue when the alarm bell was repeatedly rung by several increasingly concerned teachers, well before the children were removed from school as well as beyond ?

Don’t think for a minute that I have a blind spot when it comes to this case, caused by a desire to home educate unencumbered by regulation. I DO have a problem with the unanticipated (by the Italian state) issues that arise from the regulations I home educate under, but I am not HE regulation phobic by default.

I just can’t reject regs out of hand as inappropriate or unnecessary.

Not while I regularly breath a sign of relief that I was born in 68, well before HE was a known option. Thank God.

The idea of my mother coming across home education and being given a free rein makes my blood run cold. We’d have left the age of compulsory education as keen knitters and not much else. The only reason we were able to develop our own ideas, interests, opinions and personalities was because school gave us respite from a home somewhat oppressed by maternal personality and foibles. Nothing that would catch social services eye in of itself, but the potential to be educationally limiting and emotionally stifling from the children’s perspective none the less

So no, I can’t oppose the regulations I home educate under full stop. Although I reserve the right to fiddle with them (at least in my head), not to water them down, but because I’m pretty sure you could re-jig ours to take the curriculum sting out of them and sort out the “hostile, subjective and powerful” accountability environment for people, like me, who have had spectacular fallings out with the entity that oversees them.

With care, attention and consultation you can probably create a system that most of the time should red flag anybody who is off kilter in either welfare or educational terms, but which also goes to great lengths to avoid causing disadvantage to any particular type of home educator, other than the “loopholers”.

Yet a perfected set of regulations would still be absolutely useless as a safeguard if superimposed on a system of child protection that has been so battered and diminished by successive governments that it has fallen apart at the seams, to the point that it requires a lifeless child presented to it before it can react to an evident need of intervention.

There are children, pre school, in school, missing from education, in significant numbers who need immediate intervention today.

Just not going to happen while social workers are spread so thinly that they break…and then leave.

So the waving of a tragic case as a pretence that the sole issue is home education makes me feel ill.

Because the strategy is as transparent as it is devious. It is being employed to allow the same entity that systematically dismantled the safety net of social services, to kick the results of their decades long, lip service under the carpet.

How many more children are going to have to die or be irreversibly damaged before governments, past, present and future, take responsibility for years of “being seen to do something” knee jerks and focus their attention on putting social services back together as an effective, funded, supported and professionally run agency ?

If they don’t know where to start, try asking the social workers themselves. The eternal scapegoats when political policy comes to bloody fruition have no shortage of illustrated information as to how it has all gone horribly wrong and what can be done to darn a child protection safety net that is currently more hole than thread.

When you are talking about Khyra Ishaq, who hurtled through those innumerable, gaping holes and came crashing down in a lifeless, crumpled heap on the other side, how can you not make stitching back together the whole damn thing, for ALL of the children in harm's way, the absolute priority ?

Fix social services, as an absolute government priority, if you really give a damn about children at risk of serious or deadly harm..

I can live with my regulated status as a home educator in the main, but I don't want to have to live with headlines about children being starved to death despite alarm bells ringing, or toddlers being tortured to the point of a broken back until they die, under the noses of the very people who already have the powers (but not the manpower) to protect them.

So Dear Lord Soley, don't fiddle while Rome burns.

The Sock Dropper is a statistic

We were in the car on a joint mission, pick up Son of Thor from centro estivo (they slotted on an extra week) and get me chocolate cos I'm a grumpy old woman.

To distract me from backseat driving Sock Dropper started to tell me about a radio show he was listening to that afternoon, something along the lines of how 15% of marriages in Italy today are mixed marriages, not the old style Southern bloke falls for Northern lass, but the more exotic Italian and "forrin" type. He was burbling on about this and saying that they were highlighting the problems that could happen so I arched an eyebrow and asked "So are you worried ?"

To which he replied "Me ?"

"Well you know, "mixed" marriages bringing their own issues to the table on top of the ususal stuff, are you afraid of being a statistic ?"

At this point an old biddy on a wobbly bicycle was at risk as he turned to gaze at me like I was a talking Martian.

"Wat da bloods hells you is speak abouuuut ?"

"you, you twit, being married to a "forrin" type, being in the 15% !"

