Aggh! Worse than the class bear!

[CharlesRyder]

DS will start Reception in Sept.

He has been posted a school branded scrapbook to fill in about his holidays. Apparently every child in the school is issued with one. Letter says something like 'the children accepted last year's scrapbook challenge with such zeal'..

He's not bloody 4 'til August, what's he going to write??

Do I have to think of some lovely wholesome stuff to do now instead of hanging about in pants?

Oh good lord! (Apologies for blasphemy !).

Deny ever receiving it....drat you Royal Mail!

We are moving house.. it could definitely get lost in the move couldn't it?

It appears to have a picture of Voldemort on the front. I can feel it's dark presence in my life already.

Could you get him to do a drawing of himself in pants?

Seriously - I think it doesn't have to be that fancy. The zeal will have mostly been the parents! I think it would be OK for you to get him to come up with a sentence starting "Today I ..." or "yesterday I" (played in the garden/had an icecream/listened to Mummy reading a story/watched TV or whatever). You can write this down and ask him to draw a picture - even if the picture looks like 2 hairpins and a 3-legged blue fox carrying a stick of rhubarb! You might want to try a bit of prompting so that it doesn't actually look as though he spent the entire summer sitting in his pants watching cartoons - but apart from that don't worry. Obviously if you go out anywhere, stick in a postcard, or a picture from an adertising flyer or whatever! Don't worry about trying to do it every week day either!

/hijack....this is the second time I have seen someone day that their three year old is starting reception. I thought they turned four in nursery and five in reception year? Or is my dd behind a year?

Buy a pritstick and any time he picks something off the ground wack it in there.

My dd was 4 in the August before starting reception so one of the youngest. Dn was 5 10 days later but still in the same school year. It is a big difference when they are that small.

He doesn't have to write anything.....

Sadly, you probably do need to cobble together the odd sentence or two.
Photos of family and things you do in the summer (hanging around in pants optional) pictures of favourite toys etc from Argos catalogue and the odd artistic scribble ( pretentious annotation by parent also optional) should suffice.
Add the odd daub of paint and a bit of glue a glitter and there you go.

Or lose it in the move.......

Hmm, he's back to front educating in that he can write a bit but has never drawn a damn thing. He could write 'daddy and me in pants' and I could draw them?? Or stick the pants in?

It doesn't have to be truthful.

A trip to the moon.
A trip down the Amazon in a canoe.
A day in Antarctica.

You get the gist...

This happened with one of my dc and it resulted in a massive exercise in one-upmanship between the parents, played out all summer long over facebook and twitter.

I wouldnt bother lose it in the house move tbh.

I expect quite a lot of people will come to visit the new house. Maybe I could just leave it out like a visitors book!

Thanks for all suggestions so far, I think we will do a bit of each.

Quite MrsRochester, I can't see how it can be anything else.

The first 's comments have reminded me of this book. Read him this and a few others like it and he will be able to fill his scrapbook with exciting adventures without ever having left the sofa or even put on any clothes!

I dare you to get him to write "daddy and me in pants" :D

it will be to give them things to talk about when they start school. if the staff can see that Freddie went to Scotland for a week in the rain then they can ask him about it, if they see that Matilda likes playing in the park or Donald likes feeding the ducks then they get to see some of the child's interests and can use it to facilitate conversation.

My 2 have always loved doing scrap books, they draw pictures or stick in leaflets/tickets if we have been somewhere and you can write a couple of lines, he could perhaps copy underneath if he wants to (even if it isn't readable) and some children will be able to sit and write.

They aren't expecting a massive holiday diary, they just want a bit of an idea of what people have got up to. It doesn't have to take long.

My friend says I need to section off part of each page for the 'maths of the day'.

She's not helping is she??

I've ordered that book educating, it looks beautiful.

Are you in primary?

It is a lovely book Charles - as is the sequel "Time to get out of the bath Shirley"
.

I used to be a primary teacher but now I work as a private tutor.

I have to say as a TA in a reception class, the stuff we like to hear about is the every day, doing stuff with mum and dad stuff.

Just print out some photos of what he likes to do, doesn't need to be any writing.
Picture at front door of new house
Picture playing with train set
Picture playing on swings in park
Then the school have something to talk to him about when he starts.

We did one of these and I did groan inwardly when it was handed to me...

But, it's not that hard, a couple of pages per week, one sentence description of something you did and a picture cut and pasted in. It's important because it gives the teaching staff some good talking points with each child, let's them know a bit about their family and the stuff they like to do. Grin and bear it!

my 2 have loved finding insects and minibeasts in the garden, good to draw, photograph etc and free to do.