*Hits head against wall*

The two youngest boys got in trouble yesterday and as usual I find myself wishing I could home school.
Don't get me wrong, If they're naughty they SHOULD get punished, but it seems more and more that the teachers at this school are only happy with girls.
It often feels like the boys (and its not just my boys) are punished for being...well... boys.
They get banned from playing football because of ONE child (hardly fair), movement isn't encouraged, bullying by a couple of the older "good" girls seems to be overlooked.

Dear god..... I don't want to be one of those "I know they're no angels, but...." mothers, but their school experience isn't so great for them.
Even my eldest backed them up.
He's a people pleaser, so never said anything while he was at that school, but now readily agrees and gives his own anecdotes about unfairness.

Its not this school.... its all of them.

The youngest two have no enthusiasm for school now, although they both have inquiring minds at home they just don't see the point of bothering at school.

My youngest especially has a hard time, and his anxiety manifests itself at home.... He's much calmer during the holidays for example.

If I had the oppotunity to be more mobile and DO things I'd seriously consider homeschool.
I'm just scared that if I did take them out of school there'd be nothing for them to do after a while.

Sucks that the public transport here is so rubbish and expensive...

Rant over :/              

So what now?

I took down the decorations today.
Not because I wanted to but because some nice twist of bedroom emergency means I now have a futon in my kitchen... it was either the tree or I slept standing up...
To be honest, the last week hasn't been so peachy... Xmas day aside... in fact most of December has been blah and by the time the big day rolled up most of us had been ill, were ill or were shortly to get ill.
I know we're not the only ones.
The truth is, I'm finding I view the run up to Xmas with more dread than excitement now.
On the 1st of December I put up a white board with every date till the 25th and was horrified to see that we had something "xmasy" nearly EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!
What with school plays, carols, pantos, shopping, parties, decorating, wrapping, baking, work.... The kids were so tired by the time school kicked out that its like the immune system goes " uuuuuuuuuuuuuuggghhhhhmmmmrrrffffppppmmmm...plop..." and dies....

Am I the only one who feels rail roaded into being Xmasy and jolly and full o festive cheer for the best part of a month?
Its not even like these are our plans, mostly they're school or village things.... and then you feel mean for thinking like that.

OK people... am I a grinch for wanting to disappear for the whole of December?
To have a quiet, understated, yule celebration and then creep back in the dead quiet of January the 1st?

Tell me I'm not the only one?    

LIve to work or work to live?

Read a nice little feature in the Sunday Times "Style" magazine this week about weighing up life and work.

Traditionally  this has been about parents (mostly mothers) fighting to get flexible time at work to spend more time with their families.
Now though it seems some businesses are embracing this but on a different level.
Encouraging parents to work from home, understanding that sometimes great work is produced at 9pm after the kids are in bed, letting people learn to enjoy their jobs again.

Because lets face it, once you have a family your 9 to 5 job can seem like  an 8 hr a day prison, stopping you from getting on with things like LIFE, and really, when you have kids, a lot of stuff happens between the hours of 9 and 5.
Parents evening, sports days, assemblies, Dr and dentist appointments, not to mention all the after school stuff as well.

Anyway, I was thinking that this was all very well but didn;t apply to me, until today.

Now the kids are all finishing at 3.15 instead of 2.30 me and Kim have time to ride out in the afternoon when he comes home.
So we're riding home about quarter to three and pass a guy working on one of the new houses and smile and wave hello.
We receive a surly grunt and slight sneer.
Its obvious what he is thinking.
"Bloody horse riders, very nice for them to be able to play on ponies in the middle of the day while I'm WORKING."

Well yes.. we where enjoying the early afternoon sunshine (and why not? we get precious little of it!) but at 6 pm when he is slumped in front of the TV for the night we are still working.
We had the two youngsters to lunge and school (and Ollie had to have his lesson) then all the yard work to do. Right now its 9.30 pm and we are just about to go out and feed up the stabled horses.
While that guy is wandering round town on a Saturday morning we will still be working, and on Sunday when he gets his lie in we will be up at 6 am like we are every morning.
No we don't work 9 to 5 but when you add up the hours spent working with other peoples horses, barefoot trimming, breaking and schooling the babies and all the yard and field work that goes with that we do as much of not more than the guy on the building site.

