Silent Sunday

Pizza Express, gotta love it!

Just back from our local Pizza Express. Dough balls, pasta, pizza,  more dough balls (this time with Nutella dip - OMG!) and no washing up after Saturday tea-time - all worth it's wait in pricey Parmesan I'd say.

Well done Pizza Express - don't go changing!

We'd done our usual near-starvation of the kids during the afternoon (y'know, a whole 2 hours with just one mere brioche) and so there was an apparent need for emergency garlic dough balls on arrival, luckily ours came within 5 minutes. Clive was having a more vino-related emergency which was equally well executed.

We had calamari to start which was gorgeous and not chewy as it can be. We had pizza and then the long-awaited Nutella dipping!

The staff were friendly, bright, breezy and attentive but all that was a bonus. They had me at Nutella.

Go to http://www.pizzaexpress-offers.co.uk/ to view their latest offers. This summer offers include getting a kids meal free with an adults one.

Be My Guest: Mandy Grist from i CAN, Communication Charity

Learning to talk is the number one life skill for the 21^st century. It’s as simple as that. Children need good communication skills to be able to learn in school, know how to behave and to enjoy life to the full. Helping your child to develop their speech, language and communication skills is one of the most important things you can do as a parent. We often take these skills for granted, but children need our support to make it all happen. 

And yet a survey carried out to mark the launch of the 2011 Hello campaign, the national year of communication, found that many parents didn’t know what to expect from their child’s communication development. Many of the parents surveyed in the poll knew more about walking milestones than talking milestones. And if a parent doesn’t know what to expect, how are they able to help? 

So, how about you?  Do you know the average age that a baby will say their first word?  When should you expect your child to be talking in sentences?  Well, typically we would expect a baby to say their first words around the time of their first birthday, but they will already understand a lot more by then.  Of course, they won’t be able to say words the way we say them for quite some time, as they are still learning their sounds, but they will definitely be words!  A child’s speech and language skills should then develop rapidly over the next few years.  By 2 years old they should be able to put two or three words together to make little sentences. By 3 years old they will be asking lots of questions and understanding longer instructions. And by 5 they will be using complicated, well formed sentences and know lots of the language they need for starting school. Check your child’s progress in speech, language and communication at www.talkingpoint.org.uk

 

But, some children find it much harder to learn to talk than others.  Some children struggle to understand what is said to them, form words and make sentences and might not understand rules for conversations. These children are often described as having speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). Children with SLCN will need help and support to develop the skills that we assume will develop naturally. 

I am a speech and language therapist for I CAN, the children’s communication charity. I CAN are proud to be able to help families know and understand more about the way that children develop their ability to talk. We have launched I CAN Help, a free telephone call back service that gives parents the chance to chat to a speech and language therapist about their child.  The phone call can help them to find out information about what to expect from their child’s speech, language and communication skills, how they can help them develop, and where parents can go if they think something is wrong.  Together we can do all we can to get your children chattering!

To book a call back from a speech and language therapist call I CAN’s Enquiry Service on 020 7843 2544 www.ican.org.uk/help

Our New Bestest Book ; Pirate Pete by Nick Sharratt

Ahoy there Shipmates! Meet Pirate Pete, he's an adventurous pirate about to set sail on an adventure.... you're invited too.

This one is typical Nick Sharrat; simple, snappy, witty and clever. This time though we get to pop pictures into slots. This twist means that the reader gets to decide on how the story goes.

So what's in the treasure chest? You decide. What will he find in the see? Again it's up to you!

I love any book that insists on getting children thoroughly and deeply involved with story, that gets them interacting. I didn't even mind the predictable argy bargy that prevailed between my offspring on what was going where! At least they were absorbed...

Absolutely recommended for all budding pirates and to any parent eager to drench their kids in a wide range of book formats.

Be My Guest: Louise Morgan from The Princess Royal Trust for Carers

I work with services which support young carers all over Scotland, but some time ago we had noticed that what seemed to be missing was an awareness of very young, young carers – among the children themselves and at schools.

Thanks to money from the Scottish Government we came up with the idea of cartoon characters we could use to give the children an idea of what young carers do, what might affect them and their schoolwork as a result and signpost them to sources of further help.