He looked slighty stunned and then said "You have right ! Iz me also !!!"

So I'm a little perplexed.

Have I become so Italianized that he thinks I'm one of them now and has forgotten I'm "forrin" most of the time ?

Or is he under the impression it is typical of an Italian marriage for two people to yell at each other in their respective languages for an hour, only to discover that the entire row is based on somebody having utterly misunderstood what the other one said (in the "wrong" language)  in the first place ?

Giving birth to "near dead" babies in Italy

This set me off down an unhappy memory lane.


Doctors fighting over a labouring woman, déjà vu. Baby with a poor outcome, mum without a womb.

"Police were today questioning staff at a hospital in Sicily where a child was born with suspected brain damage after two doctors attending his mother allegedly came to blows over the need for a caesarean as she went into labour."

I had a doc and three midwives with raised voices, one midwife came in and sottovoce told my husband "for the love of god if you love your wife and child go and insist they do a C-sec, she (the doc) won't listen"

So he did, the doc came back in, examined me and yelled, "but this cervix is changing !"

Yeah I'd gone from three cm to three and a half cm in 24 hours of unrelenting, unmedicated agony and when they ran a check on my heart not an hour earlier there had been some very unhappy faces muttering at the main doc.

Sock Dropper won the argument. I have reason to be grateful for that.

I had been chatting in the nearby bar almost daily with the owner, who was almost as pregnant as I was, for the last six weeks or so before our due dates.

I went to see her at work with my few week old new baby as promised. She wasn't there. But was on her way and her husband asked us to leave before she arrived. Their baby girl died after they turned off the machines. Her husband told us that it had been chaos, with one doc insisting on going ahead "naturally" with the other screaming for an emergency C-sec now. The C-sec doc had been ejected from the room. The baby was born vaginally an hour later with devastating brain damage. Later on I saw in the local paper that the doctor underwent disciplinary procedures because all the evidence pointed to a C-sec having been the only reasonable conclusion far, far earlier in labour.

Then I moved here. There are three children around Son of Thor's age with not so mild to extremely severe disabilities, I know their mothers in different contexts, one is the daughter of a neighbour, one was a mum with a kid in the same year group, one is a friend of a friend. In every single case the unifying factor is rows between medics during labour, where one held out for "natura"l and somebody else pushing for a C-sec that either didn't happen, or happened too late. They all 3 received substantial damages as the system concluded that the hospital was at fault.

So I hate all the angst over "C-sec rates and percentages".

By all means challenge unnecessary C-secs performed on women who neither need or want them.

But don't make it numbers game or all about a  philosophical revulsion for them.

Look at the individual in front of you and think about what she and her baby needs right here, right now. Cos if that isn't the priority then examples like those above are going to keep on happening.

I joke about how I only have one kid because he was an insomniac, and it is not without some foundation. But the real reason why I couldn't face the thought of another baby was the birth. I have no issues with having had a C-sec, I was so desperate at that point that if you had told me that hurling me out of the window from the 8th floor would stop the pain and make sure my baby was born safe and sound I'd have signed off on it.

My problem with risking another birth is that I have "flashback" issues at being scared to death that both of us were going to get hurt or die, because at no stage in my labour did I feel like we were the point. We were most decidedly in the back of the queue behind birthing philosophy and hospital statistics.

I am pro more choices for women in birth. From HBAC right through to chosing to have a C-sec from the onset. What I am not up for is swopping one hard line in the sand for another and pretending that humans are carbon copies of each other so it will work out just fine for everybody.

Women and their babies should not have to risk being collateral damage for somebody who has picked a one size fits all approach to all their patients.
If we want to change birth to make it truly a feminist deal where there really is a choice and genuine, unbiased guidance and information is available from the onset as well as during labour, then we need to make it about women and their babies and not about loaded labels like “natural” v “unnatural” or lists of statistics that may bear no relation to an individual with so very much to lose.

Birth should not be a “political” arena where medics wrangle about their preference for “lifestyle” choices.

Oh FFS, I'll just post it here then...

this is my response to the debate on another blog, because blogger softeware is eating my posts and I will WIN dammit. I will not be silenced by an evil glitch that thinks I should be mopping floors instead of obsessing on the internet.