The hours suit us.
Its all about compromise.
We get to pay in the afternoon but we might have to work on a Sunday.
We get to attend school functions and pick the kids up from school, rather than having them bused to after school club, but we have to sometimes work late at night.
The point is the flexibility suits us.
Its a job we love.

Mr 9 to 5 might not want to give up his Sunday lie in, and that's fine, but maybe he should remember that not everyone works to a prescribed formula.

And not everyone wants to.        

Back to school, the ups and downs.

First full week of the new school year is nearly over for children in Scotland, and English kids will be packing their bags and putting on brand new uniforms in the nest week too.

Youngest child is now a Primary 2, which means going back to school was punctuated with sighs and eye rollings and "reading is boooring"-s, they always say the smartest kids act this way right?

RIGHT!?

Oh well.

Today though I saw something that near broke my heart.
As I walked past the playground I saw a new Primary 1 stood in the corner, back to the playground, crying his eyes  out and whimpering for his Mum.
I called middle child over and suggested he go ask the boy to play. He reported back that the little boy only wanted his Mum so I dispatched middle child to find a teacher.

One part of me was angry.
Here was a child only months out of nappies who wasn't even putting in a full school day yet, who had been left in a state in the playground before school. Before the bell goes there are no teachers outside, so for 15 minutes the kids do as they please.
I made sure I stayed with my kids until they went inside for the first half of all their first year. Most of the time they ran off and ignored me, but sometimes one would run back for a hug or to say a third or fourth goodbye or just to make sure I was still there. I thought it was important to show them that although they were now in school I was still a safe zone and wasn't out of the picture yet.

But hang on... don't lynch me.

Was I angry with the Mum?
No.
Like 99%  of parents she has been leaving her child/ren in the care of daycare workers, nursery workers and playgroup workers, and there mantra is always "Just leave! He's fine after a few minutes!"
However what they fail to tell you is that this is because it makes THEIR job easier not that your child becomes happier.
YOU are made to feel like an overprotective parent with a wimpy kid so that they can get on with ticking boxes.

I NEVER left any of my children crying.

"Lucky you!" I hear you smirk. "How great that you have such perfect children!"
Oh sure, Eldest and youngest are so laid back about new situations as to be perfectly horizontal, I'll give you that at least.... But middle child was a whole different ball of wax.

At the age of eighteen months I couldn't visit the toilet without him sitting outside the door crying for me. If I left a room he would follow. If I had visitors and I left a room he would run after me screaming in fear.
It was so bad it was funny..... Sort of.... Well you can look back and laugh I guess.
At 2 he started at the local playgroup.
I asked to stay with him.
You could tell this wasn't going down well.
Over a few weeks he started to move away a little, play with other kids and on his own away from me, but he still needed to run back for a hug every so often, just to reassure himself I was there.
Then one session I was stupidly convinced to leave him, all but pushed out of the door.
I heard him crying as I left.
I waited for 20 minutes and when I came in he wasn't crying..... Crying would have been good.
What he was doing was sitting at a table, a crayon gripped in his hands, his eyes wide, his face slack with fear.
He saw me and flew over screaming.

After that I said if they wanted our money I was staying with him as long as needed.
So I became an unofficial helper and what I saw opened my eyes.

Children of 2 and 3 who stopped crying only to sit glassy eyed on their own, waiting to be picked up. Screaming children dumped through the door like rubbish so Mum could get some "me" time, crying children who where snapped at and told to "Be a big boy!"
When you are only a few weeks on from stopping breast or bottle feeding I hardly think a toddler should be told to be a big boy, he is still very much a baby for a while yet.

Middle boy got better. By the time he was 3 he only came to me once a session for a hug, I could leave him with a friend or relative happily and by the time school came around he was more than happy to go, safe in the knowledge I would be there when he came out.
He is outgoing, brave and confident.
All the things i was told he wouldn't be if I kept "babying him."

