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By Little Mummy, April 26, 2008 5:37 am

I’ve been tagged. I’m going to change the rules to suit myself slightly;

a) I’m going to take the first part of mother at large’s answers and complete them myself.

b) I’m going to offer two answers to each, one will be a truthful answer, one will be completely false. I realise this defeats the purpose of the meme, but hey, it might be fun! Here goes…

1. My favourite food is…. Salad

1a. My favourite food is… Seafood

2. I get pleasure from… Cleaning

2a. I get pleasure from… Winning

3. I have a…. Combine harvester (and I’ll give you the key)

3a. I have a… big pile of ironing to do

4. I am NOT…. Lazy

4a. I am NOT… slightly OCD

5. I am looking forwards to… doing the big pile of ironing

5a. I am looking forwards to… improving my poker skills

6. I am already nervous about… the social science degree I’ve just started

6a. I am already nervous about… performing with the local amateur ballet group

I’ll tag anyone who leaves a comment on this post.

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By Little Mummy, April 25, 2008 7:46 am

Women Work Harder Than Men (and other interesting facts)

Women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, buy earn only a tenth of the world’s income.

I found this fact to be particularly disturbing, although not really that surprising. There is still huge inequality in the developing world, however, that’s not to say we don’t have our own issues here in Britain, like the inequality of wages. If we are all being fairly remunerated for our efforts then what’s the problem with making the figures public knowledge? Problem solved. Some would argue this would be a breach of privacy, they are probably the same people earning more than they are worth.

Other facts included;

Women produce half the world’s food but own less than 2 per cent of the world’s land.

Domestic violence, where women are predominantly the victims, kills and injures more people in the developing world than war, traffic accidents or cancer.

A third of the world’s women are homeless or live in inadequate housing.

It’s easy to forget that there are huge swathes of the world where women do not enjoy the same level of equality that we currently enjoy in the west.

(Source: OU Social Science Newspaper)

Teachers Stifle Pupils Interest in Current Affairs

Stories like these are appearing more often, perhaps because of the social appetite to criticize our education systems, or maybe it is representative of the actual situation, who knows… There’s always some news piece about children being prevented from going on vacations (educational or not), or taking time out of school to do something other than study within the constraints of four walls. Four walls are not a prerequisite to learning, and neither is a formal teacher for that matter, every man (woman, or child) is capable of being his own teacher. That’s not to say that I don’t hold our teachers in high regard, I do, I just believe that there is more to learning that being taught (within four walls) and we, as a society, are missing a trick not to recognise this. I’ve always felt that a more flexible education system is what is required for the future, a flexible and dynamic education system which will nurture tomorrow’s generation of free thinkers.

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By Dave, April 17, 2008 10:23 am

I’m upgrading the backend of LittleMummy.Com, so things might look a little squiffy or stop working entirely for a short while. Bear with us.

*Update* – Aaaand we’re back. Still reactivating plugins etc, so there might be some oddness to go, but the database is upgraded and everything seems to be working fine.

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By Little Mummy, April 7, 2008 5:02 am

My brother taught me to play poker about two years ago during a home tournament with friends. I now play online at party poker under the nickname ‘Eccy100′ (if anyone wants to join me)* and just recently (the past couple of months) I’ve been playing at a local casino. I’ve made it to a few final tables, winning £250, £75 and £40 at each visit.

I tend to go through phases with hobbies (we call them mini-addictions in my house!), last year it was blogging (still going strong, all though not quite as obsessive), before that was scrapbooking, before that card-making, and before that still, online roulette. Each mini-addiction can last anything between a few months to a few years being the longest so far (blogging!). I immerse myself quite deeply in the hobby, and it’s been the same with poker. I’ve already read a few books which I’ll review soon, and I’ve bought my first poker set ready for our regular home tournaments!

I’ve added another category to the right named ‘poker’ as I’d like to do poker performance updates along with book reviews etc..

If you’re interested in poker or have a blog please leave a comment and link for me

*£12/$25 bonus available if you want me to refer you as a friend, send me your name and email via the contact form

Photo by flickr user brtsergio

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By Little Mummy, April 5, 2008 11:52 am

Biologist turned child psychologist Jean Piaget was born in Switzerland in 1896. Piaget’s studies focused on the intelligence and social awareness of young children. In the 60′s educationalists developed new teaching methods from Piaget’s findings such as ‘learning through play’ and ‘reading readiness’, these methods are still prevalent today.

The idea of egocentric speech also came from some of Piaget’s work, the theory being that young children communicate in a way that is focused on the self “Erin wants to go swimming”, “Erin is eating a banana”, they find it difficult, if not impossible to see the world from anothers’ point of view. It was also observed that young children will use such language even when in the company of others, Piaget coined the term ‘collective monologue’ to accurately describe the way in which children will use egocentric speech in the presence of peers which may appear as communication, but is actually several children talking about themselves in the company of each other – sound familiar?

Based on his observations Piaget developed a general theory that children progress through four stages of cognitive development. Although children may pass through these stages at slightly different rates, Piaget found that it was impossible for a child to miss a stage completely.

As a parent I found these stages quite interesting.

Stage 1: Sensori-motor (birth – 2 years

The first stage involves the infant using his senses and motor abilities to explore, this begins with ‘primary circular reactions’ ie doing something over and over again – like sucking a thumb. The next phase (secondary circular reactions) moves onto objects within the environment ie grasping a ball, or playing with a light/sound toy – she realises that she has the power to make interesting things happen again and again. Finally during the second year tertiary circular motions come into play (pun not intended), this involves transferring the grasping/banging skills and trying them out on different things – banging a drum, banging the table, banging the door!

Stage 2: Pre-operational (2-7 years old)

The term ‘pre-operational’ describes the stage where a child lacks logical understanding. They can’t see anything from another point of view, physical or emotional. They take things at face value and struggle to understand the full consequence of an action. They are still egocentric, believing a lot that the worl revolves around them, clearly this isn’t helped by the fact they cannot see things from anyonelse’s perspective!

Stage 3: Operational (7-12 years old)

Finally children at this stage can understand a point of view other than their own. Their logical thinking is more advanced and so problem solving becomes easier.

Stage 4: Formal Operations

At this stage children can apply logic to maths and consider events in the future or in another place.