Archive for the ‘Parenting’ Category
- In: Bullying | Parenting | School
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When your child first starts school you worry about them; settling in, making friends, coping with the work and hope beyond hope that they will not become the victim of bullying. You make friends with the other parents because you all have the welfare of your children in common. As your child grows older mothers form friendship groups that can last a life time. However, if you make the fatal mistake of making friends with a toxic person you are likely to find yourself isolated and alienated by other parents when the friendship turns sour.
Unfortunately, there are still adults who behave like children (worse than in some cases). If you are on the right side of these people your life is wonderful and waiting at the school gates is a social occasion. If you dare to have a different opinion or challenge their bullying behavior towards others you seriously risk being ostracised (or being sent to Coventry). They will use their loudness to play the victim and embrace the power of social media to show how hard done by they are. Suddenly you are ignored and others of similar ilk turn into juveniles and support the bully in isolating you.
This is when you realise that you only know these people because of the school run and that losing their friendship is not actually such a big deal. As an adult, you can drop your child off early in the morning and arrive last minute to pick them up so you are not standing in hostile territory every day. Being ignored and snubbed as an adult is difficult and upsetting enough so imagine what it is like for a child. How can we expect child bullies to improve their behaviour if their parents find it perfectly acceptable?
Ironically if someone was to insult them, a friend or family member you can guarantee that they would have taken much more aversive action. The school run is like being back in school again thrown together with people you would not naturally make friends with. There are school bullies who are in their twenties, thirties and forties. If your gut tells you to be wary listen because once the niceties associated with settling your child in school are over you may find that you have opened a hornet’s nest and laid yourself open to bullying.
If you are a parent who is the victim of a bully at the school gates, you are not the only one in the world. It probably isn’t completely personal because they don’t see you as a person, only someone they can have power over and fulfil their sadistic need to cause pain and anguish.
5 Cool Science Experiments For Kids
Posted on: May 3, 2016
- In: Education | Parenting | Projects | Technology
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Science is exciting, particularly when you can do it at home and make a big mess in the garden. Some science experiments are so cool that even big kids like to have a go – you know on, ‘Wine Friday’, when you are being a rebel. Science experiments don’t have to involve expensive kits with copper sulphate in them to be great fun. Kitchen cupboards and the corner shop provide the best ingredients for impromptu science afternoons.
The following five experiments are categorized into items used and different scientific concepts.
Vinegar And Bicarbonate Of Soda
These two ingredients can kick up a real stink when used in experiments, this is why it is advisable to set up a table in the garden and do it there. These two experiments are really smelly but you will love them.
Bouncy Egg
You Need: Vinegar, uncooked egg in shell, a jar and a peg for your nose.
What to do: (This takes a bit of time so you could start it at the beginning of the afternoon)
- Half fill a glass of jar with vinegar.
- Put a raw egg in the vinegar.
- Leave for two days.
- Place egg in water and remove shell.
- Feel how bouncy it is and shine a light through it.
- Put on plate and cut egg to reveal yoke still intact.
If you haven’t got time to do this experiment – this video shows you what happens.
This happens because the egg is made up of calcium carbonate and the vinegar is acetic acid. The acetic acid takes away all of the calcium leaving the egg soft.
What do you think will happen if you leave the egg on a plate for a day or two?
Inflating A Balloon Without Any Puff
You Need: Bicarbonate Of Soda, Vinegar, Balloon
What to do:
- Pour the vinegar into a bottle.
- Use a funnel to put some bicarbonate of soda into a balloon (That you have stretched a lot).
- Put the balloon on the bottle neck – making sure it is firmly on.
- Watch the balloon inflate.
Again watch this video to see what happens :-
This happens because the acetic acid in the vinegar reacts with the bicarbonate of soda and causes an effervescent chemical reaction.
What do you think will happen if you use more bicarbonate of soda?
Diet Coke, Mentos and Eggs
Experiments using these three ingredients cause excitement or are used as a warning about drinking Diet Coke in moderation.
Mentos And Diet
You Need: Lots of packets of Mentos, Diet Coke (still in its bottle) and goggles.
What To Do:-
- Supervise all children (and silly adults)
- Simply unscrew the lid off the Diet Coke
- Put Mentos into bottle
- Stand well back and wear swimming goggles
If you are too scared to do the experiment this video will give you a clue as to what happens:-
What is the minimum number of Mentos you need to make the fountain come out?
Egg In Diet Coke
You Need: 365 days, a jug you are not going to use for a year, a boiled egg and Diet Coke.
