It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

RAS

I was reminiscing the other day; my sister and I reading nursery rhyme books to choose one to sing for the baby expected soon. 

There is a photo of that event, before my fourth birthday.

I don't think we could really read the words but we knew the words that accompanied the pictures. And from that we learned to read the writing; two years later dad gave up reading bed time stories because we were quite capable of reading the books ourselves.

Although there is nothing quite like being read a story out loud, even if you know the book word for word.

zcrat41

Those of you wondering why M&S is such good value at the moment it's probably because they have long term contracts with their suppliers. 

So we sell some produce off our farm on M&S contracts which are 18 months to 2 years long. Meaning what's being sold in the shops now, the price was agreed for back in the days of Covid lockdowns. Their new contracts will change. Other supermarkets, especially the cheaper end buy in the open commercial market so are much more open to volatility 

Bluegreen143

@RAS my mum taught me to read at 4, before I went to school, and the teacher gave her a lecture about how she should have waited as now I wasn’t at the same stage as the rest of my class 😂🙄

My 6yo DS is ready to read, but at school they are learning to read in his second language, Gaelic, not in English, which they don’t do for another two years.

 I am teaching him to read in English at home and he’s doing really well though. Kids in immersion schooling will be expected to take longer with reading to start with (it’s HARD to learn to read in your second language!) and I found this aspect of holding my nerve difficult as I learned to read at 4 and he’s 6.5! But it’s just how it is and his teacher is really happy with his reading and writing. I deferred his school entry too, so he’s pretty much the oldest in his class and of course one obvious consequence is that he’s doing all this a year later than he might have. 

I do think it’ll be a while til his reading sufficiently catches up with his understanding for him to read his own bedtime stories (in English), I’m reading him Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl and Narnia chapter books at bedtime but his own reading skill is along the lines of “the cat sat on the mat” 😆 he does love audiobooks though and we have quite a few so he can listen to them.

I’m a big reader (studied English literature at university) so it’s really important to me to pass that on to my kids 😍

London_1

Bluegreen 143, I too was taught by my late Mum back in the 1940s. and she was reprimanded by my infant teacher and just gave her 'the Look' (think Andy Murrey's Mum ) and said ,
"I have taught all of my children to read in an air-raid shelter and found it kept them distracted from anything else going on. I'm sure it was far better than having terrified children ,don't you agree ? " teacher retired defeated :  
Mum 1 ,Teacher 0
 My late Mum was a tiny steeley-eyed Glaswegian who brooked no nonsense from anyone, let alone a teacher. As a little girl just seeing her 'look' could quell an army bless her.

Shopping was quite an experience, when we went into the grocers to buy say ham or cheese or bacon she would be very polite and say Good Morning, and ask after their familiy etc, then state what she wanted  

If she wanted 6ozs cheese or bacon or ham that's exactly what she got, not 'just over' but exactly the amount.and the bacon or ham had little if any fat on it. Things were on ration at the time  
The same in the butchers or fishmongers she wanted the best value, and by golly she got it.I think even the butcher who seemed huge to me was pretty meek when it came to my Mother.

But she was a lovely lady and very kind and soft hearted when it came to children , but you had to remember your manners. Adults were treated with politeness and courtesy by children at all times or else.My Mother was born on Christmas Eve 1900 so was an older Mum by the time her children came along, the loss of suitable men from WW! was to blame for that as she never married until 35 so her children were brought up as she was. 

Its stuck with me throughout my life, as both my children I taught to read before school, and looking after my grandchildren over the past 20 years I have been there to help them ,and all seven of them enjoy reading and when small being read to.

I think its not so much amusing children its the time you give them that's important, just plonking them in front of the TV isn't half as much fun as actually playing with them or teaching them things .

I've taught mine to read ,write, play board games, tie their shoes, and tell the time, the boys all enjoyed learning chess and Poker  the two girls not so much but they can knit at least and everyone one of them can cook, and make a decent cuppa , very important the last skill ,especially for this grandma who loves her cuppa  

The picnics are great, but the actual sitting and eating with children and just talking to them is what's the best.
Your time costs nothing, but to a child your time means they are important and that gives them confidence I think. Two of my grandchildren were quiet and on the shy side, but now they are confident adults ,one of whom is a primary school teacher herself now
So I think your  time is the most important gift you can give them, along with a sausage roll and a slice of cake of course  

