Lorna at Vicenza

Aren't we lucky then that we get cheaper holidays because all the Brits are still at school - well - when I say holidays I only mean some them.

giodafa

Can tell you're a teacher lol lol

Lorna at Vicenza

No God forbid - I only teach as a language assistant if and when schools call me. I'm not a 'proper' teacher.
Being freelance though does give me the option of cheaper flights in June as soon as Italian schools shut down and all the Brit kids are still in school.

Lorna at Vicenza

I've just checked through a few pages of Alex's holiday homework book.

On an English lesson page were some of the things you might have in your pencil case:

pen
pencil
ruler
scissors
scotch

K in Modena

A bit young to be driven to drink!

indiebird

I hope you're going to cross it out and write the proper word -sellotape!

Julia had one of those activity books. 120 pages. She is done. We're now on times tables learning and she's read two books.

H has got a bloody mountain!!!! He got a 5 in maths really but she upped it to get him to pass the year but he got recuppero homework. In terms of days he has spent about 40hours on the maths alone. This is without homework for every other damn lesson. The only one he didn't get homework for was English -she told him as he'd already read all her English books throughout the year he could just read a couple of books in English over the summer of his choice. Well he's done that for pleasure. My friend was going on about the fact that every time her daughter texts him he's always working. But as I pointed out - he had a ten day holiday down in Sorrento at the start of the hols with no homework. Then my parents were here for ten days and he didn't do much then and then we leave on thursday for a fortnight in the UK and I don't want to take it with us then so when he's here he needs to work to get it all done. She agreed with me when she saw it like that. I understand the need for a bit when you have a three month break but not all he's had. It actually makes life rather difficult because school never seems to stop. Especially when they load them up well for Christmas and Easter too.

Lorna at Vicenza

Crossed out in black pen and sellotape written in the book.
I also looked up the book editors or publishers or whatever. When I cliked on the contact link on the webpage a section came up for "segnala un errore" so I happily filled the form out - typed in the writers' names, book title, page N°, error etc. and informed them that no school kid should have scotch in their pencil case !!! Bloody idiots.

Alex is slowly working his way through his book.
I didn't buy the book for Chloe because she is not going to middle school in this village but the next village down and I have no idea what book they might have advised or used.

I aked her what she thought she struggled the most with last year and apart from hating geography, she said the verbs and how to conjugate them. No surprise there! I have downloaded some worksheets for her.

Do you remember me saying last year that Chloe had tons and tons of holiday work and then I had the big fight with the headmaster over it.

Poor H - it's a hard old slog sometimes.

Lorna at Vicenza

On Wednesday after dinner, I was talking to Chloe about her new school and new teachers.

When she'd finished telling me about her new math's prof, she told me that at break time a 2nd year boy sent his mate over to her with a note.
The note said, "I have liked you since the first day of school."

I couldn't help a laugh and "My God Chloe you've only been at school for 3 days." I asked her what she did.

She told me that she showed the note to her old friend Annachiara and their new friend Anna and then she screwed up the note and put it in the bin.

"So you don't like that boy" I asked. "No mummy" she replied, "he's one of the stupid ones and he's ugly too."

There will soon come a time when she doesn't think they are all ugly or stupid and God help us then

K in Modena

How sweet, Lorna!

Emily (aged 13 months) started at the nido on the 5th. She seems to be doing very well, although she cries and clings when I leave her there in the morning. She's always happily playing outside with the others when I pick her up though.

We did have a bit of an issue with eating the other day though. We have followed the baby-led-weaning method with Emily which means that she has never been spoon-fed in her life, has never had purées, and basically taught herself to eat solids by playing and copying us. We're very proud of her abilities, and initially they seemed impressed too, but the other day they asked me if she didn't eat yoghurt. Yes, she does, I replied. Well, how? Er... with a spoon! It turned out they had been trying to spoon-feed her, which we had requested they don't do but I guess they either forgot or didn't think that applied to yoghurt. Emily will have clamped her little mouth together and flatly refused to be fed. I told them there's no point in even trying as she'll never agree to be spoon-fed and they said, well if we give her a spoon she will make more mess. Yes, I said, but babies do make a mess don't they? Oh, but the lady who cleans says she has better things to do. But OK, we'll try her with a spoon.

I'm a bit miffed they consider not making a mess more important than Emily getting to eat something, but I also know that she's bound to make loads of mess if they do let her do it herself!

Lorna at Vicenza

My goodness! Emily is 13 months already.

If she's playing and happy when you pick her up, the chances are she only clings to you for that minute or so of goodbye - and then she'll be fine and get on with the day.

Ha ha - many Italians don't like mess but on the other hand, many teachers are dismayed at the number of 3 year olds who cannot feed themselves when they start scuola materna - or pull up their own pants after a wee, or put on their own socks or turn up at school with a dummy or baby bottle of milk in their mouths.

Patty

to be honest Lorna - the longer she thinks they're stupid and ugly the
better

but you're right - they grow up far to quickly these days. And the change just from going from prima media into seconda is scarey !! They all seem to sprout overnight.

I was really cross Friday (whats new) My son who is now in 3 media - came home annoyed. He said they were told before the holidays that they could choose whether or not to read this really boring book for science. So most of them chose not to. 2 of the goody goody teachers pets piped up on Friday and said "oh but it was so good" - the teacher then told them all they had to read it by Monday (today) What is it with the schools here. They already have to go to school Saturday morning - they have little time to relax over the weekend - it just makes me mad !

Patty

I'm shocked at how many children are still being pushed around in buggies and they are clearly about 4 or 5 years old !!

K in Modena

Yes Lorna, time has really flown! My baby is now walking

I see plenty of 3-year olds with dummies around, and it shocks me too. And my nearly 3-year-old Italian niece still has milk in a baby bottle, even though she's quite capable of drinking out of a cup. It's supposed to be really bad for their teeth, and god knows it's worth avoiding incurring dentist fees in this country!

Lorna at Vicenza

Oh I know.

I made her cry yesterday anyway. God knows what she put on her eyes or where she got mascara or black eye-liner but it had kind of sunk to 3mm below her bottom eyelashes and she had 'panda' eyes.

We were going off to our friends' daughter's confirmation. I put that much make-up remover on her face and then scrubbed her eyes. I shouted "we're going to church not a sodding disco and I told you not to put any black shit on your eyes." The offending article is now in the bin and woe betide her if I find another one anytime soon.

Patty

do you think its cos they want them to stay babies for as long as possible - especially as most italian families now will only have one or maybe 2 children ?
(if that).

They are strange in their parenting skills here - they obsess about hot/cold and sweat and what their kids eat etc but then they do things like this and also dont like using car seats