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[land_girl]

Florence is at home, ill. This is the fourth cold/flu/virus she has had since New Year, and she has been mostly in bed since last Friday evening. She is still only four; she has been going to school full time since September, and she is, I think, absolutely shattered

Comments

[vinaigrettegirl]

I don't know why I didn't see this on my usual friends list, but I didn't, and it doesn't seem to be there.

No, I don't think very young children should have to be in school full time, and yes, there absolutely should be flexibility. My friend J's little daughter, E, is highly intelligent and extremely robust, and being in school all the time suits her down to the ground. E's older brother did not flourish in the same circumstances: same parents, same school, different kid.

And some of the respiratory stuff is due to new bugs as well as to being shattered. But no, children shouldn't be shattered to death at the age of four.

The dreadful thing is that the current educational fad in Government circles is to get children into FT schooling earlier, rather than later.

[land_girl]

I genuinely wanted for people to write what they thought, and not to feel that they had to agree with me, but I can't tell you how relieved I am to find that somebody thinks as I do!

I really worry that the process of child rearing these days is not child-centric enough, and when I look at somebody as small and vulnerable as Flo is today, that really saddens me ...

[anonymous]

Yes, I think it should be far more flexible. I am deeply grateful that K missed a school year by three weeks and is now about the oldest in the class, and confident and capable. I had no idea how much difference it makes. I am particularly appalled that it's done by birth date rather than due date, so premies get disadvantaged again; I would at least say that for birthdays within three months of the cut-off in either direction parents should have some input into which school year the child goes into.

And I'd relax about attendance too; individual days of school are not that big a deal.

[aldabra]

Oops, that was me. Bloody LJ silently logging me off the whole time 8-(

[land_girl]

Oh, I'm glad it was you! I thought it was. And yes, I think you are right about premature babies, having known a few (and their mothers). It seems lunacy to decide at 3, or 5, that they have, suddenly, miraculously caught up, when in some cases much of their early lives have been spent just surviving.

[geekette8]

Matthew is also very tired and run-down (and is on the way down with his fourth or fifth cold this year, if you can even count them as separate illnesses rather than one long enormous snuffle).

I don't honestly think it does them any lasting harm, but at the same time it's certainly not brilliant for right now.