So remember, if your child needs a hug, even a thousand hugs, and needs you there and wants to know you love them, show them.
Treat them with the love they pour unconditionally into you daily.
It's not whining or being irritating or spoilt, its just a wish for more, more, more of the love you freely give them.

They are not boxes to be stacked neatly away for an hour somewhere else.
If they are not happy to go somewhere without you , then they are not learning any of the valuable lessons that places like playgroup CAN offer.
Instead they are learning to push their need for love deep down inside where no one can find it.

Hug your child today?   

If you can't stand the heat....

I am a BIG fan of kids knowing where food comes from.
From the earliest age when my kids have asked where a truck load of cows was going I would tell them "Off to be killed and made into beef burgers."

Does that make me sound like some militant vegan mum?
Were they upset?
Not really, at the age of 3 or 4 your concept of death is vague but now they are a little older (10, 6 and 6) they understand a lot more.
I don't show them graphic factory farm pictures on the Internet, but I do answer their questions truthfully.

The reason I do it is because I feel they have a right to be informed.

If they go to a friends house or a party or are eating our when they are older and without parents to guide them through the menu, I will have at least equipped them with the tools to make their own minds up. If they choose to eat meat that is THEIR decision (outside the house) BUT they will be eating it without blinkers on.

So when I read about Marcus the lamb, brought by a Primary school to teach children about where food came from I couldn't totally condemn it.
Sure I think a veggie garden would have done the job, but at least the headmistress was being honest.
When the time came for the bottle fed and petted and loved Marcus to say goodbye for the last time (and come back as chops for a school raffle) there was suddenly an outcry from the parents (yes, the parents, not the children).
Oh they all thought it was lovely to have a pet lamb at school but to be faced with the reality of death and mince..well it was too much for some of them.

One parent even said her daughter would need counselling to get over the trauma of Marcus being sent to slaughter.

Oh dear god.

First of all you have to wonder, are any of these disgusted parents with traumatised children vegetarian? Oh maybe one or two but ALL of them? Statistically I very much doubt it.
Agree with the headmistress or not I at least UNDERSTAND why she did it, and Marcus most certainly lived his life in the lap of sheep luxury, which is something many of his mass farmed cousins won't have. Also being a single animal taken to slaughter he would have had as stress free a journey (being very used to being handled) and would have been taken through the abattoir quickly rather than waiting all day in a pen with hundreds of other frightened animals.

Why do parents think that the origins of where your chicken, beef or sausage comes from should be kept from children like a dirty secret? Seriously, if the secret is so dirty WHY do you think its ok to eat meat??
In an age were kids are taught the fundamentals of sex education by 7 or 8 why are we worried about a 10 or 11 year old being upset about how her chop got to her plate?

To me it smacks of double standards.

The parents didn't save Marcus but they did drum the head teacher out of school. For her bravery in trying to educate a generation of children removed from their food she has now been forced to resign.

One thing that really annoyed me once was book at the kids playgroup. It was called "A year in the life of a pig" or something like that and told the story of a pig from birth to having her own piglets. Not ONCE was ham, bacon, pork, farrowing crates or slaughter houses mentioned and by then end of the book a child could be forgiven for thinking that farmers keep pigs as pets. With no association between pig/ham ham/pig how can a child make a choice?

Am I sorry for Marcus?
Yes, of course.
Can't be a card carrying vegan without feeling sorry for the lamb.

The upside is though that maybe a few kids will have the worm of doubt in their heads now.
Maybe they will wonder about their roast chicken or their beef burger and maybe they will think about the living, breathing, bright eyed Marcus.

You never know, in theory his death could save thousands in years to come.

Oh and for the record, a couple of months ago my middle boy was talking about a birthday party and asked me to make him a packed lunch for it because "everything will be meat and dairy and I like your lunches".

He had thought hard about his food. Couldn't have felt prouder.

A path less trod.

We have made a lot of life choices in the last few years as a family.

