I don't know how DD2 manages it (very trivial thread)

[releasethehounds]

Ok it's not important but it pisses me off. So it's winter, it's schooltime, which means that you have to get the DCs to school complete with big coat, hat, scalf, gloves/mittens and now with the snow, wellies (with shoes in a bag to change into once in school). This is on top of the usual load of stuff they take to school everyday.

You manage to do all that then when you pick them up it's:-

Me: Where's your scalf?
DD2: I dunno. Lost it.
Me: How? Where did you leave it last? etc
DD2: I dunno.
Me: It's your first day back at school and you've lost your new scalf that you had for Christmas? (and cost a lot because it's a nice one from a matching set).

DD2 has been back at school for 3 days and has so far mislaid 2 pairs of gloves and a scalf. Today I searched the school and recovered both pairs of gloves but the scalf is still missing. Quite disappointed because, as I say, the scalf is part of a lovely matching set.

I know this is a common story but it really gets to me.

But what can you do????

[Mspontipine]

Did you sew a name tag in?

[releasethehounds]

I did, but from my experience, this seems to make very little difference.

[QOD]

scarf sorry LOL

Yeah used to do this grrrrrr

[hocuspontas]

Obviously make sure that everything is named and put his class on as well. You never know it might find it's way back to the classroom!

I would take the scarf home and bring it back at the end of the day. Put the gloves on elastic? Then you only have the hat that could go walkabout. Do they have a drawer or somewhere to keep things? Putting hats etc on pegs is a recipe for disaster. Children think that by offering an item up to the peg it will miraculously stay there! In reality it will get kicked into a big pile somewhere and may surface again at half-term if you're lucky.

I would buy cheap and buy unusual. Adults will be more familiar then with whose is who and can reunite them more easily.

I feel your pain!

[hocuspontas]

Sorry - she

[LauraIngallsWilder]

Cheap and unuaual scarf and gloves for school

More expensive/matching/lovely stuff for when out with family

That is my solution

[releasethehounds]

Oh shit - it's scarf! I thought it looked funny when I typed it. My excuse is I'm suffering with a toothache (had a filling today which is still killing me!)

hocuspontas - thanks for the sensible suggestions (are you a teacher?). I have told DD not to use the peg anymore, but to put gloves etc back into her bag, even if they're wet from the snow. I think you're right - cheap and cheerful from now on.

[mckenzie]

I completely sympathise with you rth as it happens to us most days too. DS is always the last one out and always the one who has to go back for something! And it's pretty much the same thing every day (his massive, funky coloured, cannot be missed by any pair of eyes, largely named water bottle)

[releasethehounds]

Oh yes - the beloved water-bottle. We used to go thirsty when we were kids - now they are regularly watered throughout the day. I know it's healthy etc but it's yet another thing they forget to bring home...

[releasethehounds]

Thanks all - I'm off to bed as the toothache is not easing. I'll be back on tomorrow night to ask you all what you're doing with your Christmas cards, as the school doesn't want them anymore!

[mckenzie]

tesco or M&S for the cards

[hocuspontas]

I'm a reception TA rth. I have a lost property basket by the door that parents can riffle through each day. At the end of term I hang all the items on a washing line outside for a week. I am always surprised that some lovely items never get claimed.

[releasethehounds]

Great idea hp, particularly the washing line - I wish DD2's class did the same, but the lost items can be stored in approx 6 different places around the school. One parent found her DD's scarf hanging in a tree near the school last term!

mckenzie - thanks re: Xmas cards - I also found out this morning that you can take them to WH Smith or TK Maxx and they pass them onto the Woodland Trust for recycling.

[mrz]

releasethehounds you have my sympathy both as a teacher and a parent.
I hold up all the discarded clothing at the end of each day and every child denies ownership and all items are displayed for parents at the end of each week but rarely claimed.
As a mother my son once lost his trousers after PE and came home in his shorts the trousers were reunited with him when he left the school two years later.

[releasethehounds]

2 years later? There's hope for our scarf yet then.

I think there are magic coat pegs at school - items vanish at random.

On the plus side, there were no further missing items from DD2 today. However, DD1 (11) was sent home late morning with a sprained wrist. The embarassing thing is, it didn't even have anything to do with the snow - she did it running backwards in PE inside! She could trip over the pattern in the carpet that one.

[Clary]

Get her (how old btw?) to put gloves and scarf in hat then hat in coat sleeve.

Otherwise it's true they will all be in a pile on the floor.

Gloves solution - buy several pairs the same, pref from Primark at £1 for 2, use the bright stripey ones.

Scarf - don't bother with it frankly - get a coat with good fastening at the top.

Hat - agree, go for unusual eg DS2 has a bright red one which has proved hard to lose (despite his best efforts

[releasethehounds]

Thanks Clary - DD2 is just 6, but whilst being a very capable child she's very laid back and I have problems giving her one instruction to follow let alone two!

Must look for the cheapo gloves and brightly-coloured hat - however, bright red would be the worst colour in our case as it's the school uniform colour and there are about 200 red hats leaving the school everyday! (Thinks - this maybe was my mistake buying a matching red set to go with her red coat)

[Clary]

Ah interesting re red hat. Our uniform is red too but most boys have a black or grey hat; most girls have a pink or purple hat.

I have been TA-ing in an FS2 class this week and it takes us about 15 mins to get the kids ready whenever they go out! Some of them seem to have about 15 things to carry home and they are so tiny bless em.

[releasethehounds]

I know - they come out like small pack-horses. It may be because she's mine but DD2 always comes out looking the most dishevelled - coat half hanging off, hat (if still there) lopsided, carrying reading book instead of it being placed into bag, tights torn etc etc.

When she goes into school, she looks very smart. I can't be held responsible for the decline in standards throughout the day! I put it all down to her lacksidaisical (spell that!) attitude which I secretly envy but drives me to distraction.

[lilackaty]

I get children to put their hats and scarves up their sleeves to avoid losing them.
Putting names on doesn't necessarily help but ime it makes teachers more willing to help you look for them
It is quite unbelievable how they do it. My ds lost a cheap tesco cagoule last year and a friend gave me a gap one to replace it so that worked out well for us!

[thecloudhopper]

A parent in my school got so fed up of her daughter loosing gloves she actually sewed them into the coat. She is a mum who lables everything right down to the pants.

[TheArmadillo]

Ds always comes out without something. We always take him back in and search through the cloakroom.

So far we have lost completely - 1 school jumper and 1 glove. We have found everything else in the cloakroom.

The other day the (full) lost property table was half covered with just his stuff (2 hats, 1 scarf, 2 pairs of gloves etc).

Unless I sew the stuff to him he'll find a way to lose it.

As we went back in on friday his TA told him 'you'll lose your head if it wasn't screwed on'.

It just about sums him up. Name tags make no difference.

[littleducks]

sew the gloves on elastic

in fact you could prob sew scarf on another piece of elastic then attach the two together

[ShinyAndNew]

Dd1 does this. I sew her gloves together on a long rope/string that I thread through the arms of her coat. I make the rope by plaiting together lengths of wool.

For the water bottle, she gets a bottle of water from the shop on the way to school that is refilled at home the next day, untill it is lost.

I can't help with anything else, I am still struggling with that myself.