Babies Born ~ September 2007 #68

thanks girls :)

yes we are heading off to sydney tomorrow after all. surgeon said he should be fine with panadol and ear plugs. kit kat just went mia when i had to drop her at the cattery but luckily showed up eventually! we are in the middle of packing and getting organised. mil is already acting like a crazy person as a hairdresser has apparently completely ruined her hair and she ended up screaming at the girl 'it's my son's wedding!!!' can't you just imagine it? lol
yes i feel that i have completely outgrown bb and i only come in here and flick through new posts to see if anything catches my eye. very over all the newborn baby stuff though (sorry arte, i know you're in the thick of it atm!!!). sep 07 is the only thing that keeps me checking in every day, just to see whats happening. sometimes i don't post but i usually know whats going on. its become such a habit now, that i feel weird if i haven't read the thread for a few days.
trill- good luck with maths exam!!

Happy Birthday G, hope you have fun in Sydney and the flight goes well. Our cat always goes missing when she sees the box - last time K locked her in the bathroom before we went!

Bummer, K is going to miss a little friends birthday when we are up in Canberra for the Wiggles.

We are nowhere near dry overnight. She still wears the proper nappies but the stand up ones. We've probaly had 4-5 times when she has come in the middle of the night and asked for help to go to the toilet, but that's all. She appeared at 1am this morning because she had bumped her head, but she'd already wet her nappy. We always make her sit on the toilet before she goes to bed (and after we've done stories). DH wet the bed until he was about 7 or 8 so I don't have high hopes! I am also enjoying my sleep too much to go and wake her in the middle of the night. And I tend to go to bed about 9:30, so not really late enough to take her to the loo before I go.

Hi girls!

MP: oh wow, that water park at Putney sounds awesome! i think just the thought of swimming weather is making me green with envy ATM hahahaha!
I can't believe that J is at the age where toilet training is a chance...far out! all our babies are growing up sooo fast!

G: happiest of happy birthdays for yesterday!! :happybirthday:

OMG, that would of been quite full on with the yelling in the hairdressers lol. My Mum had a similar disaster at her besties wedding, where the woman gave her such a bad haircut, and thankfully in this case Mum's lack of tact worked, because when she asked what mum thought, mum turned around and said: "i look like the effin' queen's mother' :ROFL: it was soooo embarrassing and yet so so hilarious....because it really was a gross hairstyle lol.

Cally: i reckon you could still give it a shot to get her to go at 9.30. that said, i reckon they all just grow out of it eventually, so maybe there is seriously little need to push it!

oopps, gotta go. marta wants to go to bed :o (a rare occasion!)

Hi everyone. I have been really busy but have nothing to report. My father has been over from Australia so he was here two nights in a row, then last night some friends came over for tea.

Erin got better from cold #2 and then a couple of days later she was blocked up with cold #3! I cannot believe it!

I might be on ACA soon - some local lady was pretending to represent Jason Cole man and trying to scam my gym teacher and somehow they found out about it (his mum wasn't impressed - about the scam and ACA) and interviewed him this afternoon, filmed us all doing a step class (keep an eye out for the lady down the front in the purple top) before confronting her in the carpark (such classic television!!)

Arte - hope you had a good visit with your Dad.

Not much happening here either.

Bahaha Cally. Do you remember our SupaBlondie was on the telly doing an exercise class in an episode of ?McLeods. LOL It's a Sept07 mummies tradition LOL. Your 2 and a half seconds of fame (and at least the ACA story isnt' some kind of scandal over there being no poo in the pipes PMSL).

Arte, that's rotten she's having so many colds. Is she miserable with it or just snotty? I hope your dad's visit went well.

When's G getting home from Sydney? I hope you have a lovely time my dear, try to ignore MIL's performance best you can.

MP you trip sounds great and the water park thing sounded like so much fun. We went to a couple of waterparks when we were in QLD, not sure if they're the same kind of thing as that one.

E had her vaccination today (thanks for the reminder CAlly, we had the letter too). She didn't cry, she'd been with the FDC lady when her DD had hers and it sounds like the nurse there is just magic, there was a long story about some chicken who ended up with the pox, and she had to put her arms like ducky wings, etc, and scored a SHOWBAG at the end (!) How good is that? Her arm's a bit sore tonight, though.

