It's that time of year again, Back to School! (Although a lot of stores seem to have started their Back to School campaigns before the schools even broke up for the summer!!) So I thought I'd put together some of my hints & tips to help prepare for the first day back at school.
- Don't leave uniform purchasing until the last minute. It's surprising how many people do, then have to trawl around multiple shops trying to get the uniform bits that they need.
- Be realistic about what you need to buy. Do you want to constantly be washing uniform? If not then it's wise to buy multiples of things to save trying to get jumpers dry in the middle of winter, ready for the next day. Does your child really need 4 jumpers right now? While it's still relatively warm it might be worth putting off buying lots of jumpers- in my experience they soon get whipped off at school and shoved into bags/drawers/a box because they get too warm.
- Label your child's uniform. Especially if they go to a school where uniform with logos on is part of the uniform. I have spent far too much time sorting through 15 identical jumpers trying to work out which belongs to which child. You can go as basic as writing your child's name with biro on the washing label, up to buying personalised iron/sew in labels. The same goes for polo shirts, PE kit, bags, shoes even! There will often be multiple children with identical clothing to your child, and it's a lot more likely to come home if it's labelled! (I once went through a stage where everytime a child took a jumper off I had to write their name in it. It just wastes valuable time.)
- Make sure you know what time your child starts and finishes school on the first day. Especially important if your child is just starting school and has staggered days where they may not be attending for a full day. There's nothing worse than being late on your child's first day, or being late collecting them on their first day.
What are your best Back to School hints and tips?
Normally when people talk about two year-olds the mind tends to leap to the 'terrible twos', and forget about the positives. Believe me, I've seen my fair share of terrible twos- we have a lot of two year-olds at work so we get to see the whole range of your typical terrible twos! (My current favourite is A who throws a cracking tantrum if she doesn't think she's said goodbye to her Dad in the morning. We have screaming, crying, kicking, dragging her feet along the floor, banging her fist on the floor and drooling!)
But going back to the positives, two year-olds are undergoing a massive amount of change and development- 80% of a child's brain cell development takes place by the age of 3. 80%! They're developing on all fronts- language, cognitive, emotional and motor development is going haywire. Their sense of curiosity is high as they try to explore the world around them and learn as much as they can as fast as they can.
Physical Development
This is a key stage for large/gross motor skills-rolling, walking, jumping, running, climbing. They go from being wobbly just-started-to-walk-ers to developing a real finesse in their movements.
They're also developing their fine motor skills- beginning to hold a pencil correctly, dressing and undressing, doing up and undoing buttons, using cutlery and turning handles.
The biggest aspect of physical development is potty training and self-care. If you think about it, we only spend a tiny fraction of our lives unable to deal with toileting independently!
Social and emotional development
Two year-olds begin to develop trusting relationships outside of their own family, with adults and children they see regularly. They are also starting to see themselves as individuals (hence the word 'no' becoming a key part of their vocabulary!)
They are beginning to play with other children, as well as learning to understands the feelings and emotions of others.
Language development
By the time they turn 3 a child will often know around 300 words, or more. They will be able to put 4/5 words together into simple sentences. They will be able to understand a lot more in terms of instructions and questions. They will also ask a lot of questions- this is where their sense of curiosity comes into play with wanting to know what EVERYTHING is.
Terrific Twos is also what a lot of Local Education Authorities are calling the programme for offering free nursery places for two year-olds. (Not sure if the name's an overall government thing or not.) I think two year old nursery places will be a topic for another post though!
Today's Sunday Introduction comes courtesy of the lovely Emma and The Osborne Trust. Emma has been incredibly inspirational to a lot of people over the past year, although she will most likely argue against that!
1)Tell us a little bit about yourself:
I'm Emma, 37 and live in North Wales. I'm married and have 2 young sons. I love my handbags, shopping and these days smiling
2)Tell us about The Osborne Trust? What prompted you to start it?
