Over the years I've come to the conclusion that teachers teach very little. Children have an innate ability and desire to learn and good educators develop the children's skills by providing the right opportunities at the right time.
We were spoilt when my daughter arrived as was she. Sadly over time we've forgotten a lot of the gifts but the ones that really stuck with us four years later are these: Chocolate Lindt flowers - mum's definitely need gifts too and will be so grateful for being remembered. Hand knitted shawl from granny. Absolutely beautiful and still popular even now. We adore the personalised gifts we got. Beautiful building blocks with a subscription are amongst our favourites. A massive box of different types of chocolate brownies. So delicious and helped cheer me through evening cluster feeding and breastfeeding hunger. A hand made owl mobile/wall hanging from a London boutique. So cute Yummikeys are a beautiful new baby gift too and...
It's been a long, albeit not particularly warm summer up here in Scotland and definitely starting to feel ready for autumn. Here's a few of our favourite things about autumn: 1. Crunchy, colourful, beautiful leaves hanging onto the trees and carpeting the ground. Great for jumping in, kicking, throwing, collecting, sorting and especially painting with. 2. Conkers! Even as an adult it's pretty magical to find and open a big shiny conker. With children, it's fun all over again. There is a myriad of crafts you can do with conkers too if you’re feeling creative. 3. The smell of wood smoke from stoves and fires and garden clearances. And coming home and lighting our own fire of course. 4. Geese!...
This recipe was given to us by a friend when we weaned my daughter. It's become such a staple in our house that it's the essential breakfast for us every Sunday morning. Toddlers really enjoy getting involved and help stir and break the eggs from a young age. If you have any pancakes left over they do also freeze. Ingredients: 2 x ripe bananas mashed 1 medium free range egg 1 cup of self raising flour ¾ cup of full fat or semi skimmed milk Unsalted butter to cook Method: Add all ingredients to he bowl and whisk thoroughly (great for kids to get involved too) Heat a little butter in a non-stick pan and add 3 separate spoon fulls...
This will be a familiar scenario for some of you. Your baby has got the hang of feeding and sometimes sleeps for longer stretches, when teething strikes and it all goes pear-shaped. Here's a few tips that worked well for us: Keep sticks of cucumber in the fridge for your baby to chomp on. They're cool to chew on and as they consist mostly of water they're generally-considered ok before weaning. If your partially-weaned baby goes off solids, don't be afraid to up the milk feeds if they're hungry. They'll take more solids again once their gums stop hurting. There are several products available at chemists for teething. Anbesol teething gel worked well for us and we have friends who...
