Sept 2008 - no witty title as we're too busy dealing with stroppy 3 yr olds.

[MrsArchchancellorRidcully]

Hello all. Couldn't see a new thread so thought I'd do the honours. Sorry for rubbish title, I'm no good at witty! :)

Shanghai meg. He rang me this morning and he was sat in a cafe in e bund district having coffee in 29degree heat!!
Sorry for rubbish typing am trying to get used to ds1s iPad!

Thanks for the birthday wishes had a lovely day including (not necessarily in lovelyness order) being woken at 6 by both kids, burnt cold toast in bed at 6.30, happy birthday on the cornet soon after, lunch at pizza hot with 3 kids and me, afternoon at the park and a meal and drinks with friends this evening

There was one message on Star's page whch suggested that she'd got the birth she wanted, I hope so.

Does anyone else remember the 1980's ITV show, Childs Play? It came to me in a flash today so me and DD were playing a game where I said words and she had to describe and talk about then to me. For 'motorway' she said "it has big bridges over it........... lots of fast cars" and 'elephant' was "very grumpy........has a trunk" . You probably had to be there but watching her little face thinking about it was so sweet.

I think it might work on car journeys.

Can you tell I'm meant to be doing my OU essay .

Meg I don't remember the show but my 2 will spend hours playing 'what am I?' They'll usually be a character, a person, food or an object. Same sort of thing as you were doing. They give clues and the other one has to guess. It keeps them occupied in the car for ages.
DS2 can almost play I spy too- he gets the letter right sometimes but other times he doesn't or he picks something like elephant or he changes his mind part way through about what he can see!

at elephant i-spy!

DD 'I spy with my little eye something beginning with red/green/blue'. LOL. We have to guess based on the colour.

Sorry been awol. Lots to do - off to France Friday. DD excited about ferry that takes cars too.

I like the sound of that game, we're always looking for long journey entertainment! We taught ours word association, my favourite one was when DS1, age only 2 at the time, said "pig" after DD had said "funny". When asked why he said its coz pigs make him laugh when they oink. The perfect association!
I-spy with pre-schoolers is hilarious, we often say "I-spy in my mind's eye..." coz its rarely to do with anything they can actually see!
Have a fab holiday MrsA

Robyn plays 'who am I?' and 'dress-up'. The who am I is easy but the dress up one she goes through clothes which the person, usually Woody or Jessie from Toy Story is wearing, she often changes her mind half way though as well.

mrsaA the colour idea is good. DD isn't that great at the letters yet.

DD's attempt to describe 'oven' earlier today "burns....... hot.........um..... you mustn't put your legs in it". Safety first .

Where are you going in France MrsA?

bookmarking....

Hello all! Ds2 having an extended morning nap so am sat on sofa wondering whether to Hoover or have a break. Have so (with ds2 in the moby) far stacked dishwasher, tidied kitchen and lounge, folded and put the laundry away, put another load on, changed his cot sheet, tidied ds1's bedroom...
Actually writing it all down makes me think I should stay put. Dh can Hoover when he gets back from work this morning.

Amazingly this week ds2 has slept really well - 9-4:30/5/6. 6am being the record in our house. Had a 3:30 wake up last night after going down at 8:30 but really not so bad. Ds1 on the otherhand has not changed. Dh still sleeping in with him from about 2am after he wakes up crying. Don't know what to do. Some weeks he seems to be making progress, but there's never a pattern and no amount of explaining or rewards promised seems to make any lasting difference. I was partially holding out hope for when ds2 goes into his room and also when full-time school starts but am also wondering if he'll just wake ds2 (the incredible sleeping baby) up more with his skull rattling cries.

In other news, we're off to Devon again in August - so will be taking notes on all these car journey games

digi how is your DH's business getting on? I remember you said they were having a hard time at the start of the year.

I am having a minor (very big actually) meltdown today . Bit of an WWYD for you all.