We took the plunge and went vegan, swallowed our fear and brought bikes to cut down on car use, decided to keep our horses barefoot rather than encumber them with heavy metal shoes, threw out dog food and make Jenny homemade vegan food, our choosing to home school after primary school finishes.... And much more.

One of the things I have noticed though is the reactions of people (directly and indirectly) to our choices.

For a long time I was confused about peoples attitude.
After all I thought, this is OUR life, why do you care so much? We never pushed our views on people, never expected special treatment, never judged..and yet......

I've had someone tell me (in a very loud voice) That I couldn't possibly be a vegan because I had chickens. (For the record, the definition of a vegan is one who lives without the exploitation of animals. Seeing as my hens are rescued ex-layers and eggs come no matter what we do, I am comfortable eating their eggs, we don't however eat brought eggs or other products with egg in them.)
I was told that at a village meeting about a community even someone kindly asked if one of the soups would be vegan and was basically told that we couldn;t be expected to be catered for as a minority in the village (although there are 5 of us and my kids make up an a significant amount of the pupils at school).
People practically throw lifts at us because we can't POSSIBLY expect our children to cycle into town (a WHOLE 3 miles!).

The more we break away from what is considered the western "norm" the more I see frightened people.

By being vegan (and being friendly and un-judgmental makes no difference) they feel we are saying "Your diet is wrong. Its un-healthy and un-ethical."
Good friends still wink and nudged Kim and try to get him to eat meat. It makes them feel better to think veganism is a passing fad, a mini madness that causes people of over-sentimentality to deviate from the "correct" path.By choosing to cycle rather than run around in a car they fell we are saying "By using a car you are leading a sedentary and environmentally unsustainable life." They constantly ask when we will be buying a normal car and press lifts into our palms like alms.

By choosing to home school during the secondary years they feel we are questioning the regular pattern of school. We are saying "We care about our children's education and have no faith in the regular path of schools and exams." This is something that makes them question how we could consider taking children out of school. After all we all went there didn't we? We're alright aren't we?

The fear that other people...Other NORMAL seeming people are questioning the regular order of life, the very foundations on which modern civilization is built.... Food, Transport, Education... How can these things be deviated from?

The human animal is just that. An animal with all the instinct and safety in numbers that causes the majority to at best treat you as odd and at worst behave openly hostile to you.
Nothing is more scary than someone who seems to live happily, even thrive by dancing to the beat of a different drum.

The point is some are strong enough to follow their heart others will live their lives scared of being driven from the "herd".

So if your life choices include deciding not to vaccinate, to forgo meat, to live in a roundhouse in the woods, to medicate with herbs, to drop out and walk the earth without a care...do it.

Like the man Say's you only have one life, live it, live it well, live it happy and so long as it harm none then do it with your head held high.

A hard week.

Well apologies are due to my regular readers.

What must you think!

No Meatless Monday!

No new posts!

Even limited twitter time.

There where a lot of small and personal niggles this week but the main upset was a parents consultation I had with my youngest two boys teachers on Monday afternoon.

Usually these things follow a set pattern.
The kids are friendly, polite, work well enough when prodded with sharp sticks that sort of thing.

I LIKE their teachers, really I do. I have know the head teacher for the last 6 years and we have been through some challenging times with my eldest with allergies and dyslexia and have always come out the end on the same track and usually laughing.

The consultation was supposed to be about Alfie as this is his first full term as a Primary one pupil.
A quick 10 minutes to let us know how he has settled in.

As we say down we where told that actually they wanted to talk more about Owen (who is P2. The first 3 classes are mixed though, so they are in the same "class")

Immediately we where told that they were worried about how "immature" they both were, how unfocused when working. Owen especially they said had slipped back and wouldn't concentrate on his work and whined that he was still a "little boy" and wanted to play with the P1's.

Apart from a few extra points this was the basic summing up of the meeting.

I can tell you I was broadsided.
As I had to rush home to meet the older kids I had no time to even process what had been said , let alone ask any questions.