Eaten comment commences below

___

" How on earth will this 'put off' new home educators?"




I normally refer interested people to your blog first, tell them to make sure they read the comments and get back to me with the ones that resonated most for them so I can hook them up with blogs and sites most suited to their tastes.



I kind of got the impression that people were pleasantly surprised to see we aren't brainwashed, "cultish", "group think" people, that in reality we are perfectly capable of hotly debating the finer points of our educational choices, rather than coming together exclusively in self congratulation or self defense.



I know that when I found your blog the huge range of issues pulled in via comment fast tracked my "education" as it were.



It let me access a range of ideas that wouldn't have occurred to me as I was knee deep in the day to day struggle of managing a huge lifestyle change and without being prodded into debate I'm not sure I would have found the time or inclination to seek a better understanding of the huge spectrum out there at such a cracking pace.



Your blog is the reason that I am working in conjunction with another Italian HEer to try and work out a road map to make unschooling a more accessible option within our tight regs, as well as try and stimulate our rather scaredycat and conservative email group into being a little less reticent about opening up discussion with the DofEd about rewording the regs to open up opportunities for people to explore other avenues that lead to learning.



If my own knee jerk reactions hadn’t been challenged by discussion here I would probably have settled for making things more comfortable for myself and not worried unduly about the issues other people were having.



I do think that for the new HEer who is at a fuzzy stage when it comes to what they want to do and what their comfort zone is, lurking during the debates can bring up points within issues they may not have considered and allow them to make an informed and confident decision because they have had the opportunity to examine it from all sides, from a range of perspectives.



I tend not to be debating so I can convince the people I am posting to, I always figure the only people who might find any of my points valid or worth taking into consideration are the silent majority who read, not post. (Which is basically a thought process I use to silence the voice in my head saying “you are wasting time on the internet arguing with random strangers, AGAIN”, cos I can turn round and insist there is a higher puprose, I am only giving back because the discussions were so useful for me. Honest gov. Nothing to do with loving debate and hating housework. It’s a totally selfless activity. ( ; )



I think the only thing that might put off new HEers (or school users who are trying to understand HE before they make uninformed knee jerk reactions) is the undercurrent of hostility that spills over in hyperbole and insults. But that is hardly an issue that can be laid exclusively at your door. Each and every person who has chosen to get personal or vicious about things has to take responsibility for sometimes making us look like a bunch of hysterical toddlers bashing each other over the head with the nearest toy. Self included.

HQ HE Italia

http://www.controscuola.it/

Oh yeah baby, we have arivvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvved !!

Founding a HomeschoolyEducaty Group

After three solid days of house cleaning in preparation (it's a big house, it takes three days to get it clean even if it wasn't a tip to start with) today a momentous occasion took place.


Erika and myself founded the Pavia (today it is Pavia, but we are aiming for World Domination !!!) HomeschoolyEduGroup.

Erika is Queenie. Cos she is good with PR, like not telling journalists that evil bidellas should be rendered down for soap making purposes. I am chief procrastinator and official "wave arms hysterically whilst shouting in Italaish" Wise Elder

We had a brilliant day, mosquitoes eating us all on a nature walk notwithstanding. And I am so happy.

I am not all by my Todd, it is great to have somebody to commiserate, bounce ideas off and plot to improve our lot on a bureaucratic level.

The fact that she has bundles of energy, a great mind and vision is just a clump of cherries on the cake which I intend to eat and then make trifle with too.


I feel like a proper homeschooler now. Am off to post on homeschooly groups casually dropping "well in MY homeschooly group we did X, Y and Z and discussed W, P, melting evil bidellas into soap and T", instead of sulking on the sidelines while all the other home educators waggle their groupyness at me making me feel inadequate.

Oh yeah and thanks To Erika and her husband we also have a whizz bangy proper Home Schoolers in Italy website with like a forum and everything !!!!!!! which I will post a link to just as soon as I remember the safe place I saved it in

(happy dances into the kitchen to think about making dinner ..... and opens packets instead)

We have EXAM RESULTS !!!!!!

Two and half hours of written exams with no break.

And this is the result.....

