ailbhe: (Default)

Title: How Children Fail

Author: John Holt

Publisher: Penguin

ISBN: 0140135561

I haven't finished this yet, but so far it's eye-opening. Like What Mothers Do, it articulates stuff I already felt to be true, and it does it clearly. A lot of my difficulties as an adult are easy to see in terms of methods of learning and being taught and surviving school, and I am - again - massively, immensely, technicolouredly grateful to my mother for managing to encourage independent, questioning thought anyway, in spite of, well, everything she had going against her.

This book is going to be a useful reread even before Linnea is school-age, because I'm going to need to be reminded of it for myself as well as for dealing with her and with other people's opinions of how we're raising her.

(She seems socially fairly well adapted, so far, though she does have a faulty ranking system - breastmilk is better than bananas, and better than banana muffins, but not as good as Maya Gold chocolate, damn her.)

ailbhe: (Default)

Title: Teach your own

Author: John Holt

Publisher: Lighthouse Books

ISBN: 0907637000

Interesting nodding-head-in-agreement read, but practical-advice-based and very focussed on America before I was born, so not a whole heap of use really. But it's nice to read books that have me nodding agreement all the way through. Except possibly for the "leaving your school-age child home alone all day regularly" which sits all wrong with me - but then, that was an emergency measure, so not a regular recommendation.

Not, I would say, an essential re-read.

ailbhe: (books)

Title: School is not compulsory (The essential introduction to home-based education)

Editor: Education Otherwise

Publisher: Education Otherwise

ISBN: 0952170337

A useful guide from the UK's primary home education organisation, lots of useful tips about the law etc rather than suggestions for actually doing it (though some of those too). Definitely useful to get again when Linnea is "school age" - ie the first school start date after her fifth birthday, which I think is 01 September 2009. She'll be 5 years and 4 months then, so they'll start teaching her to count to ten and learn her ABCs. I can't see that, somehow. It seems very unlikely.

New word: Pwing (swing) and now she pronounces horse correctly, H and all (English R, but never mind). She's working on teeth, mouth, and flower, too, but not there yet. And she has a word for breastmilk - Thass. I have no idea where it came from - perhaps "Oh, that's what you want, is it?!"

(Home education: get up, tidy house, wash dishes, cook dinner - you've done "domestic science" and probably maths. Go shopping - maths and reading comprehension and all sorts. These books are really changing the way I look at my day. It's very funny to suddenly think "... and that's geography!" when I've looked up a train timetable or something.)

ailbhe: (books)

Title: Free Range Education (How home education works)

Edited by: Terry Dowty

Publisher: Hawthorn Press

ISBN: 1903458072

I don't often mention books here but I really want to remember which HE books I read and which I like. This is a good selection of essays and articles by parents and children doing home education in various ways and under various circumstances; it has really brought home to me that doing what's most appropriate for one's own family is actually OK, no really it is, and I think I'll want to pick it up again later to reread for reassurance.

It does also have some practical information, such as how to fight the LEA if necessary and what groups you can join to meet other HE families, but I suspect I'll be able to pick that kind of info up anyway.

(In personal news, I have just persuaded Rob to nap while the baby is napping. Goodness knows he needs the rest.)

ailbhe: (Default)

I have just discovered that some books I read as a child were by Gene Stratton-Porter and appear to be very hard to get in the UK (we all know what "limited availability" means to Amazon, don't we?) so I'd like someone else to do my thinking for me.

"Girl of the Limberlost", "The Keeper of Bees," and "The Magic Garden" are the ones I'm most interested in - and I'm not sure that "The Magic Garden is the one I think it is so a plot summary would be nice.

ailbhe: (footprint)

Today I was reading a book to Linnea and we reached a page which said "Sigh baby cry baby boo hoo hoo" so I boo-hoo'd. And she climbed over and hugged me until I was better. I almost cried for real.

And then she did it again when we read "This little baby makes lots of noise."

Yesterday when I said "Come on, let's brush our teeth," and headed for the bathroom, she stopped dead right outside and made "Make it better!" noises. She was standing next to the blue step, which she needs to reach the sink. It wasn't in the bathroom! and she wanted it there.