Re the night waking - am reassured by your comments. We take her to the toilet before we go to bed, but that doesn't always prevent it. We've just bit the bullet and bought another box of pull ups. We had a chat tonight and she said something about if she feels it coming she will "squeeze it in again" LOL. Hmmm, we'll see. I know it's not an issue at this age.

Cally: you go girl! that is so awesome! i love that the 07 group is busted doing exercise on tv lol. that said, my .5 second 'fame' on "Rush" witnessed me shoving food into my gob...

MD: sheesh, i am slack. we havent had Ls vax done yet! i better do it now, before we go to LA. something else for the ever growing list haha.

I am with you on the TT. things happen in their own time and there will be a night when she will tell you that she doesnt want them on anymore. there might be accidents after that, but then they have made that choice and are really thinking about it ITMS.

G: hope that you havent been washed away in the sydney storms!

Sherie: how is no study time going? did you wake up the next day lost??? i know i did lol!

AFM: well, we are still in sleep deprivation. it seems to be getting worse rather than better. I am up roughly every 1.5 hours with M :o. i cannot believe it.

Cass, can you believe that there have been times that waking up every 1.5 hours would have been comparatively fantastic around here! I feel bad for you, it sucks the big one. L.A. is getting much closer! Excited or nervous?

I seem to be riding a wave of freebies - my father bought over a microwave for us because it was $700 here and only $230AUD, then he wouldn't take any money for it. Then our friends bought round takeaways the other night and they wouldn't take money either. Now today I went to pick up half a cattle beast of meat from mum and she won't take any bloody money either! Not that we can't use the money for other things, but I feel guilty!

Arte - don't feel bad, I'm sure there will be times when you end paying more than you really need to!

yeah nah arte. dont feel bad! people like to give! and what comes around goes around IYKWIM?

AFM: enjoying the sunshine and slightly warmer weather today. I just wish it warm up properly already!

Leila and I went nuts buying all the gorgeous summery fruits today :) cherries, a WHOLE tray of mangoes, nectarines, papaya mmm mm mmmmm!

Cass, it started all sunshine and beautiful here and then turned to crud - I was considering putting the fire on this afternoon! How is L's fruit allergy going now? Is she growing out of it at all?

Went out last night for dessert last night with some MG girls and lost my purse. Had to drive back into town at midnight to see if I could find it and sure enough it was lying in the middle of the road. Small towns do have their benefits :).

LOL at the purse story Arte! I wouldn't worry about the freebies either - things usually work out in the end and everyone pays their dues.

Speaking of freebies - FIL brought us a 5kg box of cherries yesterday! I have no idea what we are going to do with them all because we just can't eat them that quick. I might have to stew some and freeze them.

Filled in the application today for L for high school. We decided to send him to boarding school. Such a hard decision to make!! But it isn't a private school, it's still a fully Govt school, they are just an agricultural boarding school. It's not even 1.5hrs away and he will be home every Friday night. It's a selective school so we do the application, they get the required info from his school and then based on that he may or may not have to sit an exam. We'll get told in June if he got in or not. I can't believe I even have to think about high school for him yet though! He's pretty keen on it - he stil gets to play footy on the weekend so he's happy. We started thinking about it because we don't want him to end up being a 'big fish in a little pond' which is possible if he goes to the high school here. He's one of the top 5 students in his year and I don't think he will be pushed hard enough kwim? It will be taken for granted that he's bright and he does well, so there will be no incentive to see how well he can do kwim? He is already not being challenged enough. The school is great and his teacher is fantastic and does what she can, but we reckon once he gets to high school that he will just cruise along unless a specific teacher pushes him harder.

Trill: big decision, but sounds like one that he will be thankful for in no time. i love that he comes home on Fridays. keeps the family together and means that he has a safe place to vent and relax away from the other kids IYKWIM.