For those who don't understand Italian, he passed and passed well. (laudable, excellent, optimum)


He has not only passed, he has trounced his results from last year.

He is eating biscuits like they are going out of fashion and reveling in my sudden inclination to say yes to any request he makes. Which will wear off fast.
Off to frame the letter. Too tired to go into details right now cos I didn't sleep at all last night.

Taking stock of the first year home educating....

Mainly cos I am forced LOL.


His exams are on Monday, so I had to go through all the folders, fishing out the programmes of study and a fistful of examples of his work over the year for each subject.

I have lots to show them on my Home Education Showcase, but I wanted some paper based evidence too.

So I sat, for what felt like forever, surrounded by piles of paper, plastic folders, files, books, projects and notes with no visible floor and for the first time I had the time and inclination to really take note of how far we have come.

His weakest subject leaving school was Italian. My greatest handicap is in teaching Italian. The biggest disaster we have had this year has been the lack of an outside Italian teacher because we had a series of people who dropped out, one after another, due to work\family\life \health crisis after either a long periods of total absence, or very spotty attendance.

So I put the Italian work together first to get it over with. I wasn’t worried that it wasn’t “good enough”, but I wasn’t tap dancing in anticipation of wowing anybody with his work.

His very first piece of Italian written work, in early September last year, was four short sentences to describe four related pictures. It is all in capitals, some letters are back to front, the punctuation was added on by request, accents and double letters all over the place, spelling...eclectic. The result of two hour hard work with much suggesting\hinting having been required in order to complete it.

I've placed it next to the short story he wrote last Friday when I gave him half an hour to think of a non-realistic story, plan it, develop both the character and the plot to create interest and then write it up.
The two pages of A4 side by side made me well up.
I hadn't realized how far he'd come.
It's like comparing day to night.

I don't care what they give him in terms of grades on Monday.

My heart is bursting with pride for my little boy who overcame his hurdles and has gone from fearful of making mistakes to the point of being unable to begin a task, to being someone who can take a demanding outline and from a cold start, run with it and come up with something that displays a creative command of the language.

I know that most likely they won’t look at any of the work I have put together for them.
Doesn’t matter, I’m grateful circumstances focused my attention on the gulf between last September and now.

I’m going to frame both pieces of work side by side and stick them on the wall in the hall so we can both see them a hundred times a day, to remind us that the tiny, almost invisible baby steps taken lesson by lesson add up to huge great leaps and we just have to make sure we give ourselves the chance to notice them.

Roll on quinta. Angst is off the curriculum.

He rocks at home education.

Mums are not thick.

(even if this one is sick, sick as a dog, hack hack)


But we are bombarded with information.


And many of us do not know where to begin to sniff out bias, flaws, confusion in terms of correlation v causation, cherry picking in response to headline that says "Study Shows if you don't do X you are a BAD mum !!!!" Well alright, they don't come right out and say it, but it is often implied.

Bad Science and The Quackometer are good places to start if you want to be able to take your baby steps in working out what a study is really saying all by yourself.

But I am very, very lazy busy.

What I'd prefer is somebody else to do it for me, but writes in a way that lets me understand how they demystified the study so if I don't want to take their word for it i can go check it out for myself.


I've found this one,

http://www.parentingscience.com/

and this one

http://mommadata.blogspot.com/

and just found this one too

http://www.therextras.com/



If anybody has any others I am all ears.

Just as soon as I stop coughing my head off and feeling like puking and\or fainting is on my immediate horizon.

Tea and sympathy gratefully accepted cos the Sock Dropper (despite being able to walk, function, laugh, eat, whinge about being out of the world cup etc.etc.) is obviously so much sicker than myself and won't give me any in case I try and steal some of his "Officially the Real Sickie Wot is More Sick Than Anybody Else in the House" thunder.

The world and its mother...

has suddenly decided it wants to learn English.

NOW.

Which is unusual cos aside from a few mini kiddie intensives this is a quiet time for me.

They must have heard I was looking forward to a nice child free rest.

So anyway dashing around looking for last minute inspiration I found this, most useful for TEFL on the run when it has all gone bent and you have no idea what you are going to do. I'd say most useful for low pre-inter and up

http://www.esldiscussions.com/

And for the lower levels I've been experimenting with audio lesson records. so far it does seem to be having a major impact not only on pronun., but also retention.