What To Do:-
- Boil an egg
- Fill jug with Diet Coke
- Put Egg In Jug
- Programme alarm in your phone for a years time
- Go and enjoy yourself
- Come back in a year and if it hasn’t been thrown away rince egg and see what has happened.
The egg shell is made from calcium – remember your teeth are made from calcium.
If you can’t be bothered to wait a year here is a time lapsed version of the experiment:-
Does Lemonade cause the same thing to happen?
Hydraulic Systems
A hydraulic system is used to increase or decreasing the force of a push by using different sized hydraulic cylinders. Hydraulic systems are used all around us. A good example is a brake in a car – you only put a small amount of pressure on the brake peddle but a lot more is used to make the car stop.
Children will have probably made a simple hydraulic system at school using syringes, tubing and water. Here is a video showing a girl using a hydraulic system to make a lift.
What other kinds of objects can you move using a hydraulic system?
You can find many more great ideas on the internet for wild experiments. Children please make sure that you are supervised by a responsible adult to avoid getting hurt.
- In: Parenting | Playgrounds | Projects
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Generally you don’t really take much notice of the condition of playgrounds until you get a child’s eye view. Parents of preschool children tend to spend lots of time in playgrounds giving their children fresh air and getting out of the house. Our local Sure Start centre even provide a list of the locations of playgrounds in our area to visit. Therefore it is hardly surprising that you notice how worn out playground equipment is while you sit in your shattered mother of a toddler state.
The little playground near to us is very basic with just a slide, swings and a couple of rockers. I did consider fund raising to update the equipment but only got as far as contacting Playdale and a lady who seemed to know about how to raise funds for playgrounds. My only major issue was that I didn’t know enough people to start a committee with. Unfortunately the five years you spend with your baby is very fleeting and before you know it they are striving for independence so you don’t really see the playground equipment close up any more.
Once your child has made the transition from toddler to infant and you are starting to foray into the adult world, the shoddy swings and ancient slide suddenly don’t seem to be important any more. New parents take your place in the playground and if they are all like minded they could work together to improve the local playground. This is exactly what happened in our area but the playground in question is to be a new one on a big stretch of road quite away from where we live. The playground project is extremely ambitious and aims to fulfill the recreational needs of all ages including adults.
The NCB has produced a fact sheet on how to raise funds for your playground. You can request a funding guide from playground equipment companies like Playdale Playgrounds who have produced a funding guide. They also follow up the request by contacting you to see if they can help with your project. Once you have read through all of the instructions you will have to form a committee and be prepared to write detailed plans so that people funding your project know exactly what they are paying for. In some cases you may need to think about why your project is more important than other people’s so you can secure grants from different organisations.
Hopefully you will have some very creative and dynamic people on your committee who will be full of ideas for fundraising events. Eventually after a lot of hard slog and dedication you will be ready to speak to your local playground adviser who will help you to confirm which pieces of equipment you would like and where you are going to put them. Once an installation date has been agreed the playground equipment installers will come and set up your playground. Most playground equipment companies provide maintenance contracts to ensure that your playground remains in tip top condition.
All that is left is for your local community to launch the new playground and welcome children and parents into your amazing play area.
These days it would seem that the Nicky Morgan and Jeremy Hunt make policies without actually talking to each other. We are given such mixed messages when it comes to developing our children’s minds and bodies. On the one hand the Education Minister wants to increase the amount of academic work our children do, including dreaded homework. On the other hand, the Health Minister keeps telling us we are too fat and children don’t get enough exercise. The amount of opportunities children have to free play and therefore exercise is decreasing with every new target that is added to the OFSTED process.
Tracey Crouch, the Sports Minister, tried to convince us that the Olympic games would make athletes of us all. There was a little increase in sports participation but nothing to get excited about. Our medalists didn’t inspire us to exercise more, rather they encouraged us to; open new bank accounts, eat Quorn and watch, ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. All of these activities could be done at home on the sofa and failed miserable to get anyone excited about sport. apparently there is no single reason why people don’t participate in exercise more.
School trim trails, climbing frames, climbing walls and many other pieces of playground equipment adorn our school playgrounds now, yet children are not getting as much time in the school day to play freely. In the late 70’s and early 80’s when I was at school our playground equipment consisted of a dangerous climbing frame, a huge field, crystal draining stones in a filled in stream, grass cuttings and magnifying glasses. Incidentally the exercise we got from the magnifying glasses was running away from the dinner ladies when we used them to melt black bin bags. If it was sunny we would go out and play rounders or cricket on the field. If it was snowing we took our sledges to the nearest hill and didn’t worry that we were missing English or Maths.