Arte: oh man, if i even dropped my purse for a second here it would be G.O.N.E. probably not helped by the fact that there is a really ugly, sad Keno bar (gambling joint) on the corner. Such a sad place...saw a family (mum and 3 kids) waiting all day for the bloke to finish gambling the other day :(

AFM: well, we have had some really lovely happy days :dance:. so nice after the monstrous week or so! thankfully we are also getting a wee bit more sleep with marta down to only one wakeup overnight. i am hoping that now that she has cut the tooth that that was what it was. i am not so sure, but live in the land of hope nonetheless :)

And the LA trip gets closer! we have finally locked in the people that are looking after the house and the animals while we are away :dance: they have agreed to the price ($150 a week to cover rates and insurance). so that is also such a relief as that will help at our end IYKWIM. It is going to be strange having the two girls on my own in a new country, but am also looking forward to it as well. Also, am relieved to be getting L out of her current place as there is a girl in her group that i have some serious doubts about and, now, some concerns. (warning TMI sensitive topic ahead!) The other day L came home and role-played having a penis in her pants and put a ball there. I know that it sounds fairly innocuous, but my bestie growing up endured sexual abuse and this was the kind of role-play that she would get me to play...so when i saw L playing this game it gave me chills. there have been some smaller instances but after that game the other day it kinda put the other behaviour and games that they play into more perspective ITMS. i dunno, i feel like bringing it up with the centre as i am concerned about L being exposed to any of that kind of stuff (as i was, and it was pretty hard to deal with).

maybe i am overreacting :dunno:

Cass - you're not over reacting. I definitely think it's worth mentioning it to the carers, they may already have concerns or it might mean they keep a bit of a closer eye on her.

Trill - big decision, but I think it is worth it if you're concerned he's just going to coast through school and not try. That's one of the things that I am concerned about with K's schooling, particularly after the experience DH had.

yeah i have to say that I have been thinking about your decision to with the boarding school thing and even moreso, totally agree with it. I remember when i was growing up in a small coastal town in QLD, i was top of the class and didnt have any competition IYKWIM. then i went to Brisbane and it was a bit of a shock. I was still good, but there were others that were also just as good (and *gasp* better!). i remember feeling really devastated at the time, but soon got my thinking boots on and studied harder and focused more on what i wanted out of it ITMS.

AFM: well, we took a trip to bunnings to fill the sandpit. it will be the bane of my existence this summer as sand is traipsed through the house, but the girls are loving it. I also bought some 'pots of colour' (pansies) and planted them in the cubby house flower box :). looks so cute! but i am certain that Marta will pick all the flowers in no time lol.
Leila's lateset bug bear are hair ties! impossible to get to put them in!! she would try to get away without brushing her hair, but I have drawn the line there lol. arghhh! i want to tie up her locks from time to time as, by the end of the day there are sooo many knots!

Cass, have you tried those elastic type ones? They are called snagless hair ties or something like that. They look like plastic but they can't pull them out of their hair. I used those on the girls when they were little and didn't like their hair being put up. LOL at getting sand - you wil regret doing, you know that don't you? ;) But one tip - don't let them play in it while it is damp because it will stick to them, but if it's dry sand it wont stick. And I would definitely be saying something. Exploring their bodies is a natural part of development, but there is natural and then there unnatural kwim? I would have been shocked to see her doing that and now you can put a lot of things in context, I think it might be time to say something. The carers may genuinely not know and letting them know what's going on just gives them a heads up too.

Cally, you don't really have many options down there either do you? I suppose you'd have to look at canberra schools if you wanted private?

We used to be firmly in the camp of not using boarding school. DH went from yrs 7-10 and always saw it as a complete waste of his parents money - not that he didn't do well or didn't appreciate it, but more that there were other things they could have spent $15k per year on. But now we're actually at that point in time where we have to really think about it we just aren't sure if the local high school will be good enough. DH did raise a good point last night though about whether he will actually get better marks over there and said there is no point if he isn't going to do a lot better. So I spent part of today trying to look for HSC results comparisons and NAPLAN results and the boarding school still comes out on top. Plus I think he will have more opportunities there than he will here. He probably wont do as well as he could if he went to the school DH went to but that school has a different focus and tends to direct students towards professional careers.

