MSE Parent Club - Part 2

chocaholic110

Becles, and anyone else in Co. Durham with older children that are starting to go on buses on their own. Did you know Arriva do a "Teen card" for children up to 18 and they can then travel on any bus in Co Durham for only 50p. I juts downloaded the application form for DS. It's going to save us a fortune as it costs him £1.20 just to get to the next village, never mind any further than that! When he goes to Durham it costs him around £6 to get there and back therefore saving around £5 each time.

nadnad

i'v been over to my friends house today and oz was playing with her little girl (shes 15 months) and he sat for ages all happy and content playing and banging things - even when te little girl wasnt in the room - he NEVER sits like that at home, he must get really bored even if i play with him. This afternoon since we got home he's been very good and ate all his tea - cauliflour and hoops and potato and toast and strawberrys! and he's playing by himself he must need more interaction with little ones. We go to jo jingles once a week but I really must go to a mother and baby group, it would do him good, and if the mothers are all cliquey i'll find another!

Savvy_Sue

redmel1621 wrote: »

Ds has also been asking if he can walk to school on his own, which is pretty pointless because I have to take ds2 to the same school, so I am going that way anyway!! I suppose I am a bit dubious of his road awareness!

It's not THAT daft to let an older child walk ahead of you when you have to take a younger child: DS1 and DS2 both started walking to school so they would get to play with his friends! DS3 was happy to skate in at the very last second (or later...)

You could start by letting him decide when it's safe to cross roads (but you retain a veto!), then let him walk a few paces ahead of you, and then let him out a few minutes earlier.

nadnad

so i checked online to see about any mother and baby/toddler groups but they are ALL in the morning from 10am or 10.30am and Oz has his nap from 9 or 9.30 usually for the most of 2 hours and its impossible to keep him awake so thats no good.

dont know what else to do with him to get him out and about.

Becles

chocaholic110 wrote: »

Becles, and anyone else in Co. Durham with older children that are starting to go on buses on their own. Did you know Arriva do a "Teen card" for children up to 18 and they can then travel on any bus in Co Durham for only 50p. I juts downloaded the application form for DS. It's going to save us a fortune as it costs him £1.20 just to get to the next village, never mind any further than that! When he goes to Durham it costs him around £6 to get there and back therefore saving around £5 each time.

Thanks - will look into that.

Mine have been walking to and from school alone since they started junior school. However, our street is a tiny quiet cul-de-sac and I can see the school from the front door! They just have to walk to the end of the street, along the side of the school field and in the school gate.

They've had a fair bit of freedom playing out, but again it's quiet and most of the houses in our street have children, so they all play together and everyone looks out for each other. There are fields and woods out the back and in recent years they've been allowed to play there.

We've had a bit of a problem with undesirable youths from another village hanging round and drinking on a night. I'll not let them play out in the dark and I don't like going to the shop in the dark as the youths hang round outside. The Police are trying to get rid of them and the shop lost it's alcohol licence for selling to them, so the problem hasn't been so bad recently.

SusanC_2

I used to walk to and from school by myself when I was five but it was five minutes walk with no roads to cross and my mum could see the school entrance from one of the bedroom windows to make sure I got there okay. She said it was pointless for her to take me as when she picked me up I would run ahead and be waiting on the doorstep when she got home. We were allowed to play in the street (a cul de sac) quite young but not allowed to go on the road and then when we were older we were allowed on the road but not past where the white lines started. It all depends on the street and the kids really. When we moved here there would be three year olds playing in the back streets unsupervised which I was initially quite shocked by but they were fairly with it and the older children would make sure they got out of the way of cars.

Sami_Bee

nadnad wrote: »

so i checked online to see about any mother and baby/toddler groups but they are ALL in the morning from 10am or 10.30am and Oz has his nap from 9 or 9.30 usually for the most of 2 hours and its impossible to keep him awake so thats no good.

dont know what else to do with him to get him out and about.

I take it as ur not in a city/town hat you don't have sure start centres nearby?
Have you looked for posters at the doctors or church notice boards? - lots of the small groups don't advertise on the net, it tends to be the franchises like jo jingles etc that have info on the web
Have you asked your HV (if she is a good one) they usually know about the groups going on.
Now Chris is older I tend to go to groups in my home town (10mins away) rather than here as they are at more convenient times and they have more toddler stuff going on it's more baby focussed here.
I find out about a lot of groups from the childminders that go to my toddler group too, maybe you could go covert and pretend you are interested in sending Oz to a CM and ask them if they go to any groups (I'm clutching a straws a bit there )

Js_Other_Half

nadnad wrote: »

so i checked online to see about any mother and baby/toddler groups but they are ALL in the morning from 10am or 10.30am and Oz has his nap from 9 or 9.30 usually for the most of 2 hours and its impossible to keep him awake so thats no good.

dont know what else to do with him to get him out and about.

http://www.surestart.gov.uk/aboutsurestart/help/contacts/northernireland/ lists the sure start centres in NI. However, I only went to one course locally when DS was small.
Does NI have things like sing and sign? I've now finished our classes but still meet up occasionally with some of the other mothers. We now do a music class called rhythm time - I ended up meeting a former colleague there, so she visited me this week as there were no classes.

Have you checked out both http://www.mumsnet.com/ and http://www.netmums.com/ - they often list what classes and activities are on in your area.

nadnad

thanks Sami and JS. Yes there is a surestart close to us but the only group it has is on a wednesday at 10am and thats too early cos he's sleeping then.

I've checked the sites mentioned and there arent the many things round here but any there are are again in the mornings.

there is a couple of church toddler groups but they're are in morning time too! what is going on do they think babies shut down after 12!

there are no sign and sign classes about I've checked in fact the only alternative class to a mum and toddler group is jo jingles which is why i jumped at that.

oh well.

SusanC_2

nadnad wrote: »

there is a couple of church toddler groups but they're are in morning time too! what is going on do they think babies shut down after 12!

It seems to be the opposite round here - loads of things are early afternoon but Alice has a nap 1-2.30 (used to be 12-2 but gradually got later and shorter) and then has a feed so we are not free until about 3. Doesn't bother me as I don't really want to go but you'd think there'd be a better spread of things so that everyone who wanted to could get to something.