'Hear English' is a blog that provides podcasts and transcripts to help people learn English, find us at http://hearenglishhere.blogspot.com/.
Marshmallows
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I can’t believe they stole your marshmallows. Thank you for telling me, they’re in bed now but I’ll tell them off tomorrow, and they won’t be having sweets for a while. They’re good children usually, I’m surprised at them, stealing from a guest. It’s not as bad as it could have been though, they managed to connect up the hosepipe and soak our last guests with water, and earlier this year we had to evacuate some guests from the holiday cottage because the children found some matches and set fire to the garden.
I’ll tell them off this time, they need to know that they aren’t allowed to behave badly, although I generally don’t like to be too hard on them, they need to be able to have fun, and anyway, boys will be boys, after all. In fact we don’t really believe in disciplining our children, we don’t think telling them off stops them from being naughty, and when we do they get upset, and it can’t be good for them to be that sad, so we forgive them very quickly, they don’t often do anything really naughty anyway. I didn’t realise they liked marshmallows so much though. Maybe I will buy them a packet or two when I go shopping tomorrow.
I’m glad it was food they stole, I think its important for growing children to eat lots so that they grow up to be strong and healthy. Maybe I won’t tell them off too much, I don’t want to put them off eating. I’m quite proud of them really, finding the sweets on such a high shelf, and then getting a chair so they could reach them. They’re only young and that involves quite a lot of coordination, its good to see them using their brains.
Some of the teachers at the school think they’re a little behind the other children because they don’t perform well in tests, but this goes to show that they’re quite clever really. The problem is they don’t go to school too often, they prefer to stay at home, and it’s difficult and tiring to make them do things that they don’t want to do, so its easier to let them stay at home. I don’t want to force them to do something they don’t want to do either, I want them to enjoy themselves.
I try to educate them at home, but that’s difficult too, they aren’t really interested in learning and they can be disobedient, so I usually just let them play. I work from home, so I am able to look after the kids at home instead of sending them to school, only it’s difficult to work at the same time, so I end up not getting much work done, which means we have less money, but I think its more important for the kids to be happy.
They also miss a lot of school through injuries and illness. They’re always getting hurt playing around in dangerous places and banging into things. I try to make them be more careful but you know what boys are like, and I don’t like to stop them having fun. They’re ill quite often too. I worry about their health, so I make sure I give them a lot of natural food but it’s not enough. I try to treat them with herbal remedies, I don’t really trust what the doctors say, they just do what the big companies tell them, and all these medicines are made from plants, so I think it’s best to just use the plants and herbs and simple household remedies. If they get stomach upsets I give them bicarbonate of soda, for instance, which can also be used for wounds and burns. I use it in small amounts to treat insect bites, and I think you can use it to treat snakebites too, although I imagine you’d have to use a larger amount.
It’s quite good that they get ill though because it boosts their immune system. A lot of people get their children inoculated, but we don’t really believe in that, neither do many people in this village, its better if they get used to diseases naturally, and the more they get ill, the stronger their immune systems will be. That’s why I was so surprised when they got measles. There was an epidemic in the village recently and almost 100 children were ill.
One of my boys was very ill and had to be moved to the big hospital in the city and he was there for several weeks. It was the doctor’s fault, they didn’t think it was measles, despite the fact that all the other children in the village had measles. The doctors said it was my fault for not getting the children inoculated, but I explained that I don’t believe in inoculations, and rarely give them medicine, so they should be very healthy and you know what? They accused me of being a bad mother. Can you believe that?
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