As my journey through motherhood continues I find that I'm constantly learning from my children and regularly surprised by what they are teaching me. Now I've got three years of parenting under my belt I realise that some of those earlier lessons are actually quite obvious, but possibly not when you're new on the job. One of those first lessons, which now seems so blindingly obvious, is a child's need to play. It's the way that they learn, work things out in their heads and express themselves. So many times in the past I've heard a frustrated Little Miss C complaining ... read more
How the National Trust get it right when it comes to children
I've been a National Trust member for as long as I can remember. First as a child on my parent's family membership, then an adult member in my own right, and now as a joint member with Mr C. The kids aren't yet old enough for us to need family membership, but I'm pretty sure that will come next. Every year when I pay the annual direct debit I have to admit that I do briefly wonder if it really is worth it, but just a few moments remembering some of the amazing days out we've had and there's no question that we'll continue. These last few weeks we've been making ... read more
Escaping to the beach
Amazingly the hot spell here in the UK seems to be continuing, and to be honest when the weather's as hot as it has been, sitting with a hot laptop on your knee isn't exactly fun. I'm sure I'm not the only blogger who has spending time away from their keyboard to make the most of the weather. Last Monday we decided that it was time to make a dash for the coast from our inland home in St Albans so we bundled the kids into the car and headed north to Hunstanton for the day. It's a 200 mile round trip and on the way there the traffic around Cambridge did make me wonder if it ... read more
Review: Bigjigs Garden Tools
Within two hours of our first Bigjigs Play Patrol parcel arriving it started raining. Not much of a surprise with this year's weather, but seeing as they sent Little Miss C some garden tools to review it has made reviewing them properly a bit challenging! I need to start by saying a few words about the Play Patrol scheme though. Not only did Master C enjoy his first testing assignment, but Little Miss C was amazed about the idea of toys being sent to the house by the "train jigsaw people" as she likes to call Bigjigs. And very excited to have a new bag to take to nursery and a "jigsaw ... read more
Toddler fun in the snow
Like much of the country we've spent the last week with snow and when there's snow on the ground and children in the house there are much more exciting things than sitting inside in front of a computer. Combine that with a few days solo parenting and blogging has once again taken a bit of a back seat. The wonderful thing about snow is just how magical it is for children of all ages. Enough of a rare event here in the UK that there's a huge novelty value attached to it and all the disruptions to school and transport is exciting. Talking to the parents of other toddlers yesterday we ... read more
Review: Wigwam Play Tent
Even the recent bad weather hasn't stopped us from making the most of this lovely wigwam play tent that we have been sent to review. Admittedly all the wind and rain has prevented us from putting it up in the back garden, but Little Miss C's new bedroom is luckily large enough to accommmodate a wigwam in the middle of it and the novelty of having a secret den in her bedroom has completely delighted her. The wigwam comes boxed rather compactly but Mr C found it easy to assemble. No tools are required as all you need to do is slot together the two parts of the wooden poles with a plastic ... read more
Blowing away the cobwebs
Many thanks for all your kind words following my last post. I've had so many tweets, emails and Facebook comments that I'm struggling to respond to them all in a timely fashion. I'm somewhat blown away by the messages that I have had, especially from old school friends who have fond memories of my Dad when he used to regularly come and cheer on our lacrosse team from the sidelines. Another old school friend also reminded me of the time that he came and "helped" on our Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition (if the Duke's reading, which I'm sure he is, he ... read more
A nature butterfly
On Sunday afternoon we headed down to the annual family day at our local nature reserve here in St Albans. Mr C and I have been involved there for years helping to run things, but it's only now that Little Miss C is getting a bit older that we are getting involved more as members than volunteers. Whilst the bug hunt and pond dipping were of interest to her today, but she's not yet ready to properly try her hand at either. We also unfortunately missed the start of the storytelling session which was much more for her age range, but we were in time for the craft ... read more
Making the most of the sunshine
If you're in the UK then it won't have escaped your notice that this summer has been WET - very wet. Wet enough that going out to splash in puddles has been a common activity with Little Miss C. Wet enough that when I told her I was taking her to the local Splash Park one day her first response was to go and get her wellies and rain coat and put them on! The outdoor toys that we bought her for her birthday have been used, but we've not had the long lazy days in the garden making the most of them in the way that I imagined. This last weekend though all that changed. The sun came out ... read more
Walk to School Week
I had this blog post all planned out as soon as I heard about Walk to School Week (21-25 May 2012). Little Miss C has recently started walking both to and from nursery on her own rather than being pushed in the buggy. Half a mile each way and she loves being able to point everything out to us and tell us about what she's going to do at nursery, or what she's done that day. It's a lovely part of the day for both of us, but the slight spanner in the works this week is that she's got chicken pox so no nursery and hence no walk to nursery. Tuesday is usually nursery day so it seemed right to write ... read more