Making it up

This is what home education looks like.

Jax — Thu, 24 May 2012 10:58:28 +0000

Here, anyway.

You might find Smallest at the table with a bowl of flour and water while I’m making batter for toad in the hold. (Ticks for sensory activities, fine and gross motor skills, as well as social.)

Big is at the other end of the table, writing up our amended recipe in an order that makes sense so that she can cook for us too. (Recipe was based on one from Delia’s Frugal Food, then increased so as to have batter for my extra veg in the hole as well.) So that’s writing, maths, home economics, as well as social stuff too. Perhaps she’ll aim for a career in cooking. Or working with children. Or maybe she’ll do like I’ve done and dot and dash from career to career before carving her own way out around children.

And when the mixing is done, some washing up. Believe me, it was needed.

And where’s the boy while all this is going on? (The big boy that is. The little one is in his cot, gurgling happily.) He’s at a computer, having decided to teach himself to touch type.

I foresee a career in computing for him, maybe something to do with graphics, perhaps programming following his early excursions with Scratch. Maybe he could earn a living writing apps for Smartphones, with in app advertising from someone like madvertise UK. After all, he’s got his mother’s example to live up to, with my app being award nominated now (have I reminded you to vote for Family Quest recently? Please do! Sadly I don’t make any money from my lovely app, but it’s success does make me very happy.

As did my vegetarian toad in the hole. All in all, it was a good day.

I’m struggling for words today.

Jax — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:35:42 +0000

I’ve been reading the #ShareNiger stream and blogposts, and it’s getting me down. So many ppl with so little, and we have so much.

I went shopping today, filled my trolley for £67 with food that we’ll devour over the next week or so. We don’t eat particularly extravagantly, tonight was our splash out takeaway of fish and chips for 8.45, feeding five of us. And in my mind’s eye I just keep seeing hungry children and tired, desperate mothers with no hope.

It can’t be right. There has to be a better way. And our politicians score points of each other in the commons and ignore suffering of disabled and homeless ppl here, and starving children in Africa. They haven’t ever left the playground, quite frankly they disgust me with their lack of interest or compassion for anyone not in their little in crowd.

I bought a ceramic travel mug. Instead of paying 1.80 a week for a mocha or hot chocolate, I’ll take my own. Which completely breaks the rules of the cafe, but heyho. And the money I save can go towards my sponsored child in Niger, and when I’ve checked the state of my bank account, I might see if there’s anyway to do more.

Because I have to do more. I look at my healthy, well fed children and I know it’s just an accident of birth that I am here with them and not starving somewhere else. How, as a mother, can I let other mothers go through that and do nothing?

I can’t. Can you?

I’m worried #ShareNiger won’t be enough.

Jax — Tue, 22 May 2012 22:11:24 +0000

I’m following the story on twitter. Sponsoring a child in Niger. Quite frankly I’m pestering ppl in an attempt to spread the word – tonight I sent it to two of the ppl who run #SMGirlfriends on twitter, which has massive reach.

I’ve talked about it offline too. Told the Scout leader last night. And I can see eyes glazing over wherever I go. Famine in Africa. There’s always famine in Africa. My generation grew up believing we could feed the world. That a rock concert could make all the difference. It didn’t. Women and children are still digging for water in dried up river beds. Still dying in childbirth. Still living in hovels, walking miles to find water and fuel, getting diseases that should be unknown in this day and age.

Where are the men was asked on twitter as the picture was shared. I wasn’t there today, I don’t know. Maybe they are labouring to find food for their families, perhaps it is uncharitable to ask. But when all is said and done, all around the world women suffer disproportionately. And that is why it is women who have to make a difference.

We need to shout about what is happening everywhere. Make a stand against injustice. Put politicians on notice that we’ve had enough, and it’s time for real change.

We need to join the dots and realise that wherever injustice is, we need to face up to it, and not to be suckered by the opiates of everyday life in our affluent society.

I don’t know what the answer to too much stuff is. I know that I’m going to attempt increasingly to use it and this blog to make a difference. I’m already using income from adverts to support my family as well as my sponsored child; I’m going to do what I can to increase that.

