Caroline

I got an email the other day from my long lost sister. Except she didn't think she was lost!

I personally had not heard from her for a good few years - her email address no longer worked and I had moved house several times. My mum, who was the only person in the family that she conversed with had lost contact with her too. Mail was returned and she didn't have a phone number that worked. I did not try to trace her because she lived on a Spanish island and if she wasn't still there we didn't have a clue where to look.

My mum spent the first year worrying a little and the second year thinking that no news was good news. Then she resigned herself to the imagined fact that Caroline was happy with her mother-in-law as family and didn't need anyone else.

Then I found an email from her. It was in an old email address inbox that I don't use anymore but am reluctant to cancel for reasons such as this. It had been there for half a month. She wasn't writing to me really. She wanted to know mum's new email address. Well, mum had stopped using the Internet a few years ago.

I started to email her back but stopped because I felt a bit emotional and a little hurt and emails can be misinterpreted so easily.

She had a web address of her business at the bottom of her email. I checked it out. I felt quite proud that my little sister seemed to own a thriving business. I noticed a phone number on the site so phoned it. She answered. It seemed really odd to say 'This is Patricia - your sister'. Odd that she would not know who Patricia was or recognise my voice. We had not spoken to each other since my dad's funeral about 12 years ago. I had tried to email her a few times but she never replied.

We had a nice conversation, and that was when I realised that she didn't know she'd been lost or even missed. She just didn't feel the need for relationships other than her immediate family (even her mother-in-law). She told me that she thought of my mum each night and sent her love at that time.

Caroline has always held a special place in my heart since the day she was born when I was 7 years old. I didn't particularly like the rest of my family but felt that here was someone who I could love. I remember choosing her name. I don't know if I came up with the name or that I just agreed it was the name for her, but it was a family decision because she was a surprise late addition to the family. I remember thinking it was a lemon yellow name.

It saddened me that because I left home when she was 11 and did not have a good relationship with my parents at that time, I hardly had any contact with her.

I wonder if the separation all these years, which I have found painful, was the returning karma of not being there for her when she needed someone during her troubled teenage years? I was at college, and setting up home with my husband during that time. It did occur to me to consider if she could come up and live with us but I don't think it occurred to ask her to stay for a visit.

I remember her as a bridesmaid of mine. We didn't have the traditional dresses - no money for that - and we couldn't find a dress that would fit her top and bottom half so we settled for a smart t-shirt top and skirt, while her sister, the maid of honour, wore a summer cotton frock. Caroline felt awkward and unhappy the whole time.

She certainly seems a happier adult. It will be interesting to see how much contact we have now.

It's Snowing

It's snowing in England right now. Big fluffy snowflakes gently drifting down. I love it.

Quite different to the snow in Montana. The snowflakes there are tiny due to the scarcity of water in the atmosphere. However they do have an abundance of it - for months. It doesn't snow everyday but several times a week. And it settles. There is a permanent blanket of snow from October to April in some places. And the snow is piled high along each road and sidewalk.

In England the snow rarely settles because the ground is too warm and wet. The snow usually melts on impact with the ground. It is a national pastime for people in England to moan about the weather. Every winter I hear complaints about how cold it is. the temperature is rarely below zero Centigrade (or Celsius as it is called now). Though, I must say the wind can be bitter and blow right through your coat making you feel very chilled.

But when I was in Montana a few winters ago the temperature was -7 Celsius on most days. On some days it was below zero Fahrenheit, and for two weeks it was about -34 Fahrenheit. When you get to those numbers it doesn't much matter if you are talking C or F 'cos they are about the same! It is not comfortable to go outside in those temperatures. The air feels like tiny needles are sticking into any exposed skin and the moist air inside your nose freezes. We laughed and thought that we could go back to England and say "You think this is cold?"

At the start of this very cold spell in the new year I drove 70 miles one evening to get my daughter from the airport. She had just spent New Year's in Texas so I took her a warm coat etc. (The Americans call the time around New Year - 'New Year's'. The British would say 'The New Year'.) My car's heating decided to fail during this time and so I had no heat inside the car for about one and a half hours. My feet, despite being in warm boots, were very painfully cold and I was torn between driving faster (over the speed limit) to make the journey shorter or driving safely in the freezing conditions. I was very glad of the relative warmth of the little airport when I got there. I didn't drive the 70 miles back because I actually lived about 6 miles from the airport!

