to think that having the bloody class bear to visit should be banned?

[poshme]

I know its stupid but i'm sitting here in tears beacuse i do not have a colour printer to print the pictures for the diary entry i am supposed to write for the bear. i cannot even cut out the crappy black and white ones cos this evening my 6 week old dd sreams if i stay still or put her down.
the sodding bear arrived on monday and has to be returned tomorrow with 2 sides of writing and pics saying what he has done for the last few days...while ds was at school and after school. And I know it is not a competition, but it gets read out and shown to all the class, and then our entry goes in the folder for all the next parents who get the bear to read.
my son is just 5. he can write a few words. he cannot layuot pics on a computer. why why why do they give us this stupid task??? i was a teacher so i really want to support the school but this is making me feel like a shit mum cos ours will look crapper than everone else's..

I was waiting for you Tigga so I could PMSL all over again!

I love this thread and can so sympathise....

Oh course it's homework for parents, how exactly can an autistic 3 year old draw or write anything meaningful!

Actually the visit with the nursery guinea pigs was quite a good read. However it was when spot the dog came home for christmas with DD the real trauma occurred. Spot had previously been very virtuous visiting church and making cakes.

After taking spot to Tesco and him nearly getting lost we forgot about him until after christmas on purpose intending to take him to the zoo and planning to fake the pictures of spot with the christmas tree I got ill forgot to take a and print the pictures and bribed DD to do coloured pictures making up of lots of stuff we did.

Oh how I love visiting mascots

Confession: I never print any bloody pics out. I write two paragraphs which are read out to class. These amount to; DD2 did ballet, park, bought new shoes, played with cousin, bed. That's the lot.

DP have toyed with the idea of photographing class frog in a gimp mask and/ or fag and a glass of wine. But we can't be arsed.

Am still laughing at the thought of the giant guinea pig in the sombrero.

We had class panda last year & took photos of it brushing its teeth and having its breakfast. No interesting jaunts at all.

Have just realised that we're due to get the bear in mid-June this year, when DC2 will be about 6 weeks old. Am saving the ideas on this thread as I think I'm going to need them.

Mildly off topic, but I am still dealing with the trauma.

In Year 1, I brought the class hamster home for the summer holidays. He seemed to have a lovely time. We returned him to school, proudly.

He died the next day. I was distraught.

15 years later, my Mother remembers to tell me that it wasn't because of any maltreatment or neglect on my mildly-over-enthusiastic part. The twunt of a teacher had left him on the radiator.

Fifteen sodding years of thinking I was a hamster-killer.

I used to hate it when my youngest brought the bear (called 'Chocolate') home.

It always seemed to stink of vomit and/or wee

I am on my knees thanking every Deity available that none of my dses' classes ever had a class mascot that got sent home like this!

There are some cracking suggestions about activities for the class bear in this thread, and I have laughed out loud several times - especially at Dawntigga's post - Dawntigga, you are a creative genius and I want you to be my best friend!

We had Barnaby Bear for 3 days this week, home from nursery. It is the 3rd time we have had him (twice last year with 2 in nursery)

Everytime he comes he watches TV

Luckily we just have to take 2 pics with the disposeable camera but this time my 3 dc's each found the camera and took pictures with it of what? It's anyone's guess. They didn't understand it wasn't a digital camera.

I think they have abolished the diary due to the competitive nature of some of the entries

i remember when BIL had to bring the bear home in P2. he became obsessed with it. he got really stressed out about the amount of things he had to do with the bear. MIL took up smoking again by the end of it. there was a real competition with who did the most with the bear, but it was mostly amongst the kids.

i dread DD going to school.

You could hope that the visit of the bear coincides with a topic on the Tudors (beheading the bear) or the Romans (feeding the bear to the lions - may neccessitate a trip to the zoo), or perhaps the Great Fire of London (nasty bbq accident for the bear).

I inherited a class bear when I taught reception... it got a bit niffy and needed a wash, so Bear came to stay with Miss for the weekend... dutifully made up my own bit in the bear diary (the parents had all threatened to kill me if I didn't!), about how Bear had played on the internet, watched TV, met Miss's cat etc etc...

Trouble is one of the kids in the class lived in my street and had seen Bear hung up on the washing line pegged out by his ears after a nice 40degree wash and trip through the spin cycle and grassed me up good and proper!

do teachers have a whole box of the same bear...?

Ha! bear came home for 7 days today! DS is 2.5. I am needing some good things to do. Definitely going for lunch of sausage roll from greggs and a fruitshoot.

He'll have a cocktail in the bar at a posh hotel we will be at on Saturday too!

We had a cuddly dragon last year. It went to ASDA, then to the park, then to the moon (husband has Photoshop).

Thought none of the competitive parents would be able to beat that one.

I was assuming there wasn't one this year (year one) - but apparently there is, we just haven't been blessed with a visitation yet. Bet it comes when I'm up to my ears in writing reports (I'm a teacher).