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?

Will your ds be hanging about in pants, too, or is this just what you plan on doing over the summer? A picture of you in pants, hanging upside down from a tree in the park with him shouting, "Mummy, get down before anyone sees!" would be great for the scrapbook. Or, a picture of you in pants, running around with your arms stuck out like wings, entitled, "Mummy flying by the seat of her pants."

School year runs from August 31st to August 31st. My DD is still 3,will be 4 in August so technically will be turning 5 in her reception year which starts in September.

I completely REFUSE to do competitive parenting with class mascots, they only do simple everyday things at our house. For a 4 yo I would write things like

Today I went to the shop. I weighed the apples on the scales ( drawing of apple )

Mum taught me how to peel a carrot ( drawing of carrot )

I made my own toast in the toaster and buttered it

I saw a spider in the garden /park

I made rice crispies cakes with dad

My friend came to play at my house

My aunt had a baby boy, he is called Andrew

Our neighbour came for tea and brought me some smarties .

I washed the saucepans after tea .

We are moving house so I put all my toys in a box

Mummy is shouting and daddy is drinking beer

Ok not the last one

boy stuck pictures badly cut out of magazines and the like into a scrap book at that age. It showed his teacher that he likes bikes and random bits of machinery - or maybe it showed his teacher that in this house the magazines we have feature bikes and random bits of electrical stuff.

Mine are juniors now, but I still always wince when they have to write a little bit about themselves.

You just never know whats going to crop up.

I find scoring farts hilarious, but I'm not sure I really want ThatBloodyChild to tell Mr Reeves that.

we have the same homework.

I'm going to let DD(5) go mad with the camera, censor the photos as DS(10) will no doubt have suggested something I don't want in her diary (he tried to include a picture of the bottles in the communal recycling bin for our flats and the caption 'mummy had a good night' in his diary at Christmas) then I'm going to print the pictures and give her pens, scissors, glue and glitter and leave her to it.

We also have the class bear again this week, DD says we have him all holidays but i hope she's wrong.

Ds starting reception homework is creating a favourite things box, so they have something familiar with them the first week and that the teacher and ta can quickly understand what he likes. I'd fill a diary with similar things - pictures of playing with a favourite toy, pictures with family, 'went to the shops to buy some bananas, I love bananas', page with some artwork (even if just made of stickers).

don't wrtite but glue and stick... we do this at my school to be nosey about who has the best holiday give the children something to talk about when they start school; so we can assess speaking and listening

Surely the house move is exciting enough in itself? Moving lorries, boxes etc? I actually quite like doing scrapbooks and we tend to do them most summer (not for school but just for us) but refuse to engage in any one upmanship. We keep tickets/ leaflets if we do go somewhere. A picture eating ice cream, paddling pool in the garden etc. We have them for 5 or 6 years and really enjoy looking back on them.

Lots of photos. print them off big and printed captions.
That's what dd2 (year 5) does for projects to make them look impressive.

He doesn't have to write! Scrapbooks are for gluing and sticking. He can stick in leaflets, photos, leaves etc over the holidays.

I do find it ridiculous when parents do the writing in the class bear book,it is homework for the kids FGS! Presumably the teacher knows the parents can write!

So let him do it, sticking, mark making, scribbling, drawing.

It is worth doing. The teachers learn about your dc and they are excited at showing their peers what they get up to.

Some parents do not bother. One of dcs peers said he did not have a photo journal. I realises his parents did not complete it.