DS starting Reception in September

[PrettyCandles]

What do I need to prepare for him?

The school list only uniform. What else ought I to have ready?

Also, I'm not the world's greatest fan of synthetics, is there anywhere I can get grey school trousers that aren't made of 100% polyester?

Prettycandles - I know what you mean. Just bought ds1's school jumpers and they feel nasty!! 100% acrylic - yuk!

He needs to be able to wipe his bum himself and get on and off his clothes if possible..

How many pairs of trousers do you think they need? 2 or 3?

I've bought 2 jumpers, 2 ties and am getting 4 shirts (just cos they come in packs of 2).

You can get away with two pairs of trousers in reception. I found that the odd paint stain could be rubbed out with a wet wipe in the evening. However ds2 has just finished year two and he definitely needed 3 pairs in year 2 as he was playing football more and getting VERY muddy.

Definitely try and get them to wipe their own bottom.

Re packed lunches - I always "started" to open things so that when ds1 pulled open a packet it would give way easily. Anything else was wrapped in foil - easy to undo.

I have got my mum to sew little ducks in all of dd2s uniform, she cant see things right in from of her face so i thought it might help when theres 30 jumpers in the jumper box.(Ducks on collars)

Make sure he can manage his shoes on his own, getting them on the right feet as well as doing them up. Velcro is a wonderful thing, none of mine could do laces till they were in the juniors!

Btw, for anyone who is interested, I got ds1 a navy parka for school in the Next sale - it was £15 down from £30-odd. Only got it last night so might still have some. Had quite a lot of sizes.

agree with the others

-bottom wiping

-lunchbox skills if packed lunch, including opening the box (zips are good)opening yoghurts without spraying themselves, opening packets of sanwiches, crips or other treats.

-Opening cartons of drink - can they pierce juice with the straw?

-doing up soes - velcro

• doing up coat (coas with velcro as well as zips are useful)

• putting on gloves if used

sorry about the excessive typos hope it was intelligible

Some of the M&S trousers are a poly/wool mix and are IMHO much nicer...
We did a 'controlled' test last year and bought some of both the wool ones and the 100& poly ones and the wool ones looked much better at the end of the year.....

pretty candles
My youngest starts reception in september as well so doing the whole ritual.
Other suggestions easy to do up coats, put on gloves - mittens not fingers less frustrating,
polo shirts with zips rather than buttons Dd (Yr2) could not manage them at first. (If you can)

The other good thing to do is to point out his school to him everytime you go past it gets him excited about going makes it a tiny bit easier for your self and do not forget the hankies. Dh was with me when Dd started (yr2 this time) I went shopping that morning and sat in a resturant missing her very much. So do not forget about yourself do something different for yourself that celebrates this new phase of his life.

Trousers try M&S might have some.

You can get grey cotton cord school trousers in John Lewis, or from The Children's Warehouse .

I keep having a nightmare, that I wake up late on DS first day at school only to realise that we never got round to buying his uniform [horror emicon]

Oh yes, and I once thought I was being very clever buying school shoes in July to avoid the late-August rush. But for some reason children grow like weeds during the summer, and by September the new shoes didn't fit any more. Won't be doing that again.

reminded me I am looking for pull up trousers as Ds can not yet manage to do them up even though he pulls them up some come undone easily and any suggestions

When sewing labels into socks do it downwards IYSWIM

Teach DD and DS to recognise their names or at least first letter

Oh God. I'm scared now.

Ds doesn't use a knife, still a fork and spoon.

He always makes me check his bum is clean (I do keep telling him Miss Avery won't do this )

I'm not sure he'll be able to zip up his coat.

I know he can manage his shoes and clothes though so that's a bonus.

GDG - my DS can't wipe his bum either - but has informed me wont be using the toilet at school!

PSML Merlin!!!

think I better stock up on prunes for the constipation!

Get practising for the wiping bum bit or they are going to hobble from the loos into the classroom bending over saying wipe me wipe me....
...or even worse running round stinking!

Ha ha ha!!

Oh dear, I'm going to be in bits on day one. My poor baby!

If you want pure-cotton shirts, which are really hard to find and I don't think even the Children's Warehouse do them any more, I got them from Cyrillus (here - expensive, but they have lasted through two non-stop years so far with no signs of wear. Not even any buttons coming off.)