On Tuesday, accompanied by my Mum, we headed off to.....MQ6 yay! The intention was Dawlish, but this was closed. Obviously this discovery was made after I had coughed up for the car park pay and display. Muttering and cursing aside, I decided to postpone this one and pop along to the next seaside town - Teignmouth.
I found this museum 'OK'. Not brilliant, not rubbish, it was - OK and served very well as a substitute for my original intention. We would have had to visit this one anyhow, so all is not lost. It had a (not surprisingly) seasidey theme running through it. I asked the lady at reception if there was any sort of 'quiz' or 'thing' for kids and she informed me that there were interactive things in the museum for children. The word 'lame' sprang to mind, but I left it there and thanked her politely. That's me - Mrs Polite. In my head I have often hung, drawn and quartered people before the second syllable of the word 'hello' leaves their lips.
So, another museum is ticked off the list. 42 to go. Incidentally, a good 'friend' of mine (with a kid the same age as Oliver in school) reacted with such horrified dismay at my museum quest idea that I was quite stunned by it. She called Oliver a 'poor lad' for having to endure such a boring scheme and I had to remind myself to close my mouth as my jaw had dropped open in mute surprise at her strong opinion. Now I am no stranger to strong opinions, having voiced a few of them myself over the years, but she really took me aback and I found myself on the defensive back foot. To my mind, Oliver and I going out together and sharing time talking, listening, looking, loving, experiencing and being is so valuable and incomparable to anything a school environment could offer him that I am again astonished it could be so challenged. I calmly and firmly explained this the best I could to her, and she accepted it, although I don't think she 'gets' it.
What she will see in years to come though, I believe, is that time is a great leveller, and that her son and mine will, in 'achievement' status be - give or take - on an equal footing. The big difference I think will be that my son has had the security of developing emotionally away from the pressures of the playground and his belief in himself will not be shaken nor will his desire to seek friendships be undermined by confidence issues. She also asked me if I would be setting him any SATS next year..... after I had laughed out loud and said no, why? she said that if she were me she would want to know where he was compared to school kids of the same age. With some incredulity in my voice I replied no, I didn't need to know how he compared to school kids, and that I didn't give a shit anyhow. We moved on to talk about other things.
Hmm, what else.
Bit of baking, bit of crochet, you know how it is. Last night we ate at Pizza Hut and Oliver had macaroni cheese. The pasta was not macaroni, and I strongly suspect the sauce had not seen much real cheese. Despite these culinary insults, he loved it. So tonight, for tea for him and his friend (who thankfully eats anything I cook apart from bacon, and no, he is not Jewish), I am doing macaroni cheese. This has sent me into a state of gibbering recipe searching. I have made this dish twice before, both pretty unsuccessfully it has to be said. This time however, I have this on my side:
The author has sought out lots of different versions of 'classics', tried them all, reported on her findings and tweaked them to her liking. What a bloody good idea. Her macaroni cheese has cheddar, parmesan and gruyere cheese in it. There is no way that my dish is going to taste anything like the dish he had last night and I sense temper tantrums on the horizon. I also feel under pressure to perform as last night at the restarant Mark said to Oliver 'Mum can make a much better macaroni cheese than that.' Gulp. I bloody doubt it.
Go girl on the macaroni cheese! This is one of life's great pleasures as far as I am concerned! I love it and always have! You are so lucky Oliver likes it - H won't touch anything with cheese sauce so I don't make it as much as I would like to. You've made me hanker for a bubbling dish of it! I hadn't thought of using a mixture of cheeses but would think this would work well. I just use a really strong sharp Cheddar. A trick my mother uses is to tear hunks of stale wholemeal bread - about 2cm cubed kind of hunks and scatter them on top with extra grated cheese when you put it in the oven. Makes the most delicious crusty top as well as using up left over bread.
ReplyDeleteI'm very surprised by your "friend's" reaction to your museum quest expeditions - schools incorporate these kinds of trips into their own programme regularly. Of course in a school curriculum you can't be going out to places like this every week but the principle of interacting with real history through real objects and places is pretty orthodox stuff and if you can offer that more frequently than a school can you're only doing Oliver a favour. History will really live for him. Good quality time invested doing things with our children will always repay the effort and too often parents just don't. Sometimes unavoidably because of work etc. but the result is the same. One thing that doesn't surprise me is people's willingness to criticise when doing something different from their own way of doing things. I do feel the world would be a happier and more creative place if we could appreciate different approaches as being of interest and potential value even if we feel they are not right for us. Sorry - this is a bit of a hobbyhorse of mine! Anyway you keep faith with what you feel is right for you and for Oliver. Personally I am looking forward to your report on MQ7 and counting! E x
PS Enjoy your macaroni cheese this evening - I shall think of you!
Hiya.. glad you found my hairy escapade information..it makes for personal writing but thought it was worth mentioning.. and you asked!
ReplyDeleteI think it's a shame when someone reacts the way your friend did but some people are very closed minded about things and in particular education. We had a few years when our eldest needed more than his overcrowded boy dominated class could offer so plumped for a small private school for two years for him and three years for the next two. It was a great experience and only money meant we did not continue, but i am sure there were people who had opinions about it I never heard! At that time I did look at 'Education Otherwise'and would have loved to do it, but with no 5 on way it was a task too far.. still think it is a great adventure for you and if you look back over your blog since I have known you you would be able to see how he has grown.. maybe a little blog of his own would be worth thinking about later, develop his computer skills and stuff.. our Lilly knows how to counteract redeye in Picasa at 4!! kids these days huh! Xxx