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

ragz_2

Tinned tomato puree has always been more expensive, whenever I have compared by weight.

Enjoyed the Consciousness of Sheep blog, thanks whoever suggested that (just done a big multi page catch up as not read this thread for a while). 

Skibunny40

Katiehound - thank you so much for mentioning SRA! I'd completely forgotten about it until I read your post - I adored it as a child and learnt so much about so many random (American!) topics. The excitement about picking out a new card for the box with all the tabs on it was wonderful. Gosh, having quite the trip down memory lane now 

Katiehound

Skibunny40 said:

Katiehound - thank you so much for mentioning SRA! I'd completely forgotten about it until I read your post - I adored it as a child and learnt so much about so many random (American!) topics. The excitement about picking out a new card for the box with all the tabs on it was wonderful. Gosh, having quite the trip down memory lane now 

Well, I had my nostalgia trip this morning when I looked at the full list of early Puffin books- and yes, I used to have a whole stack of them!
Yep, the topics were American but the children really did learn a lot, especially about listening skills. As you realise the teacher also learnt something: I'd forgotten all about Comanche.

elsien

I was in Morrisons earlier. Mooched over to the yellow sticker meat, got a couple of packs for myself then watched as one man took everything else. About 30 packs in all - I guess he’s entitled unless the supermarket put rules in place but I found it incredibly selfish of him. 

weenancyinAmerica

I remember the SRA box too - when I was 10! 65 years ago - it has been around for a long time.

in_my_wellies

Any reading scheme is good. My son whizzed through the school reading scheme and had to go to see the head teacher. She was very lovely but old school and suggested he read a very old reading scheme which looked to be from 1940 or 50 that she fished out of her cupboard. They were called something like Greek Myths and Legends - bronze, silver and gold levels. He was hooked and the head was delighted! He studied Latin and Classics at GCSE but chose science for A Level because according to everyone, 'What could he do with Latin?' After a degree in Maths / Computer Science he got a job compiling a data base of Latin names which is used by scientists around the world. 

Thanks for the heads-up on stock rotation. Today I became a little obsessed and I listed:
1. All food items with dates
2. All cleaning items
3. All garden products
4. Things to sell on ebay
5. Things to take to charity shop 
6. Things to take to the tip 
7. Mum's tablets
8. Seeds

I've made a list of items to add to my shopping list including peanut butter - has that been mentioned yet?

Floss

@in_my_wellies when I was at high school (75-80) anyone wanting to do medicine was encouraged to do Latin O-level

in_my_wellies

Floss said:

@in_my_wellies when I was at high school (75-80) anyone wanting to do medicine was encouraged to do Latin O-level

Seems sensible. My son was at high school about '97 - '04, not sure if it was then.

There's no way he would have studied medicine - the right decision as he fainted at the sight of the finger !!!!!! stage when he went to give blood at age 23 and they rang me to collect him. PhD in engineering suited him better

ladyholly

My daughter started comprehensive school in 1988 and they had stopped teaching latin the year before. I never studied it but other half did as he went to grammar sckool which I didnt.

CKhalvashi

ladyholly said:

My daughter started comprehensive school in 1988 and they had stopped teaching latin the year before. I never studied it but other half did as he went to grammar sckool which I didnt.

I studied at an ex-Grammar in the UK, which later became a specialist language school. I also taught for a few years after university before going to do something I could personally see a huge gap in the market for after consulting for a few years on something that then was extremely niche. No longer officially involved at the same level, but I'm still very close to the current leadership and community (which is actually quite tightly knit and long standing, but still very open to new members) for it.

I did study Latin for 5 years, but also French for 5 years and Spanish for 3. Languages have always been my strong point (growing up in a family who spoke Russian and Georgian), but Latin has been one of the most useful languages I've ever learned, even if I don't remember much of it in itself. I've picked up bits of Romanian, Polish, Ukrainian etc over the years through both work and travel and Latin has helped immensely with that. I have GCSEs in French, Spanish, Latin and Russian, and A-Levels in Spanish and Russian.

I'd also say though from experience that being in a country and conversational speaking with locals is really important to actually progress with language studies, and that is where the UK education system doesn't fare so well. Especially with social media (which I have to admit I grew up in the age before), there is a fantastic opportunity for children from different countries to partner to learn each others languages, naturally for security with full support and safeguarding of the schools involved. It's not uncommon to see someone in Poland etc smile when I order in a cafe etc in the local language, and even can explain that there's an offer at the front door for 12zl for coffee and croissant and asking what's included in that offer.

Even with that said though, for general conversational stuff another languages are fine, but when it comes to complex business discussions I prefer to deal either in English or Russian as I'm far more comfortable doing so.