mumra

We went over the weekend and the receptionist is not telling the truth that people were complaining it was too warm as she told the poster above. It was freezing on Saturday. We have now (after a 2 hour queue) booked swimming lessons for our 5 yo in the hope there is something wrong with the thermostat that can be fixed, but she has already said she thinks it's too cold to swim so am preparing myself for a poolside refusal come lesson time!

I suffered terribly with this when preggers and found Gaviscon to be the only cure. As Pollyd said, get it on prescription as you can get through quite a bit of it. I even went to bed clutching my bottle - (like an alcoholic!) as one night it was toooo bad. Thankfully it disappears the moment you give birth, but then you have a few other things to worry about...!

First one 20 days late. (5 days spent in labour but thats another story) Second one 17 days late. Both times I was hanging out for home birth and ended up being induced hence length of lateness. I was told that lateness can be linked to length of cycle, ie mine is normally 32 days not 28, therfore I always late! Which is funny because I hate being late for things generally and tend to be too early....! Good luck - late means you are really ready to go but that you have often eaten all your hospital snacks that you packed three times over :-$

Will pm you - we are in similar position!

Nunhead mum- Yes- approach words that don't follow the rules as a 'tricky' word - teachers collect these separately when they come across them- especially if they are 'high frequency' words, eg, 'one', 'the'. Sometimes you just have to learn them as a 'whole word'. Letters and sounds and schemes like Jolly phonics dictate an order that sounds should be learnt, eg, s, a, t, p, i ,n so that you can start building words straight away by blending the sounds. Words that are cvc words (Consonant/vowel/consonant) are best at first to illustrate blending - 3 letters-3 sounds. With that collection of letters you can then make sat, pat, tap, pin, tip, tin, which ensures children are secure with that set of letters and blending the sounds before moving on. When is comes to tricky sounds in words like 'igh' then that is taught as one sound/phoneme, so a word like high is split h/igh, so although it has 4 letters it has 2 sounds and children learn that those letters make that sound. Same goes for air, oa, ow, oo, ee etc. We have a very complicated language don't we?!

The resource that is given to schools freely for how letter sounds (phonemes) should be taught is called 'Letters and Sounds'. It starts with homing in on teaching children how to listen for sounds and discriminate between them. It also encourages the use of music, as rhyme and rhythm play a central part to a child grasping reading early on. Yes, you should concentrate on the sound - phoneme, rather than the letter name (grapheme) as it is the blending/synthesising (hence term 'synthetic' phonics) of these sounds that kick start reading. It becomes more complicated when phonemes are made of more than one letter eg, 'ch', which is one sound, but 2 letters. Alot of day nurseries use 'Jolly phonics' which is widely available on Amazon and other places, which is quite parent friendly, but there are signs attached the letters which the children can become a little too fixated on at times. At 2.5 I would be doing any phonic work through quality children's books, encouraging a love of reading, and letting him lead with finding letters and their sounds within it. Flashcards can kill a child's thirst for reading if done without context, so stay clear of those until they are older and they are words which then they can reorder into 'silly sentences'. Magnetic letters are brilliant as children can build words without the pressure of writing. Keep teaching reading and writing separate. Sorry did not mean to write such a long response, but pm if you want any more info - this is my day job so have a fair amount to say on the subject of phonics!

Yes, that's great advice. Bizarrely had forgotten to pack lots of kids activities, as assumed they would be busy- but you're right Glasto will be hugely stimulating (especially when cbeebies Andy is in the kids field -though slightly jealous of Mr Tumble I admit!) Am trying not to get too excited at the prospect of seeing any bands, think will be a bonus (though have tried to convince 5yo that Mumford and Sons are their favourite band by overplaying CD at home!)

Well, the mumras are off to Glasto this week, and although the adult contingent has been before, we have never taken the children. Have to say I am very excited, but slightly nervous with two in tow for 4 days to traipse around, (ages 2 and 5) and I keep thinking of more items to pack (lucklily we have a camper van to load up endless supplies of suncream and babywipes) Knowing there are a few EDFers who do a festival or two each year, I wondered if anyone had any good tips they could post for making the most of a family festival experience.

As far as we were told, (but definitely check this as I'm just trying to remember) there were 23 initial 'open' places last year (2009 entry). 2 are reserved for children who are hearing impaired (one of the admission criteria) and 35 places are church places. However, out of the open places are taken all the siblings, and in this particular year it was 21, leaving only 2 places. We live a couple of roads away and did not obtain a place initially, but were allocated one within 24 hours (as were 2 other people on our road) as not all the church places were taken. Whilst my child has been at St Johns there has definitely been some movement, though not huge, and I can think of 3 or 4 mid term admissions where a child started another school but then a place came up, and the school seem to have dealt with really well in order to include them into the classes. Can't remember specifics on numbers, metres etc- apologies.

McDonald's express walk through

I have Mondays off and love it. No Sunday night feeling nagging away and on a Friday everyone in the office is in a great mood so it's a good day to be in. Plus people don't expect you to stay as late on a Friday often. I have extra days off as part of my annual leave to make up for not having BHs so I can then choose to have a Fri off before the bank holiday to make up for it!