The snow in North Carolina, in contrast to the snow in Montana, consists of enormous flakes. This is because there is such high humidity there. It only snows for a about three to six days there each winter and everything stops on those days. The schools have 'snow days' because the school busses are not designed to travel on icy roads. Also the snow has such a large volume that it quickly reaches knee height. Only the main roads are ploughed, leaving the side roads where most people live impassible by car. I heard pleas for divers of 4-wheeled vehicles to give lifts (English) or rides (American) to hospital workers so they could get to work. These snow days actually cut into the summer holiday time if there are a lot of them.

One snowy spell lasted for a few days and the Principal told the teachers they could go into school if they wanted. Even though it was physically possible to drive into school, I decided not to, because the roads were icy. They do not have gritting lorries there 'cos there is not much need of them. The funny thing is I had the same car with the same tyres driving in Montana to work and back on icy and snow compacted roads to and from work each day! The difference was I was told that my tyres were all-weather ones and that it was safe.

The snow has stopped falling here now, and sure enough there is not a trace of it to be seen. Just the usual wet ground of winter in England.

Testing times

I'm wondering if the government actually knows what happens in schools like ours. We serve an enormous council estate and many people living there are 3rd generation unemployed. The children have very limited vocabulary, understanding, imagination or ability to concentrate. Many have seriously disfunctional home-lives, are poorly nourished and present as very needy individuals. But they also have plasma screen TVs.

I have taught in hundreds of schools during my career and the staff here are the best I have come across. They are dedicated and talented. Every teacher is of a high calibre. The headteacher has a high respect for each one. She also loves and respects all the children. She is loved and respected by each in turn. Of course no-one is perfect but this is certainly a very good school in my opinion.

Last year a team of OFSTED inspectors came to inspect. They had in their heads the low attainment shown by the SATs results and put the school into 'Special Measures'. This means they failed the inspection. The staff were devestated and all the other professionals who knew the school were incredulous.

All the staff acknowledge that we can all improve and so have taken steps to implement the suggestions made by the team. We have had various professionals in to help us improve. All have agreed that this is not a failing school but nevertheless have helped to improve the teaching and learning. The staff are continually being monitored and have all been graded as good or outstanding in some lessons.

So here we go with the testing again. The results show little or no improvement. I observe children in my class not using the maths strategies I know that they understand and use in lessons. What they are not doing is applying their knowledge in different situations.

Some children are picked out and sat with a person individually to do the questions they missed out during the test. Amazing that they know the answers to them. They just could not concentrate on the test in a room full of other children.

I walk past the year 4 classrooms where the teachers have finished marking the tests at 5:45pm. They are in tears. They feel failures. What else can they do?

Go to France on the Fairy

Our topic is transport. We had discussed the definition and, after talking with their partners, the children each gave an example as I moved around the room. They were surprisingly imaginative and I was pleased with how the lesson was going.

"truck,"..... "hot air balloon,"...... "ferry,"......... "double decker bus,"....... "army truck,".......... "donkey,"....... "bike," .......
....."um, Beauty and the Beast"......
"What? Oh Asma, that is a story. We are talking about transport. Something that take us to places or take things to places. Have another think and I'll come back to you."
....... 'rowing boat,'........ "train,"..... "plane,".....

"The next activity is to design a transport sculpture. You need to draw 4 designs and then choose which one you want to actually create."
Asma's paper was interesting, she had a car, bus, hot air balloon and a ..... fairy. "Why have you drawn a fairy?"
"Well someone said fairy."
"Oh, no, it was ferry! A ferry is a boat that takes people and cars across the sea or a wide river."
"Oh."
I'm thinking that she must have got confused when she heard 'fairy' and started thinking along the lines of fairy stories or something, in order to come up with the Beauty and the Beast contribution. Some teachers call this behaviour as 'being away with the fairies'. She has an element of that, but she is also learning English as a second language and as she sounds fluent it is easy to forget that she will find some things confusing.

