January 2008: I'm four and 'they're all mine!'

[latrucha]

Sorry Simposn. Just couldn't resist.

[simpson]

Forgot to say she did ask about a court order and said to get one if I think there is a major problem...

[simpson]

Actually scrap that last post, her advice was to try and get one...(court order I mean).

[simpson]

Bit of a mixed day so far.....

ExH has decided to start ringing and badgering me into letting him speak to the kids cue lots of angry texts etc

He is blaming everything/one else for why he drinks ie he is bored as he does not have a job, if he had a job he would not drink

DD came out of nursery school with her first ever proper school reading book, complete with reading diary to be filled in etc, she is soooo proud

I desperately need to get a placement in a school from sept for 8hrs a week in order to do the next TA course I want to do and I have been having sleepless nights about finding one. HT at J's school said they don't like parents to go in and listen to kids read

Anyway, on the newsletter today, they have changed their tune and are now asking for parent volunteers to go into the school to listen to kids read in the afternoon so that is good news. My mum said she can have M one afternoon a week. I am going to get the CRB check moving when I pick up J from school today

Going to have a tonight to celebrate!!!

[latrucha]

Great news Simpson. I am totally shocked at M's reading book. That's amazing.

Sabela's current achievement is thinking it's really funny to scream really loudly and to say 'mucky poo' Quite pleased in an odd sort of way. I was such a 'good' little girl, and that's not always a good thing.

She is very excited about starting big school I bought her some alphabet flash cards last week and she loves them.

Has exH let up?

Things slighly better with DH, but only slightly. A long haul.

[JKSLtd]

LaT - got to start somewhere :)

Simps - M is a star, hope she flies ahead with her reading now.

H not at school today, a teacher's day, makes you realise how wonderful school is
Already had tears of temper from him leading to tears of sadness from M.
Walk round the block helped and now M is napping so H is pottering happily :)

[latrucha]

Ugh. We have that too today. I had good plans, but as Daniel was up teething for three hours in the night, and S up too for some reason everyone is ratty. We're taking it in turns to have tantrums

[latrucha]

She does know most of the alphabet BTW, but I haven't bought aything ike that for her as I could read and add when I went to school, and it had a negative effect on the way I saw it. She's nearly there now, so though so what the hell

[Fillybuster]

wow....am amazed at M's reading! T isn't at all interested...she knows most of the letters in her name, but that's about it. I suspect (in a slightly guilty way) that I spent a lot longer practising with flashcards and stuff with A...I've not done that at all with T!

[madmouse]

Nathan is very hot on letters and reading and spelling too. Reading his first words like dog, cat, fox. Spelling everything in sight. Funny moments like he was spelling the words on the altar cloth in church: G.O.D. - very good Nathan now what does that say? 'G.O.D...daddy!!!'

[latrucha]

Wow. Nathan too! Don;t worry Filly. We have lots of friends a little older than our four year olds and once they hit school they seem to pick it up very, very quickly.

[simpson]

J could not read at all (apart from his name) when he started school.

M seems totally fixated by anything to do with reading/writing.

She can write CAT, DOG, PEN and pretty much any 3 letter word with simple phonics unaided because she can read them iyswim.

She is starting to read tougher books now with SAID, THE, and CH, SH, and TH sounds. I have not taught her any of it, it has all been taught at nursery but I will help practice them.

When I spoke to the HT on the phone last week she said "J is in yr2 and M is???" So I told her M was in the nursery and the HT was in the nursery for the next 2 days after that (co-incidence).

Anyway, M told me that she had to tell the HT off when she was in th3ere because she thought a carrot was a fruit.

Ht apparently said to the kids sitting down having their snack & milk "Enjoy your fruit kids" (she was just about to leave)

And Molly said "Don't be silly we are having carrots and they are a vegetable. You are a teacher and you should know this."

If HT did not know M before, she certainly does now!!!

[madmouse]

Lily you're famous. You're in the MN Mother's day email and it's hilarious

[latrucha]

Happy Mother's Day all.

Hope you had a lovely day.

How is everyone?

[latrucha]

Any ideas on how much school unifrm to buy for S? We've got the school meeting next week but I'm getting excited and trying to budget it.

[JKSLtd]

Happy Mothering Sunday everyone :)

LaT - it depends on how organised you are I find.
I like to build in redundancy to any system at home, so although DS1 could easily wear a jumper several times, I like him to have 5 so I don't have to wash one during the week if he had a very messy week.
When he started he needed to keep spares at school too.
Often stuff is sold in a 2-pack.
So I got 6 shirts (2-packs), 5 jumpers & 5 trousers, plenty of socks (they'll always get lost as no way was I naming them!). (He also needed a tie & a blazer.) Plus shoes.
I did get some stuff through the PTA 2nd hand sale to save pennies.
No idea what the girls have at his school though.