Me and Kim briefly talked about it ont he way home, but then kids and other jobs got in the way and I put it to the back of my mind for the evening.

By the morning we where both fuming and I decided to send the headteacher an email asking for another meeting.
Well I can tell you I was in tears as I wrote it. I sobbed as my fingers typed and I saw how unfair they had been to my boys.

Here is the email.



Hi -----,

Yesterdays consultation broadsided me a bit and as I had to get home for Ollie and --------, I didn't really have time to think of any questions to ask you and Mrs ---- .

May I start by saying we have always found you approachable and understanding and I hope this will be the case now.

Firstly, we were disappointed that a consultation for Alfie turned into a meeting about Owen. We felt we came away with very little information on how Alfie is doing apart from the fact you find him "Immature".
If you felt there was cause to talk to use about Owen before his consultation maybe we could have organised a separate meeting?

We also felt that the problems you feel Owen (and Alfie) have are down to immaturity.We fail to see exactly what you mean and found the whole thing to be a little vague, the word immaturity being bandied around rather than a specific problem being discussed.
We don't consider either of them to be immature when interacting with boys in their age group (which they do out of school) and have always considered them to be MORE mature than boys their age in some respects, that is looking after themselves personally (toileting, dressing etc) and emotionally.
The only reason we can think you consider them immature is in comparison to their peers at -------.
However in the case of Owen I feel comparing him to his peers in unfair.
His class is made up entirely of girls, which in the main (and you admitted this yesterday) do better at this age academically and socially. For Owen to be held up against them is a false comparison In our opinion.
I should also point out that all of the girls in his class attend a great deal of after school, weekend and holiday activities, so are in effect in a "school" environment for almost twice the time Owen is.
For one thing we are unable to afford to send our children to every activity available to them and on the other hand we have no wish to as this is not the way we want to bring them up.
You already know my thoughts on not allowing children to have time to themselves and, without getting personal and I trust this will go no further, we have no wish to listen to our children whining and crying and being generally unhappy because they are being bundled into the car yet again to go to yet another after school activity. This is something we hear every day by living close to people who practice this.
In this instance it feels like we are being penalised for not having the money to do these things and also having a different opinion on child raising.

On the subject of Owen falling behind slightly and wishing to be seen as a "little boy" we feel you are being unsympathetic to his feelings in this case.
If you cast your minds back to when he started P1 he was devastated when the P3 boys would not play with him. Yes he eventually played with the girls but lets face it they played with him like a doll most of the time and for most of the year he moaned to us about having to play with the girls.
Is it any surprise that he should be initially excited about --- (another boy) and Alfie starting school?
Is it any surprise that he should then feel unhappy that he isn't able to work with them in class?
You talk about your fear of Alfie catching Owen up and maybe overtaking him academically, well we don't see this as a problem.
Remember there is only 9 months between them, the same as between Oliver and ---- in P5.
Also shouldn't Owen be given the opportunity to develop self impetus by failing? Surely this is better than spending a life time coaxing him to do better?
We find it hard to get upset about something that when the boys are 10 & 11 or 20 & 21 will simply have no relevance.
This was obviously a big concern between you and Mrs ----- though.

In summing up we both felt that the whole consultation came across as very negative.
We understand that when classes are so small any child lagging behind makes a big impact on class performance statistics, but we have no wish for our children to be educated as statistics.
In this case we would like to arrange another meeting with you to discuss what the real issues of immaturity are.
In all honesty if these boys are going to be treated as though "under performing" we will be considering bringing our homeschool plans forwards.

Yours sincerely

---------------------.

I don't think I could write that out again if I tried I was so upset.

That afternoon I received an email from the headteacher apologising profusely. She agreed that immature had been vague and in retrospect really the wrong word to use.

I actually saw her that afternoon as it was open day and we snatched 20 minutes or so talking and she agreed with me that taking the pressure off Owen to "grow up" is fine by them, yes he should be allowed to develop naturally.
In her defence I am in the minority of parents who feel this way, most if the time she is fending off angry parents demanding to know why their 5 yr old children aren't getting as much homework as the kids in another school!

