Throwaway Thursdays #6

Here we are with another week on Throwaway Thursdays! The idea is to bring together 3 things that we don't like in something inside your house, something we do as humans and something in general and then throw them away, similar to Room 101.

Last week wefeatured the lovely Tracey who had some great choices! Although amongst them many couldn’t agree to them all; something that encompasses the wonderful variety of our personal choices! I am pleased to host Natalie from Dairy of anUnexpectant Mother. It is a pleasure to feature Natalie this week as she is one of my all-time favourite people! Not only does she carry the burden of being one of my best friends she is also a wonderful mum to Oliver, Wife to R and all round good person.

I have followed and read Natalie’s blog for as long as I can remember publicly, within social media, sharing mine. She writes about all things parenting and her adventures becoming a first time mum to Oliver and now growing a wonderful little bump along with candid mental health posts and articles regarding feminism. Although she doesn’t consistently write, like many others do, her content is always really engaging, honest and on-point. If you haven’t read her blog before then it is a must to try out!

Now time to see what she would Throwaway this Thursday!

1. Something inside your house. It can be the latest fad that your child/ren has, a pet peeve like homework, a toy that really annoys you or for non-parents, something of your partners!

 

Skitty Cats 

There are a lot of things I'd love to throw away from my house, how do I pick just one?! I guess it would be how skitty my cats are and the fact they are afraid of Oliver when he's actually the most gentle little boy.

Everyone comments on how amazing he is with animals and they have done since he was around 2. He's just so loving and gentle but my cats see the craziness in him. I wish I could take that away. He's so desperate to show them how much he loves them, but they just don't give him a chance.

Interestingly, they must really love him too because they come when he cries, when he's on the loo or asleep they are rubbing up around him. They clearly know when he's still that he's no risk. We're trying some feliway spray at the moment to see if that helps, but I might also buy some plug-ins to see if that helps too. Goodness knows what they will make of the baby when he or she arrives and starts squawking and making awful smells!

2. Something we do as humans. It can be littering, swearing, bad driving or a really serious global issue. 

 

Plastic

Everything is in plastic. We get so much plastic packaging on everything and our oceans are filling up with the stuff. We obviously recycle as much as we can, but our general waste bin is full of (aside from cat poop and litter tray contents) plastic wrapping that can't be recycled.

We don't need everything to be wrapped in plastic. When I go to the supermarket and buy loose vegetables I put them straight in to a reusable bag, we've also traded plastic straws for metal ones and I now have a reusable water bottle that I fill up with tap water instead of buying bottles of water while we are out. I'm really glad that those plastic micro-beads that used to be in shower products have been banned too. I have a phobia of water, so I'd never go scuba diving, but I really enjoy seeing video footage of what's under the surface of the ocean, but we are killing everything in it. I think we need to find more ways to stop using single use plastic that gets thrown away and ends up in landfill and oceans.

3. Anything you want. It would be less fun if I completely restricted you on topics. There is always something that we might want to throw away and you never know maybe others might feel exactly the same.

 
Cursive writing in SATs

Martyn is probably aware that I actually really hate cursive writing. I learned to write joined up when I was in school, but my hand writing became really awful. When I think of cursive writing now I think about how old fashioned it is. Most text we see is on a computer screen, it's clear and easy to read. That's exactly what you need from a piece of written material.

Why, in 2017 are children still learning to do cursive? I'll tell you why - because to get a good mark in the year 2 SAT's you need to do joined up writing. And don't even get me started on the SAT's...actually, maybe that's the thing that should be thrown away? Maybe without the SAT's children wouldn't be learning cursive writing at 5 years old? What's worse is my son's school sends everything home with a cursive font on it. It's ironic really, when you're learning about blogging you discover that people want a really clear font to read. In fact, when you go to university you are penalised if you don't use a clear font, like Arial. Imagine handing in your dissertation with cursive?! It completely winds me up. 

I am not sure I can throw away skitty, over-loving cats; isn’t it a cats duty to act like this? Although I am aware how persistent they can be for Nat so maybe I should just throw away that aspect.

I am totally on board with getting rid of plastic. We have a separate bin for plastic and recycling and it is usually full of the plastic items than anything else! It is such a shame that there isn’t more to help preserve the beauty of nature being destroyed with something that is so readily used.

I quite like cursive writing; I think it makes letter writing look better although I agree that it isn’t something that is needed in education especially when it is only to score extra points within a test.

I am torn with the test aspect though but only as a teacher. I do see the benefit of age testing and getting a grasp of what a child knows and then using that to make sure that the best teaching is used. That said, the age that it is needed is ridiculous and it only creates more stress and tension for the children to perform better. Any good teacher and coordinator should be able to assess the child’s skill set from regular work than just what tick boxes are full at the end of a test. So, in that case I would happily throw away SATs and the use of cursive writing within them.

What do you think of her suggestions? Do you agree?

If you would like to find out more from Natalie then you can visit her blog here or follow her on Twitter.