ever-so-slightly-late-rant, BUT, world book day.............argh, <<wail>>

[psychomum5]

I HATE world book day.............

makes for children expecting miracles, and mums feeling inadiquate, and costumes looking nothing like they should, and children not winning prizes, and books being thrown for building hopes up...............

Twin policeman - no, but Tintin has those two twin strange blokes.

At ds's school they:

Read a book.

Controversial I know - but I think the clue is in the title of the day...

If he had had to dress up then Tom from Beast Quest would have been pretty doable, as long as he went for the first series - I wouldn't fancy having to do 6 pieces of gold armour.

I've got one going in full Disney sleeping beauty costume - I think virtually every girl in year R is a disney princess of some type.

DS 6 has decided to go a s Wally from the where's wally books. Dead easy - jeans, stripey rugby top, stripey wooly hat and a pair of my old glasses with the lenses taken out!

I was madly putting in rollers for DD2 before I went to work last night. She said "it's OK mummy, daddy will do it" ROFL!!!

Anyway she is some character from a Princess Poppy book in a fairy costume. DD1 is Princess mirrorbelle in ordinary clothes and pigtails. But DS was the easiest of all. I did have to write "Charlie" on one of his t-shirts but that was it with a pair of jeans.

Pyjama day later this month...

My DS has gone as Floppy (ORT) with huge yellow tail and ears and whiskers he has drawn on himself

I hate it too.

Especially when they decide to go as something that would take the entire drama wardrobe dept at the BBC 6 moths to re-create.

(So World Book Day means all the children across the world are going to school in fancy dress? I bet they're not )

Pants outfit is done.

I pinned on blue pants one, two, three on the front of his t-shirt.

And a pair of little baby nappy pants on the back. I found a packet of novelty tissues with pictures of dollars all over them, so cut out pants shape for money pants.

Can't convince ds to wear pants on his head when you've gone crazy though.

I am glad he goes to afternoon nursery. Gave me a few extra hours to cobble it together.

It's easy with a bit of imagination

i feel left out, dd's school dont do any dressing up, they stretched to putting up a poster

Nother excited first timer here too! My 4 year old ds wanted to go as Noddy so, despite an initial bit of reluctance on my part and trying to angle for a Pirate, I cobbled together a costume - and he won. I was so proud, sob!

Almost made the 3 hours I spent swearing at my piece of shit cheapo sewing machine worth it .........

Feel so much better to know i'm not the only one to get stressed about this. Had a stress fit at dh last night who said it's a shame he hasn't got an orange jumper he could be a tiger. Then i remembered he does have an orange t-shirt so i spent last night sewing on roughly cut black strips and i'm still suprised at how good it looks. So ds ended up going as a tiger as he's loves tigers and has got lots of tiger book.

On the way in Preschool teacher said "ooo are you Tigger" so I promptly taught him to say "I'm not Tigger. I'm a Tiger".

I'm not a fan of winnee the pooh

Very glad to say that its not a competition at ds's school. I only found out that the letter had got lost on Sunday for today, so was talking to ds (4 next month) about what he wanted to be. He immediately told me he wanted to be Christopher Robin () so has gone in a red checked shirt, shorts and with one sock up, one down... Oh, and he has got Pooh with him. I think he might go as Just William one year - I'm sure that he can do the tousled, unironed look really well!

At dd's school they have to take in their favourite book and talk about it, is that not surely the point?

Why all the dressing up anyway? Though I confess I am storing the 'Charlie' idea away in case I need it in the future.

It isn't a competition at our school either - but they do enjoy it! Dd2 was a brilliant lion dressed all in brown with ready made costume hat and tail and paws - she was practicing her roar on the way to school!

Just got back from special school assembly for World Book Day ... most of the girls were Disney Princesses, most of the boys were cartoon superheroes, so not many great characters from literature I'm afraid!!

Thirtypence - my 8 yo. has gone as Tom from Beast Quest this morning - he was definate about the golden armour so he has gone in my cobbled together version of it, i.e. a flat cap inside out as it has a gold-coloured lining, yellow T-shirt, knight's chainmail, stripy woollen gloves, bike kneepads (upside down so you can't see the words 'Action Man' so clearly) and some gold card threaded onto his trainers.

He seems perfectly happy with it but I don't think it will win any prizes. My dcs probably wish they had an arty-crafty mother rather than one who runs round in circles panicking and grabbing anything to hand!

Ah well, I guess I have a whole year to prepare for the next one.

i remember sending my son in dressed as an artist. (didn't know from which book but was sure one existed ) was really easy just splatter lots of paint on a white shirt, add a beret and make a pallett. looked really sweet

Ours is not till week after next. Just found out that there is a theme - Goodies and Baddies. DS wants to go as Horrid Henry so I suppose that will fit. The Head did say she thought the theme was loose enough to cover all ideas!

Our librarian organises the week and she does a great job. She has 3 authors and an illustrator coming in. We have a Book at Bedtime where the children go back to school at 6pm in PJs for a story, cocoa and biscuits.

We do have a book fair but it goes down well as most people don't have easy access to English language children's books. Book fair will also have a 'tuck shop' beside it where the children get a cake although cake is free so not exactly a shop!

Re sewing on black stripes - I found black Duck tape does the job too for those of us overchallenged by sewing...

"Nother excited first timer here too! My 4 year old ds wanted to go as Noddy so, despite an initial bit of reluctance on my part and trying to angle for a Pirate, I cobbled together a costume - and he won. I was so proud, sob!

Almost made the 3 hours I spent swearing at my piece of shit cheapo sewing machine worth it ......... "

I know how you feel xfabba. I use to LOVE doing this when my dd was smaller.

The first one took me by surprise as she was still in pre-school and I only found out the night before. We cobbled together something simple (red cardigan and play food in a basket for Red Riding Hood). When I saw the effort that had gone in to some of the other kids costumes I felt I was letting the side down so I made a better stab at it in future She actually won a couple of times.

I can honestly say though it wasn't the competition that was the incentive but the sheer fun of dressing her up. She always enjoyed it thoroughly.

I

Aha! I didn't see this.

Have been airing my inadequacy and angst on another thread.

I have been traipsing down Oxford Street looking for something for my DD to wear. It's a pain in the arse, especially if you have to do it in your lunch hour as you haven't been organised to do it before. Think I am going to base it on Dinosaurs Love Underpants

Oh I know - I didnt even know there was a competition TBH - I just got into it as he was so excited about being Noddy and my mum was there egging me on saying "when you were a child I sat up for hours making you XYZ costumes" "in my day, all costumes were home made" etc etc. He was so excited about being Noddy it was so sweet. When I say competition - they all got a piece of chocolate, he just got to go up and get one first and got a certificate, nothing major. (The other mums though were another story ; ))

ds 2 who quite often moans about being the only one in the class with red golden hair was chuffed to be the only Ron Weasley in the school (they had their dressing up day on Tues for some reason). Easy costume too - basically school uniform (trousers, shirt, jumper, tie) a toy rat that was just actually a toy white mouse, a wand and an old black halloween cape.

Apparently there were loads of Harrys and Hermiones - but noone else could pull off the Ron look

well, neither of mine won anything, but DS1 did win the colouring comp in his class, so he is happy.

proud owner of extra book vouchers now

Dd wanted to go as a polar bear!, so take winter coat with white furry lining inside out, bingo Polar bear.