We worked with an advertising agency to create Eryc and Trayc (the misspelling is deliberate…) who have their own website, which outlines what a young carer might do and what their lives are like. The site also includes an animated film, narrated by the Lord of the Rings star Billy Boyd which sets out Eryc and Trayc’s lives in a really simple and easy to understand way.

To get Eryc and Trayc started, we ran a competition for children in Scottish schools. We asked them to come up with ideas for what Eryc and Trayc would look like, picked a winner and then we used a professional designer to turn them into cartoon characters.

To launch the website and animated film, we asked for the help of Billy Boyd (again!) and worked with one of the schools that had run the original competition. The Scottish Minister for Public Health, Michael Matheson, joined us at the school to officially ‘switch on’ the website and watch the animated film with the children.

We’d also let all Scottish schools know that the website was about to go live, and invited them to virtually join us on the day.

Now, we’ve run a second competition, asking children to tell us what they have learned from watching the Eryc and Trayc film. The prize for this is to appear in the next Eryc and Trayc animation and we’ve been flooded with really great answers – demonstrating a brilliant understanding from the children about young carers and what they do.

Not surprisingly, as it is reckoned that one in 8 children shoulders a caring role, quite a few of these answers are from young carers themselves and from pupils who have friends who are young carers. 

The next stage is to distribute a school pack for pupils. Again, this will contain information about young carers, what they do and where to get further help. We hope to have this ready by the autumn. We’re also planning to launch a resource pack for teachers, which will contain lots of useful information.

In the meantime, we’d be delighted if you took some time to visit our microsite – www.erycandtrayc.com to see the characters for yourself.

The Princess Royal Trust for Carers is the largest provider of comprehensive support services for unpaid carers and young carers in the UK. You can find out more about the work of The Princess Royal Trust for Carers at www.carers.org and www.youngcarers.net

Play parks and childsplay

Yesterday we visited a charming castle, with stunning  grounds and a pretty impressive playpark; slides of all sizes, shapes, configurations; swings for babies, tots and older ones, seesaws galore.

My kids stood and stared for a short while, taking it in, unsure of what to do first. It was quite busy and, as I may have mentioned before, we don't like people much - just a little family quirk - and so they were wary of diving in head-first. When we did venture on one of the slides (and it's always we - I fear I'll be forever the 'only Mum on the play equipment') these people-types were everywhere, one even gave Charles a push on the head to 'help' him down. Charles expressed his disappointment with this action with around 14 minutes of screaming. What fun.  People you see - you can't trust 'em!

A little later we went to find a drink and have a sit down. There was a small slope of grass and - joy of joys, to my anti-social-tots delight - no other children. Finally we could relax, Rosie and Charles played without any adult intervention required (Charles had to be Rosie's dog - complete with panting noise and occasional begging) and we could breathe, unwind and watch them play - using their imagination, using nature (Charles was on a twig/lead) and having space to do all this without some equipment  adults have designed and built to let children play. Equipment that's fun - for some kids more than others - but can only ever be second best to woods, forests, hills, den-building, tree climbing and just being.

Be My Guest Vanessa O’Farrell – Head of Marketing at Plum Baby

 

When and how did Plum start?

Our founder Susie, first came up with the idea of launching a range of baby food after the birth of her third child, Francesca. As she visited the baby aisles her immediate thought was “is this as good as it gets?” little appeared to have changed over the years, and as a mum who is passionate about kids and good food, the idea to launch her own baby food brand jumped out at her.

Right from the word go she had a clear vision for Plum, she wanted to create real food for babies and not just baby food and use adult style recipes, that ensured every mouthful delivered in terms of taste, nutrition and goodness.

The inspiration for each new recipe is simple – knowing that every baby out there deserves food that is full of healthy nourishing ingredients, with no added sugar and free from any additives.

All our Plum recipes are versions of foods that she has created for her own family for years, and tend to evolve from her love of using natural, organic ingredients. When she started the Purple Plum Cookery School she helped mothers to gain confidence in making their own purees and yummy meals for their little ones. It is such a pleasurable experiences when weaning your baby, to know that you have lovingly prepared everything from scratch. It is what we do at Plum, but on a larger scale!

