Tutoring

 

Lockdown had a big impact on my tutoring business. First of all I lost my GCSE English student as he was no longer going to be sitting any exams! Secondly all my remaining clients moved to video lessons via Zoom. This was a good way to keep up their momentum whilst learning at home. However, it is not as good as face to face lessons. 

One good thing about having all lessons online was a reduction in the amount of paper I was printing off as everything was electronic. Now that schools are back and I am going back to visiting my students all the papers are making a reappearance. I have spent a few days sorting through my papers from last year and planning for the lessons this half term:

Affiliate links Some of my teaching aids were a bit tatty so I have also been shopping for new place value cards and discs. I also supersized my white board to give more room for work. My trusty Usborne Junior Illustrated Maths dictionary will be accompanying me alongside CGP Maths books for my students to work with. Of course I now have the addition of a face mask and hand sanitiser to keep us all safe:

Things won't be quite the same as my students can no longer give me the occasional hug I used to get! Even so I am looking forward to helping them as they keep on with their learning.

Reasons to be cheerful: Back to School #R2BC

 
It's September which means back to school for many of us and the hosting of Reasons to be Cheerful comes back to me from Michelle! So glad that so many familiar faces are joining in and I look forward to reading and sharing your posts. I've just come back from an 8.5 mile run and the happy endorphins are flowing so here are just a few of the things that have made me smile this week:
1) House sorting
It is still a work in progress but lots of things have got better. I swapped a chest of drawers with a book case in my bedroom so my bed feels less enclosed. My dad fixed the Algot shelving in the cupboard of doom so I can be much more organised. We had a patch of damp in the lounge and this has now been fixed and patched up. Just have to decorate once all the works in the lounge have been done: 

2) Walking to work

I have missed my daily commute across the River Kent. It lifts the spirits taking in the water and sky:

3) Into Year 8

My son went back to school and he is now in Year 8. He had to stand one step down for the annual in front of the door photo as he has grown so much this year:

Back to School and Starting Secondary

My son has now been at secondary school for a week so we are both getting into routines and learning the system at this school:

Timetable

He came home with his 2 week timetable stuck into his planner that he must show me every day so I can check his homework:

I have written this up onto a chalkboard and hung it on the stairs so that we can both see what lessons he has each day:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Back to School #R2BC

The host for this month is the lovely Michelle who started this linky so many years ago! She is in charge for the rest of the month so please do pop over to her blog. I look forward to reading and sharing your posts but meanwhile here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:
1) Weekend away with my daughter
It has been such a manic summer with various family members going in different combinations for a range of breaks. With my daughter now working part time it took until this last weekend for her and I to get away for her bridge weekend. We had 5 hours each way in the car together to sing and chat, watch out we are going to be doing a mum/daughter YouTube channel! We also caught up with her half sister on the way back as she is at Coventry University.

2) Back to School Memories

My Timehop threw up some ancient photos of my brother and I heading off for new schools. Sharing photos on social media may be a new thing but my mum was good at capturing the moment on film back in the 1970s. How can our knobbly knees not raise a smile:

3) Off to Secondary

My son has had his first few days at Secondary school and so far so good! This is his third day and he finally remembered his new spectacles so he can read from the back of the classroom. Someone has commented that he looks like a young Michael Caine:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Up and Back #R2BC

As it is September the blog hop is back in the hands of the lovely Michelle and I will be back in October. Gives me a chance to relax a bit! Apart from our trail run to Easedale Tarn here are my simple reasons to be cheerful this week:
1) Butterfly
In the wet summer I haven't see too many butterflies so it was lovely to see this beauty whilst walking into town: 

2) Levelling Up
As you move up the levels of Pokemon Go it takes longer to progress to the next one as the number of points needs keeps on increasing. We were very happy to finally get to level 30 thanks to plenty of raids:

3) House Organisation

This week I tackled the clothes in our bedrooms. I did the Kondo trick of getting them all out and being ruthless. Then I had a lot more space to get the remaining clothes away much more neatly and organised:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Back to School again #R2BC

I am even later this week joining in with Michelle as its been so busy! It isn't because I am feeling sad though... Here are my reasons this week:

1) Back to school

Last weekend I went to my old High School's 50th anniversary and saw some girls and teachers I hadn't seen for 27 years! A fabulous afternoon reminiscing and exploring the school. Here we are recreating what it was like in our 5th form classroom:

2) Fun with friends

I then went to stay with friends in Windsor for a rare chance for us all to be together without any of our 9 children! Bliss. I even got made a dippy egg for breakfast:

3) Gotta read them all

My teaching assistant finally had time to set up my Pokemon themed reading corner. Hoping it inspires more of the children to actually read...

4) Another Open Evening

My son went to look at his other main choice of secondary. This time its the one his sister attends and she had her photograph up in the English department:

She was being a tour guide and I only bumped into her twice in the 3 hours we were there! I enjoyed catching up with my old colleagues and other parents and my son loved the han.ds on activities. Its going to be hard for him to choose so its just as well he still has a year left to do it...

Join in and share what it making you happy this week

Reasons to be Cheerful: Back to School #R2BC

The hostess with the mostest this month is Michelle so I hope you all pop over and say hi! I enjoyed reading everyone's posts last week and hope there are a lots of you joining in this week. Here are my back to school reasons to be cheerful:

1) Back on the Helm

Back to school means back to the Helm for running club on a Wednesday night. What a cracking first evening back up there too:

2) Carpet

I spent time at the weekend helping my son clear his bedroom so that he now has a completely clear floor. It looks so much better without the accumulation of toys etc:

3) New class

I spent several days organising my new classroom ahead of the children coming in this week its exciting having the power to do what I want with the space for the best teaching:

4) Parkrun

At a rather soggy parkrun last weekend I knocked 23 seconds off my previous time to send me back on track and in the right direction again. So pleased that my son was once again keen to help out by sorting the finish tokens:

5) My girl

We used the flood measure to prove that she really has sprouted upwards a long way over the last year! I received a super phone call from her new music teacher at school this week so here is hoping that year 8 is a fabulous year for her:

Let's hope all 3 of us have a great academic year!

