pfb -in fact only child - off to secondary on Thursday...

[MaryAnnSingleton]

am being calm but every so often panic strikes me - ds is fine about it, it's just me fretting about roads to cross/ money for the canteen - will it get lost/stolen, what about the lockers, arghhh ! Plus,as with the beginning of every term,I'll miss him - I love having him here in the holidays !
It also means that I have no excuses not to sit at my desk and work on the job I'm meant to finish by the end of Seot...

magenta - when DS finally gets his locker, his form tutor has said they can give him a spare padlock key in a named envelope so if there are any forgotten keys - he can sort them out.

I asked him tonight (on his way to bed) if he had finished all homework (apart from history because he still does not know the rest of the question for the homework) and he said yes he was up to date. I have just been into the dining room and lo and behold on the table there is homework for yesterdays cooking lesson and homework for a drama lesson earlier this week

He has got 4 merits already this week. I really don't want him to spoil it for himself if he does not do the history homework, but I suppose like DH says he has to learn.

roisin - suppose really there is no half way mark - either they say everything or nothing!

OrmIrian - that is quite a long day really if walking all the way to and from school - at least DS has a school bus. Having said that though, when I went to high school I had to walk and it was about 3 miles there and back. Good in summer - not so good in winter

ds tells me some stuff, usually about the lessons but not much about who is in his sets/tutor group etc. He told me how they light a bunsen burner and said he had trouble tying up his lab apron so I showed him on my kitchen one. Small tgings like that are hard for him and hold him up,tying laces,managing coins, and I think his locker - fine motor skills really ..I'm hoping that the school will have had reports of his OT passed on to make small allowances for this. At his primary school he was helped a lot..I think other children are generally kind and patient with him as he is very sweet and they seem to be quite protective, at least they were in the old school ! Hope your dcs have better days tomorrow

Thank crunchie it's Friday

In Yr6 when her primary school went into SATS overkill all I ever got from DD was we did literacy,numeracy and it was soooooooooo boring. I was really worried that all I'd get from High School was the same so for me to hear her become so animated when telling me step by step how they did an experiment in science is great,plus her even coming to the conclusion that Geog might be ok because the is nice is wonderful. I know it's early days .

She is thinking of doing an aerobics class at lunchtime - but was a bit worried if she ended up going one way and the others another...Plus if she didn't like it she'd still have to go. I pointed out that lunchtime/after schools activities were optional and if it wasn't something she'd enjoy she didn't have to go every week. So she's going to see if any of her friends want to go. I have visions of everyone else swinging arms to the right and DD going to the left

And as Bellavita said Thank crunchie it's Friday!

I can't see how they have time to do activities at lunch time !! ds' school get 40 mins to get to the canteen,queue and eat and lots of them don't seem to manage that ! I sound as though I'm obsessed by the lunch thing ...time management is definitely an issue for my boy.

magenta - am sure your dd will carry on enjoying the new work - it all just seems so much more interesting than in yr 6 - ds is very keen - hope the novelty won't wear off

Aww OrmIrian i do sympathise for the long hair thing. My son has just gone into year 1 and came home with his hair tied with a rubber band!! He was really upset about being teased for looking like a girl,but runs screaming (oddly enough like a girl) when i suggest giving it a trim!

Had a word with his teacher who said it was only tied cos they were cooking but for normal school activities its ok. Phew!

My daughter got her first detention today, jeez its only been a few days! She left her homework in her planner and left her planner at home so she had to do 15 mins of lines. I spent the day feeling really bad because i should have reminded her, but with 2 other kids to sort out, it just slipped my mind till i saw it on the kitchen table at lunch time!

At least i managed to get her a swimsuit from SportsDirect.com. Theres one about 15 mins drive from me so thats one less thing to worry about. Now all i gotta sort out is her PE kit!

Oooh, I'm glad it's Friday too. Ds1 has been absolutely fine - happy, everything's fab, it's a brilliant school etc etc etc. Then last night he came home in an absolutely foul mood - was mean to ds2 (6) and made him cry, threw a tantrum about football boots, and finally stormed upstairs with much door slamming (really not like him at all - he is generally a pretty laid back and amenable boy).

I went up after a while to talk to him and he had a big cry and said he's just so tired, and he's finding it all overwhelming, and he couldn't find his English classroom and he didn't understand the maths (and he asked and it was explained again and he still didn't understand it )

It is such a huge transition isn't it - from primary to secondary? I remember spending a lot of my first year wishing I was back at primary.

I made him have a bath and an early night and he seemed more cheerful this morning - but I'm glad it's the weekend.

Football boots tantrum, btw, was because he has joined the football club (after school on Tuesdays). He says that the coach says they have to have "proper" football boots. He already has astroturf/grass footie boots (with very small rubber studs) which are what he took this week. He also has ordinary PE that day - so I questioned whether the coach was actually saying he needs to take two pairs of sports shoes on that day (which would be madness, surely - he already has his sports kit and books to carry, plus every second week he will have food tech that day and need ingredients/containers as well - he'll be falling over with the weight of his back pack!) When I said we would need to check whether the boots he had would be OK (he can wear them in the gym and on astroturf, so- unlike proper football boots - they are multi-function) he threw a total strop, and said "why don't you believe me?!"

as usual, made DS do his homework when he got home from school, but he is so slow...... DH said I have got to give him a chance and he will get quicker as he gets used to it, I sort of feel a bit mean...

