And, just as a fwiw -Hebe has barely had any homework prior to high school. certainly no printed worksheets. She's getting A+ across the board. Not without effort, but the point being that the lack of repetition to this point clearly hasn't damaged her. At our alternative school, once you have something, you reinforce it by helping/teaching others who haven't got it yet. Works a treat. And the kids don't come to hate homework and school. it's funny, our kids hit highschool and they kinda view homework as fun (doubt that will last) -a bit like they did when the preschool teacher gave them "homework" to find and bring in something starting with a certain letter for alphabet week.

Well, not just self-reliance, but initiative, responsibility, many things. Not a teacher's job? I'd say mostly it is parenting, but teachers can help - and they can also undo a lot of good. If the learning strategy is "here is a list of all the facts you need to know, beat them into your heads however you can", then the students will be trained into dependency and sheepicity. (That is so a cromulent word). If the strategy is 'pick a topic, find out stuff, tell us about it" then there is a bit more independence. If it is "find a problem, solve it" then this should foster independent thinkers.

The art of teaching is creating a situation with the right degree of support and freedom.


Yup. Remember, my job is the back-up academic who students like that get referred to. Quite a lot of students are scarecly able to do more thinking than cut-and-paste from a source. Some of them struggle to do that.

To be educated today, IMHO, is not knowing a whole heap of facts, but rather having the ability to figure out what information you need, to find it, to assess the source for reliability, and to apply that information to solve your challenge.


:notworthy: to your school learning strategy! MUCH better than more rote learning.

No finer way to consolidate knowledge than to teach someone else what you've learned.

I have my health, I have a place to live. There's food on the shelf (and booze).

These things are nice.

I have three wonderful children who love me and of whom I am immensely proud. I have the love of a good woman who is beautiful, smart and sexy.

These things make me happy.

Dexter, Season 6, tomorrow night at nine!

Bowl till you bleed!!!!!

YAY!

Holy shit, finally!

I still have yesterday's Doctor Who finale playing out at the edges of my thoughts. It makes me happy that the series clicked together so well. What a great story.


Sometimes, ya know....it's the little things:P

That's what Tony Soprano always said. :D

Got the boy a "food maze".
Couldn't have justified it at full price, but ZooPlus (website) had a sale and I also had a voucher. AND got free shipping.

I've been having a fight this year to reduce Diz's weight. I doubt many people would have classified him as obese, but I know how bony he used to be. The breed profile for a Singapura is stocky, so being skinny isn't something I wanted to go back to, but he did have a paunch.

I stopped his blood & bones diet after he tried to choke to death in May, but ever since then he has got more & more rotund.

So when I saw the Cat-It Food Maze at a price I could afford I was all for it.
I put a weighed portion of dried food into it every morning.
There is still some left when I go to bed.
He is no longer gorging then whining.

He gets a food pouch in the evening, but this is factored into the plan.
It does disappear in about two minutes!

Oh and yes. From the first time he saw it he got it.
Put paws in top to knock beebles down to next level.
Then fish about on second level.
Final level gets them into the dish at the base.
Three levels of difficulty (you can change the size of the holes) and on the easiest level some can be knocked from the top right into the dish. I'll change this once he's used to working for his food....

Happy, happy, happy.

that is really cool.

Somebody said that we will be judged in heaven by the way we treated cats.

You will get a crown of jewels! :queen:

I think it's cool, even if I don't believe in heaven.

Because if I did, I'd already be on the list for hell for being complicit in the poor bugger developing such greedy habits.

At least he's moaning at me less.
He can smell the beebles and knows he can knock them down, rather than calling for food 30 minutes after he ate 1/3 of what he was due per day.

He misses the scoff-fests.
Still, he gets one at teatime (pouch food).

That's awesome. How clever.

Pilau's gained weight. Cropped his fur and underneath he's a right podge! No wonder he was starting to feel heavy when I lift him into the car (he can't jump into the car anymore though bless him he tries).

Alas his quota of guilt-biscuits has risen in inverse proportion to his shrinking exercise quota.

It has to stop. The last thing he needs is a bunch of extra weight on those legs. He's already unsteady enough to blow over in a gust of wind.

That's a very nice kitty feeder there, Sundae. My two aren't (too) overweight, but I know they get bored on weekends when I have to put in 14 hour days at the Bates and then just come home and collapse. :(

I wonder if there is an American equivalent? I did find a little egg-shaped thing that you fill with treats and then kitty has to bat it around to get a treat to fall out. Flicker figured it out right away and loves to play with it (and eat the treats). Sylvester is too lazy, and he just waits for Flicker to bat a goodie out for him. Ain't that a typical male? ;)

Today is my grandson's first day of real employment in a fish hatchery (Lake Merwin, WA).
He's still in the last year of the Fisheries training program at a local community college,
and he'll go for full time employment in the summer.

I'm a bit concerned that he is taking on too much this semester...
14 credit hours + 2 days per week at the hatchery + 1 day per week
at the plant nursery where he's been part time for the past year.

It's been 3 years since his Mom essentially threw him out of the house (drugs),
but he has since got his GED, started community college with basic courses,
and then was accepted into the Fisheries program.

Sometimes it was touch-n-go, but we're very happy and proud of him.

Sometimes it takes a busy schedule to stay clean or at least clean enough. Good for him.