February in the garden

 February in our tiny back garden. The soil was still very cold so waiting was in order. My chicken manure order didn't arrive, so once again, I'm growing on nutrient free soil for the moment. Since our slightly failed attempt to do the Garden Bird Watch, Cubling is taken by birds and we made some bird food. The birds do their best to ignore it.

The washing line is still in weather's hand, but I can feel the spring sun and soon the washing will be outside again, giving the house a chance to dehumidify. I hope.

The shed got painted in winter. I love it. It makes such a difference to have a splash of colour and I'm sure we'll also paint the raised beds before long.

I tried to plant onion and garlic sets before the winter and it's rather amazing that they've sprouted, especially considering the cold and long winter we had. And the nutrient free soil I gave them.

Just this week, the plum tree that I was given for my birthday got planted in the front garden. There isn't enough soil in the back (the sunny side) to plant it - the back is really container gardening. The front doesn't have much sun but I picked the sunniest position there is and cross my fingers. When digging the hole for the tree I hit on soil which looked like this:

I'm pretty sure you could use it for some pottery. I remember that my parent's allotment had clay soil, how they cursed the digging of it because it was so hard and eventually led to giving it up altogether, but never have I seen something that looked and felt just like pottery clay. I hope that I prepared it sufficiently for the tree to be happy. So far, it's doing well in its new position. Two soft fruit stalks got planted in containers too, and my rocket, coriander and basil is doing well in the conservatory (aka play room), where the potatoes are being chitted too. I've rearranged the toys to clear surfaces for some seed propagation, and make the playroom look a bit tidier in the process too.

No chickens yet, and there's still a lot to be done that I'd meant to tackle in the winter and didn't get around to due to the harsh temperature and sick kids. It's all a work in progress though and that's the beauty of it.

One blanket and 100 million missing women

There are squares. Many squares. The colours of the rainbow, different textures, some knitted, some crocheted, some put together into blankets. There are people too, knitting, sewing together, sitting together, having a cup of tea or coffee, with a laptop on the blanket. The air is of urgency and comfort at the same time, there are lots of smiles, smiles that speak of excitement. Friendly faces that invite to be approached. Blankets laid out on sofas and chairs, on tables, a splash of colour in the dark space of Glasgow's Tramway Theatre.

It's coming together. A good few months ago, Garterstitch 100 started out on the phenomenal task to knit just one stitch for every woman missing in our world today. A staggering 100 million women who should be here with us aren't, due to gender inequalities. Women who didn't get born (sex selective abortion), women who didn't get good health care, women who died in childbirth, girls killed just because they were girls, women killed in war and at home.

To celebrate the centenary of International Women's Day on 8th March 2011, the initiative will present a massive blanket to which rather a lot of people contributed. We all knitted or crocheted 6'' squares, and if I remember correctly, a staggering 60,000 squares are needed if just one stitch represents the missing women of this world.

It's all coming together, and coming together is maybe the best description of what's happening. There were so many sit and knit a bit events, where people just got together to knit a square, sharing a space, a time, a task. And while people sat and knitted, they got to know one another. The atrocious fact of the missing women was countered by creativity and togetherness, by creating something with the skill of hands. Lots of hands.

The Tramway is already full of colour and yarn, quite a contrast to its usual steel, metal and brick. The deadline for submitting squares is fast approaching, Tuesday it will be, so if you wish to be part of it, don't tally.

 And after Tuesday, the gigantic blanket will be celebrated on International Women's Day with Loop, 100 events for 100 years. Be there.

On young love and marriage

"Mummy, when Snowflake is a wee bit older, I want to marry her. Can I marry her?"
"You can't marry your sister unfortunately."
"But I can pretend to be a man!"

Cubling to a dad at the outdoors playgroup she had met for the first time:

"Are you married?"
"No, I'm not"
"But you need to get married!"
"I don't think so, I don't believe in marriage."
"But you need to dance! It's fun and you can wear a beautiful dress!"

Building a green house

There I was, sitting with Snowflake strapped on, in the reception area of Cubling's nursery, with lots of plastic bottles, trying to battle them into submission, er, cut the bottom off them with a pair of child proof scissors. In the end, I stopped at about 50, partly because my thumb was starting to object, partly because Snowflake had woken up again and I didn't want to chance stabbing her now that she's a bit more active and keen to explore if she can climb out of the sling.

I felt a bit apprehensive, admittedly. Especially when another carer came in and asked if I was able to bring the wean to work. It took a minute to sink in that she thought I was staff, rather than the parent volunteer engaged in the task of cutting off bottle bottoms.

So what was this all about? Well, this nursery being quite high on all things eco,  has teamed up with Urban Roots to build a green house out of plastic bottles. Throughout the winter, the children collected bottles for this undertaking (somewhere between 500 and 1000). Now each of them needs its bottom cut off so they can be stacked with the help of bamboo sticks to form the greenhouse in the nursery's outdoor play area. The bottom bits are going to be used as plant pots.

I've got a feeling that I'm a tad more excited about it all than anyone else, I don't blame the staff for being daunted by the task ahead of them to cut all those plastic bottle bottom off, but if only 10 parents helped for an hour, it would be done. I have to admit, I'd probably enjoyed myself a bit more if it had been a bit of a communal parent volunteer thingme, just being sat there cutting away on my own wasn't particularly elating. The idea I had in mind when I volunteered to help was definitely about a joint effort, not the lonely loon parent slavouring away.

I hope that even if I'm currently failing to enthuse Cubling for gardening, maybe the nursery will be more successful, especially with a shiny new glass, er, plastic house.