The Grommet

I walked into the classroom and a 7 year old boy placed a very tiny white plastic object in the palm of my hand. It was shaped like a cotton reel.
"Do you know what a tonsil looks like? I think this is my tonsil that just came out."
I looked at the tiny white plastic object and superimposed my idea of a tonsil over it. This object was too small. I thought if a tonsil, a blob of flesh, had recently come out it would be covered in blood but I didn't say that.
"This is plastic" I said, looking at him.
"Oh, maybe it's not called a tonsil. What's that thing that goes in your ear?"
"Grommet," I replied. "This is a grommet." I had never seen one before but it made sense that this was one. The cotton reel shape would be perfect for making sure it would not slip through the hole in the ear drum.
"I have those," says another boy. "They're always coming out, especially when I dive in the swimming pool."
I put it in the bin, suddenly not wanting to hold something that had been in his ear. 'Is that why he's a bit of a problem in class, having glue ear?' I thought, thinking back to the various recent incidents I had had with him. Would having glue ear make him continually burp out load and laugh about it? No, they didn't seem related, yet do I need to be a little more tolerant of his behaviour? Hmm.
"Tell your mum when you get home, that it came out," I told him.
"Right," I said looking up at the class, " We need handwriting books and pencils given out please."

Classical Music

There is a Co-op food shop in a village near where I live that is open until late in the evening. It has a wide pavement outside and the local youths congregate there sheltering under the awning.

Unfortunately the behaviour of these youths caused a problem for shoppers. I expect the takings went down due to people shopping elsewhere. However if you go there of an evening now you will see no youths in the vicinity. This is because the manager has installed a cheap and ingenious 'youth deterrent.'

He installed a speaker outside the shop which plays classical music. This music is only on in the evening and it does not play inside the shop so i can only assume he is not a fan of this genre. It would seem also that the youths in the area are also not fans because this music has proved very effective in keeping them away.

I find it very sad that these young people do not like this type of music when it is often so uplifting.

Milk

My first encounter with raw milk was when I was about eight years old. I had Godparents who had a farm. One of those traditional farms with a hayloft, duck pond, cowshed across the muddy cobbled farmyard, little hen houses (just for night time), a water pump and fields of cows and sheep.

I always enjoyed going there for holidays with my family. The house was built in the 13th century and the house had subsided over the years so climbing the stairs was an adventure. Each stair had sagged so they were all at different angles. Of course those living there would be so used to this that their bodies would compensate for this idiosyncrasy. But for a visiting eight year old it was like climbing a dark wooden mountain.

Once I got onto the first floor things continued to be interesting. I would have to walk uphill to the bathroom. (Of course the original house would not have had one of these, but Mr and Mrs Hope had converted a bedroom for this purpose.) I then had to walk downhill to the bedroom.

There was a double bed that I shared with my sister, surrounded by a sea of dark floorboards . The undulations of the floor were very apparent to anyone walking around the room. I remember waking up the first morning I was there and walking to the window. I was so delighted to be there. There was still a large bowl and jug for washing on the table under the window.

Downstairs in the stone flagged kitchen we sat at the large wooden table ready for our bowl of cornflakes. Auntie Ruth poured frothy milk in my bowl from a jug. IT WAS WARM! Ugh. I realised that it had come straight from a cow. Now, I would really appreciate that, as the adult that I am, but it seemed so gross to me at eight.

My next encounter with raw milk was when I was an adult. A young married woman just moved into my second home. I had read that calves fed on pasteurised milk died because the pasteurisation killed all the life-giving bacteria. In those days milkmen delivering the daily milk to the doorstep were still a common sight.

Our local milkman was really special. She was a woman. But that was not the wonderful part. She drove a horse and cart from the local farm! (Now, I'm not old enough that this was a common sight at all!) She said that this was a better way of delivering milk because the horse knew her route and as she was walking up one path and nipping through the garden to the next one, the horse was walking along the road to meet her.

This milk came from one farm and so they were allowed to sell unpasteurised milk. It came in glass bottles as did all the milk delivered then, and had a green foil top. It was lovely milk, but of course, being alive, it didn't have the same shelf life as the milk that had been killed bypasteurisation.

I would love to be able to buy raw milk now, especially raw cream, but have not found any near where I live.

If you don't know much about this subject or think that unpasteurised milk is bad for humans, then take a look at this short video. It is really enlightening. I learned something even though I already knew quite a bit about it. You might think that most cows spend their days in a field but that is not the case. Many cows spend their days inside large sheds eating 'feed' not grass.

Enchanted

Claire and I went to see the Disney film, Enchanted. We really enjoyed it and thought it was worth going to the cinema for, rather than just watch it on DVD at home. We only have our laptops to watch them in, which are a little small. Claire tells me that her dad has a TV so large that his lounge looks like a cinema! We don't even have a television. This is because watching TV rarely makes me feel good. Therefore I don't want to use either my money or my time on it.