These days, unless an activity has got a significant number of learning outcomes and can be incorporated into a success criteria anything that doesn’t have a box to tick doesn’t count as learning. The notion that exercise has to be formal and that you should achieve some sort of accolade for participating in it is suffocating our love of sport. My brother and I spent one summer holiday playing in our grandparent’s empty coal bunker, it was great because the adults couldn’t get to us and we got filthy. The amount of agility and strength required to get in and out of a coal bunker is quite a lot, we slept well at night and fat kids can’t fit into coal bunkers.
We all probably interfere far more in our children’s lives than our parents did in ours. For some reason we treat children like they are made of fine china and neither their feelings or their bodies should be hurt. I had bruises and scuffed knees for most of my childhood – I didn’t get upset about it and our parents were caring but accepted that it was part of childhood. Now I am terrified of my son getting bruised and scuffed simply because I am afraid of being judge as a bad parent.
Play is definitely the secret to getting children to exercise more because it is so flexible and the imagination takes away the boredom of training. When I watch my son and puppy playing together they are both exercising but because they are playing then don’t realize it.
Mud Mud Glorious Mud!
Posted on: February 24, 2016
This year nature seems to have provided us with a bountiful supply of mud. Whether we have liked it or not country dwellers have been forced to contend with muddy feet and huge puddles on a daily basis. Children have found having impromptu mud baths fun and washing machines have been working double shifts during this constant wet season. If we think that sending our little darlings to school will prevent them from getting dirty then we are going to be disappointed.
Mud kitchens are all the rage in schools now, whether a DIY plucky Governor version or bought one, your children will spend some of their school day in mud kitchens. This article from Playdale Playgrounds explains why mud kitchens are such great fun. At home children can pester Mum and Dad for old utensils, cupboards and buckets so that they can enjoy the glory of mud. As with all aspects of play, a mud kitchen provides a rich learning experience that we just assumed was mucking about.
If learning objectives and opportunities are what floats your boat then this chart produced by blogger Worms Eye View applies EYFS Learning Opportunities to playing in mud kitchens.
All children can enjoy playing in mud kitchens, as the activity provides learning experiences for children of all abilities. Aspiring artists and those who like to touch and feel the world have wonderful opportunities to explore texture, consistency and the possibility of shaping mud. Scientists will totally enjoy experimenting with water quantities and soil types. All children enjoy copying their home life and a kitchen environment is where a lot of the action happens.
Learning objectives aside playing with mud and soil is really pleasurable. I remember my mud kitchen in the corner of the garden, consisting of an old pan, buckets and a sieve. One very warm summer holidays 35 years ago was spent sieving dry mud to make a sandy dust – I can’t remember the expensive activities we did that year but playing in my mud kitchen is firmly fixed in my mind.
To make lasting memories kit your kids up with clothes that can withstand mud and frequent washing, old spoons and pans. These are the ingredients of happy childhood memories.
- In: Children | My Stories | Parenting | Play eqipment
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I gave my parents a hard time and they gave their parents a hard time – I can guarantee that I will lock horns with my son as soon as he becomes a teenager. All I can do at the moment is to give him a good grounding so that he can deal with the emotional coaster of being a teenager. We bring our children up to be independent and have their own thoughts only to try to stifle the results of our training when they become teenagers. I think parents are programmed to be stick in the muds and teenagers become bulldozers with the goal of knocking any boundaries down.
Unrequited Love
I am not a parent of a teenager yet but I vaguely remember that being one was quite bitter sweet. Life seemed to be a constant battle between concentrating on my exams and coping with unrequited love. When you finally get to have a boyfriend you never think you are going to love anyone like that again and you are mortified when it ends. The truth is that you never will because next time that love is diluted a little with wariness and reality. Like a toddler discovering the world, a teenager is discovering adulthood and everything is in technicolour.
Rebellion
I remember my hormones raging, slamming doors a lot and spending hours in the bath so I could spend time on my own. I didn’t hang around the streets but had plenty of friends to be a teenager with. We didn’t try to conform to adulthood but we thought that we had the moral high ground – which was true because we hadn’t had chance to make big mistakes yet to discover our humanity. Some of my friends rebelled in big ways while others pushed the boundaries more subtly. I tended to not tell my parents where I was going and did what I wanted – well as much as my limited finances would allow.
Parents Aren’t That Stupid After All
Being a teenager and a young adult is all about taking risks and causing your parents to be continuously worried about your safety. If your relationship with your parents is pretty stable the rebellion eventually subsides. Once you discover that they weren’t that bad after all you have your own ideas and combine the both so that you can prepare your own child for rebellion.
