Spring Break, Dublin Style

Is there anything better than school holidays? I think not! Unfortunately my annoying female parental thought I was having far too much fun sleeping, hanging out with my friends, and catching up on Glee and decided to put me on baba duty for the afternoon while she went to the dentist.

At least that’s where she said she was going – I have my doubts – can a filling really take two whole hours? Please! Her teeth are not elephant tusk sized.

So I got landed with Alex and Evie, my little brother and sister. And I was supposed to be meeting up with Seth and Mills. They kindly offered to help me with the babies, so I pushed Evie in the buggy, and Seth put Alex on his back and we headed off to the park.

Alex nearly gave Seth a black eye with his sharp little heels, but apart from that we all got there in one piece.

Then we made the mistake of giving the babies ice cream cones, which they got all over their faces, hands, hair and clothes. Evie even got ice cream up her nose – yuck! I had to dig it out with the corner of a tissue.

When we got home Mum nearly had a fit.

‘What happened?’ she demanded. ‘Why are they both so sticky and what’s that gloop in their hair? Amy!’

‘It’s only ice cream, Mum,’ I said. ‘It’ll wash out.’

She narrowed her eyes. ‘Did Dave put you up to this?’ (Dave’s my kind of step dad)

‘Up to what?’

‘He told you, didn’t he? That if you do something badly I might not ask you to do it again.’

‘No! And I wasn’t trying to be a rubbish babysitter on purpose if that’s what you’re implying,’ I protested. ‘I was doing you a favour. Look, I’ll put them both in the bath for you. OK?’

She softened up a bit then and gave me a tenner. Score!


Hope you don’t have to babysit too much over the holliers, my friends!

Until next time -

Keep smiling!

Amy XXXX

Rachel's Ode to Maths

This is a cool article sent to the Goss by a student in 6th class in Dunboyne (nice place in Ireland) - Clover passed it on to me - it's pretty good so I thought I'd publish it here on my Amy Blog.

I've added my own comments on it of course! If you've read my books you'll know I'm a maths geek, sad but true!!!!

Amy XXX

Make Maths a Friend! by Rachel
:)

To me, Maths has no personality. It’s like a dead person, it doesn’t exist. (How can you say this, Rachel? Amy)

There’s nothing deep about it. You can’t leave your own mark on it. It doesn’t express who you are as a person, because in maths there’s always an answer but only one. You have no choice. You can’t leave your own stamp on it. But maybe I’m missing something? There could be some secret to maths no one knows. Something deep hidden behind the numbers. (See, Rachel, you're getting it now - Amy)

All subjects can be thought about in different ways, In the end I think it all depends on our attitude towards it. Maybe if we think about Maths in a more positive way, it will appeal to us differently. We just think of maths as a bad subject because it seems like that subject everyone just has to hate and groan about, because if you think about it, it’s not very popular is it? (Except with me!)

Maybe maths seems bad to us because it is one of those subjects we just love to hate. Pretend for a minute maths had feelings, I don’t think it would like being complained at so much, would you?

I know I wouldn’t be the first person you’d think of running to for tips on maths but here are some on how you can help improve your attitude towards it. (You go, girl!)

Tips:

1. Think of maths positively. If you think about maths in a positive way. It will come out like that on the paper.

2. I know I said before maths has no personality, but as hard as it is try your very best to pretend it does. Pretend Maths has feelings like a person. Pretend he’s...Max! If Maths was a real person you wouldn’t wan’t to hurt his feelings would you? So try your best doing the sums for him, and not only the teacher will be pleased.(I know this sounds crazy, but try it out and it might work.)

3. Try come up with different ways to get the answer . You don’t have to figure it out the same way as everyone else. Everybody is different and has a different approach. Even though I said there is only one answer there are still a hundred ways to get it. (Abso-doodle-lutely, Rachel!)

4. Tutor! Yes tutor. If you feel you have a strength in a certain area don’t be afraid to help someone who doesn’t. Once you know you’ve helped someone get an answer you’ll feel much better about yourself and tutoring also is a brilliant fun way to learn as you can still learn by teaching someone.

5. There are so many different areas in maths that if you feel you’ve given up (Never Give Up!!) in a certain area don’t be afraid to give a go at another one, you never know, surprisingly you might like it, it’s always good to try new things.

6. Ok so this is my last tip and so for the final one I think overall it’s all about how we look at things. Like me you may think that maths is boring or nothing to it, or not deep in any way. But try turn those bad thoughts the other way round, you know all the moaning and bad thinking won’t make it any better. Pretend Maths is all the things you think it isn’t and you just might believe it! So that’s it I think by writing this down I’ve seen maths in a different way and you should too because I guess really in the end the numbers don’t bite! (Rachel, you are so right! Numbers don't bite. But my baby sis, Evie does - ow, ow, ow. Have to go, she's got my leg . . . . Amy)