Foundation (Prep/Kinder) 2014 Chatter #2

[OceanPrincess]

Hi to all the proud parents with kids starting school in 2014,

This thread is for you to share in your experiences with other parents.

Your old thread is here.

This thread will be moderated by OceanPrincess, Astrid and Jellyfish.

Happy chatting.

[OceanPrincess]

BR I'm so sorry but I'm laughing a bit at your DD because she sounds about where my DD is at.

Today's first meltdown was because she couldn't get the lid on her water bottle screwed on straight. The second was because her school bag was doing something wrong - I don't know what exactly. The next was because she couldn't get her straps on in the car. And this was all between 3.30 and 3.38pm!

Poor poppet!!

[MummyNaomi]

Poor DD, and what an uncooperative school bag she has!

School and religion is creating the most interesting convos with DS atm. Today's convo was about how people die ..... I find myself using the "what do u think" response a lot when I get a curly question I'm not sure how I want to answer

[Janie71]

Happy birthday to my big girl - finally 5! Love that sweet girl so much and I am so very very proud of her.

xxx

[Lenny]

OP - I wouldn't worry about DD being a little but bossy. That's a whole other thing to being mean spirited. I'm bossy when surrounded by 5 year olds too!

MN - I came in here just to check on your DS. Hope things continue to improve. Poor love.

My DS is not melting down at all. He is a little more tired at bedtime which is good, he doesn't read until 8.15 anymore. More like 7.30 now. He is reluctant to go to swimming after school on a Tuesday. It's a bit of a rush to get there, and he is adamant he's not going. But he enjoys the lesson and he's very good so I persevere. I do get the mum guilts though. He is so miserable on the way there.

[MummyNaomi]

MN - I came in here just to check on your DS. Hope things continue to improve. Poor love.

Thanks Lenny x Massive progress today but unfortunately it took another incident to bring things to a head. Again the girls were teasing him and took his hat again, this time putting it in the toilet Fortunately DSs teacher was on yard duty and DS ran to her and told her and she was able to get him to identify the culprits who were then spoken too. They admitted that they'd done it today and previous days and are now in serious trouble (as they should be). Their parents have been called to the school and as the Principal works off a Zero Tolerance for Bullying their behaviour will be addressed. The girls are in year 3, so 8-9 yo? and were in the Junior Primary Yard, where they are not supposed to be as Yr 3-7 have their own part of the school. Apparently they have had no incidents of this behaviour before. I'm relieved that they've been caught, I hope it puts a stop to these almost daily incidents. DS was very upset when it all happened today, but tonight was happy and carefree so hopefully it leaves no ill effects. We have our Parent/Teacher Interview tomorrow after school so will get a more thorough briefing then. I'm so pleased with DSs teacher, she's done all we could have asked of her and has protected DS as much as possible along the way. The school principal offered DS a new hat seeing as his was in the toilet, (luckily it didn't actually go in the toilet water) however he wont give it up (eeewwww, its been through the wash tonight), I think the teacher plans to convince him to swap tomorrow. Getting his hat back was important to him though so I kinda understand why he's reluctant to give it up. Emotionally Drained but massively relieved here!

Lenny - we ended up moving our weekly swimming lessons to Sunday as after school was just a waste of time early in the term when DS was adjusting to school. After school he was just too tired to put the effort in. I hope to move it back to a weekday arvo at some point to reclaim the weekend morning

OP - I also agree, bossy is a whole different thing than meanness. One of DSs little girl friends (almost 5) is incredibly bossy, but super kind

Janie - Happy Birthday to your darling DD, hope she has had a super wonderful birthday xxxx

[ElleJay]

Coming up to the end of term, DS has improved in leaps and bounds.. I couldn't be happier with his progress

And all this teachers seem to think he's going great guns - because on Monday he got his very first merit certificate! I almost cried when he brought it home

[black_rose]

Janie happy birthday to your dd!

MN Glad the culprits have been found the response from the teacher and school sounds positive too.

DD congrats to your ds on his certificate!

