My experience of running a business and a home

A full day of work, then more

As you’ll all know, I run a really busy search marketing and web development company with Dave and its pretty none stop at work all day, and I always leave work with a full “to do” list for the next day which constantly grows.

I tend to leave work around 4.30pm so that I can go and sort the kids out and there starts the second shift of the day. I won’t stop doing stuff at home until about 8.30 – 9pm when I can finally sit down, watch a bit of tv and have a glass of wine. Whether its making tea for the kids, cooking tea and Laura and I (Dave has his own BodyChef food to eat which is all prepared), tidying up and doing some washing, sorting out the pets, making sure homework is done, sorting the kids bath out, and getting the bedtime routine underway.

For those that don’t know we have a new member of the household, our 17 year old niece who has recently joined the local school in the sixth form. She lives with us through the week, going home on a Saturday for her part time job and returning to us on Sunday. So we now have 2 young boys and a teenage girl under our roof so its busy and hectic but great fun.

Tonight was a typical night, as homework beckoned. Miles has just started secondary school so he gets daily homework, and Laura always has piles to do for her A Levels. A snapshot of tonight was Miles having to revise his French which brought back lots of the language I thought I’d forgotten, then onto Geography and making a model of an island which showed the height contours of the land – so lots of cutting and painting of cardboard, and then I helped Laura with her General Studies about the United Nations and Geneva Convention involvement in the Libya conflict.

When I am helping out with the homework, giving advice, or checking answers, I feel like I am regaining my education too. It’s like going on a refresher course and starting back at the basics of the main high school subjects. Its pretty time consuming but I love it and I have always said that if I wasn’t running Bronco I’d be a teacher.

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Doom and Gloom for August born kids

Today there were a couple of articles on the BBC that were reporting on findings of a report that the Institute of Fiscal Studies have carried out basically saying that children born in August will not only struggle and be bullied at school, but are less likely to get into top universities and generally struggle their entire life with low self-esteem. So having a son born on the 29th August made me interested in the findings. Miles is the very youngest in his year at school, if he had been born a few days later he would have been the very oldest in the year below. Currently I think he is the youngest in the entire secondary school that he has just joined… scary thought!

In the article an “education expert and former teacher” describes kids like Miles as the “runt of a litter” … can’t say that I have ever felt that when I look at him with his class mates, but I certainly can relate to the problems in the current schooling system and the lack of understanding I think from teachers.

Fortunately Miles comes from good stock and up to the age of 6 or 7 he was always the top of the class and amazing teachers with his reading ability and maths. I would say that during his last few years at primary school I would kind of dread going to parents evenings as even though I would hear the reports of how good his work was and that he was in the top streams for Maths, I would always get the “but, he does tend to be a bit silly and mess around in class”. Numerous times I’d discussed it with the teachers to split him up from the other kids who would tend to mess, sit him by himself if needed, punish him.. whatever was required to make him behave or gain the maturity that was obviously lacking. He then started to fall back on his English and found it hard to write a good story (which is when we got a private tutor in) but there didn’t seem to be the extra help from the school and no real leeway in the targets that were imposed on the whole year group, so Miles was competing with kids nearly a year older than him. In a kids development, a year is a long time and there is so much to learn and take in, which of course makes a difference and should be accounted for in schools.

Parents of course have a massive role to play in making sure that the summer children have the extra support if they need it, rather than falling behind in class and struggling. They need to be encouraged to work that bit harder to keep up with their peers, and to take part in lots of activities to mix with older and younger kids, as age really shouldn’t be a defining factor. Miles outshone most of his year group in the area when he got the 12th highest mark for the 11+ entrance exam to the secondary school, so that was a brilliant achievement for someone who had just turned 10 when he took the test. This achievement only came from lots of hard work and determination to make sure he made the most of the opportunities.

So there isn’t a solution to the problem… as there will always have to be a cut-off point to split up the school years. I reckon that if Miles had really struggled he would have just dropped back a year to become the oldest in the year below, or we could have pushed for it I presume. There is so much pressure on kids (and parents) these days that all we can hope for is that they do the best they can, be as happy as they can, and get lots of support and praise for what they do manage to achieve.

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Wensleydale vs Ripon, U10 & U12 Rugby

Today the kids played in their first competitive rugby match for Ripon Rugby Club. They have been training with the squad for the last couple of weeks and this morning we set off early (hangovers and all) up into the Dales to a cold and blustery Leyburn. The rugby club is set in a great location but is pretty open to the elements, so we made sure we had lots of warm layers on, and the tea and bacon sandwiches certainly helped. Ripon won both the U10 and U12 matches which was great, and the kids really enjoyed getting stuck in. Here are a couple of action shots!

