I’m really impressed with my son’s English teacher. This term the kids are discussing Anne Frank Diary of a Young Girl and Animal Farm by George Orwell. To connect to her 13-14 year old students she trialled using an online forum to discuss the books. She set up a series of seven topics in the [...]
School
My girl reads a lot of fiction but not books. She reads fan fiction. Fiction written by fans of an author using the author’s world, and the author’s characters. In Dippity’s case it’s Harry Potter and Avatar and there is a lot of it. Fan fiction is not a new thing and I suspect some [...]
Monday night and I’m at the Opus Concert, a concert put on by the Department of Education to celebrate musical excellence in our public schools. Hugamuga was in the Chorale and it was a fine concert. Anyway I’m sitting there next to an older father who also has a daughter at Hugamuga’s school in his [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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? [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
