Canvas soul

One advantage of being me is being small enough to get regular children's stuff off the peg really easily and indeed I've never had any adult shoes in my life simply because they were too big for my feet!

Not completely unconnected with the last entry for some of us Physical Education (aka P.E) has strong memories one of which for me was the plimsolls we wore while doing it and to which I was never able to fasten by myself.
This meant apart from getting some negative attention for requiring help getting changed in time I had slip on ones that stood out at the time.
Actually I have a new pair with velcro fastening which are ideal for quickly dashing off to places like the mailbox.
They should of came last Thursday  in time for the picnic but they kinda got delayed which is just typical,eh?
They also make me feel a bit young too strangely enough as I remember having them in a drawstring bag with the rest of my P.E. kit like the t shirt and socks not that I always remembered to have it with me  which annoyed some of my teachers some of which had other uses for them.
I never let anything that bother me as I missed for most of one term P.E to gossip with my best friend while we were meant to be doing extra prep as punishment when the supervising teachers were busy with their own classes..

Maypole

Yay! A bank holiday over here so I'm able to relax a bit  read and yes write today's blog entry although the idea came to me a few days ago so i just jotted down the initial thoughts cos my short term memory isn't good at all.
Seeing it's May Bank Holiday I was starting to think about what kinds of things I used to around this time of year and one of the things that stuck in my mind was school maypole dancing

While that  picture wasn't taken it my school, it was taken at a school in Gloucestershire, England actually, it is very very similar to how we did it.
Those who had two left feet were selected as 'ballast' to hold the maypole down, the uniform was similar except the boys nearly always had shorts on and in alternate boy/girl pairings we'd dance weaving in and out creating the plait you can see from the top of the pole downward.
One difference is we have what in England you'd call 'Pumps'  a cotton with rubber soled gym type shoe that you had to clean and polish before the public performance with matching three-quarter length socks.
I use to take me ages to polish and whiten mine!
I was pretty good at it actually having a good ear for the tunes we danced to so we kept in time with the music as well as each other. Well it kinda helps, eh?

An Education

I felt inspired after last nights chat to talk a little about about my education with all the usual cravats about internet postings when it comes to online security.
The first school I went to was in a Country district in a really old building Victorian no doubt set up when the powers that be decided we all needed a bit of an education  with formally separate girls and boys  doors that we had to line up by at the start of day, during recesses and depart through in the afternoons.
It was made from brick, had outdoor toilets and a big playground that we'd mark up for hopscotch plus a field for games.
Classrooms would no doubt shock some today and have others calling for their retention as they were locked very much in the era of the building, with one for each year group.
At the front of each classroom near a window stood a old big wooden desk where you teacher sat with a clear view of the entire class and half a view to the classroom door where the Head Teacher would look through from time to time which was a pretty powerful incentive to be good.
The rest of the room had shelves for reference type books for our year as we didn't have a proper school library then but the biggest difference compared with schools shortly after I left was with the seating arrangements.
The classroom had rows of separate wooden desks (like the picture above) with lids that lifted up to get your exercise books out, a compartment for your writing equipment and an inkwell. Yes really an inkwell cos in year 4 and above you were expected to write in cursive writing in ink, refilling your pen as you went along.
We also were taught written and spoken French from a very early age which is very useful.
I think ours were made from polished and varnished pine as were the chairs.
You had a fixed table position in alternating girl, boy fashion which I suppose was really to encourage the boys to pay attention but in my case lead to much whispering!
Anyone not paying attention would be called out and if you persisted then you'd be punished in class or sent to the Head Teacher returning with a red face and more than just hurt pride.
Although I had bullying issues there, I liked the school a lot not least for what seemed like endless games of rounders but I transferred to another school building  so I had to learn all about where everything was all over again!
This new school was well brand spanking new with bigger grounds and a library so I had to learn the Dewey classification system and how to book out books I wanted to read and it also had its own kitchen which my old school didn't have (they bought in meals to warm up and serve in a community hall instead).
The first major difference was we didn't have form classrooms, but area - they called them Home Bays - that we'd start out from moving to different parts of the building for science for instance and that this school was open plan. I think part of idea was to encourage to go do stuff for ourselves and earn the respect for being able to do it without as was the case at my first school being stood over all day.
They had these half hexagonal tables that we did work on that were supposed to help with group work but we just kept giggling between ourselves most of time, especially when like my friend and I we'd forgotten our PE kit so we were meant to be doing extra classwork with another teacher popping in to keep an eye on us!!!
The noise at times was problem so much so that everyone had to reminded to talk quietly and the younger ones got screens put in to keep their screaming out of our ears as we struggled with long division (and I still do)!
We did a lot of music, recorder groups, plus playing with triangles, Xylophones, drums, glockenspiels and so on as either performances or in all school year assemblies. The assemblies at my first school were much instructions, worship and public admonishment sessions all in one.
Usually in the late mornings our year teacher would do a storytime for us reading books like Emil and the Detectives aloud and we'd talk about the adventures as a group work.
It was a good school but I felt it lacked some structure that could lead some astray as much it was nice to feel trusted going about your independent learning.

Keep fit - Past and present

As a child like most we had PE (Physical Exercise) which was never the most popular thing on the subject list. Most of time it would involve things such as doing press ups and generally strengthening our muscles and improving the range of movements we could do using our joints

Sometimes I just miss that PE master or Miss pushing me on!

This said I do exercise a bit even now having back problems and issues with posture generally to help my condition

Getting back into the swing of outdoor exercise such as walking and bit of basic mat PE style exercise indoors like press ups to keep my muscles working something like that with my disabilities it's very good idea to do - and we have rain for much of the week!

So guess what it does? yes, buckets down. Grrr!

Never mind I have a new pair of exercise shorts to wear ready for when the downpours and strong winds stop.

Beanbag target

Now this was one of my favourite games that we did in PE and also for schools sports days. The idea is to throw the beanbag to set of targets each having a seperate points value. The one with the most points wins!
We also used beanbags lifting and lowering them in our hands as a form of exercise.

Rounders

One of my abiding memories of school and very much a passion of mine is the game of Rounders which I played with the girls who wore t shirts and pleated games skirts as we tread to make it to the forth base.
It sure was fun although today sports like this a facing a hard time between those who dislike competition and others who think Games really should be just keep fit.

Team Games

One sport I liked at school was Netball

Going on with the ball under pursuit.

 She goes to score!

 Ready to throw the ball!

I love ball games running around as part of a team.

Pre-blog

Snippets from the past are things I just keep on finding be they in my mind or in carefully stored correspondence so here's an entry from the past.
Today, I bought a T shirt and a Maroon coloured traditional pleated games skirt while doing some groan up work on the computer. 

I did it cos it's been a stressful time dealing with loads of important emails and all I want to do is be little again playing school games. It's true.
I was a bit shocked after hitting the submit button on Newitts, the York based internet sports store after entering my payment details but the deed is done.
I want my childhood back.

Exercise [Pre-blog]

Today I came back from being out with my family but they'd no idea what I had in a bag cos I carefully dodged bumping into them in the store. It was a  proper blue WRNS A line hard wearing pleated P T skirt to wear instead of shorts that had been my to go clothing of choice for a fair time but I feel like a change now and as my folks are out more I can do this.