What are Plum's underlying principles?

Plum has revolutionised the baby food market – we have pioneered the use of adventurous ingredients that invigorate the palette and help babies grow and develop. The key to Plum’s success is that we really listen to what parents and babies need to help them with the weaning process.

We like to keep things simple when making our food, by sticking to four principles we’ve kept close to our hearts since Plum was born in 2006:

•          Always create food as parents first & foremost

•          Produce food that uses nutritionally rich organic ingredients that provide a food adventure for little ones, helping them build an appetite for life

•          Responsibly source ingredients

•          Never use additives or unnecessary fillers

How can mums become more involved in the Plum community?

Plum constantly encourages parent’s feedback, so this is why you can review all of our products openly on our website. We have a selection of Plum Super Mums, who are carefully chosen from our Plum Mums to become advocates for our brand. This handful of Super Mums are truly involved with Plum, tasting samples, researching and spreading the word at coffee mornings, Facebook, Twitter and other community websites.  

You can also find us chatting most days on Facebook and Twitter, so do come and be involved.

What has been the hardest aspect of getting Plum to this highly successful stage?

Plum is now one of the leading premium baby food brands in the UK and is sold through all the major food retailers including Asda, Boots, Co-Op, Ocado, Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose. We have launched over 50 products since 2006 some of these extending into new categories such as dairy, as well as broadening the recipes and packaging formats.  We have had to grow up quickly, but being a small team of 19 we all have to ‘chip’ in where needed.

We are sailing....

Yesterday we left our home in Notts at 4am to travel to Holyhead for the 10am Stena Line crossing to Dun Laoghaire, Ireland. At 9pm the previous evening we'd been saying such misguidedly optimistic and foolish comments as "well if we got to sleep at 11 we'll get 5 hours, that's not bad" - the beauty of both having children and sometime-insomnia is that 5 hours sleep seems reasonable.


Make that, 5 hours is reasonable. What seems a little less so is Charles, for no other reason than parental-torture, awoke at 1am to, well just to scream it would seem. At 2am after lying him down for the 43rd time I was starting to mentally cave in - a feeling experienced by all nocturnal parents - thinking "really Charles really? This is what you want to do to me is it? [and it was just me at this stage, I'd given Clive a shove in the direction of the sofa downstairs so that he at least may be able to a) stay awake long enough to drive without causing death, which frankly is my favoured way to drive, and b) talk to the children whilst one of us - me - can be a zombie-type freak] This is what we're doing is it Charles? OK my love go for it".

And so he did. Until 345am at which point he fell sound asleep and was most annoyed when a zombie awoke him to shove him in the car a mere 14 minutes later.

The journey to Holyhead was fine thanks to double shots (espresso I'm talking here - he may be Irish but leave your stereotyping if you will) and sugar induced produce. The children didn't sleep - mine don't do that 'sleep in the car' thing. They seem to think it overrated. They're wrong, but there you go.

Once onboard all was well. I love travelling my ferry - seeing one bit of land disappear and another slowly emerge - it's hugely satisfying. I love it more ever since flying from Australia to England, not long after 9/11 having not seen most of my friends and family for over 2 years. I spent the journey as a terrified mini-and shit come to that - detective.

"Clive...." that's me nudging him from slumber.

"What?"

"If you were a terrorist, who was going to blow this plane up, would you buy duty free?" I'd ask after spotting someone I'd been eyeing suspiciously for 3 and a half hours as he was struggling between the Paul Smith and the CK.

"No".

"Would you read the travel section of a newspaper?" I'd seen someone else who looked a little 'explosive's at the ready". (And there was no racism involved, no Sir. Everyone was a threat.)

"No"

"Do you think some terrorists are vegans?" I'd ask after convincing myself of a sure-thing who'd then asked for a vegan meal.

"Shut-up".



