Educational Storytime for children

May parents find it a challenge to get their little ones engaged in learning. As a parent I found the easiest way was to make it fun and let the child lead in terms of what interests them. In the last 6 years this had led to topics on London, Big Ben, churches, bridges, transport, trains in particular, planets, countries and different food groups to name a few. The surprising part is I never sat down and said lets learn. No, all this was my daughter asking to know more about these topics. It’s an interesting journey.

We also read lots of books. In fact we have so many they have taken over and quite a few are in piles around the house with no place to go! One day we decided that we could share our love of books and give others a chance to learn through them. What makes that fun? Well books are fun but so are favourite characters. At the moment we are sharing new stories every day. You can check  us out on our Vidme channel  Ready Teddy Storytime 

Not only can you find stories but you can read along with us and take part in the activities at the end of some books like Topsy and Tim or Bing bunny. We have lots of Cbeebies characters and old favourites like Thomas The Tank Engine and Miffy. We also cover all topics. Abc, 123, colours, shapes, weather. There are pop up books and sound books. We even help with potty training.  At the moment we have 35 stories to choose from with more coming soon. Don’t forget Halloween is coming and we have some of the best stories already waiting for you. We hope you can join us.

The Never Ending Scream Of Silence.

Have you ever had a dream, a nightmare in which you are terrified. You may be running for your life or just out of plain fear. You may be paralysed or drowning or falling. You may be in some abstract world that has no meaning but you are trying to escape. Imagine it. Remember it even. Then the part when we often wake up. The scream. What if you cant scream. what if you try and no sound comes out. Have you had that dream?

Now imagine you are a child. Imagine trying to say something and like that scream nothing comes out no matter how hard you try. Imagine it day after day. Even if you are in danger or hurt you try but nothing happens. Not even a whisper. This is not a dream. It’s a living nightmare. This is Selective Mutism.

Toddler Primark mini haul April 2014

I often sit and watch or read shopping haul vlogs and blogs mainly cause I love shopping. However despite wanting to attempt to do my own I never have gotten round to it. So here it is.

Its not often I get round to our local Primark and to be honest I would prefer to go to one of the larger stores. As it is I can easily spend £100 plus in a smaller store so perhaps best I’m not going every week! My intention was to go and pick up a gift for my sisters birthday. (She loves Primark as much as I do.) Along the way I also picked up a few peices for myself and for my daughter who is 2.

So why Primark? Well for one its cheap. That’s one of the main reasons. Also when it comes to footwear I wear them down so quick that I dont intend to spend lots on something that will likely last me no more than a month or two. There is a good range and they are featured in lots of magazines now so when you spy something you like the look of there is a good chance it is from Primark. Or at the very least you can get a lookalike copy of it from there at a fraction of the price.

Today Im focusing on what I bought for my toddler.

She badly needed new shoes. At the moment we have winter boots and wellies. Thats about it in her size so we were hoping to find a pair of trainers or hightops for running around in. Unfortunately we could not find any so we settled for the following dress shoes and canvas ones.  Pink a colour we both love so it works well.

Size toddler 6 £2.50

Pink shiny shoes £4

Along side the shoes we also bought a new t-shirt 3/4yrs Peppa Pig for £4, a skinny jeans jacket in almost flourescent pink for £8 and in a size 4/5yrs. Primark tends to run small at times and my daughter is big for her age. Despite that I never thought I would be buying a size 4yrs for a 2yrs old! The small airplane is a 50p toy we picked up in a charity shop.

50p toy plane with sounds from a charity shop.

Peppa Pig tshirt £4

Skinny jean jacket £8

Dangerous Baby Bling

Like lots of mums we used a dummy/pacifier. It was a regular one not one of these shown below.

The Bling Dummy/Pacifier trend has taken off and shows very little signs of slowing down. Some of the designs are pretty good and tempting while others are quite tacky looking. Its all down to personal taste. However it still stands that the number one priority of any parent should be that of the childs safety. These “accessories” are not made by a manufacturer and are not tested for safety despite many legitimate looking websites selling them. They are also found on ebay and facebook. They are simply ordinary dummies/pacifiers, sometimes brand name ones, that are re-manufactured by people willing to sell them putting babies at risk. Of course it is up to the parent to use common sense but when a large number of people do something, many more following without taking into account any possible risk because, well, everyone else is doing it aren’t they?

Well no actually they are not. Some websites come with disclaimers stating for display purposes only alongside a baby using a Bling dummy/pacifier! The disclaimers then go on to say they are bought at parents risk and the business is not responsible for any mishap that may happen. To me this is no better than a drug dealer saying it’s in no way their fault if someone takes drugs. Of course there is a little truth here. We are all responsible for our own actions but if you don’t supply you can’t buy. Therefore a lot of responsibility lies within those who do supply such things.  At present These Bling Dummies/Pacifiers are actually banned in Australia, the USA and although not yet banned in the UK are being seized by Trading Standards. Makers of the original soothers have also been speaking up and condemning the people who “bling” their products over safety concerns.

If you are reading this and thinking there is no real risk if used under supervision then consider this. Cleaning. How do you clean in all the nooks and crannys that these soothers have with all the shiny stones. Can you really sterilise them without loosening the stones. Some sellers claim the glue used is non toxic or waterproof. That means not toxic when in contact with skin not that it can safely be ingested. As for waterproof, saliva contains enzymes unlike water and these enzymes are designed to break down chemical bonds which are present in the glue.

Do not be taken in by fashion, desire or ignorance of the facts. Your children are important so put them first and don’t buy into false claims that these soothers are safe. They are not.

Ban these soothers from being sold on facebook below.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/BAN-Bling-Dummy-Selling-Pages/187495234691951

Chaos and Santa Claus

Well its the time of year when all is merry and everyone feels festive…unless you are sitting knee deep in toys from last year and have a pile of new ones sitting in the closet desperate to fly out the door as soon as you even look in its direction! That’s me. A mother in her thirties with a 2 year old toddler desperate to dismantle the tree whilst dancing like a mad thing to Teletubbies. Meanwhile I am going through a mental list of to dos and what not to dos. For instance today. I’m cold and have no energy yet need to get the rest of the gifts in by Saturday. I still have an online order to make for the festive food which will probably be missing the best parts on its arrival sometime next week. By then I will be hot footing it up to the supermarket last minute for that one thing we will ultimately be too stuffed to devour anyway. Should I even bother? Then there is that visit to Father Christmas. I go to a lot of trouble to pick the cutest outfit for our visit only to find our Christmas loving toddler wont go anywhere near the jolly man she has been talking about since August! I live in hope we can still get that photo of a cute little thing sitting on Santa’s knee. 

So why does Christmas stress so many people? Well in my opinion its because you see, read and hear all the perfect little stories of preparation for Christmas. I agree these helpful hints in magazines are great. Step by step guides from the 1st of the month to the day itself. Remember to buy the crackers, do this do that. So tell me, where do any of these guides or films or anything else for that matter remind themselves that general everyday cooking, cleaning, mishaps and adventures still happen amidst the overall festive preperations? They don’t. We get an almost impossible look at perfection which is clearly not adaptable to most peoples lives hence why I sit here now in my pjs, head in a tizz trying to focus on one thing to do next. If I can get dinner sorted today we should be ok!