Kids Archives - Page 3 of 8

Should we be blogging about our kids?

I have recently read quite a few things online that question whether blogging about our kids is ever okay, even as babies. Are we, as parents, ‘using’ our children? Do we use all the funny, gross, or sad moments that inevitably happen with children to gain a grain of popularity in the great wide ether of the internet? Do we invade their privacy just to get a few more hits for our stats? Or should the private moments we are privileged to share with our children stay just that, private?

Do we need to be asking our children’s permission before revealing a potentially embarrassing story, or a particularly cringeworthy photo?

Should we even go as far as getting them to sign consent forms? After all. If we were to use images of other people we would need consent.

Okay, that might be going a bit too far. Let’s take a step back into reality.

The majority of parents blogging about their kids have teeny tiny little people who would agree to you pouring yoghurt over their head just to get a funny photo, heck they do it themselves most lunchtimes anyway! If you wanted them to sign a consent form you’d better get the crayons and finger paints out. Why not add a bit of glitter to the mix, just to jazz it up a bit?

At a young age, I don’t think anything written about them is going to affect their future career prospects, even that time they pooped in the bath. The only thing your story about them biting every child in their preschool is going to do, is let other parents in the same situation know they are not alone. After all, isn’t that what the blogging world is all about? Making connections with people just like you, dealing with the same crap life throws at us?

While they are little, I think your okay to post pretty much anything, as long as you respect the usual rules of modesty and stick some extra bubbles in the bath if your going to take photos and maybe, before you hit publish, think about how they will feel reading that post as an adult.

But what about as they get older? What is okay then? What is deemed as TMI?

My suggestion?

Ask them!

A simple conversation will soon let you know how they feel and even if you don’t like the answer, you should really try and abide by their wishes. Or at least write an anonymous guest post for someone if you desperately need to get that story out of your system!

I started this blog back in October 2013. At the time I had two 12 year olds, a 10 year old, a seven year old and a three/four month old. Obvioulsy O couldn’t have cared less what I wrote about him. He still doesn’t.

But the others?

LV though it would be cool, he was a typical seven year old boy about it. If it didn’t affect his time out playing on his bike or watching minecraft videos on Youtube he wasn’t bothered one iota.

The girls were a bit more dubious. I asked them what they wanted to be called, their names, a nickname, or their initials. By now you will have guessed which they chose (if this is the first post you have ever read. they chose initials)!

They wanted to read my first post before I hit the publish button, but from that moment on they have been fine with it. Even my heart wrenching posts following the worlds worse parents evening. They have open access to my blog, I mean it’s right here, on the interwebs, and they are teenagers with smartphones, netbooks and tablets. I can’t really hide it from them can I!? In fact, there are even occasions where they are asking me to take photos of something funny/interesting and ‘blog it’.

But there are things I wouldn’t even consider blogging about, without needing to ask. Little personal details of our lives that I don’t feel the need to share. Like certain issues that are very common amongst teenage girls, but they would never speak to me again if I did write about them.

There are entire chunks of our life that even people who know us well “in real life” might never know about us. And that’s okay, that’s why its called a personal life.

Of course there are also things that I have been dying to write about because they are just so darn funny, but because they are of a personal nature it was completely inappropriate to share with the world. Even if I do sometimes have a giggle about it with some of the mums in playgroup, just so I can actually tell someone. Like about the time….Haha best not!

So what do you think? Is blogging about our kids a bad thing, or do we just need to have some common sense about what is appropriate?

My Captured Moment ~ Wild and Welsh

I happened upon an SD card in an old camera today and found these photos. They were taken at Manor House Wildlife Park near Tenby. More commonly known as ‘The Welsh Zoo’ which is owned by Anna Ryder Richardson.
We have been back quite a few times now but this was our first ever visit back in 2010 and it was by far our best experience there, we had beautiful weather and it wasn’t too busy even though it was the summer.

Apart from the animals one of the kid’s favourite parts was the hay barn. It had tunnels going through the middle and the kids could literally have spent all day in there, it’s just never been the same since although they have still enjoyed it. I’m hoping to take the kids back this summer to see the rhinos, maybe we can recreate some of our photos with O.

If you are looking for a wild and Welsh day out I truly recommend you take a visit to the Welsh Zoo!