So anyway, I digress, but since that flight, any form of travel that doesn't involve flying at squibillions of feet with a bunch of mass murderers, appeals. Especially if the air carrier is owned by a notorious billionaire chancer, who when the Icelandic volcano erupted was on telly saying that, inspite of the scientist-boffin types, who actually know about such stuff, warnings  "it'll be grand, there's no reason we shouldn't be flying" which could have been translated roughly as "for effs sake get these 12 Euro a flight chavs up there", as in the case of  Ryan Air, who we'd have flown with. Yes ferries appeal. A lot.

Back on board Rosie was consuming her own body-weight in complimentary mini-petit pain au chocolat (not exactly Irish fodder, but you can't argue they're not delicious) and Clive was drowning his internal organs in complimentary, and bloody nice, coffee. See, as Rosie kept loudly informing others as we walked around the boat, we'd gone Stena Plus, or, as Rosie surmised, "the posh bit". "Can we go back to the posh bit now?" she'd ask at full-volume, stopping just short of "away from this Riff Raff. With their chocolate without any petit pain around it whatsoever."

"The posh bit" might be stretching things somewhat but it definitly was worth it. Newspapers, food, juice and milk as you want it, and nice smiley staff who, if they were annoyed at my child's seeming petit pain addiction, and my exhausted nonchalance of that habit, they kept it well hidden.

Charles adored the boat. Space to run, food to scoff - what's not to love? Whilst Clive was desperate to spark awe and wonder from his Anglo-Irish (or as Clive calls it "Irish-Anglo) son as we approached Ireland, his much-loved home-land, Charles was insistent  we follow some poor guy dressed as a monkey. Charles was terrified, wouldn't high-five like the other children, but wanted to follow him around the ship still nonetheless, just so he could bury his head in one of our chests, petrified when the monkey waved.

I've always been open about these 'dressed-up folk". Never when we have been in town and a Peppa Pig enticing over families with stickers just so they can flog shit conservatories, have I said "yes of course it's the real Peppa".

No sirreee. They're not kidding my kids. So there's me saying "it's only a man dressed up Charles" and Charles is looking at me like "a man? Dressed as a monkey? You fool mother, you really are a fool sometimes."

The monkey bid us farewell and off we embarked on a lethargic walk around lovely Dublin.

Do today's kids just want their bikes after all?

A survey conducted by Dairylea has recently found that what children want to do more of is... drum roll.... eat more turkey twizzlers? Learn how to become the most friended online person ever? Play with their DS? Be the most inventive text-speaker in the whole wide cyber-world? No, apparently the activity that 54% of them said they'd like to more of is ride their simple 'ole pedal bike.

Well, who'd have thunk it? There was us rationalising that although we rather liked riding bikes, climbing tress, building snowmen and rolling down hills as children , our own sprogs - born just one mere generation later - should have evolved out of such nonsense by now.

Pah! Course they haven't. What children need is food, love and space. Space for freedom, space for exploration for activity - activity that involves their whole body and gets their heart pounding - not activity which involves thumb moving and the occaisional premature expletive as they loose another game.

Now I'll confess I've not got to the whole DS stage yet. When with Rosie and someone mentions such gadgets I just bury my head a little into my metaphorical sandpit I carry at all times and tighten her metaphorical cotton wool some more - so far this has worked and whilst I relented to pesters for Barbies last Christmas, the DS pester is yet to come.

And just like we hope when Jo Frost has kids that we're there to witness her screaming at them uncontrollably as they tantrum in the supermarket carpark - or that we bring back hacking just so we can learn that her little brat told her "the naughty step can go poo itself" I'm sure you're thinking "wait and see Smug Education Journalist, wait and see...."

I'll wait and I'm damned sure I'll see. We'll have the gadgets, I won't let them be the only kids without them - I don't want a rebellion on my hands, seeing them break world records for amount of hours endured on terrorist-promotion games.

I'll always know though what's right for kids - how they learn, how they grow - physically, intellectually, emotionally. Good on you 54% - happy peddling!

Jewels for Summer

Necklace from Boden £15.00



silver rings From Silver Road

Silver Ring with Onyx £19.55



Ruby Necklaces from QP Jewellers

Fiorelli Jewellery from Uneak Boutique

Bangles £31.00

 



Handmade Silver Jewellery from Traidcraft

Adjustable Heart Ring now £25.00

Dyrberg Kern Charms from Queen of Charms
Earings £62.50

(Value My Stuff offer Antiques Valuations, If you have any antique Jewellery then it might be worth getting it valued for insurance purposes)

Small Teen Big World

For those who've been watching this BBC3 documentary, you'll know that it's a year in the life of 16-year-old Jasmine Burkitt. Jasmine is just 3ft 8in tall and only fits clothes designed for a seven to eight-year-old.