You all have my sympathy. Went through it last year - we applied to a school where we were not to know that out of 23 of it's places, 21 were allocated to siblings. However after the shake down, we did receive a place at out 1st choice, and throughout this year in Reception have seen much movement with new children still arriving whilst others move onto their first choice or move away. Not much comfort I know, but with last years fiasco in mind (and this promise of 90% of children receiving their first choice?!) there surely will be greater efforts to ensure children have a place within walking distance by the time they actually begin. Am wondering if people who applied to Heber or St Johns as first place had better luck than Goodrich applicants this year- sounds from here it is worse in that part of ED this year?

Not a silly question at all- but Molly's right, it has changed of late according to demand. Best idea probably is to post roughly where you live on here and see if posters who live nearby could tell you according to their own experience of getting in/or not to local schs. Also-look on map for nearest schools then contact sch to find out what was the furthest away place they gave last year/or this year to see if you would fall within that.

Having a balloon planning moment! Do you have to buy them to get them blown up at the florist can someone tell me? And are they open on Sundays? (Thinking they won't stay up for over a day?!)

I think mine have a similar age gap and I freely admit to the younger trying things alot earlier than the first, and me being more relaxed about it as well. Baby 2 is definitely a grazer and is happy with a tit bit here and there but am sad to say she has experienced a crisp or 2 already and undiluted apple juice- but she's so curious, it's hard to say no.... and also I have said to my eldest 'please don't eat in front of x or let her see that' which feels a bit like I am encouraging her to be sneaky and not share from early on. Saying that no 2 still wolfs down 3 hefty meals in the day so can't be affecting her too much. Hey ho, it's easy to feel the guilt when it comes to children and food isn't it?

A lovely small independent cinema. Spent so many nice Friday mornings at Clapham picture house in baby club, and would love somewhere within walking distance with a good kids club on a Saturday/Sunday morning, keep persisting with Peckham but have had a couple of unpleasant experiences now. Brixton good but bus ride a pain.

Well, from some experience working in schools I have observed that occasionally bright children are bored and can find work provided of a low challenge, therefore not engaging them in the learning process, which in turn means they look for other ways to challenge themselves- chatting to friends, doodling, challenging teacher etc. What age are you talking about pecan pie?

We pay for ours to go to language college- it's approx 220 a term, but one of the perks we listed. She goes to Bromley College, Penge campus which is easy to get to on the 176. Initially she did 10-12 Monday and Thursday but now she does 2 evenings which she enjoys as they all go the pub afterwards. We don't give her access to a car but give her ?10 on an oyster card each week. We have had a very positive experience with ours- she is just brilliant and we found that the more we gave her the occasional afternoon off/lie in as extra the more she appreciated us and being part of the family.

Smiler, that was one of my best bits too! Thought immediately 'why didn't my husband let me do that?!' Such a mature 17 year old. Am not ashamed to say that I blubbed watching those 3 together, thought the mum was spot on with how she supported her daughter, despite her age and that Abbie was so obviously so well supported by mum and boyfried that it gave her the confidence to know she would be a good mum - even though, as she said 'we don't even have enough money for the bus sometimes-let alone a baby!' Think that baby has a great start in life with those people around.

Ointment much easier, as can pull lower lid down when asleep/drowsy. Drops are a nightmare and they scream their heads off when they do actually go in. Good luck!

Just returned from the doctors this morning with my 18 month who has exactly the same thing, and we awoke this morning unable to open either eye, poor thing! She's actually had crusty eyes/conjunctivitus 2 or 3 times and the only thing that has cleared it up has been Chloramphenicol. You can buy the drops at chemists (although you have to say your child is 2+) or you can get the ointment to smear on the lower lid on prescription from the doctors. It is easier than you think to do that - do it when they are asleep and will go off agian was the advice I was given by the docs, and that has always worked for me. In the meantime to wipe it off, cool boiled water and cotton wool pads - 1 wipe and bin is the recommendation.

Think the piece is fine and it is public news to a point hence the interest on here - and actually it says exactly what happened pretty much in the words of what has been reported on here from the lady in question, but really wish I had not read the comments afterwards as found them quite disheartening, sigh...

Actually if you ask most stores if they have somewhere where you can feed your baby they will say you can use a changing room, Topshop certainly does, as do Marks and Spencer in smaller branches and I think this is a great idea if they are not big enough to have the facility of a 'Family room' like John Lewis or Places like Bluewater. Quite commonplace practice I believe rather than uncommon, and great if you are not comfortable feeding in an open place like a cafe.

Gosh, I would like to say I am surprised by the reaction of the man at MIND but am not, I too experienced some real ignorance when breastfeeding my child at the Tate modern ('please go at sit in the schoolroom with the teenage boys or in the toilet') and unfortunately this will always be an issue until politicians or large companies start to change practice and policies, and therefore the mindset of many. Unfortnately the man at MIND had probably never been given, or told specific guidance on breastfeeding mothers and was therefore reliant on his own misinformed opinion. Until companies start bringing out statements (similar to equality and harrassment statements) we will continue to rely on the opinion of a few who wil let down the very organisations who refuse to make a stand on this issue in the first place. PS Found Science Museum/National Gallery/ Transport Museum/ John Lewis/ Cafe Nero in Lordship Lane to be more than accommodating!

I like both new names actually. Always thought 'Wishing Well' was a little odd, and think 'The Uplands' needs completely rebranding to start anew. Good luck - am also hoping at least one of them will be finished for June as will be looking for a local b&b for a family event.