Weekend photographs (and rant!)

My first ever totally-solo hot cross buns. I didn't have any greaseproof paper *or* a piping bag, so they are kind of hot-wiggle-buns...
As you can see, the garden has had a rather enthusiastic tidy-up, and I've been able to plant my first veggies (some hardy lettuce varieties have been planted direct into the veg bed in a spirit of everlasting optimism).




The children have had fun watering everything, helping to weed, and "rescuing" worms (who probably didn't want rescuing, but there you go)... Morgan kept shouting and pointing, "Yook! There! Nake!!" No, not *quite* a snake honey...

Saturday afternoon we saw my Dad and his wife, and as usual I got slightly irritated with the couple who just can't understand children. She sat down with Jenna and started TESTING her - Jenna was happily sitting "reading" a book (ie looking at the pictures) but Christine couldn't resist pointing at the words one at a time and TRYING TO GIVE CLUES!!

Now, this is a book that Jenna actually can read and has read to me. She knows the words in it, and knows very well how to sound out words she gets stuck on. And no, I haven't had to show her how to do this, and the only prompt I offer is "do you want me to say it for you?" or very occasionally, "shall I tell you that sound?" (ie the sound that letter makes).

So what did she do when faced with an adult pointing at each word in turn, making silly pseudo-phonics sounds, and even worse, giving totally unrelated clues such as "what colour is this in the picture?" Well, Jenna started to second-guess herself, make wild stabs at words, and look panicked. I stepped in, and said, "Jenna, you don't have to play this game. If an adult starts playing a game and you don't understand the rules or you don't like it, just tell them to stop."

Yes, that was pretty rude of me, but ARGHH! Why do adults automatically have the right to subject children to this sort of pushiness? I don't feel I have the right, and she's MY CHILD! Plus this was after Christine had commented that the bathroom floor was "dirty" (ie there were bath toys there that Morgan had tipped out) AND had insisted on brushing Jenna's hair and made her cry.

Christine put the book to one side and said, "oh it's obviously too hard for her anyway."