And I’m looking for my voice with new purpose. There has to be a way that together we can be that band of citizens that makes a difference.

What will you do to change the world? Start by helping to #ShareNiger, follow geekisnewchic on her blog and via twitter. But do more than that. Take action in whatever way you can.

Toasters, shampoo and jigsaws – a round up review post

Jax — Tue, 22 May 2012 09:46:03 +0000

As has been painfully obvious to the long suffering PRs I deal with, I have fallen hugely behind in recent ~~weeks~~months. I blame the baby. And the broken netbook. And maybe the rain. So here’s a few reviews that have been sat waiting oh so patiently…

First up, idealo is a website that offers price comparison, and they were talking about lego recently. So obviously I got them to send me a toaster…

It’s a fabulous toaster. Our previous Dualit went phtt all of a sudden, after a good six years in service, and so Dualit was what we wanted to replace it. This is the same model as we’d had previously, but it has a couple of extra features that make it even more adorable, as well as being a four slice instead of a two. Turns out that with a family of six that’s a fabulous step forward It also has a frozen setting and a bagel/bun setting, just fabulous for my favourite snack of hot cross buns.

Idealo are also available as an app for your mobile phone, a great way to save money on those bits you’re shopping for online, without spending hours searching websites yourself.

Another brand I’m fond of is Vosene. We’ve been using a variety of their children’s shampoos for a year or more now, and we were very happy to be sent a selection of their shampoos for all the family. I’m testing out the daily use shampoo at the moment, and I have to say that it’s working well. I need very little to get a good lather going, and it doesn’t have a chemical smell like you get with some shampoos. Still doesn’t beat my favourite though, which is the children’s hair and body wash with lavender

And finally, our latest offering from the Ravensburger puzzle club. Another fab puzzle, this one based all around London, nicely topical as the Jubilee approaches. Small is getting much better at jigsaws and managed this one with just assistance (hm) from Smallest. It’s a good activity for them both to do, lots of negotiation, planning and manual dexterity skills being brought into play. I do like activities with incidental education

Disclosure: the above items were sent for review. Opinions as ever are mine. Link to Amazon is an affiliate link – if you buy from it, I get a small payment.

Lunch at Frankie and Bennys or TANSTAAFL

Jax — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:25:59 +0000

The wave of reviews of Frankie and Bennys restaurants has been quite enormous, but nevertheless, I’ve one to add. Having read a few reviews before we went, I was a little nervous, but hey, we don’t eat out all that often, and this had got to be a treat.

We went during the week at lunchtime to the Frankie’s and Benny’s near to Cineworld in Ipswich, and chose our selections from the new lunch menu for myself and Big, while Small and Smallest worked from the kids menu.

We were seated promptly, in a quiet area of the restaurant – the waitress even moved a table to give us room for the carseat too. Our order was taken swiftly, and when I went to order Small a pizza from the junior menu, but without toppings, the waitress told me it was the same size as the kids one, which is several pounds cheaper, So we went with that – and I was impressed that she was aiming to save me money. For starters we ordered two portions of garlic dough balls from the lunch menu, thinking they were something we could all share. While we were waiting for food, Smallest enjoyed the activity pack, which is cunningly set up to have an easier and more difficult side. It could do with some plain pages for drawing though, as both sets were too difficult for Smallest.

The starters were quite nice, but slightly on the crunchy side rather than doughy, which I’d been looking forward to. Didn’t stop Smallest devouring half a portion As we were eating the table next to us finished, and the waitress came immediately and swept up the debris from their toddler – I was impressed that this was done so promptly.

Then Small’s pizza arrived. He was quite pleased.

I ordered a goats cheese and bruschetta wrap, after checking it was vegetarian. I was quite surprised that the choices weren’t marked up clearly although the waitress was knowledgeable about the options. My meal pic – vegetarian markings. My enjoyment of it was a little dented by having to go outside and sort out my car alarm – it was celebrating the unfamiliar sunshine by going off regularly.

