snowboarder

Hi - we have a ps4 which our 8 and 6 yr olds play on. Only at weekends and mine craft and fifa are two of the games they have. I?m sure we only use a fraction of what the console can do - no online stuff etc, but managed to get it free (ish) when my husband realised he had a lifetime of nectar points he had never cashed in!! The one thing that I find annoying is that a lot of the games my eldest wants - like some of the Star Wars games, are rated 16. He also likes Knack, which is a 7, but a lot of the more interesting games are for older kids. Other than that I have no clue about any of the consoles. We are not nearly as strict about screen time and they will spend more than half an hour on that and tv/Ipad at the weekends.

We have a light oak effect karndean throught our ground floor, including kitchen and it is great. It ha been down 3 years and looks new still. We replaced an old wood floor which scratched terribly. You do need a good basic floor construction though - they lay a screed but our is not so good in the older parts of the house on the old wooden floor construction, better on the concrete floor.

Can you even get tickets? I thought it was sold out?

I once got a classic piece of feedback volunteered unusually by my oldest (work shy) son. 'Mummy it's Wednesday and we have chapel today. I like chapel'... Me - 'Really????' (Not usually a spiritual child) 'Yes. It means we don't have to do maths'. So little gems do sometimes come out when you are least expecting them!!

I get most of my information from the school Facebook page.... 'So you dressed up as a caveman today?' Astonished look from 7 yr old....

I would also recommend bribery (sorry - an incentive!!). It was amazing how quickly both my sons learnt to swim during their weekly lessons when there was a much coveted toy on offer as a reward...😀

Opposite extreme - I have two highly energetic boys (7 and 5) for whom this reception exhaustion did not seem to feature! They do after school activities as part of after school club three days a week, older one does beavers and swimming during the week and football, rugby and hockey at the weekend, youngest similar but no beavers as yet and only just starting the rugby and hockey. Otherwise they trash the house or stare at their iPads. I'm all for structured activities!!

If there's no need for a regulation pe bag I'd get one that is identifiable as possible - my eldest at his first school had his name embroidered on in large letters! I have coloured name stickers from Great Little Trading company for both my boys (different colour for each!) and stick a large name sticker on their book bags for easy identification too, and their sewn in name tapes are the same colour/design so they remember whose is whose! The pe regs are so different per school - my reception aged youngest was changing for swimming last year in the first term!!

I get these shorts - they are lined and therefore a bit warmer so last longer into October! http://www.theschooluniformexpert.co.uk/trutex-elasticated-bermuda-school-shorts-2939-p.asp I get the school trousers from the school uniform supplier for the school they are at (annoying 'charcoal' grey colour rarely available elsewhere!) but expect trutext, John Lewis or look at the ?10plus pairs in a local independent uniform shop - there's one near ED station isn't there? - would be good. I managed with 3 pairs per child for winter last year.... Good luck!

My boys are in shorts until October half term and back in again at Easter. For the winter I buy relatively expensive school trousers for them from a proper school uniform shop - they are much thicker and harder wearing than the supermarket/even m&s versions. Or alternatively loads of cheap pairs I suppose! For home they tend to wear jeans - way harder wearing than joggers which are always instantly wrecked apart from the thicker boden type ones....

I have one of these: http://swiftyscooters.com/ It's great - but - I don't scoot very far on it (1-2 miles) and it's hard work up hills! I use it either side of a train commute to ease a 25 min walk into a 10 minute scoot.

Look at tots 2 travel website - they only hire out properties they have checked as child friendly and safe

Wow you're all very good! My goal when we get home from after school club at 6.30pm, with homework and dinner and bath to get through, is something very quick and filling that tired children will definitely eat. I have a majorly fussy eldest son with funny food sensory issues and I'm so over having battles with him - in 7 years it has got us nowhere!

Alternative Aquitaine is good for france... Simpson Travel - but more spanish islands and greece I think.. eg http://www.simpsontravel.com/mallorca-holidays/pollenca-and-puerto-pollenca/villas/cal-roma (not cheap but lovely!!) Tots to Travel has some good options too. Hope you find somewhere!

