Pinch and a Punch for the 1st of the Month

(This was begun, well, on the 1st of the month, lol, but has languished in the drafts section for want of time to finish it , so will post it retrospectively).

OMG it is September, the ninth month, three and a bit months to Christmas!!!!! and the first official day of Spring. I know this because one of the comprehensions we have been doing at school used the months of the year and the seasons. Remembering that the kids we have range from 12 yrs to 16, there were some who did not know how many days each month has, nor when the seasons fell, or even the entire list of the months in the correct order. This is all stuff I knew by the time I was 7 yrs old. We had lots of information printed on the back of our exercise books, - the times tables, weights, 30 days hath September, measures eg 22 chain makes a furlong how many feet to a mile etc etc. It is scarey the deficits these kids have in general knowledge but rewarding at how much they are learning and how their world is expanding. All are aware now that a federal election has occurred, and are even asking has the government been picked yet? The answer to that one is no - Julia Guillard and the Labour party are still in office and she picked up the representative from the Greens party today, but there are three independent representatives who have yet to agree to either party. Watch this space, lol.

Have continued to be extremely busy with no complete day off, though this week I have had three half days at school with free afternoons. The first two I pretty much slept through catching up on working all weekend and have finally come up for air today. We have two new students at school - a boy who has hardly attended for the last five years but has been a reader of books at home, and a girl who has been in bother at her last school and looking for a fresh start. Both seem to be settling in well and have altered the dynamics in a positive for a way. Several boys chose to have time out for not managing to be working under the four principles of the school, being honesty, safe and legal, respect and participation, and had various amounts of time off ranging from overnight to several days. Each time time out happens, it requires a re-entry interview with parents or guardians in attendance so it was a very busy week in that respect. Our lad who holds the record for attendance is up to his 32nd day of continuous attendance which is awesome. The next closest is 28 days with one of the girls holding that position. We started reading a class novel today and it was so good to hear the lad mentioned above read out loud the first twelve pages and laugh at some of the funny bits, thereby reading for meaning and comprehending what he was reading as well. He put himself up a level in spelling some weeks ago, so his vocab has grown and the best part is, he has no shame in asking what a word means now. Shame is a very indigenous thing, close to whakama in Maori I think but conveniently used by all over here. Can't do that Miss, its shame, though said shaaaamme, lol.

It was a busy week at the residential home last week with the two mentioned last time leaving and two new little ones arriving. Our lad with the broken arm also had an operation at the hospital to remove two more teeth at the back so he was not in a good place over the weekend. After mainly dealing with boys, it was a nice change to have a little girl about the place. It took me back to when I used to look after my niece Laura, doing hair in pony tails and plaits and working out which outfit suited the day. Two of the older boys had sports days at their respective schools and both returned with ribbons that they had won in various events so there was much excitement over that.

I have had friend Jude stay again for a couple of nights. On Monday we had both worked in the morning and had both worked the weekend so after having an afternoon tea visit with the workmate and her family, we looked at each other and thought, blow it, we would have take aways for dinner. The Noodle Box was suggested - I didn't even know there was one in Geraldton, and we had a feast. Jude chose Nasi Goreng, I had garlic prawn noodles and decided we would get lemon chicken noodles as well. We both had two bowls of every thing and there was still enough for me to eat last night for dinner and it was delicious. I have a sneaking suspicion I will go back again, lol. I had tried Noodle Box food in Hamilton (NZ) and remembered it was excellent value for money then too. Am sleepy so hope to finish this tomorrow.