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My Easter hols have begun! Went for a run round the block first thing, then spent my day doing the housework and laundry, in between editing and adding photos to a genealogy report for my sister-in-law's father, and re-watching the first part of Lord of the Rings. I've started re reading the books too, so thought I'd have some pictures - Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom are always worth drooling over!
(Also booked a couple of nights in York for next week. We thought it would be a nice break for Mum and Dad, and we haven't seen York for ages - don't think we went at all last year.)
Talking of drooling and thinking of Shakespeare - yes, I know that was an apparent non sequitur but I was (by way of Gandalf/Iain McKellen/Richard III, I expect) - who was your favourite Henry V, Olivier or Brannagh? And favourite stage version?
My all time favourite staged Shakespeare play was of course Sir Iain's Richard III, which we saw in Cairo many moons ago.

So it's the end of term at the nursery and we're trying to tidy up our assessments to make sure we have noticed progress or lack of it in relevant areas of learning. Reading, writing, number, speaking and listening are all fairly straightforward; the one that's harder to identify is Problem Solving.
Once they get into Big School, "real life" problems tend to include number, but quite frankly, 3 and 4 year olds don't give a monkey's how many people were left standing in the queue, once they've got their icecream.
So our problem spotting is more practical. Like the child above, who has carefully created a flat surface for her building, has worked out she has to keep the blocks level for the cross-pieces to stay on, has understood about balancing, and has also reached the parts she couldn't reach before by standing on a spare block. Perfect - all problems solved to her own satisfaction.
Trying to engineer a similar situation, for the sake of getting an obs for a child who has been more secretive about his solving abilities, is well nigh impossible.
Today, I got out the guttering pipes, balls and water to see what would come of it. Children came to pour water, but the water was stalling because the sloping gutter was perched on top of a horizontally laid one. "What can we do to make the water go into the flower bed, to water the flowers?" I enquired.
Child V, a prolific problem solver with this equipment, fetched another piece of guttering and extended the horizontal one to reach the flower bed. Child D ignored me and continued pouring water. "Hmm" I continued, "The water still isn't flowing into the flowers properly, is it? What else can we try?" Child D says "I dunno" and continues pouring. Child V puts the horizontal gutter end on top of the sloping one, so the water isn't flowing underneath and going on the floor, but it's still stalling in the flat section. "It's still not quite right, is it? What else could we try?" I persist. I bring a plastic crate to put under the end of the horizontal pipe to raise it and extend the slope. "What could we do with the crate?" I prompt. "Make a space ship?" suggested child D.
Child V puts the crate into position.
Child D goes off and plays on the climbing frame. Hey ho.

...say nothing, and try to look like you know what you're doing.

So we officially spoke to the parents last week. Each child is, of course, very much an individual (except for our set of identical twins, whose identities, with the best will in the world to keep them separate, seem to merge around the edges somewhat) but it all seemed to fall into opposing categories.
The two things we said were a) "They are articulate and curious and knowledgeable about the world around them, or at least about their favourite things" (Subtext "You obviously take your child to different places, do things with them and talk to them all the time") and b) "They are inarticulate and unenquiring and have no general knowledge much yet" [but said in a more tactful/supportive way, of course] (Subtext "You should occasionally remember you have a child and talk to him/her")
The parents also spoke in categories; a) "so what are you going to do to stretch them further?" and b) "so what can we do to stretch them further?" You can guess which response produced the bristles, and which the fuller answer.
Then there was the behavioural, social issue:
a) "Your child is a cheerful, sociable and valuable addition to the nursery - I'd like to adopt them please" and b) "Your child is a little horror - I'd like to throw them through a window, please", although, to be fair, there are a lot more grey areas with this one - the nice, sharing child who won't tidy up, and the one who hits and throws tantrums one minute, but chats away happily the next with no grudges born.
But we survived, and the parents seemed to agree we'd just about hit the nail on the head, and we all agreed to keep trying with the little dears/demons.
One more week and it's the holidays!

Just to prove that Spring is on its way!!

Here are the Bride and Groom, Lewis and Keighly, certainly looking pretty happy! Nice outfits - can't wait to see the rest of the wedding party.

Had I not been a teacher, entitled to all those lovely weeks of holiday BUT only at prescribed times, we too would have been attending Lewis and Keighly's wedding in Sydney. As it was, we are here, waiting to find out the details. So far, we have Linda's assurance that it was "lovely" and she'll get down to writing/sending more pics when she's got a minute. Just to whet our appetites even more, she sent this pic of Rick (Best Man) and Kris. I hope the Bride and Groom looked as good!

