Tag: rules

Mumsnet the Rules

I really need to get over my irrational fear of the NCT and Mumsnet.  I’m probably just not clever enough to get the humour.  However, I did find this highly amusing last night.

I was pointed in the direction of their newest book, which is available for a tenner.

The Golden Rules:

1. You don’t have to bake with your children.
2. Don’t fret about milestones.
3. Don’t buy a guinea pig for your child.
4. Ignore unsolicited parenting advice from old biddies on buses.
5. Don’t give up work for your children (unless you want to!).
6. Cut their hair off.
7. Let them eat cake.
8. Boycott World Book Day.
9. Don’t hit your kids.
10. Put away your mobile, turn off your laptop and don’t even think about a BlackBerry or an iPhone.

For the most part a lot of the rules are solid: except possibly 1, 6 and 8.  But, what really made me laugh was number 10.  Not because of what it says but because what was being advertised right below it????

Hmmm…an app?  Fairly sure you need an iphone for that…

Spelling Roolz!

People are forever apologizing on Twitter for spelling mistakes, but to be honest, being a former primary school teacher I can read just about anything.  I also have a knack for reading upside down.

Funnily though, I used to be a very good speller until I started teaching, now I look at everything twice.  Sometimes the way children spell is incredibly logical.  For example, ‘fone’ it makes perfect sense and does apply the rules of phonics and I’m not surprised children find it difficult to spell ‘phone’.  However, I do want them to learn to spell correctly and I hate seeing text speak anywhere but on a mobile, msn or twitter.

Over the years I’ve developed a few quirky ways of helping me to spell……

Island – ‘is land surrounded by water’

Tomatoes – ‘I squished the tomato with my toes’

Broccoli – ‘Two lion cubs and one lioness’ (two c’s and one l).  This one is courtesy of the zany @iaingilmour

Stationery – I think of the ‘e’ in envelope

And of course the good old ‘i before e except after c’.  So, you could imagine my surprise when Stephen Fry, the all-round English genius, reported on QI that is not the case and that there are over 900 instances when this rule doesn’t apply (e.g. Weird, ancient, glacier, policies, society, science).  Now I’m scuppered!

Can you think of any others?

Do you have any tricks for remembering spellings?

Does anyone have a Mnemonic for the word Mnemonic?

How many spelling mistakes did you find in this post?