Reasons to be Cheerful: Back to school and running #R2BC

Once again our hostess with the mostest is Ojo's World she hasn't been feeling too well this week so pop over and help make her feel better! Here are my reasons this week:

1) Back to school/New school

My eldest started secondary on Friday (makes me feel old!). So far so good and she seems to have made friends, is enjoying lessons and wants to join dance and sports clubs:

Youngest went off to a new primary on Monday. Its walkable from our new house and his friends in our street walk with him. I was allowed to walk him twice and then told to let him go alone:

2) A day at the zoo

I've already written a full post about my day at South Lakes Safari Zoo with my son. How can you not look at this kangaroo and smile (yes I was actually that close to it!)?:

3) A day out in Blackpool

I haven't published this post yet but we spent Saturday in Blackpool to celebrate 30 years of Children's BBC links since Philip Scofield sat in the broom cupboard. Not a bad place to spend a day:

4) Back running

This is me on the top of the Helm last night. At this point I had done the easy 1st kilometre! 

Since Monday I've gone out and done a 5 k every day. I am not very fast but today I was nearly a minute faster on the the route I've run 3 times along the canal path!

5) Indian Summer

Most of the last few days have been stunning. Lots of blue skies and plenty of warmth. Someone commented that I must have been abroad on holiday due to my tan!

Please join us!

Back2School Review: Stabilo Pens and Pencils

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Like most parents I want my children to do well at school and I'm keen on them having the right tools to do so. Therefore when Stabilo asked me to review some of their products I was happy to do so. 

First up the Stabilo EASYgraph perfect for my 6 year son who is working on perfecting his pencil grip whilst learning to write properly:

The fact that it has notches on it to force the correct grip means that he only has to think about what he is writing. This is his list of things we need for our new guinea pigs:

Believe me his handwriting is a lot worse when he uses a normal pencil! In fact he is so impressed with it he likes to take it to school as he teacher wants him to improve his writing.

For my daughter we were sent a Stabilo EASYoriginal:

We have come across these before to help a family member who has dyspraxia so we know how useful they can be. My daughter gets told off at school for not using the correct pencil grip so this is ideal for her. She has enjoyed using it and I just need to photograph some of resulting writing. 

She has also been having fun with some Stabilo Point 88 fine liners for creating a comic strip in honour of Kendal Comic Fest:

As you can see they are good for both writing and drawing. Let's just hope both of them now get better marks for their handwriting at school!

#TheGallery Back to School

Tara has given this week's Gallery the theme of Back to School. This gave me the excuse to look back in time at some of my children's back to school photos.. Took a while to ferret them out but they go all the way back to 2008 when my big girl started in Reception:

 

2008

2009

2010

2011 First Day

2011

 

2012 bit of a cheat as I can't find day 1 shot!

2013

Haven't they grown up lots! Can you tell my daughter is getting fed up of having them taken...

Back to School with Asda

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Like all parents I dread the start of the new school year in terms of how much it will cost in new uniform. Children do seem to grow more in the summer months much more than in the winter. Having a girl and boy I can't even hand down lots of uniform as my son would look rather strange in his sister's cast offs. To top it all they are much of a muchness in size any way despite the 3 year age gap!

I had already forked out for both to have new school shoes when Asda asked me if I wanted to review their School Uniform. There was no way I was going to refuse that offer! So I set about choosing a virtual basket of school uniform items to request for the review. The site is easy to use and usefully gave alternative or additional suggestions when you browsed for something like girls' trousers.

My children have an official school polo shirt and jumper so I was looking for bottom halves, PE kit and backup tops for forest school. My children seemed very pleased with the choices I made for them. First up my daughter's PE Kit:

Jogging Bottoms £4 for outside games:

2 pack of cycling shorts £4 for indoor PE:

Then she needed new trousers and skirt. Being a skinny mini she suits the snugger fitting trousers so I chose her the same ones but in black and grey both £4:

To ring in the changes I also ordered her a skirt £4.50 (not sure how often she will wear it as a bit of a tomboy!):

As you can see this crumpled up a bit when my daughter just shoved it back in the packaging after checking it all out! The pleats are supposed to be permanent though. It has an adjustable waist which is an essential on a skinny child.

Next up my son, he is a very active 6 year old so needs trousers that will stand up to football and a few tumbles in the playground. These certainly look like they fit the bill as they are both Teflon coated. 

First up Grey half elasticated waist trousers £4 again need an adjustable waist but could also put a belt on too. The secured hem is a great idea with the rough and tumble at school:

The Black flat front trousers were slightly more expensive at £4.50! Again these have a secured hem and adjustable waist:

He does forest school once a fortnight and needs tops that can get mucky so I picked a 2 pack of blue polo shirts at £3:

Finally I still had enough left out of a £40 budget to buy him some PE shorts for £4:

So definitely a great way to kit the kids out for school without breaking the bank. And at the moment if you spend £20 online they will deliver it free next day delivery!

Obviously they haven't been fully tested out yet as the children aren't back at school until Wednesday but they look of good quality. I will have to come and update this post at half term after 7 weeks wear and tear!