Big ordered a hot dog. It turned out to be rather larger than she expected and she only managed half of it.

Once we’d finished our main course, we ended up having a rather longer break before dessert than I’d intended. This was because our waitress had gone on a break – I knew this because she brought food out to a table near us and ate. Not a problem – except no one took over. So we were waiting half an hour to order our puddings. I was quite pleased that I’d asked for the free refill on my drink before she went off!

The puddings (we all chose some variant of chocolate brownies with icecream) were pretty good, except that Smallest seemed to have got the end of the brownie and it was too hard to get my spoon through. She also struggled with it being presented in a tall glass – she couldn’t reach over the edge.

Our bill for two adult meals of three courses, plus two kids meals came to just over �30. The waitress was extremely embarassed that she couldn’t give me change out of my voucher. (Reading around, I think some ppl might have got vouchers as change, but I’m not sure.) By the time you take into account the tip I left (because she was lovely, even if she did abandon us for a while!) and the car park charge, our free lunch cost me a fiver. Which explains that funny word up in the title. If you’re thinking about taking up blogging as a way to get freebies, you need to remember

There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
Disclosure: we were provided with a �50 voucher to pay for our meal. As you can no doubt tell, the opinions are completely my own. Our waitress recommended that if you’re planning on going to a Frankie and Benny’s, do look around online as there are usually vouchers to be had. Also the lunch menu is particularly good value, and I’d have to agree.

Silent Sunday 20th May 2012

Jax — Sun, 20 May 2012 11:42:56 +0000

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Saturday snippets 19th May

Jax — Sat, 19 May 2012 20:02:12 +0000

{enjoying} sun, sea and sand with family visitors.

{eating} icecream. And roast chicken. Maybe some cauliflower cheese, if the oven ever heats up.
{reading} my own tweet in the cybher 2013 advertising email.
{feeling} happy.

Award winning

Jax — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:40:58 +0000

App??

Me and my poor little blog didn’t make it through to any finals. Meh. However, the fabulous Family Quest, our app from the BritMums and ThreeUK campaign last year is a finalist in two categories in the loved by parents awards !

I am so proud

Feel very free to vote for it, and spread the word. It’s in the specials section, under both children and family apps. I won’t get anything out of it but happiness, but there you go.

Let’s talk about drought.

Jax — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:37:55 +0000

There’s been a huge amount of talk in our media recently about drought and hosepipe bans and so on. And it’s true that it’s been very dry, particularly in East Anglia over the last couple of years. (Not in the last couple of months however, but that’s just typical really.) Reservoirs are depleted, and although this is a good arable region, it’s difficult to know how the crops are going to go this year. And what’s more, we’re having the wrong kind of rain. Go figure.

But we won’t starve. We’ll end up paying a bit extra for food to be bought in, and although many families are stretched at the moment, our children won’t be malnourished, and all will eventually be well.

But in the post this morning we received our World Vision child sponsorship pack. Amadou lives in Niger, an area of Africa that quite frankly, before today, I knew very little about. Today I learnt hard facts that in some ways, I didn’t want to know.

In Niger, 259 children out of 1000 die before their fifth birthday. That’s just over 1 in 4. Life expectancy is 45, compared with 78.1 in the UK. Liz Scarff from World Vision is out there now, and Sian from Geek is new Chic and Cybher is going out on Monday. I’m going to be following her journey through her blog, and I hope that lots of you out there will be prepared to ShareNiger too.

history in pictures – with added words

Jax — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:29:04 +0000

This is going to be a linen shift for Tigerboy for when we do the Grand Annual reenactment of Tudor life at Kentwell Hall this summer. I’ll write more about that shortly, but if you are within 50 miles or so of the place (or even a little further) I’d really really advise trying to visit. It’s fabulous. And the first two weeks you stand a chance of catching a glimpse of us.

This is not me. And it’s not actually a crafty activity. This is handcream with glitter added, and the idea is that one person starts of with their hand so dosed, and then goes about making normal contact with other ppl – high fives, handshakes, hugs – and you can see how many ppl they’ve touched, and track how a disease would progress. We’re doing the black death this week.

