Mothering a boy

Boys are different.

As Ben gets older I am realising just how different they are from girls to parent.

Last year Ben spent the last term in grade one prep, this year he has started grade one. The changes in him are huge.

Gone is my snuggly baby/toddler, I now have a sweaty boy who comes home filthy every day and is energised by sport and activity- no more day sleeps or quiet time- it is full speed ALL DAY!

My word is not gospel any more, Ben justifies, reasons, pleads and discusses options- his options not mine.

This week I caught him wiping his nose on his school shirt, in public, he told me that he had to as the classroom had run out of tissues and it was all he could do except lick it. This reason did not stand with me as we weren't at school and I always have a hand bag full of tissues (boys have lots of snot).

Needless to say, a big box of tissues has been sent to school with him as well as strict instructions not to wipe his nose on his uniform.

As usual Mr funny bugger helped me discuss this with his son. His advise was to wipe his nose on the girls shirt, my shirt, his classmates shirts or his teachers shirt (sorry Ms C)....yes I am co parenting with a juvenile......

iPod Touch

I am a late starter to technology. I have only just got the hang of sms!
I mentioned back in 2007 that I still got up and changed the CD in the player to listen to music.
It all changed at Christmas 2007 when the kids got a Wii. This was the start of a new era of embracing electrical devices.

Then GJ bought me a iPod for listening to my uni lectures and it was a hit, and so the girls got one for their birthdays.
For Christmas 2008 the kids got a Nintendo DS, now they don't have to be the "only kid in their group of friends with no technology".

Disclaimer: no DS at home or at school, only during travel time and when all homework and sport is done, yada yada yada.....

GJ did a little upgrade for me as a surprise Christmas present...an iPod Touch.

I did not think I needed this at all...but the more I use it the more I heart it lol.
I think GJ is also a little in love with it too. The iphones are still far too expensive for us to justify one, but it certainly is on GJ's wish list for 2010.
This model has wi fi so I can read and send emails, surf the web, share my photos as well listen to music and uni lectures (as long as I can connect to a wireless network, they are not 3G). I just have to work out which of my 16 204 stored songs I can cull down to the 7000 I can load at one time. I also need to find a decent cover, the only one I could find was a shocking pink one, I look like a socialite wannabe when I get it out.

I read a very interesting article in a Sydney paper about a school in Singapore using iPods as a teaching tool. Here are some information about schools trialling this new technology.

http://ipodject.pbwiki.com/schools
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=98595
http://www.apple.com/au/education/ipod/lessons/

When I looked around for a university to do a teaching degree with, I wanted to find one that was not stuck in the past with its methodology. Whilst I think the basics of literacy and numeracy are of crucial importance in education, I think the style of teaching needs to change to reflect what kids are like in the current digital age.
The uni I attend stresses the importance of understanding the world we currently live in as well as keeping up with the changes that are shaping the future.

I did some interesting subjects last year on how many current schools are designed and managed often the same way they were 50 to 100 years ago.

Here are some excerpts from my work:


There was a diverse array of information included within this topic. The first reading for topic six (Reimer, E.1971) was very startling. Reimer was comparing schools to total social institutions such as prisons, armies and insane asylums (pp: 24-25). ..


I realised that there must be a point for me to have read this chapter so I started to Google. I wondered how old Mr E Reimer was when he wrote this book and if his own education had coloured his perceptions on the role of schooling in society. Once I found the book reviews from amazon.com (appendix) I started to appreciate why we needed to read this chapter. Reimers view of schooling, while extremely radical, is very thought provoking and encourages the reader to look at schooling from a society’s point of view and rethink why we educate as we do. Reimer states that schooling promotes an institutional mindset, which stifles real learning. The school becomes a dominant force in the lives of students, conforming the student to society’s values and social hierarchies. One point of this article, a reference to data from Jerome Bruner, tied in well with the topic of motivation; the data suggests that the more relevant the environment is to the concept/lesson, the more effect it has (Reimer 1971). This relates to making the lesson more authentic, i.e. more relevant and interesting to the student in a real life situation. ..

The next reading, Re-Thinking Today’s Secondary Schools (Groundwater-Smith 2008), was a very different viewpoint: schools haven’t changed much over the last two hundred years, the look of the schools and even the subjects taught are the same. Styles of teaching come and go but learning still goes on. I have just completed an assignment on the effect the micro chip has had on society in the areas of communication, information and education for FDN115. In the last fifteen years micro chip technology has redefined how our society communicates and the amount of information that is available is astounding. For example, I was able to learn the relevance Reimers chapter in about two minutes using the internet. Even though technology has redefined most parts of society, schooling is still relatively the same as it was fifty to one hundred years ago in regards to its core subjects of literacy and numeracy...


