101 Things to Do in 1001 days

I found this on the Home Baked Education blog on the Early Years HE blogring. This was originally taken from here. The rules are simple:

The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as New Year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

I feel like I need a bit of focus in my life at the moment. You would think that I would have enough to focus on, what with M being with me all the time and running a book selling business, but I am such a procrastinator that things never seem to get done.
So here goes:

1. Enrol and attend a French class
2. Get my Swiss driving licence
3. Translate Vaud school laws
4. Translate Vaud curriculum
5. Knit cupcake tea cosy
6. Sew an item of clothing for me
7. Paint a clock for the living room
8. Send 10 cards 'just because' (0/10)
9. Save 5 cents in a jar and donate to charity
10. Cook proper chinese meal once a month (1/33)
11. Finish my latin book
12. Learn chinese
13. Get my clarinet fixed
14. Write proper meal planner 3 weeks out of 4 (3/107)
15. Go swimming once every 3 weeks (1/107)
16. Visit Eden project
17. Visit Centre for Alternative technology
18. Lose 10kg in 6 months (1.7/10)
19. Buy a camper van
20. Investigate Le Jardin Potager and decide between that and Bio Direct
21. Read Buddhism Made Simple
22. Take and hang arty pics for kitchen
23. Do graffiti photo project
24. Make a recipe file
25. Keep flickr up to date
26. Keep BookStore up to date monthly (1/33)
27. Read the Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer
28. Sort out the basement
29. Make M a bow and arrow, and take him out to use them
30. Go snowboarding 6 times (0/6)
31. Create a balcony garden
32. Replace toilet paper
33. Write blog at least once a week (3/143)
34. Set up Usborne group forum
35. Do previous 4 years of filing
36. Organise my inbox
37. Make a will
38. Go geocaching
39. Join the library
40. Meet up with Home Ed families once a month (0/33)
41. Complete NaNoWriMo
42. Meet up with 5 online friends (0/5)
43. Have a Dharma and Greg marathon
44. Clean out my parents house of my stuff
45. Create a timeline in the hall
46. Visit the St Bernard museum
47. Visit Chateau Prangins
48. Go down the salt mines at Bex (big fear factor this one!)
49. Make M a tepee
50. Make M a knights costume
51. Update our map
52. Go strawberry picking
53. Go mushroom picking
54. Make a meal from foraged stuff
55. Do the Moonwalk
56. Do a lapbook with M
57. Take M to the park at least once a fortnight (0/72)
58. Watch a French movie in French (without subtitles) once a month (0/33)
59. Sort out beads and put up for sale
60. Go on a cooking course
61. Buy an Olive tree
62. Save 1CHF a day for 1001 days and then blow the lot at the end
63. Read a book about the history of Switzerland
64. Tidy my bedroom once a week 2/143)
65. Knit a pair of socks
66. Travel around Spain for a month
67. Travel the length of Italy including Sicily
68. Attend a first aid course
69. Join Pronatura for a year
70. Go on a Pronatura event
71. Read every bookclub book even if I don't go to each meeting (1/1)
72. Ensure that 50% of the presents I give are homemade or second hand (hm 1/new 2)
73. Sail on Lac Leman
74. Go to bed before 10pm every night for a week (0/7)
75. Don't use the computer for 48 hours when I am at home
76. Have lymphatic drainage
77. Buy a saxophone
78. Learn to play the saxophone
79. Visit the Fairy Grotto in St Maurice
80. Visit another medieval re-enactment
81. Dress up at medieval re-enactment
82. Have a 35th birthday party
83. Visit the Papiliorama
84. Make a kite and fly it
85. Make and edit a video with M
86. Visit the chateau at Aigle
87. Visit the Alimentarium museum
88. Stop buying 10 foods that have excess packaging and make my own (0/10)
89. Cut my rubbish in half
90. Cook every recipe from 'Vegetarian Main Dishes from Around the World' (2/75)
91. Learn to roller skate or skateboard
92. Go to an ice hockey match
93. Go walking with MC
94. Go to the top of a mountain and shout very loudly
95. Do a bridge/crab/that thing you do at gymnastics when you bend your back backwards
96. See the osteopath again (may need it after doing no. 95!)
97. Visit a homeopath
98. Write to tax office to tell them I haven't lived in the UK for 4 years
99. For friends to fill in for me (any suggestions welcome!)
100. For friends to fill in for me (any suggestions welcome!)
101. Donate 5CHF to Terre des Hommes for any tasks not done

This list finishes on Saturday, 1st October 2011...

(Completed tasks in blue, tasks in progress in red)

A bit of a panic and French

We received a letter today, inviting us to an open evening of the education system (or something like that) so that we can hear what the directrice of the area has to say.

It set my heart aflutter a little bit. I know that M doesn't have to legally go to school yet, but the fact that they've sent us this first letter, and apparently will send us another one in January just got me worried.
The way they big up these 2 years of 'cycle initial' makes you think - how can we possibly refuse?

Which brings me onto the French. M has, for a long while now, refused to learn French. I've tried the softly, softly approach and the 'right we are sitting down at the table and learning French' approach. But up until now, my varied approaches have fallen on deaf ears. Until now. We can now have basic conversations and he is asking what words are in French.

My little boy really does come to decisions in his own way. The idea that he had to do it meant that there was no way in hell that he was going to, but if he can decide to do it himself, I believe that he will enjoy it more. Which makes sense really, but that sort of decision making is just not possible in the school system.

I would much rather he came to decisions on his own, and enjoy a subject than be forced into doing something he wants to, and not enjoy it. The idea that children should have to learn to 'do what they are told' and learn to do things they don't want to seems a bizarre concept to me.

I was lucky that I loved school (probably because I excelled in most things) and was able to drop the subjects I didn't enjoy (history) as soon as I could.

Of course the worry we had (and A still has really) is that M's French won't be good enough and will be forced into school. Of course my argument is that kids at the International schools here only learn French as a second language, so why should M have to learn in French? Of course, these fears aren't particularly backed up with fact, as we (read that as I) have yet to fully translate the education/curriculum laws.

Anyway, its amazing how one little letter can throw things up a bit. I'm sure it'll all be fine.........