Teenage Shelters
The biggest issue with feisty teenagers is that they don’t really have anywhere to go to hang out. This predicament results in them making the street look untidy and getting into trouble. Playdale playgrounds discusses this issue in an article. They have referred to studies that have found a marked reduction in teenage disruption when teenage shelters were installed near recreational areas. Teenage shelters are essentially a collection of seats covered by a roof. This means that teenagers can still have a meeting place, away from boring adults, without getting too wet.
Being a teenager is not always easy and neither is being the parent of one but being part of your child’s next adventure is exciting.
- In: Exercise | My Stories | Parenting
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I admit that I am pretty lazy at the moment and the thought of walking in the cold and rain doesn’t appeal to me what so ever. Nine years ago I didn’t have any qualms about putting on wet weather gear and walking everywhere. That was until I finally passed my driving test and now I have become so reliant on my car, walking seems to be so, ‘yesterday’, in terms of transport. It would seem that I am not the only lazy so and so in the land because the country as a whole has become more sedentary and we are all sitting on our backsides more.
Since technology has become more interesting and the internet is user friendly we can explore images and talk to people all over the world. I have even noticed that I know lots about local Facebook friends lives but don’t actually say more than, hello’, to them when I seem them. I waste more time now devoting myself to rubbish online than I ever did in the past. My backside is definitely getting bigger and I need to get into my summer clothes this year.
There are many reasons beside having a huge bum as to why we should exercise more and these include:-
- up to a 35% lower risk of coronary heart disease and stroke
- up to a 50% lower risk of type 2 diabetes
- up to a 50% lower risk of colon cancer
- up to a 20% lower risk of breast cancer
- a 30% lower risk of early death
- up to an 83% lower risk of osteoarthritis
- up to a 68% lower risk of hip fracture
- a 30% lower risk of falls (among older adults)
- up to a 30% lower risk of depression
- up to a 30% lower risk of dementia
- Source NHS Choices
This information is reinforced by an article by Playdale Playgrounds, ‘How to help your community with a trim trail‘, in it they discuss a study by Oxford university who found that ,‘Forty four per cent admit to not taking part in any moderate exercise meaning that British fitness levels are among the worst in Europe’. This means that nearly five million adults spend the majority of the day sitting down. 10% of adults admitted to not even walking for at least ten minutes a day‘. They also referred to a study by Cambridge University who claimed that sitting down all day was worse for our health than obesity.
As parents it is our responsibility to set a good example to our children, although they seem to pick up our bad habits better than our good ones. (That’s because underneath we are all pretty naughty pretending to be good!). There are some simple ways that we can encourage our children to put down their gadgets and get moving. As the weather gets brighter it will be much easier to go out and reduce the size of our big bums.
- In: Parenting | Winter
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When you are a child the title of this post is likely to mean playground roundabouts and swings rather than a balance of good and bad events. Some children have the misfortune of experiencing the low points of life because their families either unintentionally or deliberately expose them to chaos and disorder. These poor children never manage to get a stable grounding in life because their childhood has literally been swings and roundabouts.
We are not talking about children not receiving the presents they asked for or missing out on expensive activities because limited funds does not equal limited love. We are thinking about children who are deprived of emotion and parental guidance causing them to be let down when they need their parents the most. No parent is perfect because we are all flawed human beings so we can only do our best based on the upbringing we have had. Sadly not everyone has had the benefit of parents who have been able to give them the love and care they need so there are no good examples to follow.
Being a parent is a constant flow of making decisions that can affect our children deeply. We can sometimes qualify bad decisions by believing that children are too young to be affected by adult issues. Often hiding the normal ups and downs of life and how we deal with them from children results in them having chunks of coping strategies missing so when they come across hiccups when they grow up they don’t have the resources to help themselves. Children learn by example so they way we behave is imprinted on their minds and that is how they also behave.
Therefore if a child has not observed or experienced care and compassion they will be unable to look after their own children. While there will always be exceptions and people from such backgrounds will move heaven and earth to make sure that their children will not suffer in the way they did. Christmas is a difficult time of the year for everyone, many don’t have ‘a wonderful Christmas time, domestic violence increases and children get caught in the cross fire. The mix of alcohol and financial woes can cause emotional explosions and issues to be magnified. Children are vulnerable because they don’t have the safety of the school routine to protect them.
