Botanical blunderings on a budget - good life starts here.

Karmacat

How lovely! I **must** move ... I've been sat here for hours on and off. Enough so that I'm hungry agaain, grrr. Shutting it down is the only way I'll make myself

troglodyte

Afternoon!

Had a very frustrating morning - trying to ecourage DD to learn to read, she is 5 and a half already and just starting her second year at school, and I know I could read before I even went to school so it bothers me. I'm trying really hard to help and encourage her, to show her that reading is fun (the rest of the family have their noses in books the minute other demands on their time are relaxed!), not to get annoyed - but sometimes it's SO frustrating and infuriating I could practically rip my own head off! :eek: I have so much to do, I'm having panic attacks about not dealing with it all, and I've had to spend about an hour and a half over a 5-minute story, calmly saying 'Just try making the sounds and then putting them together' 'Try actually looking at the words, that will really help' etc. OH has to leave the room as he simply can't bear it and would end up shouting at her.

So now I'm back to finishing what I hoped to get done about 8 O'clock this morning. Then need to get out to my 'second garden' to harvest onions and see if the last few potatoes are still lurking there.

Hope everyone else is having a calmer time!
Random mixed leftovers for lunch here, then white bean and bacon soup for tea (not tried that before but we bought lots of dried beans from Approved Foods

teapot2

Pippilongstocking wrote: »

Trying to reduce the amount of plastic film/tin foil we use - part environmental, part budget, part 'slimming my bin'
Been covering big dishes with plates - think my grannie use to do that?
Been putting anything opened up into jars with lids and hten in the fridge (eg prawns, bacon, cheese etc) - seems to work fine and as they aren't in tubs I can't see I actually use them up.Previously I'd have put them into a recycled bread bag or recovered with clingfilm/foil.


dunno why I didn't think of it before!

We hardly use any cling film - always put plates on top of bowls/dishes and have assorted sized spare plates just for that. Maybe its a Scottish thing? My late uncle used to do lots of one pot cooking - OH is into that too. He'd put pot in fridge and then reheat it on the rayburn and eat straight out of the pot, he used to call it 'bothy living' as it saved on the washing up, don't think it would work with a family though unless you have lots of pans

pink68

troglodyte wrote: »

Afternoon!

Had a very frustrating morning - trying to ecourage DD to learn to read, she is 5 and a half already and just starting her second year at school, and I know I could read before I even went to school so it bothers me. I'm trying really hard to help and encourage her, to show her that reading is fun (the rest of the family have their noses in books the minute other demands on their time are relaxed!), not to get annoyed - but sometimes it's SO frustrating and infuriating I could practically rip my own head off! :eek: I have so much to do, I'm having panic attacks about not dealing with it all, and I've had to spend about an hour and a half over a 5-minute story, calmly saying 'Just try making the sounds and then putting them together' 'Try actually looking at the words, that will really help' etc. OH has to leave the room as he simply can't bear it and would end up shouting at her.

Hi Trog i'm just delurking to say don't beat yourself up over this. My son was like that up until the age of seven, homework became a battle field and the school put him on a special educational needs plan which left me a wee bit devastated.

He just didnt 'get it'. But then one day the lightbulb switched on and now at the age of ten he is the most avid reader in the house ( and beating me takes some doing!) and in the top forms.

I think some children just dont have all the connections made in their heads at that age, in some european countries they dont even try to teach reading formally until the age of seven becuase of this.

Try and avoid the battlefield and keep it fun so when she finally clicks she'll want to carry on with it.

Hope that makes sense...:)

MrsMoo2U

Hey up chuck.

Like the idea of thinking about your CC differently. Are they all at the best rates that you can get? If you arent actually clearing them every month then you will be paying some interest on them. Are you able to get a 0% and do a balance transfer so that you could keep one card for spending on (or a card that pays you for spending on it) and then use the excess you are paying in to pay off the other card slowly? Or can you balance transfer one card to the other, keep the clear one for spends and make sure that you pay that off monthly thus not paying interest and then pay the other one off slowly. Sorry hope that makes sense, I have just read Duncan Bannatyne How to be Smart with your Money and this is exactly what he was suggesting then I came on here and the first post I read was your CC post. Weird

Triciaxx

teapot2 wrote: »

We hardly use any cling film - always put plates on top of bowls/dishes and have assorted sized spare plates just for that. Maybe its a Scottish thing? My late uncle used to do lots of one pot cooking - OH is into that too. He'd put pot in fridge and then reheat it on the rayburn and eat straight out of the pot, he used to call it 'bothy living' as it saved on the washing up, don't think it would work with a family though unless you have lots of pans

Ditto, here. I'm old enough to remember the days before clingfilm and we always put plates on dishes. I now have a niece who tells me I am very wise as clingfilm carries some unpronounceable hazard.

pink68 wrote: »

Hi Trog i'm just delurking to say don't beat yourself up over this. My son was like that up until the age of seven, homework became a battle field and the school put him on a special educational needs plan which left me a wee bit devastated.

