Katy’s rambles about life

I didn’t realise this but it’s back in print!!! Yipee!!! That will save me printing the whole thing off from the net then Amazon have it and there are 8 rave reviews about how wonderful it is to engage children with history in this way and how it fulfils everyones need for a good coherent “history” of our little island etc. Then there’s this….

History as flight of fantasy, November 20, 2005
Reviewer: Budge Burgess - www.omnigadrum.com from Kilmarnock, Scotland
Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall’s “Our Island Story” was published in 1905 and provides a history of England from the time Neptune gave the island to Albion, his son. The history, aimed at the primary school children of Edwardian England - and the middle class ones at that - stretches from this dim prehistory to the reign of Victoria.

Of course, it’s a bit of a stretch to call it ‘history’. “Our Island Story” is a quaint volume of storytelling and fantasy. Occasionally Ms.Marshall does stumble across some actual historical fact, but this is really a very judgemental, moralistic tome, full of little ill-informed and misinformed essays and excursions into history. You can judge for yourself by reading the book on the Internet - just type the title into your favourite search engine and you’ll find the whole text online.

History it is not. Don’t, under any circumstances, buy this for your children thinking it’ll give them a good grounding in the subject. It will do the complete opposite. No, buy this for someone you know who has a real interest in history - it will either infuriate them or give them more laughs than Monty Python. It’s a book with ephemeral charm, but you probably wouldn’t want to read it twice.

Well, you know, I don’t care how intellectually unsound it is, I’ve read a lot of it off the net and I love it so there! But then again I hated history at school so maybe I’m not suitably qualified to judge such a serious faux pas as not making a STORY totally acurate…

cos there are only 4 chapters left of “More Grandma’s Attic” and I haven’t got the next one ready for her yet….. baad mummy!

Other low lights of the day - the person on Genes Reunited can’t be the person I’m looking for, wrong country of birth, let alone town

Other than that she’s been droopy all day, stayed in her (very cute Tigger) PJs most of the day and is now in bed with a story CD. PLEASE someone tell me she isn’t revving up to another grown spurt!!!! I can’t cope!!! I’ve just bought her new clothes!!!!

I’ve updated my Amazon Wish List not only to include the remaining Grandma books but also some other stuff that waved at me, have (obviously) forwarded the link for the wish list to mum and hinted at birthday presents and how much she loves these truely educational and excellent books…..

Oh, but the highlight of the day has to be the highly nutritious tea I expertly prepared for my beloved husband and child….. pancakes with lemon and sugar (vanilla sugar made with unrefined sugar I hasten to add!!) No one was hungry but we all wanted something sweet to perk us up!

December 13th 9pm BBC2 a proggramme called “The Magnificent 7″ - a dramatiseation of how 1 mum copes with 7 children, 4 of them on the Autistic Spectrum, and still finds time to write books, do a PHD and generally make us mere mortals look silly.

This is what happens if I let Tim read the TV guide you see….