Seeds seeds seeds

Ding dong, the gardening year has begun, and it started with a bang.
Some while ago I blogged about the Scottish Seed Saving Network and how much I learned about the politics behind seeds. In two hours, my view on seeds was totally and utterly changed. While before I got my seeds from any old garden centre without much thought, now I know the importance of local seeds for growing success (short term) and empowered gardening for the want of a better word (long term). Growing food is also about skills, and saving seeds as well as growing from seed is a skill set that makes the food grower self sufficient. Not in an airy fairy way, it's rather about empowering anyone to grow independent from the seeds imposed on you by large scale manufacturers, who can give you whatever they like (including seeds that won't be able to produce seeds, as they already do with lots of crops).

The philosophy of the seed saving network is to promote seed saving and to exchange them for free. It's utterly not about profit, but about giving good seeds to anyone who wants to grow vegetables.

And Saturday was this years seed exchange day. I'd been waiting for it for over 6 months, since I came to know about the network. It's based in East Kilbride, just a few miles out of Glasgow, which has the advantage of being a location within the same micro climate as Glasgow, so that seeds tested and growing well will also do well in Glasgow. If anything, the seeds will be hardier than needed as East Kilbride is a bit colder than Glasgow.

I was stunned by the variety of seeds. They came packaged in small bags, just the right size to avoid wasting the seedy gold. The quantities were impressive, as was the variety. I really struggled what to do, with my limited garden space I can't possibly plant all that was on offer, yet I'd like to try out quite a few new vegetables, and that made me take much more than needed. They won't go to waste though, between neighbours, family and friends who are also growing their own, they will find a home for this season I'm sure (if you live in Scotland, and would like some seeds, do get in touch, I'm more than happy to pass some one).

Cubling found the whole event rather exciting, and was more intrigued by beekeeping than seeds, and ever so slightly subverting the oil game of the Transition Scotland Support stall.

I never thought a year ago that I could be so excited about seeds. In fact, most of my veg were garden centre pregrown because I couldn't be bothered growing from seed. How this has changed - I'm so excited about my seed collection that I can't wait to get started. In my mind there is a lot of measuring out of space going on, trying to find little spaces for another seed tray here and there.

I'm confident that these seeds will work much better than those bought in shops, and that I'll be able to actually grow something all the way from seed to harvest.
Let the growing season begin.

Where I try to be more Zen about it all and fail

Just as a postscript to yesterday's post, no children were harmed. I got loud, and a tad short tempered, but nothing that couldn't be sorted out. It was more a feeling of frustration, and unhappiness how things were turning out. I'm getting better at controlling my frustrations and not shouting, but it's a hard lesson on me.

But Houston, we have a problem anyway.
Yes, part of the problem is sick kids - nothing to be done about that, it needs to be sat out. Just that Cubling was a lot better today and after taking the adapted Cesar Millan mantra/advice from Mwa to make sure there's exercise first to avoid tensions , we did that. Out and about in the woods, totally and utterly child led, our favourite yes-environment, going with the flow, being 100% with her, reflective listening and all the other tick boxes of model parenting. We had so much fun.

What was the reward? Within an hour of being home, a stomping, screaming, shouting, making herself almost sick pre-schooler, a very special performance which I'm sure was audible in the whole of our neighbourhood. Not that I care. Maybe I do a little bit. Why? Because I said that 1hr of TV was enough now and how about preparing dinner now (notice I framed the "no" in positive ways and didn't just say "no").

Jesus Mary and Joseph, where did I go wrong? We sailed, yes sailed, through the "terrible twos". They were cute and adorable twos. Now we have constant whining and whinging, refusal (to eat, to get dressed, to follow any type of simple request, to speak German), defiance, anger, and drama. Drama above all, everything is drama.
Any necessary control is by threats and rewards - the latter works sometimes, the former only if it's a serious threat, and I'm not comfortable using either. I mean, I'd rather not bribe my child into appropriate behaviour.

So here I am trailing parenting sites, trying to find a solution because above all, I do not want to have a relationship with my child which is disrespectful and a constant power contest. I lived through a relationship like that, didn't like it yet couldn't change it. I know how important it is to change this.
I'm even considering parenting courses, if it weren't for the fact that I know the content of them. I know the theory, I practice the theory. It ain't working right now.

This too shall pass, yes maybe, it's just a phase. A bloody long one though and grinding my nerves one too Maybe it's related to baby in house. Maybe she's picking it up from nursery. You see, she's a lovely, funny, if extremely energetic girl, she's not like that really. It's an act, and a flipping annoying one.

While baby has decided to also start whining constantly (which is not an act of course and I worry my head off what's up because she's not a cry baby at all, and if this is really just down to a mild viral infection). Can someone stop the noise please before my head explodes.

Suggestions on how to turn around the drama and making a mother daughter relationship fun again are very much invited (oh and I know the obvious stuff, and we don't do time out because it upsets her too much). After all I want to enjoy this year of maternity leave, the idea is to spend quality time with my kids and I honestly don't know what's up.

Frustration

This week had a sense of forboding. Mid term and in service days mean a full week without nursery or playgroup for Cubling, and this is the week where both kids take turn being unwell. There are sore ears, sore tummies, runny noses, raging temperatures, oh and that crackling cough that is more often than I like followed by a pause in breathing or a projectile resurgitation of milk. She throws up so often that sometimes I only notice after the milk has dried on the carpet.

