Do you want to create the perfect bathroom for your kids but don’t know where to start? Don’t worry; we’re here to help! In this blog post, we will give you tips and ideas on designing a dream bathroom for your children. So whether you’re renovating an existing bathroom or starting from scratch, read on for inspiration.
Last Minute World Book Day Costumes
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You’re cleaning out your child’s bag finally after a couple of weeks. What’s that at the bottom? A scrunched up piece of paper? Oh no. Your stomach drops. It’s a note from school informing you of World Book Day. Tomorrow. Cue the mad dash around the house to find your child’s favourite book and try to rustle together a world book day costume!
We get it. We’ve been there. That’s why we’ve put together a bunch of last minute costume ideas that you can throw together with items you already have in the house, or get bits really quickly (thank you Amazon Prime!).
DIY Makes | Felt Pancakes
“Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, is the traditional feast day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday … Shrove Tuesday was the last opportunity to use up eggs and fats before embarking on the Lenten fast and pancakes are the perfect way of using up these ingredients.” – Historic UK
What better time to share a felt play food DIY for felt pancakes, ahead of Shrove Tuesday? This craft is so easy, you don’t even need a template!
I made my pancakes out of two slightly different brown/beige coloured felts. One colour for the top, the other for the bottom. This is in homage to our family where one side of the pancake always cooks faster than the other and ends up a darker colour! Plus, I like the easy dimension that it gives these pancakes.
Skills to Teach Your Children From a Young Age
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Whether your children are homeschooled, or go to a public school, they will learn a lot of skills that will lead them into the career of their choice. But outside the school gates, there are a plethora of other valuable lessons and skills that your children can benefit from, that aren’t always taught in schools. Some of these include language, finances and decision-making skills. These will not only come in handy when paving the way to their desired career but are also deemed very valuable life skills that will help them to thrive when they enter the real world, post-education.
To give your children a jump start, consider these top skills to start teaching your children today.
How to Help Your Child’s Academic Performance
How your child performs at school can impact their whole lives. If they get the grades they want, they will be able to go on to the colleague and university that they want to and study at. Then eventually, they will be able to get the job of their dreams. So, as a conscientious parent, you will be wondering how you can help your child achieve academic success. Luckily there are many things you can do this, and this blog highlights a few ways to help your child’s academic performance:
Build a Hedgehog House
If you follow the TMC Kids Club Bucket List Challenge you may have noticed that we suggested that something you could do this month is to Create a Hedgehog House.
The Journey Stick
If you follow the TMC Kids Club Bucket List Challenge (if not, why not!) you may have noticed that we suggested one thing you could do this month is to create a Journey Stick.
The History of The Journey Stick
“First, a little background on the journey stick for you. Aboriginal people in Australia used journey sticks to more easily recount their journeys to other people upon their return. They found a large walking stick, collected materials found along the way, and tied them to the stick in chronological order. Native Americans also decorated sticks to recount their journeys and tell about their travels. These sticks can be used as storytelling and navigational tools. The collected materials and markings have various purposes. Some things can be used as markers for natural features in the land, such as tree bark to indicate passing through the woods. While particular symbols carved into or painted onto the stick could show weather patterns, natural features, or events that took place.”
– Sara McCarty / Run Wild My Child Blog: Journey Sticks and the Art of Storytelling
A Journey Stick is an amazing way of encouraging your children to engage with their surroundings on your daily walk. In a world where we are always on the go, even slowing down on a woodland walk can sometimes be a challenge – so having an activity to do while you’re out can really help with that slow and simple lifestyle.
Making your Journey Stick
Step One:
Find a nice thick stick! Wrap some string or lots of rubber bands around it (which, from experience, is much easier to navigate with little hands).
Step Two:
Pop on your wellies, a nice thick coat and get outside! Start picking up leaves, feathers, sticks, twigs (anything that’s safe to do so) from the moment you step out of the door. Make sure to start your journey stick from the bottom, so that it can show a chronological timeline of your journey.
Added Bonus: There are hundreds of ways that you can use nature to enhance your outdoor adventures. Whether you turn your stick into a journey stick or something completely different, encouraging your children to use nature in their day-to-day lives is fantastic for their imagination and observation skills.
