Tips for parents of this years reception kids

[roseyposeysmum]

Just that really - it is a bit of a minefield.

How many items of uniform, packed lunch or school dinners ? Any tips to make it all easier ?

Not all children are shattered after school - be prepared also that if they are like my DD they will be utterly full of beans!
Do bring snacks after school - they eat their lunch ridiculously early (c 12 o' clock).
I would only bother with packed lunch if you have a v picky child, they are generally ok and quite substantial.
If you have a girl, get lots of summer dresses but only a couple of pinafores/skirts. For some reason we go through piles of dresses but pinafores etc last longer between washes.
Get millions of socks/tights!
I wouldn't bother with sweatshirts at all if you can avoid it, they are hot and harder to get on/off than cardigans.
Minimise any clinginess, don't hang around saying goodbye for too long.
Definitely get to know other parents.
DD is just coming up to end of reception and it has been fab btw .

that's meant to be 'school dinners' are generally ok.

What everyone else has said. Get as many sets of clothes as you can afford. Our PTA sells second hand uniform at a really low price, so well worth picking up spares of anything with a logo on it.

But just want to reinforce the labels. Put name on everything. With the expensive hard to replace items (the logo polo shirts and jerseys) I sewed in labels. It was a real pain but worth it as I never had one go missing while everyone else I know lost at least one, often more than than that.

If you get a nice winter coat for them sew in a label, put in an iron on one, write in the section on the inside specially for putting in their name AND write their name in huge, gigantic letters right across the inside of the coat. Best protection to stop it disappearing.

Send your children in in jogging bottoms every day

Don't hog the doorway at the beginning or end of school

Don't fret if your child can't write as much as you think they should

Don't make them do extra work at home

Teach them to wash their hands, and not to pick their noses (fat chance but hey ho)

I work in reception, btw!

Wash out lunch boxes regularly, especially those soft fabric ones, bung em in the machine

CMP re tiredness I think it also depends on the child and their age starting reception. The school atmosphere is totally different to nursery there is less quiet time and time for cuddles with the teacher if feeling tired. It does creep up on them going every day and my DD took a while to grasp that there would be no days at home pottering around! They have to learn a whole new set of rules and get used to a playground full of older and more boisterous children. It's always worse near the end of term when at the same time schools like to cram in as many activities (nativity, class assembly, school fayre) as possible. Not all children will be tired it is just worth considering that they might be.

Be prepared for the tiredness to creep up - I couldn't believe how well DD settled in, full of beans etc, but as we crept towards the holidays at the end of each term we had days where she walked home sobbing, got impetigo, mouth ulcers...you name it, if it was a symptom of being exhausted, DD had it! And don't do too much on weekends as well as after school, its an important time to get some down time for them.

Make sure they can wipe their own bum. Label everything. Buy a stain-devil for pen. Have at least 3 sweatshirts. Key rings to identify book bag also a good idea - our school encourages it. Get to know the other mums and get involved with the PTA if you can.

It's been awhile for me now but my advice would be to keep headlice treatment in the house. My dd came home with the little buggars on more than one oocasion!

Tips? Who needs tips? I need hand-holding.

I'm with you there Adventures

Ah, Adventures and sheeplikessleep - .

I remember that feeling well. Funnily enough I wasn't expecting to feel that way at all - I thought I'd feel 'Free At Last! Yippee!' but instead when DS walked through the doors (without giving me a backwards glance btw), I felt bereft. I went for coffee with another mum who was feeling the same, and we had a giggle at ourselves, went and looked at clothes on the high street together and then picked our kids up. It helped - I'd recommend that as a tip too.

My youngest is currently Reception, and he was shattered for most of the first term, depsite being used to nursery every day.

Label everything, and don't send anything in that is expensive (my older child managed to lose his shoes this year. Didn't think that was possible!).

Be friendly to all the other parents, but don't get dragged into politics too early on. Don't compare reading levels etc for at least the first couple of terms :)

Don't over do playdates, and limit afterschool clubs, at least for the first term. DS2 just wanted to crash on the sofa, and he has a lot of stamina.

I love the school stuff, enjoy!

Find out what they like to eat in their lunch box and train them to open it all quickly.

Make friends with a few other mums. Avoid afterschool clubs for the first year.

Another question.....When should I be buying the uniform? DS doesn't start until Sept and now just feels too early.

I'm not ready for all that yet

Glad I am not the only one who can reconstruct the lunch menu from the state of DC's clothes

I would echo most of what others have said, including the fact that even the autumn-born child who appears to be taking it all in their stride will get progressively more tired as the term goes on.

DD's PE kit comes home every day (they come home in it) so I do feel obliged to wash it more often. On one occasion I did ask DD "why does your coat look as though you have been rolling down a muddy hill in it?" Ans: "because we were rolling down the muddy hill in our coats, Mummy"

It is also not a bad idea to check school-resident clothing occasionally. It wasn't until DD brought her waterproof trousers (handed down from DS) home for a weekend farm party that I realised that they were full of holes and no longer even slightly waterproof - similarly her school wellies which split completely .

DD is starting reception in Sep.. will definitely take a good read over all these tips! I've already started to explain to her what to expect, and it's made her excited to go to "big kids school"

Pockets full of kisses. My DS found it quite hard to settle in, (though he likes it now), and I used to blow lots of kisses into my hands and then put them in his pocket. So if he felt sad or lonely or scared, then he could take them out and feel better. It sounds sappy but it really worked. The day I asked and he said that he hadn't needed any kisses today was fab :)

Practical things: Label everything. Help them practise putting shoes on and off and unzipping and unbuttoning things and doing them up again.

And be prepared for the hunger and the tiredness at the end of the day.

oh, we do a kiss thing coolbeans, I kiss her goodbye, then give her a "spare" one for later, rubbing it in to make sure it sticks :)

Would be interested in when to buy the uniform too. My DD grows so quickly that couldn't be sure anything bought now would fit in September, I suppose I could guess a size. Is there school uniform in shops in September/October?

Great thread!

As a mid day supervisor (dinner lady, or I have been called "that lady who lives in the hall") -

remember your child does not have their OWN dinner lady to open everything for them, or to cut up their meat or potatoes, or even to open the zip on their lunchbox - or the knot in the plastic sandwich bag - yes for the first few weeks, the dinner staff concentrate on the littlies, but there are still 6 of us (3 inside with those eating and 3 outside with those playing) for 400 children - 60 of them in reception - if it takes 1 dinner lady 2 mins to peel a blasted orange, they are not going to get round that many.

Oh, and a big tip - write their name INSIDE their lunchbox - we can't see their name on the outside when it is being used - then if the dinner ladies are asked to help, they can answer the child by name and it makes them a. feel good and b. think the dinner ladies are "magic mind readers"!

Oh, and make sure your child has practised eating packed lunch - one little love last Sept asked where his plate and fork were......

Sometimes they don't get a lot of time for lunch so if they have things they can put in their pocket and take outside it helps e.g. an apple rather than a tub of grapes, a yoghurt tube rather than a pot, a bag of raisins etc.

I told my kids that it was school rules that they must eat their sandwich first - worked a treat until the day I gave my youngest a wrap. He came home angry as he couldn't eat his sandwich first if he didn't have a sandwich!!!

Cut a large label into a circle and then cut it in half and place each half inside their shoes so that it makes a circle when the shoes are placed together in the right order - helps stop them putting their shoes on the wrong feet.

The problem with leaving uniform buying until later is that it sells out esp small sizes.

I'd personally buy now and just get shoes towards the end.

oh and some of the seals on the sandwich bags can be tricky - get fold over ones instead.

That IS the rule at dd's school amck5700