English - Writing opinion

Today there was an article in the news about a school in Bristol, England who have a forced rule of not allowing girl pupils to wear skirts to school.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/874572-schoolgirl-spends-second-day-at-home-after-skirt-ban

We decided to use this topic for writing an essay on opinion.

Not having to wear a school uniform at all is obviously a benefit I have because I am home-school but I strongly feel that not even being allowed to wear a skirt, is really a stupid rule.

I jotted down a rough idea of what my main feelings were and then we developed it into a full essay together. (See below for all working versions).

When you write about your opinion it is useful to learn a few phrases to make your arguments more effective. Here are a couple of them:

• I think that
• I feel very strongly that
• In my opinion
• Personally,...
• I believe that
• It seems to me that
• I disagree with
• To my mind

Others that you can use are: firstly, secondly, finally, in conclusion, to sum up, it is a fact, many people believe etc

Here are my first rough points:

1. I think that you should be allowed to wear whatever you choose.
2. Short skirts, extra long skirts, trousers or shorts
3. Its about expressing yourself.
4. If you want to wear a skirt then you should wear a skirt.
5. Its like saying to a boy he cant wear trousers
6. Long ago women were not allowed to wear trousers....
7. Its stupid.

I developed it into this:

Skirts banned at school

Long ago women were not allowed to wear trousers but now a school in Bristol, England is saying that girls are not allowed to wear skirts, as part of their school uniform.

My first thought on the subject of school uniforms was that pupils should be allowed to wear whatever they choose.

Although, when there are no rules, there are always pupils who will go beyond what is acceptable.  Even extremes can be ok but having no rules might mean that you get silly cases like pupils arriving at school in bikinis or pyjamas. 

I do think though, that pupils should be allowed a greater flexibility in what they are allowed to wear as their school uniform. 

Personally, I feel that schools should allow short skirts, extra long skirts, trousers or shorts because pupils do need to be able to express themselves within limits. This is very important when you are growing up.   

If pupils are restricted by school colours alone, then that is enough.  They should be allowed more flexibility in the styles and lengths of what they wear.  School uniforms should be more of a guide that a rigid rule.  I feel that school colours alone, allow a group identity and a school spirit.

Certainly if girls want to wear a skirt then they should be allowed to.  Preventing girls from wearing skirts totally, is the same as making a rule that boys are not allowed to wear trousers.  The majority of girls enjoy wearing skirts and its part of being a girl.

I find that this schools ruling, to be ridiculous and too restrictive. 

We then worked on the essay together and introduced a range of ideas and points to make it more effective:

Writing an opinionated article :   First make points, then decided on a strong introduction, main body - paragraphs linking ideas, conclusion (Summing up/final point).

School bans skirts for girls

Following several news articles published in the electronic media, I would like to take this opportunity to express my opinion on the matter.

School uniforms have long been a heated topic of discussion with many strong, varying opinions on all sides.

Some feel that uniforms should be strictly enforced whilst others feel that pupils should be allowed to express themselves, within limits.

Personally I feel that pupils should be allowed to wear whatever they choose.  In my opinion the clothes you wear have very little to do with learning, but rather with how comfortable you feel.  If you want to wear short skirts, long skirts, trousers or shorts that should be up to you. 

Uniforms also help to disguise different income groups.  Some parents have a low salary and can’t afford to buy clothing that keeps their children up with all the latest fashion trends.  Uniforms mean that these children don’t stand out of the crowd and suffer excessive bullying just because of their limited wardrobes. In schools where there are no uniforms, children from richer families compete.  They flaunt all the latest fashions and accessories and pick on those who have financial constraints.

On the other hand, when pupils are forced to wear stock-standard, mass produced clothing, it can often be uncomfortable as not everyone is the same shape and size.  Uniforms are often made from economical material, which are rough and coarse causing chaffing to the skin.

For many pupils it is also demotivating to be forced to wear a strict uniform.  It makes them feel like they are in military school.  Part of growing up and becoming a teenager is developing & expressing one’s own ideas.  Not being allowed any flexibility at all, in their clothing choice makes some pupils feel depressed and excessively dominated. 

How can pupils participate in subjects like creative writing, poetry and art when they are all carbon copies of each other.  It’s not inspiring at all.

Saying this I can also see that total freedom of expression can lead to excessive displays of individuality and can cause distractions.  After all pupils do have weekends and time after school to express their own fashion sense.

However, pupils should be given the choice of skirts or trousers depending on the season and also personal preference.

In this case, I firmly believe that the school in question has taken the subject of school uniforms beyond the limits. Wearing skirts is part of being a girl.  Long ago woman were not allowed to even wear trousers and now these girls are being forced to only wear trousers.

Telling girls that they are not allowed to wear skirts at school is like telling boys they can’t wear trousers.

The school in question has an extreme uniform policy, which is both ludicrous and misguided.

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We also had a look at a selection of websites and discussed what they had to say about writing about opinions.

You can have a look at them here:

An Opinion Essay

View more presentations from Anabel Ponce

http://fastessay.co.uk/essay/scholarship-essay/2199-how-to-write-an-opinion-essay.htmlhttp://www.slideshare.net/aponce4/an-opinion-essay-presentation
http://homeworktips.about.com/od/essaywriting/a/opinion.htm
http://homeworktips.about.com/od/essaywriting/a/opinion.htm
http://www.writefix.com/argument/
http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/tools/english-hs.html

How to grow your own vegetables

We were visiting another island to have our cats spayed and went to a local shop there.  They have so much more that we have in our little island shop!  We bought these cool educational tomato growing kits called "SUTTONS fun to grow" (have you ever wondered HOW does a tomato grow?).  Each Pot kit contains a peat pot, 'magic' compost black, seed and a fun facts sheet.

