RECEPTION! If you've been there, bought the T-shirt. Please post your single toppest tip please!

[Sycamoretreeisvile]

DD is PFB and will be starting our local state primary in September at the grand old age of 4 and 3 weeks

Please can you be kind enough post your single top tip to help me and DD negotiate this exciting and also vaguely scary time.

Anything from uniform (mind is boggling - how many fleeces, polo shirts, skirts does she need?)to whether or not to bother with school lunches (can I be bothered to make a packed lunch everyday? )

TIA

procrastinatingp that is serious alpha-parenting the school are demanding there . DS's school force you to buy provide art aprons which sound like they would meet with your schools approval given that they are very much like a back to front collarless shirt, but since it came from/through school I have no idea of the source.

Oh and don't make mistake i've just done.

Don't put any paper work you might need to refer to again in a "safe" place. You will never find it again. File it straight away.

You will feel a complete prat having to ask for a new form (school uniform list) even befor they have started. I am already earning a label of being disorganised. ds starts september

most of the art overalls you can buy won't have the handy absorbent bit for wiping hands

so buy a normal one from ELC or somewhere and just sew a cheap handtowel to the front

Be prepared for your child to be VERY tired lots of the time. It made my DD behave appallingly at home in the afternoons and even now, at the end of her first year at school, she still has her moments.

Make sure you labele everything your child takes to school. Don't bother with the iron-in nametags as they are crap and fall off after a few washes, use the sew on ones instead. Also label their shoes, book bag and lunchbox.

Check their book bag every night - you'd be surprised what you can miss in there.

Re labelling everything..someone mentioned a pen that could be used to write name in clothes which doesn't come off in wash..is that a myth? It sounds very tempting..

And is writing the childs name in clothes theultimate slummy mummy behaviour, lowering you to the absolute bottom of the zeta mums food chain?

any old permanent marker will do
the ones sold for laelling CDs are pretty good

Get a Sharpie double ended permanent marker (from Staples or similar). Fine end marks things like shirts, small labels, broad end marks coats, shoes, bags etc.

hattyyellow, don't know about other schools, but at ours any attempt at labelling uniform is welcomed. I am a TA there and cannot get over the amount of unmarked size 26" chest school jumpers lying in the infant cloakroom!

This came to me this morning after taking another school dinner money reminder out of DS's bookbag-

Particularly if you are not dropping/fetching every day - be OBSESSIVE about information. Schools drip out things you need to know in notes, invoices, newsletters, whiteboards, home-school books...it's a nightmare if one busy parent picks up and forgets to pass on a message to the other, or you miss a note from the classroom door because your DC is in afterschool club.

Have a calendar/noticeboard/box/folder where ALL invoices and letters are put and read every word.

Also don't trust DC to give anything in. Take it to the secretary yourself. If we have a complicated week of dinners/breakfast clubs I write a note and drop it in.

Taggits - how do they actually work? I've looked at the website but can't see how they fix on - and do they rub or irritate a child's skin in anyway.

Taggits - Have a look at this link

www.labels4kids.com/product.php/45/11/

The fasteners are almost like a mini plastic drawing pin. The pin goes through the fabric ((using the care lavel as a place to put them is useful), press on the label, usually folded over, slide on the little retaining ring, and press tight with the little device wwhich fits over to do this job, and finally snap off any surplus plastic pin.

I used them on my DS's clothes when he went into hosp for a couple of months to prevent his clothes getting mixed up with other children's. Weren't a problem with rubbing him, or bothering him at all.

this thread is geat, am going to have a good read back now and take in all the tips!

Put a single dot on the inside of their shoes, on the inside of the ankle, so that when the shoes make a pair the two dots are together (if you see what I mean!) That way your child has to make sure the dots are together when they put their shoes on and they are on the right feet.

Definitely label everything - including/especially "precious" possessions/toys which your DC insists on taking to school. DS tends to take one of his (literally hundreds of) soft toys - absolute rule is that no animal goes to school without a name tag. We go through lots of taggits . Of course when DS decided he wanted to take a rubbishy promotional wristband which I didn't give two hoots about, it wasn't named, he lost it, and it was in fact the end of the world....(and he was being picked up by someone else who had to deal with his hysterics )

Best to start off telling your child no toys etc allowed at school unless a designated toy day at the end of term. Once you allow it, its hard to break.

TEJQ I tried, but my bluff got called. I do stick to both "only things that fit in your drawer - it's the rules" and "well yes, you could take your thing-with-a-million-tiny-pieces, but if you lost a crucial piece it would be your fault, and you wouldn't be allowed to make a fuss. It's your decision" [evil manipulative mother]

top tip - name everything - down to lunchboxes. and shoes. and polo shirts or whatever. Not socks

not socks?

Try My Nametags. 75 stickers and 75 iron-on labels for £9.95. Delivered super quick and the labels won't come off.

Okay, if anyone is still around I have another question. I need to tell the school whether we want school dinners or packed lunches.

My girls can be quite picky eaters - but with the baby and working as well I can't face the thought of preparing packed lunches every night.

Any top tips?

make friends in the playground asap with another mum who is ultra-organised - invaluable for those ''agh, is today sports day?'' texts...

or even better, make friends with a mum who also has a child 2 yrs older! You'll get so much from her recent experience, as well as a class mate for your dc.

Don't go on and on about starting school over the holidays. Just enjoy the time.

Their worries are completely different from yours. I was worrying about whether he would be a social outcast who knew nobody, and ds was worrying about the way to the toilets.

Tea-time is better for finding out what went on. Try to refrain from asking too much when you pick them up. (The only way this is possible is to staple your mouth together .)

On their first day I could not apply myself to anything. I kept wandering around the house thinking I hope he is ok. And he was...