DS2 is messier he's got 6ish tops, 3 jumpers (not enough atm though, but he grew out of some very quickly as they shrunk, rubbish quality) and 5ish trousers (he gets DS1's handmedowns so I'm not sure how many exactly).

That's probably not much help is it?

[latrucha]

It does in the sense that lots seems a good idea.

Part of my problem is that there's such choice for girls: skirts, trousers, polos, blouses, pinafores, summer dresses, tights or socks. With day-to-day clothes I know what works for us and what doesn't. I suppose there wil be some unnecessary things bought until we work it out.

[JKSLtd]

Also, how fast does she grow? T grew out of some of the sch uniform very quickly which frustrated me a bit!
So maybe get some bits to 'grow into'?
I think I'd prefer to go with polo shirts and skirts, seems easier than other stuff. Though the pinafores are cute

[simpson]

Does the school have polo shirts or proper shirts iyswim???

I am planning to get M 6 shirts (one for each day as I am sure she will get messy eating lunch, painting etc and one left over for school photos/best)

She already has 2 pinafore grey dresses (given to me) which will still fit (as she never grows and one grey skirt (tescos £3).

Summer uniform wise I will get 2 summer dresses.

She already has 3 cardigans (which will still fit which I got 2nd hand from school), I logo-ed jumper (hand me down from J)and 2 plain jumpers in the school colours (also hand me downs from J)

What you will need is lots of is tights.

Also do you need a PE kit and book bag??

And a lunch box if not having school dinners.

M will be given a school tie when she "graduates" from the nursery

[simpson]

Oh and I will probably get one pair of grey school trousers too.

[Fillybuster]

T has to wear 'official' school t-shirts and sweatshirts, which are expensive. So she has:

3 short-sleeve tshirts
2 long-sleeve tshirts
2 sweatshirts plus a slightly-too-large hand-me-down from Ari.

The rest is 'normal' and I tend to buy from Tesco.

She has to wear navy skirts/tracksuit bottoms....I bought her 3 pairs tracksuit legs from tesco but she refuses to wear them.

So she has

4 x navy skirts (2 from George @ Asda who do the best range of styles, 2 hand-me-downs from friends)

2 x 3-pack of navy tights from Tesco

This seems to be plenty. Tshirts tend to stay clean underneath sweaters, and 3 sweaters is enough to know that there is always 1 clean one somewhere :)

I haven't got as far as thinking about summer dresses yet, but will see if any of my friends have any pass-ons....its just for one term (by Sept she will be back in 'normal' uniform and its still too cold at the moment) so it doesn't seem worth investing in more than 1 or 2 dresses at the most as she will have outgrown them by next year.

My best tip: don't 'waste' school uniform for the spares bag at school...just stick in an old plain tshirt/pair of trousers that you won't miss for the very occasional 'emergency'

[latrucha]

Great. Thanks everyone.

Thanks Filly. Does she manage her own tights on PE days? (Sabela would tie herself in knots )

[Fillybuster]

A & Ts school have them coming in wearing their gym kit all day on PE days until yr 3 - at the moment A wears gym kit on Mon/Tues and Thurs (lunchtime football) but T doesn't have PE as such, so wears a skirt every day.

[simpson]

J is not allowed to wear his PE kit to school so goodness knows how M will cope with PE

She is fine with tights (she wears a uniform at her nursery now) but totally hopeless with buttons. She manages the buttons on her polo shirt fine but think a proper shirt might be a bit beyond her tbh but the teachers will expect this and help them. She has PE on a monday but I just send her in her white polo shirt, school cardigan or jumper and an old pair of leggings.

Lots of the girls wear trousers on PE days in DS's class.

[latrucha]

I took S to Matalan today as I wanted an idea of what she liked uniform-wise and I'm so glad I did. Needless to say, it wasn't what I had thought. She totally rejected the summer dresses, pinafores and cardigans. Skirts and tops it is. And maybe trousers. I'm shocked. She normally entirely refuses trousers (she adores leggings).

S is hopeless with buttons too. She can undo most types but cannot do them up.

I have sent DH an email I regret (yes. the marital strife continues...). It's not awful but I am waiting for him to come in so I can ask him to open his account and delete it. Oh joy.

[simpson]

LAT - do you know a jojo maman bebe discount code???