Are laptops for school children a good idea?

I’m sitting here with my daughter’s school laptop in bed (feeling crapola with a cold) as I write this so I’m aware that I’m being a bit hypocritical…

Here’s the thing. My daughter has gone to a new school this year. A school that insists that every child should use a laptop from Grade 5. Their argument is that we live in an age where computers and digital devices are a part of our lives and that we should make use of every tool we can to educate our children. And yes, I get that.

But since we’ve had this third computer in the house we barely see our 11 year old. It’s Youtube 24/7 - or until Groover goes mental because we’ve been shaped again. She doesn’t seem to read books anymore - it’s chapter after chapter of fan fiction.

We insist that she uses the computer in public and we’ve learned that you take the laptop away from her at bedtime - what I’m not seeing is a whole lot of homework done on the computer and given that, I wonder why the school doesn’t store the wretched things in the classroom. Do they really need to take them home?

The only good thing is that at least she’s not fighting with my son now over the second computer.

So here I am enjoying her MacBook interface on our wireless system (which doesn’t seem to work for my work laptop) and whinging.

Partly it’s the lazy parent in me that finds it hard to cope - I get tired of continually taking it away from her and telling her off for exceeding our bandwidth quota again.

And part of it is my old fashioned sense of media. I want my child to enjoy books as books! Not fan fiction. Although, having said that if she was writing her own stories… well now, that would be different. And maybe endless reading of it will lead to writing her own…

In the meantime my darling Dipp has earned a merit award at school. So maybe the laptop isn’t the monster I make it out to be.

Oh, you ask, why do I have precious time on the new toy? Ah, she’s out on her brother’s bike getting some fresh air.

I asked her first!

Some parenting tips please! How do you manage computer time in your home?

photo credit: Apollo-Jack

The Grumpy Sherpa

Do you have a Grumpy Sherpa living with you?

We do.

The phrase was coined by Groover watching Dippity stomp off to school one day.

She was carrying her backpack, a sportsbag and a third bag carrying her laptop.

At least these days kids get backpacks. When I were a young lass it was a gaping stretched bag with one handle over the shoulder and the other about a foot to the side, stretched by more lever arched files than I knew what to do with. Plus lunch. Plus sports gear and all those heavy books. It can’t have been good for us yet I don’t have a back problem. Touchwood.

I used to walk along reading my favourite novel trying not to poleaxe myself on bustops - which were just at the height that made them difficult to notice with my peripheral vision.

I try to be sympathetic, I really do but often I find myself waving cheerily goodbye.

“Ta ta darling! Have a lovely day…” As I snigger at our newly minted description - our little grumpy sherpa.

Bless.

photo credit: Boo Boo Bumpy Bear

Kerching! Hugamuga hits pay dirt

Talking about tertiary education with 13-year-old Hugamuga this evening, Groover was asking what areas of interest Hugamuga was considering at this early stage.

In previous years it’s been botany botany botany.  Take this early exchange aged 4.

Me:  (To The Poshi’s Son - Hugamuga’s friend) What do you want to be when you grow up?

TPS:  A power ranger!

Me:  And what do you want to be Hugamuga?

Hugamuga:  A flower arranger.

Bless.

Today’s answer included a subject we didn’t expect:  Geology.

Kerching!!

A geologist in Western Australia?  That’s a career that will take you places.

(Botany is still up there though)

Making friends

It’s not easy making friends at a new school, even if you know some of the girls already.

My daughter has recently moved from a small school with just five girls to a big girls’ school with 56 girls in her year, and she’s finding it surprisingly hard to make friends.

She’s generally a confident little soul but I think all the “newness” is a bit overwhelming. Also I imagine she had the idea that the gang of 5 would stick together. That hasn’t been the case. The other girls seem to have hooked up faster than she has and she feels left out, and a little lost, maybe even betrayed.

But what can you do as a parent?

One night last week she was inconsolable. :(

I offered to have new friends (or old) over for a play. I suggested she listen more to new acquaintences to see if they had some things in common. I even asked her to consider chatting to her teacher - also new - who might have some ideas.

On the train to work I met a colleague who had had a daughter go to the same school. She suggested I contact the principal of the junior school and see if she had any ideas but I hesitated.

