Kids and words and stuff.

Yesterday I got up moderately early to walk part of the way to our daughter's house. The skinflint in me refused to pay bus fare (almost £4 to her house) just because the bus came before the time after which I could use my old biddy's bus pass. So I walked some of the way to a point where the bus would arrive a little later. Such a lot of silliness but it also ensured that I got some exercise, the walk replacing my usual jog. 

So before ten o' clock I was at her house, taking over on the childcare front while she went off to do some university work with a fellow student. My great niece was staying over. It makes me feel quite ancient to use such a term but what else can I call my sister's granddaughter? Quite a houseful then! 

At lunchtime, since we had the use of my daughter's car, we went out for lunch - quite a carful! The kids had requested one of those pizza places that does a lunchtime buffet. I was only vaguely aware that such places exist. You pay around £7 per person, less for children, and you can eat as much pizza, pasta or salad as you wish during the buffet time. Quite a horrific concept, really! It's quite amazing how much pizza and pasta a nine year old can put away! I think the only one who had salad was me. And after stuffing their faces with pizza and so, they still had space for ice cream! I was astounded! 

The conversation, however, was very civilised. Everyone remembered their manners and discussed favourite films, computer games, even books! Although the nine year old, the only boy, did state at one point that reading was boring. This led to an outcry from the four young ladies (17, 16 and 11), revealing a common difference between the genders. We agreed that he still needs to find books that really grab him and then he'll be fine. Today's children are often accused of lacking any interest in words but the bunch I had lunch with showed every sign of enjoying playing with words to make jokes. 

And later I read about a workshop that the Guardian Education Centre puts on regularly. They run sessions on news media for classes of schoolchildren from year five to sixth form. Apparently the most popular is a workshop using the day’s breaking news stories to make their own front page. They spend four hours researching, writing and subediting. And they love it. And they come up with wonderful headlines for their articles. A pair of nine-year-olds was writing recently about the British Museum’s plans to create a digital version of the museum using Minecraft. “British Museum mine their own business” was their headline. Impressive wordplay from such young journalists, with a pun that accurately describes the story and uses an active verb to boot. They were beaming as they wrote it. Fantastic stuff. 

Who says creativity is dead? 

Today we are off to Newcastle to visit an old friend. We are fast approaching the station so this blog post must come to an end. Now, I need to establish a wifi connection so that I can post it.