Making a rosary – this is Small, who decided to be awkward and picked the dark beads out of three of the cups Helen had set up with the right number of beads in. Our reenactment year this time is 1556, which is a Catholic year, so these rosaries, made of wooden beads and linen thread, may well be acceptable. Though we might replace the fimo cross, unless it’s decided they look enough like pottery

And this is a plague ridden rat. Obviously.
Other activities included a kind of murder mystery trying to work out how the plague was transmitted, quick reenactment of the battle of agincourt, medieval music and worts for lunch. All ably hosted by the lovely Helen, in half a tudor outfit

Just one more thought post Cybher

Jax — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:56:43 +0000

I’m lying actually, I’ve got half a dozen Cybher inspired posts rattling around in my brain. But this one is clawing at the back of my eyes, so I’m going to set it free now.

It’s about that no follow link thing. Ppl were talking about the legality of no follow links, and I think in most cases they were really discussing breaking google’s guidelines. But there are advertising issues with disclosure, and I’ve discovered that it’s the quickest way to make some PRs go quiet, explain that you only give no follow links.

But one Mrs Kerry Jean Lister, PR for large firms like Lego and so on, pointed out that her clients spend lots of money appearing where they want to on google, and the reviews they get from bloggers are for a different purpose. They are to appeal to your specific, highly engaged, readership. Not to game google, not to shade the results – but personality marketing, on your reputation. So no follow links are fine for that.

I just wish a few more PRs were similarly clued up.

Groucho’s club

Jax — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:39:00 +0000

I’m completely confused over my attitude to awards. Of course I want to win. We’re brought up to believe being the best if a good thing. But I hate the idea of pimping and begging, I want to be recognised without having to ask ppl to look.

Which, in the style of awards we’ve got floating around right now in the blogging world, just isn’t going to work. Not for me – I don’t have enough regular readers who are into that kind of thing and would think to vote without being asked. Which I suppose means that actually, I’m not good enough. Hm.

So, if I didn’t ask, didn’t get the votes to go through to the next stage of either BiBs or MADs why do I have this curious feeling of disappointment? I knew it wouldn’t happen. But there’s that tiny germ of hope that somehow it will…

Why would I want to win? Do I really want to be a part of the in crowd that much? Of course I do! I want posh prizes, I want glorious nights out, I want ppl to sit up and notice when I mention my award winning blog, like I saw ppl react at Cybher when other bloggers just mentioned their nominations. I want to be able to use that to climb another step, maybe break into paid writing, be the blogger that ppl want to meet but are almost too shy to – don’t I?

I don’t know. I want some of it. The payment, definitely. Times are, as they say, hard. But not at the price of asking for ppl to like me. There’s a stubborn streak that won’t let me do that.

So I guess I’ll go on without awards, trying to make my way some other way. Otherwise, you might even say

This post started life as a comment on Michelle’s blog (yes, that is a follow link, do you remember the days when we used to just link to ppl because we wanted to, not because of a linky or a carnival, just because?), but got out of control and had to be dragged over here.

Cybher: I wish

Jax — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:30:11 +0000

I wish we didn’t need to discuss the word feminism and whether we need to reclaim it.

I wish I’d managed to get my hands on some of those cupcakes.

I wish I could work out who I met and who I didn’t meet. And remember names. Ppl seem to like it when you remember names.

I wish that when we thought we’d solved the problems of famine with feed the world, we really had.

I wish that I’d got a picture of me with Tigerboy at some point, and taken more pictures of the ppl I met through the day.

I wish that I knew what we could do to solve the problems of the world.

I think I do know. I think it needs us to act, not wish. Do as well as blogging. Give as well as tweeting. Encourage our neighbours, friends, family to do likewise. Pressure our government to see ppl as individuals, both here and abroad, in order to change lives for the better.

