How Can You Prepare Your Kids For The Next Stage Of Life?

As a parent, it’s important that you’re preparing your kids for the next stage of their life when the time comes. There are various stages, and you’ve been through them all now, so it’s time for you to pass your wisdom down to your children. Of course, there are going to be times when they’re not going to listen, but they will listen to some of it, guaranteed. In this article, we’re going to be taking a look at how you can prepare your kids for the next stage of life, so keep reading down below if you would like to find out more.

How to Encourage Sibling Bonding

Parenting is one of the most important jobs in the world. It can be difficult when you have children, and you don't know how to handle them. This can increase if you have two kids who don’t care much for each other. The sibling bond is a special bond that only siblings have. It's the one that keeps them together forever, and it's what makes them feel like they're never alone. Siblings are very important to each other but is often overlook the importance of our sibling relationships.

Why I'm glad I took my baby to the dentist with me

My 9-year-old son has just had 3 teeth out!  I know how that sounds and before anyone judges me on what my son has been eating and drinking, these teeth were taken out because they were showing no/slow signs of coming out on their own and his adult teeth were not able to come through!

This is not the first time this has happened on a routine check-up at the dentist.  Two years ago, my dentist's colleague took out Max's front baby tooth.  The adult tooth was coming in behind it, but the baby tooth wasn't moving!  When he pulled the tooth out it still had a root on it the size of the tooth!  No way his adult tooth was coming through with that in the way!

How it feels like we are saving the world one bee at a time

For some reason, last week seems to be the week to give the wildlife a helping hand.

Monday

We had a young starling in the garden, I think it may have been lost or confused as it wasn't with the rest of the flock it was on its own near the bird feeder.  I'm going to assume he was waiting for the rest of the flock to come back.

Easy science projects to do with the children

We made a rocket out of an old pill pot and sent it into orbit thanks to a fizzy tablet.  Well, not quite but in the eyes of my 8-year-old, that's exactly what we did!

Doesn't it feel like walks were made for Autumn

Golden colours and a chill in the air await us all in these beautiful autumnal days.

What are the stages of Chickenpox

It was in his third year of nursery that my son caught Chicken Pox.  In prior years, I'd seen the notification for the number of cases in the building go up and wondered if this would be the year my son would catch it.  

As the prior years pass I wonder if he's immune to Chicken Pox or whether he'd had it so mild that I hadn't noticed or if that one spot on his face was the one and only, I was very wrong!

The stages of Chickenpox

Getting Outdoors In Winter For All Budgets

This is one of my favourite pictures to date, It was an autumnal day and even the tree was smiling.   To me, this picture symbolised us in winter.

How did I train for the 5k superhero fun run?

Well, the simple answer to how I trained to complete a 5K superhero fun run - I didn't!  I know how that sounds, and I promise you I'm not bragging, what I actually did was ignore the fact I was doing it!

Surprised myself with how quick and easy creating a Teepee was!

With the excitement of Christmas wearing off and the slow return to school & work kicking in, I decided we should build a Teepee!  The idea didn't come out of the blue, I was flicking through my Ideal Home magazine and there is a whole section on what to do in an hour, day, half day etc and one of the suggestions was to build a Teepee!

Perfect.

After looking through Pinterest and searching how to make a Teepee on the internet, I came to the conclusion that this was going to be horrendous to do and possible disagreements and arguments ahead.

But it wasn't complicated at all!

How we constructed our simple Teepee

We only need a handful of materials to make our Teepee:
* 4 Dowels / Poles
* String
* Double duvet cover
* Peg
* Optional extras - lantern, cushions, rugs, [interiors]

Constructing a Teepee

The first step was to tie the 4 poles with string.  We didn't drill a hole, I just took the string and wrapped it around the top of the poles (the higher up you go the more space you'll have to spread the poles out) and tied the string off.  Then I just pulled out the poles again, and much to my surprise, it stayed like that!

Originally I wrapped a double duvet cover around the poles, but it didn't quite fall right or reach the front properly so I cut it down the middle and along the bottom to double the length of my cover.  That worked lovely, and the sheet covered the poles perfectly.

At this point, there was discussion as to whether or not to sew the top for a better fit, but I decided not to and just used a peg (for now), and this held OK.  Not great and did ping off a couple of times, but for the time being, it served its purpose (and I had no idea at that point how I was going to sew that top up).

