Wondered if hand holding for Sept newbies would be nice?

[treedelivery]

Just that really. Like an antenatal thread but for parents of children starting primary in Sept.

We have our taster afternoon in a couple of weeks - it all feels so alien. Haven't felt this out of it since I bought my 1st pack of nappies and got the giggles at the checkout!

Hi to all the new faces.

bo sorry can't help on that one.

tree I had the whole dairy-free bf-ing experience with DD1 after she got GI bleeding at 10 wks. Finally worked out is was cows milk protein causing the issues. TBH the pead dietician was useless gave me a kids diet sheet for weaning advice. How are you finding DF? I discovered some yummy treats for grown ups that I lived on whilst BF-ing. DD1 went onto SMA Wysoy at 11mths and stayed on that until she was 2.9 when she'd finally grown out of it.

simpson hope you've finally got the intolerances sorted. It helps when you know what you're dealing with.

BO my dd is in private nursery but my dh is going to mind dd during the school summer holidays so as she can have sometime at home without her brother before she goes to school, my dh runs summer sports camps for kids though so she will probably spend most of her time there.

Bo - ds only goes a couple of mornings a week to a private nursery (also goes to a state school preschool type one the other days) and I am planning on keeping him there until at least the end of August - simply because it's hard for me to take time off work and I will already have reduced my hours over the holidays. But if he were there full time or almost full time I think I would take a week off before the start of school, just so we could have a nice week of hanging out and relaxing together at home.

thats my thought pigswithfludontfly ... I think he would benefit from a week at home. Not sure I will have enough holiday though as have to consider half term and Christmas .. will have to check! If nothing else it will do him good to adjust his time clock to getting up later. I guess all the other children will be fresh after the summer at home every day!

bodiddly - I'm dreading the scrum for holidays at work. We are not allowed annual leave in the school holidays, you are just allocated it if you get lucky. I have a long life of missing nativity plays and half term ahead of me . I reckon lots of children will have been at nursery like your ds, it's just that the working mums can't mumsnet all day like I can due to maternity leave, so we aren't hearing from them

Maybe take half a week? It's the bank holiday end of Aug too, so it will all add up.

swissmiss - am finding dairy free utterly crap! ONLY because I can't have cups of tea, the alternatives to cows milk don't work for me in tea. I have discovered that a slice of yummy [dairy free] cake is pants without a cuppa

simson - I bought a fancy brakfast porridge by plumbaby today in Sains [1/3 off] and I know it's gluten free, so prob oat free. It's mainly quinoa [sp????????] and millet I think. Thinkingof weaning soon here for dd2. I'll be giving dd1 it so might be useful for you?

OK mentioned on another thread...does anyone know whether all nurseries have to send some sort of transfer form to the schools about individual children and where they're at with the EYFS?

Hello all. Found out today that son 2 has his place at the nursery attached to school (where son 1 is at the moment before moving to school proper in September). I wonder if nursery are thinking "oh no, not another one?"

pigs - I dunno but I can find out of Fri as our leader is an early years profession guru, if that would help. I should hope so, but I dunno!

Hi golgi - good news. I wondered that about my 2. Especially with their, er, distinctive flame coloured heads. Thay are the spitting image of each other so teachers will know whose little sis dd2 is!

Somone was asking if we had same age gaps? DD1 was 4.4 months [just under] when sis came along. I planned for 5, as I hoped to have dd1 to school but er....weeel...she just kinda turned up!

Tree - have you tried Oatly in tea or on cereal? I hated rice, goats or soya milk. If you need a yummy choc try Kinnerton [[http://www.sainsburys.com/groceries/frameset/navigation_frame.jsp plain] (much nicer than dark Green&Blacks) or Mrs Crimble's choc brownies (which are DF and usually avail in JS too, just not online)
Must go DD2 screaming for a BF!

Or rice milk although it is a bit sweet.

Mine are 19 months apart, only one school year though. They will probably end up in the same class at some point (small village school with mixed year classes).

Well hello all...looong thread!
DS will be 4 and a very little bit when he starts school. Am preparing myself to try not to compare my "summerborn boy" to all the "practically 5 year olds". Although note simposns ds is same sort of age and knows most letters and starting to read - yikes!
He is messy eater, can kind of dress himslef if no buttons involved, can recognise and write own name and a few letters and numbers, OK at counting.
He's had 3 taster sessions now and loved them - but all he did really was play on scooters and with dinosaurs as far as I can tell..so of course he loved it!

