MAMA FROG- Alternative Parenting Blog

We've been living without supermarkets for two months now. A decision made out of pure frustration at the lack of sustainability,  accountability and customer service provided in them. Waitrose has been voted Supermarket of the year by Which! For it's ethical practices, but frankly it's no where near as ethical as it's clever labeling would have you believe.

Baby friendly days out don't get much better than a visit to a Farm.Last Sunday was open Farm day. It was a national event where local farms of all sizes opened their gates for the general public. We chose Riverbourne community Farm in Laverstoke. This post is featured on this week's Country Kids link up. We've been to Riverbourne before.  They are a community farm and so are often running events with local families in mind.

Growing numbers of nurseries, preschools and childminders are abandoning plastic toys in favour of heuristic play,as a recent article on a early years industry website reports . Elinor Goldscheild first defined learning through real world play back in the 80s, and the practice of creating heuristic treasure baskets for young children to explore has been growing in popularity ever since.

Visiting the beach with a small child is such an amazing experience, their natural curiosity and love of unusual textures really gets indulged. Froggy really enjoys the variety of things to touch (and invariably taste) just waiting for him to explore. The cool thing about embracing heuristic play, is that you become a professional curator of treasure baskets. You go on a nature walk and come back with a new treasure, ready to be added into the rotation of fabulous things that really are so much better than conventional toys .

It's about time we stopped yanking these simply yellow flowers out of are gardens and disposing of them. This week I found they have so much more to offer than fodder for the compost heap. Dandelions are making a come back.  Not that they ever went away.  These fabulous "weeds" flower nearly 10 months of the year and require no cultivation assistance from us gardeners. Restaurant's   up and down the country are starting to use the flowers, leaves and roots in their recipes. If (like me) you aren't quite brave enough to use your dandelions for food, then taking advantage of its know medicinal benefits could be the way to go. This so called lawn pest, is actually packed full of vitamins and minerals. Its been documented as a cure of joint pain and warts since the 10th century. Making it idea for turning into a balm for gardeners.