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Showing posts from May, 2014

Allotments with young children

Dreaming of signing up for your own allotment but daunted by the thought of taking it on in tandem with parenting a young child? So were we, but since getting our plot we haven't looked back.  Apparently getting started is the hardest part. New allotments (like ours) are often a bit of a jungle, which could be daunting to a novice. Here's 10 steps we found made getting our allotment going easier.

Breastfeeding and weight gain

I featured in a recent Daily Mail feature titled 'the great myth of breastfeeding and weight loss' . Let's get one thing straight breastfeeding DIDN'T make me  gain weight. Bad diet and a sedentary daytime routine breastfeeding SAHM of a younger nursling led to my weight gain.

Keeping chickens with young children

Hurrah! We finally have livestock. Today we introduced chickens to the pub garden. I'm very excited as I feel this is a huge step towards becoming self sufficient.  I've been thinking for a while about the connection between  Attachment parenting and teaching your children respect for the planet and animals.Our lives are no longer cohesive with eating mass produced meat. But we don't feel like going vegan is for us either. After proving I could care for a kitchen garden -it was a natural progression to introduce chickens to our lives.

Beyond the sling- Mayim Bialik

Attachment parenting guru Mayim Bialik's Beyond the sling is the first book of my 50 book challenge Beyond the sling, is an autobiographical account of Bialiks experience in attachment parenting.  Not just a genius in her role in tv's big bang theory, Bialik has a phd in neuroscience which she feels reinforces her understanding of attachment parenting.

50 books a year- #challengeaccepted

Since having Froggy I've found it harder to escape into a good book. I read daily, to Frog, and on article after article on my smartphone. But I only pick up books lately to extract information on the amount of wet nappies appropriate for one day, or how to create a seasons garden, but never for pleasure. Michael Goves recent proclamation that the gcse english needs reform, because he dislikes of mice and men , has reminded me that I cannot trust the state to inspire a love of reading in my child. I want my son to grow up knowing that reading (especially books from other cultures than ones own) is an important part of self development.  Health visitors may think issuing your baby a stack of spin off board books at ages 8 months and again at four are enough to do this. I'm not so convinced. I'm pretty sure the path to my son enjoying reading starts with seeing me enjoying reading. So, concluding I need to read more, I'm using a Michael Gove recommendation to fight

Heuristic play ideas- farm activity tray

Keeping play areas interesting is nearly a full time job with an eight month old.His natural curiosity has inspired me to develop his heuristic play into themed areas to explore. Hoping to engage his interest, and remember a week of not one but two farm visits. I've been inspired to create this exploring station.

Life with a new born- a retro blog

I didn't intend to be an attachment parenting fanatic. Being that type of parent meant you were sacrificing your own personal time and space whilst creating a parenting dynamic without boundaries. Before I held my son in my arms, I was frustrated. I was fighting the transformation that is becoming a mum. I hated my bump, my stretchmarks. I hated the rules. I hated the lack of sleep. I mostly hated waiting.I just wanted to go into labour and claim my life back. Pop the champers and start dressing like a human being again. Then something changed. My labour took two days. 24 hours of that was spent in active labour. I changed over the course of that day. I gave birth in water and with my mum present. Two things I'd written off as being for hippies previously. And when I held my son, my view on attachment changed too.

Relactation- a candid guest parenting blog

Musings of a mama of two is this weeks guest blogger. This inspiring woman is mama to two under two, with just 11 months age gap between them. Here in this post she talks about her efforts to relactate for her first baby. Four weeks after my boy was born, my best friend gave birth to her tiny, impatient baby girl. Initially she expressed and her baby girl was tube fed all the goodness then moved on to feeding her on the breast. I was so proud of her, but on the other hand I was so incredibly jealous. I had been thinking about finding a way to feed Gremlin again, but I was apprehensive. Seeing this tiny new life and knowing she was being breastfed stirred up my feelings of failure and upset. So I went searching for a way to try and feed my boy myself again. I searched the Internet and came across re lactation. This is re-establishing your milk supply and getting the baby back on the breast. Did you know that even of you have never been pregnant before you can induce lactation? M

Baby Friendly Day Out: Bashley Manor nr Christchurch

Looking for a great FREE activity with the kids? This baby friendlly day out is just the thing. Me and froggy love road testing baby days out and after we found this place we couldn't wait to share it with you and the other fun loving parents at The country kids link up. Bashley Manor Tea rooms is located outside of Christchurch next door to the famous Sammy Miller motorbike museum.

