thedivinegoat_archive

So Cullyn brought home a booklet from school - one of these Help your Child to Read (cos if you don't do this you're a shitty parent) and please make use of this voucher to buy one of our fine products (50p off if you spend £50) things.

Page 7 read thus

Let boys be boys and girls be girls

Until the day your daughter expresses an interest in rocket science or your son gets into show jumping, you won't go far wrong if you try them out with these kinds of books...


Boys...

• ...enjoy books about their interests - especially dinosaurs!
  
• ...like books that are a bit scary, funny or have silly jokes.
  
• ...often have a shorter attention span, so books you can dip in and out of may work better for them. Try comic strip books and non fiction.
  
• ...prefer big, bold, colourful illustrations or things that can be moved or touched.
  
• ...like reading to have a purpose, for example books that show you how to make things.

Girls...

• ...enjoy series of books about the same characters.
  
• ...like to listen to talking books and watch DVDs of favourite books.
  
• ...enjoy a bit of fantasy, magic and make believe - princesses, castles, etc. like sparkle and glitter on the pages.
  
• enjoy books that have props with them - dolls, soft toys, dressing-up clothes.
  
  
  RAGE HULK KILL SMASH
  
  
  I will of course be complaining to the school, and to the fuckhead at the local education authority who thought it would a good idea to send this crap out, so any suggestions for good turns of phrases will be gratefully received.
  
  I need a feminist rage icon.
  
  This entry was originally posted at http://thedivinegoat.dreamwidth.org/4065.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

(I tried posting this last night, but thanks to a massive thunderstorm, the network went down.)

Trying to read the threads at Slashdot make my head hurt. :-(

We went up to Camerton Primary this evening, to meet the teachers and find out what's expected of us as parents when Owen starts there in september.

It's the cutest little school, this year they have a confirmed intake of three, and two more possibles. Owen's class will consist of 3 Reception age children, 8 Year Ones and 6 Year Twos. The whole school is sixty children in total. My neice's school is one of the smaller Bristol schools, and their intake this september will be about a hundred.

One of the things that got mentioned was taking the classes out for walks, and the Teacher said how she always made sure her class was the first each Autumn to walk down the track to the Conker Tree, (Horsechestnut) so that the little ones get first go at the conkers. Made me all nostalgic. (I can remember coming home from school with conkers spilling out of my coat pockets, I'd collected so many.)

But it is really wierd to think he's going to be at School in November. We're going to be ordering his uniform soon, (the school emblem is a Miner's Lamp) and I still can't get my head around the fact that he's now longer a toddler.

***

One thing that's taken me by surprise is the sheer quality of the New Who fanfic thats appearing in the comms; the good stuff, at the moment, is out numbering the bad stuff. I know the bad stuff's out there, (I had a brief look over at ff.net and eek!) but it doesn't seem to be as pervasive as it normally is. Do people agree, or is my perception wacked? And if you do agree, any theories as to why?

Couple of recs...

Once Upon a Time by tangledwood - Jabe fic, spoilers up to The End of The World. Absolutely stunning look at Jabe, and making her death a lot harder to bear.

Breaking the Rules by boro_girl - Do not read until you have seen Parting of the Ways. Why Rose makes the choices she does.

And lastly mythichistorian has got four parts written of a Doctor Who/Buffy crossover. Go read. Now.

(Oh, and if you haven't read sangga's Deshabille, why not?)

Is it Christmas yet?