I have so many things planned, but it's a struggle just to make it through the day. The frustration grinds when even the simplest task on my to do list doesn't get done, while others are so clearly out of the reach of the doable that I don't even attempt to tackle them. A baby needing carried while a preschooler needs entertained or cuddled. Two little ones moaning and whinging because they're not well. The frustration that nothing I try and do makes them feel any better.

I haven't knit in days. It matters, even if it seems a small thing. It speaks volumes about the lack of time for anything but the basics, the washing, cleaning, dressing, cooking, cuddling and trying to keep both kids in the best mood they've got at the moment (which is not a good mood), all on two hours of sleep. The worry that is Snowflake, because I've lost the ability to trust my instinct which was so wrong before.

And after the 100th time Cubling whinged about her earache today, after the 50th time she complained about the 10 minute walk home, after 2 years of her refusing to feed herself or finish dinner in less than an hour so that we could actually have some family game/play time before bed time, after two days of not being able to stop the relentless sounds of complaint out of Snowflake's mouth for more than 5 minutes, I lose the will to be the reasonable adult and surrender to the frustration of it all.

And hate myself for it.

Baking by colours: Orange or Pumpkin and Orange Cookies

I've had a rather cute little pumpkin sitting in my kitchen for a while now, and never quite know what to do with the oranges that come in our veg and fruit bag (I'm no fan of eating them, one of those childhood eeks though I do actually like them now. I know that doesn't make sense).

And because it's valentines day and it was raining and the outdoor playgroup was struck down by absences, I decided that I could bake an orange and pumpkin cake. Darn, not enough eggs. How about cookies then? Cubling rejoiced. Cookies it was.

So then, I give you pumpkin and orange cookies which are both tasty and healthy, containing at least one of your five a day. Honest.

All ingredients are approximate. I don't do scales when there's more than 3 ingredients.
3 cups of wholemeal flower
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1 egg
half a cup of ground almond
1 cup of brown caster sugar
1/2 cup of soft brown sugar
2 cups of grated pumpkin flesh
juice and peel of 1 orange
150 g of butter
some spices to taste: cinnemon, cloves and the like

Mix together well, place about one teaspoon of dough per cookie onto oiled baking tray and bake in preheated oven at 190 degrees for 14 minutes.

Enjoy.

5 months, 2 teeth, 25 miles and 4 1/2 hours

Has it been 5 months already? The date says it has. So it must be true. My little baby is 5 months old. On the eve of her 5 month's birthday (and I kept watching the clock thinking how few hours it was from the actual hour of her birth) she showed us what a determined little girl she is. Placid as she may be most of the time.

After a lovely day with newly wed friends in West Kilbride we embarked on our journey home. Darkness was setting, but Snowflake was well fed and with clean nappy, it was the right time for a nap. She had her favourite blanket, her favourite toy, an attentive sister who will try her best to entertain her.and we crossed our fingers that maybe, just maybe, we might get home without the usual wailing from the back.

How wrong we were. As soon as the engine was started, cheery Snowflake transformed into furious dragon. We made it to the next town (20 minutes), where we stopped and I fed her again. Repeat scenario - transfer to car seat, furious wailing. We drove on. It was late, it was getting to Cubling's bedtime and it was only another 35 minutes drive. You know the way if you know there's nothing much you can do and you just want to get through it? Well, that was us. Until about 10 minutes later, when Snowflake demonstrated her new found skill of hyperventilating to daddy (I'd been introduced already).

There's something about a hyperventilating baby which is really and truly worrying. But we had to get home and there was no where near to stop. So we drove on. Just minutes later, there was the unmistakable sound of resurgitation of the projectile kind (remember I'd fed her well before setting off and again just 20 minutes later? There was A LOT OF MILK in her tummy. It was now no longer in her tummy but nicely distributed across her clothes, car seat, blanket, toys and possibly more, just that it was too dark to see.). She was also choking on the puke, while still hyperventilating.
We stopped as soon as we could, cleaned her up as good as we could.

There we were, somewhere in Ayrshire/Renfrewshire, I don't know which, near Howwood, 17 miles away from home and we knew that this journey could not continue like this. I strapped Snowflake in the sling and walked to the nearest train station, mercifully only half a mile away. By the time we got there, of course we'd miss the hourly train by 5 minutes. Had we driven.... It was cold and I didn't have clothing warm enough for Snowflake to wait for an hour, so we decided to get some food in a local restaurant. That meant another 1 mile drive (argh!!!!).

Once there, we could relax, it was a beautiful country hotel, with open fire and friendly staff, not very busy, just perfect to get our nerves together and Snowflake promptly fell asleep. Of course only to wake up just in time to get into the car for our last leg home. Low and behold I'd also run out of nappies as this outing was getting markedly longer than intended, but at least I had a change of clothes for both kids so improvisation it was and a vest and trousers quickly were stuck into a wrap to make the new style cloth nappy.

Snowflake was all cheery and smiles. Until the car seat was put into the car. At which point mummy lost the will to live and daddy had to rescue her and wave his magic wand (swing the car seat) which instantly sent Snowflake off to the land of nod.

We got home 4 1/2 hours after we set off on our 25 mile journey, and Snowflake didn't wake up until after we'd put Cubling to bed and watched a DVD, sleeping happily in her car seat as if nothing had happened. 

In other Snowflake news, she's got two teeth, rolls over from front to back and back to front, has another bad cough and still wakes a lot at night, but is otherwise a very smiley little girl, extremely good natured (honest) and giggles hysterically when her sister jumps up and down. Her favourite toy is her right foot and she's unbelievably beautiful and cute. When she's not in the car.