I don’t want to necessarily rescue Dippity - I mean, this could be an important life lesson for her - but I don’t want her to be miserable at school either! (She of course wants me to rescue her)

Today she came home with the crumbs of new friendships. One girl had mentioned that she liked Avatar - Dippity LOVES Avatar, and she had fun with another girl during sport. She seemed happier and more like my darling Dippity.

So what’s your advice?

Hang back and be there for cuddles at the end of a disappointing day? Or is there something proactive I can do?

Petrichorically speaking…

It’s hot in Perth today. Sticky, muggy, please will you just rain and get it over with, kind of hot. And we don’t have air-conditioning except for the bedroom and my computer where I have been working from home at is not in the bedroom.

I’m at home because my daughter, due to start school today at a brand new school, is sick. Was sick. Was sick with fear I think and worked herself into a knot creating a fever, headache and vomiting. She didn’t sleep last night with these symptoms and so today, reluctantly, I let her stay home.

Now that she’s better, she agrees that she probably was a little nervous.

Of course missing the first day makes it even harder for herself - but what could I do? She was fast asleep after a long night of feeling sick. And what if she really had a virus? The parents would not have thanked me.

Anyway she’s going tomorrow and in bed early tonight.

Ah thunderstorms! But they are not making things any cooler. A few spots of rain have fallen and dried before they hit the ground, baking hot after a week of stinking +35C days. (hence my title - thanks to Loz)

Back to school? Not quite.

I’ve been reading (with some envy it must be said) blogs over east who describe lovingly how their children have enjoyed their first day back at school (or not) and how empty the house feels.

My house is not empty.

Nor does there seem to much looking forward to next week. Here’s their reaction when I asked them how they felt about the new term starting:

It seems I have dolphin children.

I think though that they secretly can’t wait for school to start. They are missing their friends and thanks to my cunning strategy of not organising any activities for the last two weeks of the holidays - VERY BORED.

Hehe.

My Christmas spirit is already wearing thin

Two end-of-school concerts in one day is enough to make any proud parent call for a bex don’t you think?

First up the daughter’s Edudance concert - which was quite nice and brief - the way a school concert should be. In about 40 minutes we’d had seven numbers. My daughter was brilliant of course. Compliments to the ex-Moulin Rouge dance teacher who even choreographed the item segues so we weren’t left for too long without something to watch or do. (No, no topless dancing for the under-12s in case you were wondering.)

Then the son’s end of year Christmas concert. Grumpy Groover came along with the daughter and I to this one - hey I went to both so I wasn’t going alone - and we sat down to be entertained, only wincing slightly.

Now the thing with music concerts is that they are NOT choreographed. And of course the school wants to show off the range of musical instruction. It leads to a pretty tedious two hours.

We started with the Junior/Intermediate Band playing (for the seventh time this year) the theme to Pirates of the Carribean. They play it well. It’s familiar. I like it. A good start. I thought to myself “Hey this might be okay after all…”

But they only played ONE TRACK and then we had to wait while two people moved ALL THE CHAIRS for the next piece - a five piece recorder ensemble. The recorders are okay but do you really need to move 30 chairs especially as the band is COMING BACK ON! Goodwill only goes so far.

Then we heard a flute ensemble… meh. Haven’t we heard flutes already in the band? And then an electric guitar solo. Now I don’t mind an emo playing guitar but couldn’t they be directed to perform?! Sitting on your chair and playing along to an mp3 player we couldn’t hear. Oh the pain! I’d rather they play Stairway to Heaven - at least I know the tune. And STAND UP for goodness sake! You’re a guitar player!

Then the choir came on - this is my son. Belt buckle not done up properly but otherwise quite smart. Don’t you wish you could rush on stage and dress them properly!

First tune was Shackleton which they’ve been practicing all year. They are pretty good although the piano drowned out the soloist… a pity. Then Tora Ora, which was okay. Then they decided to showcase their year 9 vocal students. Plainly they hadn’t done a soundcheck with the mikes which were so loud the young performers were quite thrown. You couldn’t hear the choir backing singers at all. They chose some complicated song and most of them were out of tune, probably freaked out with how loud they were… also it looked as if they had had no microphone technique taught to them… singstar on playstation doesn’t count.

Awful.