Just to remind ourselves of the wedding we did attend, in Cairo, when Ed was Best Man for Don and I was Best Woman for Linda at their wedding, back in 1996. I can't believe it was 10 years ago...

For a long time we have been adopted as part-owners of a black cat known to us as Sid, after the character in the children's book "6 Dinner Sid", who is "owned" by 6 families who all feed him, until he gets a cold, is taken to the same vet 6 times, and is found out.
Our cat has gradually reduced the number of dinners she eats, and seems to be one and a bit dinner Sid nowadays, spending most of her time in our house. Which of course, she sees as her house.
Well, it was midwinter, and Sid was eating her dinner. As usual on a dark evening, her reflection was clearly to be seen in the glass of the back door. Then the reflection put his head up, and we realised it was another Sid! We know he has a real set of owners, as he has a name tag, collar and everything, but he now visits us every day at least once, usually at meal times, and is trying to become the "Buddy" of his name tag.
Look back at the cat on the left. Is that a picture of outraged disgruntlement or not? Our Sid has turned into another character altogether, and is now Hissing Sid, declaring with venom that "He's no buddy of mine!" I think she's on to a loser... Buddy has lovely velvety fur and a very appealing face.
I'm sure they are related.

P.S. 22 March - Buddy arrived this morning without his collar and tag - he's obviously determined to muscle in here!

Everyone who knows me, knows that I am married to a Very Nice Man. Which is one of the reasons we will be 30 next December. But yesterday he proved it to me all over again.
You know we were OFSTEDed again last week, and I may have let slip it's Storytelling Creativity week this week, and it's Parents' consultation week next week, and today I had my Performance Management Observation and Review.
So I came home at 6.30 pm Tuesday evening, with 13 lovely stories to type up, at least those 13 observations to write, and another 10 or so I also wanted to do, plus the 4 parents' interview notes (at ~ 20 mins each to do) I needed to do to keep to schedule, dinner to cook, and I wanted to be in bed by 10 ish, to be fit to get up at 6.30 today for an early start ready for my PFR.
I was a little stressed - not enough hours to physically do all I needed to do, and I'd been on the go since 6.30 am as it was.
"How can I help?" asked My Very Dear Spouse. "I can type up the stories for you, if you like."
And so he did. While he typed the scripts I did my interview notes, then when he handed me each script I wrote the obs to go with it. And then did a few extra.
I was in bed reading a chapter of "Dragonsdawn" with the cat at 10 pm, and up this morning feeling bushy-tailed enough to get a good PFR.
Tip for good work/life balance - marry the right man.

and real people do occasionally look in! Wonders never cease, and as a result I am no longer Billy no Mates, but the proud possessor of 2 Friends. Thankyou Steve, aka Nevertheless, for introducing me to your blog and agreeing to pal up!
By the way, Dear Other Reader, this doesn't mean you needn't bother any more.

I'm quite aware that my blogs are rather mundane and of not much interest to most of the planet's inhabitants - so when I want a good laugh and to sample a really great blog, I visit Dooce aka Heather Armstrong. She always raises a smile, and oftena laugh, and sometimes my sides hurt, its so funny.
Now maybe it's just that I'm English and repressed, but bodily functions are always the best laughter raisers, so this was an absolute classic:
Dooce
I recommend it if you're feeling a bit jaded.

It must be the norm, as she hardly stepped foot in our newly immaculate "shop floor" today, but stayed in the staffroom giving Irene a 90 minute grilling on our procedures and arrangements instead.
Anyway, the upshot is she was very impressed, and we are officially "Good", which is, we are told, quite unusual in a first 6 months inspection - "Satisfactory" being the commonest result.
The biggest criticism she picked up on was that our accident book has no provision for parents to sign it - we merely report back what is written and tick it off once reported. We have to get a new, smaller book, so we can have a separate page per incident which the parents can sign in privacy, without seeing everyone else's wounds!
But she thinks our children are well cared for, educationally well provided for, treated with respect and encouraged to be independent, in a "lovely" nursery. So there!

Would you believe it? There we were, minding our own business, when this very pleasant woman appears at our door demanding entrance to the nursery this morning - she was only an OFSTED inspector, doing an Early Years unannounced spot check!
Having recovered from the shock, and not able to do a thing about it anyway, we just ploughed on as less than our spontaneous selves for the whole morning...
At lunchtime, we did just tell her that we were only "done" in October. "Oh, well maybe I don't need to be here" she said. "I'll check and get back to you. I may see you tomorrow, though."
Well the bad news is, she is coming back tomorrow, but apparently not to look at our educational value, just at our "care provision."
I wonder if, on the second day of these spot checks, it is the norm for the setting to be much tidier, and the staff more haggard looking?