Making liquid Bay handsoap

It all started with my bay tree, a 12 foot stern and shady addition to my tiny garden.  Now I like an addition of Bay to my cooking. I also love the fact we have a free supply of the stuff to use as we want.  But in reality it produces more than one family could ever use,  but when it flowered I was desperate to find a use for the pretty flowers.  I was slightly disappointed to see that these flowers  aren't widely used.

Baby friendly day out -Beaulieu Abbey

Today we've really been making the most of the fabulous weather at Beaulieu. It's such a fab day out that it really does merit a post for each different area, so that's what I intend to do as part of my baby friendly day out series. This post is on the abbey itself which was a brilliant choice of outing for a sunny day.

Heuristic play ideas 'to go'

I hope you've been enjoying my blog series on how to set up heuristic play activities. Today's blog post is all about providing heuristic activities easily whilst enjoying the great outdoors this summer,  so it seemed  an appropriate opportunity to link up with the fabulous Country kids from Coombe Mill.

Making play dough

I know there are a million and one play doh posts out there.  This is one of them. It's an updated version of a post from my early days of blogging when frog was 4 months old, able to sit in his high chair, but not much else. I was pulling my hair out and needed something to entertain him.  Reading it again brought back such vivid memories of a time when my baby was still so small and on the cusp of a new skills explosion.  Reading it made me realise how much this little chap has learnt do in only few months. 

Making preserves with tomatoes

We recently made the decision to boycott all supermarkets,  as part of a simpler lifestyle. The reasons for not shopping at the supermarket are extensive , but mainly resolve around the ethical price of the convenience and the lack of customer service and community links. One of the biggest challenges is to replace our  dependency on tinned goods. They provide a cheap and easy way to make meals.One thing we get through a lot of is tinned tomatoes. 

Heuristic play ideas- 88 free, borrowed, handmade or cheap treasure basket ideas

I love sensory play, and when I first found out about the idea of heuristic treasure baskets  I really connected with the ideas behind them. The  principle is to create a play environment where children can engage with real world objects to develop a creative and practical outlook on the world. Child activist Elinor Goldschmeid believed that passive toys created active children and vice versa.  She stressed that the best toys are the toys that don't do anything, especially for babies. During their first year babies explore the world primarily by touch.  It makes sense then to provide a variety of different sensory experiences. Heuristic baskets are so popular and supported by developmental professionals that sure start centres in the UK spend a large amount of money buying these baskets from dedicated sellers which start at about £80. I sell sensory kits on eBay and complete treasure baskets (starting at £2.99) these are comprised of hand finished items and slightly more dif

Heuristic play ideas- treasure basket printing

Steiner early years educators often talk about avoiding finger painting, that painting is best saved for when children appreciate the mechanism and the control neaded to appreciate brushstrokes. I'm not sure if I agree with this principle for all children, but have found in my experience with frog, that this may be the case. He really doesn't enjoy finger painting,  hand or foot printing. Which is fine,  I'm up for following his lead with play, but I do get a little  sad that this means no artwork for me. He does really like his sensory basket though, so we set up the basket next to the paints this morning.

Baby wearing

I get asked a lot of questions when I wear my baby out and about.  The sling is our default mode of transport now,  I have a few different types and feel like a bit of sling expert.  But this wasn't always the case.  When I was pregnant I  researched baby wearing.  To be honest you can read and read and still not have a clue, so we decided I needed to try out the slings in person. We loved the caboo so much when frog was a newborn. He felt so snug and safe with his feet supported in the frog position. It also looks really good.

The day we said goodbye to supermarkets

Today me and my husband made the concious decision to stop using supermarkets to do our weekly shop We were using waitrose and sainsburys in combination with our use of our local butcher and green grocer. After all its cheap and convenient. Waitrose even offer locally sourced meat and its all so alluring. Yes the prices are high on fresh food and the   experience is stressful. But you can buy tined goods cheap and its so convenient.  So you suck it  up and become a trolley drone. But something happened recently which has made us say goodbye to the giants of retail. Its not the fruit that's turned to quick, or the John Lewis  pushchair that fell apart after a few weeks. The reason we are not shopping at the big supermarkets any more is because we discovered this week just how little they care about the customer. On the way home from an exhausting day out with a small baby we decided to use the Wimborne branch of Waitrose. We were tired and in a hurry (my husband works nights)

Baby friendly day out: Corfe

This week's family day out was to Corfe. Famous for its fabulous Castle and gateway to the Isle of Purbeck. It is the inspiration of Kirren Island from Enid Blyton's first famous five book. The little village of Corfe offers a lot for a family visit a well as the Castle.  The village is 'chocolate box' and their are stunning woodland walks, a gorgeous steam train service to Swanage and a bounty of brilliant tea rooms and country pubs.

