Things that make you go hmmmmm....

I got my 15 minutes with Jason and Nicholas' teachers today and I have to say that I'm very glad I went.

Jason does NOT play with other children. He only plays with the teachers or on his own and needs more interaction with kids his age so I need to organise some playdates for him. She even mentioned that when he's "cooking" and makes a cup of tea, he only makes it for grown up - not other children!! She did however mention that he reminds everyone that the tea will be hot so they must watch out when he brings them their tea!! LOL!! Other than that, his teacher is VERY happy with his progress.

Nicholas is doing ok - I need to work more on his sounds but she's very happy with his progress otherwise. She commented that he really does TRY hard but his attention span is a little lacking so he becomes a bit of a disruption but he's ok.

So I've got a boy that likes older woman and one that's an entertainer....

Gorrem!!!

We were at the pool one day and there was another little boy there that had some Lightening McQueen crocs and Jason's hands had to pried off them because he was SO enamoured of them. Anyhoo....I found some on Amazon but of course they don't deliver to Uganda (except books and DVD's and then it's so expensive it's not worth it) do they? HOWEVER....the joys of living in an expat community that you can get anything from almost anywhere in the world if you are prepared to wait. My patience paid off!! My friend Letha went back to the States and was only too happy for me to order them and get them delivered to her for bringing back.

Jason is THE happiest little camper in the world tonight....he didn't want to take them off when it was bathtime!!! :-)

Only problem with order via the internet....sizings can be wrong and oh my word are they wrong??? They might fit Jason in about a years time!!! LOL!!!

Report time again!!

So we're almost half way through the second term and we got reports on Friday....here's some highlights (or lowlights ;-))

Jason

Generally an ok report. Thank goodness for parent teacher conferences though because there’s a couple of things I want to discuss with them.

Generally he got “within developmental age expectations” but I feel that not much thought actually went into the report because he got “wdae” for the area communication, language and literacy but then underneath it the teacher has written “he has a wide and varied vocabulary for a child of his age and he discusses his experiences with confidence”. ???

And then….under the heading “mathematical development” they wrote that he can recite his numbers to 4 in the right order which is crap….I KNOW he can count to 11!!! Have they actually got the right child here??

Personal social and emotional development is another area that I have of concern. He got a “BELOW developmental age expectations” for the curriculum area “I seek out others to share my experiences. I respond to the feelings and wishes of others”. The teachers comment here is - “he plays alongside adults and should be encouraged to make relationships with his peers and play alongside them”….well he only has 5 other kids in his class (only one of which speaks English with any degree of competency) and one of them bit him so hard on his CHEST that he still has the teeth marks a week later!!!!! Who would you want to play with???????!!!!

Btw….his favourite activity is cooking in the home corner! LOL

On another note......we've now had THREE accident free days and are only wearing nappies at night!!!!!! woohooooooooooooo!!! Next big step is for Jason to tell me he wants to go to the toilet...

Nicholas

His report was generally a good report although I felt it wasn’t quantitative. It’s broken down into various areas with the teacher comments expanding on it.
Literacy: - he still strongly deciphers words from looking at the pictures in stories when reading so we need to concentrate on using his knowledge of letters and sounds.
Numeracy : - Seems he enjoys maths…he can perform simple additions to 10 and is using mathematical vocabulary to describe 2d and 3d shapes. Thank goodness for parent teacher meetings….I have NO idea what this means!!! LOL
Science :- was able to recognize materials, what they are made of and what they are suitable for using charts and drawings.
ICT : - he is beginning to understand the relationship between the pressing of keys and letters that appear on the screen.
Design & Technology : - He has imaginative ideas in designing and making activities and confidently gives a personal opinion about a piece of art during group discussions….(I can just imagine!!! LOL)
Art & Design : - constantly tries to adapt and improve his own work…
Music : - joins in and takes turns in songs and plays instruments with others
French : - USUALLY listens well and participates in class. (Ha ha!!! I remember my French teacher telling my parents that I seem a bit distracted and stare out the window a lot)
PE : - Shows pleasing progress and is a more competent swimmer and shows good application.
SEAL : - (personal and social health education) Nicholas deals with his feelings in a positive way most of the time.
General Comments : - He needs to work on improving his work presentation and planning his work more carefully to get an idea of the piece of work as a whole. He is helpful, considerate and polite towards his peers and adults alike.

So generally...not bad reports but I think they got the wrong children because my children are both geniuses!!! ;-)

we've had a breakthrough!!!

