Yesterday I woke up to find I could read - I mean really read a lot. So I downed all tools - well Sunday is a day of rest and I read all day - all day!!!! I don't think I have ever, ever read all day. I read a whole book! This is just astoundingly good news for me.

And this is the book that grabbed me.



I had put off reading it as I thought it would be a harsh read. Daley's girlfriend's Mom had loaned it to me. She too works with children. I thought it would be a busman's holiday type read - lol!!

But it is so poignant. I could relate so much to the teacher's work. I read remembering some of the special needs children I have loved and loathed all in the same moment - it is hard to love a child who is kicking you or throwing furniture round the room! But you get over it!!

At times I laughed reading this book and at times I was close to tears.

And I was reminded of one particular incident - in the book a child buys Torey Hayden a gift from Poundland.

In my own class, one Christmas, a child who was loveable, funny, sunny but had challenging behaviour bought me a gift. He found academic work difficult and each afternoon I spent extra catch up time with him. We had been working on number recognition 50-100. Gaining the giddy heights of 90 plus had quite gone to our heads but we were having problems getting much further and recognising 100 was particularly elusive. But that did not stop us trying - lol!

Anyway, that Christmas he excitedly shoved the gift on my lap at register time and said "Quick, open it. I bought it all meself and everythin'." I opened the package which was looking a bit dog-eared by now but well-loved and inside was a large and very luminous lime green frog! This child loved frogs and was busy trying to convert the rest of us.

"Oh it's lovely!" I gasped wondering what on earth I was going to do with it.
"Lovely - you'll put that on your mantlepiece at home won't you?" smirked my naughty teaching assistant.
The child just glowed with pleasure.

The Poundland price sticker was still on; "£1.00" - "And look," he stabbed a finger at the price tag. "It cost me a HUNDRED pounds!"

Our adult eyes met and, ever the teachers, we silently agreed that this counted as number recognition of 100, who cared about the decimal point - lol !! My TA & I were ecstatic!

He shared our joy thinking it was financial rather educational, "I know, A HUNDRED POUNDS!" the child repeated!

That luminous lime green frog is still much loved by me. As I cleaned the little pond by the greenhouse last week and placed it back at the edge I could still hear that six year old's excited chatter,"I know, A HUNDRED pounds!"

Well, it's priceless to me, sweetheart.


Edited to add: We also made a note to re-visit money values in the January term. You can't win 'em all!