When I was a little girl amoung other career aspirations I also briefly numbered an ambition to be a hairdresser. This was based solely on the lovely noise that proper sharp scissors make in the air when they snip through hair. I thought waving scissors about in a snippy manner all day might be quite a nice way to earn a living. I also wanted to work in the post office so I could stamp things which has since been satisfied by my library job and as Davies allows me to snip at his hair sometimes I guess pretty much all my dreams have come true ;).
I worked this morning. It’s a nice vibe on Saturday mornings and despite loathing working weekends it is sort of something I am used to after having the bulk of my career to date in retail and actually there is something about Saturday morning working which is sort of nice in an odd, indescribable way. This morning Jan (a colleague, don’t think I’ve really mentioned her before, she’s lovely and along with Brenda the Assistant Area Librarian and myself is also married to someone called Ade/Ady) was putting up the library Christmas tree and festooning the counter with tinsel. I expressed my love of all things festive and was offered the chance to do the junior section festive wall display, which of course I leapt at. There was an air of silliness this morning, helped along no doubt by the tinsel, that Saturday feeling I mentioned and the quaffing of a box of chocolate liqueurs that a borrower (we don’t call them customers) brought in for the staff yesterday. I was asked by Yvonne if I liked them and when I shared my utter adoration for them I was plied with them and even brought the last one a bit later :). Yvonne and Jan call them ‘brandy buttons’ though which I’ve never heard them refered to as before but as it is easier to spell than liqueurs which I always harbour the suspiscion I’m spelling wrong and it’s quite twee I think I might adopt as my name for them from now on too. :). Having done my time on the counter and a spot of shelving I was let loose with the various coloured paper, staple gun and a blank wall. I only had an hour and didn’t get as far as I’d have hoped but did achieve a Father Christmas in a sleigh piled with presents, three reindeer (one with red nose) against a dark purple night sky backdrop flying over black sillouette cut out rooftops complete with chimneys smoking trails of leftover hallowe’en cobwebs and some yellow windows. My plan is for stars, a moon and peep through windows complete with Christmas trees and stuff. It was very well received anyway, Yvonne hugged me she was that overcome and everyone else came and gathered and oohed and ahhed 🙂 Yay!
I left work and went straight to the hairdressers where I had my haircut and blow dried and straightened and flicked. It looked very nice too although I have since washed it so now it just looks slightly shorter and tidier but not at all flicky or straight any more.
I came home where there had been bathroom tidying going on and we all got ready to go out. We needed to get a nice Christmassy photo of Davies and Scarlett for our Christmas photo cards so we went to a nearby garden centre which always has loads of lovely tacky decorations and sure enough got the perfect festive snapshot of them. From there we went to Tescos where I managed to get my parents’ Christmas present (digital photo frame) and a few more bits for Scarlett’s birthday.
Tonight Scarlett and I have been chatting about her party and planning games and food. I was writing stuff down but she took the pen and pad from me, climbed onto my lap and insisted I tell her the letters and she would do the writing. So she has. She has very tidy writing actually, and a fab pen grip and is getting pretty good at knowing letters. It’s amazing to see the more organic process of her learning to read and write without any reading schemes or fretting about the alphabet. It is totally Scarlett-driven, always when she decides she wants to learn about something and she is easily as advanced as Davies was at a similar age.
And I probably have more to say but I’m the wrong side of a bottle of cheap cava and inspiration is a little thin on the ground ;).
Wow, can’t wait to see the library display next week!
We have a teaching resources section, which is really a children’s library in disguise. I have a colleague who loves papercraft and adores decorating it with clever santas and trees and stuff. No excuse really, as very few children ever come in. I’m not sure if the trainee teachers appreciate it, but I do.
Lucy take a pic while you’re there so the rest of us can see it too!
“It’s amazing to see the more organic process of her learning to read and write without any reading schemes or fretting about the alphabet.”
OK, yep, first half of that sentence – fine.
Second half? Bor-ing – we KNOW Nic – you’re getting rather repetitive!
😳 I know but it is great and amazing and all that and I am still evangelical about it enough to bang on about it lots! 🙂 Sorry if it’s boring but I’m still not sitting here having seen even one of my children properly read yet so the process, especially one that is so non-contrived is fascinating enough for me to want to keep writing about it. I’m still seeing the stark differences between having pushed D and bought shelf-fulls of reading schemes (which are gradually going off my shelves and onto ebay, where I am sure the rate at which I sell them speaks volumes for their success or at the very least the belief in them that other people have) and S getting there very much under her own steam. I’m like a reformed smoker – always banging on about it and pissing off smokers and other non-smokers alike about the evils of tobacco – just be thankful I’ve not got any younger children about to follow in her footsteps ;).
Is teaching your child to read analogous to a habit that will cause their premature death then 🙂 ?
PMSL – no, it’s the evangelical-ness rather than whether it is something that stunts you 😉
not boring at all, i love hearing about it. although it does sometimes make me feel sad that i missed out on that with mine.
if only i could hitch a lift with david tennant in his tardis and go back in time to do things differently.
Nic, Liza, in case there was any confusion, it’s the “without any reading schemes or fretting about the alphabet” bits that get tedious. The enjoying seeing Scarlett playing with and learning about letters etc are great!
It just seems weird to me to be “celebrating” (to use a Nic-ism!) what your children are doing by always talking about what they’re *not* doing. Also it seems fairly irrelevant to me as autonomy doesn’t *actually* exclude reading schemes etc.
It’d be a bit bloody odd (and I don’t suppose you’d find it pleasant or interesting reading) if someone who used a curriculum was forever banging on about how their children wouldn’t have been able to do nearly so much stuff if they’d been allowed their autonomy to choose their own way in life.
trying to reply to this and it’s turning into a blog post all of it’s own really so I’ll give in and make it one!