One of the things that Helena liked about school is the iPads. She has used an iPad more in the last week than in the rest of her life. She has been using a programme called reading eggpress (sic) which has these little bits of text, maybe they are short stories (the one I read…
Category: literacy
Is lego just lego?
The kids are playing lego, or is it playing with lego? So far they have discussed: the increase of motivation you get when you are “paid”.. (they are paying each other in desirable pieces to find other pieces), equality, fairness, vegetarianism, the qualities of various pieces (using words to describe a piece in a mutually…
Going to a dyslexia course..
I thought this would be brilliant as I know people, big and small, who are dyslexic. I want to know more, to understand. I want to know; how we know, how to work out if someone thinks differently, what skills they have that I can help foster because I can only see thinking differently as…
Down the lake
We are “down the lake” as people in Nelson seem to say… possibly only people with a connection to THE lake, as in Lake Rotoiti and St Arnaud. It’s an alpine village, in that it is at a higher altitude and there are mountains all around and that it how it styles itself. There are…
Just a day
I didn’t know what to do today with the kids, lack of sleep perhaps. However I did know I had to get rat food as we are going away but then it took ages to find the car keys so the kids found something to do and they suggested I sit down and have a…
Everything is a character.
And I mean everything…. from the truly weird These paint samples came with names but they are all different ages and have a lot of inner dialogue. Helena’s translation goes like this: Me: “What are you doing now?” Helena: “Sorting into pairs. Yippee and Narrow Sea are ooo ee (noises) ah there’s another pair. So…
All on her own
I hate baking. I hate that given any opportunity Helena would eat lollies, though she can make one lolly last 30mins (we had a long bus trip and counted time by lolly). Helena likes baking, actually she likes the decorating. Fortunately her fairy Godmother also loves baking and has the skills I lack (attention to…
Lego masters
We watch “reality” TV, namely Lego Masters, and Maker something. I read someone calling these sort of programmes soft TV. Everyone is nice, nice to each other, compliments other people’s work, gives positive feedback, there are hugs and when someone leaves tears. Helena has favourites! She talks about the ideas but only sometimes gets the…
Writing
I read a little friend’s school report and there was one sentence that struck a chord with me which approximately goes “… is not keen on writing in a teacher directed task.” The keen part is not a direct quote as I’m sure the word was more teachery. I thought both ‘why would he?’ and…