The trouble with these consultations is that they are so short that to try and cram everything in things get lost along the way.

Anyway another meeting is being arranged and hopefully we will get a clearer picture of their concerns and, as parents, we will be able to take the time to discuss them with the teachers.

I have very definite ideas about my children's education.
Although the plan is to let all 3 of them finish primary education I don't want to end up with broken spirited 11 year olds with no love for learning.
On the other hand the small and personal school is a safe and (mostly) nurturing place for them and gives them a chance to make village friends they will keep.

So that is why I have been off this week.

My crying jags and fits of mild depression over whelmed me and made me feel ill.

But I'm back :)

And I have LOTS to post about :D

A day of cycling, art and homeschool plans....

Country Frames Art Gallery, Leslie, Insch.


What a beautiful and inspiring day we've had so far.
Me and Kim cycled to Country Frames, an art gallery a couple of miles down the road from us (uphill all the way..ouch).
We've been a couple of times, they framed one of our Glastonbury prints for us beautifully, but this was the first time we had set off to see an exhibition there.
One of the main artists there was Roselyne O'Neil a very talented lady who works in many mediums and produces some fantastic equine art as well as other subjects.

Another local artist is Marion Wills, who incidentally is visiting art teacher at my son's school! She had some striking pieces, mostly staring her own horse, a Fjord called Ffin.

We spent a very happy hour viewing the exhibition and the other art work, we even got a free cup of coffee for cycling to them lol.

I'm taking Ollie up there on Saturday morning, I'm sure the mix of horses and art can only inspire him!

So, me and Kim have talked a lot about homeschooling once the kids hit 11, and the cycle home was a good time to chat about it. There are so many things locally that we had never really thought about that will benefit the kids educationally, the countryside, the art galleries (there are 3 I know of all within cycling distance!) the Archaeolink centre and of course the library in town.
Also the whole social aspect was something we chatted at length about today.
Thinking about it he still has his friends in the village, both Kim and I had many more friends outside school than in it.

Armed with this I decided to make an appointment to see our head teacher today and instead spent 20 minutes chatting about it informally instead, so no need for the formal meeting!
To my surprise she was in total agreement and has promised to help us with any red tape that comes our way!

Anyway, expect more posts on this subject in the near future as we gear up for leaving the school system!

So..how about a giveaway!

Nothing fancy, a post card I picked up from the gallery...A Celtic image of the "Maeshowe Dragon, Orkney" By Roselyne O'Neil.

This can be sent as a post card or mailed to you in an envelope to keep it clean and neat enough to frame?
Very pretty, very Scottish ;)

To be in with a chance please comment on this post...and a real comment please ;)
Lucky winner will be pulled out of a hat next Wednesday!!

Poll Results; Homeschooling.

Results are in.....

In what instance would you home school your children?

To ensure a correct education 3 (60%)

To ensure a better mix of friends beyond age. 0 (0%)

If my child was being bullied. 1 (20%)

If my child was behind peers academically. 0 (0%)

If my child was ahead of peers academically. 0 (0%)

Because it's my choice. 1 (20%)

I wouldn't home school 0 (0%)

An important issue to address here is surely why 60% of parents would home school to ensure a correct education for their children!

Schools were made to offer children a good level of education but time and again it seems we as parents have little faith in their ability to.
I know I'm not alone in looking at the three piles of reading, homework and projects sat on the table after school every afternoon and wondering what it is they DO in their that means so much work has to come home with them!
And this is before you take into account any special educational needs your child may have.

20% sited bullying as their main reason.
If I was in a position of having to take my child out of school due to bullying I would not hesitate. You would not be expected to put up with daily peril and stress in a workplace, why should it be any different at school? How can a child receive a good education when they spend their whole time watching their back?

And the last 20% said they would home school because it was their choice. SO many parents are pushed into sending their children into the factory farm equivalent of education because they don;t realise they DO have a choice. Use it or lose it so the saying goes.

What are YOUR thoughts???

Did someone just give me the rules for life??

