Staff Room..................TUESDAY..................... biscuit knicking today please!!!!!

[looneytune]

Morning all

Thought I'd come in for a quick cuppa before I dash out on the school run.

What's everyone up to today? I've got another easy day with just adhoc mindee for her last day. Going to take her to childminder drop in this morning.

Have a good day everyone

NO BISCUIT KNICKING!!! (oops)

Morning LT, morning everybody. Currently locked in a battle of wills with a 2.11 yr old who is refusing to remove shoes!

Hi everyone, I'm sorry I haven't been dropping in, I'm caring for very poorly 90 year old mother at the moment and trying to manage it with work. I'm stir crazy as I feel so tied to home and I like getting out and about.

I'm in a struggle with Soc Serv re care package and it takes up SO much time.

But re CM, I'm in one of those transition periods, where little ones will be leaving, (1 mum on maternity leave, 1 dad lost job, 1 child off to school)and I'm waiting for new ones to start at end of Sept when parents go to uni or start new jobs.

I want to have a rethink of how I plan my days so I get back my real enthusiasm. I think I've been so tired and worried that it's drained my creativity.

I'd appreciate some ideas on things to do with after school 10 year olds. I think they might just want a snack and to watch TV but thought I'd like to do some stuff about emotional literacy without it getting too heavy. Any ideas?

Hi EM, sorry to hear about your mum.

With regards to the 10 yr olds mine like nothing more than to have a snack and then veg out watching T.V. Occasionally I can get them motivated enough to do some art work or some baking and maybe homework( although have to ask parents first as some like them to do their homework at home). they all love to play outside for short bursts too. HTH.

HP creeps into staff room, pinches all the biscuits and replaces them with a nice, healthy bowl of fruit

morning everyone.Em sorry to haer about your mum and the stress your under, hope you can get some normality and enthusiasm back soon.

i have 2 1/2 hours off this morn as mindee has just started nursery, then just got them till 2pm when i collect dd and new mindee

i asked for my other thread about probs with parent to be pulled as it may have become damaging had a parent happend to come across it, i will have to be more vague about details in future.

incidentally, mindee was dropped off 15 minutes early this morning!!..do you think i wshould charge for the extra 15 minutes???..tbh, it helped as i usherd parent out whci left me with 10 mins to sort children out and get sorted without rushing

Morning all

Fruit.....what's fruit??

you know toffee apples, those banana shaped sweets you get in large packets, cherry drops etc

EM, I have 10 year old mindees and we like to play box games. I also make up my own word searches and crosswords for them. The first thing we do when they all come in is watch Countdown! The 2 ten year olds do it properly, but the 2 six year olds have to make 3 letter words and add all the numbers together rather than get the number target.

I'm feeling amazing today! My mindee who i have been trying to get to eat without spitting/ throwing or jsut plain refusing has now not spat out food or thrown it for over a week and yesterday he tried rice pudding without spitting it out and today he had cucumber, he is definately getting there now, i think by chirstmas i'll have forgotten all about how much effort it was to get him to eat anything without spitting it out! This is why i do this job! I'm so proud of him (and me)!!

I love that proud feeling! I once had a mindee who was reluctant to join in anywhere we went. Playgroups, libraries, everywhere, he would just cling to me and be really shy. Not usual for him. I took him for a try out season at the toddler gym and he was off! I was bursting with pride and almost cried!

Hello Peeps, I haven't been working this morning so went to get the last of the Christmas presents, Yes i did say last and please dont shout a me

The acupuncture I had yesterday was brill, My shoulder is completely pain free!!!!!!!!!

Shoshable - when the hell do you start???!!! My sister always used to start Christmas shopping in June - madness!!! I personally have done the buying in advance thing but it doesn't work for me for 2 reasons.....1) I forget where I've hidden things! and 2) I can't help but buy more nearer the time so end up going over budget!

LMG's - as said on MSN, WELL DONE. I love that sense of achievement, very rewarding isn't it!!

Katymac - I've just started a thread about assistants. PRETTY PLEASE would you help me out???

hennipenni - I was going to give you a right telling off BUT....fruit is so much better for us and I'm TRYING to be healthier atm so thanks

Earthymama - I really feel for you. My nan has BAD dementia and my parents have been living with her for ages now. Care packages took so long to sort out. The stress of the caring is unbelieveable and they even nearly got reported to the police for abuse (nan telling porkies saying they beat her - she also told my parents the careworkers at daycare were a bunch of horrible lesbians ). It's only now one of the care homes has complained about her to social services that they've given more daycare help and totally forgotten about the allegations!! They don't work and it's bad enough so for you to be childminding aswell....I take my hat off to you!

PinkChick - glad the early arrival helped. I decided after early drop off for adhoc mindee yesterday that I wasn't going to let them in early. So, 9.05am I got home, ran upstairs and had a shower, got changed and was ready before 9.30am. They actually arrived 5 mins late which is fine but I was all geared up to ignore the doorbell!

Mo - hello

Is it nearly Christmas? Goddamnit woman - are you trying to make us feel inadequate? Thats not even the how you spell it, is it? I can't do Christmas until I've done DD birthday in October, then I'm resonably quick about it. I will have it all done by end November though. Must this year, I've got blardy jury service on 17th December haven't it!

LT i did lose a pressie two years ago AND HAVE NEVER FOUND IT [grin and as it was a blazer for ds IT WASNT THE SMALLEST THING TO LOSE.

I start in auhust, by going to DH shows and getting lots in th crafty tents and such, lots of lovely hand made soaps for the girls and wooden bits and pieces for Pops DS and DH and just carry on from there.

mmm dont know what happened with the caps lock

Thank you all for your encouragement, and kindness. I'm sticking shapes with 2 little boys and they are so funny it's easy to feel good.

I've got a degree in Health and Social Care and I can't make sense of getting this care packege. I've been through al the stages sorrow, with many tears, resignation, many sighs, anger, much shouting and am now quietly seething with lots of gin!!

Anyway great idea to try Countdown, to tease some learning, but they are addicted to Hannah Montana and Suite Life so there'll be lots of objections. That said, we did knitting in the rainy part of hols so they might surprise me.

I'd like to do stuff around feelings and dealing with other people as they are incredibly nasty to one another verbally. I hate it!!

Off to wipe 2 small boys down!!

Hi,
do you guys mind if I ask a question here in the staff room?

Fire away....

Shosh - at never finding the present....I found a couple about a year later but ds had outgrown what I'd bought (you know how they love something one min and totally not interested the next!)