*** Liam's Medal ***

After taking about 20 shots (continuous, not asking him to pose each time!), here is one of the best ones of Mr Funny Face and his newly acquired medal.

To earn a bronze medal Liam had to participate in the Premier's Reading Challenge for two years in a row. The Challenge requires reading a minimum of 9 books from the list and 3 others, and of course Liam read many more than this! I made copies of the reading record, so I didn't have to ask the school for a new one every time he filled it up, and in the space at the bottom of each one for "Number of books read", I wrote "Don't know yet!". Then of course we lost count, and in the end there's no mention of how many books anyone read anyway.

Well done Liam!

http://www.premiersreadingchallenge.sa.edu.au/prc/pages/books/HOMEpage/

Mass Edumacation

This morning I dropped Liam off at before-school care so I could take EJ to his transition visit at another school, then I made a special effort (and it was a special effort, being my third school run by 9am) to be at Liam's school assembly as he was receiving an award. The assembly went something like this:


Sang some short adaptation of the national anthem.

Premier's (as in the boss guy of the state) Reading Challenge Awards:

• Presented silver medals to those who have been in the PRC for 3 years. These kids stood out the front to receive their awards.
• "Now for the bronze medals for those who have been in the PRC for 2 years, and the certificates for those who have done 1 year. Don't come out the front, there are too many, we'll give them to you later." List of first names read out.

Two girls sang a song just because they can.

Two children demonstrated what they have learned in the co-ordination program. The girl jumped. Once. Then rolled on the floor. The boy walked in a straight line.

And that's the assembly. To me that is a prime and offensive example of the dumbing-down of the public education system. Children who at the age of nearly 6 who have worked an academic year for a certificate, and the nearly 7 year olds who have worked 2 years for a medal, are pushed aside by kids who can walk and jump and sing songs irrelevant to education. This is another reason why my children are moving to a private school next year, which will cater for their needs and not education for the dumb masses (or dumb asses :oP ).

I will take a photo of Liam with his medal after school and post it seperately so it's not in this rather negative blog.

:oD

Save some of these to your desktop so you always have them handy for telemarketers:

http://www.sorrygottago.com/

Logs and Blogs

"Logs and blogs" is what I used to remind myself of things I wanted to get done tonight. "Logs" referred to chopping up branches I had lopped; they were overhanging the roof and in bushfire season they aren't allowed to. I've done that and now I'm up the the "blogs" bit.

Stories written by EJ today, as spelled by him:




Once upon a time tere was ej and a monster. And the monster ........ got the most weapons and won! ej amost won! But .......... ej won secend! But ...... ej acshally .... ej won first!





(The only word I helped with was weapons).







Once upon a time tere was a mum called jo who was a adult who looked like a kid.




(Shut up, you, at least I'm cute! Well... I am in the picture anyway!)