What happens to state benefit in a recession

kim_ley

islandannie wrote: »

Hell I actually agree with you.

Happy new Year.

how about getting rid of all the aliens?
and stop paying for translators lawyers etc... for those who choose to speak their own language and live in a foreigner adapted Britain.
stop paying child benefit for those who are from EU but their kids don't even live here??????

neverdespairgirl

I agree. Little green men, out, out, out!! Taking our jobs, stealing our women....

huntersc

moggylover wrote: »

We have a Rubik's cube, and several other "puzzles", my kids love them. They also enjoy Play-Station games. My BIL gave my boys his old Play-Station and some games (some of which I confiscated:eek: ) when the oldest was about 7 and the youngest 4! Actually, some of what they have to learn to do on the games is very educational as you have to learn strategies and so forth. It may not "seem" educational, but my youngest learnt to play chess (on a board) in about 4 sessions because he already had the idea of strategies. His father is very good at chess, by the 4th session he could still beat DS2, but he really had to work at it and it took him over an hour:D and he was amazed when he asked why a certain move had been made and DS2 told him the six or seven following moves he had worked out following this one dependant upon his fathers next move:D .

At 8 DS2 had not only taught most of the kids at his (35 pupil) primary school how to play chess, but was also organising and running "championships" in which the winner played him:D . The headmaster says he has trouble beating him:D .

He also has a game he loves on the computer called Age of Empires and he knows masses of history that he has learnt from the game and it is advanced enough that he can't wait to get to Senior school where they learn more about it:D . He can tell you all about Attila the Hun, The Conquistadores, etc., and he will ask me how to pronounce something and then look it up on Google to see what he can learn about the period. Thus, not all playstation is bad - but I would agree that it needs some supervision.

If your child is that good at chess then send him to play properly. He might have a real talent for it. I'm a FIDE rated player, rating of 2053 (which is pretty darn good) and I don't think 7 moves ahead!

You want to start off here: http://www.bcf.org.uk/

You should also find a club close to you, http://www.chesscorner.com/ukclubs/intclub.htm

Honestly, to think 7 moves ahead at the age of 7 is impressive and I'm sure your child would have a lot of fun at a local chess club. If he enjoys it then tournaments can also be a lot of fun. I loved it! You could even get him started at ICC http://www.chessclub.com/

You can play online and there are always great opponents there, plenty of grandmasters and international masters to pit your wits against!

kim_ley

Davesnave wrote: »

I think it's worse for boys. Girls still suffer, but girls have been out-performing boys for some time now.

The people kids choose as role models often don't come across as particularly bright, or even 'good.' As you say, in popular culture, male 'heroes' tend to solve problems in a physical manner. Women in the media are often there courtesy of an attractive body. Sports 'personalities,' like footballers, (and their wives!) must take some responsibility too. There's just no glamour in being bright.

I really don't know what to suggest when it comes to role models in a free, largely uncensored society. In a good school, you'll have a higher proportion of popular and able children who'll be local, same-age role models, and thus very helpful. In a less-favoured school, such children will be in a small minority, and sadly, they'll be keeping their heads down, rather than flying the flag for learning.

Interesting comments on this :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/2209280.stm


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/884405.stm

Not always true... I loved learning and went to cc school (with poor reputation) I passed every exam proudly and without sounding big headed...
I was quite the miss popular I think that kids should have to choose the job they would dislike and one they would like then get to try both! 9/10 the dislike would require no/little qualification! making reality hit home... I still don't like the education system anyway... kids need more common sense and less Shakespeare and Pythagoras theorem!:rolleyes:

moggylover

It does sadden me to come to a forum and see people referring to others as Scum and worse you know.

These are just people, they were born the same way we all were and somehow we failed them! They SHOULD have had a good enough education to pull themselves out from wherever they were born, and there SHOULD have been someone, somewhere in their lives that made them feel good enough at something that they felt worthwhile and learnt to hope.

For some reason, comfortably middle-class people seem to get some strange (and to me sick and warped) pleasure, from name-calling and denigrating people and assuming that they are actually happy and that they think in terms of "stealing" from others. I think there are probably a minority that do, probably a lesser minority than get pleasure from fiddling their taxes:D, but a minority that do.

What I see are people who have been scrap-heaped from birth. The very words "sink-hole-estates" fill me with shame not hate. The fact that no REAL effort has been made by successive Governments to really address the need to work with these people and give them some proper hope for the future from childhood onwards makes me sad! They may not suffer from the financial penury and "poverty" that some on MSE would like them to suffer, but I fear most of them suffer from a poverty of spirit or hope that must be a very depressing place to be.