Here are some amazing books that you could read alongside this activity. Make sure to tag us using #thatmamaclubig with any photos that you take so we can share your ideas!
Stanley’s Stick by John Hegley
Not A Stick by Antoinette Portis
WEANING AN ALLERGY BABY | GUEST POST
WRITTEN BY KELLY BRADY (GUEST WRITER)
Sharing my experience weaning an allergy baby;
Throwback to the bank holiday weekend August 2017 and breakfast time in the Darlington household. We were having scrambled eggs on toast and had our then 8 month old daughter, Orlaith, joining us at the breakfast table. We had been weaning for a couple of months, mixture of baby led and spoon feeding, which she had been doing really well with so I didn’t think twice to giving her a little bit of eggs and toast to have a play with. Despite having a severe nut allergy myself, I was very naïve I suppose to other potential allergies and aside from peanuts, I hadn’t been avoiding any foods when we began our weaning journey. But I guess having an allergy myself prepared us for what happened next – almost instantly Orlaith started getting unsettled and her face, hands and anywhere the egg had touched (she was just in a vest) came out in hives and an itchy rash.Her eyes and lips started to swell and the rash started spreading pretty much everywhere, very quickly. She had been prescribed an antihistamine for hay fever over the summer so we went into autopilot, administered the antihistamine and called 999 (looking back I can’t actually believe how calm I was as revisiting this now has me crying all over the laptop!). The response to the antihistamine was almost immediate, and knowing the signs and symptoms of anaphylactic shock, I was confident that we didn’t seem to be heading in that direction.We spoke to the 999 call handler and talked through what was happening and instead of an ambulance being sent we were given an emergency appointment at the local a&e department. Just when her skin seemed to be calming down, the vomit came. So much vomit. So much when considering she must’ve ingested the tiniest amount of egg. Then she slept. And I panicked she was too drowsy so we called 999 back but just as we were going through what had happened, she woke up, smiling, giggling away like nothing had ever happened.Picture 1 (skin reaction from the egg touching), picture 2 (10 minutes after antihistamine) Picture 3 (90 mins later skin still showing signs of reaction but swelling all subsided).We took her down to her appointment where she was checked over and we were advised she was fine, but to avoid egg for the time being and we were referred to the allergy department. Little did we know this was the beginning of a long journey dealing with numerous allergies. It got to a point it felt like she was reacting to everything she was trying, including things she had tried before. The list at 10 months old when we saw our consultant for the first time included banana, avocado, all types of wheat, oranges, beans, sesame, tomatoes, chicken, soya, peas, pulses and we hadn’t dared to try any sort of nuts with her. A lot of these reactions were skin based, hives coming up and itchiness and sometimes a bit of a bad tummy. All the reactions were dealt with by an antihistamine, a nice cool wash down in the bath and eczema creams applied, but what should have been an exciting weaning journey became a stressful and scary situation each meal time.At 10 months old Orlaith had some blood tests which confirmed the egg allergy and showed she would react to some nuts it she tried them. Skin tests showed that her skin did react to the majority of the items on the list above, but as these didn’t appear as ‘reactions’ on the blood results, the consultant advised that we should continue to challenge her to these items, one by one, and to try and eventually let her body tolerate the foods. A surprising result on the blood tests was a reaction to beef and lamb, but the consultant advised us that he believed this to be an anomaly and to include these in Orlaith’s diet. However, after the appointment we realised that she had had reactions to these in the past – she had a reaction to spag bol which we presumed was to tomato, and a reaction to stew and dumplings which we presumed was the wheat in the gravy and the dumplings. So beef and lamb were added to the lengthy list!To challenge Orlaith we have to allow her to try a small amount of the food, if she has a small reaction, we can continue trying her, gradually increasing the amount each time. If she has a more severe reaction, we have to pause that challenge and then re-challenge in two to three weeks time. A lot of the foods she did still react to for quite a long time, and the biggest challenge sometimes was identifying what actually was causing the reaction. And as the list was so extensive, finding foods that she was able to eat safely became a challenge in itself. Gluten free bread for example a lot of the time has egg in it. Most vegan food will use lentils and pulses. Quorn as a beef or lamb replacement also has egg in it. Soya seems to be in everything. I am forever grateful that she has always been okay with milk and other dairy because that would have ruled out a massive part of her staple diet for a long time.One of the biggest challenges we faced was the wheat intolerance. She would sometimes be absolutely fine with bread, and other times she would have really bad reactions to it. We noticed that the reactions were worse with white bread products and explored the notion that she may be okay with whole-wheat as opposed to white wheat (which I never even knew was a thing!). The biggest turning point in the wheat situation was when she was around 18 months old and she