Disclaimer; this is what DS has told me so it may not be 100% true and it may all be ok. But he's generally pretty truthful -and I've grilled him on it all morning.

A couple of week ago DS was given the job of maths expert in his class as he is very good with numbers, about 5 other children have different 'expert jobs' (reading, writing, role play, water IIRC) but I was so proud of him to get it and was chatting to the teacher about it on Thursday who said he was really helpful with other children when they were all doing numbers so the most able were assigned roles as helpers . They had a little poster up on the wall with their photos on it too.

But this morning he told me that yesterday the TA had sellotaped another childs picture over his place as maths expert and the new child was now maths expert as DS had been naughty and splashed water everywhere. Now, I can believe DS did splash water about but to take his little job off of him for it and replace him seems excessive . He hasn't had any class certificates this year, despite being in the most able group for everything and generally getting on ok, and now he has apparently lost his little job for something unrelated. The teacher didn't even mention it to me yesterday and we were chatting after school too.

TBH this is the first time I have really cried in years . I so hope DS has got it wrong and his photo is still up there, if he was naughty then he should of had a time out, not be made to feel stupid and no longer good at maths. If he was really naughty then I would have expected them to tell me too!

I will look at the wall poster on Monday and if he really isn't there I will try not to cry in class arrange to speak with his teacher. I almost hope I am working myself up into a state over nothing as it seems wrong to penalise him in this way, I'm trying to boost his confidence and this hasn't helped if it's true .

meglet I think you've every right to feel concerned. Definitely worth speaking to the teacher about. It could all be a misunderstanding ie they rotate 'expert' status amongst the kids and this happened at the same time as ds being a bit cheeky so he put two and two together a got five. But if he is right then it warrants a discussion.

Dh's business is picking up thanks for asking. They did the Grand Designs live exhibition and got plenty of interest so it's all looking a bit more promising.

Def speak to his teacher.
It's bothering you ergo it matters.
Prepping for Sunday school tomorrow (the idea of me teaching Sunday school still makes me chuckle slightly tbh)
Made flapjacks and caramel shortbread today but didn't wash the bed linen which I have just realised was my task for this weekend..

meg I agree go into it with an open mind, but if he has had the job taken away for that reason, then that seems totally unfair so cry away! Punishments should fit crimes, and those two things are entirely unconnected.

digi my DD cried in the night for years, and DH would often sleep on her floor, but she hasn't done it in the year since she and DS1 have been sharing, I honestly think the company calms her, so potentially putting yours in together will cure it or he'll wake the baby but lets hope not

It was DS2's dedication service today, it was really special, everyone there from neighbours to school mums to the accountant from DH's work! It was a lovely service, yummy cakes afterwards, and a great meal at the pub for lunch. But I'm :( :( :( that no one took any photos. I had my camera in my bag and didn't think to hand it to anyone muppet coz I'd texted a friend who often has her camera on her to take photos but she didn't get the text til it was too late :( I've got photos of the lunch and the cake, but not of us, as a family at the front of church making the promises and being prayed for. And now I can't satisfy my scrapbooking OCD of putting in similar pictures of all three children, and I have no record of the event. Silly I know.

Phew someone took photos, disaster averted!

badvoc what did you teach at sunday school? Did it go well?

Thanks all.

Well I saw the 'expert' board this morning and DS was right his picture has been taped over (none of the others have changed) and it was because he was naughty. I had a quick chat to the teacher and she said he was mucking about in assembly and pulling faces when he had been told to stop so not only did she take him off the expert board she has put him on naughty report for the week .

