This 'class soft toy' thing - does it happen everywhere?

[choosyfloosy]

I've seen a few threads about these. There are a lot of things I dread about ds's education but the thought of this class teddy thing is just hateful. Am I just a joyless old trollop?

ds has just launched off into preschool and already I am boiling with fears and panic (and exhaustion, and lack of baths as the boiler has decided not to heat water atm). do I really have to help ds with a bloomin diary? for a TEDDY?

Don't get me started on the f**cking bear!.. It's on its fourth round of the class. It is manky and the fact that it sleeps in a different bed every night makes me shudder. When DS has it I take it off him when he's asleep and kick it under the bed. They must all dribble on it surely?

My neighbour and I have some plans for Mr Bear when we next get him, involving the slurry pit at the back of their farm. (Only joking - or am I?)

OK - I have to confess I tried quite hard when we had the bear recently.... didn't do anything glamourous though!

Think I've saved my 'bear photos' in my profile (Click on the tag on the right...)

LOL at the spiderman mask Gameboy - I'm going to see if I can find one of our bear.

oh! No tag - OK, well just click on my name then - should work?

My ds is 6 and his class have one and he loves bringing it home. It comes with a diary but your child just writes as much or as little as they want to. This is the only time my ds gets excited about doing 'homework'. At his school though they are told not to take it to bed with them so we put it in the spare bed.

My dds school has this and dd1 was reduced to tears because she hadn't had him for ages, she wasn't alone but the teacher claimed she had lists to make it even, her reasons for giving it out were weird. I notices the bear often did lots of trips to the washing machine/ had a bath! dd2 dictated what she wanted written and sometimes she was a little imaginative with the truth. Big pictures drawn by child means little writing can be done.

Roll on 3 years and dd1's year 3 class had a ted given to a girl for the whole week and they gave it gifts. Dd1 made it a chair No tears in this year though

I feel mean now.. We loved it first and second time round but the novelty has worn off. DS needs help to write the diary, take photos, print photos etc.

Perhaps the problem isn't the bear, it's the usual ongoing competive parenting thing. Don't join in. Just look at the diary, check out the shortest entry and match it.

this thread is fascinating. I was blissfully unaware of the existence of such a device. to learn geography!

dd has had the bear twice, and she is in yr 1. ds never and he is in yr 3. I don't know if this is to do with the teachers (ie not all classes doing it) or if ds has been excluded from this lovely treat! It doesn't seem to be a huge deal in their school, but I think in general expectations are too high as to what parents can reasonably do (ds had to make a poster for his last homework, with pictures. As my compuiter wasn't working this was very hard - no internet images and no camera pics. I had to send him around to his dad's to do it. this week he has to interview someone who has lived in our area for a long time. ds suggested two school friends! There was a bit of an assumption that of course everyone would easily find a long time resident which I found annoying - this is London fgs!

In year 1 the teacher awarded it to the children for good work, trying hard, nice manners, being kind etc ... and she did it fairly - everyone had it an equal amount of times in the year.
In year 2 the system was that if a girl had it she had to nominate a boy to get and then the following day the boy had to choose a girl ...
As DS doesn't play with girls (they are yukky and smelly aren't they? ) and really has no time for them he never got the stupid Kakapo (an indigenous NZ bird that looks like a parrot). So in the end I talked to my friend whose little girl was in DS's class (DS and her DD ARE good friends out of school but don't have much to do with eachother IN school) and she primed her DD to choose DS - is that bad?
Anyway, DS got it, he was happy ... and I felt good about that. He nominated another girl the next day and that was the last we saw of Judy the Kakapo - thank god.

My dd's school had a soft toy in reception and year 1 I think. They got it on a regular basis as did everyone else - it was more a mascot than a prize. DDs wrote a sentence or two and drew a picture. On most occasions the teddy actually spent the night/weekend in the washing machine and hanging up to dry. Our Nanny once bought it some new baby clothes from Primark 'cos it had got so tatty!

I have to say that I think these bear things are hilarious, not to mention a fascinating insight into the families of your child's classmates.

The dds are too young so far but I have seen a neighbour's one at the local school.

The funny thing is the way that the entries are so revealing about each family, without meaning to be. I can't wait to do it - I know it is hopelessly naff, but just look on the funny side.

Feel sorry for people having to do it year in year out though. Once is enough, surely.

I think the soft toy thing's quite good fun. You don't have to get into competitive mum mode - just enjoy it for what it is. You don't even have to read everyone else's entries, come to that.

Never heard of this - how weird. Dd has only just started reception and there's no sign of this - yet!

I'm still in shock

yes we get sally only when the child as done some thing good that day to get her!, we found her hard work coz every thing your child does, they want her to do

Like cloudhopper, I like the chance to have a bit of a snoop inside other kids' houses via their photos! Our bear, "Mischief" gets everything from the organic fishcake thing to the 'then we sat and watched telly all evening'- and we all know which one is telling the truth! Really, it's a bit of fun and shouldn't be taken too seriously- a quick photo, a badly drawn picture and a sentence is more than enough!