The students of today and tomorrow need to be educated for careers that don’t even exist yet. Careers that a student might decide on early in their schooling could be obsolete before they graduate. Teachers of today need to set up strategies to encourage the students into a pattern of life long learning. The days of leaving school and getting a job and staying there for the whole of your career are gone. I discovered this six years ago when my highly sort after and extremely specialised, work skills were rendered useless by the advent of the digital camera. A once iconic company, Kodak, is now a mere shadow of its former self due to not keeping up with the rapidly changing technology. ..


As times change, schooling needs to change. Teachers need to be digital natives not digital immigrants. With all these new technologies the basic need for literacy is still present, but the understanding of the new applications is needed as well. The theme of the classroom still being the same as in the previous centuries has weaved through this entire unit. The slides from this lecture showed actual examples of how the classrooms are set out, the similarities are obvious. I think that by the time I graduate there will be a lot of changes. Most of the readings and references of the last few topics have all been written in the last few years, the focus of current research does seem to be shifting towards embracing the technological age. Embracing the future, becoming a ‘futurologist’ is the key to engaging students in life long learning and making them want to come to school every day. Modern schools need to embrace the new technologies into new multi-modal lessons, using technology to adapt traditional learning outcomes to outcomes that are suitable to a rapidly changing future.

It feels quiet strange to put some of uni papers on my blog. I have an invitation only blog that I publish all my uni work on, but I have been encouraged to share a bit more here by my two best proof readers/ critics/ experts lol.


So, using my female logic I have managed to justify my love of my new iPod touch with a genuine need for it, for educational purposes of course!

Back home in Jakarta

The internet is back on!!!!!! (was off for nearly a week)
The kids are all sick...
School is back, so the Ms Jenny hat is back on.
Uni has 3 more weeks before it starts again.
I might get a spare second to update soon....but no promises lol

Christmas Eve and Day 2008

Due to the unusually cool weather, I decided to cook a roast pork dinner for Christmas eve.

Oh my goodness it was good!

Quiet a few of our friends from Jakarta are holidaying in Sydney over the Christmas break. We were honored to be able to show our German friends what a hot, Australian Christmas is like. The kids were ecstatic to have their friends here .

After the best roast pork, ever, the kids performed a music extravaganza for us. The piano got a work out as did the recorder, harmonica, drum sticks as well as some tribal dances and a good rendition of the Hakka.

We had a wonderful feast, good company and food made for a lovely Christmas.

Santa was very generous to all and managed to keep the stash to luggage sized proportions....he is very organized.

Manly to Circular Quay ferry

We took the kids for a ferry ride across Sydney Harbour. I think it was their first trip across Sydney Harbour! It was a perfect day for it.
I grew up close to Manly and a favourite teenage activity was to catch the ferry across the harbour during rough swells.....
We had lunch at the The Harbour View Hotel

I got to love all over this gorgeous 12 month old boy!


Ben refused to co-operate for any family photos, as usual lol.


We then got to walk through the great weekend markets at The Rocks.


A wonderful day was had by all!

Sydney and Alzheimer's.

The kids and I are in Sydney and are juxtaposed between the joy of fresh air plus western supermarkets and the anguish of living with Alzheimer's. It is really tough to put it mildly.

I am stuck in the suburbs this week...I have not been to a mall in many weeks :(
Next week I should have a hire car and have some time out with the kids:)
And maybe some shopping time............

To end on a positive note, I got my uni grades:- two High Distinctions (the highest grade) and one Distinction (2nd highest grade). I have added a Science Communication major to my B.E.D degree, I will eventually be able to teach science and information tech/communication from year 1 through to year 10 as well as all primary teaching.

Sambolo Sanitarium

We just got back from a wonderful 4 day weekend at Sambolo.
We had Christmas carols, decorations, crackers and dvds!

I really needed a chill out!

Jakarta has been driving me crazy the last few weeks, probably why I haven't written too much on the blog lately......

• The lack of any wine under $50 a bottle,

• alot of imported foods gone,

• Exponential price rises across the board,

• The blonde tax.........times the price by 1000 for the 'bule' (westener) mentality,
  

• Trades people who fix a leaky toilet by painting the ceiling.

• Doing all the washing, cleaning, ironing, cooking etc in a 3rd world country while working part time and studying full time----very different to doing it in Australia.
  

(yes, I have no staff........January I will be looking for some help)

I do not like to feel so negative!

I need a break so I can come back and rediscover all the joys of Indonesia!

