September 2014 - Toddlers & Tantrums!

[lilone1234]

Babies are now toddlers at 18 months +, growing and learning new things all the time!

Team thanks so much for the explanation; very helpful. We are moving to a village with one school; we are still in commute distance to London as we both have to commute but there is only one school nearby. I did check its results, its rating and its Ofsted report before we put our offer in; it is a good school, but not one of the bests; but then it was getting so massively difficult to find a house close to a top primary school That I just dropped that criteria... Secondary is more important ...no? We'll make things work I am sure...

Cookie I have the other August one; I was so sure I want to send him to school one year later because he was also premature but I am not any more; after I read through things properly this decision seems to complicate things even further ... We'll see what happens, I think and I are going to decide a bit later. Starting school in 2018, i.e. In only two years seems a bit of stretch .. Specially as ds's language skills is not developing as fast as others here, let alone kids that are a year older !
He understands well so I am not too worried, he knows all colours and animals names and many many things around, he also very well understands simple sentences... So We'll see how things progress.
At the moment he is about apprehensive when near older toddlers..

By the way - only 40m? Oops !!

Team I forgot - ds has been in pjs since ages ago... At least for the last 7-8 months. I am not really worried about cold spots inside a sleeping bag - in fact as we enter summer it may be too hot for the little feet to be wrapped up, no ?

Cookie - oh no only 40 mins! How were the flights otherwise? We are going to Canada in September and I am dreading the flights. Night flight on the way back and I don't think she'll sleep though DP does. But I worry about her keeping the whole flight up!

I was so sure he would sleep I wasn't worried about the night flight - how wrong I was! On the way over he slept for three hours! He was really good! I don't fancy flying with him by myself until he is older now!

Wow, cookie, you're brave! Both the flight and the time difference!

Polka - how was last night?

Hope everyone is having a lovely bank holiday

We bought this for E and he loves it!

We are getting back to our normal routine now, and I am hoping tonight he sleeps through! He is doing well though! And sleeping in so can't complain!

DD clearly decided she needed some "alone time" earlier...

Awwww cute :)

There is nothing I love more than a white sleep suit. To me it is the symbol of babyhood. I know you can get white sleepsuits up to Aged 2-3. Years of pyjamas to come, but I've kept my children in sleepsuits until 3. Usually around the time when all of bedtime gets "grownup" - PJs, no more sleeping bag and toddler bed all usually happen around the 3rd birthday.

So I have got about a year and a half of snuggling my baby girl in her scrumptious white sleepsuit at bedtime.

Cookie - be aware that it is not a given that secondary schools will accept a child outside of his/her year group. Its a hard fight to get a primary to accept a delayed start child into reception class (rather than Year 1). The fight is much more difficult with secondaries, and parents have no right to delay the start of secondary.

Nazly - As mentioned, a child gets their government funded nursery place the term after their 3rd birthday (except when in receipt of some benefits, when the place is available from their 2nd birthday). Then starts school the September before their 5th birthday.

Some primary or infant schools have nurseries attached as part of the school (the primary my children go to does). When the child is old enough for the government place you can either transfer your child to this nursery or stay in your private nursery. The biggest positive of school-nurseries IMO is that they are staffed by actual teachers and teaching assistants managed by the school, very different staffing to a private nursery.

The downside to school-nurseries are that they usually have set hours, based around school hours. So child will either attend 9am-12pm or 12pm-3pm and attend either 5 mornings or 5 afternoons a week with no flexibility. Working parents around here usually find a private nursery or childminder who does pick-ups from the school nursery. That way the child can go to school nursery and still have "wrap-around" flexible childcare hours. The local private nurseries do mini-bus runs (not dissimilar to the Balamory Bus), dropping children off at school nursery and picking them up again afterwards.

Polka - how is sleep now? My money is on teething, hopefully it will sort itself out as suddenly as it started.

I find the whole nursery/school thing mind boggling! When do you apply for nursery then Fate if you're not planning to put them in til 3 at a school nursery?

P.s I feel the same about white bodysuits as you do about sleepsuits!

The earliest you can put a child's name down for the nursery at our school is the child's 2nd birthday.

I think around the same time you register the child with the LEA (via the county council website in Nottinghamshire) so that she is "in the system" for official school places.

fate I don't think you are aware if the new policy regarding delaying children entering school read this :)

The policy change was heavily in the news last year. Unfortunately it has no effect on admission to secondary school, one of the many reasons it was seen as more of a sticking plaster than a solution. Hopefully though, by the time these children are 11, the government will have forced through some kind of policy change on secondary schools. Difficult though, since it will require fundamental changes in the school leaving age regulation. Its a lot more complex at the other end of a child's schooling than it is at the beginning.

