Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

If your child started reception in September '05

53 replies

Earlybird · 15/10/2005 21:53

How are they settling in to school?
What are they like when they're not in school?

Asking because my dd has settled at school perfectly well - in fact, I couldn't have hoped for better. But she is an absolute nightmare in terms of at home behaviour. She is argumentative, demanding, belligerent....and I'm worn out. I know it's awful, but I'm hoping that some (or many ) of you are experiencing the same thing so I can take comfort in that fact...Let's commiserate - and who knows, maybe someone has a solution!

OP posts:

XmariaX · 16/10/2005 10:31

my dd2 started reception in september and has now settled in well with no problems but she is a complete nightmare at home with constant nagging and fighting with her sister and is very very needy and it wears me down a lot sometimes i could quiet cheerfully just sit there and cry

dinny · 16/10/2005 10:34

can I just hijack to ask you wise lot a question - my dd's was 3 in May. When would she start school? Sept 2006 or 2007? thanks.

Gobbledispook · 16/10/2005 10:36

Reception in Sept 06 Dinny.

dinny · 16/10/2005 10:38

am worried now as we are going to move into rental property hopefully before Xmas but obviously can't apply for schools till me know where we're going to be. will she not get a place?

Gobbledispook · 16/10/2005 10:39

Dinny - depends on where you are thinking of applying to. Here we have to have applications in by January (I think - at the very latest it's usually 1st April) for state primaries. The church schools do their own admissions and I know some of these have much earlier closing dates - some as early as this November for entry next Sept.

milward · 16/10/2005 10:41

earlybird - same story here. At montessori my dd3 is the model student. Her teachers comment on how well she gets on. The moment I collect her she wont hold my hand when near the busy road, wont get in her car seat, behavious difficultly at home. Drives me mad. She sometimes laughs when pressing all the dishwasher buttons or slamming the doors. It makes me sad & wears me out. just had ds 4 but it's not this that has cauised her behaviour - think it's just being 2yrs old that's the prob.

dinny · 16/10/2005 10:44

GDG - the area we want to move to is end of October. Don't schools have special provision for late entry?

Gobbledispook · 16/10/2005 10:50

Not sure how it works Dinny but I don't think you automatically get a place if you move if the places have already been allocated. I think you would be offered what they consider the most convenient option with places left. I know of a family that have moved into this area and cannot get into their school of choice - the child started reception in Sept at a different school and the parents go down to the preferred school office every week to see if any places have become available.

Over the summer they were on a waiting list but didn't get to the top of it and in Sept, once school is started, the waiting list is wiped and it's up the parents to keep in touch with the school to see if any spare places become available.

This could differ in other boroughs though - I don't know.

Gobbledispook · 16/10/2005 10:51

I would imagine that if you make your application late, but before allocation of places, because you have moved into the area it would probably be OK. You'd have to ring the LEA to be sure though.

dinny · 16/10/2005 10:56

thanks, GDG - sorry for hijack, Earlybird.

edgetop · 16/10/2005 11:41

my ds comes home from school like a bear with a sore head,everything i say he disagrees with, when we get in i give him a drink & let him tell me about his day.he is very tierd so i try to relax him,usually we have cuddles & i read to him.
one thing dh & i cannot believe is how quick he is learning he seems to be finding it hard to stop he talks about school all the time.

thimble · 16/10/2005 13:42

when ds comes in from school-cannot get anything out of him about his day at all-not even what he has had for lunch-so you are lucky edgetop! I try not to question him too much but it is difficult not to as I want to know what he has been doing all day!

PrettyCandles · 16/10/2005 13:55

Ds had been used to napping 1-1.5h nearly every day, and then went straight into full-time school this September. He also settled straight in, and loves school, but sometimes comes home a real grump. I generally find that giving him the chance to run around and be very physical often helps. I always have a snack for him when I pick him up - never sugary - something like peanut butter sandwiches, or apple chunks and oatcakes, or raisins and mini-Baby-Belles. First snack (sometimes that's all he needs to settle down) then running around on the way home, say to the next lamp-post and back, several times every block.