Here are a few I've just done.

The hardest part is recording your own voice without cringing at the result. The second hardest is gently underlining how the English "eat their words" without going at a wholly natural speed. These are a bit of a fiddle to make at the beginning, but I find I can knock them out in  half an hour flat now including finding images and making the vids.

Getting to know you
http://prezi.com/wpm0dthy67ez/getting-to-know-you/

http://prezi.com/qcdd2nek7z_l/what-kind-of-do-you-like/


Airport survival
http://prezi.com/as-5dau_q_os/in-the-airport/

Dear so and so, The hot under the collar homeschooler edition.

Yeah I know it is a day early, but I have to get this off my chest and I need the letter ready and refined for the morrow, cos today Sock Dropper has to collect his still sick mum from the hospital and I can't dump all this on him as wel,l so I'll do the writing and translating today and do the convincing in terms of sending it, on Friday.

Just hang on a minute, changes in the law makes this disclaimer on this post a must.

Disclaimer Questo blog non rappresenta una testata giornalistica, pertanto non può considerarsi un prodotto editoriale ai sensi della legge n. 62 del 7.03.2001.


The letter oddly enough, was provoked by yesterday's post below this one.


Dear Director of the worst school district in Lomellina,


I am enquiring as to the reasoning behind the choice of July 26th for the examination of external students. Six weeks after the end of term.


As you may well be aware well you would be if you bothered to keep abreast of research in education there is solid evidence to support the conclusion that long breaks from education result in significant backsliding in terms of skills (reading\writing\maths) and seriously impedes the retention of information learned during the academic year.

While you yourself or your staff may not have seen said studies because keeping yourself up to date with developments in education would steal precious time from keeping tabs on the terms and conditions of your contracts, I am sure both you and your staff can only imagine the outrage and general hysterics on a national level, from the entire profession who would have a collective nervous breakdown, were the INVLASI exams held on a date immediately after a six week break from the classroom, spent by the bulk of the student body in summer camp or away on holiday, thus decimating the motivation and opportunity for the self study needed in order to minimise a dramatic dip in the ability to demonstrate educational attainment.

I ask why you find it appropriate to put external students at such a known disadvantage when it is apparent to anybody with three braincells who has followed the teaching profession's screeching, teeth gnashing, wailing, excuse making reaction to the current reforms, that internal students would have been afforded an automatic, media covered, strident and vociferous defense were they too placed in such a disadvantageous position.

I am assuming that that the choice of date was not a deliberate act (conscious or sub conscious) only cos I am trying to be polite and not get myself sued for libel of retribution for the rejection of the state school system, but instead a mere oversight.

Do you intend to rectify this oversight ?

If not, what steps will you be taking to ensure the exams reflect the bleeding obvious undeniable reality that the external students have been indefensibly forced into a position where they are required to demonstrate equivalence in educational attainment without an equivalence in terms of testing conditions ?

I personally would find a far earlier date acceptable, if this is not possible a later date allowing for a few weeks of revision after the summer camps close would also be acceptable.

I will be forwarding this correspondence as it develops to the proveggione not cos I expect them to strain themselves and doing anything about it , but since their investigation about your misuse of funds I know any hint of them freaks you out, who can afford to be shuffled to another school again ? Ohh this would be the third one ! which means you'd get shuffled to the state educational provision for the handicapped, lucky them, being the wastebin of all the educational staff who fuck up so often that they need to be hidden where people are least equipped to complain about them with the intent to take matters further should a resolution not be forthcoming.

PS We will be on holiday that day AND he will be very very ill for a month, and since my BIL is in the medical mafia I'll give you all the medical evidence you need, sit on that and swivel you gitfaced thing you.


----------------

A huge thank you to those of you who gave me ideas and helped me feel less helpless and alone yesterday. An especially big thank you to Indie who spent so much time on facebook yesterday talking me down. Were if not for her I may well have lost the plot, picked up the phone and made things ten times worse.

Sill want to move, am absolutly going to find out how to change schools and work out to what extent my choice is limited when it comes to a replacment school (ie can I live here (for the time being) but be under a school in sud Tirol ?).