My sister and I are now happily growing our own tomatoes. 



It's not like we have not grown our own plants before, its just that these are set up so nicely and have a little educational pamphlet with them and they are really appealing because they are so cute.

Strangely enough the seeds in the little pot took longer to germinate than the extra seeds we put in a bigger pot under our own plastic lid.  They already germinated last  week, within a couple of days and today was the first day my one in the little pot germinated.

My sisters bigger pot germinated earlier and her little pot has not germinated yet.

They were both under the same conditions - each set being on our sunny bedroom windowsills.


Have a look at http://www.suttons-seeds.co.uk/ because thats the the address on the little yellow pot.

My parents have always grown their own vegetables, fruit and herbs because we used to have a small farm in Africa.  We learn as early as crawling and walking and talking the process of seed to seeding to product and then also havesting and storing the seeds we needed for the following year.  We learnt all about compost and earthworms, bees, butterflies, aphids and ladybirds.  We learnt about companion planting and the medicinal poroperties of plants and which plants were poisonous.  We grew up with herbal teas, homemade jams and fresh vegetables straight off the plant.  Our sunflowers used to grow taller than the house and the heads were bigger than dinner plates.  Our horses, bunnies and birds used to eat sunflowerseeds straight off the heads.  We grew our own mielies (Corn) and its delicious strait from the cob).  Its a wonderful way to grow up :D

Here of course the climate is different, so our efforts are not successful. The wind blows too hard even in the summer and we don't have a greenhouse or polytunnel yet.  Our vegetable and herb garden used to be bigger than our whole house and garden here and we used to have over 400 trees in our garden with lots of fruit trees and now we have none but its a good learning experience and we have all our past knowledge to build on.

For the past 3 years now we have germinated our seedlings indoors and then hardened off but had little results due to the huge amount of slugs, snails and of course the wind.

We are tweeking our system gradually so hopefully this year will be better.

Music: Keyboard - Ode to Joy

This is a really excellent website. I am busy learning this tune on my keyboard and it helped me a lot. It shows the sheet music, the section of keyboard with option of showing the note names. You can play the tune and watch the sheet music. The individual notes flash as they play. Its brilliant¬

http://www.musictechteacher.com/flash_piano_lesson_ode_to_joy.htm

An interesting thing is that my keyboard has a facility that 'teaches' one how to play a few tunes but the keyboard was showing the tune in E and the link shows the tune in B.

It sounds better in B, really but wonder if the keyboard is showing the tune wrong or what?

So, here is me playing 'Ode to Joy' on my keyboard for a handful of tries. Don't expect much because I just started and I have not practiced it - just, just learnt to play it about 5 minutes ago. I'll do a better version later and some of the others I have been learning.

Typing links

1. On-line typing lessons - http://www.typeonline.co.uk/lesson1.html

2. Kids learn2type - http://kids.learn2type.com/NewUser

3. http://www.nimblefingers.com/

How to play netball

Here is my presentation:


All About Netball

Testing out my Microscope

When we were in England for our summer holidays, we bought a lovely microscope set from an antique store.

It's still got all its parts and accessories and it works perfectly.

We have been meaning to have a look at it but been quite busy with other things.

So today was our chance.

It was the first day back at school on our island, so after my little sister was off to school we thought about what we were going to do for my first official homeschool day.

We had already started some work earlier this week but today is the first official day.

First off: NO UNIFORM. Yippeeee! I chose an outrageous outfit with a fantasy hat and striped extra long socks. It made me feel very creative. I worn bright magenta eye shadow and lime green lipstick. It was wild. The three of us (my mom, my dad and I) went roller skating before we started and practiced some ball skills at the netball court.

Then we came home to start on my quill! All of a sudden an unexpected happened, talk about having an adult closeby for safety. Well my mom was experimenting with the quill tip on a test quill and she was using my pokey thing from my microscope set and it slide through the quill tip in a jolt....

So then we had a unexpected sample for my microscope. It was very interesting once it was safely under the slide and I could see the cell wall and the nucleus and everything.



We also looked a couple of other things like a hair strand, and insect wing and nylon, silk, cotton and wool samples.

Obviously this was unplanned and an interruption for my quill making but we also looked up about cells on the internet and I saw some very interesting pictures of cells. The best beginnner cells to look at are onion cells so when we do our proper lesson thats what we will do.

Source: http://waynesword.palomar.edu

These are the parts of a plant cell:


Source: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/labeled-plant-cell-diagram-and-functions.html


Image Source: http://www.enchantedlearning.com.htm

You can stain cells with iodine to make it easier to see the cell parts. My microscope has a colour dial under the slide mounting which lets you view under red or blue or yellow or green etc light and it helps with different cells.

At least we know my microscope works nicely and I got a brief introductionto its parts and how to focus. I also learnt that there are different magnifications. Eyelashes do get in the way though :)

Parts & Acessories

Source: http://waynesword.palomar.edu

- Glass Slides and slide covers (Fragile)
- Tweezers
- Blade
- Sharp pokey thing :)
- Other pokey things
- Container bottles and dish with cover





Other links
This is a website that explains a lot about cells: http://waynesword.palomar.edu/lmexer1.htm

Good image of onion cells stained with blue: http://bwssls.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/onion-cells-as-seen-under-the-light-microscope/