The Osborne Trust is a newly formed charity to offer children whose parents have cancer some time out. This can be a trip to cinema, play centre, nature walk, etc whilst parents are undergoing operations and treatment.
I started the trust after I was diagnosed with breast cancer last year when I was 36 and my boys were 7 and 4. Operations and treatment is not only hard on your body but hard for your family to see you going through, kids need be reminded cancer isn't everywhere and you can still have some fun.
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| Emma's boys, with the sons of another cancer sufferer. |
3)What would you say is the trust's greatest achievement so far?
Greatest achievement so far is the future fundraiser pink tie event in Oct where we hope to raise over 1k so we can support helping local families during their cancer journey.
4) What's next for The Osborne Trust?
The main aim in the first 12 months is fundraising. We are currently running a holiday tombola to win a 3 night stay at a holiday home in Caernarfon North Wales. £2 per entry. We have bag packing and donation bucket days at local football grounds, someone running a half marathon for the trust, the pink tie event, my eldest son whose 8 and his football team walking up Snowdon next year. We need to raise 5k to be able to register as a charity to move forwards. Long term I want the trust to be UK wide helping all families going through cancer where there are children under 16 years.
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| At the official launch of The Osborne Trust |
5) How can people find out more about the trust?
We are on Facebook- The Osborne Trust
Twitter- Osborne Trust
email the-Osborne-trust@outlook.com
via our donating page here
6) How can people help The Osborne Trust?
They can share the page amongst their friends on Facebook , Twitter, do a fundraiser, donate via this lovely website
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| Bald and ill from chemo, but still got a smile on her face. |
A big thank you to Emma for taking part, I cannot encourage people enough to go and donate, or at least share the Trust's page with your friends and family.
Another favourite recipe of Sophie & Ryan, is cheese straws. Sometimes it's nice to get the kids baking something savoury for a change!
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| The finished product, nom nom! |
Ingredients
- 8oz self-raising flour
- 3oz hard margarine/butter
- pinch of salt
- 6oz grated cheese (a strong cheddar gives the best flavour)
- 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of milk
- Optional extras- 1-3 teaspoons of mustard (the little sachets of mustard you can get in pubs/cafes work quite well), or small amount of chilli powder
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| Getting busy stirring the dough |
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 350-375f/gas mark 4-5 and grease a baking tray
- Mix flour & salt, then rub in the margarine/butter
- Mix in the grated cheese & mix to a stiff paste with beaten egg
& milk. (I tend to beat in the mustard too at this point)
- Roll out thinly & cut into narrow fingers (or other shapes if
you're feeling fancy!)
- Place on the greased baking tray and bake for 15-20 minutes until brown.
- Leave to cool, then enjoy
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| Rolling out the dough |
After accidentally deleting the original post (don't ask!) here's the new one!
Sunday introduction- I spoke to Debbie about the work she does with Rocky Does L.A.
1)Tell us a little bit about yourself
My name is Debbie and I work as a booking agent for a
company in the States but most importantly I am a full time Mum to my
beautiful little girl who is almost 4 years old.
2)Tell us about Rocky Does LA- what's it all about and how did you get involved?
Rocky Does L.A is a promotional trip to L.A and
surrounding areas in California to interview and promote certain talents
as well as arrange/attend any events we can and offers businesses the
chance to come on board for sponsorship or people to generally get their
hands on some cool signed items.
We are also looking for a worthy charity to come on board, we want to
help promote them as much as possible.
I got involved through my friendship with Rocky Promotions and it grew
from there combining their promotional knowledge with my booking agent
experience.
3)How can people get involved with Rocky Does LA?
People can get involved by checking the link https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/rocky-does-l-a--2/x/4012921 or by emailing me direct at debzscottstewart@outlook.com
4) Which parts of the project are you enjoying the most and the least?
I'm enjoying the interaction with the talents that
we have on board for the trip, some I have never dealt with before so
it's nice to be getting to know them a little better. The part I am
least enjoying hmm I don't think that exists, it's all character and
experience building for me which is always a good thing.