The two days we've given her chocolate cake, she had immediate and noticeable mood change: hyperactive, followed by cranky and unable to concentrate, followed by concentrating on being cranky. Also, she was very thirsty both nights, though that could have been the weather. So no more chocolate cake. Or biscuits. And now I have a reason if anyone argues with me - "Because I say so and I'm her mother" doesn't usually hold much water.

ailbhe: (smiling)

Got up, checked email and livejournal, had breakfast, brushed teeth and supervised Linnea's teethbrushing, washed dishes, cleaned kitchen, made dinner (hurrah for the slow cooker!), tidied downstairs, went to the doctor to confirm I'm well and that not finishing the course of antibiotics was ok, went to the library to return and take out books, went to the charity shop and bought some knitting needles and some yarn (eek! I have a Stash now! Somebody stop me!), fed Linnea her snack outside the library while I knitted, came home, fed and changed Linnea, and put her down for her nap. That was at 11:00. Then I read email and livejournal, bought a permanent account on lj, and gave my remaining paid time to lnc so that I can update that by email if I need to.

Shopkeepers all along the road know who Linnea is - they say "Hello, not on Daddy's back today, hey?" to her. By thy baby shall they know thee.

Now I need to wash some floor, and have some tea, and knit some.

The library couldn't find the Mantlemass books. I didn't dream them, did I? I'm sure I saw them on Amazon a while ago.

ailbhe: (working)

Linnea's bedtime has been creeping later and later - it's actually after 8 pm again now. Waking is still at 6:30 ish. Her daytime napping is down too - 20-40 minutes total. And she and I have yet another cold. Wow, I am too tired for this... I did the boring old collapse thing again today, though not until after 16:30. I napped on the floor while she climbed me - the only really awful bit was when she put her whole weight on her heel in my ear.

I read a book I've never read before, which doesn't happen often - it took three days, which is a bit slow compared to books I've read before, but it was quite enjoyable. "A Nice Cup Of Tea And A Sit Down" apparently. Made me want a lot of biscuits.

Also, every morning since 1st May I have had a yoghurt with my breakfast. So far, Linnea has shown no negative reaction, but my digestion is a little upset and I'm tired and I have a cold. I can't tell whether that's the sudden reintroduction of dairy into my diet, or the cold, really. I'm pretty sure the stomach upset is the sudden reintroduction of live yoghurt into my diet. I'm open to recommendations of good, unsweetened, unflavoured dead yoghurt - I've been buying Yeo Valley Organic Full-Fat for so long I no longer even consider making a choice and have no idea what to choose if I did.

Dancing and climbing and putting on clothes are Linnea's big things, I think. They're the newest things I can think of, anyway. She puts her poncho on and off, and is having a real go at her sandals - she now opens the velcro at both ends before putting them on heel-to-toe, but she knows that's wrong and gets cross. The poncho is easy. She also had a go at the matching panties that came with a dress I bought her for her birthday (like she cared - but oh! I do like dresses for nappy changes) but couldn't quite manage both legs at once.

My only comparison for this is me - I allegedly put on somebody else's panties correctly at eight months, but I think I shan't worry yet about Linnea's possible retardation. Although various people are getting all excited by her lack of language skills... Soon I may look up one of my books (the ones she hasn't read yet, yes, I know) to see when is "normal" for language. I know that my family wasn't normal at all, and certainly she has almost no motivation for it, since I can read her mind. She signs things to Rob that she just shouts at me for - like milk.

Oh! Funny story! Yesterday evening, at her bedtime, Rob signed "milk" to her, to see if she was ready for her bedtime feed. She climbed up on his lap, poked his shirtfront with her finger, and leaned over to me signing madly, "milk! Daddy's a liar! Milk!"

(The sign for "Daddy's a liar", or "false advertising", is primarily a facial one. It won't be in your book of signs).

Questions

Jul. 30th, 2004 12:00 pm
ailbhe: (Default)

Can you recommend a good book of photographs of babies' faces? It needs to be lightweight (my RSI is predictably affected by having a baby to carry around all the time). I'm usually opposed to this kind of thing as I feel vaguely squeamish about the mild exploitation, but Linnea loves looking at photos o babies' faces, so I don't care how exploitative it is any more.

Does anyone know whether paracetemol and aceteminophen are the same thing, and what the par-mol and minophen bits of the words mean? And the acete bit, for that matter?

Can people who know Rose please ask her to recommend a good Evil Tea for my sinus cold, which has spread to my ears and is causing me immoderate pain? As a breastfeeding mother, I'm not allowed any of the really good drugs. I've been using lemon, ginger and honey, but it's not very effective.

There are rumours (in the instruction manual) that it may be illegal to use a Tommee Tippee baby motion/breathing monitor in Ireland because of it transmitting to the parent unit. It this codswallop or should I conceal the fact that I'm going to import it?

June 2025

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