And sometimes you just have to acknowledge that the child is tired and over-wrought, and not challenge them or make demands of them. It's better in this case not to give them the opportunity to cheek you, than to then have to tell them off for the sake of consistency of discipline.

Issymum · 16/10/2005 21:35

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request

edgetop · 16/10/2005 22:43

i have just read this thread again & i do beleive that at 4 years old it is to long a day at school,also my ds gets home work & a book to read & words to learn.some of the younger ones are part time until january but even so its a lot for them,dont get me wrong school is a good thing, but deep down i dont like sending him for so long.

motherinferior · 16/10/2005 22:51

DD1 varies. But then four days a week I actually pick her up at five, when an hour and a half of dashing around with her mates at afterschool club seems to take a lot of the edge of it, quite frankly, and given her the opportunity to wind down and blow off steam. Fridays, when I pick her up at 3.30, is a lot worse.

motherinferior · 16/10/2005 22:52

(Mind you, it's actually a shorter day than she used to have at her childminder, and she's been pretty used to pre-school too.)

JanH · 16/10/2005 22:53

DD2 used to come out of school in a foul temper, and thump me on a regular basis, for months.

LadySherlockofLGJ · 16/10/2005 22:58

I haven't read this whole thread.....................

But he is a little shoit.

I cannot even begin to articulate the decline in him.......................sufffice to say the following describes it...............

Attitude

More Attitude

And even more Attitude

Fully aware that this does not really help, but if I lay bare my aggravations ATM, you would all have me committed.

Original poster

Earlybird · 16/10/2005 23:00

MI - what is she like at the weekend? Is there a noticeable difference in her behaviour since reception began?

DD was better today, but we stayed in and relaxed. There was a minor, and manageable bit of whingeing, but no defiance or "devil child" antics...thank goodness.

OP posts:

motherinferior · 16/10/2005 23:03

It varies (we are also under considerable other stress in the Inferiority Complex as my partner's mother is very ill and it's just me and/or a very stressed unhappy daddy a lot of the time atm - and earlier in September it was just me a lot of the time because he was away for work, so it's not been what you might call a normal basis for comparison). She can be completely impossible, and throw the most embarrassingly horrible strops - fighting with her sister in the car when I've picked her up from after school club, or throwing a wobbly like a toddler tantrum all the way home on a Friday. Some of the four day a week easier scenario may be because of the car, to be honest. But it's not that far a walk, ffs, I'm not caving in on that (although have been severely tempted!)

Lots of whingeing and lots of scrapping with her sister, really. Not fun.

Wordsmith · 16/10/2005 23:04

My DS started in jan and around about March I noticed the decline in behaviour. Attitude most definitely, I was told it's a phase but he's STILL going through it (to a lesser extent).

I think it's the time you realise your child is no longer a sweet compliant preschooler but a little bugger who starts demanding power rangers and thunderbirds everytime you venture within 10 miles of a Woolworths'.

Comiserations. But yes it is quite normal.

motherinferior · 16/10/2005 23:08

But it's also very nice, I find, seeing their circle and their horizons expand - I drop off DD1 among a scampering excited group of friends and I love seeing it.

Original poster

Earlybird · 16/10/2005 23:10

MI, sorry to hear about the family issues. That really is alot to deal with in addition to day to day life.

I'm finding that dd is opinionated, bossy, and virtually cannot accept a "no" without serious attitude. She is also into some effective button-pushing, which often has an impact (even though I know exactly what she's doing), as I am too easily inclined to feel guilty...

OP posts:

motherinferior · 16/10/2005 23:12

Yes; slightly to my surprise I've found the rows with her sister one of the hardest things as hearing her bellow 'I HATE her! I wasn't waving at HER I was waving at YOU! I like school because SHE'S not there!' very hard to take.

(Although DD1 was hoist by her own petard when her New Best Friend fell madly in love with DD2 and said wistfully 'you must never get bored because you have a sister to play with' - and I noticed they played together very sweetly indeed today )

But as I've said it's kind of hard to extrapolate atm (thank you for the sympathy).

Flip

1 2 3