changed rooms at nursery. Her skin was probably the worst it has ever been, she would be in nursery Monday-Wednesday and by Wednesday afternoon her skin would be so sore and itchy I would spend Thursday – Sunday trying my best to get her skin under control and the same thing would happen again the following week.Her nursery have been so amazing through all of this and always cater for her so well, so this wasn’t their fault at all, there was just something happening in the tots room that was different to the teenies room. Orlaith’s speech was really coming on as well around this time and I offered her rice krispies at the weekend for breakfast which she said no to as they hurt her neck. Everything all of a sudden clicked into place, I checked the ingredients on the box and barley was the only allergen, no wheat, I remembered she had a bad reaction to soreen which also had barley in, and those heinz baby biscuits, checked the box, barley in as well. The main change from the teenies room to the tots room – no longer having porridge for breakfast but having rice krispies instead every morning. Turns out she was pretty much tolerable to wheat but really couldn’t handle barley. Hence the reactions to certain breads and other wheat products which also had barley in. Nursery swapped her krispies for some gluten free ones and within three weeks her skin was so much better.We have luckily to date not had too many hospital visits following reactions with the majority of them being dealt with with an antihistamine at home. We had a scary reaction to what we think was fish, (although the meal she had, she had previously had with no issues, but fish was the only allergen). The swelling took a very long time to calm down and on account of her also becoming drowsy she was rushed to a&e in an ambulance. The drowsiness was ultimately caused by low blood sugar levels and not due to going into an anaphylactic shock thankfully, but she was admitted overnight to be monitored as it was quite different to previous reactions.She has since had more blood tests which still show heightened reactions to eggs, some nuts and beef and lamb (again the doctors can not believe the beef and lamb results) and at the moment we still avoid these foods. She has had egg by mistake recently and she didn’t have any skin reaction but complained of a itchy throat and was then very sick. She also just last weekend had some jelly sweets which had beef gelatine in and got a rash on her face (see picture 8). But the good news is, by persevering and keeping endless food diaries of reactions and non reactions, we have been able to get a lot of food now in to her diet. She can have chicken, banana, oranges, tomatoes, all wheat, peas and soya. We noticed the reactions were less severe when the product was cooked, ie, she would be okay with banana bread, but not raw bananas for example. Although we have also noticed that if she has too much of something, too much wheat or too many oranges, she will get an eczema flare up.She still has reactions to sesame, avocado, beans and lentils, but this isn’t surprising as they are linked to nuts and tree nuts, but the reactions do not get any worse which is a good sign. We are yet to try beef, lamb or any fish until we can establish the above foods. And she is still unable to tolerate barley in her diet without getting a really bad eczema flare up.
Now we have established wheat in her diet, we were going to start the egg ladder last year and start challenging her to egg. It was important for her to tolerate wheat in her diet first, as the first step of the egg ladder is egg which is baked, so in a scotch pancake for example, which will also contain wheat, so we needed to know that it was definitely the egg she was reacting to. But given the pandemic we put a hold on that for now as we didn’t fancy any potential A&E trips.What I can say is that Orlaith has been amazing through it all, she is still a very adventurous eater and she handles it so well if we are out and about and she is unable to eat something (normally homemade ice cream or cake!). She has known from a young age what she can and can’t eat and is able to communicate this to other grown ups if we are not around. She has also recently learnt how to spell and read EGG and NUTS so she looks out for this on packets if trying something new (supervised obviously). We are hopeful she will grow out of the egg allergy and when we are brave enough and everything with Covid calms down we still start the nut challenges under consultant’s care.If I had any tips for allergy parents or parents who suspect their child has an undiagnosed allergy or intolerance, is to firstly document everything. Pictures, food diaries, treatment and what happened after. At hospital appointments they will want to know everything so it’s good to be prepared and be confident in what happened and have the evidence to back it up. We have been told a good few times now that an allergy to beef and lamb is ‘impossible’ and almost laughed at when asked to be tested for it. Secondly, keep persevering with food challenges if it is safe to do so, whilst it obviously not nice to potentially cause distress to your baby, ultimately the more they try the food the more they should be able to tolerate it (of course under the guidance of your consultant).We are just about to start the weaning process with our second daughter so it will be interesting to see what allergies and any intolerances she may face. But I feel much more prepared this time and will take it very slow and careful to keep track of any skin problems/reactions. And we are so thankful that for Orlaith so far she hasn’t gone into an anaphylactic shock following any reactions.
