Created by Tedshots.

Tea in bed. Second cup.
Dislodge cats. Get up.
Son to school. Spouse to work.
Sit at desk – mustn’t shirk.
Scratch head. Dream up snail.
Maybe team her up with whale?
Chew pen. What next?
Can’t think. Feel vexed.
Feed cats. Open post.
Read it, over slice of toast.
Little boy wants to know Date of birth of Gruffalo.
Little girl wonders why Giant gave away his tie.
Out to shops. Get idea
(Big grin, ear to ear):
Brilliant climax – whale gets beached!
(Rhyme a problem . . . reached? Beseeched?
Leeched? Well never mind, just now.)
Snail then rescues whale – but how???
Back home, get stuck.
Go off snail. Consider duck.
Phone rings. Who is it?
School, requesting author visit.
Check diary . . . shocked to see
“Monday, Brookwood Library”.
That’s today! Leap in car.
Thank goodness, not far.
Tell a story, act and sing.
Kids join in with everything.
(Teacher sits there marking books,
Blind to my accusing looks.)
Answer questions. Back to house.
Joined by son, later spouse.
Open bottle. Cook salmon.
Practise piano. Play Backgammon.
Have bath – that’s when
Inspiration strikes again:
Snail could learn to write with slime!
(Quite an easy word to rhyme.)
Crawls on blackboard, leaves a trail . . .
Children run and save the whale.
Story planned! Tomorrow, start
Writing it – the easy part.

I wish I could pause your growth sometimes, or at least slow things down for awhile – time flies by so fast these days with you and your brothers keeping us so busy, and I know I’m not appreciating you fully.

You are such a wonderful little soul – so very different from your brothers. You have a wonderful nurturing aspect to your nature, and you are always trying to help – from helping with the washing, hurrying your brothers up at bath time and helping everyone get ready for school.

You are tough and independent – one of your favourite phrases is “no! I do it self!” – and you adore music and sing along happily to any one of your many favourite tunes. You have a fiery little temper which often catches your brothers by surprise, and the ability to fall asleep almost anywhere.

It seem like only a few short months ago that you were born in the corner of our bedroom, and now you’re an independent, sweet and happy chatty little personality obsessed with Tinkerbell, music, books and your mommy.

Happy birthday Hannah Grace.

You’re a bright guy, so very sensitive at times and a deep thinker who would rather be indoors than outdoors.

Your rapidly improving reading and maths skills give me no end of joy to witness – you only realise how precious the ability to read is when you see it developing in your own child, and the worlds it opens up for them.

You are doing so well in “grown-up” grade 1 – I know how hard it can sometimes be to be the eldest child, doing so many things for the first time and easing the path for your younger brother and sister.

We are both working on controlling our tempers, and it only recently dawned on me that part of the reason why I have such (often unrealistically) high expectations of you is because I see so much of myself in you, far more than I do in your younger siblings.

I’m so glad you enjoyed your morning beachcombing :-)

I love you KB.

When I was One,
I had just begun.
When I was Two,
I was nearly new.
When I was Three
I was hardly me.
When I was Four,
I was not much more.
When I was Five,
I was just alive.
But now I am Six,
I’m as clever as clever,
So I think I’ll be six now for ever and ever.

— Now We Are Six, A. A. Milne

In appreciation of my crazy curious bright amazing wonderful soft-hearted 6 year old little thinker & dreamer, who is counting down the sleeps to his 6th Christmas and preparing for the big leap to grade 1. I love you my biggest little guy.

from Ewan’s posterous

My wonderful children getting into the Soccer World Cup spirit with the help of mom’s face painting skills.

8 days to go!

http://fifaworldcup.durban.gov.za/

A few snippets which I like:

• And I was up in San Fransisco a while ago doing a book signing. There was this guy buying a book, he was in his 30s. And I said, “What do you do?” And he said, “I’m a fireman.” And I said, “How long have you been a fireman?” He said, “Always, I’ve always been a fireman.” And I said, “Well, when did you decide?” He said, “As a kid.” He said, “Actually, it was a problem for me at school, because at school, everybody wanted to be a fireman.” He said, “But I wanted to be a fireman.” And he said, “When I got to the senior year of school, my teachers didn’t take it seriously. This one teacher didn’t take it seriously. He said I was throwing my life away if that’s all I chose to do with it, that I should go to college, I should become a professional person, that I had great potential, and I was wasting my talent to do that.” And he said, “It was humiliating because he said it in front of the whole class, and I really felt dreadful. But it’s what I wanted, and as soon as I left school, I applied to the fire service and I was accepted.” And he said, “You know, I was thinking about that guy recently, just a few minutes ago when you were speaking, about this teacher,” he said, “because six months ago, I saved his life.” (Laughter) He said, “He was in a car wreck, and I pulled him out, gave him CPR, and I saved his wife’s life as well.” He said, “I think he thinks better of me now.”
  
   
  
• You know something? Human communities depend upon a diversity of talent, not a singular conception of ability. And at the heart of our challenges — (Applause) At the heart of the challenge is to reconstitute our sense of ability and of intelligence. This linearity thing is a problem. When I arrived in L.A. about nine years ago, I came across a policy statement, very well-intentioned, which said, “College begins in kindergarten.” No, it doesn’t. (Laughter) It doesn’t. If we had time, I could go into this, but we don’t. (Laughter) Kindergarten begins in kindergarten.
  
   
  
• A friend of mine once said, “You know, a three year-old is not half a six year-old.” (Laughter) (Applause) They’re three. But as we just heard in this last session, there’s such competition now to get to kindergarten, to get to the right kindergarten, that people are being interviewed for it at three. Kids sitting in front of unimpressed panels, you know, with their resumes, (Laughter) flipping through and saying, “Well, this is it?” (Laughter) “You’ve been around for 36 months, and this is it?” (Laughter) “You’ve achieved nothing, commit. Spent the first six months breastfeeding, the way I can see it.” (Laughter) See, it’s outrageous as a conception, but it attracts people.
  
   
  
• And he [W.B. Yeats] says, “I’ve got something else, but it may not be for you.” He says this: “Had I the heavens embroidered cloths and wrought with gold and silver light of blue and the dim and the dark cloths of night and light and the half light, I would spread the clothes under your feet; but I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
  
   
  
  And every day, everywhere, our children spread their dreams beneath our feet. And we should tread softly.

Full interactive transcript and more details available on the TED site. On the subject of parenting, Julia Sweeney’s talk – about “the talk” – will also appeal to most parents :-)

Ken’s bio: http://www.ted.com/speakers/sir_ken_robinson.html

Posted via email from Ewan’s posterous