The 12 months captured in this documentary are the most important of Jasmine's life; we follow her as she goes to New York to meet others with similar genetic conditions; as she camps out at her first pop festival; celebrates her sixteenth birthday and tries to contact her estranged father, who is average size. The combination of the events that unfold and Jasmine's strong, inspirational character make for compelling watching.

What hits me the most though is the strength of Jasmine's relationships. Indeed the whole series could be sub-headed 'How to be a Family'. Jasmine has a tight bond with all of her relations; that with her Grandfather is perhaps the most touching and particularly moving when he recovers from cancer. Jasmine, her Mother and Grandparents are forever drenching one-another in praise; remarking how proud they are, how special they think them to be.

When Jasmine's desire to meet her father is realised we meet an almost-toothless ex-addict who's been homeless. Jasmine's Grandparents, who themselves appear pretty conservative and straight-laced, welcome him as part of the family, because they believe in second chances and, most significantly, because they want whatever Jasmine wants.

This family know, perhaps more than any other, that life doesn't go the way you might plan it; they've had more than their fair share of illness and hospitals, heartache and dispair, as well as having to face curel prejudice and ridicule. Yet their ability to love, to express themselves - their emotional literacy and fluency - is nothing other than enviable.

Summer Time Birthday Gifts

My Munchkin Blue Organic Towel £24.99



Shake and Walk Elephant part of the new Tinga Tinga Toy range from Bandai.co.uk  £34.99







Eco Dolls House from Kroom by Little Helper £24.99

Petit Bateau Floral Top from John Lewis from £34.00



Early Rider from GLTC now £84.00

Didi Car from GLTC £50.00



Noddy At The Airpost from Argos and Toys R Us  £24.99

 

Lacoste Watch from Time 2 £60



Folding Bikes from Leisure Lakes this one now £199.99



A holiday in the luxury BeaconHill Northumberland Cottages



Glamping Hamper from Unique Boutique Company £80

New Qsilica Skin Care range Available from Harrods, Selfridges and online

One of Hayes’ Garden Benches this one £69.99



Rice Bag Planters from Garden Beet £7.99 each





A voucher for Holidays in Canada from MyCanadaTrips

A voucher for Celebrity Cruises

Be My Guest: Sue Gascoyne, Educational Researcher and Founder of Play to Z Ltd.

Getting to grips with Sensory Play

Sensory play is essentially play that involves one or more sense, so most play has the potential to be sensory and opportunities lie all around us. Great examples of sensory-rich play include sand, water or mud play, playing outdoors or even collections of natural objects.

Sensory play has become somewhat of a passion for me; I have just finished a book on sensory play and recently expanded our multi-award winning range of sensory-rich resources, training and research. The foundations for this love lay in my childhood. Although living in not-so-rural London, I grew up shadowing my nearly blind father, a skilled joiner, as he literally felt his way around his sensory-rich workshop full of the smell and feel of woods and glue. Recently, I discovered a much-loved book, the Adventures of Pip. With magical stories of using cherry blossom for confetti and acorn cup saucepans, I can see how this sowed the seed for finding the play potential in the simplest of things, perfect for inspiring an imaginative mind. Add to this the hours of playful exploration by my own children and my passion for sensory-rich open-ended play is complete. 

So what’s so important about sensory-rich play? Largely trivialised as ‘messy play’ all children’s learning and development ultimately stems from their senses. Every sensory experience results in a stimulus which passes from one brain cell to another, relaying information about what we see, touch, taste, smell, and hear. The more times these connections are used (from repeated experiences) the more established the pathways become and the better they function. In fact early sensory experiences, particularly visual, touch and smell, are closely linked to memory recollections; a fact seemingly supported by the Sensory Play Research as 68% of adults’ most vivid childhood memories involved sensory-rich play outdoors. A multitude of experiences will give rise to a wealth of interconnected neurones. This is apparent when we think of a word like ‘summer’ as this conjures up a raft of different thoughts, feelings and images, each laid down by separate experiences. Our role as adults therefore, is to provide children with a sensory-rich environment and limitless opportunities for open-ended play to nurture brain development, memory and meaning making.

