As a parent, the one thing I’ve really noticed over the years is how competitive the world has become. We hear year after year how it’s more difficult for children to achieve high grades in their GCSE’s or A Level results. Getting to University is incredibly competitive and children have to work so hard to even be considered by the places they want to study at. Even if your child chooses to follow a less academic route, the competition for jobs is incredibly high out there. They still need to
Our weekends really do go from one extreme to the other in this house. One week we might be off on a super exciting weekend away or another we might be in the house juggling looking after the kids with a long list of household chores to catch up on. It’s probably not to far off how things happen in your house, is it? This weekend, we stayed close to home, but I was not going to let cleaning and laundry take over our lives. Sundays are always off to
Hello readers. If you have been following this story, your will know that our 3 year old daughter had an operation to have grommets fitted and her adenoids removed about 2 weeks ago. I wanted to give you an update about her progress so far and how we are feeling since the operation. Should She Have Had The Operation We certainly have no regrets about letting Brook have the procedure done, even though it was quite stressful leading up to the operation and the day itself was hard for all
Last week our youngest daughter, Brook, went to hospital for an operation to have ear grommets fitted. If you have been following our story you’ll know she has been suffering with Glue Ear and was going to hospital to grommet surgery as well as her adenoids removed. It wasn’t a day we were looking forward to, as you can expect. We were all desperate to get to the other side of it and have our daughter’s hearing restored. Pre Operation Appointment The week before the operation Brook and I went to the
Now that the kids are back at school, those long summer holidays seem like a long distant memory don’t they? I must admit, here, we are all enjoying having the routine back and Indie is really loving being back in the classroom. She seems to thrive on being busy and I love to watch her grow and learn new things. I’m definitely not one of those parents who feels sad about the school holidays ending, as they can certainly be challenging in terms of juggling childcare and keeping them busy.
I have been so conscious recently of how a relatively minor health issue can have huge consequences for a young child in the early years of their developmental progress. If you’ve been following the blog recently, you’ll have probably heard about my daughter’s glue ear and her hearing. Good eye health and vision is equally as important for children, especially for going back to school season. Our daughter has just joined Year 1, and to all intents and purposes she’s settling in very well. She was so excited to get back
September is here and the autumn button has been pressed but how do you keep having fun as a family in the colder months? The summer is all about going outdoors and making the most of the sunshine and we are often left wanting to keep that momentum going, despite the change in season. I’ve been thinking about how to keep that holiday feeling alive, and it inspired me to write 17 things to do in autumn with kids for the blog, so here we go.. Things To Do In
I thought I’d give you a little update on how we are getting on with treating my daughters’ glue ear. The issue with her hearing and speech development is certainly coming more pronounced as she gets older and she is definitely aware that something isn’t quite right. She was sat at the computer the other evening and when it’s not being used, our family photos pop up on the screen. She saw a picture that she remembered being taken and she was trying to explain to me what was
When my daughter started school last year there were a few tips I had forgotten about buying school stationary and equipment. Bearing in mind my oldest son was starting university in the same year, it had been some time since I’d started a child on their school journey and Smiggle wasn’t around back in those days. I dutifully bought her the standard school water bottle and school bags, forgetting about the problems we would come to face later in the year. The problem is, everyone buys the school issue water
You can’t deny that buying Morrisons school uniform when you are in the supermarket or when are ordering your online shop is the ultimate in convenience for busy parents. If you’ve been thinking about where to buy good school uniform then I’d say the Morrisons NUTMEG range is definitely a good option for both price and quality. Our local Morrisons store is stocking more and more NUTMEG clothes and I’m pleased to see they have lots of school uniform on the shelves this year as well. They have an excellent choice of
We have had a fantastic time this summer, making lots of memories and exploring new places. Our first visit to Camp Bestival was certainly memorable. I don’t think you have truly experienced a festival until you have been challenged by the mud and the rain with two small children in tow. Otter spotting in Dartmoor was so much fun, and the wonderful hotels we stayed in and fine dining we enjoyed certainly lifted our spirits after camping. Exploring Bath with my daughter was also a lovely experience that we both
The kids will be back to school in a few weeks, and we’ve been topping up with some essential items before we start back in September. Debenhams is a great department store offering a great range and quality in it’s back to school range. One investment I needed to make this year was to buy my 5 year old daughter a new school coat as well as some new dresses and other school uniform uniform items. I like to make sure we get a school coat my daughter will actually
Kids have the funniest habits when it comes to food don’t they? My daughters love Petits Filous, but they think they should only eat it for breakfast. They love their routine so much, that if I try and step out of that, even slightly, they look at me as if I am from outer space. If we are at home for the day, I will often suggestion to them to have a Petits Filous with lunch or dinner, and they will flatly refuse, because they are so used to having
The summer holidays are now in full swing and keeping the kids busy is probably the easiest way to keep everyone in the family happy over the summer. Having just come back from our holiday it’s now about finding day to day activities that will keep my girls happy. I think that anyone that has siblings who are close together in age will probably experience some challenges through the summer holidays. My daughters clash regularly and if I’m honest, I find it really difficult as a parent to deal with. I’ve
Buying new school shoes is part and parcel of getting ready for the new school term isn’t it? My daughters both love getting a new pair of shoes. They also have to have the same things, so when we found out that Diechmann were offering buy one get one half price on their school shoes range that sounded perfect for us. Now, I know what you are thinking, our 3 year old daughter isn’t at school yet. She isn’t actually going to school for another year, but she doesn’t seem
