were into september not long now frantic label sewing, shoe buying and general getting organised and breath!!

[bodenaddict]

hi ladies here is our new thread

You two sound a bit like my mum - she's an ex primary teacher so everythihg that comes home subject to quite a lot of complaining! "Nothing new about all this phonics, I was teaching this in the 1970s" etc.

I think it is part of getting old. Everything seems either new fangled or has been done before. I am very old

I'm old too. Not as old as my mum though.
I'd be tutting at Top of the Pops (if it was still on) - ooh this modern music isn't like it used to be in my day....

Well exactly golgi, I'm with your mum. I learned to read by sounding out the words, which seems just the same to me. But without the ridiculous actions. Harumph.

So far I haven't had the chance to disapprove of dd1's music though, as she and her friends seem to listen to ABBA and Grease most of the time, which is pretty much what I was listening to at primary school. Weird.

Yes, ants crawling up your arm. Dd knows her letters and sounds but still seems happy to do this stuff. As long as she is happy doing it I'm OK with it.

I bet I'm the oldest

I remember Jimmy Saville doing TOP and my mum wittering on about his ties and so forth.

I do wonder how well the teacher gets to know youdc when there are 28 in the class.

Hi ladies - so glad the pooing and the t-t-t'ing is all going well.

Just quickly before I return later - the Jolly Phonics CD is brilliant to help the reluctant learn their phonics. Its a collection of inane "a a ants on your arm a a ants on you're arm" songs followed by the sounds of the words. DD and DS love it, and although I hate it, it has really helped them come on with phonics. They have it on at bedtime with the book that shows them the actions..

Another one doing JP here as well...all this anting and tttt ing is already doing my head in! Im assuming the actions are just there to reinforce the sounds if they can't remember them?? DS can do all the ones at the moment (we've had 11 so far) without needing the actions so although they are doing them in class as a group Im not getting him to do them when we go through the sounds. I presume when they get further through the JP and they get the double letters (no idea what the technical term is but like OO etc) then the actions will help then but Im not going to try and get him to remember the actions when he already knows the sound...just seems like more work doesn't it??

We've had stacks of homewordk here or at least it seems like we have. He's got 11 JP sounds to learn,9 key words,a wordless book to retell the story (which is incredibly dull)a library book to read with us and discuss (DS very kindly picked a massive book about climate & weather-thanks for that!) and then actual "Homework" which is look at and draw some coins and colour them in the correct colours and write the correct numbers on them. All this after 3 weeks!! He wants to do the words/sounds and reading cause he is desperate to read so have just been doing that but must admit I was a bit shocked at the rest of it.

DH has very kindly buggered off to Dubai for work again (he has to go for a week every 4 months or so) so have had a very odd weekend and DS has been very upset about Daddy not being here...think Id better explain that to teacher tomorrow in case he gets upset at school. Now off to cook some tea for us and then I think its an early night for him and x-factor for me!

No homework here as yet - the little book with the word sounds came home, but he knows all the ones they've done so far (with ants, or without).
They did mention that reading books would be coming home at some point, but no sign yet.

Norfolklass - I'll be watching the X-factor too - I know it's wrong but I can't help myself. I will be marking at the same time - as husband has been away with his man-hobby all day I haven't had a chance to do it so far. Haven't been able to train the boys to do marking yet.

Another X-factor addict here. Am loving it. Gosh I'm high-minded.

no homework here either

has anyones elses dds or dss turned into beasts over the weekend dd1 has been awful!!

Hi everyone - sounds like lo's are starting to settle into school. My dd had no tears all day fri & went in happily today. Is still worried by noisy games & rough playtime antics but overall seems so much happier now. My dd is a monster after school, completely hyper & quite naughty! She calmed down a bit over the weekend, has been quite a busy one which I fwlt a bit bad about but it couldn't be helped & she seemed to cope fine.

No homework here either, they did bring a reading book home every night in the first week, last week none came back but dd did keep saying she forgot to choose one. We've got a classroom meeting on thurs when all the parents can go in for the afternoon & see what they are doing so hopefully will get a better idea of whats happening then. According to dd they just play but I noticed when she was drawing at the wkend she now holds a pen properly most of the time & did write some letters better than before. Feel as if I'm missing out with JP's but am sure I'll live to regret saying that!

Another X-factor follower here too. And House. Not much else - I love law and order SVU but dh thinks I'm insane. But hen he watches Heroes so he should not mock - oh yes - Mock the week is another favourite. Oh the exciting life we lead.

Thinking about inviting dd's main playmate and mum over to visit. Dd is a best-buddy limpet kind of gal but I think main playmate likes to play the field. I predict a turbulent relationship ahead. I'm tryng to encorouge dd to spread the love a bit more.

I don't think dd could cope with having another parent take her to school but in a niaive moment of enthusiasm I did offer to take 3 other dc to school - maybe I could tie them all together with string I will be taking one some days and I'm already wondering how I can hold both hands (as I'm sure dd will not hold new boy's hand) and book bags etc. Hmmm - maybe put all the bags etc into a rucksack......

Acon - I have twins and do two hands and bookbags - you have to just shift the bookbag strap up your hand a bit!Or get them to carry them - although mine still see me as a packhorse and are quite affronted by the idea!

Not sure my two would be ready for someone else to take them to school either..

So glad all the little ones seem to be settling down.

Does anyone else have DC who are reluctant to use the loo at school? Mine come home, rush upstairs and do the most enormous poos!

And birthday parties - anyone onto the social minefield of these yet?