Sensory play is typically characterised by deep concentration and absorption. If we understand the need for adequate space and time to fully explore and become immersed in play, as well as the importance of providing stimulating resources, we should hopefully witness firsthand children’s fascination for exploring, discovering and creating. The revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework was launched in July setting out guidance for supporting young children. It recognises that children learn in different ways and that effective teaching and learning involves:

·         Playing and exploring

·         Active learning, and

·         Creating and thinking critically.

These have a strong synergy with sensory play and best of all they provide real curricular outputs without the need for expensive specialist equipment. Like play in a muddy puddle the best learning is relevant, real and rooted in children’s interests and knowledge. A quick tour of the three prime areas of the EYFS reveals the potential contribution of sensory play.

Sand, mud, water and a whole raft of other objects typically found in a treasure basket (a basket of natural and household objects) are perfect for fostering children’s personal, social and emotional development. This is true for children across the ages as resources like these are open-ended with no right or wrong ways of playing. Watch a child deeply engrossed in play and we gain an insight into their personality, interest and developmental milestones as well as their ability to focus, solve problems and test ideas and theories.

The open-endedness of most sensory play is great for developing communication and language. With adults often eager for children to meet literacy milestones, it’s easy to forget that sensory-rich experiences like mark-making in dry or wet sand, gloop or mud are a necessary pre-cursor to reading and writing. They also give meaning to a whole host of words like soft and hard, hot and cold, rough and smooth providing an archive of images, feelings and experiences to match each word. Children respond to sensory-rich resources in very different ways. Some may babble as they play while others play in silence, possibly because they are deeply engrossed in play.

Play with sand, water, mud or simple objects is great for physical development.  Even very young babies can sit for an hour playing with a treasure basket. As they do so they develop their back, shoulder and arm muscles, build strength and coordination and hardwire their brains for learning. Unlike adults, children’s play is often full-bodied and therefore their learning is too. Consider the acts of splashing in muddy puddles, stretching to climb a tree, squeezing sand or mud between fingers or painting with a fat brush. All these require wide ranging physical skill and mastery, but above all are enriching and fun.

The benefits of sensory play are numerous with opportunities everywhere, so next time you see a child splashing in mud, scooping up handfuls of sand or scattering black specks from poppy seed heads, consider for a moment what they may be thinking, feeling, creating or enjoying - something wondrous no doubt!

For more on sensory play, please take a moment to view my blog at http://playtoz.wordpress.com/ 

Sue has designed and run workshops nationally and internationally to help practitioners introduce learning through play. She is a published author who focuses on embedding sensory play experiences in the learning environment. As a Primary School Governor and mother of two young children, many of the activities and resources are based on observations of her own children at play. In 2009, Sue Gascoyne was named Nursery World 'Trainer of the Year' for her contribution to the Early Year’s sector.

Be My Guest: The Royal Life Saving Society

WOULD YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO IF YOU SAW SOMEONE DROWNING?

The Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS UK) has a  National Water Safety Awareness campaign. 

The main focus of the campaign is to promote having fun in, on and around water, whilst keeping safe. You don’t need to be reckless to have fun in the water and a few simple considerations can protect you and prevent drowning. Life saving is a fun activity to get involved in and can help you to make a difference in your local community.

Commenting on National Water Safety Awareness Week, Jane Cooper, Communications and Marketing Director at RLSS UK, said: “There are 10,000 volunteers in the UK, that work tirelessly to teach their local community about keeping safe in the water. We’d like to celebrate the work they do as well as encourage other volunteers to get involved.

“It is also vitally important to highlight the dangers of water and how people can avoid getting into difficulty.”

