From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

I went to MrL and hB today.  There was a box at MrL, but I didn't bother looking at it - it hadn't been sold the entire time I was in the shop, which is usually an indicator that the contents aren't much cop.  Quite a bit YS'd, but nothing utterly useful - with the exception of some wholemeal baps which I picked up for 22p a pack, as they are useful for packed lunches.  Plenty of the bread I buy - in fact much of what was left on the shelf - was either 50% or 20% off, but I'm reluctant to buy masses of YS'd bread in the hot months, as it has a propensity to be mouldy.  Ask me how I learnt this....... So I actually paid full price for my loaves today.  

I did get the lettuce from the PoTW, and I did buy some strawberries, as a treat.

I then went to hb, picked up yoghurt and apples.  In total today I have spent £36.26 - all on food and some wine.

Club tonight and fees are due so I will have to sort that out from the CHB monies.  

Can't think of anything MSE orientated so I'll push orf.  Ta for reading.

Greying X

Cherryfudge

I'm late to the party but finally caught up - may I just add my experience re home ed? I taught my daughter for a year when she was about 12 and struggling with social tensions at school. After a year she felt ready to go back, but I hope she learned from it that she doesn't have to put up with rubbish situations. All these years later she has two degrees and a professional job, so she's obviously recovered from any shortfall in my teaching!

Home schooling doesn't have to be forever. For us it was about giving her a break from the stress of girl-politics. She got social contact with friends outside of school hours and through sports clubs and she's one of three so her situation wasn't the same as LG's.

I hope you find a good solution for them, it's very miserable when such a big part of your life is not going to plan, as you know. I do feel for you.

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks Cherryfudge - that's very sage advice.  And it's interesting that you've been there, done it, and can wear the t-shirt 😁👍  You've also made me question my own perception that it's not easy to 'move' between 'physical school', home ed and back again.  From what I have read, that fluidity is easier in the American system.  A knitter/sewer blogger did a full on home ed/then a hybrid home/zoom classes with school etc around the time we were coming out of c'vid, and there just seemed to be better resourced, and could move - relatively seamlessly between home and physical school.  I was reading our local authority's policy on home ed.  Gee they dunna want you to remove your kiddo from the mainstream......... 🙄 But are you allowed to keep your school place 'open' for a while?  Or would you have to take whatever school place was open when/if your child chose to return to bricks and mortar school?  Perhaps it depends on the LA?

It's been a funny week thus far, but at least - from a parental perspective - issues have been much more on the "these things happen in childhood/are part of growing up" scale.  Plus a substitute teacher, in for the next few days, is slightly more....... realistic I think is probably the word, and doesn't put up with nonsense, but just deals with things better, like the best teachers seem to be able to do.  This isn't their first rodeo, and it shows 😁 I haven't got any complaints about that, partially because there are plenty of times when staff behave completely unprofessionally and the consequences are damaging.  

Greying X

Humdinger1

@Greying_Pilgrim, there's a diary on here written by keedie. Her son did online school and then went back into mainstream college.  To be sure, it cost a little- but it was the best option for him and he thrived; keedie was also saving for things at the same time in a one-income household.  I know parents who've home schooled.  It's difficult if the children are clearly scientists, as you can't really set up labs etc at home.  But if LG won't take that path, it's not insurmountable.  Love Humdinger xx 

in_need_of_direction

Greying is it worth approaching the LA with duty of care concerns given their preference for mainstream education? On a, I feel I have no choice basis?

Greying_Pilgrim

Humdinger - I'll check that diary out.  I'm still not convinced that home ed is for LG, but it certainly doesn't harm to check these things out - gather options as it were.  

I know I've said this before, but I'm beginning to realise that LG being a team player, as well as a nice, kind, caring kid (they always get that mentioned on their reports/class challenge awards etc), is part of the problem.  They are a social kid who's in an environment of individualists.  Any sport/game, it's all about winning, being first for most of the other kids. LG and their class house mates excelled in the relay race, for others it was important to win the javelin, or sack race......... Team.individual.individual.