We need, and have needed for a long time, a different attitude to these people. We need to lead by example (i.e. if we present a picture of fiddling and greed they will follow that example:D ) and we need to invest money in really "getting to" the children and helping them to aim higher and to have some self-esteem. Calling them scum and chavs on the internet and looking down our noses at them in the streets will not do that: it will perpetuate the system. Make them hate you in your ivory tower more than they already hate you and you have no chance at all of getting through and ending the problem.

I want to give one example of a "chavvy" lass. She appeared on Jamie Olivers recent TV programme and was pronounces the lowest of the low on MSE (although I cannot for the life of me recall her name:o ) for being an example of a single mum, on benefits, with a boyfriend who might/might not have been living at her home (although whether he would have continued to do so if required to support her and the kids was never questioned;) ). She was name called and slagged-off royally. Jamie Oliver saw something else. He saw a lass who did not think much of herself at all, had no confidence, and felt she had c*cked-up royally when she got pregnant and saw no way out of her mess. He also saw a girl who quickly learnt to cook and organise. At the end of the series he arranged for her to attend Catering College, and the joy on her face took 10 years off her in moments. Someone had, and obviuosly for the first time, told her she was good at something. He told her she COULD do something, and did not criticise her for not doing it before.

Now, to my mind (and I admit I cried watching her) THAT is what we need to do for these people. We need to give them hope, not keep grinding their face in the mud with viscious words and hatred.

Society has created the problem. Middle Class Society DOES look down on the less educated (and let's be honest some people can be given all the book learning in the World and they will never be able to learn it, but they may just have another talent if someone looks for it;) ) and doesn't much care that they may not only have to do a boring and demeaning job for their entire lives, but also get paid pitifully for doing it because they are not as "worthy" as the better educated.

Well, I am "better educated". I come from a Council House background, I passed my eleven plus with ease, I passed 10 O levels (although maths and chemistry only just:o ) and got three "A" levels awarded at 16 without having to sit the exams, on the basis of work I had done as a special studies project and which my history teacher took the time to forward to the university. I was offered university at 16, not 18. It does not make me more worthy. It makes me downright lucky. I was born bright. I can speed read. I have a high IQ, and did from early childhood and yeah, it was tested. This was not gained by hard work - it was a God given gift for which I am very grateful, and it was encouraged by proud, hard-working, working class (factory floor and school canteen;) ) parents and several wonderful teachers. NONE of what I achieved makes me a better or more worthy human being - just a bloody lucky one;) . Hard work on top of that luck allowed me to achieve - but without those lucky breaks I might not have done.

Perhaps we all need to look at some of the good breaks life gave us and wonder what and who we might have been without them, and how best those breaks could be given to those that need them: THEN and only then will we solve the problems and then and only then will we all have something to be really proud of;)

moggylover

huntersc wrote: »

If your child is that good at chess then send him to play properly. He might have a real talent for it. I'm a FIDE rated player, rating of 2053 (which is pretty darn good) and I don't think 7 moves ahead!

You want to start off here: http://www.bcf.org.uk/

You should also find a club close to you, http://www.chesscorner.com/ukclubs/intclub.htm

Honestly, to think 7 moves ahead at the age of 7 is impressive and I'm sure your child would have a lot of fun at a local chess club. If he enjoys it then tournaments can also be a lot of fun. I loved it! You could even get him started at ICC http://www.chessclub.com/

You can play online and there are always great opponents there, plenty of grandmasters and international masters to pit your wits against!

Thanks for those, I will look into them. At the moment he is enjoying a "chessmaster" pc game a lot, and also playing his Dad. I suspect that we would have to travel a long way for a decent chess club from here and I am disabled so it does cause problems. However, I admit I had not thought of on-line chess games so your post is really helpful.

We have actually been talking about what he wants to do when he grows up in the last couple of days (he is 10 now:rotfl: ) and he very much wants to work with animals (think zoo keeper) and as he is extremely good at maths I have been suggesting other ways in which he could work with them, i.e. vet or zoologist so we are currently looking into things like that on line, but I will definitely see what I can find for him to keep up the chess;) .

The lad that originally taught him to play chess was nearly 4 years older, and he beat him on the first game and lost on the second. He was well impressed, and told DS dad and that was when DS and his dad started playing. Has beaten his dad a few times now - and he always makes his dad work hard for a win:D

neverdespairgirl

huntersc wrote: »

If your child is that good at chess then send him to play properly. He might have a real talent for it. I'm a FIDE rated player, rating of 2053 (which is pretty darn good) and I don't think 7 moves ahead!
!

I was once told by a chess grandmaster that he thought up to 4 moves ahead, so I'm sceptical of the 7 (-:

Seriously, chess is a fantastic game. It's an easy one to play on-line as well, and the modern windows have a decent chess programme with different difficulty speeds in the games section.

moggylover

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I was once told by a chess grandmaster that he thought up to 4 moves ahead, so I'm sceptical of the 7 (-:

Seriously, chess is a fantastic game. It's an easy one to play on-line as well, and the modern windows have a decent chess programme with different difficulty speeds in the games section.

