Micky Miller's

Le deuxième jour de notre Noël anglais (oui, on est en retard ici, mais on a tout le temps), on a été à "Mickey Miller's Play Barn", un endroit magique pour les enfants avec de quoi grimper, ramper, sauter, glisser.

On the 'second day of Christmas' (yes, we're running late here on the blog, but who cares?), we went to "Mickey Miller's Play Barn", which is a most magical place for little and big people, when the weather's naff outside: obstacle courses, climbing, jumping, sliding. And chips too!

On s'est vraiment éclaté. Arrivés à 10h30, les derniers sont partis à 15h30 (et on serait encore resté!). Il y avait aussi des chutes verticales pour défier les grands. J'ai fini par y aller - plusieurs fois même!

We all had a whale of a time. We got there around half ten, and the last to leave was at half three (not even tired!). There were two 'dead drop' slides for big people. I managed to convince myself to try, and even went back for more!

Ca tisse des liens. C'est important puisqu'on ne se voit pas si souvent que ça.

Building our relationships is important when we see each other so little.

Grandma a aussi mis des photos sur son blog (vous pouvez y voir Rebecca qui descend avec sa tante Libby).

Grandma has some more photos on her blog (you can see Rebecca going down the slide with Libby, which she did lots of times! Thanks Libby!).

No comment

J'ai oublié de dire que le premier matin, on a eu droit à des 'Christmas stocking' - la chaussette remplie de cadeau au fond du lit. Sauf que chez nous, ça a toujours été des bas (plus de place pour les cadeau!), des photos ici.

By the way, I forgot to mention that we had traditional Christmas stockings on our first morning - the kid's were tucked under the duvets at the bottom of their beds - photos here.

Old stuff

I thought I'd already quoted this here, but can't find the link.

Anyway, here is something that I wrote 18 months ago, in response to a blog post about secular schooling. I'm still quite pleased with it:

I am fundamentally opposed to the idea that the state has ultimate responsibility for the education of my children. Their physical protection, maybe. But their educational well-being, who’s to be the judge of that? Will the “truth” change with each election? And what happens when the EU gets involved? And Turkey joins?

Of course I want them to come to believe what I believe. Not because they must be like me, but because I believe what I believe is true, (whilst admitting that I may be wrong. That is the paradox we have to live with.)

That is where I find the ‘secularist’ argument repeated here to be unwittingly symmetrical. You want to protect children from being indoctrinated – well wouldn’t any sane person want that? But one man’s prejudice is another man’s conviction.

“Since the sceptic does not consider it rational to doubt what he himself believes, the advocacy of ‘rational doubt’ is merely the sceptic’s way of advocating his own beliefs.”

If I decide to send my children to a school (any school), I obviously don’t expect everything they see and hear there to conform 100% to my world view. But I will try to ensure that their ‘exposure’ to ‘harmful’ experiences or influences will be gradual, and adapted to what I judge to be their ability to handle it. Just as I would do for what they watch on the TV, or for what I give a weaning baby to eat (or where I plant a sapling, for that matter).

It is entirely normal to grow up as a child believing whatever your parents tell you. But that isn’t sufficient to carry that belief through growing up and into the rest of your life. So there is no need to succumb to jihadist-or-fundamentalist-behind-every-lamppost hysteria.

Whatever their public posturing may be, I humbly submit that the majority of people are just muddling through life with a jumble of not-necessarily-coherent, half-thought-out beliefs which have more or less ‘worked’ for them so far, and for which they have managed to find some supporting community.

Whatever else I manage to transmit to my children, I hope that I manage to instil in them respect for others, and the courage to be themselves.

.

Rebecca

Dîner de Noël à l'heure anglaise est arrivé un peu tard pour son ventre, mais elle a bien aimé son chapeau et son petit cadeau (yoyo).

Christmas lunch GMT came a bit late for Rebecca's tummy, but she liked her party hat and cracker present (yoyo).

Des escaliers tapissés, c'est le grand luxe, elle a appris à descendre sur le ventre, sur les fesses, sur le dos, et debout, bien sûr.

Carpeted stairs are a novelty (our stairs are outside the flat, and not comfy at all), she tried coming down on her tummy, on her bottom, on her back, and walking of course.

Comme des générations avant elle, elle a aimé s'installer sur le petit marche-pied.

Like generations before her, she liked sitting on the little footstall.

Et à la fin de la journée, elle est claquée.

Completely zonked at the end of an eventful day.

Christmas dinner

Il y avait encore bien de la neige chez mes parents (il a même fait -15°C la nuit du 25 au 26), déjà le soir du 26, Pop avait organisé une chasse au trésor dans le jardin (photos ici).

There was still plenty of snow at my parent's house (-15°C on Christmas day evening!). The evening of our arrival, Pop had set out a treasure hunt in the garden (photos here).

La table prête pour notre dîner de Noël à l'anglaise (avec des Christmas Crackers).

Here's the table set out for Christmas dinner - crackers and all.

Chacun avait droit à son petit chapeau de fête - ici Kalia et Caleb...

Caleb and Kalia with their Christmas hats...

... et une bonne cuisse de dinde.

... and getting their teeth into some turkey.

Chilling ... Tranquille

Le 27, le matin, Bethany peint les ongles de sa tante, mon frère s'occupe à l'ordi, et ma mère à la cuisine...

The morning of the 27th, Bethany is painting her aunt's toenails, Daniel doing something on the computer. Grandma was slaving in the kitchen...

Rebecca s'amuse avec un très ancien jouet (l'ancien FisherPrice était indestructible).

Rebecca having fun with some very old toy (in the old days, FisherPrice was indestructible).

Kalia aussi a droit à ses ongles peints - c'est le début de la fin!

Even Kalia had her nails painted - thin end of the wedge, folks!

Une équipe regarde quelque chose, je ne sais plus quoi.

Gathering round to look at something on Grandm'as computer, YouTube, can't remember what.