Bo - DS has been at nursery 5 afternoons a week for ages. I hadn't even thought of giving him a break between nursery and school [bad mummy]...doubt we will, just on logistical grounds DH and I will both be working so...

Tigana my next one is a summer boy. Everyone told me not to give birth until September but strangely enough I couldn't quite manage it.

LOL

DS was due 10th Sept but decided to come 2 weeks early

I think the good thing is that the reception year is very play orientated and more about socialising and settling in. The govt. would have us think they are studying Dickens but in reality they are having a good time with dinosaurs.

Oatly is the nicest I think - but am a tea purest. I can't handle it tasting different at all. Very silly of me!

I only have 14 months between my 2, so will be going through all this again next year.
Just out of interest did your younger child influence you choice of school for the one about to start?
I chose a small school, which I feel will best suit DS( not starting til 2010) as I think DD( with exception of poo issues) will settle fine at any school

Some of the children in J's preschool are getting homework already in preparation for Sept.

And all they have to do is read a book (adult reading!!) and just comment on what child says ie in usual reading fashion.

"Oh silly Mr bump falling over again" etc and see if child understood story.

But other than that I agree its mostly about playing and socialising with other kids.

Oh now that is interesting norks. We really wanted to send dd1 to private as the one near by would be made to measure for her [rules, tables, formality etc] but in sure knowledge we couldn't send then bump2.

Turns out we couldn't send the cat as dh was made redundant but anyhow....

It made me think of instances where sending them to seperate schools would be best, and how our school was chosen with dd1 in mind totally and utterly. Hopefully dd2 will be easy going or similar to dd1.

We also choose Catholic, as we are, so in some ways was a no choice.

Norks i was rather foolish and just fell in love with a small girls school for dd, its absolutely perfect for her, a friend of mine went to see it and thought it was too twee but thats dd all over. I'm already starting to wonder what i'm going to do with my ds when the time comes, i'm not sure the boys school which is very near will be right for him but if he doesn't go there i'm not sure how i will manage the school run. Ds starts in the preschool of dds school, it mixed, in april so we'll have to see AARRGH a nother masive headache, i just have to make sure we have no suprise babies as i think more school fees are going to send my dh over the edge.

another, rather, i've just returned home form night duty so you will have to excuse my frazzled brain.

Hmm, interesting question. Choice was fairly simple for us (live in a village with one school in it!). But will have to see how it goes - son 1 is an interesting character, and I'm not sure how he'll get on. Son 2 is more easy going and I think would fit in anywhere.

Can I join?!

DS1 starts reception in September. He's our oldest so this is all new.

Hadn't thought about uniform yet! Have our first parents' evening on Tuesday 30th June so hope to find out everything then.

bodiddly - DS1 goes to nursery Mon, Tues & Wed (when I work). His start date at school is a Thursday so he'll go to nursery as planned that week. It wasn't what I wanted, but annual leave is a huge issue with the long summer holiday so I can't take any extra days off!

He'll do 5 full days a week from the word go, but I think that's negotiable if the parents have any concerns.

I've decided not to get hung up on what my son can do compared to others of the same age, they are all so different. And I'm not really sure what "normal" reading/counting for a 4+ year old is anyway!

Dd will stay with her CM until school and for some afterschool care. I will ask preschool about a transfer form - not heard anything about that.

We are in a village with one school. Actually, we moved here a year ago for that specific purpose. My only concern is that it is a C of E school. Now, I went to a C of E school and it was one of the best inn that area. But I am starting to feel queasy about all the religious stuff dd will be coming home with. She is obsessed with death at the moment and I can see we are going to have major clashes between what we tell her and what she learns at school (we are atheist refugees from creationist xian families).

A lot of dd's friends are learning to read now (this is the kind of area with a general obsession with education) and I haven't done any with dd as she doesn't seem ready (although she loves to write, oddly enough). I'm surprised how much pressure I feel when I see other kids doing it though - I guess this is a taste of things to come and better get immunised against it asap!