Cybher cost me money. Not the ticket or the hotel, but almost the first thing I did after signing in was visit the WorldVision stand and sign up to sponsor a child. I chose a boy, 9 years old, from Niger. Check out my Silent Sunday post to meet him. Turned out that that fitted in really well with the announcement at the end of the conference that Sian aka GeekisnewChic is going to Niger next week. I’m hoping that I’m going to be doing a little work with WorldVision to help spread the word about what is going on over there.

I wish I could bottle the feeling of hope and determination and optimism and take on the worldness that I had at the end of the day. I’m trying. I’m going to sit everyday and remember that feeling, and see what I can do with it. I’m going to change me, I’m going to change this blog, I *am* going to make a difference.

What did cybher do for you?

Silent Sunday 13th May 2012

Jax — Sun, 13 May 2012 10:48:02 +0000

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Cybher morning – name, blog and serial number…

Jax — Sat, 12 May 2012 05:56:04 +0000

Today I’m going to meet lots of ppl. Many of them I know well online, some I’ve met in passing before. Each time I’ve done this previously I’ve got to the end of the day confused as to who I have and haven’t met, I want it to be different this time.

I’m hopeless at faces. I don’t recognise ppl I should. And ppl recognise me much more easily – it’s the wrapped baby that’s the giveaway. So please, if there is any chance at all that I’m confused, remind me of your blog and twitter id when you say hi, because I’m so much better with the virtual world. And although I doubt I’ll look all that shy, I am, so be kind.

And I’ll try ever so hard to remember you all too!

Cybher eve

Jax — Fri, 11 May 2012 22:47:16 +0000

We came on a train.

I figured out feeding in a wrap.

Navigated the tube, found the venue, found some ppl I know.

Then the hotel, and a Chinese meal, and finally back to peace and quiet.

I didn’t like passing cocooned bodies of men in doorways, sleeping amidst the raucous celebrations of day to day life.

And I feel a little guilty that I’m warm, with a bed and a kettle and sweets and they are not.

See you all tomorrow, cybher bloggers.

Not something you see very often.

Jax — Thu, 10 May 2012 22:34:53 +0000

Yes, that is a peacefully sleeping child. One down, three to go.

Like walking talking mirrors

Jax — Wed, 09 May 2012 22:47:19 +0000

If a child lives with criticism, they learn to condemn…

I’ve been listening to myself and my children. And I think I’ve been doing far too much condemning the older children are far too quick with a sharp word or snide comment, often much worse than I would say, but I think that they are enlarging mirrors aren’t they?

And smallest is an echo. So I know when they’ve been calling each other unpleasant names, as she innocently and piercingly repeats them. She also us mainly talking in questions “what did I say?” Being a favourite, and it has been suggested that perhaps I say that too much.

In my defense, I use it to check that everything I’ve said has been taken on board, but I need to find a different way to do that.

So how long will it take me to change my habits and in doing so, change theirs?

Planning early education with help from Baker Ross and Random House children’s books.

Jax — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:19:41 +0000

I read Tigerboy a book the other day. It was the first time that I’d read him a book instead of having him on my knee while I read to Smallest. Given he’s 9 weeks old I’m definitely slacking

We have books coming out of our ears in this house. Smallest loves to be read to, and she loves to read books back to us. She’s got a pretty good memory for them as well. We were sent a couple of lovely first shape/ colour type books for review the other week, and she adores them. They are rather lovely. These ones:

Lots of great pictures to talk about, with words in sensible font underneath. I particularly like the Numbers book having an owl on every page to spot, although I’m not sure what pages on Feelings and Manners are doing in there, particularly with nice/ naughty as concepts. I try to stay away from the word naughty tbh, I don’t find it to be useful.

Having the books did make me start thinking about actually planning some education for her, so that’s a good thing, surely?

So far she’s been educated incidentally. It seems to have worked rather well in giving her excellent vocabulary and speech – she’s extremely, almost relentlessly, verbal. (Which is to say she hardly ever stops talking. And at the moment all of her speech is phrased in questions. “What did I say? What did I just do? Why did I do that?” If you don’t know, darling, I don’t think the rest of us stand much chance :/ ) She also counts up to 7 or 8, depending, which is due mainly to playing hide and seek with her siblings. We’ve got no stairs to practise our counting on sadly, as that’s another good tactic.

