sock ties and other miscellaneous queries

[pinkhebe]

Regarding socks, my children have their own laundry bag, and their washing gets done once a week on different days. It means only one child's socks are in the washing machine at any time

I'm a little sad, as I've just checked how much the music lessons cost There is no way that J can continue his double bass lessons, as we cannot afford the fees without re morgaging, so music lessons are just a luxury we cannot afford I'm not sure that j will be as sad as me though!

[Volupturaptor]

Where did you manage to find the cost of music lessons? It's something I've been wondering about too.

[pinkhebe]

It's in the financial contributions part of the web site, if your income is over £17k it's about £680/year

[englishangel]

Me too! "Sock matching" is a job dreaded by everyone here. Am hoping my son ends up with size 11 feet so that I stop wearing his by mistake.

For men M & S have several ranges with solid and/or multi-coloured and / or striped feet; you can get each male member of the house different socks but with identical colours appearing above the shoe. They come as bulkbuys with each pair different so it is easy to say that Fred has blue and Bob has pink (suits him?) .....

and who says men have to wear them?

Actually I was just showing solidarity.

Daughter (size 7) wears girly socks

I (size 7) wear black socks

Husband (size 7 - yes he has small feet for a bloke) wears long black or navy socks a la Rob Brydon

Son (size 8 ) wears black socks with stripy heels and toes.

But we all have the occasional pair outside the norm which ends up in someone else's pile. Husband was wearing short brown socks the other day and said they were small, why they should be small I don't know! (I think they were daughter's)

[lonelymom]

It's in the financial contributions part of the web site, if your income is over £17k it's about £680/year

Isn't it woked out on your 'assessed' income though? I mean after deductions for mortgage/rent, Council Tax, water rates etc?

[Volupturaptor]

Thank-you pinkhebe, I'd not noticed that link before.

[pinkhebe]

yes you're right lonelymum,

[ailurophile]

Lonelymom wrote

pinkhebe wrote:
It's in the financial contributions part of the web site, if your income is over £17k it's about £680/year

Isn't it woked out on your 'assessed' income though? I mean after deductions for mortgage/rent, Council Tax, water rates etc?

Even when deductions have been made for allowable expenses, £17k is not much for a family to live on nowadays, especially if a substantial chunk of this is already earmarked for school fees. The ready reckoner indicates that from this modest income CH would charge fees of £3800, leaving a family with £1100 a month to pay for food, utilities, transport, clothes... if you're a couple with other children at home this won't go far. I can easily see why Pinkhebe is worried that expenditure of £680 a year on music lessons is going to be an unaffordable luxury.

We too had to sacrifice instrumental tuition when our children joined CH, something I have always regretted not least because so many of the extra-curricular opportunities offered by the school focus on music.

[pinkhebe]

and considering our mortgage is much more that 12.5% of our salary!.

However, how much of the extra curicular activities are music based?

In fact

Q5, What clubs do your children do?

[CHDad]

There is plenty to do which does not cost anything. My son is in Scouts and Junior choir (Wednesdays and Thursdays), he goes to the comedy club on Mondays, he does Cross country at the weekends plus of course the sport every day. He was also in the school council in his first term at CH. He plays squash and goes swimming in his free time on Sundays. None of these activities cost anything. There are almost too many things to do! On top of all of this there are activities organised by his house.

Re socks:- What I cannot understand in our house is where have all the odd socks gone? They are not in the washing machine, the laundry basket or the airing cupboard - it's a complete mystery!

[Fjgrogan]

In my experience the missing socks reappear one at a time, having been 'secured' by static inside other garments, especially if you use a tumble drier, and usually just after you have disposed of the matching sock!

[dinahcat]

I think they are in a Sock Graveyard like an elephant one where all the tusks end up.

[CHDad]

I live in hope that they will all turn up someday..................

I did have a cunning plan to replace all my socks with lots of identical pairs. That way I would never have odd socks albeit no variety in my daily sock choice. However I was thwarted by my Birthday and Christmas when the childern gave me lots of different ones!

[dinahcat]

About the music lessons. They are expensive although subsidised. Music lessons atre expensive anywhere but ther are afew things you can try if your DDis really keen. There are soem minority instruments such as the oboe and the viola whih are difficult and rare. I think these might be free if you ask. Also the organ is free. I don't know if you have to already be a pianist to be considered but I think not if you ask.I think the tuba might also be a minority instrument. It's always worth asking Mr Bawtee or Mr Whittingham.
If you can afford two years lessons and then your child takes GCSE music lessons are free for the next three years.
You can also be as devious as my youngest. She had free violin from the entrance exams and then was asked to play the viola. She wanted to be in the band like her siblings and so asked to play the saxophone . I said no. There was no money for lessons or an instrument. She bought a saxophone on ebay with birthday and Christmas money and during the summer before she went she bought a book and taught herself. As long as you can play 5 notes you can join Training Wind Band. She just turned up and no one said a word. As others have been promoted to the band she has moved 'up the seats'.No one has even noticed she hasn't had any lessons!I bet you could do that with any instrument if you wanted to.
The music at the school is another world and gives you a wider social circle and opens up a lot of opportunities. I glimpsed my son at Twickenham playing the National Anthem last Saturday. I never thought he was musical at all but he had a term of free trombone lessons as the school was short of trombonists at the time and off he went. We do pay for the lessons now but we had three free years when he did GCSE music.
You just do have to try to be creative as there 's no point in going there if you don't get involved in stuff.

[pinkhebe]

Ahh, now I hadn't considered GCSE music That does put a different spin on things.

What about hire of the instrument, I'm not sure we could pay for our own double bass!