First child in the class turns 5 - she is inviting just the girls so my two are invited and happy with that. I imagine they would be okay if someone invited just boys. Difficulty will come when its mixed sex and my two aren't included....

hattyyellow - we had our first school bday party last week, dd was invited as were all the girls & 2 boys - the 2 boys that were less rough. I think because it's such early days the other boys didn't realise they were missing out but can imagine as they all get to know each other more it gets a bit awkward.

My dd avoids using the toilet at school. The first week she didn't drink for this reason. Now she will go if someone else is going but is scared to go on her own. Last week she did end up having an accident as she'd left it til she was desprate & they didn't dare go on her own. Am hoping in time it gets easier.

Hatty - I think I will practise this technique with dd and see if I can perfect it.

I have manged to get dd to wee at school but she absolutely will not poo at school - but then dh says he never pooed at school ever We are a bit poo obsessed in this house.

Dd's brithday is in the summer hols so we don't have to think about it. As for other parties - dd is very shy at group things and parties can be very difficult. So in some ways I will not be sorry if she doesn't get many invites (and I suspect she won't as she only plays with 2-3 girls and we don't know many families here). I don't think dd would think about it unles it was a child she played with.

Acinonyx - My dd's bday is in the summer holidays too, I am very relieved as will avoid the whole class thing which I know my dd would hate as she's not keen on big groups. The party we went to last week she didn't really seem to enjoy like the other lo's as there was just too much noise - glad she's not the only sensitive soul!

We had so many parties over the summer I actually hid the last two invites! We went away for that weekend and dd was none the wiser. It was just too stressful - too many children and too many new children.

None of the dc we were seeing prior to school will be going to her school - they are all in other villages. I will miss that as I had got used to seeing the mums and lounging with cups of tea and cake. Alas, those days are gone.

They are not long, the days of tea and cakes...

sorry all, have been keeping away as with dd not in school for a few weeks i didn't have much to add to the thread.

she's been back since last wed for an hour and a half a day (not that the teacher is happy about it but that's another thread!)

Acin I love that poem!

You will put it in my head now. It will replace Frost's "Stopping by woods on a snowy evening" which has gone round and round my head for weeks now. We live by woods and everytime the girls and I walk through them I quote it at them...

Anyway. My girls are also summer born so we opted out of a party last year too. Felt a bit of a cheat having accepted everyone elses invitations for the whole year . In our defence, we had completed on our new house the day before so it would have been a nightmare of packing boxes, wrapping tape, pre-schoolers and stressed me.

The lines are being drawn for parent gangs at our school too. I feel like I am back at school myself, it's hideous. I want to just be mates with everyone but it seems you have tto establish whose gang you are in. Hideous. I run a strange no mans land between at the school gates some days and working some days so I can miss out on some of the gossip and intrigue. Easier when DH does the school run as he ignores all of it and just nods at people!

Must do some work.

Hopefully the original and not my edited version, Hatty.

I'm supposed to be working too.

I must be in some strange time-passing-nostalgia zone as I found myself singing 'As tears go by' (Rolling Stones anyone?) as I was walking dd to school this morning. Very cheery. I used to be teased as being the kind of person who would read Sylvia Plath while listening to Leonard Cohen but I asure you I have never done both simulataneously.

At the school gates my focus of attention is near neighbours (there are 5 reception kids in my street alone!), my CM and dd's playmates' mums (that's just 2 really at the moment). There are definitley established gangs but I find I'm not too bothered as long as I'm on brief casual chat terms with a few people. I'm usually slightly late anyway so no time to chat with qanyone!

Pretty much how I was at school really - I had my friends and hung out in a larger group of their friends but probably never spoke to most of my year and didn't notice.

It would be great to make a good friend among the mums and I would be really pleased if that happened but I'm not expecting it - my focus is really on dd making friends.

Now Hatty, you have another poem going round my head that I always think of when it snows: 'One without looks in tonight....', Hardy, I think. Typical of my melancholy tendancies I always saw myself as the fallow deer looking in, rather than being inside by the fire. An analagy for family life.

I can be quite cheery, honestly.....

Hi all,
I'm totally with Acinonyx's philosophy on making friends. I always imagined I'd be really into making lots of new mum friends at school but now we're there, I just want to get on enough with most of them and have people to have a nice quick chat with at drop-off and picking up. If I make a good friend or two fine. If not that's fine. I've made lots of lovely friends locally and am working so don't have time for lots of lunches anyway.

It does all remind me of freshers week though.

Ds is fine. He decided to show the teacher he could count to 30 today and counted out 30 coins or something for her. But this is ds so he had to be quirky and did it in Spanish (we are not).
Problem is the teacher decided to tell me he'd done this really loudly in front of the mums in the queue at pick-up which I find a bit embarassing. Makes me sound like some mad hothousey mum and I'm not. He just learnt it recently after a holiday.

The requests for "stuff" are starting to come in now. Harvest festival tins for Monday. Wellies and waterproofs for use in class. Must go off and organise....

round of applause for grammercadet!

I wonder if I'm missing something at the school gate? Everyone seems perfectly nice and friendly and I can't see how cliques or whatever could possibly have developed yet. Am I being dim?

We had Harvest Festical last Friday and I raided the cupboards for a random selection of unopened stuff.

Still confused about footwear - shall I get an extra set of wellies or not? Seems such a waste if they are hardly used - and what if she wants to go to school in wellies, takes shoes, and has yet more wellies (this is not as unlikely as it sounds as we are prone to flooding)?

And as for Kings day costumes, well, dd is not happy about that. Couldn't it be updated to two kings and a queen? Or better yet, a fairy princess - in a shiny pink dress, tiara, wings and wand?

The cliques are pre-existing groups often via preschool or church, as far as I can tell.