GCSE '18s (19) - New Beginnings?

[whistl]

Following on from the GCSE 2018 threads as our DC enter year 12.
This the first thread in our new home in further education

brainmelt shame! Not sure if there are a lot of differences. Edexcel's written paper for GCSE was a bit weird in places but DS doesn't care!

Not ‘paid’ for any text books but ds just home with a big pile. Guessing they’ll be on the bill at the end of term. Never really used any before so not sure if these will get much reading.

Wise words Whistl.

So I will probably be spending my 50th in 2 years time helping DD move out. Oh.

Drop-off done and we're back home. We stayed long enough to help him unpack, make the bed and have a cup of tea & some cake in the key collection lounge.

DS1's room is at the far end of the corridor, so nobody is likely to walk past. Luckily, one of his neighbours had the door propped open, so he went and introduced himself. We helped them both find the food court (catered accommodation), gave DS1 a quick hug goodbye and left him there with his new friend.

No tears (from him or me).

This is a duplicate of what I wrote on the thread for his year group - sorry if you've had to read it twice.

Sounds as good as it can be thethird. Hope it goes ok. Waved DD2 off at 9 this morning with bf. would have liked to take her but thought it would make it a fun day for them both to go together (and she was chuffed he offered). We will go up in a couple of weeks to see her flat and take up what she s forgotten ! All settled in I think and hall free pizza tonight

All I need to do now is to not worry about him 24/7.

Sorry about the split infinitive; not feeling quite myself today.

Oh third i think today will be the worst.

Trying to post a photo for the first time. Saw this on that group earlier. Very poignant. We were always meant to let go and let them walk their path by themselves.

Third you will never stop worrying, but give yourself a huge round of applause for having helped your DS succeed so far and giving him the skills he needs as he takes his next steps.

DD safely deposited in her house, I thought I was rather good as I made her bed ,letting her unpack everything else, until we were leaving and I saw another mother of one of the boys who arrived at the same time with all her cleaning equipment giving her son's room a thorough going over before he could even start unpacking............meanwhile we headed off to Nandos

Aw to all those launching DC to university. It does get better.

Peggy I was just looking for that you beat me to it. I am worried and nervous for her but also excited and feeling proud and positive that dc have been launched into new adventures after some rocky roads along the way.. good luck to all the dc being delivered this weekend. Had to laugh at the cleaning - he won’t live that down for a while 🙂

I hope everyone will forgive us for hijacking for a while this weekend.

More sentimental stuff Oratory

No cleaning from me either when we took DD yesterday! Feeling very proud of her today though as she said she went shopping and batch cooked food! She even sent a picture of her meal!

And in a far less eloquent way of expressing my view of parenting is that our job is to "tool'em up". Give them the skills, strength and moral compass to make their own decisions and their own way in the world ....not to catch them when they fall (unless we know it's from a great height). My job is to stitch her back up and set her off again with confidence and a lesson learnt. Kahlil Gibran isn't quite right though - I am not the archer...we don't shoot our DC off into the world. We are always behind them, but never in front of them. There to catch but no longer to lead

DH said today felt rather like launching a missile. You can influence the design phase, the testing phase and the programming phase. But once it's launched, you can only stand back and hope it reaches its target.

Dropped DS1 back at uni today. Now exhausted from lugging all the stuff to his house. Student houses don't tend to have parking and his is just by traffic lights on double yellow lines. Expensive trip to the supermarket as well. Couldn't find his double sheet anywhere! How do you lose a sheet?

I know that it is absolutely necessary to drop them off, make sure they have the basics that they will need and then turn around and walk away, but a lot will have to change in two years for ne to be able to bear to do that. DS1 has a lot of life skills to learn between now and then.
Otherwise, DH will literally have to chloroform me so that we can leave DS in peace to get on with things.
It might be commonplace to do it, but it doesn't change the fact that I think you are all really brave.

Many of you will remember that I suffer from anxiety. I have left DS1 (who also has dyspraxia and anxiety) in a place where he doesn't know his way around and doesn't know anyone. It is difficult.

Thankfully I have now heard from him. Yesterday evening went well, he has met most of the people on his corridor and they seemed nice.

Today he needs to find the bus stop, catch the bus to the campus, find the student union to collect his wristband, find the health centre marquee to register with the GP, find the lecture theatre where the welcome talk is and find the bus stop to get the bus back to halls. Once he has done that, there's a welcome party at the halls, and a bus to catch into town for the first Freshers night out.

He's going to be exhausted...

The third I didn't know the anxiety bit. My past was written in admiration though.

It sounds as though things have gone extremely well so far. I think our DC surprise us with how much they can do that we'd never expected. Also it makes a huge difference that your DS is in a crowd of people all doing exactly the same thing (or learning to navigate the campus) and they'll be helping each other out. It's much less intimidating if everyone is in the same situation. And he's clever.. So he'll learn fast

third you wrote no tears and I started tearing! He will be fine, very fine. This is actually a good thing, our children flying away x

Indeed. It was hard enough dropping off DS1 2 years ago when he was fairly independent, capable and NT. My friend is dropping off her DS,who has ASD, at Portsmouth this weekend. He had an EHCP with in class support and suddenly he's having to feed himself and get around Pompey.

They will cope, though. There are with a bunch of others who are in the same boat and hopefully the more capable ones will take the lead.

I went to Leicester uni thirty-cough years ago. The halls were a few miles from the uni but located in the same place. They'll be hundreds catching the buses together.

That’s tough Thethird good luck to him and to you and I hope that if things are going well he finds time to let you know.

No news from DD2 which of course could be a good thing (or not ...).

Back to year 12 and DS has his ALIS report tho I won’t see it til next week. What he did say though is that the grades are generally conservative both ways (they often don’t target very high - or very low if that makes sense). And as they work on averages and generalisations from large numbers, subjects like FM with a lower uptake can be a bit strange. He seems to be coping in spite of being ill this week which is encouraging and wants to keep the FM group at least at the moment as he likes his group and his teachers. It’s helpful knowing he can drop it anytime if the going gets tough as it wouldn’t need a switch, just a move to a single maths group.

Back from a uni open day and I am exhausted! Glad we decided to do a couple early. I seriously won't be able to cope with doing them all in Summer!