Is spelling a lost art?

Is spelling a lost art?

Why can't she spell?

Have you ever been shocked by a friend or colleague that you discovered couldn't spell basic English words?  I've been completely shocked by friends and colleagues who can't spell. They are intelligent, capable adults, but when they need to write things down on paper it becomes clear they can't spell words that my 9 year old has already learnt in Year 5.

The words I've seen adults ask for help with include; 'communicate', 'relationship', and 'development'.

I must admit to being shocked. I have always assumed, possibly naively, that everyone that's gone through the school system and is working in a pretty good job can read and write, and when I say write, I also mean spell.

Remember in school when there was a weekly spelling test alongside the weekly times-table test? My daughters now come home with pretty much the same homework as I did 35 years ago... Spellings and Tables.

The theory is presumably that if you know your tables off by heart, other mental arithmetic is invariably easier and you'll find passing tests, counting change (when using cash on those rare occasions these days) and working out how much you'll pay back in interest if you borrow money for a car, an awful lot more manageable. And let's be honest; when someone calculates something in their heads quickly we are all impressed.

They are that little bit sexier as a result. Or is that just me?

The Marriage Proposal Formula

Francesca Beauman

I was leafing through a book called "The Woman's Book: everything but the kitchen sink" by Francesca Beauman. It's been in my library for ages, and I occasionally flick through it.

It's one of these books that is, essentially, filled with completely random facts.

The random fact I came across was "The Marriage Formula".

Apparently, and I quote; "a simple mathematical formula exists to help one ascertain whether or not to accept a proposal of marriage."

Time flies and the children grow so!

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How did they grow up so fast?!

Are you feeling like this at the moment?  Like it's only a few precious moments ago that you had all these plans and ideas about how their childhood would be, and suddenly they are asking for their own phone and applying to secondary school and couldn't give a toss about the cookie baking idea you had.

What happened?

Yesterday my daughter was listening to my iPod on random shuffle and came across a song she called "Sister Add It".  It turns out it was Five Star's classic "System Addict".  When I mentioned it to my husband and had the nerve to say I'm showing her some great retro tunes he replied, "Five Star isn't retro; it's ancient!"

Oh good grief!

It's less that the children have grown up.  It's more that I seem to have missed the passing of the years and am suddenly a decade older.

I turned 41 this year.  I feel 21 still.  I'm definitely aiming to increase my flexibility this year in dance class and get down into those 'splits'.  So I'll be lying to my body from now on.  I'll be insisting that it responds exactly as it did at 21, whether it likes it or not.

I'm sure my knees will be delighted with the news!

What lies do you tell yourself in an effort to feel younger?

Do you have to get dressed to go out with a pushchair?

It's 2am. Baby has been crying, on and off, all night. You know that a walk in the buggy has a good chance of sending baby off to sleep. Baby is screaming now; completely over tired. You've changed the nappy. Your baby refuses any more milk. He's been winded for hours. The walk in the buggy is your last option.

But you are in your pjamas and slippers. The perplexing quesion of the day is: Do you get dressed?

Would you bother to swap slippers for trainers? Would you whip off the PJs and throw on some jeans and a T-Shirt? Would you throw on just a dressing gown, or a coat?

And, in a world that has somehow managed to convince the fashion buying public that a onesie is a fashion statement and not (what it actually is) a large baby-grow; does it frankly matter which of the above you pick since we are used to seeing people in outfits that look like sleepwear anyway?

How to survive the school holidays

To many parents, the prospect of 7 weeks of school holidays causes mixed and conflicting emotions. For working parents, on one hand there is an opportunity to spend more time with the children than the two day weekends usually allow, assuming, that is, you can book some leave. On the other hand, most working parents get less than 30 days annual leave a year, so the school holidays present a logistical childcare challenge.
You are torn between wanting to be delighted that the children are not at school, but actually feeling fairly gutted that the children are not at school.
This is also because the working parents amongst us don't get nearly as much childcare practise. We are just not used to entertaining the children, or indeed pointing them in the right direction of the garden/playroom/bedroom (delete as appropriate) so that they can entertain themselves. We spend our time getting very good at filling school bags with the right letters, prepping lunchboxes, prepping and distributing breakfasts and evening meals, bathing, stories and bed time. That bulk of time in the middle of the day that needs filling with other stuff? Well that's something of an enigma to us.