No dairy cookies

My darling son suffers from reflux. It's improving as he gets older but it becomes worse if he has dairy in his diet. I try lots of vegan recipes and this is one of my favourites so far. 200g plain flour 2 innocent 40g fruit puree 100ml rice milk 50g porridge oats A hand full of raisins

The best sensory play of all?

Many blogs posts on sensory play involve wonderfully creative activities designed to feed imagination and imitate real world experiences. This is great, but I believe just involving your child in every day activities is often a better experience for them.  My son is now 8 months old, crawling, starting to cruise and into everything. I have three coping strategies as a parent.  Reserved for when I'm fed up of pulling my son away from electrical points and sharp edges. The first is back caring in my mai tai. The second is water play. The third is baking.

Heuristic play ideas- Bath Time

Now that frog is confident sitting and crawling we've decided it's time to introduce heuristic play to bath times Heuristic play is the concept of using real world objects as play objects to assist your child's creative and cognitive development.  We use a selection of items from one of froggys treasure basket. I like to provide a mix of textures so we use sponges, feathers, cups, shells, raffia , recycled tubs and a couple of wooden toys. Most of these items have been in frogs heuristic treasure basket. Adding them to water changes the way these familiar objects behave, and offers the opportunity for scientific experiments. I add essential oil to the tub, we have a lot as we make soap, which adds a nice aroma therapy element to the experience.  

Hurrah for breastfeeding peer support

As my Web of fellow parent bloggers expand, I find more and more stories of other mums desperate to feed their babies who hit the barrier of inadequate breast feeding peer support. I hate reading stories like this.  Frog was similar and in hospital would try and latch the proper way and fail miserably.  When I asked for help I got told he wasn't hungry or was greedy and didn't want it.  No one checked or noticed his tongue tie. I was lucky my mum is a breastfeeding consultant and she helped no end. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't had her. I think it's important to have a relationship with someone who can help you before you give birth so you feel comfortable calling on them. I'm not sure I would have found them locally as my local boob group is pretty rubbish. It's run by the local sure start and when asked I was told that they didn't know or have details of a local peer supporter. Historically when we lived in smaller communities, th

Baby friendly day out Kingston Lacy

This post is the tale of two bank holidays.  It's starts on the baking hot Easter bank holiday and  concludes on a crisp May bank holiday. Kingston Lacy is probably the nearest National Trust Park to our home, however it's a bit of a nightmare to drive to a we  have to pass a million and one holiday parks on the way.  Our first visit this year was   unfortunately on a day the house was closed over the Easter holiday. It was a beautiful day, though,  so we enjoyed a nice long walk on the estate, followed by an al fresco lunch and a crawl on the lawn for froggy. As far as the estate grounds go, I was impressed with the offering for families. They have a play area, plenty of space and cute doors with pictures and info on the estates critters on select trees for kids to discover.  The cafe has a good selection of healthy kids food, some not so healthy (but delicious) cakes and plenty of tables. The grounds also have a fenced picnic area off the car park.  All in all our first v

There's no such thing as happy mummy

The world we see on our screens can be deceptive. From Instagram feeds of babies in beautiful outfits to tv shows where immaculately turned out mums with lovely wardrobes and homes have time for dinner with friends. It can all make you feel like you could be happier.  Which leads you to feel angry for not achieving more from your day.  This post is written for my sister (yesterday), myself (today), my mother (gosh knows how many times after 6 kids and 25 years of patenting) and all of the other wonderful mothers I know who've had days where everything seems numb, pointless or unfufilling. There is no such thing as a happy mum. Not one that's happy all the time. Or even happy everyday. We all feel that dark draining feeling sometimes. It's natural and human. It's to show you how much you are actually investing in this patenting thing. I promise that every other mother out there, regardless of where they live,  what they own or how many friends they have,  has these