Wednesday, 2 October 2013

News & Summer of Fun

We have had a whirlwind year since my last post - so much has happened.

I started work in January at a local school as a teaching assistant.  I started in year 3 just afternoons and they were a lovely year to start in.
As of September I am now in a year 5 class - I am still getting used to them.  They are still pushing the boundaries, but am making headway with a couple of them.
I am responsible for a guided reading group for the very low achievers.  The average reading/literacy age with these year 5's is year 2 - it is so sad :-(

John has had a busy year work wise - for 3 months until end of July he was working an average of 14 hour days - it was tough on him and us as we missed having him around.
Tiz missed him the most as he was gone before she was up and home after asleep and only saw him for a few hours on the weekend.

All change for Tiz with regards to school.
She is now in year 3 and in a new school.  She had been asking for a while to move as not happy, but we stuck it out until July to see if we could iron out the problems she was having.
She has an above average reading/literacy age and also in maths. 
Unfortunately the school she was in has an higher than average special needs ratio and therefore unable to guide her in the right direction. 
The majority of the time she wasleft to her own devises (which as you probably know for a 6/7 year old is not a good idea!!)
She was also having problems with bullying but when we bought this up was told what did we expect as the children involved had various special needs.

She is now happy and getting settled slowly in her new school and from the off the teacher has her sussed out and is challenging her in the right direction.  She has A LOT of homework
This is a typical week:
Spellings - 3 or 4 times a week
Reading - everyday
On Friday she gets comprehension, literacy, maths, timetables,  additional spellings and Topic - this has to all be in by the following  Wednesday - Phew!!

She also turned 7 and had a 'Alice in Wonderland' party.




My dad was diagnosed back in Febuary with bowel cancer. He has just finished his chemo and suprisingly he is doing great and awaiting a reversal operation to remove his bag.
I have done a lot of travelling back and for visiting him (about 800 miles in a weekend)

With John working so hard he was unable to take any leave, but it worked well for us - he got 3 weeks off in the summer, so we managed to do 2 houseswaps :-D
We first went to Valencia in Spain and oh WOW what a beautiful place, but oh boy was it hot - 45f.

We then had 1 day to get home and get house ready for our next exchange to Hasselt in Belgium.  We had such fun

   
Valencia

 
Gulliver Play Park in a 10 mile park 


 
 
                                           
                                                  
Barefoot walking in Belgium
 

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