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Original poster

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

788 replies

MaryAnnSingleton · 02/09/2008 08:07

am being calm but every so often panic strikes me - ds is fine about it, it's just me fretting about roads to cross/ money for the canteen - will it get lost/stolen, what about the lockers, arghhh ! Plus,as with the beginning of every term,I'll miss him - I love having him here in the holidays !
It also means that I have no excuses not to sit at my desk and work on the job I'm meant to finish by the end of Seot...

OP posts:
bellavita · 06/10/2008 18:15

That's the sort of curse/spell I would have gone for before he told me about the book, but hey ho. Thanks for your help.

roisin · 06/10/2008 18:14

I'm dreading ds1 doing Food Tech as he has long-ish walk-bus-walk journey each way and lots of bags/gear to manage as it is. I can just imagine upside down cakes will be the order of the day!

roisin · 06/10/2008 18:12

MAS I presume he's got food tech early enough in the day that the dish will be cool enough to handle by hometime?

If you have a large one of those 'clip lock' plastic containers and an oven proof dish small enough to fit inside, I would recommend this as a way of transporting said desserts safely home.

bellavita · 06/10/2008 18:12

MAS - yes it is

roisin · 06/10/2008 18:10

Part of the story of holes is based around the undoing of a bad luck curse which was put on the ancestor of one of the boys in the story. I can't remember whether the specific words of the curse are included in the book or not - I don't think so, but I can't actually find my copy.

From what you have described, I'm not sure I would know what to start writing either! At first I thought of the sort of spell-writing "eye of newt, toe of frog" sort of style, but it's not really that, is it?

Original poster
MaryAnnSingleton · 06/10/2008 18:07

is it this book ?

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Original poster
MaryAnnSingleton · 06/10/2008 18:05

that seems sensible bellavita

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bellavita · 06/10/2008 18:02

Roisin - have asked what he did and he said the whole class read a book called "Holes", he retold the story to me over tea.

DH and I have talked to him about going to see the literacy teacher tomorrow and have said to him that she will be glad that he has gone to ask her and he should not to be worried that he will be told off, because she would rather he ask than do it wrong/not do it at all. He seems ok with it.

Original poster
MaryAnnSingleton · 06/10/2008 17:38

roisin ! you are absolutely right of course- will stick to sending in the basic ingredients...he has to take an ovenproof dish too so I imagine he'll have to carry it back home (and heaven forbid he tries to stick it in his bag !!) Incidentally,the teacher can't spell 'recipe'
Ds tends to not write all the homework details down, so he'll come home not altogether clear about what he is meant to be doing,or at least why he is doing something - it's very frustrating as I can't really help him -though I suppose he must learn to get the right information and use it himself...today he had to research smoothies for some maths thing but wasn't clear about what he had to do or what info he needed - so hard to not interfere !
Am a little sad too that in his singing lesson book the teacher has put a sad face beside today's date whereas the previous lessons have a smiley face - I guess it means he didn't do so well today..he didn't seem to know if he'd done anything wrong or just not sung well..maybe he hadn't practised enough ? oh dear I am a PFB mum !

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bellavita · 06/10/2008 16:52

Thanks roisin - I will.

roisin · 06/10/2008 16:49

Bellavita - ask him what he did in his last English lesson. I would expect that before setting this homework the teacher may have read some curses/poems or done some kind of work on this with them?

If not, tell him he must go and find the teacher tomorrow for clarification.

ds1 today brought home some Maths homework for Friday, which we can't make sense of. (Using multiplication only and the numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, -1, -2, -3 and -5, make all the numbers from -30 to +30). If he can use 0.5 and so on, I think he will be able to do it, or if he can use division/addition/subtraction as well.

He's got another lesson on Wednesday, so is going to ask then. (But he is very confident and doesn't mind asking.)

bellavita · 06/10/2008 16:46

Tricky one, I think I would just stick to the basic simple ingredients (although cinnamon and cloves to me are the basic things to go in a crumble!