Here is an interesting perspective on television programs and how it affects the viewer. Check it out to see how it affects our nervous system. 3.44 mins.



Anyway, back to the film Enchanted.
The main character, Gisselle, has such an innocence about her that she reminds me of a favourite book of mine, Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter. Many people deride this way of thinking/acting as stupid and naive. But I think this has a lot of merit.
For those people who have never read the book I will give you a flavour.

Pollyanna is an 11 year old girl and she has a view of the world that is unique. She believes everyone is good and treats them as such. She assumes everyone has the purest motives for their actions. (It has been shown by research that people rise to the expectations of others so this is a wonderful way of changing people's thinking and behaviour.) She is a friendly and outgoing girl and through her conversations with the people that she meets she changes them. She has a game that she plays called "The Glad Game" and she encouraged everyone to play it. You usually play the Glad Game when something bad or unfortunate has happened. You have to think of something that you are glad about. For instance, when she received a pair of crutches one Christmas instead of a doll, her dad said, "Be glad that yu don't need them!".

The most famous film of the book was made in 1960 and starred Halyley Mills. Unfortunately Pollyanna is portrayed in this version as a bit sickly sweet. There is a great version however, a TV film made in 2003 that is far superior. This version has a more real feeling and although it is set in England rather than the US, it is closer to the book in essence. The first time I watched it was from a rented DVD from Amazon.

Anyway, back to Enchanted once more. :-) Giselle assumes the couple about to get a divorce love each other very much and because of the things she says, they see each other and their relationship in a different light and decided to stay together.

It would be great if we could all spread some happiness around the world by the things we think, do and say. We really never know where our little ripples of thought, action and words will end up and who they will effect.

Let's strive for influencing as many people for the good as we can in this coming year. :-)

My Life Since Kuwait

I left Kuwait in June 2006. With my belongings held in a shipping warehouse, I flew to the USA for the summer. (NOTE - if you are having your stuff hanging around in a hot warehouse it is best not to pack scented candles. They melted into weird shapes and the smell impregnated a plastic beaker.)

Montana

I flew to Bozeman Montana via London, New York and Salt Lake City. The whole journey took many many hours as I had an overnight stop-over in New York. This was a blessing because I was able to check into a motel and sleep in a bed enabling me to have a good night's sleep.

I stayed with a friend in Bozeman and she kindly lent me her car whilst she worked. I got toiletries at Walmart and visited another friend. I then got a lift 70 miles to where I was staying in Paradise Valley.

I attended a church conference, and volunteered as Conference Program Assistant. The following week I attended a week long seminar at the same place. I then did some voluntary cooking for a group of wonderful young people who were attending a camping retreat right in the mountains. I did this the year before, but now I had a team mate which made it easier and more enjoyable. After that I cleaned the campground showers - lots of scrubbing! I also tackled some of the self contained rooms where people had stayed during the conference. Weather and scenery was glorious and I enjoyed it all.

Cardiff

At the beginning of August I flew back to Britain. I went to stay with my daughters in their tiny flat in Cardiff. Whilst working in Kuwait I paid their rent for a two bed flat with a large lounge. Now I had no job so they got a cheaper, smaller place - a one bed flat. They used the lounge as another bedroom. It was a little squashed, especially with my summer luggage, but I was useful and helped to decorate the place.

Windsor
I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do but I didn't really want to get a teaching job. I needed a place to live so I searched for nanny/housekeeping/carer jobs. I started a nanny/housekeeper job for a New Zealand family living in Windsor in September.

I did not know they were famous until I mentioned the guy's name back in Cardiff. Sean used to captain the All Blacks rugby team. He is a modest, genuinely nice man and the rest of his family are lovely too.

The work was enjoyable and quite easy. I took the 8 year old girl to school and back, supervised her homework and sometimes made her evening meal. I also did some errands, cleaned the house, ironed the designer clothes and occasionally took the dog for a walk. Neither parent had regular schedules and both did the school run sometimes. They would occasionally say the house didn't need cleaning so it was a flexible, no pressure job. I enjoy housekeeping for other people, so much more than for myself. They had just moved into a large house with a garden adjoining the River Thames and embarked on an extensive remodeling job of the whole house. They are possibly one of the few people in England to fill in a pool to create other rooms in its place!

They did not have a flat for me until October, so I lived in the swimming pool room. Unfortunately the water was freezing as the pump had broken, so my dream of getting out of bed and having a swim before breakfast did not come to pass.

