August 31, 2008 – 3:44 pm
This photo was taken just over three years ago, making him four years old. It was a lot easier then in a lot of ways. He hadn’t started school!
What is it about school that’s so problematic for him, and consequently for me? What is it about schools that see suspension as the only answer to behavioural problems?
I have so many questions and unfortunately there’s no easy answer. We need time. I need to become more in the school’s face to try and get them to help my boy, not just punish him when things go bad.
I want to work with the school but perhaps it’s better for him to make a fresh start elsewhere? I don’t bloody know!
August 25, 2008 – 8:20 pm
Tonight I got home from work, and immediately started whizzing around doing bits and pieces. One job I did was water the flower seedlings we planted over the weekend after the mammoth weeding effort.
As I stood there watering them I breathed out a big sigh and thought that this is what I’d rather be doing than being at work.
I would have twittered this, but it would have had to have been two parts.
August 22, 2008 – 9:47 am
‘My little treasure’, I called him as I talked to his after school carer the other day. It had been an interesting day. I’d spoken to the deputy prinicipal earlier that day, as JJ spent most of the day in his office after being really disruptive in the classroom.
A year or so ago I’d have really taken this to heart but now I’m a lot more philosophical about it. The deputy told me that JJ’s really intelligent and he knows what he’s doing when he’s being disruptive like this but he does it anyway. He said that in 25 years time I’d look back and think, ‘gee he was a ratbag at school’. I hope he’s right but I hope it’s sooner than 25 years.
These days I take one day at a time. The day before this phone call JJ won a gold medal at after school care for excellent behaviour and he was the best kid to have around that night. When he’s being really nice to me, and polite it’s almost seems surreal but I do enjoy those moments because they don’t last.
The next morning he was very different and I knew that he’d be in for a bad day at school. Sure enough I was right. But then yesterday he was fine. I could be living in Topsy Turvy land because I don’t know which way it will be at any given time. One way of looking at this is that at least if it is bad at one time, then I know it won’t stay this way.
This is all a huge learning experience for me and I’m sure it’s making me a stronger and better person. Yes it is.
PS: I took the photo above in King’s Park when we had our recent Perth trip. I was standing around admiring the scenery, or sheltering from the rain, or both. JJ had disappeared then he appeared just above me in this tree. Don’t you just love the texture in the tree? I’ve got no idea what type it is but I love it.
August 19, 2008 – 10:09 pm
I’ve been getting a bit creative tonight. Go have a look at some video of my lad absolutely knowing that I’m filming him. It’s also the second review of the phone I’ve been trying out.
August 14, 2008 – 9:00 am
During our Perth holiday my camera went with us and I took a few snaps – as you may have realised. One day we visited King’s Park and I took some photos of flowers. I love getting in close and taking photos of flowers but have always had trouble focusing on exactly what I want.
In a moment of inspiration I moved the focus setting from auto to manual and it made the world of difference.
I think this Kangaroo Paw shows some of my results perfectly and I’m really pleased with the way it turned out.
I used to use manual focus a bit back when I used a film SLR but I’d gotten so lazy with auto focus that I completely forgotten that my camera does have a manual focus setting. I’ll now be using manual focus a lot more. I can’t believe it took this long for some common sense to sink in.
Of course, sometimes there’s no time to line up the shot so auto focus is perfect, but for still life, manual focus is the go. If you can bear it, there’s some more photos below that I managed to take inbetween rain showers.
