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

PT - OMG!!!! Your poor poor little girl!!!! Poor you too!!! Ice cream sounds like perfect medication for you and her.

My dd's first day is.... tomorrow!!!!

Eeeeeeeeeeekkk!!!! Eeeeeeeeekkk!!!!! Eeeeeeeeeekkk!!! I have mixed emotions !

Good luck golgi for today - hope all goes well for your ds's first school day!!! Perrrrrlease report back asap!

Has anyone put photos on their profile???

good luck anyone starting today

my dd1 does start late the 17th

Third day in and soooo much better. Me and dh vigilant about being positive, and importance of a good sleep etc

Ds' friend being nice again, thank goodness. Ds all smiles and could leave easily.

Fingers crossed it lasts.

Sorry to hear about your dd PinkTulips!

Good luck to everyone starting.

Dd went in very easily this morning and ran practically all the way to school - just as well as we were still late . Clearly we need to leave earlier.

Confused about PE trainers. Do you just leave a pair in the PE bag all term? Seems a waste of money to leave them all that time unworn.

Asked teacher to encorouge dd to have a wee. Do hope she will be OK with school dinners - I saw lots of packed lunch bags on the table. Only paid for this week - see how it goes.

DD went in well too. As well as I could have hoped for really.
I was glad we decided to leave DH at home in the end. She's so used to it just being me dropping her at preschool and I think it would've been too much of a big deal if we'd both been there.....like she'd have to leave the whole family.

tick...tock...tick...tock - today's going slower than the while summer holiday.
I wish I could be a fly on the wall.

Acinonyx, I'd wanted to get started straight away with school dinners, but the teacher said that most of the class have packed lunch together, at least to start. So I think I'll wait til the weather turns colder.
DD's just got those cheapo black pumps for PE, and they're left in the PE bag....think they're getting worn 3 times a weeks there though.

Hmmm. Maybe we've done the wrong thing with the dinners - oh well - it's done now. I'm sure I'll hear all about it (if it's negative - otherwise I'd here nothing at all of course...).

I called the office (again - if I call again I'll have to disguise my voice...) and they said they wouldn't need PE shoes yet. I'll see if I can ask the teacher later - when will they need them.

Apparently they also leave a pair of wellies at school, which surely means that some days they will have 2 pairs of wellies at school? Who knew school kit would be so confusing

Reporting in - I dropped him off before I went to school for meetings (our term not quite started yet) - he said "don't leave me mummy" but I snuck out quickly, and apparently he was fine. We know one of the lunchtime supervisors so she is my secret spy in the playground!

Only slight "hmm" moment is that he didn't eat any of his sandwiches (although he did eat fruit, rice cakes and other bits of lunch) - but then he was given a "chocolate roll" at lunchtime as it was somebody's birthday and they had bought them in for the whole class. He would not get chocolate rolls at home at lunchtime, even if he had eaten sandwiches! Oh well.

Acinonyx - I get confused by shoes too. They have PE plimsolls in their bag, but were also told to bring "indoor shoes" to change into - they suggested trainers. Would PE plimsolls not do this job too? Given that the boy is reluctant to do any shoe-changing tasks I would have thought the less messing about with different pairs the better....

Astonishingly dd actually ate lunch - but then she is very food-focussed and was probably pretty hungry. And - hallelujah - she actually had a wee in the school loo before lunch!!! Wonders will never cease.

Altogether it has been very smooth so far.

Think I should order a couple of school cardies. Still rather confused about shoes/wellies/trainers/assorted footwear.

How annoying about the chocolate role - if they all do that for every birthday they will never eat anything else! But then I am a food nazi and proud.

Bought a lighter raincoat and dd totally refuses to even try to do the buttons . It's quite a jazzy coat - not exactly uniform.

The school is a bit odd on food - the school dinners are all extra-healthy but it seems that whenever someone has a birthday they bring in cakes / biscuits for everyone. I am tempted to send in a lot of fruit on son's birthday.

I wonder if they will do that here. I won't be sending in sweet stuff when it's dd's birthday - don't approve of that at all. I'm not paying for school dinners so she can stuff herself with some sugary tat. I can see I'm going to be really popular

What do people do about food after school? Ds is very hungry but don't want to do snacks, as then he won't eat much dinner. So today had big bowl of spag bol ready. He ate at 5.

What do you do?

I saw someone arrive with a tray of little iced cakes this morning so I expect cakes on birthdays is the norm at ours
Ours doesn't seem to have any food rules apart from no nuts

MarshaBrady - my kids like to eat early so usually have dinner between 4.30 and 5 anyway

I guess you could give a banana or a piece of toast if you want him eat later

Well done everyone on all your first days at school. DS is still waiting for thursday's half day..

I did nearly get very sad at tonight's Reception meeting for Parents - I think I am going to be a wreck come thursday. Waterproof mascara and stern words needed I think.