Ethan on the left facing the opposition, with the clubhouse in the background

Ethan about to get the pass and charge forwards

The U12 team with Miles in the middle of the picture on the wing

Miles about to be heavily tackled after being taken out

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‘A4UExpo Bavarian Beer and Sausage on Stand 50’

So the challenge is on to see who can take the top slot for ‘a4uexpo Bavarian Beer and Sausage on stand 50’ to win the State of Search competition.

I know it won’t be me as Dave is currently hitting the top slot with his post from last week on ‘A4UExpo Bavarian Beer and Sausage on Stand 50’ and there is a surge of new posts on other blogs as well as whole sites being created on exact match domains. I will be heading to A4U next week so will be there no matter what but thought I’d challenge my blog to see what strength it has.

So the theme of the post needs to be about how to get the best out of A4U as a delegate so here are my top tips.

It really helps if you register during the pre-event party as it saves you any hassle the next morning. It also helps so that you can see who people are during the evening and start the networking. I’m not sure yet if anyone has come up with a subtle way of reading a person’s name badge without making it look like you’re reading it .. but if you have let me know. We always meet a lot of new people (and old friends) at conferences and its often hard to remember all the names.

The next tip would be to really watch what you drink at the parties, and make sure you don’t miss dinner. It’s so easy to have far too much to drink if the free bar is flowing, and I’ve regretted this many times, and still will do again no doubt.. but there is totally nothing worse than going to a conference the following morning feeling really rough and stinking of beer.

Combined with the last one I’d suggest that you try to drink plenty of water during the day as you’ll easily dehydrate and be even worse the next day.

Then as many other posts are suggesting do the necessary research before the conference starts as to what sessions that you want to see, the track that you will follow, the possible questions that you may have in a session, and to set up any meetings with people you may have only communicated with on Twitter.

There is the networking too, which everyone says .. just go up to someone and start chatting … but I’d say its not as easy as this, and its one of my worst fears. Fortunately I have Dave who doesn’t network as such, but more like attracts a crowd. Often affiliates are a bit cagey about what sector they work in hoping to protect the niche they may be in, so can be a little secretive .. but you should be able to detect the more welcoming guys.. and Dave and I will chat to anyone :)

And last but not least, you must head straight to Stand 50 to get your Bavarian Beer and Sausage and here’s my picture from a session back in April 2009 at Amsterdam … now that was a fun week!

A4uexpo bavarian beer and sausage on stand 50

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Pitch side Parenting

We’ve just spent a few hours at the local rugby club watching an Under-11 tournament with about 8 teams competing for a trophy. I thought it would be good for the kids to see some real junior matches as they have both signed up the rugby club and start training next week.

Some of the matches were really tough especially the first match we saw between Ripon and Harrogate. Now there has always been a rivallry between the two towns politically, but this has seeped down into many other things including it seems the junior rugby team too. I was quite surprised, and a little bit shocked by the level of hard tackles in this match of 10 year olds. There were plenty of injuries with some kids having to be carried off the pitch in tears. It certainly made Miles and Ethan think about what they are getting themselves into and Ethan, who is 9 started to get quite nervous about matches.

But what made me feel quite intimidated, and the kids did too as we stood at the touch line watching, was the pressure being put on the team players by the pitch side parents. Not only were the coaches shouting at the team to get across the tactics (which you expect) but the parents were all adding their thoughts too. Shouts of “break them in two”, “get in there”, “tackle hard” were all coming from both the dads and the mums. I can only think that this makes the junior team more fired up and in turn more agressive to the point where the ref had to give both teams a calm down talk as it was getting out of hand.

Of course you want your kids team to win but I just don’t think they need the sort of pressure that the parents bring to the touchline. Each parent is trying to coach their kid and you can see if something goes wrong they feel they have failed. Do matches really need to be this competitive at such a young age, or should it be more about learning the skills and rules rather than injuring the opposition.

I did wonder if there is a different level of coaching in schools as there is as part of a local team. Personally I would prefer my kids to enjoy their sport, but as a priority be fit and well to study at school the following week, whereas perhaps club teams are just all about the win and aren’t thinking about the education side of things which is a top priority at that age. Lets hope that all the kids that took a knock today are all ok and that there were no serious injuries.

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The Bronco Family