Anyway then we had two long boring tunes by the guitar ensemble - another long set change as they arranged chairs for them… then three short but pleasant tunes from the strings and finally another long set change as the intermediate band came back on… they played some woeful arrangement called Bugs and something else unremarkable. And finally FINALLY - everyone came on stage to sing Christmas carols.

A two hour program…

So here’s my advice if you are arranging a school concert:

1. Plan your concert so you don’t have to continually re-arrange the furniture… that might mean solos and small ensembles first.
2. If you are including solos/small ensembles - ONE ITEM ONLY.
3. Song selection - familiar tunes work best with a mixed audience who are really only there to listen to one person. Short songs are also welcome.
4. If planning to use microphones - do a soundcheck.
5. If using a piano with a choir - put the choir in front of the piano - so we can hear them.
6. Length - don’t feel you need to pad out to two hours. 60-90 minutes is enough for busy parents who possibly have several concerts to go to.

Finally, you may be sure that both my kids & Groover will be in attendence at MY concert this weekend as our choir sings in public for the first time. Mwah ha ha ha ha!!

Update on the school situation

So what did we do about the school situation?

We got her into the private school. She took the last place left.

I rang our school to see what they could do but really, they seemed a bit stuck.  For a start, none of the others had told them so they didn’t know all the girls were going.  The principal rang around to try and change their minds but as one mum put it - it was all a little bit too late.

You see they wanted some kind of certainty.  We don’t know yet what is happening in Grade 6/7 next year - what teacher they will get and to be honest, you kind of need to know now or you miss out on getting a place elsewhere.

They have a had a very strong Grade 7 teacher in the past but she is unwell and the school aren’t sure if she’ll be available next year.  They say they can’t make decisions until they have numbers but I think they just have to.

Parents need to see that the school is committed to having a strong Year 7 class and are prepared to put a good teacher in place.  I think if the mums could have seen that we were getting a good teacher, they might have stayed.  But… it’s all too late now.

I’m sad.  You make such an emotional commitment to a school who you’ve invested with your child’s future, that leaving, especially in the hurried and forced way we did, feels like betrayal.

Still, the new school looks good.  The Orientation Day seemed a success and it will be interesting to see how my girl goes now that she is one of 54 in her year as opposed to one of 5.

Peer pressure to change schools

My Junior Poshi is 10, grade 5. There are five girls in her class at the local public primary school which is on the same block as we live. In other words, she doesn’t have to cross a road to get to school. It’s a great little school and we’ve been happy to send her there. She got into PEAC which has been fantastic but now things have changed.

The other four girls are going to a very expensive private school around the corner next year. It started with one and now all the rest have followed. Now, JP is booked into this school in year 8 and I’ve never been a big advocate of private schooling in primary school - I just don’t think it’s good value for money and besides I think mixed classes are good.

However, I can’t leave my daughter as the only girl in a small class at the local primary school. I don’t think that’s fair. She’d be miserable with all her friends gone…

So here’s my choice: (a) Leave her where she is, (b) Send her to another government primary school or (c) bite the bullet, pay the fees and send her to the private school.

What would you do?

Though elementary school curricula are often similar throughout the school district, it goes far beyond that. Friendships, to children, are almost as important as the educations they’ll receive. While one school may have great lesson plans, sometimes it’s the teachers and classmates that make a difference.

Day one of NaBloPoMo

You might have noticed the little logo at the bottom of the right hand side navigation column… or not… what it means is that I’m taking part in National Blog Posting Month. All I have to do is blog everyday for the month of November.

Yeah. I reckon I can do that!

Last night I went to our first Born to Sing choir rehearsal… there’s already an unofficial blog about it… The author is in the alto section with me! :)

I love being in the choir - it is SO invigorating! I felt as high as if I’d taken something illegal at the end and was very garrulous I fear. Sure I can’t sing. Well, I can sing but badly… (a bit flat said Groover when I sang my part to him when I got home). And the alto part is HARD because it’s not the usual tune. But I love it love it love it.

The night before I watched The Orchid Hunter singing in his choir. He was singing Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven - the orchestral movements by Joe Woolfe. He stood there behind the orchestra right in the centre (just to the left of the Tuba) and sang his heart out. Excuse me while I wipe a tear of pride…

Are you in a choir?

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