I left my son to decorator the interior of the tent which consisted of pillows, cushions, throws and a lantern, and he loved it!  All curled up and snug in his tent he spent the next couple of days watching TV from there, having dinner in there, reading, and yes, I was totally jealous!

Review: Chapelwood® Fun 'Bumble Bee' Feeder

#GIFT

What did we think of this great novel bird feeder?

My regular readers will know that we are all about encouraging nature into our garden, and thanks to the RSPB guide books we've made a great bug house and lovely little mini pond which has seen our first froglets grow from!

Best Relationship with your child - DVD series

I am really pleased to be able to offer my readers a fantastic opportunity to win the complete set of DVDs from the fantastic Child Mental Health Centre worth £39 - The Best Relationship with your child.

Parenting: The year we start school

We got into our first choice

Earlier in the year, I wrote about our experience of visiting all the schools in our area to see which 'felt' the best for our son.  Fortunately, last month we were notified by email that we got our first choice YAY!  

BUT

Let's just stop a minute and see what that means..... my baby, will be starting school in September.  How on earth did that happen, it was only 5 minutes ago we were wearing afro bubble hair in the bath...

When did this bubba grow up!

Having lost my mum earlier this year, I had to rethink the whole school situation, how I was going to get my son to school, pick up, after-school clubs and ..... holidays!!  I know it will somehow work out, how I don't know but for this year, we can sort the holidays.

My son has been in nursery since 6 months old.  3 full days and 2 days at Grandma's house.  This was dropped down to 1 day at Grandma's and 4 full days and finally, 5 full days at nursery.  By full days, I mean 8am until 5pm.  This makes my heartache and is the reason why we really must have a full fun packed weekend.

I miss my kid!

After some thought, I approached work and with the new flexible working laws available I asked if I could change my hours from 8.30 - 4.45..... to 7am to 3pm.

Every day.

This would enable me to at least pick my boy up at 3.15 every day and have a good couple of hours with him.  I know he'll be older, he'll be 5 and I won't get the preschool and toddler years back, but I get my boy, I get some much-needed and much-wanted mummy and son time.

So whilst I'm losing my baby and gaining a schoolboy come September, I'm also getting back time with my boy, and that, which starts in June - is priceless, I'm so pleased I have resources such as what to teach my son before he starts school, to help put my mind at ease.

 

How do we choose the right school?

So it’s coming – this time next year my little baby boy will be a school boy!  When on earth did this happen??

This year, our council has changed its ways of working with regard to school placement applications.  This year, instead of sending out letters to all parents with children who qualify for starting school in September, you now need to apply for a school place online.  I’m fine with this, I had worried that the letter may end up at our old address, in our old town… so to have the application completed online removes a little bit of the stress that is applying for schooling!

I downloaded the information for parents booklet, and yes I read it from cover to cover.  This is my one and only, so I’m going to be a bit thorough here.  I then spoke to other parents about the submission process and schools, and everyone had an opinion.  What stood out the most, is that these options were based on hearsay and rumours – not from actual visits, stats or ‘insider information’.   

I chose the schools nearest to us and the one I’d really like Max to go to and booked myself and my partner on their open days.   I booked to go on 5.  Saw my ‘favourite’ first, loved it, was sold on the idea of my son going there…… The second school was OK, my partner liked it more than me, but I loved the idea of the forest school teaching that they had.….3rd school I really disliked and this one actually caused us to have a bit of an argument!  The 4th school we loved and was in competition at this point with our original first choice, and the final school we saw in the evening so it was quite hard to get an idea of, but we felt it was OK.

So 5 schools later we had our 1st and 2nd choice.  In the booklet, it is suggested that you add your catchment school in your listing.  We have 2 schools in our catchment and were fortunate enough to love  1 of them (the other is the one we had a row about!).   We couldn’t decide on our 3rd choice so guess what – we did, we went and had a look at a 6th school and I’m soo pleased we did as this became our new favourite!!!  

I’ve since completed the application form, had a little cry and some wine at the thought of my baby starting school and now I can sit back and wait for April 18th when I will receive an email informing me of the school Max will be going to....

My advice for parents:

Don't take to heart other people’s options unless backed up with stats.  At the end of the day, every child is different.