YOU CAN FIND KELLY ON:
INSTAGRAM: ORLAITH_FIADH_AND_US
WEBSITE: ORLAITH, FIADH AND US
OUTDOOR RAINY DAY ACTIVITIES
Does anyone else hate being stuck indoors all day when its raining? To be honest, as much as I love a good old duvet day every now and then, nothing beats a bit of fresh air. Rain or shine. Our little family always tries to embrace the weather and go out as much as we can, regardless of the conditions. The last few days however have been ever so wet. So, I thought I’d compile a list of some of the rainy day activities I do with Molly. Yes they are all outside, in the rain. Just stick your tiny human in a puddle suit and some wellies and you’re good to go!
HOME LEARNING TIPS FROM A PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER | GUEST POST
BY WHITNEY DAVIES (GUEST WRITER)
Whitney is a primary school teacher based in Staffordshire. She has been teaching for nine years and is now part of the senior leadership team in her school. She is also the SENCO (Special Educational Needs coordinator). Whitney shares her life as a parent to two year old Rory over on Instagram as @mommy_davies. We have asked Whitney to share her top home learning tips.
HOME LEARNING TIPS
Firstly I’d like to say a huge thank you to That Mama Club for asking me to write this guest post. As a primary school teacher with almost 10 years experience, I can honestly say these have been the hardest and strangest months of my teaching career to date. With the majority of the country’s stuck at home, there have been many new ways of life we’ve had to become accustomed to. I’d like to share some home learning tips, resources which you may not know are accessible to you at home, and some positive affirmations to help you through these unprecedented times!
You Are Not Home Schooling!
Now this is a bold and controversial statement for me to begin with, but I feel the term is misunderstood. Yes your children are at home, yes your children are completing school work, but it is not home schooling. If you were home educating your child, they would not be enrolled in a school, you would be responsible for all of the lesson planning and you’re subject to inspections from the local authority. This time around, teachers are providing much more for children at home, with many providing live lessons. 12 months ago, remote learning wasn’t even a thing, and now it is law for schools to provide a minimum of 3 hours learning a day (higher in Key Stage 2!) for children at primary level. In the first lockdown, learning was being set, but with less pressure from the government, and with the beautiful summer weather on our side, it was a little easier. Now, the learning is much more structured and formal, and with more people working from home now than ever, trying to find the balance is tricky.
Parents, just like in most other aspects of their child’s life, are there to guide and support their children whilst juggling work, but ultimately, your child’s teachers are still responsible for their academic progress. When you decided you wanted to become a parent, you didn’t ‘sign up’ to be teaching them the national curriculum during a pandemic whilst working full time. Nobody expected to be living life like this, and teachers didn’t expect you to be doing their job for them – these are the things they don’t teach you at university! Tap into the resources school are providing, whether that be a video call, resource packs, or an email address where you can bombard the teacher with questions. Us teachers are here for you and working harder than ever before.
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Something is better than nothing. Children are far more resilient than we are as adults. I can say from experience, that our children returned to school after such a long time off, and you wouldn’t have known they’d had almost 6 months off. Their passion for learning was still there and they were so eager to get back into school.
Routine & Rules Are Key!
