I had a nice lunch with my Mum for mother’s day today, we went for a buffet at the sports club. She’s not terribly in favour of home education and with my niece exactly the same age as Miss 8 (there’s 10 days between them) and currently undergoing year 3 testing, there was plenty of discussion! I’ve declined to put Miss 8 through the testing because I know she’s doing just dandy.

I was told that Miss 8 needed to do the testing so we could see how she compares to other children. I suggested that comparing children wasn’t a productive thing to do, because academic ability is only one thing that affects how well children do in life. Then it was, "you need to do the testing so they get used to the stress of tests to prepare for the stresses in later life". Sure, but do they need that stress at 8 years old? Perhaps when they have to deal with such things, they’re going to be much more mature. The icing on the cake was "homeschooling parents just pass their children so they can move forward, but some children have to fail". Sigh. Define "fail". And, don’t schools just pass children so they can move forward , so there are children towards the end of their primary school years who can’t read well. Mum had to agree with that. After all that, she gave up and the topic was changed. I get a bit tired of having to defend my choice when my kidlets are at least a year ahead of their peers academically, and they’re polite well adjusted children with lots of friends. We get plenty of compliments on their behaviour. It ain’t broke!!! There, finished venting.

Went out with Narangba Runners again tonight along Oakey Flat Road. I took Guinness with me and was much more comfortable running in the dark on my own. I wore my new Saucony Progrid Trigon 5 Ride and they felt really good. I was still a bit tight in the calves but overall a much more comfortable run. I probably won’t go out with them again, maybe later when I’m faster, but it’s fiddly to get Hubby to meet me after work so he can take Master 5 so I can wait for over half an hour for the other runners, only to run on my own. I can run on my own around here with much less disruption to the family.

I’m starting to think about some running plans, and seeing what I fancy doing over the next few months. My legs are starting to really feel good, there are a couple of very nice sounding half marathons coming up so there’s an option there, and another 10k run at Sanctuary Cove on the same day as some trail runs at Lake Manchester. Too many options!!

I really like this picture from Despair

 

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!