Trill - there are 2 public high schools near us, one Catholic and one Anglican (it's still pretty small, ie 10 kids in Year 12 this year). More options than you have I imagine! The private ones aren't an option due to DH's job, but their results aren't worth it anyway (they don't do as well as the public). The big issue for us will be that DH will be deputy or higher - will she want to be going to the same school as him?? One option in Canberra for boarding and OMG the cost!!

Cass - can you have a shallow bucket for dipping feet/hands in by the back door plus a towel? Cause if's there any water within a 1km radius, they will track it down and mix it with that sand!!

Trill, boarding school can be the making of some people - my BIL went and he can get along with everyone and is very life smart iykwim. He was 2 hours from home and went back for weekends to begin with but just holidays by the time he was a senior. I won't mention that DH and I used to buy his alcohol on occasion when he was 14 :redface:
Not sure what we will do when the time comes. The high school here is only about 300 kids, so probably only about 30 in the top year so the kids do some classes by correspondence during school.

Cass, if you leave sand mess for a bit it magically disappears into the carpet :) I had a friend that played games like that when we were kids and it turned out her step father was molesting her and her sister. I would discretely raise the issue with the carers.

Pet day at kindy tomorrow. Won't subject the poor old cat to a car ride (she gets dealt enough misery these days!) so I might print a couple of photos of her for W to take.

Hi ladies, how's everyone doing? I've got DH and DD1 away at the moment which has been a bit weird but surprisingly calm and orderly. Guess I know now where the household chaos is really coming from!

Cass, that summery fruit sounds gorgeous. As you know, I do not love summer, but I'm happy to make an exception for the seasonal fruit LOL. BTW I would absolutely bring that kind of play up with the centre. If it was innocuous then no harm, but if it's a red flag it might well be the specific thing that the centre needs to do something about it, in which case it's very valuable to have talked to them.

Trill - wow high school. H had her orientation day on Tues, seemed to be a success, and I was glad to see there's a few nice girls from her "group" who are going there, not that she'll have any problems socialising and making friends. I think E will be more introverted in that regard. Anyway, week boarding is good provided your parents don't constantly make excuses as to why they can't get you on the weekends :rolleyes:. Does it add significantly to the cost? I'm still reeling from the letter we got advising the fee increase for DD's new school next year, it's now quite a bit more than comparible schools in the eastern suburbs/north adelaide. This is our local school so I don't know why it should be so. I have such a good vibe about it in every other way, but I'm fretting about the cost especially next year when we're shelling out for childcare as well.

Cally, why is private not an option because of DH's job? Plenty of public school teachers send their kids private.

Arte, excellent score on the freebies. Don't feel guilty, enjoy. Sometimes the tide flows in and sometimes it flows out and that's just the way it should be. I like your sandpit management practice...that's my kind of housework! LOL How did pet day go? I rolled up to E's kindy last week and they had a whole touch table of real, stuffed snakes, lizards etc. I do sooooo hope they emphasised messages about NOT touching when you find them for real!!

MD - The first criteria on any public school position is 'a commitment to public education'. It's pretty hard for a teacher to demonstrate that commitment if they're sending their own kids to a private school (and certainly if you're a deputy or Principal). At least, that is the case in NSW and because this is a small community, you can't keep it a secret! And if you're sending your kids to the 'opposition' (when local), that means it is one less enrolment contributing to the staffing, funding etc at the public school. Mum was a public teacher, she just never indicated where her kids went (much easier in a big city!) If she got a scholarship to my old school in Canberra where she could board, then I think that would be considered differently and I would be encouraging that!

Cally, that's one of the reasons why I've always been opposed to private schools -means much less for the public schools in the long run in so many ways. The only reason I'm agreeing to L going to boarding school is because it is still a Public school which just happens to be a selective boarding school. Makes it harder when your choices are limited though doesn't it?

