Aye! Last summer we went away for a month. Being a careful citizen the hubster went around turning all the plugs off at the wall forgetting that the plug for the washing machine also had the standing freezer attached.

Gag-a-licious!!

Bye bye scallops and a tasty trout we'd been given from earlier in the summer!

The stench remained for some time. Disinfectant, hosing, more disinfectant, more hosing, then outside in the sun for a couple of weeks. Then when we brought it inside, we disinfected it again.

It took some time!

Intermittent sun in Dunedin courtesy of La Nina means we've had intermittent outside play with our two boys. Elder boy is on the 'puter' with Pajama Sam while the two year old is playing with soap suds and plastic containers at the bathroom sink. Their sister is the luckiest tween alive as she's with extended family heading for the Bay of Islands.

Both little boys have sleeps during the day so we parents take the time to catch up on the rest of the thinking-television world with season one of The Wire. Late bloomers I know but so far it's been worth the wait. Television in the middle of the summer holiday sounds a bit sad, but I shall persuade myself it's decadent.

Dunedin can be at its best on a hot summer day when the bulk of its population heads elsewhere, but I'm at grimacing point today knowing that the two year old needs and deserves a run outside to burn off the energy. Concrete grey and gusty winds does not a pleasant day make.

Bah humbug indeed

We-eelll, if you mean the literacy component of Level 1 NCEA, you only need8 credits to get it - and it's any 8 credits now, whereas they used to sp ecify 4 in reading and 4 in writing - so if you got failing kids to study for just two 4-credit papers, and pushed them on those two, I can imagine you could get everyone through. Not easy, but not impossible.

With all due respect Lucy, could you link to an NZQA page or something similar for this because it is my understanding that the subject of English, at Level 1 as it stands now, is still the gate keeper for literacy. Students must get reading and writing credits in the English domain to achieve literacy. There is some talk of literacy at Level 2 being assessed by 'language rich' subjects such as History and Media Studies etc, but that isn't happening this year.

A great post Emma and one I might have to share with my senior English class when we do revision for The Handmaid's Tale.

Can I come out of my 'wide-eyed with wonder in private' closet for just a mo and ask what all the clothing choices were about on the recent TV3 telethon?

I just couldn't see the connection between the 'thank-you-very much-for-the-kind-donation-scantily-clad-dancers" and raincoats, shoes and muesli bars.

I was just wondering if anyone else was bemused as I was.

Ian...we're of that ilk I think. We do take that simple approach you mention. I'd be interested in reading Alfie Kohn.

The reward thing tends to happen after our daughter has been put under what we believe to be unreasonable stress in comparison to the homelife her immediate friends experience. Sometimes our kids can do extraordinary things that aren't recognised with medals or stickers...and I think they must be acknowledged.

The 'intermittent' rewards mentioned earlier are the way we do it in our house.

We surprise our daughter (age 10) with rewards for doing something lovely or unbidden for us. Because she has an intellectually disabled brother, her life is a 'life-less-ordinary" compared to her friends with typically developing siblings.

Intermittent treats - just out of the blue are some ways we reward her for behaviour which we believe is mature and goes beyond what a kid her age would do.

It makes the times when she does do something silly or forgetful much easier to manage - eg faffing around on the way home from school and worrying the bejeezuz out of us after playing with a mate. Then she gets a period of time when after school play is out and she's to be straight home after school. That can hurt ;-)

@Matthew

I have (on another forum) shown piece from the law over and over to people who believed that the government had taken away their 'right to smack'

It became a 'did not/ 'did too' argument.

The media has a helluva lot to answer for.

@Tim

My class I was teaching in 2007, who had received and were getting 'the bash' said "It's not going to stop kids getting smacked - but it's a good thing to say it's not OK to hit them." Why can't Larry and co. see that?

Or am I being too idealistic....

If you're idealistic, then so are a lot of my peers who, like me, believed that it was in the sentiment. I voted YES because I believed in the repeal of Section 59. I valued what it was trying to say to our community.

I really thought it was about a voice for our kids and a way to give them the same protection from assault as taller people get. :-)

I'd like to see all smacking illegal. But if that aint going to happen then I'm happy with the law as it stands today and I'm crossing all appendages for a decent outcome from tomorrow's cabinet meeting.

I'm a teacher too Tim. We have to be idealistic don't we? Otherwise we might as well hang up our hats.

Even just a month ago, the brain-damaged woman in the LTSA ads simply turns out to be Australian

Hah!

I can kinda handle that. But I will be most peeved if the trachy guy from the 'it's not worth it' smoking ads is not for real. Both people have me screaming for the remote although the cancer guy is slightly more appealing and the ad itself is far more clever.

Gurgle.