Tilly

I give it to my daughter every day. I put it in her drink and now she will even take it neat on her tongue She believes it makes her "brave and gives her some courage". - bless her tilly P.S I take it and love it too - but I think that's because it tastes of alcohol

Welcome to your new addition. Lovely news. Congratulations to you all, especially to older brother Kai. Tilly

WAR

I'm sure most people will know this as its been running for 3 years now, but I've just found out If you have an old mobile phone and hand it in to a Vodafone store they will contribute to the NAS. So far they have raised �1,593,478. Tilly

I think an explanation would be fair, especially after a full edit. Tilly

My dd who attends a SEN school has a home/school diary along with every other pupil in her school. I must admit I do enjoy reading it so then I can speak about what she's been doing throughout the day. E.g. the school have tick boxes to inform us if they have had P.E., outdoor playground, music room, if she ate her lunch and how her behaviour has been etc. They also have an additional part where the teacher writes a little about dd day and topics they are learning. There is also a printed page where I can tick boxes on her sleep, behaviour, etc and comment on anything relevant. When she attended mainstream there was no diary but I saw the staff daily and the teacher would tell me what had happened and vice versa. Although I did sometimes feel uncomfortable when other parents were around and quite often my stomach would be churning at the thought of how her behaviour had been and the look of exasperration on the teachers face. As I have said I find the diary idea hugely beneficial in being able to discuss dd day rather than ask her what happened to be told, "nothing". Tilly

I'd just like to say that when my dd was 5 I was told that she would not be able to read phonetically, but by seeing the whole word. So I labelled everything and would tell her what the word said. At the time she was in mainstream school and would sit with the rest of the class while they learned Jolly Phonics, which she would enjoy. By the time she was in Y1 she was world building phonetically and making plausible attempts at new words introduced. I use to get very disheartened by being told what she would never be able to do so it was one in the eye to the paed who told me that little gem. I imagine flash cards would be suitable and dd did have puzzles from ELC where the pic and the word had to match up. I must say dd enjoyed learning words by rote but she has more confidence now that she can build up her words. Tilly

Repellant

Children

Thanks for the link Jill. Very interesting. Tilly

I must admit I didn't think that about Dirk, although I did notice Ian's habits. But my dh insists I go looking for a label in most people since our dd had her diagnosis tilly

Dd prefers 'packed lunch' meals so very rarely uses cutlery except when eating yoghourt. She could dress herself with prompts when she was about 5 but could undress herself and get into pjs when she was 4. She was about 7-8 years old when she could dress independently. I've never used a bedguard. I placed a pillow vertically under the bottom sheet to stop her from falling out, a tip from my mam, as she says, "We never had money for bedguards, changing mats etc." Luckily dd does not get up to use the toilet during the night but if she did I think she would definitely wake me up and not go back to sleep. Tilly

Does anyone think that there would have been such an outcry if RK son was going to attend a state SEN school? Why has she had to go to a private special needs school is it because there are no state SEN schools in her area? Or have the government closed them down? Could it be that they are over subscribed, or has she queue jumped by being able to pay the fees? I don't know as I'm not from that borough. Does she know that as a parent of a child with learning difficulties that mainstream is not the right environment for a majority of children and it is the cheaper option to keep them in mainstream with a TA who "has been on a course". Thankfully my dd does attend a SEN and I have often commented that she is receiving the equivalent of a private education, with small class numbers and state of the art technology - I dread to think that this would only be available to people with fat purses. RK defends herself by saying she needs to do what is right for her children. So do I but unfortunately our rights are being withdrawn from us with more and more of a SEN schools being earmarked to close. Tilly

I didn't push PECS for my dd who has always been verbal, but not age appropriate. I've always encouraged her to "use your words, because you can speak". At a parent carer forum I attended there was one parent who thought all children should be taught PECS so that they could then communicate with children who needed to use PECS. I disagreed with this but a lot of parents who were there thought it was a good idea. In my dd school they are used quite a lot for the non verbal children and for visual timetables. I told them from the onset that I'd prefer dd to use them at the minimum and I believe that they've been used as an occasional prompt in her case. Tilly

Loupin, what a smashing little fella you've got there You've got a right to be proud. Hoping you have a much better day today. Tilly

Skills

I loved the drama and so did my dd. A wonderful positive story for a change. tilly

Lovely, Loupin. so glad you and yours enjoyed the evening. Enjoy the rest of the hols. Tilly

plum

Time

Gone

At the risk of repeating myself, that is why I opted out for my dd, and it was no problem for the school in question. I can't comment on the play this year as I didn't attend. Tilly

Traditional Christmas Dinner for us lot. Made all the better as we have dinner and tea at my brother's house. I'm tasting it already yum yum. Unfortunately my dd doesn't like to join us (there is 14 of us) at the table and will eat her packed lunch while playing on the PS2,. tilly

Exactly how I feel, that is why we opted out of doing the Xmas play for my dd and I stress once again it was no problem with the school. Yesterday was the Xmas party and dd found it a bit too much and was removed to help out elsewhere. I have read many of Madmooch's comments on the school and the parents and feel that it was "seen" through anothers eyes. I must add that I am not one of the parents who have "cottonwool for brains or have been brainwashed" Tilly

Wanda