It’s quite well known amongst my workmates and friends that we keep chickens. It’s even reached our kids nursery.

photo credit: aliwest44

I’m not sure who’s idea it was but my wife managed to source an incubator and 10 eggs for the toddlers to hatch. The nursery got right into the swing of things and the daily activities involved things to do with the eggs and how to look after the chicks when they hatched. Everything was going great and I think they were prepared for the odd one or two eggs that didn’t hatch and maybe a couple of chicks that wouldn’t make it past a day or two before passing away. What they were not prepared for was precisely what happened though. Not one single egg hatched. Something happened at the 4-5 day mark which caused the eggs to stop developing. It could have been a powercut or any number of things but until the day they were due to hatch we didn’t know how bad it was going to be.

We were gutted when only 5 of our 14 eggs hatched the first time we tried it so I can only imagine how a group of toddlers might feel when none of them hatched. We managed to lend them our Indian Runner Ducks that had hatched a few days before so they got their fix of small fluffy animals eventually but I can’t help feeling the kids lost out by not seeing their eggs hatch. It’s been great watching our kids get used to the chickens and the ducks. I’ve always been worried that Nairn would hurt them but he’s always so gentle when he’s handling them. Fair enough he still chases them about when they are in the garden and has been known to throw a kick at them and never make contact but he’s learning so much. Not just about the chickens but about life in general from seeing these wee fluff balls grow up.

I have some sort of writers block going on. It’s not a case of having nothing to write about but a case of having so much to write about that I can’t finish anything off.

It has been a busy weekend but thats no excuse. I’ve just checked the drafts sitting waiting to be finished off for this block and theres at least 5 articles almost finished with another 3 just needing a little work done to them. Whats the problem you may ask? Well I just can’t find a way to finish them off that I’m happy with. I even started rewriting some of them completely which just makes things worse.

photo credit: nics_events

One of the good things that came from all this however is that I’m starting to see things my kids could learn just from the processes involved in blogging. You are taught in school from an early age about how writing is structured and over time you learn how to plan out exactly what you are going to write before you write it. Which brings me to an idea that I’ve had kicking about for a while. A lot of people have problems with their children having a presence on the internet or even just having their photo uploaded in a public space somewhere. Personally I don’t see that much of a problem with it but everyone has their own limits. About the only thing I worry about is posting photos of my kids where they would be easily identifiable but then again I’m sort of like that with photos of myself anyway.

But on to the idea. I’ve seen many blogs out there written by young kids but actually typed up by their parents. If your wanting your kids to learn anything from blogging taking their words and fixing them so that they are grammatically correct and are spelled perfectly is the wrong way to go. Hopefully I’ll be able to encourage my step-son to ‘guest’ post on here in the near future. Kids these days may be more computer literate than previous generations but with text and l337 speak all the rage their grasp of the written language is sadly lacking. Hopefully this will encourage him to write about more than what his teacher asks him to write in his handwriting books at school.

It’s been something thats been going on for a long time in my mind. At what point do you shatter your child’s rose tinted view of the world and introduce them to the harsh reality?

Since the Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh 2005 when I took my step-son along for the day I’ve been trying to work out just how to get it across to them. You don’t want to sound like a parent from the 70’s trying to get their family to eat all their food by saying, “There is little brown babies in Africa that would love to have a dinner like that.” My wife and I have tried to explain it to our eldest but whilst he seems to understand at the time it goes right out his mind two minutes later when Ben 10 comes on the TV.

photo credit: hdptcar

I was listening to Faithless’ ‘Mass Destruction’ the other day and it got me thinking again. There is a fine line between knowing about the world around us and having the harsh realities forced upon you at an early age. I usually find it difficult explaining to children why I work where I work. Without going into to much detail I’m involved in the administration side of the UK Government’s aid program. This means I usually end up trying to tell the kids about the Millennium Development Goals and whilst they usually take in what I say they almost always without fail ask that one question that all parents fear, “Why?” In this case it’s a perfectly valid question but how on earth do you answer it without cracking the shield that all children should have that lets them play in their own wee world unaffected by the troubles around them. And at what age is it reasonable to actually encourage children to get involved. From a personal view I was involved with CND from a very young age thanks to my Grandfather and several other relatives being very involved with them as well as growing up with Live Aid and Comic Relief but I know many that until very recently didn’t even know about the threat of famine every year around the world and were gobsmacked that the UK sent aid packages to the USA after Hurricane Katrina.

There are many charities around the world involved with poverty/post conflict relief that are sometimes aimed at children. Comic Relief and Sport Relief in the UK are two of the larger ones with things like Children in Need following closely behind them. Their attitude to showing the kids where the money will go is quite a harsh one and I think it is this particular point that I find the hardest to deal with. On one hand I want my children to be care free and enjoy their childhood but at the same time I want to impress upon them the importance of helping others if you can who are in situations far worse than their own.

How do you deal with this issue?