Dd loved having her poppy at school today but again she is worn out she didn't want to go dancing. We have swimming on a Monday too. Not sure about keeping up the dancing she loves it but is tired, will probably have to wake her up last minute tomorrow. But she is back eating all her food again and asking for more.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Wow ladies I have some catching up to do...

MN - I am so glad they have finally found some of the culprits and it's great the school have zero tolerance and are taking it seriously.
Hpefully it puts them in their place and your DS can come back to school after the holidays with a nice fresh and happy start.

DD - I am so glad your DS is doing well, he has amazing parents to guide him and it's nice to see all your hard work paying off... Merit certificates are so cute.

BR - DD does gymnastics straight after school on a Wednesday and is a bit tired and cranky afterwards but doesn't want to stop and seems to be managing a lot better now, we also keep her out of swimming for this term but will be putting her in on a Thursday night so I will have to wait and see how that goes.

AFM - DD is going really well, her teachers are impressed and not worried at all about her missing a few days when we come back (we will be away), DD even asked if they could set her some things to do over the holidays so her teacher and I have worked out a few things based around sight words - her teacher wants her to be able to read and write her golden words but has also given her the grade 1 / 2's Red words to learn also as she thinks she is more than capable.
She has an easter bonnet parade tomorrow and easter egg hunt, they finish early as well.. she is extremely excited.

They don't know but we are going to Barbie Live the Musical on Monday so that will be something for them to look forward to, then we have a movie date to see the lego movie on Wed and a play date on Friday... think the 2nd week can be a relax week and then we go away tour van for Easter.

What does everyone else have planned for the holidays?

[BlackCat]

Janie71, a big happy birthday to your DD!! I hope she had a fantastic day. Dd you do anything special on the day for her?

MN - How did your DS go today? It sounds like he has a very good and supportive teacher.

DD - WOO HOO! Congratulations to your DS! You must be so proud

ZF - It sounds like you guys are going to have a ball these holidays.

We're not going to be doing very much at all. First week I have him so I will be concentrating on just hanging out as the two of us. He seems to really be struggling with not having as much one on one time any more. I'm desperately trying to catch up on uni and get slightly ahead so I don't even have to worry about that for the week. I wish uni and school holidays coincided. That would be helpful! The second week he is with his dad.

We had a pretty spectacular melt down tonight because he doesn't get to play with me enough, and he wanted to do his homework rather than go to bed (I prioritised his over emotional over tiredness over the need to do homework that he is already on top of - mean mummy). We constantly fight over bed at night. He just won't go. Last night was a spectacular event also. During which I was yelled at, "Jesus knows what you're doing you know"... oh joy.

I'm really beginning to loose my patience with this bed time thing. He just can't seem to wind down. It doesn't matter what I do, even if I lay with him he still won't sleep. I just want him to sleep! We will start our fight at 730ish and we can still be going close to 1030-11pm. No wonder he is sooooo tired and emotional all the time. But its not for lack of trying. I just don't know what to do any more.

Overall though he is going really well, its just this tired attitude. It wouldn't be so bad if he was just tired, but its the attitude that comes with it. And I know its tired attitude rather than 5 going on 6 attitude, because when he doesn't fight sleep (haha) he isn't half as bad. *sigh* Just keep swimming... just keep swimming...

[Olive]

ZF the sight words aren't based on grade level, the red words together with the golden words make up, on average, one third of all reading. There are 12 site word levels. Red is the second batch.

[feeb]

MN sounds like teacher is great but your poor child how sad and scary. Hope next term is much much happier and memorable for the right reasons.

Janie Hope your DD had a great birthday!!

ZF wow thats good.

We ahve completed term 1 of prep woo hoo!!! Today school did a 1 hour celebration of learning and they had a group discussion about what they had been learning then they showed short videos of each child talking about there work! Followed by white and pink milk and biscuits to tie in with learning on friendships by reading Charlie and Lola books!!
Later on all the kids got friendship bracelets that they had all made and then all put in a box and each picked one out! So sweet!!
Assembly to end the day and drawing of the raffle with 13 prizes!!

