MSE Parent Club - Part 2

SusanC_2

Just catching up - it's been busy and MSE didn't e-mail me to say that the thread had been updated for some reason.

Becles wrote: »

I've done volunteer work in school and have seen children who haven't been taught what I call life skills - like how to sit at the table, how to use cutlery, don't know how to sit on the carpet and listen to the teacher, and basic manners like not interrupting and stuff.

I don't think it is linked to working full time or not. I just think some parents are lazy and expect school to socially educate their child as well as academic education.

Joshua has just started doing cookery this term. He's in the first year of secondary school (Year 7). They made cookies last week which he found easy as he's made them umpteen times at home, but he was shocked that some of his friends have never cooked a thing before.

I think aside from some parents not being interested/bothered, people can tend to forget that school does not teach children everything they need and that they still need to teach certain things to their children. Also the curriculum has changed so whereas girls used to learn how to cook properly at school, now they don't.

Becles wrote: »

Charlotte loves helping out already. She had a chair against the bench earlier, and I chopped all the veg up and she put the pieces in the steamer basket. Some bits got a bit chewed or licked on the way though

Alice likes "sampling" when she helps with the cooking too.

Dormouse wrote: »

I only found this out not long ago too. I think back in 2007 when we had our (latest) babies it was still ok to give it to under-2s, but then they changed their minds :rolleyes: , all because some moronic parents can't read the instructions and don't realise there's paracetamol in it. :mad:

Anyway, DS1 had Medised as a baby and so DS2 gets it too. :cool: Not often, obviously - in fact I can't remember the last time he needed it - but still. And anyway, I still have an old bottle that says 3 months on it. :cool:

We've been merrily buying Medised whenever Alice had a bad cold since the changes in February and only found out when OH tried to buy it in Tesco (we usually buy it from the pharmacy over the road from us). Our pharmacy still sells it and it still has the instructions for down to 3 months.

chocaholic110 wrote: »

How old are babies when they form attachments to objects? Tom doesn't really have anything that's a big favourite...apart from the tv remote control that he likes to carry about with him.

Alice has never shown any attachment particuarly to anything. She'll suck her thumb to go to sleep and when she's got nothing better to do (like in the car). She has just recently (at 21 months) started having a penguin to cuddle in bed but she's just got into cuddly toys (always wants to cuddle every teddy on the shelf in shops) so I think if we swapped it for another cuddly toy she'd be just as happy. A friend told me that 18 months is the age that they are supposed to be most attached to anything they are attached to but I don't know if that's true.

Js_Other_Half wrote: »

Ds has always had a muslin in his crib or cot, and it's another signal that it's now nap time - he likes pulling it over his face! He recently (about 3/4 month ago) really took to a little cuddly rabbit we bought in Ikea. It now lives in his cot, on a permanent basis, because it doesn't like leaving his bedroom...;). The rabbit was £2, and there are two spares currently camped in my wardrobe just in case...

I'd suggest rotating them regularly now so thatt hey wear evenly otherwise if you lose the original the replacement might be too different.

purplepatch wrote: »

Just to add a question for all those with older kids, does anyone know of any rhyme or any really effective way to teach the pairs of numbers that make 10? I've made flashcards with the pairs of numbers on one side and also more flashcards with one number on the front and the other on the back. She's doing pretty well with it, but if there was a poem to teach her (on the lines of 30 days have September type thing) that would be great.

I haven't got older kids or a poem but I have taught that age and one thing we used to do was chant through the number bonds to ten while holding fingers up so I would hold my right thumb up (and the children would hold their left thumb up so they were going left to right) and we would say, "1 and 8 makes 10". Then we would put the next finger up and say, "2 and 8 makes 10" and keep going till we'd got to, "9 and 1 make 10". The idea is that they're doing something with their fingers, seeing their fingers and saying it all at the same time. Basically number bonds to ten are something they memorise because it helps with maths and mental arithmetic later on. (Apparently they've been doing it in the Netherlands for years and their chidlren are much better at mental arithmetic.) So say you were doing 42 minus 27 you would jump quickly from 27 to 30 using number bonds to ten and then from 30 to 40 then from 40 to 42 then add up 3, 10 and 2 to make 15.

Deleted_User wrote: »

Proud Mummy moment (although you do have to be a parent to understand this one).....I've just put Jack to bed and was cleaning his teeth, he said wee wee, so he sat on the toilet and did a wee and then his first ever poo as well on there. I was so pleased with him. In the last few days he's started telling us when he's done a poo, which is a result, he usually denies any knowledge despite a stinky bum.

I'm thinking I might have this cracked by spring, but trying to be patient and follow his lead, if I rush him he might regress.

I think the denial may be related to not wanting to take time out for the toilet or a nappy change as Alice has started denying she needs the toilet when she does in the last month or two.

Sami_Bee wrote: »

Your dad sound like my kinda maths teacher! (I LOVE maths )
My mum says that she finds that a lot of the children she teaches (the ones that are bellow the expected level set by the gov) usually find it easier to talk about money instead of numbers and things like if you had 10p and a sweet costs 2p how many sweets can you afford to buy?

I guess your mum is dealing with older children but when I was teaching Y1 money most of them had never handled money and did not understand it at all. If you gave them three coins they would think it was 3p regardless of what they actually were.

chocaholic110

SusanC wrote: »

I guess your mum is dealing with older children but when I was teaching Y1 money most of them had never handled money and did not understand it at all. If you gave them three coins they would think it was 3p regardless of what they actually were.