By simply remembering some basic tips from RLSS UK, you can ensure your family is kept safe around water this summer:

- Fit a fencing around your pond

- Ensure fencing to neighbouring gardens is sufficient, be especially aware of those neighbours with ponds or paddling pools

- Do not allow your child to use a paddling pool without supervision

- Ensure paddling pools are emptied and turned upside down as soon as they are finished with to avoid them collecting water

- Check the garden regularly for anything that could collect water, like buckets and wheelbarrows

- Teach some basic water safety techniques to children from a young age

Tips for when you are out and about:

- Supervise children closely when in parks or other places that might have a river, pond or lake

- Know where they are and who they are with

- Follow any safety advice or notices that may be present

- Teach your children to swim at the earliest chance and make sure they can float comfortably in water

- Teach your family to wave and shout if they get into difficulty – practice this whilst treading water

- Children need to know not to enter the water if someone else is in danger

- Throwing a buoyant aid, stick, towel or whatever is at hand is the safest way to rescue a conscious person

- If you see someone in trouble stay calm and try shouting for help. If no-one comes and you can’t reach the person call 999

For more information, safety tips or details of training, contact RLSS UK on 01789 773994 or visit www.rlss.org.uk

Be my, be my Baby

Rosie's lost her babyness. When she was sleeping, up until quite recently, I'd look in on her and, there it was, that look of her as a baby. Fingers in her mouth, just like she always has done, eye lashes long and resting on her soft rosey cheeks - there she is, still my baby, all is well.


Of late she's done some serious growing. Her legs are long, her face more chiseled and she's beginning to look less and less of a baby and more and more of a little girl.


Course, I'm telling myself this is all OK, every stage is lovely. I wouldn't swap this chatty, witty little side-kick for that floppy little baby of yesteryear would I? No, not for one minute. Well, perhaps for one minute, for a squish and a poke and to see that crystal clear dribble that is beautiful on your baby and repulsive on others.


It's just that sometimes I wish we could make time go a little slower; my kids still quite like me right now, they even think I'm funny from time to time. By my reckoning I've got about 8 years until I'm exceptionally annoying, embarrassing and without a clue about anything.


So for now Rosie has to put up with me squishing and coo-ing my baby/girl even though she's getting much too old for all that and quite reasonably informs me "I'm not a baby y'know". My love I do know but to me - you know what's coming - you'll always be my baby.

Be My Guest: Dr Amanda Gummer

The Difference Between Having One Child and Two

Dr. Amanda Gummer is a leading authority on child development, play and parenting. Amanda’s experience includes running a family support charity in London and teaching children with special needs as well as working as an Associate Lecturer in Child Development for the Open University. She has also contributed to and edited a report on adoption policy for the Conservative Party. With nearly twenty years of experience working with families and children, and two daughters of her own, Amanda has a detailed understanding of the differences between having one child and two.

“A recent survey has shown that three-quarters of mums feel more relaxed with their second child and are less likely to treat them with kid gloves with many mums saying they weaned them earlier, moved them in to their own rooms earlier and didn’t worry so much over things like brand new clothes and toys.

“Naturally, having two children is a different ball game to having just the one and invariably life becomes more of a juggling act! With the first child you can give them undivided care and attention but with the second you’ve got to try and keep them both entertained - especially if they are close in age. Time is precious and mums want to be spending quality time with their children so they feel safe in the knowledge that they can make small changes to help make things a little easier.

“With less time on their hands and so much to get through each day mums have to work smarter when the second child comes along. For example, this survey found that 26 per cent of second time mums are less likely to make the baby their own special meals when weaning and will simply blend whatever the family is having. The same percentage also admitted they started weaning their next child at four months rather than at six months as with their first-born.

“It also showed that mums also expect their second child to develop more quickly than the first, allowing them to reach important milestones faster. Many said they moved their second child in to their own rooms at an earlier age than they did for their siblings and would trust them to entertain themselves for short periods of time whilst they get on with other tasks.

“It’s often the little things that they do differently that can make the biggest difference and generally when the second child comes along mums are much more confident in their parenting abilities and have developed their own style. It’s understandable that mums will be more confident the more children they have, and therefore less worried about things.”

The study was conducted with 3,000 mums by global nursery brand Munchkin. For more details log on to www.munchkin.eu.com.