October 08 - New Year, New Thread.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

10th Sept (Due 1st Oct) - loulou33 - Boy - Joe Louis David - 6lbs 12oz
16th Sept (Due 8th Oct) - Ksal - Girl - Emma Rae - 6lbs
21st Sept (Due 5th Oct) - myjobismum - Girl - Naomi Caitlin - 5lbs 10oz
2nd Oct (Due 12th Oct) - star6 - Boy - Quinlan - 5lbs 15oz
4th Oct (Due 30th Sept) - Aubergenie - Boy - Stanley - 7lbs 12oz
8th Oct (Due 6th Oct) - ronshar - Boy - William Dexter - 7lbs 11oz
9th Oct (Due 17th) - 50ft - Girl - Martha - 7lbs 10oz - Elective c-sec
10th Oct (Due 1st Oct) - CantSleepWontSleep - Boy - Duncan Elliot - 8lbs 4oz
12th Oct (Due 4th Oct) - pistachio - Boy - Thomas Fraser - 10lbs 2oz
16th Oct (Due 11th Oct) - heather1980 - Boy - Alexander James - 9lbs 5oz
17th Oct (Due 10th Oct) - pepperrabbit - Girl - Jessica Rose - 7lbs 15.5oz
24th Oct (Due 29th Oct) - Ekka - Boy - Matthew - 7lbs 15oz
26th Oct (Due 20th Oct) - jenwa - Girl - Phoebe Jasmine - 9lbs 2.5oz
28th Oct (Due 23rd Oct) - RachieW - Boy - Jack - 7lbs 4oz
31st Oct (Due 20th Oct) - KnickersOnMaHead - Boy - Samuel Paul - 9lbs 11oz
5th Nov (Due 29th Oct) - Honeymoonmummy - Girl - Poppy Grace - 6lbs 15oz
5th Nov (Due 30th Oct) - MamaG - Boy - Harry James - 10lbs 9oz

Oh it's good isn't it girls?!

Oh and now they're on formula/follow on milk. I am practically vibrating with rage!!!

Just to add to the school thing. You often have to really push for acamedic G&T. Sport G&T no problem. but academic is seen as a problem. Also CSWS G&T isnt streamed until middle school really. Most children are kept together until at least year two. So I wouldnt necessarily use that as a criteria to pick a school. Can I ask why it is important? Have you had P secretly mensa tested?

Panorama. I bloody love it.

I have career envy. Early years dietician.

Puree chicken nuggets. WTF.

You'll love it Pistachio! It was good. DS is obsessed with his five a day so we have to make sure he has the otherwise he gets a little bit stressed (not my doing, it's the school). But I also have to report to him that M has had her five a day too!

50ft - I've noticed a few people on MN recently saying that the whole healthy eating message is being rammed home so much by some schools that their children are getting really anxious.

That Annabel Karmel! I had no idea that she made ready meals but, because of her reputation, you would assume that they were healthy. I'm shocked.

Took my class the Museum in Docklands today. We had a session with a storyteller. It was great and the children loved it but I'm completely worn out.

wow Pistachio you constantly surprise me with the things you know

50ft thank you for correcting me earlier. I actually have no idea about the criminal justice system.

We all have such different backgrounds that between us all we know EVERYTHING. We can take over the world from the Oct 08 thread.

ronshar - dd's teacher said that in 17 years of teaching she had not come across a child as good at maths as her. And she wrote her own thank you notes for Christmas - thank you for our christmas presents love from name and name, where most of her friends can't even write their own names yet.

Am not watching panorama - was having a massage. Will catch it on i-player later in the week if you think it's worth it.