JackieO xx

OrkneyStar

Learning to read is interesting, there were a whole range of abilities in my son's class, and the ability didn't really correlate with age - there was one girl who was reading much earlier than the others, but as time went on they all learnt to read. Unless some sort of reading/learning issue becomes apparent (eg dyslexia or something) I tried not to stress too much about how they compared to the rest of the class (as it was my son was mostly in the top reading group, I discovered this when other children were reading books DS hadn't been given yet, but it turned out they were doing more books at lower levels whereas DS had been seen as able at that level, and so hadn't had to do so many at that level before moving on to the next one). DH can read fine now, he's doing well at school so far (currently S4) but just doesn't read for pleasure the way I did at that age. He also doesn't care much for sciences, opting to only do one at Nat 5 level this coming year, and I have a PhD in Biochemistry! He is doing what makes him happy and what he enjoys, as well as those which might work for his chosen career, which is what matters really. Bottom line, I think what I am saying, is that we can encourage (and should) but also that they will find their own pleasures - we can give them opportunity to enjoy what we did, but it doesn't mean they will. Finding things they enjoy is what matters, even if we are asking ourselves 'eh?' or 'why?'. I do think it will feel strange too @Bluegreen143 for your DS to be learning in two languages, maybe harder in some ways, but perhaps also a long term advantage? I say this as someone who would love to be bilingual, and who is currently (and sometimes painfully) teaching myself German, with the help of apps and YouTube and other resources! Do you speak Gaelic too? I tried learning a little of it, but I am trying to focus on German, even though Spanish and Dutch are distracting me a bit!

Bluegreen143

@OrkneyStar I’m learning too, as we’re encouraged to by the school, but DS is now overtaking me in ability after just one year at school! It’s amazing how well children learn a second language compared to how hard it is for adults. It’s wonderful to watch though. He has a good line in “have a go Gaelic” aka he starts off in Gaelic, fills in English words or guesses if not sure 😅 but it’s lovely that he does have the confidence to have a go even if he doesn’t know the exact wording to use. Adults are usually too afraid to get it wrong.

OrkneyStar

Bluegreen143 said:

@OrkneyStar I’m learning too, as we’re encouraged to by the school, but DS is now overtaking me in ability after just one year at school! It’s amazing how well children learn a second language compared to how hard it is for adults. It’s wonderful to watch though. He has a good line in “have a go Gaelic” aka he starts off in Gaelic, fills in English words or guesses if not sure 😅 but it’s lovely that he does have the confidence to have a go even if he doesn’t know the exact wording to use. Adults are usually too afraid to get it wrong.

Good luck with your learning, and your DS too.

Floss

Me & my brothers could all read before school, parents were librarians so we were brought up with books. The schools were all quite happy as it meant 1 less needing help and we had all read all the school library books by the time we were 10 (old J3). I was reading Ivanhoe, Biggles & the Colditz books at 11 - the joy of older brothers!

sammy_kaye18

EssexHebridean - Thanks lovely. It will make a big difference for us. £80 is a lot when you dont have it! So having that extra a month will hopefully mean I can tackle a few things in the house that need doing and start to build up some savings again. 

Bluegreen143 - My two children are older now (18 and 12 next week) but they always enjoyed the things you have listed. 
Some of their favourites were......
- picnics in the garden
- paddling pool in the garden
- board games in the house
- uno or rummikub in the evenings
- movie days / nights
- baking days
- making salt dough decorations (usually at christmas but could do any day) 
- gardening with me in the garden
- bug catching
- geocaching
- we would go on daily walks to explore little nooks and crannies of our village we hadnt seen
- go to our local stream / feeding ducks / pond dipping 
- cheap cinema days which was £2 a ticket
- we would go for a walk and take a cheap bbq with burgers and sausages and have a bbq with a view
- picture days where we'd pick a word for the day and go out and take 5 pictures relevant to that word
- scrapbook making of adventures
- crafting days
- museums (usually free and local) 
- gaming day (usually fortnite) 
- day in / out with friends and other kids
- bushcraft days

This summer I have told my daughter I will set the tent up so her and some of her friends can camp in the garden. 
But I guess you could wild camp. 
When I just had my son we would have themed days. He loved WWE and cars so we would go around looking at different cars etc. Walk the dogs. Play with our guinea pig. 
Another favourite of ours is to go blackberry picking and they will be out soon I expect given the hotter weather. 
Paint rocks to hide around your town / village 
Just remember your mum. Its not your job to be entertainer too. :-) and you don't need to do something every day. Kids having imagination is a wonderful thing.

Oh - another worthwhile mention is that places like Pets At Home do hands on days where children can go in to learn about various animals there and most reptile shops from my experience (we have several reptiles) will always welcome kids in if they have a quiet moment and let them look at and hold the reptiles too so some may have days like that for children on - worth asking, they are more often than not more than willing to educate people about them. :-) 

sammy_kaye18

Hello all from a lovely warm south wales. 
I wish I got on with the sun but prickly heat is not my friend so hiding inside it is for me. 

I did go out earlier though into the nice weather and have picked a few more strawberries, and peas, have my first runner bean growing and found my first morning glory flower so I have moved that to the front of the house as Id like to train it to run up and over my front door. 

Have had a word with myself too as I clearly didn't eat enough yesterday and ended up feeling off last night so I'm making sure to eat regularly today. 
Other than that it is a peaceful day here. Havent done a food shop but I am starting to look into stocking my pantry back up as I have used it the last month when husbands wages got messed up so I seriously need to look into replenishing it for my own piece of mind :-) 

Does anyone also use musclefoods? or do they buy local meat to fill their freezers? or is supermarket better value moneywise but Im thinking less meat but better quality might be better.