If it's online gaming - the kids will say 'I play with 6/8/10 classmates after school' - yes they do, but they're all at the end of their own telephone wires, and it's not collaborative play, it's who's avatar/username is highest up the leaderboard.  Even the kids who have siblings (of the ones who have been consistently horrid to LG) don't get along with their siblings, they argue or boss their siblings about.  I can think of two children who play with their younger siblings, visibly care about them and whom LG gets on with - the kiddos have nice personalities.  Co-incidence?

I overheard a conversation in the queue this morning, and it was about a child's (good) experience of moving to one of the local  high schools from this primary.  I don't know if the parents were making the point, or they didn't realise they were saying it, but it boiled down to the high school having a 'whole-school' work together approach, with everyone from yr 7 to 11 involved - giving the children responsibility for others, and bringing them along.  LG would thrive in that environment, and yet it's not an environment that is present in the primary school.  Technically we're in the right catchment for that high school, but whether the primary school will highlight LG's 'good fit' remains to be seen. It's highly oversubscribed, and has leant heavily on children from the "right" families getting places.   Plus of course, the pull of the 'friend d'jour' may make other high schools in Greying Town more attractive 🙄I recognise 'big picture' thinking isn't the preserve of yer average 11 year old (and there are reasons why it shouldn't have to be - I agree with that line of thought too).  

Things "seemed" easier when I was little - we went to the primary school in the nearest village, 2 miles away and we went to the secondary school next door to it when we were 11.  School was ok, but certainly not the best days of my life.  Times were different, expectations were different.  

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

INOD - sorry I missed you'd commented, forgive me.  

I'm not sure is the simple answer to that.  I don't know what the protocol would be to progress something on that basis.  I have to say, in terms of admissions (mid term or starting primary/secondary), which the LA administer on behalf of most (it seems) of the local schools, there is a very rigid adherence to the "rules", and I don't think 'not a good fit' would get us anywhere, or we'd be posted some brochures for the local private schools.... (I jest, but the LA is a bit, 'it's our way or the highway'...).  

I popped into Greying Town.  Nice to see the town bustling with tourists.  

I went to M&$ and picked up a 'dupe' of - I think - it is an American seasoning.  The one I got today was the Greek version, there is also one that has everything that you may seek to sprinkle on a bagel........ but they didn't have that one in stock.  I also picked up a 2kg bag of tatties, as they'd been YS'd down to 75p - even better than MrS the other day.  I then went to hb and got a pan for Detroit pizza (don't know if it'll work, but it wasn't too expensive, so worth a punt), and some pegs.  I then went to sooperdrug and stocked up on potions, lotions and unctions that cost an obscene amount of money 🫤

Ta for popping by.  Greying X

in_need_of_direction

Oh greying, what have you done.? DH restricts his use of the not the bagel seasoning as he’s always been reliant on people bringing it from USA. My dilemma is if I should tell him that an equivalent is available in the sparks shop.

LotsOfTea

@Greying_Pilgrim when it comes to applying for secondary schools please don't worry about any perceived ideas that certain families might get preference or that the opinions of a child's primary school have any influence over who gets to go to a certain secondary school. Schools have to publish their admissions criteria and there are strict rules about what they're allowed to use. If it's a religious school they're allowed to prioritise kids of that religion for a proportion of their intake, some schools will give a certain amount of priority to kids with a sibling at the school (although not all by any means) and they have to give some priority to looked-after children but mostly it will come down to how close you live to the school if it's over-subscribed. The rules are there to make it as fair as possible, although of course those with money will always buy houses as close to the favoured schools as possible so it's never completely fair. 

You should also be able to visit the schools before making your applications and get as much info as you need then. 

Greying_Pilgrim

INOD - it's a dupe, it won't be as good...... prolly 😉 £2 a jar in the spices section, jus' sayin'.......

LotsOfTea - I want to agree with you, but...... evidence locally points to some sort of 'manipulation'........

Greying X