The Post

"Faites attention!"   I am warned today in the village shop.
To make it easier for "les vendeurs des timbres" il y a un nouveau systeme!
BUT it is more expensive for those who are sending mail.
So I must pay attention.

Letter post from France to England or Europe:-
0 - 20g             one stamp   
22g - 100g       two stamps
101g - 250g     five stamps
251g - 500g     eight stamps
501g - 3000g  fourteen stamps

I think the shop owner said one stamp was 70 cts...
My letter weighed 111g for England... yet, if I had taken out some of the non urgent papers and sent them in another letter I would have saved the cost of one or two stamps!!!
 I will print the chart and weigh letters at home before I venture to the post office.
A few days ago I sent a wooden times table square to my grand daughter. I hadn't seen one of these in UK and thought that playing a game with it would help her see the numerical patterns. She is quite good at Maths but as Y3 the quicker she learns them by whatever means the better!
Well,  it cost me 8 stamps to post it when the item cost me about 2 euros and probably cost tuppence to make and the labourers who made it probably didn't even get a bowl of soup. (***See below)  Crazy world!  I wonder what the value of  the first penny post would be in today's economy?

THE PAST
***   When I first started teaching in 1972  the school had few resources in the very East of England.
I spent every evening making resources with the card that they supplied and any pictures from free or bought magazines and brochures etc that I could lay my hands on.  Then I had to cover them with sticky back plastic.  I spent my own money on resources too!   This was for a reception class where 30 kids roamed the room in an orderly fashion to and from individual or group educational tasks / games. It was a logistical wonder. The then Deputy Headteacher was my guru!  No wonder my marriage failed as my poor husband could not understand my enthusiasm and obsession for making new progressive teaching resources every minute that I was at home!!!!!!!!!!