The kids and I will be spending a few weeks in Sydney over Christmas, we all can not wait to go to a supermarket and gaze at all the available foods (we will feel at home as the local fruit shop sells imported tropical fruit including durian!)

The six seasons!

I mentioned back in November that we were starting class focus on the six seasons...yes there are six seasons, well at least if you are in my classes lol.
Here in the tropics, it is hot and wet or hot and dry. For the kids who have grown up in this part of the world, spring, autumn and winter are unknown seasons.
We have had the best fun learning and researching about seasons and making our display.
It is a big concept for the kids to grasp that December is winter in the Northern hemisphere and summer in the Southern.

Our next bit of end of year fun was 3d snow flakes. I found the instructions on Becks blog last year, but I can't find the link now:(

Here are instructions from another source)

I can not tell you how many of these cute things I have made, how many instruction sheets I have handed out, how many have been made in the playground or at kids homes.........but I would guess at thousands! We have found that using recycled paper makes a great looking snowflake; woman's magazines and newspapers work well. In Australia we will be buying some red and green paint and splashing old newspapers to make snowflakes then decorating with them.

Picassa 3, from Google

Look what I made...great idea for Christmas cards.

I have loved Google's Picassa program for ages, especially their grid collages, but this new collage feature is the best.I have seen a few of these collages around Jakarta recently, all framed wonderfully and have been tempted to make my self learn PS, but Picassa has rescued me!

I can teach you how to care, manage, program and operate most Noritsu machines from the last 30 years. I am well versed in the setup and use of Noritsu's photo editing soft ware, and because of this I am totally unable to use Adobe Photo Shop (well I suppose I could if I tried.....).


This took me under a minute to create and looks wonderful printed. As you can imagine, I take a lot of photos and have physically run out of room/walls/shelves to display them all. These collages look fantastic enlarged and framed; you get the benefit from all the photos in an eye catching wow look.

The best thing about this photo editing software is that it is FREE, and from a known and reliable source. It is also very simple to use.

( I am in NO way associated with google, this is just a personal opinion)

Termite invasion

We were sitting in the dark recently, chatting away about our days when I suddenly realised how quickly we have become used to new ways of life in a different country.

We are in the plague season in our suburb. Surprisingly, in a city of 25+million people, we have about 5 vacant plots of land around us, all covered in thick jungle. I think this contributes to the abundance of critters around here. (I haven't mentioned about another snake in my Jakarta garage have I......mmmm I am trying to block this memory. What is it about snakes and my homes? These links are to the stories and photos about snakes (plural!!!!) in my Australian home)

On dusk about 2-3 times a week we get a swarm of flying ants.
The staff call them rayap, which I translate as termites.
Here are some links.

These critters are attracted to the light, so all lights go off and we sit in the dark for about 15 minutes and then it is time to clean up. The floor is usually littered with hundreds of wings.

We now let the kids get out the bug zappers and they run around zapping hundreds every minute.

Another interesting tidbit from life in the tropics.......

Imported goods and Electricity in Jakarta.

This is an extract from a great newsletter I receive weekly, anyone can subscribe, it's free and it lets you know about upcoming events.
This is how we find out about some of the fun things to do in Jakarta.
This is the web site: whatsnewjakarta.com


Hello again fellow Jakartan's!! We are sure that we are not the only ones in Indonesia wondering when the current alcohol-crisis will finish? Rumors have it that there are 60 containers of imported alcohol sitting at Jakarta's port. Apparently customs have imposed an excise tax of 300% per bottle – at which importers can't and will not pay. Trying to buy quality imported spirits is like a quest suitable for Indiana Jones – and when one does have the opportunity to buy some they are forced to pay 4 or 5 times the normal retail value. Wines can be found more easily but again you are paying in most cases 5+ times their normal retail price that you would pay at the origin location. We assume all this means very healthy financial times for the beer companies. In what is supposed to be a free market economy it seems some very monopolistic practices are the root cause here. Further to this, we have also heard that there is already some enforcement of restricting the import of foreign made goods if similar goods are manufactured in Indonesia. This extends to a large range of food items including cheese. (and brown sugar and heaps of other imported foods!!!!!!!!!!!, fruit has nearly doubled in price, I spend nearly $50/week on fruit alone) It is probable that this has been enforced with view to protecting local industries in the wake of the current financial crisis around the world – however such protectionist and isolationist measures could have a counter productive reaction from other countries who may consider retaliatory measures against Indonesian exports. For a country that boasts of a free & open market economy concept and that embraces Western investment and tourism, it surprising that these issues are occurring – and with very little media attention that we have seen thus far. Lets all hope that good sense prevails sooner rather than later. Otherwise a lot of people will be sadly missing having the brandy added to their Xmas puddings this year! Anyway over the next week there is plenty happening around town to enjoy – so celebrate over the next week with your friends around town this week & enjoy what this wonderful (but almost alcohol dry) city has to offer! Anyway bye for now and enjoy the rest of your week!