One glorious day in February

This week's Nurture in Nature's outing took us on a day trip to Loch Lomond.
Sometimes it's mindboggling that I live in a place where it's possible to just go on a day trip, catch a train, and just an hour later, I'm in such a beautiful location. The stuff of dreams really, especially when I recall how special it was when I first made it to Loch Lomond, that place that I actually knew of through a song. Back then, it took a 3 day interrail trip to make it there, unfortunately the weather didn't play game and I could just about make out the Loch in the fog, but didn't see any of the hills. Still, it was an adventure and I was glad that I'd made the effort.

So now, I can just catch a train and enjoy the beauty whenever it takes my fancy. We don't do it often enough, the gems close to you are easily forgotten or taken for granted. Of course, it was a bit more effort than just a quick train hop - dragging one kid and carrying another plus a heavy rucksack to the train station, changing train stations in the centre of Glasgow and back.

In between though, it was a glorious day - blinding sunshine that had the faintest promise of warmth and summer, while Ben Lomond and even the lower hills were still covered in an icing of snow. After the plentiful rain of recent days, the water levels were high and perfect for getting your wellies wet. We were even able to have picnic on a table and bench submerged in water. The trees seemed to be growing out of and into the water, their reflection as clear as the real thing. There was immense delight at the discovery of snowdrops and a swan, the launch of a boat and the ducks looking for food.

A perfect day, and we couldn't have spent it any better really.
(I'm sure my back disagrees, but don't listen)
Quietly, I promised myself to come back sooner rather than later.

 

This post is part of Outdoor Challenge Monday, hosted at 5organgepotatoes.com - the challenge is to spend more time outdoors. In our case it tends to be outdoor Thursday, because that is our Nurture in Nature playgroup day. Nurture in Nature is a loosely organised outdoor playgroup that meets twice a week, usually for a morning and an afternoon; once a month it's a daytrip. It is based in the southside of Glasgow though open to anyone who values the importance of outdoor play and learning and wants to get muddy with the kids. 

Supporting early literacy in bilingual children

Cubling has reached the point where her interest in all things letters and words is well established. I blame the pre-school personally, as I find it terribly early. Nevermind, my approach has always been to look at signs of interest and then support it.

But how do you do it if the language you use exclusively, in spoken and in writing, is one other than the community language, i.e. the language that she will learn to read and write in?
I don't want to confuse my child, but I also don't want to give her more reason to think that it's a nuisance to talk German when everything around her is English. Being a linguist, I also know that the written word gives a lot of power to any language, in fact, often makes a language in the mind of speakers of that language. A language without a written form is often dismissed as a dialect, as not a real language because it lacks the authority of the written word.

Therefore, considering that Cubling's is an at-risk bilingual (that's a bilingual child who grows up in a bilingual home but in whose community only one of the two languages is spoken. This may lead to refusal to speak the non-community language or even a total loss of the minority language, see Neuman/Dickinson, p.161), it's crucial that we support her early literacy without forgetting about German.

There is some information on the lovely internet, but often, the information relates to different settings to ours. Usually the setting relates to migrants who have one language at home and are now entering the UK/English language community. The typical child is one who speaks one language and now enters pre-school not speaking English. Of course our situation is far from this - English is the stronger language and one that is used at home and in the community. My interest is not how to support Cubling's developing literacy in English (because I know roughly how to go about this) but how and when to support it in, and using, German. My aim in this endeavour is not for her to write perfect German, but to be able to read German and use some writing in German, both of which should ideally support her English literacy as well.

More than her actual proficiency in writing and reading German, the reason to support her literacy in German is to give German some equality of relevance and usefulness, which in turn will help her maintain it, but also open up the world of the German written word to her.

We have already had interesting situations where she tried to decipher words on a wall chart. The words were in English, but she spoke to me, so "read" Katze instead of cat. Now this behaviour, while understandable, is bound to cause confusion - c-a-t does not read Katze after all. The nursery suggested to add the German word, which is probably a quick solution but won't help with all the signs we come across during the day.

There seems to be very little research evidence as to how achieve biliteracy. It appears that for children who have a home language and subsequently learn a second language (migrant children speaking one language at home who then enter pre-school and are only there exposed to, say, English) it is better if they learn literacy in their home language first because, in order to learn reading and writing, they need to have a decent range of vocabulary to work with and be able to distinguish phonemes.

For a child like Cubling, who is an at risk bilingual, it is on the one hand important to support the at risk, minority, language by introducing literacy in that language, as otherwise the weaker language may be at even greater risk of being lost. However, it's not clear if her German is proficient enough for her to acquire literacy in German just yet as her productive abilities in German are rather weak. She may be a borderline case and early literacy development is considered to be a mostly transferrable skill so that it may be best to introduce literacy in both languages at the same time.

Interestingly, what started being a question of curiosity appears to point towards a question that hasn't been appropriately answered in research, and one where the level of language in the weaker language may carry the answer. Cubling is definitely a borderline case - her German is beyond the formulaic stage but not yet at the productive stage. It's not clear if passive knowledge of vocabulary is sufficient to lead to fluent literacy or if productive use of a complex range of vocabulary and syntax is a prerequisite for literacy development.

The available research does point towards the importance of supporting literacy development at home, ideally in both languages. The emphasis is on the quality of language interaction and literacy activities in either language to be more important than what language this occurs in. It's just not clear as to whether it's better to introduce literacy in both langauges simultaneously or subsequently.