He just didnt 'get it'. But then one day the lightbulb switched on and now at the age of ten he is the most avid reader in the house ( and beating me takes some doing!) and in the top forms.

I think some children just dont have all the connections made in their heads at that age, in some european countries they dont even try to teach reading formally until the age of seven becuase of this.
We had the same with one of ours over number and maths. One it clicked, she steamed ahead.

Try and avoid the battlefield and keep it fun so when she finally clicks she'll want to carry on with it. I really do believe that the battlefield should be reserved for safety issues and nothing else. That's 20:20 hindsight though and not easy to live through.

Hope that makes sense...:)

Now, I believe this site needs me to add some more - however inane.

Done!:rotfl:

Pippilongstocking

troglodyte wrote: »

Afternoon!

Had a very frustrating morning - trying to ecourage DD to learn to read, she is 5 and a half already and just starting her second year at school, and I know I could read before I even went to school so it bothers me. I'm trying really hard to help and encourage her, to show her that reading is fun (the rest of the family have their noses in books the minute other demands on their time are relaxed!), not to get annoyed - but sometimes it's SO frustrating and infuriating I could practically rip my own head off! :eek: I have so much to do, I'm having panic attacks about not dealing with it all, and I've had to spend about an hour and a half over a 5-minute story, calmly saying 'Just try making the sounds and then putting them together' 'Try actually looking at the words, that will really help' etc. OH has to leave the room as he simply can't bear it and would end up shouting at her.

So now I'm back to finishing what I hoped to get done about 8 O'clock this morning. Then need to get out to my 'second garden' to harvest onions and see if the last few potatoes are still lurking there.

Hope everyone else is having a calmer time!
Random mixed leftovers for lunch here, then white bean and bacon soup for tea (not tried that before but we bought lots of dried beans from Approved Foods

Ok, firstly I hope the latter part of the day went well.

Secondly, we've gone through EXACTLY the same thing with my now devours a book a day 17 year old son, he just didn't get it, was too lazy, (him not your dd).

The advice we got was to step back. Introduce fun stuff, we went to the library a few times and just chilled. I read, he pottered. I read, he pottered, got bored, picked up a few books, lay upside down on beanbags etc. Then we went back foraging for fun stuff once he got comfy there, began exploring and it became part of our routine. He began to pick books, mainly visual (asterix, tin tin, you get the idea) slowly somehow it changed and we moved onto a bit more words with the pictures. We got story books with tapes and pretended to read, etc We also got the beano weekly, friends scoffed, pah to them, he was picking up something paper and engaging his eyes. School was ok, we just held on.

He reads like a trouper now, can't tell you when it kicked in, it was a while, I was really stressed, I too read before school. We all get there, I know it's hard but hopefully she'll find her way.

((())) no answers just how we coped.

Frustrating invetween though.

Pippilongstocking

Hey up me duck, mrs m,, I can't get another cc, weve moved too much. Glad I might be doing something right!

When I get a goodly pile dosh I'll clear one and pay it off, chip away at rest. Thanks for that idea

Hope you are good lady

Pippilongstocking

:eek:

teapot2 wrote: »

We hardly use any cling film - always put plates on top of bowls/dishes and have assorted sized spare plates just for that. Maybe its a Scottish thing? My late uncle used to do lots of one pot cooking - OH is into that too. He'd put pot in fridge and then reheat it on the rayburn and eat straight out of the pot, he used to call it 'bothy living' as it saved on the washing up, don't think it would work with a family though unless you have lots of pans

Was I married to your late uncle?:rotfl:

I'm glad I'm not insane, or too grotty :T there are specific bowl plates!

Triciaxx great stuff there and your niece is very right!!! Thanks, much appreciate the time you took to share

Nice to see you

And pink thanks for delurking great advice there :A

Lemon_Tree

the PAD's you're doing are working Pippi no matter how big or small they are they are working. Sometimes it's the only way. I used to save 1ps and 2ps up until i had £1 then then pay them off a debt, took a while but those debts have gone now.