You frequently hear people talking about how children of today don't play outside enough. Older generations often use the "in my day" phrases when telling of children only bothering to come home when they knew a meal would be on the table and then spending the rest of their time climbing trees and exploring for miles around where they lived. The reality is that a lot has changed since "those days". Neary every home now has a TV set and many childrens have one in the bedroom too. There are also games consoles and handheld games which children like to spend time on too. ... read more
Bekonscot Model Village and Railway
Mr C has chosen the most perfect week to have off work this week; day after day of unseasonably warm weather and extra long sunny days following the clock change last weekend. Days like these are designed for old fashioned family days out and that's exactly what we did today. Bekonscot Model Village and Railway is in the lovely Buckinghamshire town of Beaconsfield, just off the M40; only about 40 minutes from St Albans. Originally started in 1929 the model village contains pretty much everything you can imagine - shops, houses, sports fields, boating lakes, harbours, a mine, a zoo, a ... read more
Hands and Feet
Little Miss C is now at that development stage where she's starting to understand that you can actually draw things, rather than just scribble on a page. As well as coming up with lots of requests for Mr C and I to draw specific animals for her she's also drawing "things" and telling us that they're elephants or cats complete with head, body and legs. One thing that she is loving at the moment is an idea that I found in a children's magazine recently - drawing round body parts. She spends ages asking me to help her draw round her hands and feet onto pieces of plain ... read more
A toilet roll tube and a bit of imagination
That's all you need to have a bit of fun. First thing this morning this was Little Miss C's trumpet. Yesterday two of them sellotaped together became a pair of binoculars. I'm fascinated to see what a toilet roll tube will become tomorrow! ... read more
Competition: Win a £50 Argos Gift Card
The lovely people at Argos are giving readers of Being Mrs C the opportunity to win a £50 Argos gift card. Gift cards are redeemable at any of their stores in the UK. If you ever needed a shop that has everything under one roof then Argos is it. They have a great range of things for children from essential equipment to toys. Make sure you check out their range of fantastic-value pushchairs and also the adorable moses baskets range which contains ones for all tastes and budgets. How to enter All you need to do to enter this competition is leave a comment on this ... read more
Featured post: Some Classic Outdoor Games To Pass On
The weather is gorgeous at the moment, but even so on average children spend up to six hours watching TV. This is a shame, as some of my best memories are from spending time outside playing games with a group of friends. While there’s nothing wrong with your children watching some TV, there’s also nothing wrong with them playing some of the all-time classic outdoor games. The only problem is they may not know them. This is where you and this article come in. Pass down the torch of these great games, and teach your children the rules. Some of them they will love, others they may ignore, ... read more
It’s all me, me, me… or not
If you read any parenting blogs then you can't fail to notice that we're in the middle of award season at the moment. Blogs are full of posts from people asking you to nominate them and many of them are indeed very worthy of your nominations. I am not going to do the same. Last year at least one kind person nominated me in the craft section of The MADS which thrilled me to bits, but there are people out there far, far more worthy than me. Out there on the web there are blogs which inspire, blogs which move me to tears and ones which make me laugh out loud. There are blogs where ... read more
Recharging the batteries
There are times that we all need a bit of down time and an opportuity to recharge our batteries and that's exactly what the C family have been doing for the last few days. A holiday with a toddler is never going to be completely relaxing, but this one had a pretty good stab at it. We booked a weekend break at Centre Parcs Sherwood Forest, somewhere that Mr C and I visited years ago before LMC was on the scene. That visit we spent our time doing things like clay pigeon shooting and 4x4 driving - things were a bit different this time, but actually just as much fun. One of the big benefits ... read more
seven days
A weekly photograph capturing one of the magic moments of the last seven days. ... read more
Simple pleasures
Sometimes it really is the simplest of things that excite children the most! ... read more