Bilingual children, regardless of how their proficiency in each language is distributed, benefit from additional support in literacy development. This is because their vocabulary in each language is smaller than that of a monolingual (though the accumulative vocabulary is greater than that of a monolingual) and size of vocabulary has been shown to be directly related to success in acquiring literacy. This means that bilingual children may find it more difficult to acquire literacy.

This means for us that maybe we should change our approach of letting things flow and become a bit more proactive with pre-literacy activities, while keeping in touch with Cubling's educators to spot any possible difficulties she may experience. I'm still none the wiser if it'll be best to focus on English literacy first and introducing German literacy later, or if it may be too late by then and it would in fact be better to introduce both simultaneously.

Sources:
Susan B. Neuman, David K. Dickinson: Handbook of Early Literacy Research vol. 1.
Ellen Bialystok: Acquisition of Early Literacy in Bilingual Children: A Framework for Research. Language Learning 52:1, p. 159-199.

What were you born to?

Have you every asked yourself the question what you were born to?
It's a difficult one, isn't it. We are all complex human beings with lots of interests and passions, and nailing it down to just one is just a tiny gigantorous bit hard. I for one have never been particularly good at nailing the essence of who I am and what I am about onto the head. Stick me into any personal development course or session and I come out more confused than before.

Maybe I was born to write. I like to write and have always done some writing, without ever being ambitious about it. Honest, I know I'm not a poet, a novelist and that's fine. It doesn't mean that I don't enjoy expressing myself in writing. That's probably why I blog, and why I'm never pushed to find time for blogging, something many people find odd. It's something I enjoy, which relaxes me, just like reading and knitting does, or watching a good film or gigging.

The other passion I have is that for social justice and equalities. It's always been with me, I really can't tell where and when it started. I grew up in the height of the cold war and always thought it was ridiculous the way the "Russians" were portrayed as the baddies. I voiced my views loud and clear as a teenager and promptly got labelled a communist (which back then was a major insult - I shrugged and just said that they should check what a communist is first - and if you think that sounds rather petty, it wasn't at the time). I loved to discuss politics but I could and still can get angry when views extremely opposed to my sense of justice are put forward, it really upsets me which is why I wouldn't be any good as a politician, it would tear me up from the inside I'm sure.

Much safer from this bloggy corner of mine because, let's be honest, if someone reads this and doesn't like my views, they will mostly just not read again. Debate usually is within a shared understanding and without upset. A debate that I find challenges my views and lets me look deeper and develop. The kind of debate that's good and constructive.

Some time ago, when I was still at school and uni, I worked as a freelance journalist, while I studied languages and politics. It became clear though that to be a successful journalist you needed more than a talent to write, it took a bit of elbows where I was and as someone who always waits their turn and is a bit on the shy side, it didn't feel right at the time to pursue this career. Of course I still wish sometimes I would have, it still is the one career that combines my two passions. Instead, I wrote a PhD, instead I now write reports and a blog. Which is pretty close. I still wish I was a more poignant debater/writer, and that I had the time to properly research the points I'd like to make, which is why I love reading posts by people who somehow manage to do this in their busy lives. You guys rule.

The bottom line though is that whatever I was born to do, I had the opportunity to explore and follow my dreams. The world was my oyster and I explored a lot of avenues, single road tracks, motorways, dirt tracks and dead ends. I'm one of the lucky ones. I even got a free third level education and only my parents nagged me about my choice of subject which they labelled a "brotlose Kunst" (breadless art, i.e. won't get you a job). Many children today are not born into such luck.

Save the Children have been working long and hard to launch a new campaign. I've known about it for a good while (after all I work for them) and I'm rather excited to see it all happening now and lots of bloggers sign up to it and spread the word. The great thing about this campaign is that it really engages with everyone, asking them what each of you were born to do. What's more, it links the international work Safe the Children does, which  is all about child survival, with the UK work on eradicating child poverty. The vision of the charity is for a world where no child is born to die, and where every child is allowed to live a life where his or her ambitions stand the possibility of being fulfilled, where they can life to their full potential.

And that vision applies equally to the developing and the developed world. In the UK, children born into poverty, compared to all other Western countries, are the least likely to succeed in school and to raise themselves out of poverty; giving rise to intergenerational poverty, low ambitions and a whole section of society who disengage because they know there is no real possibility to fulfil their ambitions. Crime and violence, or depression are the consequence of a generation growing up without hope, without the possibility of a brighter future. With living in poverty comes a poorer diet, poorer health and severe health inequalities (in some parts of Glasgow average life expectancy is around 65 years, while in other parts of the city it's 85).

With the cuts and the age of austerity this is set to get even worse. As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, our society is breaking apart from the inside and we are denying our children the future they deserve.

It's time to do something about it, at home and internationally. Join Save the Children's No Child Born to Die Campaign.
If you are a blogger, blog about it and you may have a chance to win a ticket to a special blogging conference that Save the Children is running on 26th February 2011 in London. It's full of workshop sessions and a masterclass with best-selling author Melvin Burgess. I'd love to be there but I'm currently born to lactate, so maybe next year ;)

You can also help spread the word by:

• Getting a twibbon
• Posting the bloggers badge on your blog
• Following Save the Children on Twitter using the hashtag #bornto
• Like the Save the Children Facebook Page

So then, what are you waiting for?!

Spring declutter

The clutter is getting the better of me. Spring has sprung and wouldn't it be lovely if there was a bit more space in our home?
Of course, it's hard to declutter with two kids and two adults who have a serious case of the hoards.