5) Which brand/artist are you most looking forward to working with as part of the project?
I am most looking forward to working with Kurt
Yaeger, I've known him for almost two years now and it's no secret that
he is a huge inspiration to me so to have the opportunity to finally
meet up with him will be brilliant, I want others to see what I've seen
from the start, a very strong, talented and kind man with a huge, huge
heart!
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| Author's note- I knew she'd say Kurt! |
6) Once this project is complete, what's next for you & your marketing skills?
After this project I will continue my work as a
booking agent and with the material from the trip I will be able to push
these great people more here in the UK so I will be working on bringing
more great events to this side of the water.
A big thank you to Debbie for agreeing to take part in our first Sunday Introduction! I've got a few more Introductions planned with 2 lots of people fundraising, and 2 small businesses. If you'd like your business/fundraising activities/blog to feature in a future Sunday Introduction, please get in touch.
I've recently been off work after injuring my knee, and while I've been hobbling out and about exercising I seem to have noticed a large number of older children with dummies in their mouths. Yesterday was a prime example on the 4 buses I took to & from hospital appointments. One girl was around 5 and spent the whole journey with a dummy in her mouth, attempting to talk to her mother around the dummy. At times the mother couldn't understand what she was saying, and had to ask her to repeat herself. Later I sat people watching while having a coffee, and it seemed that everywhere I looked there were children who, in my opinion, should not have been sucking on dummies.
It's all too easy to bash on about the negatives of dummy use, so I've done a bit of research to find some advantages I didn't know about.
Advantages
- A dummy can help soothe a child- the urge to suck/sucking reflex releases chemicals that help to reduce stress.
- Dummy sucking can help reduce pain when a child is teething.
- For babies born with the urge to suck thumbs, fingers or fists, the use of a dummy can discourage them from doing so- sucking thumbs etc can cause dental problems. It's easier to wean a child off a dummy than a thumb, and parents have more control over dummy use than thumb use. (I'm a case in point with this- I was a thumb sucker as a child, and will often resort to thumb sucking when tired or in need of comfort, as a result I have a slight overbite. My younger brother was given a dummy, which he was successfully weaned off and has near perfect teeth.)
- Dummies can possibly protect against Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) when given to a child at the start of a sleep period. However it is recommended that the dummy is not replaced in their mouth once it falls out. Research is unclear on how exactly dummy use can help prevent SIDS, but possible explanations include dummies helping to keep airways open, and because babies sleep less deeply when they are sucking so there is the possibility of them waking themselves if they have difficulties breathing.
Disadvantages
- Dummies have been associated with dental problems- overbites or misaligned teeth, when used up to the age of 3 or 4. (I have seen this with a number of children I've worked with.)
- The use of dummies past the age of 12 months can affect the development of speech. Having a dummy in their mouth can restrict their ability to babble, and as they get older start to learn to form sounds around their dummy. Once the dummy has been removed this can then lead to speech problems as children have to re-learn how to produce sounds without the dummy. (Again, this is something I've seen several times too.)
- Dummies can actually lead to disturbed nights sleep for parents when the dummy falls out of the child's mouth and cries until it is replaced.
- The use of dummies has been linked to ear infections by allowing bacteria to move into the tubes between the ears and throat.
Ultimately it comes down to parental choice- there are clearly advantages to some use of dummies up to the age of 1 year. What concerns me most as an educator, is the over-use of dummies past that age and the possible problems it can cause.
I used two websites researching this, links to which can be found below. I in no way endorse the full contents of these web pages, these were just useful pages I found using a search engine.
http://www.essentialbaby.com.au/baby/caring-for-baby/the-pros-and-cons-of-dummies-20111109-1n6mh.html
http://www.webmd.boots.com/children/baby/guide/baby-dummy-debate
Did you use dummies with your child/ren? What advantages and disadvantages did you find from using them?
