Other forums..

[pipscariad]

Congratulations Gwen11ian! I sympathise with your exasperation about the 'smiley text speak', it drives me mad and makes me feel I'm turning into a Grumpy Old Woman (I'm nearing my mid forties so would hope to be a long way from there at the moment!).

When I was pregnant with my daughter, 9 years ago, I joined a forum on Babyworld - but a.) they many no longer exist and, b.) the users of the forum may have also moved on to the dreaded smiley text speak too. At the time it was great, but who knows what it may be like now!

Good luck with your search (and most of all with your pregnancy!) - hope you find something to suit, and in the meantime we're always here with sympathy to your plight! (And in my case, overuse of the dreaded exclamation mark, but it is one of my weaknesses I'm afraid... *pulls finger away from the number one key*).

[Rhona]

I joined Mumsnet and Babycentre. They're generally friendly and useful bits of information to be had.

I think you'll find that a LOT of people 'talk' like that. It's irritating, but there it is. Less of it on Mumsnet - tends to be a bit more grown up there.

[Dane End Dolly]

bet u a pnd thay dn't.

que????????????????????

[HotStuff]

There is a flip side to this though. At least people are able to communicate. It may be in a b*stard language, but that doesn't really differ from thick Scottish or Cockney.

As a thick Cockney b*stard I take objection to that

[HeyWayne]

I joined Mumsnet and Babycentre. They're generally friendly and useful bits of information to be had.

I think you'll find that a LOT of people 'talk' like that. It's irritating, but there it is. Less of it on Mumsnet - tends to be a bit more grown up there.

Another vote here for Babycentre. LadyWayne doesn't really "do" forums, but she found that one to be the best overall.

In terms of education - it's nothing without the support of the parents.

[sarraceniac]

I had a serious illness when I was about 7 and 8 years old. In those days there were no provisions for private tutoring for kids who have to stay in hospital for 6 months then another 8 months at homeand my parents were not rich. Fortunately we had a very enlightened head teacher (or head master as they were back then even in primary schools). He told my mother to get me reading material, even if it was comics. and so I progressed from the Beano, Dandy, Topper, Eagle etc. through a series of 'comic strip' classics like Dickens and Dumas to the actual books themselves because if I couldn't find new things to read I got bored. Of course there was nobody to text me or to chat to on Facebook. I think that is how I continued with my education with no real disruption as far as one of the 3 Rs was concerned. Or maybe I was just a nachooral jeenius?

[Liza]

We're trying! We've been trying for ages. Thing is, he refuses to read, or try to read. He has a 1000 excuses for why he doesn't do his (recommended daily 5 or 10 mins) of reading at home.

This one is the lowest ability, but we have scores of others who are also poor or very poor readers. We can't give them all one-to-one reading tuition. Our (unpaid, voluntary) helpers are already busy all the hours that they come in to school.

My son was the same until he was allowed to read a book he was actually interested in, The animals of the world as far as I can remember.

He is now 13 and a year ahead in English and three in Science !

Not saying you have the same situation at your school ! Just amazing how it can all turn around one day after struggling for years.

innit

[bubblewrap]

I live in Hull which has one of the poorest education statistics in the country. The most common errors I notice here are people muddling up the words "being" and "been" and I had a colleague who couldn't tell the difference between "has" and "as" because she didn't pronounce the "h". However she did know this was a problem and used to ask me to proof read all her work..

Surely you live in 'ull then & any way wot 'appened to the Kingston - upon bit.

[OllieMartin]

Surely you live in 'ull then & any way wot 'appened to the Kingston - upon bit.

Takes too long to text "Kingston-upon-Hull"!

And it's only "Hull" to me because I'm not from here so don't have the accent, otherwise you're right "'Ull" is the preferred shibboleth!

[HeyWayne]

"'Ull" is the preferred shibboleth!

Gesundheit mein herr.

[sarraceniac]

Wasn't Shibboleth a biblical queen?

[Hilary B]

Most children that struggle with reading, in spite of not being 'special needs' it's because their parents don't give 2 hoots about education in general and reading in particular.
Slightly (only slightly) better was the man I saw with a small child (aged 3 I guess) telling the child "No you can't have a book, when you learn to read I'll get you a book". It may have been meant as motivation, but I bet it had the opposite effect!

[Two_Sheds]

My son was the same until he was allowed to read a book he was actually interested in

That's so important. The recommended books are so ... dry. Also, the problem for the slower readers is that they are age 10 so the 6 yo books (that they can actually read) are far too childish.

That's why I had a whip round with my OH and his mates (when they were, um, happy) and we bought lots of these for my class.

The boy I've used as an example has just joined the library He didn't previously because his mum told him she couldn't afford it (when I said it was free to borrow books, he didn't believe me)

there's hope yet.

[eieio]

I use a lovely site damsels.org. Again got more than just a pregnancy section and lovely wide ranging bunch of ladies (if that is the right way to put it!) The site is currently being redesigned but the old site is still workable.

Huge congratulations on your bump.

[Snadger]

The problem, I really believe, is with people who never read. Not just books, they don't read newspapers or anything. They can't know how a word should be pronounced (has/ as, been/being, could of/could have) if they never see it written down.

I have a child in my class who spells everything as he hears it. He is 10 but has a reading age of 6, despite our best efforts and one-to-one tuition.

Coowel
Hows
Pcsh


(cool, house, picture)

It's a struggle. How's he ever going to fill in a job application, or read a prescription, a timetable, official letters, contracts (mortgage, loans etc)? He's falling behind in every subject, because he can't read the instructions to begin with.

I would call that, probably mistakenly, dyslexia? I have a friend who is dyslexic and is always reading books. He mastered the art of 'text talk' years before the term became a household name!