I am sure it will be lovely.

DS has to do a pasta bake next week - lord knows how is is going to transport it home. DH has suggested I go pick him up - just not what I need to be doing when I have to get tea on and then go to work!

roisin · 06/10/2008 16:42

MAS - I wouldn't send in extra ingredients. Practical Food Tech lessons are complex enough without:
"Miss, why's he got cinnamon and I haven't?"
"Miss, when do I put the cinnamon in?"
"Miss, he said I can have some of his cinnamon. How much should I put in?"
"Miss I put in 2 tbsp, is that too much? Can I take it out again?"

Original poster
MaryAnnSingleton · 06/10/2008 16:31

do you think that if ds -who is making a fruit crumble at school on Monday - took in extra stuff,like cinnamon and cloves( I'm imagining he'll do apple crumble) as well as the ingredients asked for that wouldn't seem show offy or as though he's being clever ? We made crumble last weekend and put them in.

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Original poster
MaryAnnSingleton · 06/10/2008 16:31

do you think that if ds -who is making a fruit crumble at school on Monday - took in extra stuff,like cinnamon and cloves( I'm imagining he'll do apple crumble) as well as the ingredients asked for that wouldn't seem show offy or as though he's being clever ? We made crumble last weekend and put them in.

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Original poster
MaryAnnSingleton · 06/10/2008 12:59

hope it's ok !

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bellavita · 06/10/2008 12:25

Thanks MAS - I thought that might be the best thing for him to do, although I am sure he will not like asking.

Original poster
MaryAnnSingleton · 06/10/2008 12:17

I think it'd be best for your ds to speak to the teacher - then he gets to take responsibility and the teacher can assist him directly - that's what I'd tell my ds to do - he finds asking for help quite hard but it coming round to it more ! Hope he enjoys the yr 6 evening - he'll really feel like a secondary school boy then !

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bellavita · 06/10/2008 09:10

It is the new Yr6's turn to do the open evening of Ds's new school and the new Yr7's help with all the activities going on in the evening.

Ds will be in one of the tech rooms - on a production line making school key rings, he cannot wait until Thursday for this to happen.

He has told asked me that he will come home on the school bus and have a quick tea then him and a friend will catch the normal service bus back to school (told me when he gets off they will get some chips to eat on the way) and then DH will go pick them up at 8.45pm.

Do any of you ladies know if I can buy a book on how to write curses/poems? He has to write one with 8 lines and he just does not know what to do or what to write about. Unfortunately, we cannot write it for him and he is really struggling.

Or maybe do you think it is best for him to go to the teacher on his next lesson and say he did not know how to do it?

magentadreamer · 02/10/2008 18:42

She's thrilled to bits basically they've been doing a project on the history of their school - parts of it were an old mansion house. DD's group presented their work as a news bulletin under the Caption "* School to be demolished" They were marked out of 20 and got the full 20. The best of it is she always used to say History is boring....

Roisin thanks for the tip about the German dictionary -came in very handy when DD was doing her homework tonight.

Original poster
MaryAnnSingleton · 02/10/2008 18:28

well done magenta's dd

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bellavita · 02/10/2008 17:27

poor MasterSingleton

hey that's great magenta

magentadreamer · 02/10/2008 16:47

DD has come home with another win/draw slip for history, plus the group she was in will be filmed for the school TV channel on Monday - she's thrilled to bits!

roisin · 01/10/2008 17:22

at wet play MAS!
It's great that they've all settled in so well and so quickly, isn't it?

Ashantai · 01/10/2008 17:05

Yep my daughter is settling in well too and now she has a locker, her back isnt being crushed by the load of crap in her bag

The only downside is that she has swimming on a monday and used to bring her swim stuff home, but now she has a locker, she keeps forgetting it is in there.

I'm guessing a mouldy smell will soon emit from it and finally prompt her into bringing it home!