Mrs Cartside: books, CDs, craft materials, gardening stuff, random items that may come in handy one day, files
Mr Cartside: books, CDs, magazines, games and games consoles, files
The kids: toys, books, clothes, baby equipment.

Both adults led rather independent lives for rather long so when we moved together, we both brought a lot of stuff in, and two full sets of kitchen utensils etc.
We did declutter at that point by having a stall at Blochairn car boot sale, which was fun but tiring and didn't make any money to speak of.

So right now I'm trying to declutter but I'm not pretending it's going well. We had to empty the loft to get loft insulation so all the stuff we'd forgotten about was brought down. A few things were thrown away; a few things passed on. Most stuff went back up.

The plan of action is to sell valuable items through Gumtree and ebay. It never ceases to surprise me what does sell and what doesn't. I have a perfect SLR camera, much loved, and can't get it to shift. It's heartbreaking because I do love it, I took so many memorable photos with it, it travelled around the world and back and now it's worthless? Surely not. However my TENS machine went for more than I expected in just a few days.

Of course ebay is a hassle for items of small value. I did consider selling some baby outfits (the ones I loved) but after some ebay market research it's clear that baby clothes have no resale value. at all. Too much of it kicking about methinks. I'd be happy to pass on for free just that all my friends seem to be done procreating (bar one and there's only a 50% chance it'll be a girl, while I can't bear to hold on to so much stuff any longer) and I'm the last woman standing, stuck with cupboards full of pink.

So it's going to the charity shop. Not every charity shop will take everything, I know though that the Unity Centre Shop is keen for baby clothes so that'll be the one. Freecycle would be an option too, but knowing how little asylum seekers have to live on, I just know that the shop is the best option as  it's going to people who truly need the clothes, and that it won't cost them a penny.

As to baby equipment, I can't wait to get rid of the first batch and create some more space. I have a preference for Gumtree as opposed to ebay because it's more local and less complicated what with fees and posting, but it's also true that at least with ebay you know where you are after 10 days and don't have to sit indefinitely on your stuff.

It's tough though because I'm rather broody and giving things away seems so darn final. This baby of ours is just the cutest wee thing ever, and seeing big sister jump up and down to make her laugh hysterically is just so wonderful that, dare I admit it, I'd love to do it all over again. Mustn't go there. I'm too old for that. We're lucky to have two amazing girls and wanting more would be greedy and tempting fate. I disgress.

Most of our space is taken up by books anyway. And there's the real dilemma: Neither of us can part with books. I do both bookmooch and readitswapit, but see my list in relation to the total number of books owned and it becomes clear that I'm a hanger on to books (and the books I have listed on both sites never find any takers while the books I'm looking for never come up). Why? Every now and again I go through my bookcase and I know I won't read most of the books ever again. Yet there are endless reasons to keep each book:
This is the set of books I wrote my PhD on and they took me years to source.
This is a book I loved and I can't part.
These are the books I've yet to read.
This book looks nice.
These books are about stuff that I once was extremely interested in. I'm pretty sure I won't read them again but they remind me of that time.
This book cost me an arm and a leg. This book was bought in my favourite second hand bookstore.
These books may come in handy in case I lose my job and start teaching again.
These books are Irish easy readers and I may want to brush up my Irish again.
These books are travel guides to countries I've been to and those I had planned to go to but never did.

I'm sure there are more reasons. We even have duplicates, and still neither of us can part with their relevant copy.

The only books though that I think I may be able to part with are the ones that I haven't read yet - after reading. Thing is, I'm not too good reading at the moment. If I imposed an internet ban on myself I might stand a chance.

So there you have it. Blogging leads to unread book accumulation and stalemate in the decluttering department.

Do you declutter? Any tips you can share to help me out?

Disposable Catering

:::PS: in the process of changing my blog template the comments feature has disappeared. I've enabled them now but have to repost so it takes effect. I had a thought provoking comment on my facebook account which I'll add to the debate and if you couldn't comment before, hopefully you can now:::

Every week I spent far too much time in the catering provided in Glasgow City Council facilities. The catering is outsourced to a private company, Encore catering. You'll find them in museums, sport centres and generally all Culture and Leisure Services establishments. Of course, Culture and Leisure Services is no longer part of Glasgow City Council in an attempt to half privatise non-essential services.

Anyway, this is what tickled my funny bone. A bit of context, I had a tea and a cake while Cubling and hubby went for a swim (I didn't go with Snowflake because I'm a bit paranoid now about infections and she hasn't had all her vaccinations yet. Instead I had a bit of lovely one-to-one time with her and me time while she napped. I even read a book, imagine.)

A cupa and a cake, right? Rubbish produced: one disposable cup, 5 empty milk containers, 2 empty sugar containers, one disposable plastic plate, one plastic spoon, one teabag.

I do appreciate that washing plates is time consuming and that kids occasionally break them. I also appreciate that it's safer to serve hot drinks to people with babies in paper cups.

However.

Isn't this health and safety gone too far? Snowflake was in her car seat so there was no immediate danger I'd pour my tea over her. In my mind I imagined the daily amount of waste this approach must  produce. Waste that will cost the council an arm and a leg in landfill charge (because cardboard can't be recycled here, and neither can the plastic used in the plates and milk containers). Surely the council, and associated companies, should lead the way in reducing waste? Instead, as far as cafe style catering goes, Encore Catering uses a comparatively excessive amount of disposable items. More than, say, Morrisons or Ikea, who at least serve the food and drink in real cups.

