Anyone with a year 7 starting today?

It's pairs of roaming lines each containing ten syllables, where the rhythm kind of goes da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum.

I LIVE at NUMber FOURteen WITH my DAD
Al-THOUGH he's STRICT my MUM she's NOT too BAD.

Oh dear ..I spoke too soon about my lovely affectionate ds !!! He has come home in a right old mood today....He has to write 5 sentences about his life using "rhyming couplets of iambic pentameter "(Yes it is English !)

I said what does that mean ....well dont you know was his reply !!!

this is going to be fun!

Ps does anyone else know ??

Vaga .......Thank you for saying that about your DS ....I thought I was going to get slatted for "pandering" to him !!!!

Ds OFFERED to help with tea last night....I said yes..thank you trying not to sound toooo surprised...till he mummbled ...well it's better than doing homework !!!!!!

I have been thinking about "insecure"....I think yes there might be an element of that in it as well.....but isn't it good they are not botteling up any of their feelings .

He is asking more and more about my years at 2ndry school of which I am struggleling to remember ..but he was amazed that his history homework of the "bog man"..found in peat in germany was my history work as well .......!

He seems to have got very affectionate to me

DS has become exactly the same! Normally he is upstairs in his room building lego from the moment he comes home, yet the last week he has been sat at the kitchen table talking to me when I am cooking and giving me hugs.

I like it, but I am hoping its not because he is feeling insecure.

Vag and Bubby ...how horrible for you both and your DS'S ....hope it all gets sorted and settled soon .

My ds has done two uneventval trips to school yest and today after his "sightseeing"tour on Friday !!!!! We played it down and had a laugh about it and and hasn't seemed to unsettle him .

Our problem at the moment is organising and re-organising which bags he finds best . T hey carry their bags with them ...ie no lockers or any where to put stuff.

Today he has P.E stuff..swimming stuff and school books It wont all fit into one bag ..so the swim stuff is in swim bag inside the messenger bag (that he really wanted as school bag) and his Pe kit (in plastic bag ....) and books in the rucksack that he has decided is a better way to carry a heavy bag (which I told him ages ago !!!)

He seems to have got very affectionate to me !! I said I would have a think about the bags last night and told him to go bed ......he gave me a kiss and said goodnight ...then put his head round the door and "I love you " in a very sincere way !!!

This morning was his 1st morning where I did not walk him to the bus stop ..I gave him a kiss at the front door and he walked off...turned around and said "oh wait I have forgotten something " .....He gave me a kiss on the cheek and said ILU ...awwww....

I think he is realising how much I am doing to make his 1st few weeks as easy as I can !!!!

I hope he is not coming across as a sop ....!!!!

He asked me a question yesterday that I couldn't answer ....because it was so long ago I couldn't remember.....How did I make new friends at secondary school ??

Anyone here remember ???

Oh bubby thats horrid. I hope the school deal with it severely. Your poor DS.

SENCo was lovely when I spoke to him yesterday. He is going to get DS a buddy to help him be more organised, and his form tutor is going to help him check everything. Basically what was happening is that DS was so anxious he would forget things that he was spending all the time between lessons checking he had everything and then being late and panicking. By the end of the day he was so stressed he was in tears.

He has PE today which is his least favourite lesson, but he seems to like his teacher.

Oh bubbly, how awful - glad the school is taking it seriously.

Vag, I hope your ds is OK and feels more settled soon.

DD has gone off happily enough. She's still finding it hard to find her way around (and has lost her map) and has broken her tie (it's a clip on one). Perils of dyspraxia in high school. She's managed to catch her bus every day since the first day though so things are good.

HW hasn't been too bad - she had to write a paragraph on her day, cover pages, stuff like that. And only told me Sunday night she was supposed to cover her books in sticky back plastic. Have ordered some off amazon...

Damn space bar isn't working properly!

Hope you get sorted bubbly - how horrible.

My son is very small for his age and is going to an all boys school. It's an excellent school but i think he misses his girl friends.

Bit late to this thread.

DS in second week now and i am pleased he seems to have coped well. He actually went out early today, before 7.30, and walked to the bus stop with his dad. (My dh works locally)
His only worry today is it's a bad day, apparently, because it's Double Maths and in P.E. he will have to retie his tie
He is managing to do his tie. They are very strict that it is supposed to be only 5 stripes showing or something and i did notice this morning his tie was so long he'd more or less tucked it into his pants. But at least he did it.

Have noticed a couple of horrific meltdowns over the last few days though which isn't like him. He was talking to his dad on Saturday night and said he was lonely and that at break times they had to just stand and talk and could'nt run around anymore and play tag. Growing up sucks sometimes.

