Short and Sometimes Sweet

This is a simple poem, yet one of my favourites. Enjoy!   In France The poplars in the fields of France Are golden ladies come to dance; But yet to see them there is none But I and the September sun. The girl who in their shadow sits Can only see the sock she knits; Her dog is watching all the day That not a cow shall go astray. The leisurely contented cows Can only see the earth they browse; Their piebald bodies through the grass With busy, munching noses pass. Alone the sun and I behold Processions crowned with shining gold -- The poplars in the fields of France, Like glorious ladies come to dance. Barry Cornwall

I sometimes get annoyed when parents come to collect their children and remark about them having paint or something on their clothes! In my humble opinion, young children should be dressed comfortably and practically rather than fashionably! My annoyance comes from the fact that I believe in MESSY PLAY!                                        I have spoken before in my blogs about my battle with depression. Some days I live with it, others it lives with me. Part of my battle includes the famous OCD.Yes, I am that soldier. When my children were a lot younger they would be seen in public only if their clothes, hair, toys etc were scrubbed until they shone. Our house was a shrine to cleanliness and anti bacterial products. There were no ornaments, instead we went for the "minimal" look! Lots of therapy later, and here I am advocating getting messy! When I was in college many years ago our tu...

Have you ever learned anything by rote and was able to say it word for word in front of a teacher and then sat down and wondered why? I've never understood why teachers encourage this kind of "Learning" because it's my experience that very little learning actually takes place. Sometimes children come into my school and all the parents care about is that they can say their numbers, or they know their colours when they've actually never learned what it feels like to say, jump in a puddle, or run barefoot in the grass?                                                       I am a great believer in what I call "Experiential Learning". It's kinda like when someone shows you how to do something, but it's only in actually doing it you really know how. We're all individuals, with different levels of intelligence (In my case it depends on the day, time etc) so ho...

Sometimes at this time of the year, we miss those who are no longer with us. I have been quite upset, as we had another Christmas/New Year without my Mam. We didn't always get on. We weren't always best friends. We worked through our issues, and I'm glad to say that we couldn't have been closer in the end. Anyway I found comfort from my friends and family. And in various poems and prose. I thought I'd share this one. “You can shed tears that she is gone, or you can smile because she has lived. You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back, or you can open your eyes and see all she's left. Your heart can be empty because you can't see her, or you can be full of the love you shared. You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday, or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday. You can remember her only that she is gone, or you can cherish her memory and let it live on. You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn ...

So, It has been known from time to time, that I come on here to have a rant about stuff that annoys me. Believe me, lots of stuff gets on my nerves. Anyway this time it's about a comment that a child in school made the other day. Don't get me wrong, I don't blame her and I didn't let her see that it annoyed me, but it did so here I am!                      We had just finished our small group activity and we were cleaning up. The small group activity was colouring work sheets, using crayons and pencils. One little girl was watching everything I was doing. I decided to wash down the table as there was some crayon on it. I rubbed it with the cloth, but the crayon didn't come off. Quick as you like, she says " You can't do that, you need a Daddy to do that" Now she's only four years old, so this remark wasn't really something that she could have made up herself. It was obviously something that had been said to her outside of school. ...

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 res...