Hi all,

I just wanted to say a massive thank you for all of your support with getting DD off the dummy. A week later and she is only having it to sleep. She only very occasional asks for it, but I just need to say "no, you only have dummy for sleepover because you're a big girl" and she accepts it! She's even handing over her dummy when I get her out of bed now.

So thank you! I didn't think it would be possible, but it was

Sleep over?! Sleeps now

That's great news Team! Good going to do the transition within a week too - it took s lot longer for my older children to accept the change in dummy rules.

I use "shall we find your dummy?" as a way to get DD up the stairs to bed. Going through the stage where the answer to most requests is "NO!", it's unusual to get a no in response to the dummy question - so sneaky way to get her in bed with minimal fuss.

Anyone stopped cutting up grapes yet?

I didn't cut them up last week, but mainly because the grapes we had were really small. We have normal sized grapes this week. I went to give her a handful whole and then immediately bottled it, took them off her and cut them up.

I'm still cutting up grapes, and think I will for quite a while yet. The boy that choked on a grape was two, and that makes me want to cut up her grapes until she's about 18 years old!

I also have the added complication of a child with very few teeth, so I do tend to cut stuff up for her still, although in larger pieces than I used to.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-36202783

I think I will be cutting grapes for a good while longer yet.

DS is back to normal with his sleep now thank god!

Yup, cutting grapes until she's 18 years old!

Yay for the return of normal sleep polka

Good news Polka

Re grapes - I am too scared to give A them, he does have them at nursery though, and i give him other fruit at home.

Well done with the Dummy Team, hoping to start with A soon, but he has been a little unwell recently so was easier to leave it.

So fate does that mean E will miss year 6 or year 7?

The grapes thing, I don't care how small they are I am cutting them up for E. It just isn't worth the risk imo! I also cut up other high risk choking foods such as sausages, tomatoes and also avoid marshmallows (a 3 year old choked and died several years ago in a local cafe)

E put up one hell of fight going to sleep tonight!

I'll probably be the first to stop cutting up grapes then. Grapes and chillies are the only foods DD doesn't eat in the same way I do now.

Cookie - as it stands (and legislation might change in the coming 10 years) if E starts foundation stage a school year "late", he would need to apply for s secondary school place a year "early", so to start Y7 after the end of Y5.

You are then at the mercy of the secondary school as to if they will defer/delay access into Y7. The hope would be you had a case, given the chronological year group placing. But this is not guaranteed like in primary. So the risk is to missing Y6.

See, secondaries have no means to legally insist a child stays in school past the date they could officially leave school. So no one would have any way to keep E in school past when he should leave school - a year "early".

Assuming you/he value his end of school exams and will stay in school to do the exams, not a problem. But some parents don't value formal assessments and many teenagers rebel. The secondary school is taking a leap of faith, trusting that he will stay the extra year even without legal obligation.

This gamble is why secondaries cannot be forced to accept a child out of chronological year group.

Hi all,
Last year of voting for London mayoral election before we move out of London - ds came with me but was not very impressed by the voting procedure

Fate thanks, yes I do remember the secondary school issue and have done some research about it all- it gets rally complicated @secondary school age. I worry it may have a negative impact on schools admission too, which is already too complicated and too competitive around here.
Even the primary school rules are not straight forward; you apply at the right age but then you request a delay; the school will accept but if you think that then means the relevant school keep a place for your child next year you are wrong. Next year you apply again and you may or may not get to that school

Frankly, I just don't understand why something so simple should get so complicated... At this point, with what I know today about ds, I don't fancy sending my child to school with kids who are a year older. But those complications scare me too.

For the first time in his life I was very, very firm with ds, made it clear I was unhappy with what he did (dropped a plate so it broke) and he was a bit shocked about it and cried. I later decided I shouldn't have been... I wish they would come with guide books

If only they came with guidebooks! lol

I've noticed DD copying the very firm tone I use with our puppy. DD uses basic demands with the dog (down, no and the dogs name) with real authority in her voice. The stern "telling off" tone of voice sounds really strange coming from a toddler!

Exciting times ahead for London, I've just been reading about the election results online. London announced later this afternoon I understand, its all about Scotland at the moment. I still don't know who our police commissioner will be, that's the only voting we did.