Family Natters

Last year when Tom was 5, I put him in charge of giving out sweets to the trick-or-treaters who knocked on our door.  He seemed to enjoy it and I liked not having to answer the door every 5 minutes, so we were both happy.  Until  I happened to catch sight of what he was doing, that […]

Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check is a tried and tested method many teachers use in schools to help children learn spellings.  You can easily do it at home too.
All you need to do is write the spellings at the left hand side of a grid like in the photo.  Ask your child to look at the […]

When a baby can walk with one hand held, there are several ways you can help him or her further: 

put toys and food on the sofa so baby has to stand up
put toys and food slightly out of reach so baby has to cruise to get them
encourage baby to stand balanced against a toy you are […]

 Yes, I have been to Claridges and here is a video to prove it. It was all wonderful: from arriving and being treated to free drinks because they’d messed up our reservation to staying in a suite of 3 plush rooms. The staff were too fawning for my liking, for example leading you to the toilets […]

No, this is not a photo of James.  Its one of the entries we saw in a scarecrow competition in Eastrington, East Yorkshire.  The idea was to find the scarecrows and make a phrase out of the letters you found the scarecrows holding up. 
Here are the letters:   H D F  E D T  E  E O […]

Open the required image in Adobe Photoshop edit mode.
Crop the image roughly to approximately the right shape
Resize the image width as required, probably about 980 pixels; the length will change automatically
save as ‘header.jpg’
go into smart ftp
put in or check you have the correct ip address
click httpdocs, wp-content, themes, blue-lakes-10, img
go to start, my computer and find […]

Lots of kids I know are fussy eaters. Tom for instance just eats the same small range of foods. I usually end up bribing him to eat veg. by offering him a desert if he’ll eat so many mouthfuls.
The book Mange Tout boasts its 100% effective at changing children’s attitudes to fruit + veg. It […]

Do you have a web site or know someone who has? If so, you should join BlogRush. It’s a way that increases your site traffic by putting an advert for your site on similar ones of other people. In turn you will return the favour and have an advert for someone else […]

Yesterday James said he would ‘babysit’ for our kids when I had to go to work early. He acted as if he was doing me an enormous favour, when really they’re his kids and his responsibility just as much as mine. Anyway, I did most of the donkey work: made their packups, got their clothes […]

Occasionally a human hair can accidentally become so tightly wrapped around a baby’s or toddler’s toe or finger that it becomes sore and swollen. See photo. The danger is that circulation can be effected. This is why Annie was rushed to hospital yesterday.
I saw a hair was wrapped around her toe when […]