Short and Sometimes Sweet

This time of the year, all younger children can think about is Christmas. It's a lovely time of year, full of celebrations etc. It's not the same for me since my kids grew up, but I enjoy it all the same. What drives me mad about Christmas? Advertisements on the tv. From what kinds of food we should be having, to what kind of clothes we should be wearing. The worst of  all being toy advertisements on tv. In particular the way they are aimed at children in a sometimes stereo typical gender specific kind of way, i.e. girls play with so called "girl toys" and boys play with so called "boy toys".               Indeed, it can be found in most toy shops. Whether we realise it or not, everything is segregated into "pink and fluffy" or "blue and red" departments. In my job I have to buy new equipment from time to time, and recently I needed to buy a play kitchen. Do you know how difficult it is to try and find a toy kitchen that is not pink or p

I haven't written a blog for a couple of months, because I've been busy with life and school. Yesterday though a report was published in Ireland that kinda made me angry. So I'm goina vent it here. I have been working and teaching in the Early Years sector in Ireland for nearly 16 years. In that time, as you can imagine I have come into contact with lots of families. The families I work with are mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds. They have little or no income to speak of, in spite of the fact that my town is considered posh! There are a lot of rich people living here, but also there are pockets of disadvantage. I chose to teach children in this area as I am from a poor background myself. Indeed I was given a chance to escape, and due to hard work and dedication I'm doing ok!                        Over the past few years our Government have been putting together a report into "growing up in Ireland". Some of the results were published yesterday and they