I can speak french, but I am the first to admit that when it comes to writing it, I panic. Like with maths. At work, I stick to writing carefully pre-prepared sentences that may be adapted if necessary. My colleagues must think that I am very dull and limited.
I blame it on my home school education. We had rather a lot of choice about what to ’study’. And out in the Sahara there were not many headmasters looking over our shoulders. It is not that we didn’t learn a huge amount, but the boring books with grammar and mathematics tended to get pushed back into the cardboard box from whence they came.
But now, it is all coming back to haunt me. My boys are coming home from school wanting help with their french homework and needing to learn their times tables. Fortunately the grammar does not seem to worry them and I happily learn along with them.
As for the times tables and the spelling, we find that the kitchen tiles are very useful.
What you do is this. You count the number of tiles in a straight line as there are spellings or tables (ie 12). Then the child stands on the first square and you sit on a stool at the end of the row with a bowl full of Haribo sweets or squares of chocolate. For every word or sum they get right they move forward one square. For every one they get wrong… you guessed it. Eventually they make it to the sweetie bowl (which may now be half empty if it was chocolate!)
Well, it works now. I’m not sure what I will do when it comes to secondary school ‘devoirs’.
According to Dr. Kifah Al-Ramali of the Gaza Islamic University, beauty contests are yet another part of the eternal Western plot against Islam. The true beauty queen, according to Cousin Itt Dr. Al-Ramali, is the “jihad mother” who waits patiently while her menfolk blow themselves up or otherwise get themselves killed trying to murder Jews:
From the transcript:
The real Palestinian beauty queen is the Jihad-fighting mother, the mother who perseveres and endures the siege, the mother who says: We will suffer hunger, but we will not bow down, the mother who sacrificed martyrs and demonstrated forbearance. She is the wife of the martyr, who left her in the prime of life, with her children, yet she says: I will persevere, and I will raise my children to be mujahideen. She is the mother who has lost her husband, her sons, her daughters, her home and her shelter, yet she displays forbearance. She is the queen of the women of the world in its entirety, not just of Palestine.
Of course, the real target of the Evil Beauty Contest Plot(tm) is Muslim men. Dr. Al-Ramali explains:
The enemies of Allah have studied the mentality of the Muslims, and have studied what harms their religion and their faith. They have studied how to infiltrate our society. First, they intervened in women’s [issues]. This is because they know that the prophet Muhammad said: “The greatest temptation for men is women.” Women are the greatest temptation. They know what weapon to use to fight [Muslim] society. Allah sowed in men the attraction to women, and vice versa.
Devious, isn’t it? The Crusaders (that’s us) and the Jews (We’re their puppets, you know) will distract brave, brave mujahideen from blowing up Jews by showing them a little skin. That’s why women have to be covered, you see: men are unable to control themselves around an “immodest” woman, like a cat that sees uncovered meat. In other words, as Ayaan Hirsi Ali has pointed out, under Islam women are responsible for the sexual behavior and misbehavior of men. To come back to Dr. Al-Ramali’s sick mind arguments, this is why beauty contests are evil: to participate in them is to allow oneself to be used as a weapon against Islam and to avoid one’s duty as a mujahideen-making machine.
With “intellectuals” like this, is it any wonder Palestinian society is hopeless?
RELATED: More anti-Semitic tripe from the good doctor. In an earlier panel interview, she tells us that Judaism teaches its followers that it is okay to rape and murder non-Jews:
The killing of Palestinian women, and women in general, by the Jews is not a random thing. Rather, it is their ideology, which is taught to their children in their curricula. It is mentioned in the books of the Torah. I will present some short samples, although their books are full of this. For instance, the greatest Jewish scholar, on whom they completely rely, Maimonides, wrote in his book that the Jews have the right to rape non-believing women. By non-believing, he meant non-Jewish.
Read the full transcript and watch the video. Her co-panelists are equally charming.
Well, the inevitable has happened and I have this week received two brown envelopes through the post that I have been dreading for some time now. Until the envelopes arrived, I could just stay undecided for that bit longer but now they are here, I really can’t put it off anymore and I need to make my mind up.
Swine flu jab – to do or not to do???
My two youngest tiddlers have been ‘invited’ to come along to the surgery to have their Swine flu jabs as they are both in the under-5’s category. Now, I must say that I am not normally anti-imms at all – all four of my children have had all of the recommended jabs included the combined MMR and to be honest, I have never before questioned whether or not to have them done. But the swine flu jab is different and I know many other parents share the same dilemma of whether or not to have it done.
There just seems to be so much conflicting information and the whole thing seems to have been so rushed through too which makes me even more uneasy. Like anyone else, I guess it is all about weighing up the pros and cons of these things but when you don’t know if the arguments for or against are reliable, then it makes it so much harder to decide. So many cases that you hear of seem to be so extreme and I can’t seem to be able sort from the wood from the trees as it were to find some middle ground.