Eventually I had a lovely flat over the enormous garage/storage rooms. The downside was that they did not want me to have any visitors because they did not want strangers on their property. This was a laugh as their property was overrun by builders for months! They also did not like me booking flights for weekends in Europe because they might need me to babysit at the last minute. I understood both these views. Maybe a young person who had not led an independent life before would not find the restrictions inconvenient. So I realised that this job was really not for me, however nice the family was.

The family went to NZ during December and I took the opportunity to do a bit of supply teaching. I realised that I actually missed teaching children and that although I had accommodation and the use of a car, the wage was not enough for my commitments. Ryan Air might not charge much for the flight but traveling either side of both airports took it's toll on by bank balance.

At that time I was helping to organise a 4 day conference in Frankfurt in October. This was for the European members of my church. We also produced newsletters and had many phone and physical meetings. So it was a very stressful time for me. During the conference I realised I had not had a proper home for 4 months! Being unemployed, a change of job and organising a conference and publishing newsletters was a recipe for stress big time.

Reading

In oder to leave that job I needed to find somewhere to live and get a car of my own. So I bought a car on ebay and moved to a room in a shared house in a leafy suburb of Reading. It is a large town where there are lots of supply teaching jobs. It wasn't until I moved into the shared house that I realised that the other people in the house smoked! It was an unhappy month as the live-in landlady also sometimes took drugs. And my car was extensively vandalised along with hers.

I found a lovely 2 bed flat overlooking a large park of grass and trees which I share with my youngest daughter Claire as she needed somewhere to live too. Rent is so expensive here that it made sense for us to share. At the time she was doing supply nursery nursing (child care at private day nurseries), but she soon got a permanent job in a nursery in Theale, a village just outside Reading.

At first I worked for an agency as a supply teacher every day. I enjoy doing this, especially when asked to go back to the same schools. During the summer I was asked to do some work in day nurseries, which I also enjoyed.

In June I was asked by the Head of a large junior school that I regularly visited, if I would like to share a class of 8 year old children, taking them Thursdays and Fridays. This school is situated in a large council estate and the families are 3rd generation unemployed. The children are therefore deprived, with little support from home, either emotionally or academically. This means that there are several very challenging kids in each class and teaching them is a little like trying to get blood out of a stone. However the Head teacher is very nurturing and all the teachers are supportive and work very well as a team. I always enjoyed going their because of this. I even told her that the reason why I didn't have a 'proper' job at the moment was because I wanted to have a week or two off in July every year (when British schools are still in session). She said they would work around that, so I accepted the post. I love getting jobs without applying and being interviewed! They also wanted me to work every Wednesday in different classes, enabling the teacher to do planning.

It is great being part of a staff team again and I enjoyed helping 120 children from years 3 and 4 put on a song and dance show of the different cultures of the world. The staff also put on a short pantomime for the kids which was great fun for everyone but we only had one and a half rehearsals! There are pros and cons being part time. I don't have the full responsibility for the planning, preparation and evaluating, but then I miss the staff meetings with their discussions and training and don't always know what is going on in school as things change to fit the circumstances etc.

Montana Again

Just for a week to attend Helen and Orion's wedding on June 24th. A truly wonderful day. I am grateful to have been a part of such a joyful occasion, especially as mother of the bride. Meeting Helen's father again after 15 years was not quite as nerve wracking as I thought it would be. The bride and groom looked radiant as did the bridesmaids and groomsmen. And Claire looked wonderful as a bridesmaid. Here is a creative slide show of the glorious day: http://www.montana-wedding-photographer.com/Showcase/Battersby/

EFT - Emotional Freedom Technique

I learned this whilst living in Kuwait from a site on the Internet. When I got to England I did a level two training in London. I use it personally to help with my own emotions and physical ailments and teach it and use it in the schools I work in. (See http://www.emofree.com for more info on the technique and look at other posts of mine for info on how i use it in school.) The children doing the show at school gave a much better performance because EFT banished their nerves.

I was very grateful to have the EFT tool at my fingertips during my journey to the Montana this last summer. I took the National Express coach to Gatwick airport. The coach was delayed and so time was a little tight. I therefore decided to use the toilet on the bus to save a little time at the airport. However, as I was washing my hands the door flew open catapulting me down the gangway. I hit my backside on the armrest of a seat before landing on the floor. When I got my breath back, whilst still on the floor, I began to tap. Flying wasn't the best thing to do with a hemorrhaging buttock but I tapped a lot of the journey and by the time I got to Bozeman, 14 hours later, I did not need the wheelchair. There was an enormous bruise but I managed to walk down the aisle with no limp.

