AletheaJane

🐝 👻

On a different note, we played Articulate last night and the six yo had to guess ‘wasp’.

‘It’s like a bee but not a bee.’ I said.

She replied:

‘Bee ghosts?’

🥰

Every time my kids discover another “empowered” show like Winx, I feel a little pang. It looks progressive on the surface, but it’s still equating power with beauty, size, and sex appeal. Just another glossy Charlie’s Angels reboot in disguise. #Parenting #MediaRepresentation #BodyImage

#TheInfantilisationOfWomen is perpetuated by cartoons that have developed women in part sexually suggestive, part children’s clothing, behaving like naive teenagers, in a school, whilst fawning over puppies and boys. They’re clearly sexualised but they’re behaving like and treated like children. 🤮

#RiotWomen is the best thing I think I’ve watched all year. A celebration of bold voices, fearless creativity, and women who refused to sit quietly. 🔥
If you need a shot of inspiration and rebellion, this is it. 💪

#BBCiPlayer
#FeministTV
#PowerfulVoices
#HerStory
#Trailblazers

First night of the kid’s dance show last night. Exhaustion all round so all bundled into one bed this morning and watched #MichaelRosen’s poetry and the new #Twits film with toast and tea. Crawled to half term and so thankful I can turn the alarm off for a few weeks
#TeacherBurnout
#FamilyTime

(2/2) Schools can already identify who can read fluently, who needs support, who has poor attitude to reading… But funding to have specialist teachers, a dedicated reading department, big ole lovely libraries, author visits, free books for students, and CPD for teachers is what is really needed.

(1) The Gov’s belief that more testing will lead to a miraculous change in attitudes to reading among young people is just…odd. I’m not averse to checking in on Yr8 reading skills but it needs to be part of a much wider plan for funding reading support and development.

The 8yo discovered Google Translate app. A wholesome, educational tool for expanding her linguistic knowledge and vocabulary.

Now every time she parps 💨 she says ‘enjoy my butt breath’ in Indonesian.

The Greatest Showman musical announces world premiere casting From now on, these are the names to look out for!

Aaah so excited! www.whatsonstage.com/news/the-gre...

A picture of the cover of How to Lay an Egg with a Horse Inside. It’s a lovely yellowy-gold colour and has an illustration (by Joe Berger) of a man who is looking at a horse who appears to have a giant egg inside it.

A poem from inside the book: MISSED CALLING Geoff was a poet but he didn’t know it and so he spent his life working as a heating engineer in the Dagenham area.

A picture of the cover of How to Lay an Egg with a Horse Inside. It’s a lovely yellowy-gold colour and has an illustration (by Joe Berger) of a man who is looking at a horse who appears to have a giant egg inside it. This picture plugs the exclusive indie bookshop edition.

Some news! I have a new book coming in April: ‘How to Lay an Egg with a Horse Inside’.

It has 100+ new poems, and also serves as a guide to reading, writing & enjoying poetry.

An EXCLUSIVE signed edition is available through indie bookshops, with a bonus poem. Pre-order at bio.to/howtolayaneg...

White paper with a child’s drawing of a woodlouse character in a top hat, tucked into the corner of a small bathroom mirror hung on a blue wall.

Only made it to two author talks at the #BathChildrensLitFestival this year, but they’ve both been so wonderful. Youngest (5yo) has been so inspired by @nadiashireen.bsky.social I keep finding little Eric Dynamites around the house 🥰👒
#RaisingReaders #AuthorInspo #MiniIllustrator

Burnout

The house was burning.
I got the kids out.
Saved the most precious items.

‘Did you get a bucket of water?!’
I called from the upstairs window,
my lungs filling with smoke.

‘No!’ He called back from the street.
‘I was sleeping!’

#Burnout #MentalLoad #LonelyParenting #ShiftWork

Three weeks in to the academic year and I’m already feeling burnt out. #TeacherLife #EnglishMarking

This has struck a chord this morning.

Just discovered Noel Streatfeild was not a man. This misunderstanding is as baffling as discovering Tennessee Williams and the Child Catcher weren’t female 🤣 How have I not realised these things until I’m an advanced adult?!

This has been a golden find for my 5yo. It has enough decodable words for her to join in reading aloud, although she knows the whole thing off by heart now. She did a Rainbows badge all about it whilst dressed as a cat 💕 #VivianeSchwartz #RaisingReaders #GirlGuidingBookLover #SummerReads

So depressing having the emails I sent myself in July with the Sept prep rolling in and unfurling like flea ridden stray dogs wandering into my home and wanting me to give them tummy rubs. #TeacherLife #JealousOfMyPastSelf #SummerHolidays #SeptemberAmnesia

My five year old has discovered the Spice Girls #GirlPower #90sFeminism #Wannabe ✌🏻

Beyond excited to surprise my 8yo with seeing #PamelaButchart in the flesh: she’s a HUGE fan. Got an email today that the session is cancelled. She doesn’t know and I understand fully why it’s cancelled but I’m still so disappointed for her. #FirstWorldProblems #RaisingReaders #ThenWeGasped

Nighttime view of a colourfully lit tent with the sea and trees beyond and city lights on the horizon

What a view! 😍 #CampingWithKids #OutdoorsAdventures #FairWeatherCamper

My main gripe with #Hercules though, as is always the case with anything set in ‘ancient’ times: the unnecessary mash up of time periods, cultures, mythologies… ancient Rome & ancient Greece are not the same thing! Mosaics in the set design, jokes about Rome, gladiator costumes… 🤦🏻‍♀️ 🙄 #ClassicsNerd

2/2 #Hercules The leads did their very best but costume and characterisation were lacking. Muses were PHENOMENAL. Set was impressive. Choreography needed energy & - along with Hades - gave it all a cheap pantomime feel. Female roles better developed. Story quite different from the film.

1/2 Saw the new #Hercules today. 8yo absolutely loved it - her first West End show. She was desperate to spend pocket money on merch but her £5 didn’t even remotely stretch to a keyring #RipOff I felt the show was lazy with what I assume was a fairly large budget…

Close up of orange and blue dried flowers from La Fleur Morte at the Saatchi Gallery Flowers exhibition.

#FlowersExhibition at the #SaatchiGallery was splendiferous. My girls were inspired to sketch, dance and cartwheel. So many different forms & interpretations. Kids loved the interactive installation and the free family watercolours workshop was great too! 8yo snapped this pic 🥰 #BlossomsAndBrushes

My 5yo made up a joke:
What do you call a unicorn with no horn? 🦄

…

…

…

A duck. 🦆

You’re welcome.

#KidsJokes #FiveYearsOld #KidLogic

Where are you based? Or are you international through the medium of online platforms?

Browsing the #BathChildren’sLiterature festival events and sprayed wine everywhere on realising Pamela Butchart was doing a session. My 8yo is OBSSESSED. We read all her books this year. She’s gonna be stoked when she finds out she’s going to meet her! #KidLit #RaisingReaders

Two things I did today that confirmed my #middleaged status: deliberated extensively over two shades of grey carpet; got excited when vinegar cleaned out my steam mop and made it work again. #LivingTheMiddleAgeDream #GettingOldMeansI’mHere

Traditional start to the holidays: sign up to the library’s summer reading challenge. 8yo has read three books today. She’ll have smashed the challenge by tomorrow evening 😂 #SummerReadingChallenge2025 #ReadingGoals #RaisingReaders #BookwormInTraining