There is some comfort in the fact that I know that I am not alone in being undecided but I just don’t know what to do. To be honest, my gut instinct says not to have them done as I still have so many doubts. But if I don’t get the jabs and they were to contract the dreaded Swine flu, then how could I ever ever forgive myself? I keep going round and round in circles and the more I look into cases for and against – the more confused I am!
At the primary school where my ten-year old daughter goes, which is also attached to the nursery where my three-year old goes, there have actually been several cases of children having Swine flu but this was back in September/October and there have been no more recent outbreaks. In my mind, I can’t help but think that if she was going to contract it then she would have done by now and then passed the lurgy on to the rest of us including my two youngest. But I know that this is quite an irrational way of looking at things as I know there are so many other ways for the virus to be passed on and I know their age makes them all the more vulnerable.
So that’s where I am.. Basically, errrr no further than I was when it was first announced that all under-5’s should be immunised! I would so love to hear if you too have had to make this decision and my hope in posting this blog is that it may go some way to help me to make my choice….
KOGIWU (ko-gee-woo) – an acronym for the Kingdom of God is Within U – a reminder that faith is an everyday journey
The other night I had the pleasure of being in the audience of my daughter’s Middle School Winter Choral Concert. She attends an Independent secular school. The program was beautifully choreographed, the high school students and middle school students performed their own songs and sang together as a group for a final Irving Berlin piece.
The songs they sang so beautifully were a mix of contemporary music along with traditional favorites. I was struck and pleasantly surprised that there were a few non-secular songs woven into the program. Joyce Eilers My Lord was sung with such enthusiasm. It was wonderful. I later learned that particular arrangement of My Lord is one of the most popular choir selections ever. I Believe from the musical Spring Awakenings was a beautiful piece that was performed and it has a very spiritual tone.
Hallelujah!, the chorus from Handel’s Messiah was the last piece the High School Concert Choir sang. The director shared with the audience that the Hallelujah! at 268 years old is the most recognized piece of music in the world.
On our ride home we talked about how interesting the trivia was about the Hallelujah! My daughter shared with me that just that night the #1 song downloaded on ITunes was a song of the same name, Hallelujah performed by Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris during the Hope for Haiti Telethon. The lyrics for this Hallelujah were written by Leonard Cohen. I thought how wonderful that Hallelujah, a word that is a thanksgiving or praise to God, has endured the popularity of so many years and now is the forefront in pop culture. That’s KOGIWU!
If you would like to learn more about KOGIWU, visit the About KOGIWU and How to Apply KOGIWU to Your Life posts on this blog.
Genres: Fantasy, contemporary fantasy, short stories
ISBN: 9781596061590
Intended audience: “written for nieces, nephews, and the children of friends” (p. 10)
Number of pages: 64
Setting: Three stories are set in the woods; one is set in a neighborhood, and another along the sea shore
Time period: Contemporary
Description: Following a short introduction, “Kissing Frogs”, are five short magical tales – “What the Mouse Found”, “Gnomin’ in the Gloamin’”, “Oakey Bedokey”, “Maple Sugar”, and “Tip and the Lion”. (The limited edition – which is not what I read – also contains “The Songs of Timothy Tomtit”).
Illustrations: At the beginning of the first four stories is a picture of a stuffed creature who is one of the main characters in the story. These creatures were made by de Lint’s wife, Mary Ann Harris, and placed in an earthy setting prior to having their pictures taken. Fairies and butterflies also adorn the pages throughout the book.
Appeal factors:
Pacing: Moderate pacing combined with the short length of these stories, make this a very quick read.
Characterization: The stories are all told in third person and each contains at least one wonderfully magical character.
Frame: The introduction, “Kissing Frogs”, establishes the frame for this collection of stories. The stories are written in a classic fairy tale style.
Story line: Delightful stories which reawaken a sense of magic and wonder.
Subject headings:
From WorldCat:
Fantasy fiction, Canadian.
Similar authors:
Neil Gaiman
Diana Wynne Jones
Jane Yolen
Personal notes: Like most of Charles de Lint’s work, I loved this book.
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The plight of Haiti has touched everyone in Westport — young and old.
Kings Highway Elementary School students count the nearly $4,000 they collected.
Last week the Kings Highway Elementary School Caring Council — students who spearhead acts of kindness and spirit during the school year — organized a collection for the devastated land.
All week long, the youngsters collected coins in glass jars. On Friday they gathered the donations in huge, heavy buckets, jars and cans. In just 5 days students, staff and families raised $3,997.96. (What — no one added an extra $2.04 to make it an even 4K?)
On Friday KHS PTA Social Action Committee chair Merideth Haas and her son Henry presented a check to Save the Children — the Westport-based relief organization.
There’s no better lesson in thinking locally, and acting globally.