Violet Fire

The Violet Fire is another very wonderful technique for helping with emotions and ailments and I use it in conjunction with EFT but they are both most often used on their own.

What is the violet fire? I hear you ask. Well, I will let the person who introduced it to me, Elizabeth Clare Prophet tell you in her own words. "It is an invisible spiritual energy that appears violet to those who have developed their spiritual vision...... (It) has many purposes. It revitalizes and invigorates us. It can heal emotional and even physical problems, improve relationships and make life easier. More important, the violet flame changes negative energy, which makes it an effective tool for healing. Today we are learning more than ever before about how disease can be rooted in our mental, emotional and spiritual states. By transforming negative thoughts and feelings, the violet flame provides a platform for our healing. I call it the highest gift of God to the universe. I think you will agree once you try it for yourself." (Violet Flame to Heal body, mind and soul. Elizabeth Clare Prophet. copyright 1997 by Summit University Press.) Check it out at http://www.transformnet.org/ for more information if you are interested.

It has changed my life. I am now more positive and joyful after the application of this over the years. It has even healed my arthritic elbow and enabled me to be more calm and tolerant with people.

In November I conducted a Violet Flame workshop in London with some friends, which was very well received. One lady said she could feel the energy tingling in her body and she felt light and joyous. If I am ever feeling depressed, a few violet flame mantras banish that state fast.

A Cracking Christmas show

The children in years 3 and 4 of the school I work part time in have been practicing for a show called A Cracking Christmas. The story goes that 4 children get given a box of magic crackers that when pulled will transport them around the world seeing the cultures and at the same time hearing about a very special story of long ago.

So different groups of children perform dances from different countries whilst the whole group sing the songs. They visit Spain, Hawaii, Africa, India, China, and the USA. These visits are in the original script and so there are songs to sing whilst the children dance. However, with so many children, we extended the show by having dances from Brazil (samba), Ireland and New Zealand (the Hakka).

Early on in the rehearsal schedule I introduced EFT to the 140 or so children. I gave them all a copy of the Happy Tapping poem by Don White to take home (with a reference to http://www.emofree.com/ at the bottom for parents). I changed it slightly by missing out a word that didn't fit the rhythm.

Happy Tapping is lots of fun
You can do it on your own - or with anyone!
Tap tap tap on the top of your head,
Tap tap tap do just what I said!
Tap on your eyebrow just near your nose.
Then the side of your eye where the hard bone grows.
Now on the bone - under your eye,
Don't poke your eye or you'll make yourself cry!
Now under your nose - but over your lips
Tap tap tap - with your finger tips!
Now under your lip - but over your chin,
Just on the bit where your chin goes in.
Now under your collarbone - but over your chest,
Under the bump of the bone is best!
The last on the list is under you arm,
To make sure you get it right - slap with your palm!

If you still don't feel good - don't go to bed,
Start tapping again on the top of your head!

I suggested they tap on the points whilst thinking of the day's events before sleep. Some children have reported to me that they have actually been doing this!

During rehearsal we tapped on the boring waiting for their turn, not being able to remember or even do the dance steps and forgetting their lines.

Just before they went on stage for the dress rehearsal we tapped on being nervous and scared about tripping up going on and off the stage, forgetting the dance steps, forgetting lines, not being able to sit still and quietly, and scared of the audience. They were performing to the younger children and their previous teachers. As they were lining the corridor to enter the hall i suggested that if they were still nervous to continue tapping. Some did whilst others said they were not nervous.

The dress rehearsal went really well with no hitches.

Altogether they did 4 performances in order to fit all the families in. Before the first two - one in the afternoon and one at night - they tapped for being scared because their family was in the audience and also that their family was not in the audience to cover all bases. On the evening performance, just as it was starting, we realised that one of the main actors was not there and so had to hastily persuade a girl to stand in. She took the script with her and after her first scene I tapped on her non-stop during the first dance. I tapped on her again during the second dance but after that she did not take the script on stage and did not need any more tapping. She was a star!

I noticed a few children tapping just before they got up to do their dance. it was wonderful to know that they now had a tool they could use and that they used it.

I teach a few different classes in that school and have taught a few of the older children EFT for anger management and sometimes get stopped in the corridor by a child who wants reminding of the tapping spots saying they were angry at a kid in the class.