The cost of living is becoming enormous for us here.
I think our electricity is being stolen, goodness nows how long that will take to get sorted!!!!
We have really cut back our consumption, yet the bill keeps climbing. Last month the bill was 4.9 million Rupiah...just under AU$640.(US$410.)

This is for ONE MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


This is another thing that the scrooge company that GJ works for doesn't contribute to, we pay all cost of living, tax and majority of education. GJ needs to get into oil, gas , banking or mining, much better packages!

I will be finished uni exams at 11.40am on Wednesday the 19th November.

I might be able to reclaim my life then.

Here is an excerpt from a recent email that sums up my mental state.......

My uni exams start next week and I am beyond stressed, not really even human.......GJ just smiles at me and nods at what ever I say.....clever man!

Nearly 17 years of hard labour (whoops marriage) has taught him well....

It is prohibition here at the moment....all imported food confiscated because of the Chinese milk scandal (not really, it is an election in March and with the financial crisis there is a lack of funds, so every one taking every thing and you have to pay bribes to get it back........). So no decent food and the only thing to drink is cask wine..........

Our list of wants in no particular order:

roast lamb with rosemary

BBQ roast chicken

wine in a bottle

champagne with bubbles

fresh meat

KFC

Milo

GXXXXXXXX (famous local Indian shop) butter chicken

Ham

cheese

junk mail

Christmas carols

frankfurters/cheerio's/little boys

real sausages

lettuce that won't kill

shoes.......BXXXXXXXXXX will explain the importance of this one..........

honey beef and beans, yes your mums recipes, still one of my FAVOURITES!

I would like a bit of non mosque loudspeaker time too...if I can mention this with out sounding whingee.......

Speak soon

Jen

Latin Ball, Shangri-La Jakarta

We had a wonderful night at the 30th Latin Carnaval Ball at the Shangri-La Hotel, Jakarta.

I was writing an email to my friend telling her all about the ball and the thing that most sprung to mind as my favourite part of the night was that the ball room was non smoking and the rule was enforced.

It was so nice to have fresh air!!!!!!

The Spanish Speaking Womens Association did some awe inspiring dances, they were fantastic. There was a professional dancer that managed to move her hips in ways that I did not think was possible. I would love to be able to dance like that!

I met a new friend from my blog: Hi James, welcome to Jakarta!

We left relatively early, we had to catch a taxi home and I did not want to be roaming the streets of Jakarta on the night they executed the Bali Bombers.

It is going to be an interesting few weeks in Indonesia now that they have been executed, there are already reports of an angry mob at the burial sites.

One Word Wonders meme

This meme was from my bloggy friend Kaci at Wipe the Seat.....

I have to answer one word questions.

1. Clothes: Like them, like them a lot.

2. Furniture: I would rather buy furniture than shoes!

3. Sweet: Only GOOD chocolate, never lollies. No sugar added to anything.

4. City. Jakarta now, previously Brisbane and Sydney. On my wish list: China (Beijing, Shanghai), Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, St Petersburg, Vietnam, Boston, Seattle, Canada………

5. Drink: Soda water, water, coffee, white wine. That’s it…..nothing else, oh and at least 4 litres a day.

6. Music: very eclectic… favourites: Ella Fitzgerald, George Michael, Chris Isaac, Robbie Williams, Karen Carpenter (I know very embarrassing to admit, but of her voice is wonderful). I have nearly 9000 songs on itunes, yet I listen to the same stuff over and over.

7. TV Series: Just discovered Weeds, how could I have missed this for so long. I love Torchwood, Lost, Outrageous Fortunes (New Zealand), Little Britain. I watch all on DVD, with no commercials. I don’t actually watch live TV.

8. Film: Hardly every go to the cinema, DVD’s are available with in a week for less than a dollar.

9. Workout: what does this mean???????????????????? Work, study, kids……when?? Occasionally on my treadmill.

10. Pastries: no, almost never.

11. Coffee: I love it but only instant coffee, Moccona by choice. No cappuccinos, frappothingies lol. Just quality, freeze dried instant. I live in Java…the home of coffee…….yet I buy my coffee in Australia and bring it here in zip loc bags.

Please consider yourself tagged!