I've missed Panorama but J does eat AK meals sometimes- just if we are in a rush, it's hit and miss if he enjoys them really. Oh and he is a formula boy so maybe it's best I didn't watch it? Anyway am confident that we give him home cooked food 95% of the time if not more and he is very good with fruit and veg

J has been excluded from Nursery tomorrow because of runny nappies. I really don't think he has a bug because since picking him up he has been as lively as ever. I think it's his teeth as he is teething at the moment. Apparently he didn't eat his lunch, not unusual when teething, had 4 runny nappies, also not unusual and then had a temp of 38. But since he's been home I've seen no evidence of the temp I'll have to see how he goes tonight.

CSWS- I'd really recommend going to visit the schools if you can as I really think you get a feel for a school when you look around. Take ours, it's in the middle of a very deprived area, down the road from a prison but you walk in and it's like a little oasis.

Star hope Q's nappy rash clears up soon, I've been using Metanium and it works wonders on J.

rachie - am seeing one of them tomorrow morning and waiting for a call back from the village one.

CSWS hope you like the School and the village one gets back to you. Are you pretty much guaranteed to get your first choice or is it a bit of a fight like here?

CSWS you should be very proud of DD. As Rachie suggests go and look around the schools and see how they feel. Do you have a first & middle or one school up to secondary system?
The first year at school is focus on learn through play. Reading writing etc is taught in a very loose way.
DD1 was exactly the same as your DD. She has been in the top 5 of her year, each year. She does get bored but I have always encouraged her to do as much at home as she wants to do.
I have also got the Student Support DVD course for Maths & English. It has helped DD get extra input at her own pace.

Rachie, a balanced diet over the week will have space for an AK ready meal.
I take it all with a pinch of salt.
I make sure the kids get enough of everything without being a food fascist.

Aubergenie -DS is a wildly over-sensitive soul on some occasions and this is one of those occasions. I am not too worried about him but I can see the whole thing massively back firing and the government being faced with a huge explosion of eating disorders! Girls in particular are not only faced with a huge pressure to do well academically, they're also expected to look like the perfect airbrushed pop-stars in the magazines plus they have the added pressure of their schools nagging them to eat 'healthy' foods. I can see a disaster ahead.... I've always said that AK is a big hairy fraud. Glad to see I was proved right tonight! Glad you had a good day with 'your' children.

Pistachio - I would be sooooo jealous. I have been investigating the possibility of re-training as a dietician. Looks impossible. I'd need to do chemistry A-Level and I was rubbish at chemistry at school. Plus that would mean the whole thing would take 6 years at least!

Ronshar - You have no idea how exciting it was for me to be in the position to correct someone else for a change.

But of course Pistachio

Pistachio have just read back and not fretting about toddlers and food sounds a sensible approach. Dh and I have given up with the high chair battle at dinner time, if he screams we let him loose and chase him round the house feeding him

rachie - if we go for the village school we will get it, but any other is only a small chance. The one I'm seeing tomorrow is probably the only other one from my shortlist that we stand a chance with, although even that is only a slim chance. So if I like it then it needs to go in first place, with the village school in second, which I think will still be enough to get us in there.

pistachio - they do teach them phonics and writing and reading if they think that they are ready for it. Dd does 'reading' twice a week for a few minutes one on one with a teacher. There are no formal maths lessons, but their examples have been things like a cushion (which the 'golden child' gets to sit on) which had 10 buttons and 2 had fallen off, and dd telling them quickly that that meant that there were 8 left.
It is a private nursery school though, and we pay handsomely for the privilege of these little extras!

CSWS I don't envy you at the moment it must be a really tough choice. Your dd sounds very bright

CSWS is there a private school near you? You may find the state system frustrating and not quick enough.

Myjob how are you feeling? Still full of cold?

The private school that we love is 25 mins drive away, and with 3 dc we have had to rule it out.

the idea of nursery places, wraparound care and primary schools has the potential to really stress me out!! someone tell me i have a lot of time before i need to worry about it...

i don't feel i'm really contributing to the knowledge pool much, but if ever you feel that knowledge of the environmental impacts of oil and gas exploration and production would help you with toddler issues you just let me know

We have lots of toddler gas production here too KSal .