Why this excess of disposable materials in a large chain? Is it to cut corners and reduce washing up? Does it reduce space needed? Surely so much disposable stuff needs space too, and with industrial type dishwashers I don't get how this can be a time issue, after all other cafes wash their dishes too.

Is it about safety and breakage, considering that many of such cafes are frequented by families and children will break the occasional plate?

I'd like to know, so will ask them. Maybe this needs to be raised from a few users of these cafes and they may change? I for one have a bit of a dilemma in that on the one hand I'm trying to live more sustainably, and I'm at least twice a week, sometimes more often, all my home efforts are outrubbished by having to significantly contribute to landfill just by having a cuppa.

And don't get me started on kid's lunch boxes (you know the cardboard boxes marketed at kids?).

Disposable Catering

:::PS: in the process of changing my blog template the comments feature has disappeared. I've enabled them now but have to repost so it takes effect. I had a thought provoking comment on my facebook account which I'll add to the debate and if you couldn't comment before, hopefully you can now:::

Every week I spent far too much time in the catering provided in Glasgow City Council facilities. The catering is outsourced to a private company, Encore catering. You'll find them in museums, sport centres and generally all Culture and Leisure Services establishments. Of course, Culture and Leisure Services is no longer part of Glasgow City Council in an attempt to half privatise non-essential services.

Anyway, this is what tickled my funny bone. A bit of context, I had a tea and a cake while Cubling and hubby went for a swim (I didn't go with Snowflake because I'm a bit paranoid now about infections and she hasn't had all her vaccinations yet. Instead I had a bit of lovely one-to-one time with her and me time while she napped. I even read a book, imagine.)

A cupa and a cake, right? Rubbish produced: one disposable cup, 5 empty milk containers, 2 empty sugar containers, one disposable plastic plate, one plastic spoon, one teabag.

I do appreciate that washing plates is time consuming and that kids occasionally break them. I also appreciate that it's safer to serve hot drinks to people with babies in paper cups.

However.

Isn't this health and safety gone too far? Snowflake was in her car seat so there was no immediate danger I'd pour my tea over her. In my mind I imagined the daily amount of waste this approach must  produce. Waste that will cost the council an arm and a leg in landfill charge (because cardboard can't be recycled here, and neither can the plastic used in the plates and milk containers). Surely the council, and associated companies, should lead the way in reducing waste? Instead, as far as cafe style catering goes, Encore Catering uses a comparatively excessive amount of disposable items. More than, say, Morrisons or Ikea, who at least serve the food and drink in real cups.

Why this excess of disposable materials in a large chain? Is it to cut corners and reduce washing up? Does it reduce space needed? Surely so much disposable stuff needs space too, and with industrial type dishwashers I don't get how this can be a time issue, after all other cafes wash their dishes too.

Is it about safety and breakage, considering that many of such cafes are frequented by families and children will break the occasional plate?

I'd like to know, so will ask them. Maybe this needs to be raised from a few users of these cafes and they may change? I for one have a bit of a dilemma in that on the one hand I'm trying to live more sustainably, and I'm at least twice a week, sometimes more often, all my home efforts are outrubbished by having to significantly contribute to landfill just by having a cuppa.

And don't get me started on kid's lunch boxes (you know the cardboard boxes marketed at kids?).

February Bilingual Carnival

It just shows how behind I am with everything that this month's bilingual carnival has been out for a good few days and I'm only posting about it today. Sorry. There were two teeth and two colds that descended upon us. My kids are early teethers it seems, just like I was so my proposal is that teething dates are genetically determine. Discuss.

More interesting observations can be had from the fabulous people who raise their kids bilingually, so don't miss out whether you're one of those parents or not, because it's all rather exciting. Maybe I'm biassed though as an old linguist and language teacher.

On another observation, I can certify that a bilingually raised 10 year old (German/Spanish) who visited us with his mum this week has demonstrated that bilingual kids are great at picking up additional languages. I can't believe how good his English is considering he's only learned it for a little while. Hat off R.!

Oh and here's the end of gum smiles:

Nurture in Nature - first signs of spring

  

Guck mal Mami, a daisy! And die ersten Blumen!

Thus Cubling spotted the first signs of spring and was full of excitement, and mummy obliged and took the photos.

On our way home she asked if it was her birthday tomorrow, as it was now spring.

Patience monkey, it's not quite spring yet. When the daffodils are out in bloom, then it will be your birthday. And the ones in our house don't count.

Pictures taken during our Nurture in Nature playgroup outing in Pollok Park on 3rd February 2011, between the two storms. This post is part of Outdoor Challenge Monday which is hosted at 5orangepotatoes.

What should our children learn?

There's been a lot of discussion around the "subjects that matter" in our children's education, clearly with the aim to prioritise educational spending. Even the debate about tuition fees was caught up in this, and I found myself at one point agreeing that students should bear the main burden of the cost of their education (though my view comes from the point of view that it is creating more equality to invest more in the younger years of education to the expense of third level education, and to value education available to all appropriately rather than having a bias towards third level education which not everybody will enjoy). But hold your breath, after lots of soul searching I changed my mind, realising that if at all possible, any education one would like to undergo should be available for free or at least be affordable to everyone.

What do you think schools should teach? Or, asked in another way, what of my school learning has proven useful in my life? What did I miss out on? There's been a fabulous exchange on Radio 5, which I read about this rather articulate take on it and more (how do you link education to ageism? Read for yourself!).

