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May 14, 2008 - Conversations, Parenting, Random    No Comments

What are we saying??

Georgia’s phrase for ‘Please include me in the conversation’

Our adult conversations have either been frighteningly child-focused or Georgia is just extremely clued-in. She tends to at most times understand our conversations and even sometimes chips in…But the other day in the car, when we were discussing some business opportunities, following a very silent couple of minutes, Georgia suddenly says,

“What are we saying?? “

Apr 24, 2008 - Parenting, Random    No Comments

St. Johns on the Hill vs. St. Johns at the Racecourse: Nurseries – A Comparison

Monday 21st of April

St Johns on the Hill, an independent school in Chepstow.

Impressions of St. Johns on the Hill, Glouscester, England. Nursery

A very impressive, new purpose built building housing the nursery in a huge open plan ‘hall’.  The different age group settings, Butterflies (12 weeks – 12 months), Caterpillars (1-2 years), Ladybirds (2-3 years) and Busy Bees (3-4 years) were separated by knee-high latched picket fences. The nursery areas included a sensory room and a soft play room.

What I liked about it:

‘A curriculum’ – an outline of learning topics.
Although at this nursery, this seemed more academic than ‘hands-on’ experiential.

Lots of books, drawing, writing and play material at accesible heights.

Dislikes – none too major, but….

Several staff seemed to be temporary – but this was not mentioned or pointed out.
We were introduced to the staff but were not told their names; although they seemed friendly enough.
Child-staff ratio did not seem to be consistently maintained.

The children seemed content (not necessarily happy) although the 30 minutes or so we were there – the time appeared to be very structured.

Oddities
Different responses by Jan Harvey wrt to availability.

At first, told oh in september you can have any day any time you want.
And later when asked about application procedure, it became you’ll have to submit the application form and you’ll go on the waiting list and I’ll just go down it and tick them off.

When asked how long she had been at the nursery,  she fobbed of the question with a ‘Oh a very long time, 120 years!’

Impressions of St. Johns on the Racecourse, Chepstow, Wales. Nursery

The racecourse nursery had a lovely manager who ws very helpful and forthcoming with information. Even telling us which days she had available in September. The nursery itself was rather disappointing in comparison. it was small and rather old. And seemed quite messy.

Interestingly, there were very different approaches to the education – Hill emphasising formal learning with a folder of ‘curriculum’ etc while Racecourse was mainly ‘ learn through play’ no actual teaching or writing etc. I think this difference stems mainly from the fact that they are in different countries with different learning priorities!

Apart from a couple of questions wrt to funding (cross border) and time slots, we are likely to put Georgia down for Hill although i’m not too keen on the manager, i’m going on the idea that it’s her key worker or the actual nursery workers who will be more involved in her care and they all seem friendly enough.
 

Apr 17, 2008 - Conversations, Parenting, Random    No Comments

RESEARCHING….Georgia's Favourite Word

At 2 years and 2 months, Georgia is learning to research an awful lot.

Everytime she is asked, “What are you doing?”. Her reply is almost always “Researching.”
We have no idea, where she picked this up from or how she knows how to use the word in context…

  • researches mummy’s purse
  • wants to do research on daddy’s Dell laptop

inevitably to complete the researcher profile she also wants – lab glasses!

 

Mar 21, 2008 - Conversations, Parenting, Random    No Comments

Conversations with Georgia: Ask nicely like Iggle Piggle

Apparently Iggle Piggle from In the Night Garden is polite — even though all he says is — Eek. The conversation went like this… 

G: Close it! Close it!

Me: Hey – that’s not nice. Ask nicely. Say Please close it. You must be polite.

G: Pease… Georgie be polite, like Iggle Piggle.

Me: Oh…is Iggle Piggle polite? (This is a revelation – Iggle Piggle doesn’t actually speak!)

G: Oh yes…he says – Eek.

Mar 18, 2008 - Parenting, Random    No Comments

Georgia Singing

In case, our readers are concerned, Georgia did NOT have to sing for her supper, and she was eating her jelly dessert at the time of this recording.

Mar 11, 2008 - Conversations, Parenting, Random    No Comments

Being polite…

It has always been very important to me to teach Georgia to say “Please” when she wants something and “Thank you” when she’s gotten hold of it.

I didn’t realise how strongly the message had been getting through until yesterday….after doing a half-decent job trimming her fringe (it was getting in to her eyes), she turned to me in all seriousness and said,

“Thank you for cutting my hair”

Mar 5, 2008 - Parenting, Random    No Comments

Hey there Georgie-girl

When we decided to name our then unborn child Georgia, the only reason for it was that it was the only name we could agree upon based on the long list of parameters, such as ‘not too popular’, ‘sounds nice’, ‘not too girly’… and yes, we do know of the Georgie-porgie nursery rhyme.

Still it is such a pleasant surprise to find so many lovely songs dedicated to Georgia
The current favourite is the Seekers – Hey there Georgie-girl. Lyrics not so nice but lovely rhythm and melody.

On this fab video, Georgia can now correctly identify the guitars and the double bass and bops along very nicely to the singing.

Feb 26, 2008 - Conversations, Parenting, Random    No Comments

In the Piano…

Sometimes when we’re in the musical mood, Georgia and I play the piano together. We bang away making up tunes…and sometimes I play bits of her favourite songs.

Tomorrow from Annie (The Musical) is an all-time favourite, and as I played the melody from the show, Georgia tried to lift up the piano keys. Turning to me with a very serious look and a nod of her head she says, “Annie in there!”

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