Walking back from dropping the kids off at school today a scrap of paper blew under my feet. Being anal about litter, if I can I always pick it up, I scooped up the piece of paper.
Written on one side was what looked like a summery from someones homework.
The handwriting is neat, the i's dotted with little circles.

After reading it I realised that what ever it was, it came across like the best advice for life EVER!

Let me share with you.

"How can I improve my talk skills in the light of what I have seen in this task?
*Joke
*Personal viewpoint
*your feelings
*Rhetorical questions
*Refer back to start in conclusion
*Exiting ending/big question?
*Expand your vocabulary
*Use your words wisely
*Project voice. "

Lets go through these then.
Joke..genius! Of course, what would life be without a huge dose of humor!?

Personal viewpoint..Without it who are you? Early on its important to be comfortable with your own view on the world and not just blindly follow another.

Your feelings..Just as important as everyone else's. You deserve to have your feelings taken into account.

Rhetorical questions.. Without them we cannot make our audience pause and think. How can the planet endure so much pollution? How could the government lie? There are no answers only an opening to debate.

Refer back to start in conclusion.. Did you get where you wanted to be? Its all about the end result rather than the path you took.

Exciting ending? big question? .. I sure hope I do get one. I hope that at the time of my demise at least one person will think I did my bit.

Expand your vocabulary ..Haven't we all over the last few years? Peak oil, Indigo children, Biomedical, permaculture, sustainability?

use your words wisely ..Never a truer word said. Being a militant anything spewing insults left and right is never a way to get people to listen. My I be struck down the day I take veganism/enviromentalis/ any-ism that fanatically. Choose your words well and they will listen.

Project voice ..Because if you don't no one will do it for you. Speak up for what you believe in, not with anger but with clear reason.


I'm sorry mystery kid who lost their homework,,but thanks for brightening my day :)

The complexities of lunch and other ways to alienate yourself.

Well the kids went back to school today...ALL of them :D

Hmm, when did I get old enough to have THREE kids at school...damn!

So 3 pack lunches went into school with them today...and it brought all the past terms grievances back to the fore.
You see, as we are on benefits we are entitled to free school meals. Now in theory this would be fantastic, it would mean the children's dinner at home could be soup or sandwich, something light and inexpensive, that's the whole point of the free school meal.
We were all ready vegetarian and then @ 18 months ago we gave up dairy. This was, initially, a health move..I get asthma and the eldest and youngest son get eczema..all of which either vastly improved or disappeared all together, so you can imagine the results were worth the effort!

School was wonderful, yes they could still provide school meals even though they were nearly easting vegan, I even made it easy for them by allowing the menu to include fish and eggs (fish is something we don't eat at home and we only eat our own chickens eggs usually).
The meal company was informed and we were told that the meals would be provided and a menu sent to us in due course.

A whole YEAR went by and no menu came, despite repeated attempts by myself and the school administrator AND head teacher to get in touch.
In the meantime the two eldest were coming home with increasingly bizzar lunch tales...baked potato and rice...banana sandwich and pasta....seriously 3 or 4 days out of 5 was baked potato and baked beans..a good meal but not every day.
When the headmistress complained to the meal company about the lack of variety and haphazard nutritional value (sometimes 3 carbs and no protein, often no vegetable)they told her that school meals where designed to be spread "nutritionally" through the week not day to day!!!!!

I could have stuck it out and fought the good fight for the next child, but that winter my normally robust and healthy kids caught every virus and cold that went about, I had no idea what lunch would be for them so planning dinner was a nightmare.

The headmistress reluctantly agreed that it would be best to give them a packed lunch..but she was angry that I would now have to provide meals for my children when I was fully entitled to free ones at school.

We are on a budget...look at the price of a lunch box, an insulated bag, a flask, extra small pots for grapes and other small food...then times it by three.

However, it can only be worth it health wise.
They went today with apple juice, seeded wraps filled with peanut butter, kiwi fruit, carrot sticks, strawberries a pot of homemade potato salad and a homemade courgette muffin for break time.

It will be interesting to see how their health is this winter :)