Life is never just going to be swings and roundabouts but as parents we can try our best to make childhood the most wonderful time in our child’s life. Children just want our time and company because we are the mist important person in their lives, the best we can do for them is to try our best not to let them down and if we do have let them know its because that is how life is sometimes.
- In: Children | My Stories | Parenting
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We are getting to the time of year where Christmas is upon us and we can no longer pretend that it isn’t happening. Children have been cast in their Christmas plays – mine son is Steve the Donkey this year. Parents are still panicking about Christmas parents for their children. Some people have got it all wrapped up, Christmas cakes baked and Christmas cards sent. Everybody is rushing around getting ready for the main event and preparing for the Big Man himself.
I am not organised, apart from having bought my son’s main present and thought about decorating the house, I am completely unprepared. I have had the bright idea of making decorations and buying lots of chocolate so that we can all get into the spirit of things. My son seems to think it unnecessary to write a letter to Santa because if he has the power to tell if you are naughty or nice – he can hear your present requests.
Any way here are a few phone apps and websites that will make Christmas fun for your children and help you to get them to bed on Christmas Eve.
Kringl
If you want to prove that Santa exists to sceptical children then this may be the app for you. Basically you project an image of Santa on a picture of your room so that it looks as if he has really visited. I am not sure exactly how it works but just follow the link and try it for yourself.
Portable North Pole
This is one site I visit every year with my son, he takes Santa’s opinion about him very seriously. This site is so cool because it gives you the opportunity to add pictures to a video of Santa and recommend if your child should go on the naughty or nice list. We watch the video just before bedtime between looking at NORAD and the Christmas carols.
Santa Spy Cam
This is another evidence based app which allows you to superimpose elves and Santa on an image of a room in your house. I haven’t tried it yet so I am not sure if it looks as this video when you do it yourself but it is worth a try.
Reindeer Cam
I think this is rather exciting simply because spotting any animal is fantastic – especially Santa’s reindeer. Something tells me that as Christmas Eve approaches the images will get an awful lot busier and we will possibly get a glimpse of the man himself.
NORAD Santa
This is a great way to hurry up Christmas Eve bedtime because you can look at how close Santa is to your town. NORAD stands for North American Aerospace Defend Command. Normally NORAD checks our skies to make sure that no unwanted visitors cause us any bother. Fans of Stargate will recognise the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, which is a real department. Anyway from December 1st NORAD activate their Santa search website and track Santa’s journey around the world. I love it when big serious organisations show that they are young at heart.
However you make the magic of Christmas happen remember to let the child in you come out and have a fantastic time. We are going for cheap cheerful and tacky this year and going to have a childish time.
- In: Children | Parenting
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Being a parent is a constant learning curve – you think you have got the hang of it and then your child reaches another stage of development and everything goes lopsided again. When children are very young this happens almost every six
months starting with the disruption when weaning begins. We do get a reprieve, sort of, between the ages of six and eleven where your child is emotionally balanced and satisfied with just being loved, cared for and getting toys they want. However the hormonal changes that occur during adolescence can suddenly change a contented happy children into one who needs to rebel against everything they once accepted willingly. Rebellion is a natural part of growing up because it is an evolutionary attempt to do things differently from your parents so that you can improve your lot in life.
As parents we have to understand that teenagers are going through another milestone and although they are not dinky and cute wearing nappies, they still need us to protect them. During puberty a child’s body transforms into an adult body but their brains are still not fully developed. Teenagers are very vulnerable at this stage because the image they portray is far more mature than the child inside. An adolescent child becomes a pack animal that likes to trawl the streets at night looking for excitement, they would rather hang out in the cold with their mates than stay at home with their boring parents. The only real way that we can ensure teenagers’ safety is by providing safe places for them to go without telling them to go there.
In January this year Playdale playgrounds Ltd wrote an article about Teenage shelters. Playdale reported that Thames Valley Police found that appropriately located teenage shelters resulted in a reduction of graffiti and crime in the vicinity of the shelter. Although a teenage shelter is not a total solution to teenage crime it can allow teenagers to hang out safely away from street corners. Teenage shelters located near sports fields can actively encourage teenagers to follow local sporting events and, if it is not too uncool, may inspire them to take up a sport.
Ideally (and I say that without any experience) we need to fortify our children with lots of interests and hobbies so that they are not inclined to hang out aimlessly. However the results of puberty are unpredictable and your little cutie may turn into a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle when their hormones start raging.
I have got about five years to go before the first strains of adolescence strikes and I dread the battle of wills and the conflict, which is inevitable. I will be buying teenager books – just like baby books and hope that there is a proper instruction manual!
acepuppets 