We are busy in hols as I am still working but only 2 days a week as DS1 has appts for 2 days so had to take them off! 2 days he will be at friends houses and 1 day DH will be home with him. We have a few things on anyway including wiggles high tea!! Can't wait!!
We don't have readers over hols but have an alphabet chart to fill in with pics or drawings and take back after hols and will be laminated for use at school.

[MummyNaomi]

ZF - Vic must start holidays before us, We have another week of school here in SA - works out well as then the Easter and Anzac public holidays all fall in school holidays so I get 11 days off in a row but am only taking 2 annual leave days. DS will go to OHSC on the first Tues/Wed though, I am on leave from the Thursday. One of the days they have an excursion to the Food Farm which he'll love, the other they stay at OHSC and do Easter craft all day - he'll love that more! I plan to leave DD in care one day and take DS out for a date - most likely to see the Lego Movie! Its his Birthday on the 23rd so we'll do something special for that day too, he can choose!

BC - ouch, I get my cranky pants on when the kids haven't fallen asleep by 8pm, I'd be feral by 10 DS is usually asleep by 7pm which is great, however the down side to that is that he is awake by 6am EVERY.SINGLE.MORNING - even weekends - KILLER!!

Feeb - thanks babe. How gorgeous is the friendship bracelet idea? Love it!

BR - I bet Poppy loved it as much as DD

Learning Conversation today - Aside from the Bully Issue, DS is loving school, I was pleased to see that when his teacher asked him to show his feelings about playing outside at recess/lunch he chose a smiley face - Yay. He is breezing through literacy and math, and one of the brightest, but we might need to look at some Occupational Therapy to help with his gross motor skills as his teacher pointed out some issues that OT would improve, so going to look into that. I'd put it down to clumsiness, but in reflection its probably more balance, coordination and a legacy of his low tone/hip dysplasia issues when he was younger. Anyway, I think if he fell over less, his confidence would improve so going to have him assessed and we'll go from there. He is well liked and has lots of friends including a few close ones, is happy and participates in class, but is shy overall. We were pretty happy to hear that he is so engaged in his learning and in the school routine. He proudly showed us his books and artwork too. I asked the teacher about birthday party invite etiquette when you only have a few invites (DS is inviting 6-7 kids). Teacher said she was glad I asked as a Mother waltzed in last week, gave a handful of invites out in front of the whole class and in the process upset quite a few kids who ended up in tears as they didn't receive one, then seemed shocked and asked the teacher if she'd done the wrong thing - Grrr, why would an adult be so insensitive????? Anyway, Teacher prefers to give them out discreetly as the kids leave for the day, she calls them up to her desk individually as the bell rings and then sends them off to greet their parents so its sensitive to the other kids who might be hoping for an invite. I thought this was a good way to go

[feeb]

BC we also fight the sleep issues! Does my head in!! We start around 1900 and is generally 2100 before asleep!! Even by saying after shower to go have drink go to toilet etc still up and down a million times! and fighting and annoying each other GRRRRR makes for cranky parents!!

MN yes the bracelets were a beautiful idea!!!!! Well done on asking the teacher and her being so sensible about it!! Grr at silly parent with no insight!! Hope OT helps we have been seeing one with DS1 for 2 and 1/2 years and sadly stopped along with speech in Jan :-(

[MummyNaomi]

4 more days of school, so excited, can't wait to spend some extra quality time with my little man. His birthday party is on the last saturday of the school holidays so lots of fun to come

[BlackCat]

Happy easter all :-D I hope you all have a great day with your families.

How has everyone enjoyed the holidays so far? I really don't want ours to end. Having too much fun :-D

[Lenny]

First day back today. Term 2 already. We start with a nice short week at least.
He insisted on shorts and a t shirt still, even though it's cold and raining.
Easter bonnet parade tomorrow. I was so proud of my little man making it all by himself, except DH helped with the glue gun. He did the whole 'design'. Lol. It's bright pink and glittery!

Hope you are all having a lovely time with your preppies over the holidays.

[Astrid]

Yes, back today. DD2 did not want to go. No tantrums etc just really a statement.
Stuffed up the timing of her bday party. It is this weekend and completely forgot when organising about getting invites out before the holidays, so they are being given out today!