If you have been following my blog and social media channels recently you will know that my 3 year old daughter received a diagnosis of glue ear following a hearing test she had at the beginning of June. We have also been to see the Doctor this week and suspect that she suffers from Rhinitis which may be a contributing factor, and she is now receiving treatment in the form of a nasal spray for this as well. It’s interesting trying to convince a 3 year old to spray something up
Do you worry about the amount of screen time your kids have? It’s something that definitely niggles at me sometimes, as my children are very fond of using the iPad for their entertainment. They enjoy playing games on the tablet as well as watching YouTube. What is is with those unboxing videos they love so much? Another favourite in our house is My Little Pony make up tutorials. My kids will watch those for hours. I guess it’s no different to me watching how to make fancy cakes. I will
Rushcliffe Country Park is definitely our favourite place to take the kids near to our home, but it dawned on us today that we hadn’t been for sometime. Last year we would go and visit a couple of times a month in the warmer weather, but we don’t seem to have got into the same good habits this year. Sundays start early in this house with our first swimming lesson starting at 9am. Seeing as we are out and about so early it’s nice to keep this momentum. After Sunday
Sometimes it’s just impossible for me to write about anything else until I get something off my chest and this is definitely one of those times. I took my 3 year old daughter for a children’s hearing test the other day and it confirmed that she does have some low level deafness caused by a condition called glue ear. You might recall I talked on the blog about my concerns around my daughter’s speech and hearing a few weeks ago. As she recently turned 3 years old we are keen
Happy Birthday my beautiful little lady. You had a very special 3rd birthday as we were on holiday at Yelloh! Village Les Grands Pins. I wanted it to be special, even though we were away, so you had a princess breakfast with your sister, featuring party bags and fresh croissants, which are your favourite breakfast whether you are at home or in France. You were in charge for the whole day and picked all the activities that we did. We played in the kids play areas and made a special birthday
Are you spending half term at home with your children? Do you have that sense of optimism that you are all going to have a great time together enjoying each other’s company? I love the thought of spending time at home with my family but by the end of the holiday I can literally be counting down the hours before we are back into the school routine. When that feeling has taken over me, I know that my half term planning hasn’t gone so well and the dreaded Mum guilt
At around two years old I was becoming concerned about the progress my daughter was making with her speech. I spoke to the nursery, who weren’t concerned at the time. She seemed to be hitting the benchmark for the number of words she could say and we didn’t necessarily expect them to be crystal clear in terms of pronunciation. When I took her to the health visitor for her two year development check I discussed the concerns there too. When I thought about the questions that were being asked she
Have you seen the new series on Netflix yet? If you haven’t watched ’13 Reasons Why’ already, I would strongly recommend adding it to your list of must watch TV. It will draw you in as you follow the lives of students at Liberty High in the days before and after Hannah Baker takes her own life. You’re right, this show definitely isn’t for the faint hearted, but the messages about bullying, mental health and the struggles young people face to day are real. If you are a parent, the
I find feeding my kids a healthy diet is something I constantly worry about as a parent. It seems to be something that has got harder as my children have got older, when I was really hoping that it would be easier to get them eating their five a day and enjoying a healthy balanced diet. My experience seems to go something like this. When I was weaning my children, I would think everyday about offering them a variety of foods and giving them lots of fruit and vegetables to
I think that children really enjoy making things for their Mum for Mother’s Day, or any day as it happens. My daughter is always drawing me pictures or making me cards. It’s not even Mother’s day, and I already have 4 on display. She really enjoys being creative and I’ve found some lovely ideas from Homebase kids activities that I think a lot of children will love to share with their Mum’s on Sunday. Personalised Tile Coasters This is such a lovely idea and a great way to display a child’s
If you caught up with the blog yesterday, you will already know that my daughter turned 5. As luck would have it we were asked to host a Rusty Rivets party on the very same day and it was an opportunity not to be missed. For those of you not already in the know Rusty Rivets is a show that is on Nick Jr and is all about Rusty, his friend Ruby and his team of helpful robots. Rusty uses his engineering skills to build awesome inventions to help them
How did we get here, it only seems like 5 minutes ago that we were celebrating you turning 4. Happy 5th Birthday to my precious little Princess. You are certainly growing up way to fast. You love school, and are doing great with your reading, but it seems to be writing that you really want to master. You are also incredibly creative and love drawing and making things. You counted down the sleeps before going into reception, and you are definitely making the most of being there. You love being
For me potty training has to be one of the worst parts of parenting. I really wasn’t looking forward to potty training my youngest daughter, and was literally hoping she would just decide she wanted to wear big girl pants and that would be it. She likes to do everything her big sister does, and I really hoped this would include using the toilet. There’s so much wishful thinking here it’s untrue, and I’m sure it won’t come as any surprise to you that it wasn’t quite as simple as
Moving to a new country with your family can be thrilling and fun, but also hectic and nerve wracking. So even though you loved those Homes For Sale In Davenport FL, you still might and the idea of moving a bit worrying. The transition is an important moment for all, especially with kids involved. Making sure that everybody is on the same page, and the move is explained thoroughly to all of the family members is fundamental for the process to go smoothly. You’ll want to make sure that people
My 2 year old daughter seemed to become very picky about what clothes she wanted to wear a few months ago. We couldn’t quite figure out why she was picking certain clothes over others. She hasn’t worn leggings or jeans for a long time, as we know she prefers to wear dresses. But then she started to become fussy about the dresses she wanted to wear too. We were flummoxed to be honest, as we couldn’t quite work out what it was she was drawn to about the ones she