We were as well NDG. But he showed us that he had 7 moves worked out 4 if his dad's response to his move was a) and 3 if it were b), and with the 4 ahead he would have been in a position where his father could not prevent check mate;) .

He is horribly logical and a little "odd" as his earliest ideas of "playing" was usually with numbers and maths:eek: . One of my best friends is a University Professor of Maths and he and she can talk for hours and leave me totally lost within minutes (he sure doesn't get it from me:o ), but his paternal grandfathers family are mostly VERY clever (i.e. they sport two professors amongst the five of them and one doctor - whilst the other two farm) so it must be their fault:D .

He is currently in year 6, but finishing year 8 maths with page after page of 20 out of 20! School had to contact Senior School and ask what books to get for him because he had finished all the standard school maths that they do nearly two years ago:o

Came back to add that my Dad was also a bit of a brain box and found maths a doddle which is how he came to get into engineering - so some of it might have been my fault.:o Had my dad not been from a very poor family and lost his mum at 11 then he would probably have done very well, but the chips fall where they may;)

kim_ley

my two yo can tell you every letter of the alphabet spell several words count to 30 count backwards from 10 and tell the time by the hour! he knows all his colours shapes body parts and he knows every fruit and veg and animal... even the odd ones! he knows our address and our postcode (he tells strangers :eek: ) He can hold a "real" conversation with around 3-4 sentences for a reply!!!!

bubblesmoney

huntersc wrote: »

This is something that's always puzzled me too. The annoying thing is that I'm now paying through the nose in taxes for all those snotty kids at the back of my class that used to laugh at me for working hard and handing homework in on time. Now I'm paying for their tax credits and benefits because they couldn't be bothered.

Here's a bit of advice for you. Take your son to a factory. Find a friend or arrange it somehow. Make him stand there and watch a person moving one bit of metal from one place to another, over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Spend an hour there. More if you have to. Then ask him, "Son, fancy a job like this?"

This happened to me at a young age. I didn't want to work, I wanted to mess about etc. After watching some guy covered in dirt after welding for an hour I told my teacher I'd rather work and own the Aston Martin that the man was making rather than being covered in dirt making it.

It worked too. I'll never forget that experience, the thought of working in a factory for life scared the crap out of me, I worked by !!! off to get decent grades and didn't care about being cool.

Now I'm the cool one in the Aston Martin and my old classmates are working in jobs they hate paying minimum wage wishing they'd worked just that little bit harder.

It's not cool to be stupid kids. Knowledge is the one thing that you will always have, the one thing that you can rely on, the thing that sets you apart from the masses, knowledge is not only power, it's fun! Why's the sky blue? How does a battery really work? How do we know the earth is not flat? What is a Higs particle? Why does 2+2 =4? How does the internet work?

Most people are blind their whole lives. They use their computer, use the internet with no idea how it really works. They look at the sky, no idea why it's blue, they just know it is. Going through life like that? Terrible. if there's one thing my kids will do, it's to be excited by knowledge, to be enthralled by the workings of our world. To see algebra not as some boring learning exercise but to see how it relates to our real lives.

Whoops, I'm going off topic a bit here, just feel strongly about it. It's such a shame kids aren't excited about knowledge anymore. So depressing to see them not relating what they learn in the classroom to everyday life, trajectory and motion to the basketball going through the hoop, friction and energy transferal when balls are hit in snooker, the list goes on.

think i'll do that when my daughter is old enough to understand stuff like that. kids do stuff better when they understand why they need to do what they have to do, rather then when they are forced to do stuff.

i hated being sent by the 'socialist' teacher who would send me to the back benches. her logic was that by sending the kids that performed well in class to sit among the trouble makers, the trouble makers would get better by learning from the harder working kids. but what happened in reality was that those trouble makers couldnt be arsed to get their heads out of their backsides and didnt let those of us interested in learning stuff to listen to the lessons either. so we ended up studying harder at home because we couldnt listen to the classes as the teacher forced us to sit with the idiots who just didnt want to study. all this in the name of socialism where it was more fashionable to dumb down the kids who studied hard rather than try to improve the kids that didnt study hard. i remember not being allowed to study or listen in class for a couple of years by such idiots who no doubt are scraping some bins somewhere now for a living. do good teachers like the one i had who forced us to sit among those who couldnt be bothered to study must be harming loads of kids permanently by forcing them to sit with trouble makers rather than exclude the trouble makers for the sake of the rest of the class.

learning can be fun when kids have access to the right books as well. i found the 2 books (russian translated into english) 'mathematics can be fun' and 'physics can be fun' made learning things fun. the books were very very cheap and good as had loads of interesting stuff to learn and written in a way that kids would like. still have it somewhere at my mothers place and plan on giving it to my kid when she is old enough to understand such stuff.