MD, LOL at there being no chaos with the other two away. We definitely wont be leaving him there on weekends - it adds an extra $1500 per year to the cost and we can't justify full boarding when we only live a reasonably short distance from the school anyway.

hi ladies!!!
I'm back from sydney trip. had a pretty good time, i have to say it is very stressful staying on the side of a river with two little boys though. i am extremely paranoid about drowning so had a lot of trouble just relaxing iykwim? anyways, lovely to be back home, i do love where we live sooo much!!
just counting the days now till L's op. very anxious but looking forward to having it over.

trill- the boarding school sounds great and your weekends with him will be super special. i think he'll love it there.

cass- did you speak to the carers at all? that does sound strange behaviour.

md- enjoy your time just the two of you!

hope everyone has a lovely weekend

hi all
just popping on quickly to say hi. busy as always here
our house in canb up for auction tomorrow - i am expecting it to pass in but sellin the week after... still pretty stressful!
DH going for the day and mum taking J to the aquarium so N and I havinga day together - cant wait
I booked N in to see an OT next week - i think he is a little behind on gross motor and his confidence is low - so we arwe going to work on that
took J with me to drop N at kinder today - he HATES leaving him there - he loves it there and wants to stay. major meltdown and tanty in the 'piazza' (foyer).
I spent wed morning with Noah's clas making jome made foccacia - we all loved it
week 4 of 6 week detox here and feeling great!

bbl to write more - sorry no personals. xxx

MP, good luck with the auction today. Hope you and N have a good day.

MD, bummer about being solo for 2 weeks! I think your DH might be in my old neighborhood - gee I would like to go back for a trip down memory lane. Pet day went well - A was totally in her element with all the animals to look at. She managed to snag herself a little teacup fluffy puppy to cart around for a while, had no qualms about draping herself over the pit bull(!) and kept sticking her fingers in the cage with the chooks that kept pecking her lol. W isn't that animal focused so it was a bit ho hum for him.

G, glad you had a good trip. Did your MIL behave herself? DH keeps talking about camping by the river but it isn't overly relaxing being so close to water. I know W would be fine but A tends to have no fear and is sooo clumsy I could see her falling in.

Trill, how did your teaching maths exam go? What are the basics in teaching early maths skills? W's kindy teachers have noticed that some of his maths concepts are ones that most kids develop around 7 and he is certainly interested but I don't know where to start. I am really struggling for ways to keep him stimulated (bored W = brat W), he is halfway through reading eggs but still seems like he needs more. I probably sound like a hot houser, but I am just trying to keep him occupied with stuff he is interested in and very capable of (I don't force him to do it, he nags and nags to do it). He has always had an obsession - bugs, biology, volcanos, space etc - but for the last few months he has had nothing of interest to think about and role play. It is making life difficult!

My father's visit went well. Not awkward like it used to be so that was good.

What are people doing for xmas this year? We got the kids a mini quad bike to share and might get a couple of little things each. We are going to the beach for 10 days and DH's family are coming up to join us. They are staying in a separate house so it is the best of both worlds :)

MP, fingers crossed for a good price today so you don't have the hassle later! Were there many that took contracts at all? I had to LOL at J not wanting to leave N - brings back memories of when I had to drop L off at Preschool and E never wanted to leave! Good luck with N's appointment too - Im sure there is nothing wrong with him. Have you considered joining him up for a sport or something to help his motor skills get better?

G, Loved your welcome home present from KitKat! At least it looked somewhat fresh and not something he'd had there for a while LOL.

