pfb -in fact only child - off to secondary on Thursday...

We have cut DS's lunch money down to £2 from £2.50 as we found he was spending half of it on sweets at the shop and have said to him if it carries on, then he will have to take packed lunch. We cannot afford for him to be doing this, especially as DS1 is having school dinners at £9 per week - I cook a dinner every night as well.

He seems to have gone all moody at the moment, but smiled tonight when I told him next week was only a four day week for him at school and DS2 had to do five!

who can afford these things ? - have told ds that given the subjects he really likes (geography,languages) there are bound to be other trips which he can go on throughout his school career ! I even have to ask my mum to give me money for his swimming lessons so am feeling v conscious of costs...

DS mentioned a skiing trip to Canada (Feb 2009) at the beginning of term at a cost of £1150 - err I think not!

CAT tests for ds this week...
he is also interested in a ski -ing trip to Vermont in 2010, cost over £1k - gah !!!!!

Sorry to hear about that Roisin. Same thing happened to a work colleague!

thanks bagsforlife - that is comforting
roisin - that's sad - my parents are just about to exchange on a house (not a 9 unfortunately) so hope their's doesn't fall through - it's all very alarming - adds to general anxieties I think.

oh what a shame roisin.

yummmmmmmmm.... I can't wait!

In Tech ds1 has been making a new house number for grandma's new house. Unfortunately her house sale has just fallen through at the last moment (because of banks/money/credit crunch, etc.), so she won't be able to buy "number 9"

Does anyone live at "number 9" and want a new house number?

Speaking as an 'old hand' of DCs at secondary school, I wouldn't worry too much about your DS, MAS.

I think it takes at least until after Christmas for them all to 'gel' and make new friends. My youngest DS started secondary last year and he didn't really make a firm group of friends until this year.

He was the only boy from his primary school to go to his school (mixed, selective school) and he only probably only got invited to a couple of social things in the first year (mainly arranged by their parents obviously) but he wasn't unhappy and now this term, he seems to be in a gang of really nice boys and has been to a couple of parties already. I think they need a while to sort themselves out into friendship groups while they are all trying to start a new school too, if you see what I mean.

Hope the evaluation went well!

Hope the evaluation went well!

Sounds delic.

it was lovely, fab topping - could have done with a bit of cinnamon but delicious anyway

no custard,ice cream or cream in the house alas !!

Have to wait till Wednesday for Ds's pasta bake.

Let us know MAS what it tastes like

Ermm - cream/custard or icecream?

yay, lovely apple and plum crumble arrived home intact and looking lovely - just warming it up for evaluation now

Orm - you have just summed up what I was going to say!

thank you Wendy...he does go to a lunchtime reading club but he says they don't talk much because they're reading !! Will check out some others for after half term.

MAS, just read about DS, poor lamb

Does his school have lunchtime/after school activities? Chess club, drama club, computers, maths, cookery, poetry? There must be something he would like to do, where they are in a group anyway & he'd be with like-minded people?

thanks Orm...it makes my heart heavy to think of him being lonely but we'll see what we can do

Fingers crossed for him. It's funny how, when it comes down to it, it's the fear of them being lonely or unhappy that really freaks us out isn't it. More than anything else.

thanks everyone - that's helpful and roisin's role playing sounds good - he's never worried about this before but he seems quite happy after our little chat - I think it'smore a case of being like everyone else,other children are in groups of friends etc..this week they were handing out bibles (after an assembly where Christians came to talk to them...ds didn't take one and then got worried that he hadn't, esp as his friend in his tutor group ( from his old school) who is a Christian asked him if he was giving his life to Jesus. I was brought up as a Catholic and dh is an atheist- I am interested in Buddhism ( my mum is a Buddhist now) and ds had a Buddhist blessing by monks ( the head monk of this particular strain of Buddhism in the UK in fact did the blessing - was really lovely) - anyway, ds can chose what he wants as he grows up - the point of all this story is that there seem to be groups etc that ds feels he should fit into possibly - which might account for his anxiety. Am sure the bonding weekend next week will help and will encourage him to seek out the children he knows from last school.

When is his bonding trip MAS? You might find being thrown into new situations will help him make friends. I remember a trip I went on at High School had a fantastic time and made loads of new friends, girls that normally I'd not come across during the school day. And I never was Miss Outgoing at Secondary school either.

Awww MAS

Roisins role playing idea sounds good.

What happened with the Yr6's that moved up with him? Can he not hang round with them a bit?

OrmIrian - great news about the residential: glad he enjoyed it.

MAS - I would suggest doing a bit of low key role play with him at home. For instance:
On Monday the lesson before break you have RE. Who is in your RE lesson who might be a good friend? OK what could you say to them whilst you're going into/coming out of the lesson?

If he doesn't have these skills very much yet then mastering a few useful phrases will be a good start.

Tbh my ds1 seems to spend a lot of break/lunchtime on his own, or in the library, or going to some clubs. He doesn't seem bothered, and nor am I. Many of his mates are very sporty so are continually dashing off doing sporty stuff.