She loves to draw. Mark making we’ve definitely got sussed. The other day I started her copying ones and zeros – it did occur to me later that zero is actually a rather complicated concept and I probably should have stayed away from it to begin with, but done now. I would like some of the early Montessori bead materials, I might make equivalents from some Baker Ross beads instead.

Ooh, Baker Ross. I nearly forgot the fabulous bundle of crafts they sent us recently!

They were country themed. We had African wooden necklaces, Scottish scratch art magnets, Welsh foam bookmark kits, St George’s Cross flag tissue kits and leprechaun masks.

Small loved them. Big loved them too, though bizarrely I don’t seem to have taken any pictures of her with them.

Of course, we don’t always use full craft kits. Sometimes just a pair of scissors and a piece of paper hit the mark. She’s pretty good with scissors, left handed here, although she does tend to swap them around.

So we do arts and crafts, writing, reading, counting and so on. There’s also singing, dancing, swimming, running, climbing, playing, watching, more reading, a bit more reading, some drawing, occasionally baking, and lots and lots of play.

Hm, maybe I don’t need to do that much in the way of planning after all, perhaps the incidental education will get us there after all. Although I should confess that I’ve ordered her a set of Bob Books

as I think she’ll enjoy them, and they might help her towards those first skills for reading in a relatively painless way. (After the experience of teaching Big to read, I did actually say I’d never do it again. I guess with two extra children I’m going to have to get over that phobia. Bob Books should be a relatively painless first step for me too )

Disclosure we were sent books from Random House and craft items from Baker Ross for review. Amazon links are affiliate links – if you buy via my link I get a small amount of money back. I’ve paid for the Bob Books. We provide our time and opinion free of charge.

Getting to grips with Google+

Jax — Mon, 07 May 2012 22:15:54 +0000

A while ago I had a look at G+. I didn’t much like it, or its real name policy, although that has now been relaxed as I understand it, and deactivated my profile. But recently MumsnetBloggers were looking for bloggers to explore it and review, so I thought I’d have a look again and see if it’s improved at all.

Hm.

Well.

I’ve installed the app on my phone, which is a start. And I set up a page for my blog, which I think is here. And therein lies the rub. If you take a look at that link in detail, it’s just not user friendly is it? And while I *hate* giving negative reviews, that is my major opinion of G+ as a system. It’s just not user friendly. (Please do feel free to give me a follow. Unlike using it as a person, the blog page can’t circle ppl who haven’t circled it first, which means that brands can’t spam you. Individuals however can circle you without you circling them, and then messages they output will be pushed into your stream. Confused? I was, but I think I’ve got it straightened out now.)

As a user, I want to be able to see things easily. But like on older versions of facebook, posts in your stream leap around, rising to the top depending on whether and when anyone has commented on them, making it very difficult from my point of view to keep track of what’s going on. And while it’s probably because I haven’t been on it long enough to find enough ppl, it really doesn’t seem to be the chatty kind of place I enjoy on twitter.

As a blogger, I set up the blog page. But unless I’m missing something (entirely possible, I don’t know when I last managed something resembling a decent nap, let alone a full night’s sleep!) I don’t seem to be able to manage the blog page from the android app. This is a serious drawback – it’s very difficult for me to get time on the laptop at the moment, and most of what I do is done from the phone.

Instead I looked to see how to add my RSS to the page, and was dumbfounded to discover you can’t. I’m really not sure what that’s about, I found an interesting thread discussing it all, but didn’t quite follow it all

I was looking forward to trying out a hangout, which I understand to be a sort of group video chat, but when I looked into the tech you need for that, it recommends a wired connection. As I’m not sure I’ve got one of those in the house, I gave up on that idea as well.

All in all, google plus just isn’t doing it for me yet. I’m not sure we need another social network, and I’m really not convinced google has good motives for doing it either. I have yet to be convinced.

Disclosure. I offered to review google+ for MumsnetBloggers network in return for a voucher to recompense me for my time. As you may be able to tell, all opinions are very much my own