Arte, I think the exam went well. We don't get the results released till the 28th though. I can't really give much advice because I don't know what he can and can't do with maths. A lot of kids have a general idea of number etc, but aren't ready to get in to the nitty gritty of understanding how to use numbers, if that makes sense? What concepts do the kinder teachers think that he understands? If you really wanted to help him, I'd start by looking at the curriculum for NZ and start at kindergarten and see what the learning outcomes they need are. You could also buy some beginner maths workbooks and see how he goes with those. Games like dominoes are also helpful as well. BUT, what are you going to do about school? If he is as smart as you think he is, unless you enrol him in a specific school that can cater for a kid like him, then you are going to have nothing but problems with him in a normal, mainstream school. If he is already reading well and apparently has number concepts that a 7yo has, what do you honestly think is going to happen once he starts kindergarten and is in a class full of kids who are no where near where he is? I can see a few senarios already with that situation - 1 he will go to a normal school, the school wont know how to deal with him because he will be in a class with normal kids so he will either be taught half heartedly because they don't know what to do with him or he will be left to cruise along because their priority will be to the kids who don't know how to read, write or do maths which will lead to him acting up because he is bored stiff. The other alternative is that they will teach him to the detriment of the other kids. Some teachers will do that - only teach the brightest students and leave the rest to flounder which is unacceptable IMO. 2 A mainstream school with no experience of kids like W wont accelerate him into a higher class. He would have to be proven to be truly gifted before they will accelerate a child these days into a higher class - it's not like when you or I went to school and a kid could skip grades and TBH, socially I don't think W would cope with that. So what that could mean is he is left in the class he should be in and be given harder work - but there is only so much that can do too because what happens when he progresses to the next year and he is already 1 or 2 years ahead? That creates a flow on issue for any teacher that has him. And if the situation in NZ is as bad as it can be here in places, then his teacher simply may not have the time, resources or inclination to make sure he's taught to his abilities. Sadly, that is the reality of it. He might get lucky and get a great teacher one year who recognises W is a bit different, but the next year he might get a teacher who just doesn't care and is only marking time till something better comes along.

Another problem is that he may not be so bright in all areas of learning, so what if you try to have him accelerated because he is good at reading and maths, but is totally normal and average in an area like art or music etc? Generally they will only accelerate kids if they are gifted in all areas, otherwise what are they going to do with him if he is failing in other areas because that's not where his intelligence lies? It's not fair to have him do well in some areas, but suck at others just to nurture the ones he's good at kwim?

I don't think you're hothousing as such, but I do think you are making a rod for your own back at times - and I say that as a friend :hug: . It's great that you are doing all this for him, but its all going to be pointless if he gets to school and falls into a void because the school isn't right for him. I think what will help is having him formally assessed for giftedness so once he gets to school you can say, yep, this is the deal with him, so what can you do for him? If they can't give you a good enough solution to how they would teach him, then you need to find another school that will be able to handle him. The only other option is to formally homeschool him and then you know that his needs are being met all the time and you can teach him to his abilities. This is why we've decided to send L to boarding school because we just dont' think that the local high school is going to meet his needs properly and he deserves to be taught in a way that will help him reach his fullest potential - just like W deserves it.

Arte, I think your old neighbourhood is where Cass's granddad lives? So it's possible you two have had a crossing of paths and never realised it - like Cass and MP did in Canberra :lol:. LOL @ A being in her element with all the creatures. Both of my girls have been like that but E much more so than H. She is passionately attached to our cat who gets good morning cuddles and good night kisses even when the rest of the family doesn't. She's getting old now so I hope she manages to linger on for a few more years because the heartbreak when she dies is gonna be a kicker. BTW I think you should introduce W to your local postoffice-librarian, it could be that he could start being a bit more self-directed in selecting stuff he's interested in at the library (even though it's probably a small library I'm pretty sure there would be a circulating collection so the librarian can order more stuff in for him in his subjects of interest). Once he's reading you can teach him how to use some kids search engines and he'll be off and running then! LOL BTW I agree with Trill, maybe now is a good time to get him formally assessed before he starts school, so you can take decisions that will address the bigger picture as well as hopefully help you to find some tools and resources to support him wherever he is at. (not that assessment is the be all and end all, but it's a start).

MP - good luck with the auction - hope it's a great outcome. Your foccaccia making morning sounds awesome!

Ginger, Glad your trip away worked out ok, I'm with you 100% on not being able to relax near water. My dad has an unfenced pool and I'm always on tenterhooks when we're there. What date is L's op again? Hang in there, and remember the benefits far outweigh the scariness factor.

Well the youngest gemini is back in da house and *sigh* the P&Q factor has evaporated. LOL

Hey has anyone been following X factor? I was at the shops yesterday and Reece was going to be performing at 5pm, and OMG there were girls already lining up at 11am. When I went back there around 3 it was already getting to standing room only and the heat and hysteria was building, the ambos were already attending to someone (!) That boy has to win, he's crazy good.

MD, I was on he Ipswich/Brisbane border - couple of hours from Cass's g-dad.