They're shaved....

But she may not have swimming after all, as its CATS day. Am really hoping she won't go to pieces in Maths: she got 5b in SATS through a lot of work and a great teacher, but it's not her thing really - she's in top set, presumably lower end of, but that also means she's top set German, which she's good at, so I'm really hoping that they won't re-evaluate after this. Fingers crossed.

YY to shaving armpits My DD was shaving in year 4, bless her. We bought her a Ladyshave as I felt that was easier for her to manage without blades.

DD had her first PE today, having broken a toe at the end of last week. Tchr accepted my note her planner and let her keep score.

Hi, My DS2 had a wobble Friday, a 14yr old who had been a bully in primary, and 2 of his chronies, grabbed DS2's water bottle at lunchtime, tipped the water out then spat in it! He then tipped DS'ds bag over the floor. Lunch time supervision teacher was dealing with another issue at the time. DS was also mad his twin did not help him out, I said "what was DS1 supposed to do, he couldn't fight them!" My sons are small for their age, at 4'6", and these boys were over 5'. We left a msg for the school Friday afternoon(it was 5pm as we did not get in from work until then) and told DS2 to say something to form tutor this morning. I rang the school, and they are taking it very seriously, form tutor, head of both yr groups, pastoral care tutor and head teacher all involved! As for homework- "cover english book in text and pictures from a magazine you read", "do a cartoon of two people meeting with the speech bubble written in french", "Write a paragraph on your favorite poem and why you like it" "revise times tables", Phew! A lot for the first weekend!

'Ginty made a quick calculation - no, she wouldn't be cursed, and nor, on enquiry, would Monica'? .

Yep, have a year 11 too - Rowan to dd2's Nick and Lawrie, if you will!

Agree absolutely shaved armpits, those razors with soap attached worked well for my DD. She has dyspraxia and I was a bit nervous letting her at a blade !

Vaga, sorry DS is struggling, I really hope the school can help. Does his school do this week 1 and 2 timetable business ? I'm thinking it will all be a lot easier once it starts to feel familiar.

Good luck everyone.Feel a bit sick with worry again.It is so hard when they don't know anyone and girls can be so mean.DD seems to be trying to make a wide circle of girls she can be friendly with than focussing on making 2 or 3 best friends.

Yep, having an older one, and having been a girl in swimming lessons myself, I'm clear that however wrong it is, and whatever one thinks about shaving (I don't have a problem with it, but wouldn't have wanted it to start quite so early), a girl who appears on the first swimming lesson with fluffy armpits is going to get noticed, and have trouble shaking off that image. .

Bit off-topic, but having had one daughter who was full of angst for years at being so behind with these things, it's such a different kettle of fish with this one! Poor love started her periods over summer with a two-week humdinger, which lasted right through our holiday, and had to deal with beaches and waterparks while coping with it for the first time.... I wish she didn't have to deal with it all just yet.

I tentatively raised it yesterday and she went a bit cringey - you're right that on the whole the late developers seem to have more angst, I think, but she's so far ahead of the curve that I don't think she's enjoying it so much. Dd1 on the other hand was very late with everything and got teased for being flat chested up to 13/14 - I seem to have both ends of the spectrum here!

Mightn't she be proud of it? Puberty is a funny time but I remember more developed as being cooler than less!

Oh Vag, hope they can help!

Dd has been going 'oh no school' and sighing but I think it's just an enactment of what you're supposed to say rather than anything real.... however at 8.10 she suddenly said she needed a newspaper article TODAY and had to go and find one NOW. I said that this needed to be the first and last time this happened - cue lots of huffing and puffing and 'it's not MY fault'ing. Also faffing around with bag and keys at the last minute. She's going to need to get her head around planning a bit better, I think.

Am also thinking that I need to show her how to shave under her arms before the first swimming lesson tomorrow - rights and wrongs of it aside, I think she's likely to be in a minority of 11 year olds with hairy armpits, and might not want this noticed or commented on - not to be known for the next few years as the girl with hairy armpits. Tricky one really, I wish she didn't have to deal with this just yet.

We had absolute hysterics from DS last night. He is finding it difficult to cope with (he has AS), the change and lack of proper routine (he feels) is causing him so much stress. I tried to explain that the timetable will become a routine given a few weeks, but I dont think he was really listening. He says it feels liek the responsibility is pushing him down.

I am having a telephone meeting with the SENCo this morning to see what we can do to reduce the stress, but I felt s awful sending him this morning.

Week 2 starting with 'I feel sick'. Deep breaths (for both of us).

Thank yo all for your kind wishes. I will let yo know how it goes on Monday