My starting point would be that there are life skills that every child should learn, and that learning takes place not just at school. So these skills can be learned at school, at home, or in the community. I would say that the no brainers are literacy, numeracy and "survival" skills. A latter is a terrible term, I know, but like the other two they allow for interpretation as to what it means, it is adaptable to an ever changing society. Take for instance "home economics" - I think it's a great idea that every child should learn how to cook. Look at it from a health perspective, it empowers you to have a healthy diet. It empowers you to feed yourself. Cooking skills haven't been passed on so well in the last generation and we're left with rather a lot of people unable to live on a diet other than fast food, processed and ready made. Cooking would definitely be on my curriculum, and not just the "baking" variety.

So what about the rest? Is science more important than humanities? Is it the wrong comparison because really they go hand in hand? The school system I grew up in made sure you had choice within a range of areas (after the compulsory years) - so I had to take one science and one language at the very least, one social science and one subject out of either art or sports. Maths was optional and could be replaced by two sciences. As someone who loved languages, I had to make tough choices - I didn't like maths but loved chemistry and physics, but to keep my languages, I had to take maths.

The above discussion is of course a philosophical one, and one that has repercussions on our parenting styles too. Do you go with your child and foster his/her talents and let society develop out of the summative talent of our children, thus reaching the best possible outcome for all of us? Or do you foster a broad education in all areas that you, as the adult, have identified as being important?

I'm intrigued by both arguments, and as usual would opt for a middle way. For one, I do believe that anyone does best when they are motivated to do something, and motivation comes with free choice, liking and being good at something. However, I still think literacy, numeracy and some sort of life skills are important. As a parent I make choices about what I teach/show my daughters and these choices are based on what I consider important. At the same time we do respond very much to their lead. Still, our decision to send them to the outdoors kindergarten was ours, not my daughter's, there are many choices I make for the kids, and I'm happiest when Cubling tells me how she looks forward to the outdoors, how she wants to learn how to knit, and when she colours in a blue tit print out with a blue head, while I've failed to instil any interest in gardening in her at all so far, so she's voting with her feet! Yet I consider knowing how to grow food to be an essential life skill.

Suddenly I wonder if my speaking to the nursery key worker about my worries that she attaches to adults rather children was the wrong thing because now she'll be actively encouraged to play with children. Should I not leave the choice to her, and rejoice that she has bonded with some children and these children happen to be the ones I really love to see her bond with? Is she not, simply put, making the right choices anyway?

What is our role, to offer options and let the child lead the way? How can we ensure we offer all the options in this complex world? Are there essential life skills that are non negotiable? And, will I have to let her go to ballet classes?

Little exciting things

The sun is out and it's warm. There may be snow forecast for Thursday, but right now, spring is in the air. I'm full of ideas for our tiny garden and the song of birds is in my ear. Our attempt at the Big Garden Bird Watch was a bit of a fail, well, actually it wasn't. No, we didn't sit down for an hour to count birds, instead, the 8 kids we had in tow (aged 0-4) went and explored Kelvingrove Park. Fair enough. However, in preparation, Cubling and I had sat down and matched stickers to birds in her RSPB book and translated all bird names into German. I learned new bird names, realised that a coal tit is not a Kohlmeise, and Cubling has since spotted a few birds all by herself. Above all, she's interested in and excited about birds, and we've detected some early signs of spring as well.

We brought home some bulbs that had become undug by dogs and have planted them at home, they are now growing every day and I'm rather excited to find out what they turn out to be. Cubling had also brought her little magnifying container and insisted she wanted to find a bug or an ant. Not an easy task considering how bitter cold it was on Sunday, I was sure every sensible bug would be well tucked away.

Apart from a shield bug.

And they're even meant to hibernate as I've since been told! So we got a shield bug, then, as night fell at 4.30pm (do you hear my scream of despair?) we went into the museum for mummy to warm up her frozen toes. Cubling wanted to see the half tiger (they've got a tiger there with only half his skin on, the rest is not gruesome bones but a metal frame). En route she got distracted and we spotted some stuffed birds too, as well as her favourite RSPB lady whom she showed her favourite woodpecker and her shield bug (which is how I came to know it's a shield bug ;) ) The woman gave her colouring sheets of a blue tit and a robin, and yesterday morning she coloured them in, even remembering that a blue tit has a blue head and a robin has a red breast.

It was all rather successful in its own way. Who am I kidding, I never really thought she'd sit still for an hour to count birds!

Actually, this post was meant to be about food growing, as it's Tuesday and I want to instill some new springy life into Urban Food Growing Tuesday. I guess I got distracted. I'm full of good intention to put out a bit more bird food and to make bird feeders so we get more birds into our garden. At the moment, they're confined to our hedge and our neighbours do much better in the bird feeding department so they never linger in ours. Oops, sorry, distracted again.

As to growing our own - the garlic and onion sets that I'd planted just before the big freeze have survived and have green shoots which is rather impressive. I plan to get some set potatoes tomorrow to start sprouting the first lot. The rocket, basil and coriander is doing great in the conservatory. Once the ground is no longer ice solid, I'll plant out my plum tree  and the soft fruit trees will go into containers. I hope to get the containers through freecycle - having been for once successful in sourcing items on freecycle, I'm rather hopeful.

There's a great initiative and I've just signed up myself - the One Pot Pledge. It's about growing just one pot of vegetables this year. A great way of trying out something new and maybe finding out how satisfying growing your own is. It doesn't have to be much, some herbs, maybe some lettuce - it's easily done and the site has lots of tips how to do it right. I've pledged to grow dwarf beans and to get at least 3 others to sign up - so if you feel inspired to sign up, it would be fab if you let me know in the comments! Ah go on, make my day!