It can depend on the area too. Where I teach children are often sent to the corner shop and are quite good with money but I used to teach in quite a wealthy area where all the children lived on housing estates nowhere near shops and shopping was done using a debit / credit card in the supermarket and those children didn't have a clue.

lwcus78

Thanks for your replies girls, I feel so much better. A problem shared is a problem halved. I've had a little sleep this pm whilst he was napping. Think I was just exhausted and emotional. xx

Lu_T

SB & Sami - I need a report on how you get on with your Phil & Ted's pleeeaassee! I'm thinking it's our only option for when TJ arrives, so would appreciate your opinion. I have a Fiesta, so am worried about whether it will go in the boot, so any info before I haul myself out to Mothercare to test one out.

Lwcus - glad we can help. Do stick around.

OK, I feel mean. Just been up to Imogen who is playing instead of napping :mad: She's been given some chocolate buttons at playgroup - we only get home at 2.45pm - and I said she could have them after she'd had a nap. I've just been up to put her back in bed and reminded her I said she couldn't have the buttons unless she slept. As I left the room she said, "Don't eat my buttons Mummy,"

Let me explain. She doesn't normally get chocolate but was given some in a party bag last weekend. I saved them til the next day and when she started playing up while I was trying to put her cream on & get her dressed I said if she didn't behave I would eat them instead. I know it was a bit mean, but she really was messing about. Anyway, about 5 chances later and I came downstairs to get the buttons and then ate a handful in front of her. Needless to say she was completely co-operative for the rest of the cream/dressing and then happily munched her buttons.

I didn't feel bad about it last weekend as she understands perfectly well what I'm saying and I believe she needs to learn that I don't make idle threats. But now I feel pretty bad as she gets chocolate so little and she's worried I'm going to eat the buttons because she got out of bed once instead of napping. Am I a bad mummy?!

nadnad

Oh Lu I'm sorry but that made me giggle - i can just imagine a little one staring open mouthed as mummy eats their chocolate!

no you're not a bad mummy just a funny one lol and it worked didnt it?!

Lu_T

You're not kidding it worked! I'm not the kind of parent to bribe her to be good by offering chocolate, but I didn't mind taking it off her for being bad! Thanks, I feel better now.

Sami_Bee

Susan: My Mum is a HLTA so teaches all primary age but the ones that she specifically teaches are underachivers and in her school that tends to be the one from poorer families that get sent to the shop or given a small amount of pocket money to spend on 10p mixes etc

Purple: I asked how they taught number bonds and she said the same as some1 on here, by holding up both hands and chanting as you go

Lu: I shall report my findings with P&T although I know it will fit in my boot even though I've not tried it but I can just see (I've got a Citroen C4)
I think hubby will want a play tonight now he's back from Dublin.
All I can say at the mo is its alway the one that gets recommended by other mums of newborns with toddlers.
I love how it looks and feels to push round the living room
but I know the shape of it will make it harder to get in the boot as I'm used to having umbrella folding pram & pushchair
the instructions are pretty bad but the kiddicare video helps!

And ur a fab mum

purplepatch

Thanks to everyone for the comments about Olivia's number bonds, some really good ideas there to try, plus it is good to hear some reassurance that she will get there in time. I do think it is a bit early to have all these expectations of them, like you say, they are only 5 for goodness sake. I'm not the most patient person in the world and I do find it quite exasperating that it doesn't seem to stick in her brain.

She played one of the website number bond games this morning before school and got 100 sums correct, but even after that many goes, they haven't stuck in her memory at all :rolleyes::rolleyes: I do try not to show that I'm frustrated but I do slip up sometimes and sigh and make comments like you've just done this one not ten seconds ago!! Will try to be more patient and will keep plugging away. Will try Susan's idea next of chanting and using fingers. She likes using her fingers for adding/subtracting so it might help.

I think really that it is probably something that will just click with her in time and she's just that little bit too young. As I've mentioned before, I'm now working at her school in the office doing admin and I've only just typed up and circulated all of the year groups' curriculum newsletters. I must say I did think at the time that they looked a bit ambitious, so I'm going to take it all with a pinch of salt and take on board Mr Becles Senior's assertion that it's all a load of total b.......cks!! :rotfl:

Becles

If you think it's bad now, wait until you get the pleasure of SATS.

It starts revving up in Year 5, where they are made aware that things need working on for SATS. Then in Year 6 it's just constant ramming down their throats about performance in SATS tests.

At our school they have extra classes after school and Year 6 don't perform in the Christmas play as they're far too busy working on SATS. They do thousands of mock papers and by the time the tests come round in May, you never ever want to hear the word SATS again.

Joshua did it last year and he is very good academically and sailed through with 3 level 5's (top grades) but even he felt under pressure in case he didn't perform well enough. James isn't so good academically and he's in Year 5 now, so I'm getting a bit worried about how he's going to cope with the pressure next year.

Dad doesn't agree with these tests either and thinks it's too much pressure on something that is of no real benefit to the children and it's just for the school league table. He does work for an exam board too, setting and marking the GCSE maths papers, and he was offered the role of overseeing the Year 9 maths SATS (third year in secondary school). He refused and said he didn't agree with them, then had a bit of a "ha ha told you so" moment when they were abolished last year

Lu_T

Got my mother & baby group of friends coming tomorrow. Not all of them unfortunately as some are working/busy, but I've added up how many there will be and got to 16!! And that doesn't include babies in tummies - we'd have to add another 3 to the total for that!

It'll be fun though. Went to get some biscuits today (and grapes for the LOs) and had to buy 3 packs as I didn't think there'd be enough with 2. They'll not go to waste though (wink)