We know that routine is good for everyone. We’re all trying to get our heads around establishing a new routine. Just when we thought things were getting better, it’s been thrown right back up in the air. When schools reopened to all children in September, we began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We never imagined that we’d be back to pretty much where we started. We’ve done two weeks now and we’re all still finding our feet. My biggest piece of advice is to not put too much pressure on yourself, and do what works for you. I know this is easier said than done, but a routine that works for one family will certainly not work for another. Depending on what your home life is like will depend on what a good routine is. I have families whose parents are working 8-4 from home so ‘school starts at 4pm. I have families whose parents work nights, so they sit and work with their children as soon as they get home before they go and catch up on sleep. I’ve got learning being submitted at all hours. Yes there may be live lessons, or meetings which you have to attend at particular times, but otherwise, there are 24 hours in a day and you can use them in a way which suits you.
Once you’ve found your flow, stick to it. Getting up each morning knowing what your day is going to look like will alleviate a lot of anxieties. For example, making sure everyone is up, dressed and ready for ‘school’ at the same time will get you all in the right frame of mind and ready to tackle the day ahead. We don’t want our children to lose that desire to learn, so if it’s a constant battle trying to get them doing 8 learning assignments a day, then don’t do it. The time parents have with their children is precious enough as it is, you shouldn’t have to spend it arguing about doing some learning. As I said earlier, something is better than nothing. Short bursts of learning split up with breaks is much more effective than slogging over the same piece of work for 3 hours. Remember, children will probably get their learning done much quicker at home as they’re working on a 1:1 ratio rather than 1:15 or 1:30 they may have in school.
Technology Is Your Friend!
Another controversial topic! There have been debates surrounding screen usage and screen time since it ever became a thing. Whether you’re an advocate of screen time or not, we cannot deny the fact that it is a huge part of our lives today.
The reason why I mentioned technology here though has nothing to do with the learning side of things…for now. It is just as important to look after your own mental health as it is your child’s, so if they sit watching YouTube for an hour so you can reply to emails, put a load of washing on or just so you can have a hot cup of tea in peace, that is absolutely fine and you are not a bad parent.
Our children are growing up in a society where technology is all around them, and they’ll be training for jobs which don’t even exist yet. Allowing your children to have access to technology for a range of purposes will support them with their future prospects.
Life Skills Are Important!
This is one thing that I think we can all take away from lockdown. We’ve all suddenly become Mary Berry and Alan Titchmarsh rolled into one. When you think of learning, people automatically think of reams of paper full of maths questions. However there are so many skills that we can’t always teach at school that are invaluable. Maths is found everywhere – playing shops where children can buy and sell things from the cupboards in the kitchen, baking cakes where they have to weigh out the ingredients. These are the types of activities where children will learn far more than they would doing a worksheet but are often overlooked. Getting them to help around the house with simple chores will also help them develop a sense of responsibility, but it also helps you out too!
Use What’s Out There
Especially this time round, there is an abundance of resources which you can tap into without paying a penny. This is where I’m going to come back to screen time but talk about it from a learning perspective. Here is a list of resources which I think are great and use them as a teacher myself in school and at home.
The BBC have done a brilliant job by carefully selecting the programmes they are playing on their channels. Most programmes on CBeebies are educational without children even realising. Why not rely on Andy & The Oddsocks to teach them a bit of History or Joe Wicks to get them active? Don’t waste your energy reinventing the wheel if it’s already there at your disposal. As I said earlier, if you know they’re engaged in that, it leaves you free to do whatever you need to do as a parent.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zvryp4j
The Oak National Academy has approximately 10,000 resources and lesson plans which are totally free of charge and accessible to parents. If you’re unsure of a concept in Maths for example, your child can be taught by a qualified teacher before completing their task – told you technology could be your friend! In addition to this, if you’re on particular phone networks, accessing the website will not eat into your data allowance. https://www.thenational.academy
Teach Your Monster To Read is a wonderful app which does exactly what it’s name says. It’s jam packed with activities to support children’s development in reading, from learning initial sounds in phonics, right up to confident readers. This is aimed at children in Early Years and Key Stage 1 (up to Year 2) and is currently free to download.
Phonics Play is another fantastic online resource which has been made freely accessible throughout lockdown. This is used in many schools as a great interactive tool when learning phonics. It’s full of games and printable resources which will support their phonic development. This will be a familiar resource to many children so they will like the continuity between home and school. Just use the username ‘jan21’ with the password ‘home’ to access the free resources.