Jason has FINALLY made a wee in the potty!! Woohooooooooooooo!!!

Three in fact!!! He even told me during dinner this evening that he wanted to make a wee in his potty - ok he didn't quite make it and the wee was running down his leg but the point is.....his brain made the jump from weeing in a nappy to weeing in a receptacle.

So tomorrow he goes to school with his big boy undies on! And 20 pairs of undies and shorts in his bag for just in case :-)

decisions decisions....

The last couple of nights I've sat on the couch and flicked through ALLL the channels on telly and not found a single thing that I want to watch. So now I'm thinking....what about cancelling DSTV and upgrading our internet line to a 128kbs line.

Currently we pay: -

DSTV Premium Bouquet - $72 (the kids watch Disney, CBBC, Cartoon Network and Rose likes to watch the Nigerian Soaps on AfricaMagic when she babysits)
UTL Broadband - $90

If I upgraded the UTL line I would pay $170 (I know...it's FLIPPING expensive here) AND I would have to pay an extra $8 a month.

Do I make the beeeeg move and cancel DSTV? The kids have LOADS of DVD's to occupy them and I can always order from Kalahari.net and get them either couriered or collect them when we are in SA but.....



I'm not comfortable letting go of TV....



*sigh*

I wonder how some people get through life....

So I was tootling around on the internet this evening when I accidentally went into Wikianswers (I usually go onto Wikipedia at least once a day to read the featured article - I know...I need to get a life). Anyway, while I was there I decided to type in Uganda and see if I could add my 5 cents worth if there were any questions that needed answering. Oh. My. Word. To call some of these people idiots would be unkind. To true idiots anyway.

Here is the link to the questions. It's not just the questions that have me shaking my head in amazement...it's the answers as well!! Some of them have obviously been written by immature teens with too much bandwidth on their hands!!

My question winner is "Would the Jonas Brothers come to Uganda?" My answer? "Sure, they'll probably be the opening act for Hannah Montana / Miley Cyrus's world tour and will be a TOTAL sell out!!! NOT!

Coming in a close second would have to be "Who gets educated in Uganda?" Eh??? Maybe the writer meant something else and just worded the question wrong but what kind of a question is that? Duh!! The answer is also quite a pearl actually...

In Uganda you have to pay to go to school so hardly any children go to school.
There are only twenty five schools in Uganda and in only fifteen they can read and write. Seventy percent of the population in Uganda can read and write.
The Education System in Uganda is,
Nursery - Two to Three years
Primary - Seven years
Secondary - Four years
High school - Two years
University - Three years
Only 70% of uganda's people can read and write adults have to and so do children.

Obviously the writer of this answer only did the two to three years nursery because I'm QUITE sure there are more than 25 schools in Uganda and I'm SURE they can read and write in all of them!!!

And then you get the answers to pretty reasonable questions like "why did Britian colonise Uganda" and the answer..."because they felt like it why do you go to the movies ". I go to the movies to have a good time and be entertained but I doubt that's why Queen Victoria sent Speke et al to conquer Africa!!!

My point is - 99% of these questions could have been answered on Google. Why waste time posting arb questions like these?

Little pigs have big ears....

You know when you visit someone and they have something nice you say "oooh - you MUST give me the recipe for this"? It's like the highest compliment you can pay anyone on their culinary skills not that you necessarily want the recipe like....

Anyway - this evening I plonk dinner in front of Nicholas and he tastes it and says "ooooh - you MUST give me the recipe for this"!!!! LOL!!

It's funny the way kids copy their parents. Every now and then Jason will say "no ways" when I ask him to do something and I will say "yes ways" (sternly of course) Now he does exactly the same when I say no to something!!!

It FINALLY fell out!!!

One day after school at the beginning of December, Nicholas came FLYING out of the class room with HUUUUUUUUUUUGE news!!!! He had his first loose tooth!!!! BEEEG excitement in his life. So for the last month we've had a daily update and today the tooth finally fell out!

In the pool....!!!!

Yep - he lost his first tooth in a HUGE public pool! :-) Fortunately though - the bottom of the pool is quite a dark blue and the tooth was found pretty quickly.

Anyway - the tooth fairy has been and left him 6 gold coins. Ok - they're not really gold but he doesn't know that. It's only 6 500 shilling coins which are worth about R15 or $1.50 but he doesn't understand the value of money yet so it's not about the amount. YET!!