Homework

Owen has been working hard all summer (which is actually winter)….continuing with his ‘Jolly Phonics’ worksheets, readers, and spelling trying to learn British English. Why does one “go to hospital” as opposed to going to THE hospital. Why do we now spell meter, metre and color, colour. It is the Queen’s English: soccer is football, fries are chips, chips are crisps, and Bob's your uncle.

The boys have refused haircuts so, up go the bangs...I mean the fringe

And why, oh why, do I keep insisting that they boys put on some pants when they are clearly running around the house wearing their pants, which are of course, actually their underpants….I need to ask them to please put on a pair of trousers….and a jumper while they are at it!

Mercifully, coffee is still coffee. But biscotti? Rusks. Unless you are Finny is which case it is mistotti, as in "Yes momma I DO yike dat mistotti in your toffee! I do!"

A garden is the lawn or is it your yard? It is definitely not the garden. Cornstarch is cornflour. Essence is extract. The elevator is the lift…not that we really need to learn this one – though todd insists the PS's building does indeed have a working lift! Diapers are nappies. Paper towels are kitchen towels. Napkins are serviettes. Erasers are rubbers. Tennis shoes or sneakers are trainers. Cookies are biscuits. Traffic lights are robots and intersections generally work better when the robots are not working.

We are also doing Math tutoring, which is great except that it is called numeracy or maths. MATHS? Owen will really have to make sense of inches, feet, yards and miles while he is learning all things marvelously metric.

We have some workbooks that have US currency/coins so we are trying to make sure the poor kid can buy a chocolate bar in the states without having a nervous breakdown.