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources
White Rose Maths is a popular scheme across the country that many schools (including my own) use for teaching. Their activity workbooks for each area of Maths for each year group is available to download for free on Amazon. Download the Kindle version (and download the Kindle app to a device if you don’t have it already) and away you go! These are lovely colourful activity booklets the children can complete as a short Maths activity.
Remember, these times are not normal, and the priority for everyone is to stay safe and happy. When children feel safe and happy in the environment they are in they will thrive. Just like every other aspect of parenting, do what works best for your family, and it will be the right thing to do.
I hope you enjoyed my home learning tips! We must be thankful that we’re in a digital age where our children can still access learning despite being at home, so embrace it and remember, us teachers are here to support you in any way we can!
Mommy Davies x
YOU CAN FIND WHITNEY ON;
INSTAGRAM : MOMMY_DAVIES
WORKING FROM HOME WITH A HOME-SCHOOLING CHILD | GUEST POST
BY ASHLEE (Guest Writer)
Last week, as a country all gathered round our TV’s to find out our fate for the next month and whilst a total lockdown was expected it was still something that sent a chill through my core…. the schools were shutting. I, like many other parents out there work full time, and I have been working from home since the beginning of the last lockdown in March. It was an adjustment to say the least, but luckily for me, whilst I continued to work my husband was placed on furlough which meant he could take over the non-enviable task of running Daddy’s Home School.
This time round, it is different. Both me and my husband are working full time and have our 7-year-old daughter completing her schooling from home. Now, I love my daughter very much but being sat in the same room as her for 13 hours a day is a little hard to take particularly when I have a job which requires me being able to focus just on what I’m doing, which can be difficult when I am listening to “Sir…. Sir….Sir” continually.
We have been lucky in a lot of respects that our 4-year-old can still go to the childminders and the 7-year-old has zoom lessons all day which should require little interaction from me, however it doesn’t go that way sometimes and I have been pulled away from work in order to help solve technical problems (thanks zoom) and to run through problems that she cant understand and her teacher is otherwise occupied.
I’ve always tried to be honest when talking about parenthood especially when it comes to things people are afraid to say for fear of being judged, so here we are a week in..
This is what I have learnt so far:
- I absolutely made the right choice in not becoming a teacher……I don’t have the patience for it, and I salute those of you who do!
- Self-care has NEVER been more important; I have to take time out more now because I am surrounded by work and the kids 24/7
- I miss being in the office…. it’s quiet, have tea on tap and I can snack all day with no judgement.
- I am incredibly thankful that my daughter enjoys learning and wants to participate in school. To those of you whose children don’t enjoy it I can’t even imagine how hard this is for you (P.S. its OK to sneak off for a cheeky gin in the cupboard….no judgement here)
- We are all winging it, no one has a definite plan that works for this situation and every single situation is different. Don’t worry if your kids are not doing much “learning” this is new for all of us.
- Take each day as it comes, I’m a planner and I’ve had to stop because no one knows just what will happen each day!
Being a working parent is very similar to being a juggler. You have several balls in the air at the same time making sure that nothing drops. Work, the kids, the house, finances, social life, partners, mental load, and ourselves.
In unprecedented times like this its OK to drop a few balls in order to keep your sanity. The house is a mess? So what? It’s not like anyone can come and see it? Your workplace needs to be accommodating to the situation. Hopefully your colleagues are understanding that you may disappear from time to time but it is unavoidable.
Be kind to yourself and remember that we’re all in this together! Have you been working from home?
YOU CAN FIND ASHLEE ON:
INSTAGRAM: @STICK_THE_KETTLE_ON
BLOG: STICK THE KETTLE ON
OUR BABY ESSENTIALS FOR THE FIRST 3 MONTHS
BY RACHAEL BLAKEY
When it comes to buying things for your first baby it is all trial and error. You get sucked into buying products that everyone raves about and then end up never using them because your baby thinks they are the devil reincarnate. So when it came to my second pregnancy and planning what we would buy, I felt more like a seasoned pro rather than a flailing fish out of water. So I thought i’d share my baby essentials for the first 3 months but obviously every baby is different so don’t take my word as gospel and all that jazz.