Category: positive thoughts

Some reading while I’m uploading

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A bit of time, a window of opportunity, so I’m quickly (ha!) uploading the pics from the long weekend as promised. I started pruning my pics from my flight with Sea & Sky and then I thought no, sod that, I want to remember every moment of it, so I’ve just put them all up in a set yet to be uploaded (and therefore available). Expect whales, coastline, and skies forever and ever…

UPDATE: Now up – here

And I haven’t even looked at the rest of the photos from the rest of the weekend. Met eish, ja.

UPDATE: Also now up – here

But I’ll link to them in a separate post (UPDATE: Which I also did – here), because until those pics are available, you need to read this:

Some (obviously) excellent writing from Jacques Rousseau including a hilarious off-the-cuff dig at the French and this vitally important line:

The point is that there’s an arms-race of hyperbole going on…

And yes, he’s absolutely right and it’s making the internet an increasingly unpleasant place to be and additionally (and more importantly), it’s stifling and devaluing meaningful debate.

Sea and Sky

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I was lucky enough to receive a voucher for a flight with Sea & Sky as a birthday present and I went up today. I wasn’t allowed to take my phone because it might have fallen to a watery or… earthy(?) demise, so no immediate photos, I’m afraid.

I did take up my new camera (and neck strap) though, but even those photos will have to wait because the speed of the  internet here is measured in terms of plate tectonics.

Suffice to say – amazing. And I’ll do a full report with the photos at a later date, but I saw whales – including a very rare albino calf – shipwrecks, flamingos, some amazing, breathtaking coastline and we even did a couple of loops over the cottage.

If you’re ever down this way, do this – it’s worth every single cent. Really.

Tablet Engagement

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You may remember last month when I wrote about how the kids’ school wants to introduce iPads into their learning programmes.

This weekend, I was reminded of this line particularly:

They cited the engagement that the kids had with the device (I’ve seen this with my kids and my tablet) and the way that that engagement facilitated learning.

We were at a birthday party for one of the girls in Scoop’s year, but having no-one to look after Alex, I took him along as well. I also took the tablet, because there’s probably limited interest for a 7 year old boy in a younger girls’ birthday party.

Here’s what happened:

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Alex and the (educational) Make Your Wild Self website was suddenly the centre of attention. And the kids came away having learned about bats and penguins.
The tablet came away covered in cupcake icing, but that’s not the point I’m trying to illustrate here.

Just having the device in front of them engages the kids. What’s on it is up to the parents and the teachers to sort out, but get it right and yes, it’s a fantastic learning tool.