Look at as many schools as you want!  Don’t worry if you end up looking at 12 schools, if you have the time and the resource to do this then do it.  Make sure you are happy that you’ve done what you need to do for your child before filling in the form.

Don’t be afraid to speak up on the open day tour.  Ask every question you can think of, phone up afterward and ask any further questions you have.

Do read the booklet completely, look at the over-subscription criteria but also don’t let that put you off or be the decider whether or not you put your child in that school.

Read the Ofsted reports to give you some great information on the school, but as with options, and distance, don't let that be the only deciding factor.

Fill in the form when you have a quiet moment.

Be happy with your choices and you know what even if your child ends up in the one school you did not want –be enthusiastic for your child, after all, they are the ones that have to spend 6 hours there each day.

Good Luck, I’m off to have more wine now, I’m not ready to admit my baby is actually a little boy!

9 common phrases from a parent of a boy

NOW, as a mother of a boy, I understand this poem!

 Over the past month I've found myself saying the most strangest of phrases to my son!  To me, a girl, they are strange - to my partner they are amusing - possibly because he may well have heard these phrases himself when he was a lad.

Boys are made of slugs and snails and puppy dog tails - I always thought this was a bit harsh on boys when I was younger - oh hell NO!  In fact that mixture is rather pleasant!! More like boys are made of snot and worms and puppy dog bumholes!

Our Caterpillars, safe in their tubs and not in my son's mouth......

These are the phrases I found myself saying in the last 6 weeks that made me stop and say to myself 'Oh My Days did I really just say that'...........


* Stop licking the floor!

* Stop poking the dog's bum!

* I'm not talking to you until you stop playing with your willy! 
       (I'm sure I've said this one to his dad a couple of times too....)

* Stop tasting the dog's food!

* Whatever you're doing stop eating it!

* Stop putting your finger up my nose.

* Get that Lego out your bum!

* Did you just feed the dog your boogies?

Either one of them will eat an ice-cream, boogies or a worm!

And one that I heard daddy say ....

* Put it away and stop playing with your balls!

Snot, Sea air and Crabs

Never a dull moment and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I love this boy.  Slugs, snails, snot and all

Bank Holiday Fun with Morrisons

I love these carrots!!!  £1.49 a bunch :)

So, we were given the opportunity over the Bank Holiday to check out Morrisons new I'm Cheaper range - and I'm happy to say we were not disappointed - and to be fair, I think I'd go as far as to say -  Hello! Why are we not shopping here more regularly?!

We got a lot for our money and all of our meals (at home) over the bank holiday were based on what we'd purchased from Morrisons and various items from the 'I'm Cheaper' range.  You can't miss the range its a nice bright yellow sticker with I'm cheaper on - and can be seen in the store and over on their website http://www.morrisons.com

It's not secret I'm not the world's greatest cook and working all week I like to spend my weekends playing, art and crafts and just out and about investigating nature so my 'skills' in the kitchen are not great and quite restricted on timing and the bank holiday was no different.

On Saturday after our shop, we had a light lunch from the deli counter before heading off down the beach and the warm bacon wraps and jumbo sausages were the perfect lunch accompanied with the tropical fruit salad.  I say light but the bacon wraps were more filling than I thought they would be!  £6 lunch for 3 -bargain!


Sunday was Star Wars Day in our house and this was spent cutting out space images and hanging them from the ceiling and a carpet picnic of Pizza, Garlic Bread and Dips.  Oh, these Pizzas are fab - prepared in-store and 2 for £4 - great value.  My only issue is - I should have bought more than 1 packet of Garlic dough balls, one little toddler took a big shine to these.

This was followed up by CAKE!  My favourite of the weekend AND on the I'm cheaper section too - Jaffa Cake The Big One! nom

We finished off our bank holiday with one of daddy's favourite dishes - Pasta with Ham and Parmesan Cheese.  I originally got this recipe from my Carb lover's diet book.... just amended it slightly.

I picked up a couple of packets of Italian Herb Ham from the deli counter - Oh my days!  This ham is extremely tasty!  The aroma is enough to make you want to just eat the ham there and then!  Forget putting it in your dinner and in fact, I had to redirect Max's attention (in the form of his trampoline) whilst cooking as he was eating way too much of this before I had a chance to put it in with the pasta!

As I mentioned at the beginning I'm not one for spending a long time in the kitchen - I would if I had a pause button so as you can imagine our favourite dish takes approximately 20 minutes to make.