Trill, I don't know what will happen at school. Aren't a couple of your kids working a couple of years above their level? How are they doing? Personally I don't think W is gifted, just very bright. I think some kids are just ready to start before others and he will probably level out as he gets older. He was well and truly ready to start reading - he was walking around looking at things and telling his teachers what letter things started with and was sounding out words. I was worried about what would happen at school but a very respected ex kindy teacher at playgroup told me that it wasn't for me to hold him back to make it easier for the teachers, it was up to them to cater to his needs. So I went with it. He has gone from around 20 sight words to reading sentences like "This is the king. He likes to play games" in 6 weeks. He learns so quickly that if I didn't teach him now then it would only be a matter of months before he was ahead of the class anyway.
The maths concept the teacher commented on was knowing that a number like 152 was comprised of 100, then another 50, then 2. He can also add and subtract small numbers and is good at sequences - like he told me that when he is 5, A will be 3 and E will be 1. When I asked what would happen when he was 6 he knew that the girls would be 4 and 2.
I really don't know what to do. We don't even have any other school options if the one he is going to is no good - the one in this town is too rough and there are no others. It is something that does concern me and is always at the back of my mind, but what do I do? I can't help it if he wants to learn now instead of waiting until next year.
ATM the reading is keeping him challenged and occupied, anything problems that comes from it are for future Arte to deal with lol
Anyhow, sorry for crapping on about it. Wish they came with an instruction manual!

They are only showing the U.S X-factor here (but I am still addicted!)

Omg I love Reece!!!!! I want him to win for sure.
Bbl xox

Arte, I'm not saying that you shouldn't be doing it, what I'm saying is that by doing it, you will more than likely run into problems once he does start school. It's a crappy catch-22 situation for everyone. There are no guarantees that by leaving it up to the teachers to teach him that he will get taught kwim? Trust me when I say that a lot of mainstream schools just cannot handle gifted/exceptionally bright kids. I don't think you should hold him back either, but that doesn't mean accelerating him up a year level or two. The issues I've had with my kids are different to what you have - they were no where near the level W is at when they were that age, but once they got to school they thrived and moved ahead quickly. Last year when L was having problems with boredom in class it was mostly to do with him being in year 4 in a composite year 3/4 class where there was a massive range of abilities and he was at the top end of that range. One of the biggest issues was having to do group work and wait for the other kids to say the answer when he already knew it. I worked so hard with his teacher and the executive teachers to come up with strategies to get him through the year and it paid off, but you just cannot leave it up to the teachers alone to do it themselves. But now he is in year 5 in a compostite 5/6 class, there are a few year 6 kids in the class who are at or above his level as well as one of his mates who is equally as smart as he is and he's had a much better year and a lot of the problems from last year haven't happened again. Plus he has the same teacher he had last year and she's been absolutely brilliant in extending him and the other kids who need it. And in middle school at the high school he's been streamlined into the top classes as well. E on the other hand has levelled out the past few months because she is the type of kid who only does well if it comes easy to her, once it gets hard she gets lazy so it's brought her back in line with the others.

Maybe you're right and he will level out, but that first year or two of school is going to be really, really tough. Especially if the only school is as rough as you say it is. My guess is that there will be kids in his year group who will be really needy and more than likely leap years behind where W is, so the teacher will have their work cut out just teaching those kids the ABC's and counting to 10 let alone being able to extend W as much as he needs. I think he is an absolutely remarkable little boy, and I really hope he gets the education he is entitled to, but it's not always going to be easy to get it for him :hug:

I don't watch X factor or anything - can't stand all the palaver that the judges go on with LOL. So I have absolutely no clue who is even on it.

MD, I forgot to say before, isn't it cute how into animals girls are! I remember loving them so much as a kid - they were just sooooo cute I couldn't resist. If A sees a dog on the back of a ute driving past she calls "Hi dog" over and over lol. I hope your cat (and mine) last to a very ripe old age.

Trill, the school W is going to is quite good, but they are getting a new principal and DP next year so we will see how it goes. The other school is rough but is apparently on the improve. I guess I will just have to stay involved and make sure he is working at the right level. Should be alright, I don't think he will be that far ahead.

Time for a new thread ladies :D

Please find it HERE