Flobbing gits !!!

26th of July is our exam date. A whole morning full of exams, followed by an interrogation with three teachers.

Numerous, quality studies demonstrate that students regress significantly during long holidays.

So they chose to test the external kids, the kids who opted out of their system six sodding weeks AFTER school has ended. (the school kids did their tests last week !!)

Bear in mind that they are fully aware that those specific six week are those when the summer camps are on.

26th of August would at least give us a few weeks after summer camp to get him back into the swing of things and undo the backsliding.

But oh no, despite the fact that the entire teaching staff would throw a hissy fit on a massive scale if you suggested their students (and themselves by extension) were externally accessed (with prejudice) right after a six week holiday, it is just fine and dandy for the kids who rejected state school via homeschooling or unaccredited private schools.

Don't tell me this isn't a form of payback, to reduce our chances of demonstrating a better level of educational attainment outside of their school (bearing in mind that you can compare most of the kid's progress "in this local school" to "after they left this local school" via the school's own record keeping system, because the bulk of these children are outside the system BECAUSE of their experience in said local school).

Four years now this sodding school has been a constant source of angst, irritation and outright fury thanks to their sloppy, small minded, unprofessional mindset that places greater importance on the retention of state jobs over the education of children

They are jumping through hoops to avoid giving us an appointment so we can ask questions about the pitch and format of the exams. God forbid that we should have the kind of advantage in terms of past papers that they enjoy when externally tested via INVLASI. We wouldn't even know the date if we hadn't called for the appointment we can't have. They said they left a message on my (defunct) mobile. Considering this is a legal requirment I have to comply with surely the ethical and professional thing to do is either speak to me in person on the phone or send a registered letter to ensure I get the information. they've never had an issue with making me spend an hour in the PO trying to pick up a registered letter from them before now. For far less pressing matters.

My kid has worked his butt off for a solid year, we didn't kick up a stink when they wanted us to use their programme, we didn't make a fuss when they failed to give us the programme until January, he has gone from scraping by in Italian last year to successfully completing a prima media entry test this morning (Son of Thor is end of year 4, prima media test is beginning of year 6). Does he get a well earned rest like the other kids at school ? Does he get to immerse himself all day, everyday with other kids now they are free to play "full time" campo estivo in a carefree mode without having to face schooling before and after ?


Does he hell as like, cos I am going to have to get him up early to homeschool for half an hour before he goes to camp and then try and get him upright long enough to do the same when he comes home at six and do full time revision at the weekends.

Right that is it.

I am moving to sud Tirol. The Italian bit with autonomy.

Learning German is a lot less stressful than this.

I may have an overdeveloped sense of fair play, but I am going to get an ulcer if they keep this up.

I personally don't have any philosophical objections to my being (objectively) registered, tested and evaluated.

I have a massive objection to it being done on a seriously inclined playing field.

Anybody who says to me "this is Italy" is going to get clonked (be warned Sock Dropper), this wouldn't be Italy if there was a damn sight less apathy and shoulder shrugging. Italy is made of people, it isn't an entity in intself, with a crappy personality of its own that forces its ways onto an unsuspecting populace.

Pass me a pitchfork.

Cos I am taking this personally.

Particularly since the bulk of the other homeschoolers in Italy have either already done their exams or have date within or around the end of the school year.

I can't do this country anymore.

Basta.

Oh great, now I am leaking.

Exam skills of the sitting kind

Son of Thor is out of practise at sitting still to think. We are doing exam practise and revision and right now he is rolling across the floor muttering to himself as he divides a decimal number by a double digit number.

We had chair aerobics during multiplication of the same. The making of "no snow" snow angels during place value, hedgehog imitations for fractions, try to bite own toes to accompany problems and sticking pens in orifices (facial, I hasten to add) during weights and measures. Geometry gymnastics pending.

He is getting the answers right more or less, with no help, although he keeps asking for reassurance that he is on the right track. So I think the material is OK, but we are going to have either practise sitting still and quiet for 2 hours at a time (apparently that is how long each exam can be) or I am going to have to buy superglue in bulk and surreptitiously stick him to the chair when he goes to be tested in July.