What really bugs me is that she didn't tell me when I picked him up on Friday and we were chatting for a while as we were sheltering from the rain in the classroom. He has been jealous of his friend who has been on naughty report for a while as he gets a treat at the end of the week if he can be good . As soon as he knew his friend was on it DS said to me "I am going to be naughty so I can get extra playing time" so I've been telling him he has to behave nicely and ignore his friend when he is silly. It obviously didn't work . Fair enough put him on naughty report if he's been naughty but to take the maths thing off him too doesn't seem like-for-like . And now he'll get what he wanted and extra playing time when he gets stickers on his naughty chart but also thinks he's not very good at maths. I'm going to see the teacher after school. He's going to end the year on a shit, demoralised note and I really don't want that to happen. This new teacher is covering the old ones maternity leave and the naughty charts have only appeared since she's been there.

Carrie the bible text was Jesus calming the storm n the sea of gallilee - I got the children to make storms in a jar which went really well til Toby dropped his and it shattered all over the steps at the front of the church....cue lots of muttering from some of the congregation :( must try harder :(
Felt really demoralised about it yesterday actually. It was my first time so was nervous anyway.
Hey ho
Meg that sounds really counter intuitive to me. I am not a big fan of the whole naughty chart thing for the very reasons you have described. I think it can be really devisive tbh.
Off to help at youth club tonight so hopefully no disasters there!!

Hope youth club went well badvoc. Positive thoughts! The storm in a jar sounds like a lovely idea. I'm trying to think what the vicar does at our kids church services, if I remember I will let you know. She uses Playmobil people when she recreates scenes from the Bible. What's the one where they lower the man down into the house so Jesus can heal him, she did that really well with Playmobile and a wooden block house.

I saw DS's teacher after school today. So I have established that yes DS was being naughty and did deserve some kind of punishment but I'm still not convinced removing his maths 'expert' job is the best punishment. The teacher said she'll put him back when he behaves again as it's a privilege (sp?), fair point but I'm not entirely convinced she thought it through when she took him off.

As for the naughty sticker sheet she was stunned when I told her DS has said he was going to be naughty to get a reward for being good (IYSWIM). She said "oh my goodness I didn't think kids were that clever!! ". I can only assume from that response it is her first teaching role. I have told DS that he is to behave and get that sticker sheet full up so it can be taken down and never needed again, and I have told him that he must not choose a friend to play with as a reward (which is what the teacher has been doing FFS). I'm going to be nutjob parent tomorrow but I'm going to grovel to the teacher to make sure he gets no reward when it's full up. I have spoken to him about it and I think he understands why it's not a good thing to get a reward for it. We shall see how this week goes.

meglet well if there's one good thing to come out of this, its that you've educated a teacher and of that you can be very proud! Fancy not realising the kids would play the system to get a treat!

badvoc that sounds great, don't worry about what happened afterwards!

I quoted MN so many times this weekend my 66 year old dad said he was considering joining! He kept asking 'what's the MN take on the olympics' and 'what does MN have to say about welfare reform' He'd spend all his time in pedants corner though . He then bought the DCs their first second fruit shoot and today we had lunch from greggs so we can safely say he gets it!!! But DS1 did me proud and chose a sandwich . And I've taught him about judgey-pants so I can just do the action for twanging the elastic on your judgey pants and it diffuses tense conversations, genius!

Thanks guys. Felt a real arse :)
Soooo...am thinking of starting up my degree course again in October...and then doing a PGCE....thoughts??
It would mean I would be 45 by the time I could get a teaching job (assuming I passed!)
I really want something for me and I need to retrain to do it. I love working with children and have done in a voluntary capacity for years BUT does that mean I am teacher material???....

badoc go for it! Personally I think that as you have your own kids and still love working with other children then you're on the right path .

I'm not entirely sure what is going on with DS and school as of today. The teacher did take down his 'naughty reward chart' yesterday though, AFAIK it was because he was very good on Monday and she realised he was aiming for extra playing time as the reward. And according to DS he was back up as maths expert today, so I will see tomorrow. We have had some serious chats at home about behaviour and making a good impression on next years teacher (they find out who it is next week), I hope it's sinking in a bit .

Thanks meg

Dont feel very confident atm and am hoping starting my course again will help.