My youngest son has bashed his front teeth a number of times - seems hellbent on knocking them out! One in particular once was punched nearly 90 degrees inwards at 18m - it slowly came back into place (oh yes for thumb sucking for once!), he's had a couple of incidents since including bashing it on a kitchen worktop while falling off a step (!). This time it went grey (like you I dealt with the blood and didn't think about the tooth!). Anyway it slowly returned to pearly white. It's now a bit wonky (he's 5) and he's just about held onto it, but now it's getting loose and I think it will be the first baby tooth to come out. Hopefully your son will be fine too!

I wouldn't have left either of my two at 13m, but mostly they were both breastfed still at that age and the oldest particularly was fairly high maintenance and a sleep refusenik. Do you have concerns that granny will not cope for four nights alone with two children? I would. Could she maybe just have your older one and you take the baby with you?

We need to explore some of these - especially as we now live very close to High Elms and Downe 😀

We had our kitchen done a couple of years ago - things I love: breakfast bar area for the kids to eat, high level cupboard mounted microwave, hot water tap, American style fridge. Things that are nice to have but not necessary: wine fridge, big range oven (I do like separate double ovens but don't like maximising worktop which they don't do. Wish I hadn't bothered: pull out bin (too small never use, have a big freestanding recycling station), pull out larder cupboards - precarious and hate them. The other thread was good - and there's some fab mumsnet threads on kitchens!

If he wants to do stunts don't get one of the ones that folds - they are not sturdy enough. My boys (5 and 7) have grit scooters but they were both ?100 ish.

Ps my son didn't have a tongue tie but (still does) suck his thumb. I've no idea if that affects speech though.

My youngest son was referred for SALT by his nursery when he was 3 - his speech was good but he couldn't pronounce 'C' (he pronounced it as 't' - an issue when your name begins with 'c'!) and there were a few others - y for l and weird sounds happened when blending some of the sounds. The SALT has been fairly minimal and he's literally in the last couple of months hugely improved, since starting school. His school highlighted some worries when he first started but now you really couldn't tell anything was amiss. I think as well as practising the sounds at school and nursery he just became more aware that he was saying sounds differently. The SALT did say they didn't think there was any physical reason for the problem.

I also think that a child who has been to full time nursery totally breezes starting school. My youngest started last September, was used to having half a week at nursery and half a week with the nanny. He was absolutely ready to leave nursery, he couldn't wait, and literally ran into school! His school didn't bother with the nightmare that is 'settling in' which I was glad about as I think he'd have found it confusing, and he went straight into full days and after school club till 6pm on his second day (Eeek!!). He is only just 5 now so middle of the age bracket for the year. There's still loads of playing and they seem to love being 'big boys'. I know that people say children start school early in this country (sorry I saw your first post) - but surely it's just called something else? Like kindergarten? And most 4-5 year olds are in some sort of regular childcare setting? Anyway. Try not to worry - I'm sure it will be fine. Let us know how he gets on!

Hello - we always go to France, and usually get a catered chalet. We have used a variety of package (flight and chalet) or chalet only and get flights yourself deals. Are you looking to go in half term? It gets super busy - we've already booked for next year! Ski school also gets booked up - we try and avoid esf and look for independent British run ski schools as they usually have better teacher/pupil ratio - but less of a worry with older kids I imagine! Resorts in France we like are Morzine and the ports du soleil area generally - really easy transfer from Geneva and lots of ski school options. Last year we stayed in Les gets with a company called Reach 4 the Alps. This year we were in Courcheval 1650 with a company called Le Ski. Next year we're going to Morzine with a co called Chilli Powder - looks good for the kids with a games room etc. Also - you need to decide whether to ski or snowboard! The kids might want to snowboard? There are some great British snowboard instructors in various French resorts that I could recommend...obviously it's way cooler to snowboard....😀😀

I have two confirmed thumb suckers aged nearly 7 and 5. Neither of them are remotely motivated to stop....the oldest one still has a bunny comforter too! I can't seem to persuade them at all and they are getting a bit old, but I don't have the heart to impose nasty tasting substances or guards on them.... But all this talk of three year olds voluntarily stopping is making me reconsider!

Most of the schools on the list above do not have a 9 mile catchment area though!!