He is a fidget like me, that's how I think and process best, pootling or wibbling physically. I feel bad that the freedom I have given him over the year over his own body now has to be trained out of him.

Don't see what else I can do though, because the school will be deeply underwhelmed by break dancing in their testing process.

NB - It isn't that he can't sit still and be quiet when needed, as a life skill I have done an OK job as a parent in teaching him to suck it up in church, theatres etc etc. It's just an issue when he is thinking, he is out of practise at doing it in a stationary manner.

Online Italian lessons for Italian school kids

Yes !!!

From Ciao Bambini, a pilot programme to explore tutor led on line learning for small native speakers of Italian. CLICK LINK FOR INFO

Superior parents home educate

The rest send their kids to school.

Seriously. What a load of unmitigated bollocks.

"They (parents of kids in mainstream education) don't seem to like having their children around, whereas home educating parents enjoy the company of their children".

You can find variations of that sentiment all over the net, in many languages.

And I repeat, it is a load of unmitigated bollocks.

There is one single piece of information you can glean about a parent based on the fact they home educate.

And that is..... that they home educate.

There is as much variance in terms of parental affection, ability and "success" within the home educating sector of humanity as there is within the sector that uses schools.

I don't love Son of Thor more, or enjoy his company more now, than when he went to school.

And to be honest, I really sodding miss a chunk of the day to myself (potentially an offence punishable with excommunication).

Home education as a concept, as a practise, is good enough as it is.

Why would anybody need to pump it up by putting "the other side" down ?

We ought to have enough confidence in the validity of our choice not to feel the need to gild our Lilly.

The sensation of confidence and self assurance garnered via diminishing others is as substantial and as enduring as a mirage.

Not to mention being a pretty unpleasant thing to do in the first place.

Snowball

Litter tray training: Buono
Snowball has made great progress in terms of understanding what the tray is for and where it is. The occurrences of peeing on his own feet have been greatly reduced. However there is still room for improvement, specifically in the areas of over enthusiastic digging, resulting in a kitchen sprayed with kitty litter and falling asleep in the litter tray as a direct result of over enthusiastic digging combined with the energy limitations of kittenhood.



Eating: Excellente
Snowball has worked hard on the sniffing out of food skills and his puffed up tummy is testimony to his perseverance and concentration. A minor criticism would be along the lines of perhaps combining this with self preservation skills and not sneaking between Sooty's legs to get at the food bowl, particularly at this squishable stage of his existence.



Sleeping: Insufficiente
Snowball needs to work on his inappropriate choice of sleeping arrangements. Kipping in the litter tray is a fail at KS1 (Kitty Standards 1). Waking up at 1am, 4am and 6 am respectively, while not appreciated, is however within the acceptable range for differentiated learning.



Playing: Discreto
After a slow start, with much withdrawal and shaking Snowball has made progress at a rate that is is exceptional. A little more attention paid to the sticking of baby claws in lower lips people who have no issue in reading the messages from their nerve endings and Snowball can reasonably expect to complete his coursework with flying colours.



Looking cute: Excellente (Lode, lode, lode)
But a bath wouldn't go amiss.

Another abandoned teeny tiny kitten

That we found this morning.

But are not keeping.

No, seriously. I mean it this time.

Son of Thor is running through a list of names as we speak, but I will stand firm.

Ish.

UPDATE - Kitty is not an "feral cat has kittens in my garden and I want rid of them" dump, I left him alone in a kitty house with blanky for an hour and went up to check on him, he walked to my hand, purred, rolled over for a tummy tickle and then curled up in a ball in my hand to sleep. I really don't think a feral kitty would do that. I'm 99% sure he comes from domestic stock.

I am not under Bare Naked Mummy's control (see comments) Absolutly not...I...am...feeling...sleepy.....

UPDATE - His (?) name is Snowball, I wanted to call him Micro-Trouble, but have been outvoted 2-1.

How would you rate education in your country ?

Are you surprised at how well (or not) your country performs compared to others ?

What do you think makes the difference ?

What would improve your county's standing ?

What issues stand in the way of your nation imporving in terms of educational attainment ?

Is there something in the water in Finland ?

International Education league table from PISA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Student_Assessment#League_Tables