Emma

I vouch for this, I always feel really run down the first few days of holiday in between terms. I generally have a constant cold year round, except during the 6 week holidays and the second week of the 2 week holidays. I've currently got a really bad cold. I sneezed over 25 times yesterday. The children started counting.

So this year, the government are replacing the Year 6 SATs writing and spelling exam with the SPAG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) test. It's caused quite a bit of controversy amongst teachers, not just for the sudden change but also the banding of what constitutes as a level 3, 4 or 5 won't be released until the children get their results in the summer. Writing assessed by the teacher will also be included in the level, but how much this will count towards their grade isn't yet known. Here's some more information about it. So, how do you feel about this test? What sort of test should children do, if any? ----- Here are a few sample questions. Post your answers/ score below. No cheating! 1. Complete the sentences below using either I or me. I wanted my mum to watch ____ in the school play. After we went cycling, Emma and ____ were very tired. The teacher asked Tim and ____ to collect the books. 2. Change the question below into a command. Could you get my coat? 3. Which sentence uses the correct plural? I brush my tooth twice a day. Lots of woman took part in the race. The sign warned that deer might be crossing. All the childs played together. 4. Find the adverbs in the sentence below. Excitedly, Dan opened the heavy lid. He paused briefly and looked at the treasure. 5. Find the connective in the sentence below. Although the room looked empty, Cara knew she would discover something in there. 6. Find the article in each sentence below. After the argument they all went home. We saw a magnificent polar bear. Eating an apple can help keep you healthy. 7. Are the underlined sentences below a phrase or a clause? We went outside so we could enjoy the sunshine. The sun shone in the bright blue sky. The beautiful rainbow lasted for hours. We had fun running around the garden. 8. Find the preposition in the sentence below. She waited until 10 o’clock. 9. Put a prefix at the beginning of each word to make it mean the opposite. ___________behave ___________correct ___________possible And finally, a nice easy one: 10. Insert the capital letters and full stops in the passage below. One has been done for you. T the sun shone while Luke was walking to school as he passed ben’s house, he was thinking about the weekend and their trip

Got caught in the 'blizzard' this morning on the way to work. Took over 90 minute for a 20 minute journey, missing the start of school. Was mayhem trying to catch up all day. Plus the kids were hyper and didn't want to learn. That's why schools should close on snow days.

Is it in Sheffield? When I moved into a shared house, I did the old knock on the door and ask to borrow something routine. Worked like a treat! My birthday present from Dan is a spa day and afternoon tea. By the end of it I will be like:

+ = :P

@jayseven A 3 day relationship and she's already pissy with you? What's she going to be like after 3 months when you actually know each other? Blimey!! If someone was spitefully telling me about my 'faults' (you've done nothing wrong) after the third date, I wouldn't be seeing that person again. It's always difficult to get a full idea of what actually happened unless you were there, but from what I've read, you can do better than her James.

I am really envious of your biscuit dream. Mine have been school related recently. Usually ones where everything goes horribly wrong . On a related note, I have a great app on my phone called sleep cycle. It has dramatically improved how well I wake up in the morning as I'm now only mildly irritable, compared to the raging monster I once was. Here's the link.

hmmmm....

I made something similar in my teens, except it showed who and slept with who. It was a very interesting and complex graph, some of my friends weren't as impressed.

@jayseven Any plans of visiting Sheffield? .... But yeah, as long as you and your previously close friends are still willing to make the effort every now and again, it won't matter if you can't see them all the time. One of my best friends from uni is coming up on Saturday for my birthday. I only saw her twice last year as she is also a busy teacher who lives 2 hours away, but I know we'll stay friends because we're both happy to make the effort. Plus we have a great time whenever we meet up . However, one of my best friends from way back only lives about 20 minutes away and I find impossible to meet him because he's always 'busy' with his girlfriend. After about 6-7 invites I stopped bothering.

Dan and I are going to see The Blood Brothers tomorrow, we have front row tickets! We saw Les Miserables in London during the summer and absolutely loved it, hoping to see the film this week. I can understand why people don't like musicals them though. Personally I really enjoy theatre, I loved directing the school Christmas play and I used to perform in musicals when I was a teenager.... From Sweeney Todd, I'm the one in the bow tie and bowler hat. :P (Sinbad)

Whatever these guys have in common: NOMNOMNOMNOM! Dan likes big bums...

This is the only time I will be thankful for the hills in Sheffield. Where this photo was taken is about half way down the course from where we started, it doesn't look like it but after the path there's a steep drop. Dan and I succesfully flew into that bushy area at the bottom.

The only thing that generally bugs me is overused, currently popular phrases, like 'good times' from a few years ago, and 'amazeballs'. Actually, now that I think about it, my best friend calls his girlfriend 'my sweet'. That grates on me. He sounds like a Disney villain.

Just got back from sledging with Dan. Best time ever. Go do it, it's amazing!!

I love, love, LOVE the pictures . A well deserved award Magnus!

I spend most of my time planning how to beat @Shorty at board games. When not doing that I have driving lessons on Tuesday and go Lindy hop dancing with @Nami every Wednesday. Dan and I spend a lot of time visiting friends, going places and spending far too much money eating out. Oh and I read and draw a bit too!

Happy Birthday

Not many people have mentioned meeting up with friends, or is that just a given?

TASTY, TASTY, TASTY! Did it go down well on Christmas day? I'd like to make something like that, but seems a lot of effort for it being a side dish. On New Years Eve, I made this: It's the tastiest thing I've made in a long time, and I seriously recommend it! The recipe (sorry for the DM link) is available here. It says you need a food processor, but a hand blender worked just fine . EDIT: It's called Thai Chicken Laksa

I actually found this quite hard, remembering what I had seen. My favourites: Moonrise Kingdom The Avengers Spider-Man Good films: The Hunger Games The Dark Knight Rises The Hobbit Looper Frankenweenie The Muppets Shame The Raid The Artist Rubbish Prometheus ...I also watched Men in Black 3 on the plane and really enjoyed it!

Probably because most people don't see it as a problem. What's so bad about the partner being there? When I used to live with my friends, they'd visit, some daily and it never bothered me.. I enjoyed having them round, was a great atmosphere. People should live by themselves if they get too annoyed by other people easily, or live with other people of the same understanding.

Did you get engaged this year? Or was that the year before? Anyway, some highlights from my year: Dan moved in. We moved again, but into a house. I was offered a permanent contract at work. Went on holiday to Berlin and Barcelona in the Summer. Stayed overnight in York and London, including seeing Les Mis. Went to one of my best friend's weddings. Went to Hong Kong for the first time for a wedding. Started driving lessons.

Will that be so easy with New Years Eve coming up? My friends who are trying to/have quit, all say that the electronic cigarette works wonders for quitting. Mine are more goals too, but they are: Save money so I can go back to Hong Kong at Easter (for wedding number 2). Pass my driving test. Change my job for a better one. Move somewhere new. I wonder how many of them I'll achieve. Hopefully all of them .

Are you talking about the 4 dogs in the picture, or the 3 easy to spot dogs plus Dan?