The Real Jenty

So, the harder homework has started.  Bradley announced when he came home this evening, that his teacher told them to google sloths so that they can report back tomorrow.  Then while we were on the hunt for sloth information, he also said that they were talking about Pompeii at school and if they wanted to they could look that up too.

Bradley thoroughly enjoyed what we found, and in fact, so did Connor.  And I thought we’d share 3 of the websites that we really liked in our searches… because they ended up being fantastic for all sorts of subjects and I’ve bookmarked them for future projects!

1.  Learning about Rainforests - what a perfect site for kids to learn!! Simple information, that was easy to read with enough information for him to give a full report back tomorrow about sloths.

Pompeii ended up being a little trickier, mostly because the first sites we found were far too complex for a 7 year old to read easily.  After searching with kids in the keyword, I found these 2 sites that I thought were really awesome…

2.  Kidipede – History for Kids.  Very easy to digest information, that told us about Pliny the elder

3. Discovery Channel – just WOW!! The whole history about Pompeii is on the site, and simply written, and it has a video that narrates Pliny’s story (he’s the only guy that wrote about Pompeii fateful day).  The kids just loved it!! We even went and built our own volcano and watched it erupt online!! Very cool, and it illustrated the point so very well.

Then we went from Pompeii and looked at a few of the other things on the site, and under Explore by Subject, we found the Dinosaur channel… awwwssssumm (as Connor said)… there’s a Dinosaur viewer that shows you so much about each dino… just perfect for 2 dino mad kids!!

We’re definitely going back there to explore some more!

He gets left alone for 5 minutes, and comes up with a plan… every single time!

I got from work this evening, and he proudly showed me his new “tattoos”…

He wasn’t happy with transfers today, he got hold of stamps from somewhere in Bradley’s room, coloured them in with koki (coloured marker pen), and then stamped them all over his arms.

LOL!  Hopefully it’ll come off in the bath, Lance has no idea which type of koki was used.

And this in a week with all the strikes… which means that he’s not even going to be able to run off that energy at school because we’ve been told today that his school is closed until Monday because the primary school down the road was threatened.

Bradley has finally learnt how to tie his own shoelaces.  This particular journey has been a long and painful one for all of us… he just didn’t get it!  We eventually gave it a rest for a few months, and then last week I decided to try and show him again… within 5 minutes he did it like a pro!!

First my theory… it matters not how much you push your kids to do something.  It won’t work.  They will only be able to do it when they are ready.  He just wasn’t ready before.  The fact that he was supposed to know how to tie his laces before he got to Grade 1 is besides the point, he was unable to get it right.  Now his fingers allow him to do it. It’s like crawling… you cannot force a baby to crawl until they’re ready… it just won’t happen!

Second the results of this feat… he has gained independance of sorts.

Seriously, it’s true.  Now he wants to do sport at school again.  He’s wanting to play soccer and hockey… and the reason… he can tie his laces himself without asking anyone for help!!

It’s been a big thing in his life.  The ONLY reason he told me that he didn’t want to stay at aftercare and do sport in the afternoons was because of the laces issue.

This tiny tiny step has meant an immense change in his life and I’m so so very happy that he’s finally got it.

My mom is going away for 10 days and I’ve needed to organise transport for the boys while she’s gone, with the view that this would happen more and more often now because my parents want to travel more.  So, Beauty is going to walk to pick up Connor, because the school is about 2 blocks away…but Bradley was an issue.

So after much debate about afterschool vs transport, we’ve decided that a school transport system is the way to go for now, and we got the names of a few places from the school.

I met with the dude that we finally a. chose and b. managed to get hold of (the others didn’t even return our calls), this morning at the school.

I hope we chose right. He looks ok.  His car/van looks ok.  What he told me about his service sounds ok.

But it’s a leap of faith.  I have to trust that he’s been truthful.  I hope and pray that he was.

It’s a parenting debacle.  This trust issue is huge.  You trust that when you go back to work after maternity leave, that the person looking after your baby is trustworthy.  You trust that the school you organise for your kids is trustworthy.  And now I’m trusting that the person driving my child is trustworthy.

It’s BIG!

And the worry is not unfounded either.

This dude was telling me this morning about some of the stories he’s heard… or at least I pray he’s heard and it’s not about him. Firstly not all the parents actually meet him before they arrange transport… they do everything via email and phone… sounds a little odd to me especially when your child is 5 or 6 years old… sure you’d want to meet the person who is going to collect and deliver your precious child.   Then he told me about some of the other  services where the service is outsourced to a third party, and your child ends up being carted by a person driving a car with smooth tyres and without seat belts.

Now I had that on my mind the whole day, and then I got to my mom’s house and we were discussing this whole thing, and she told me what she’d seen that afternoon when picking up Bradley from school.  A car stopped next to her, and this lady started piling kids into her car.  It was a white VW and there were too many kids for the car, so they were all squashed on the back seat.  Then she tells the one kid to get into the boot, and tells the other kids to keep quiet until they get out of the school premises.  She piles the bags around the child so the security guard (I’m assuming here) can’t see what she’s done.. and she drives off.

Holy moly that has freaked me out!! I wish my mom had gotten the woman’s number plates because, by God, I’m going to tell Bradley’s teacher about it on Tuesday.  That cannot be allowed to happen!