So here is my favourite Recipe thanks to Morrisons:

150ml I'm Cheaper Sour Cream (equivalent to 45p)
250g (half packet) Farfalle Pasta (equivalent to 49p)
200g Italian Herb Ham £3
100 Grated Italian Style cheese £1.29

So that's pretty much what I put in my meal but you can add peas, chopped Tarragon, salt and pepper.

Cook the pasta as per packet instructions.

Whilst the pasta is cooking cut up the ham into lovely bite-size pieces - keep a little to the side for hunger fingers that try to make their way to the worktop!

Once the pasta is cooked drain and reserve approximately 70ml of water.


Return the pasta to the pan then add in the sour cream, cheese and ham.

Once mixed in stir in a small amount of reserved cooking water to create a thin sauce - this is very much to taste so try the sauce and if you feel it needs a bit more water then add accordingly.  I like the sauce quite thick so I don't tend to add much cooking water back in the pan.

Give it all a good old stir and there should be enough for 4 servings.

Total Cost per Serving £1.30 

Thank you, Morrisons and the "I'm cheaper" range

Thank You Morrisons - Preparing our roast chicken salad

Disclaimer: We were sent Morrisons Vouchers to complete the I'm Cheaper Range review

All words and images are my own and not influenced by vouchers received.

And so the Potty Training begins!

Handpicked daisies from my baby boy

Well, this a nervous time in our toddler days - the potty training days.

We are officially potty training this week.  The nursery has suggested we start and we've taken our lead from them as I do agree Max is ready.  

He's doing well only 1 accident today and 1 yesterday but what I mainly wanted to say - OMG THE PRICE OF PANTS!!

I know, I know it's going to be cheaper than nappies but come on £7 for a pair of spider-man boxers for a 2-year-old? No, that's not happening - not to just be peed all over ;)

Asda does a nice cheap version but I fear a couple of washes and they are out the door.  I've had a shop around online and have managed to find some great briefs from BHS with 50% off.

For me this is the big turning point, like when Max gave up his bottle, moving from his cot to his bed - another milestone to show my little baby boy is growing up, and growing up fast.

I really am thankful for digital cameras, my blog letters to Max, videos and digital life, in general, to be able to capture all his precious moments so I can look back on them with such great fondness (and embarrass the £7 spider-man pants off him, when he's older).

Newly re-arranged room has gone down well

Travelling with a Toddler

This month we took Max (who is 2 next month) on his first holiday abroad - to America.  The flights were, on average, 8 hours and through our experience of this here are my top tips on travelling with a 2-year-old !

Be prepared that little ones do not like hanging around in queues and, therefore, it may be a bit of a testing time getting through security and baggage check-in.  Not a lot we can do about that really.  Silver lining - if your little one kicks right off at immigration in the USA - they'll fast track you to get you the hell out of there!

Get night flights
We had an evening flight coming home and Max was much more relaxed.  We wore him out during the day, made sure he was properly fed and went to the park an hour before we were due to check in to ensure he had had a good fun packed day.  Once the seat belt signs went off - he was out for the count until we landed in London.

Portable DVD Player
I know that sounds expensive but it doesn't have to be.  We bought a £30 portable DVD player from Tesco.  I used my Tesco Clubcard points.  This little item was a Godsend throughout the holiday.  We did have in-flight movies which did keep Max amused but his eyes lit up when he saw Toy Story on the DVD.  The battery life is only 3 hours so time this one well.

Stickers, Crayons and surprise toys
The sticker book went down well and Max played with it throughout the flight for approximately 15/20 minutes at a time.  His crayons weren't such a hit as they are at home - but finding out the table came down was a bit testing...

Take the Pushchair
This is a must.  Lots of people will have their pushchairs with them and if you are out for the day sightseeing and your little one falls asleep for their lunchtime kip - you're going have pretty heavy arms by the end of the day - only for them to do it again tomorrow.  So even if they hardly ever use it at home - it's better to have it and not need.

Don't Sweat it
If your little one plays up or kicks off - only those in rows behind and in front can really hear him.  Most will have headphones on and those further back won't hear your little one as the sound of aircraft is pretty loud too! - And at the end of the day - keep in mind you won't see these people again, and those with kids will understand.

Most importantly - once you land and out of the airport - ENJOY your holiday!