He then asked at 7.10 if he could go out, so we said yes, but he must be back at 8.15. We did not realise he had taken his bike and at 8.00 DH went into the garage and saw no bike, but it was getting really dark. There are no lights on DS's bike! So we had to ring him and say come home straight away. I know he only missed out on a few minutes of play outside, but I am beginning to feel meaner and meaner every day over the homework.

DS came home yesterday with a form to fill in to do music lessons. Guess what instrument he wants to do. Drums! FFS! Drums!!! We live in a very modest 3 bed terrace with neighbours I'd like to stay to good terms with. But he really really wants to do this. £60 for the first term but apparently he doesn't need a kit at home for a while. So I guess we'll cough up for the lessons and hold off on the drums until he's sure he's likes it. DH is getting rid of his car so maybe we can convert the garage in some way. Why couldn't it be the flute or a violin ?

it's all so different isn't it ?
Ds is having singing lessons which take place during the normal school day but differ in which day they are on each week, so ds will have to check the timetable and make his excuses to the teacher of whichever lesson he is in and go to the music block (and presumably find out what he missed in the lesson and catch up) - more complications !!
Hope all dcs have had a good or better day today and a relaxing weekend.

good luck with the drums Orm !!

astroturf trainers are no good if they're training on on wet/muddy grass, moo - he would be falling over all the time & come home plastered in mud (& wouldn't that be a treat for you )

He will need actual boots I'm afraid - sorry

bella, it is miserable for them (& other family members!) in the autumn term when the nights start drawing in so fast they can't go out to play after school at all after a while. The whole first term thing - travelling, organisation, load-carrying, difficult lessons, lots of different teachers, much bigger kids, finding classrooms etc etc is a nightmare for them after primary, poor little things...

Trust me Orm a keen beginner can make a disgustingly loud noise on flute or violin
Have been thinking of you all as ds is Yr 5 and we are starting the slow process of thinking about secondary transfer
Hope all the little Yr7s on this thread manage a restful and regrouping weekend...and their mothers too.
"You don't believe me" - that's because, IME already, you are wrong, little boy. I cite Appeal Case MN AIBU Mater vs Location of School Coat, 2008-09 Ad Nauseam in my defence.

Well pleased to report dd1 has found at least one person from her primary school (not close buddies - yet!)in most of her lessons so far so she is a lot calmer. I actually managed to get almost a full nights sleep last night and feel much better for it. Fingers crossed it keeps on getting better not worse. She is on a 2 week timetable so she probably won't relax until she's had all her lessons and found someone in them. She has hardly had any homework so far - hope she doesn't come home with a weeks worth today.

Oh I know marina. I used to ..erm...'play' the viola. It was awful. But they don't take up loads of space and you can confine the din a little bit better. At least the neighbours crockery wouldn't be shaking in the cupboards

Oh forgot to say she seems to have had a test in almost every lesson already!

DD isn't very musical thankfully as I can imagine she'd want to lay the Drums or an electrical guitar! You have my upmost sympathy OrmIrain

MAS - I'm not too sure how lunchtime sporty things will work out and getting some lunch either. DD tends to grab a sandwich and a drink for lunch most days unless there is pasta or pizza on the menu -she's always eaten like a sparrow at school then comes home and demolishes anything put in front of her. At Primary she would bring her pack lunch half eaten luckly she will have a good breakfast before she goes to school.

It is hard trying to get the after school thing balanced - DD tends to play out till about 5pm then comes in and does homework then. Which touch wood she doesn't mind doing after she's let off a bit of steam playing out.

Oh, don't tell me that, Wendy! Do they make small pull along trailers (I'm thinking with some sort of harness) for over-burdened school-children?

Marina, we had another 'discussion' on the first rainy day when I made him wear a coat. "I'll have to take it off at the gate though." (bear in mind, it is coming down like stair rods and the gate is a long way from the front entrance).

"Why?"

"You are not allowed to wear coats once you are through the gate."

"But that's mad - what's the point of wearing a coat all the way to school then taking it off at the gate and getting soaked?"

"You just have to."

I posited that perhaps someone had said something along the lines of - non-uniform items must be taken off at the school gate and left in bags til home time (something I vaguely remember from my misspent youth) but no, ds1 was absolutely adamant - coats are to be taken off at the gate.

He came home and said "actually...no-one took their coats off at the gate."

Bless, at least he'll wear a coat (for now) - the older ones just seem to wear their blazers, come rain , snow, sleet...

Pologra - glad your DD is settling down. thankfully DD doen't have a two week time table thing as I can imagine in this house it would be utter chaos

OrmIrion, you could get your ds an electronic drum kit. We bought one for ds, it's a Roland DX12 (I think), & he plays it through headphones so no noise. It's bliss!

Oh beleive me mumble, I suggested that. We saw one in Argos. But he just sneered at it. Apparently it's just not good enough!

Thanks for the suggestion though It may be the only thing he gets in the end.

If you get a really good one (ds's was £3k), it makes exactly the same sound as an acoustic, but with knobs on. You could probably get a second hand one for about £1k, and a new acoustic will set you back about the same.

Blardy hell, suddenly a new pair of football boots doesn't seem so bad...

3k? 1k?