I just pray that this dude I’ve organised is ok.

Every class in Bradley’s school was given a country to research this year.  Only countries taking part in the FIFA World Cup were used as part of the project. It was done to get the kids excited about the World Cup and it’s certainly worked!

Today is the day that Bradley is going to stand up, with his class mates, in front of the whole school and recite the speech that they’ve prepared about Serbia.  I’m so impressed that he’s even saying a few words in Serbian (apparently the teacher in the next class comes from a country next to Serbia).

Excuse the crap quality again… the only video camera I have is my Blackberry… and it’s shocking quality.
Then first thing Bradley said when he saw the video was “Hey, that’s not my voice, I don’t sound like that” LOL!! I think everyone feels the same way when they hear their own voice.

Bradley’s teacher spoke to Lance this morning about him again.  Firstly, a little brag… Bradley is getting another merit badge on Thursday   How cool!  And back to the story…

Apparently there’s a new little girl in his class who wasn’t in the school last year.  Her mom died of cancer, and this has apparently hit her the hardest out of the three kids in the family.  Being new, she’s also been quite lonely in the class and she hasn’t made friends with the other girls in the class.  Apparently the class hasn’t been told about her mother so they have no idea what she’s going through right now.

The teacher told Lance that Bradley noticed a few days ago that she was mostly on her own and looking sad, and he’s taken her under his wing.  He plays with her now at break time and he’s introducing her to his circle of friends.

Isn’t that special?!  I’m so proud of him.

Laura posted a challenge on Female2Female today to blog about your first day of school.

Well, quite apt, considering it was Bradley’s first day in Grade 1 today.

Not that I can remember the day at all… and it looks like my mom only has a school photo from that year, and not from the first day.

The only thing I can remember from my early school days is Mrs Orsmond.  She was my favourite teacher, and used to read us stories while perched on the edge of her desk eating rose petals!

Seriously, that’s the only thing I remember

Remember the post on my photoblog the other day about Bradley getting the term merit?  Well, Lance was cornered by the teacher this morning about it.

Apparently it wasn’t just term merit – it was the year’s merit! She said he’s streaks ahead of the other kids in the class academically.  And the cherry on top for her, was the way that he handled the bullying saga a few weeks ago… she’s very impressed with him apologising the next day and making sure that him and the child in question are now OK about it.

I’m so proud of him

Then, I have to tell you about this conversation I had with him in the car yesterday morning.  We’d been discussing the time because we were late for their hair appointments, and I said that the time was the next thing I had to teach him… well, that and tying his shoe laces.

To which he responds “Mom, you know the plastic bits on the ends of shoe laces?  That’s called an aglet”

LOL! He stores the most amazing arb facts in his head!

On top of everything else that happened this weekend (1 portrait shoot, The Kid’s party, Barmitzvah, and double shoot this morning) I had to take Bradley to a school party this afternoon.

I never cease to be amazed by some of the mothers… it’s this constant banter about whose kids are doing what extra murals.  And OMW the extra swimming etc that the kids go to on weekends… and whatever else they do. Oh and  not to forget the extra soccer and the special meals the kids eat etc etc

The kids are in grade 0.  They’re 6 for pete sake! How many extra murals must they have?  Who really cares if they can swim perfect laps in the pool using the perfect stroke yet… at least they’re not freaking drownable anymore!

It’s exhausting to listen to them truly… my conclusion though… it was only the SAHM’s with nothing else to do other than cart kids around that were speaking like that… oh and the one mom who has a full-time au-pair for her kids!

I spent some time showing Bradley some blogs and Twitter and Facebook yesterday afternoon.

It started when I commented aloud about a post by My Little Drummer Boys showing photos of drought in Australia.  I was telling Lance about it, and Bradley was standing next to me at the time said “In Australia?  You get around!”

LOL, then i showed him photos on other bloggers I follow from across the world, and he was fascinated.  He’s played games on the internet and knows you can get info but I’m not sure he realised the social aspect before now.  Oh I lie, he must know, because he knows all the friends that we meet up with that I’ve met via the internet… but I think the Australia thing caught his imagination.

Then we moved onto Facebook, and wrote wall posts to Granny and his friends Thomas and Sonja who moved to New Zealand.  Thankfully, they both replied by this morning, and he had a BIG smile on his face when he read the replies.

Then we went onto Twitter, and I posted a photo of him saying hello – by taking a photo on my phone and sending it, and he was thrilled to get the immediate responses from across the country (I explained who each person was, and where they lived as they replied) and the virtual cupcakes from Angel

And then I started thinking… his experience of communication is so very different to all generations before him.  It’s just so much faster.  I remember sitting with my mom learning how to write letters to my Granny who at the time was living in Zimbabwe. We used to wait weeks for a reply. And OMW the pain of a letter! Can you remember how long-winded they had to be because you hardly ever sent them?!  What agony!

I mean it was fun getting letters back… but it’s so much better to get a reply instantly or a few hours later!

My nieces in New Zealand still send snail mail letters to my MIL, who can barely use her cell, let alone a PC… and I take my hat off to them, I really do!

I wonder whether the schools have started changing the syllabus yet, and incorporated the best way to communicate online… and not just via snail mail… they really should… our kids will hardly use the old methods in their lifetimes.

Anyway, something to ponder over… I can see this post getting very long if I don’t cut the ramble here.