Mine have a snack at about 4ish because I like eating together at about 6ish when husband gets in from work. We used to do two separate meals but it generated too much washing up!

I like us to eat together at 6ish too (although she eats at 5.30 when on the 2 days she goes to her childminder's). So far I give a snack about 3.30 and warn her that this is her last chance for anything but fruit until dinner. Today she had a couple of crackers and butter - so she must have eaten a good lunch, astonishingly. Then she got hungry and had a pear at 5.

If she comes home really hungry I think I will make her a small sandwhich straight away. This is partly why I like her to have a cooked lunch - so that she can have a sandwich as a snack if necessary. That's the master plan anyway!

Marsha - DS does not start school till end of Sept but went to the pre school in the afternoon within his school so don't know exactly how hungry he will be TBH but my plan is to give tea at 4/4.30pm (with 18mth DD) then just before bed a sandwich/banana later if he wants it iyswim.

I found if I did the sandwich first and tea later he would not eat as much for his main meal

DD1 started today. Drop-off went well - I seemed to be entirely surplus to requirements. She is very excited and keen to get stuck in. I just hope the gentle settling-in period isn't a disappointment to her. She wants to know what they'll be learning, and when they get to take assemblies and go on school trips. The teacher looked a bit wary when asked what they would be learning, and said they would be learning how to settle in to school. Not sure how impressed she was with that answer.

My DS went yesterday for his first day...full day straight off! Went in and sat straight down on the carpet like he'd been doing in for years and then gave me a quick hug and off I went-felt a bit useless tbh lol!

Went to pick him up and he had a sticker for drawing a lovely picture (which is a miracle cause he hates drawing!) but that he was very sad because he hadn't eaten any dinner at all and had cried all lunchtime. He had a school dinner yesterday at his request (he's been going on about it all summer!) but apparently was disgusting and really cold (his words lol!)so he couldn't eat it!! He loves his food so was a bit surprised at that.
He then spent most of last night in tears cause he didn't want to go again and he most definitely didn't want school dinners! Luckily I had already got a lunch box so had to rush around trying to find stuff to go in it and he went off happily again this morning!

I feel a bit angry really cause when I spoke to his teacher this morning she said he had a lovely day and was absolutely fine...yet 2 of his friends said he was really upset at lunchtime but obviously nobody had told her that. Apparently there were only 5 of the reception children having school dinners so you would think they'd just let the teachers know how they got on! I realise of course that he probably did eat something but something was obviously wrong for him to be that upset about it!! Grrrrr!
Anyway will see how today goes...Im not liking it at home cause it's far too quiet!

Aranea, your dd would like our school. Spent the morning doing the work dd has missed with her.

2 pages of matching pictures (maths), a page of tracing over the letter 'a' and 2 pages in her handwriting book of tracing over wavy lines... all of that with pictures to colour at every step. Although it has convinced me that dd would actually be better of staying home a few weeks as her wok here with me helping was miles better than the pages she'd done in school... the teacher doesn't seem to have given them much individual help or guidance which is annoying me a bit.

well done to all the new starters, glad it seems to be going reasonably well all round... although how awful for your ds norfolklass that he was so upset about dinner

Sounds very serious PinkTulips - I don't think dd's class has done anything more than drawing and painting. Apparently they all painted pictures of themselves yesterday.

And all the names (dd tells me) are on a chart with 4 parts - rainbow (for specially good), sunshine (where they all are right now), clouds (bit naughty) and lightning cloud (very naughty!).

This is dd's first time to be picked up by CM from school - and I should be working not lollygagging about!

Oh god PinkTulips, are you going to have to spend the next few weeks at home doing letter shapes? That would drive me nuts I have to admit. I am definitely not cut out for home edding... DD1 tends to get a bit 'freeform' when she doesn't immediately get the hang of something, and I can never decide whether to persevere and get frustrated with her, or to let her be creative and not worry about getting things right.

Apparently today dd1 drew a picture of the whole family, and when asked what she had done over the summer gave an account of a party we'd been to yesterday. The teacher said this with a big grin so I wonder what she actually said... at the time she was a bit cross about it as it was a 'boring grown up party', but she did quite enjoy getting alcoholic ice cream

Oh wow! DD2 just took her first unaided step and gave herself a round of applause! How very fitting that she should do it on DD1's first day at school

... and now DD1, still on a bit of a high, is busy writing:

'r clrs is blou clrs is fantasdic'
(translation: our class is blue class is fantastic)

Which may be illiterate but is at least enthusastic.

glad all well

sorry for upset @ lunch time

had last appmnt today @ the school dd1 got to play she starts on a wk thurs

Ds started yesterday, he came out with his shirt hanging out so he obviously used the loo, not sure there was time for much else as they are only doing 1.5 hours a day this week, hardly worth it. He is yelling in the garden at the moment and not remotely exhausted by it all.