LV’s Year 4 Parents evening

This is from his first day in September but his wonky glasses just sums him up completely!

Tonight we attended LV’s parent’s evening. Toward the beginning of the year his teacher left to travel Australia for a year. Slightly off topic but I was actually in the same class in school as her big brother so it was a little strange, but lovely at the same time, when she first came to the school and started teaching my girls! She is a wonderful teacher and I hope she will teach LV when she comes back.

Anywho, we didn’t bother going to his first parents evening as he’d only had his new teacher for around a week, so it seemed pointless to us. So, because LV walks to and from school by himself, I hadn’t actually met his teacher properly up until today. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.

Now we have been to LOTS of parents evenings over the years with many different teachers. Mostly they are friendly, give some positive examples and opinions, with a little negative, followed by lots of good again. Some teachers are very thorough, going into minute detail of a particular maths sum that our child had done wonderful workings out. Others give a very generic, everything’s fine, work is fine, very polite, can’t say a bad word about them but never actually giving any examples. Those ones your left wondering whether they really know who’s parent you are!

But today we were given a very honest and refreshing review of LV’s work and character and also things we could do to help him. He is struggling with his written work -basically his writing is VERY messy! Now I have to admit I’m quite anal about neat handwriting. I may scrawl a note to myself or scribble messily and quickly in my many notepads but if something is meant to be read by another person it should be neat and legible, surely that’s not too big an ask is it?

So now to find I have a second child (Ff is culprit number 1), who can actually write extremely neatly when encouraged to and when the fancy takes them, but insists on scrawling their written way through life leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth. But I will cope, as I have done in the past, and let me assure you that our ‘writing practice’ sessions will be recommencing forthwith!

The only other issue is his lack of effort. He always wants to know what the minimum amount of work is that he needs to do. For example, he can’t just sit down to do the sums on the board till he’s told it’s time to finish (or he has indeed done them all) he needs to know how many he should do and what if he only did 10 instead of all of them? That sort of thing. This is a character trait I have seen developing in him for a while and i’m not actually sure what can be done to change it, if it can be at all. But we shall see!

Despite these issues he is eager, always dancing and singing, can be a chatterbox (but what 8 year old isn’t?) and is happy and helpful. what more can you ask of a child?

The one thing I was quite disappointed by was that the school hadn’t informed her that he was colourblind. At this stage they do a lot with colour and him not being able to see a pattern or words printed on coloured paper, in coloured ink, surely would be detrimental to his education! But that’s a whole other post in itself so I’ll leave that one there!

Now I’m off to dig out our pencil grips and look into ordering another Stabilo Easy pen!

Do you have a child with messy handwriting or who struggles to apply themselves to work? Any handy tips would be appreciated!

Have a Happy Dairy Free Easter

Eight years ago, when we first discovered LV was allergic to dairy, holidays like Christmas and Easter was a really hard time for us. Supermarkets were barely scratching the surface of the ‘Free From’ ranges they have now with just the odd staple ingredients available. So trying to find dairy free Easter eggs, that were also appealing to children, was nigh on impossible. At Christmas we even had to go on a waiting list in the hope we could get a dairy free advent calender, my memory is failing me but I believe that might have been with Kinnerton who are well known for their allergy friendly products.

LV pretty much out grew his dairy issues when he reach five years old, which made my life soooo much easier!

But, now we know O is allergic to dairy too I am so pleased to see that supermarkets and high street stores are finally catering more for those with dietary issues and there are also a multitude of websites aimed at those with any type of dietary issue you can think of! What would have taken me hours of trawling the internet to find a few overpriced products aimed at adults, and mostly of the dark chocolate variety, has now been made as simple as popping to the shop or jumping online for a few minutes to find some fab products.

Fun products like this selection from Holland and Barratt:

1. This small bunny shaped chocolate is ideal for younger ones who might not need a whole egg, or for an extra little treat.

2. These Eco Eggs are not only dairy free but they look very funky and are earth friendly too!

3. This white chocolate egg has a child friendly packaging and is a nice change to the dark chocolate usually on offer with dairy free products.

At our house the Easter Bunny usually leaves a map for a little treasure hunt on Easter morning. Some years he obviously gets much more time to prepare and the map is wonderfully elaborate with lots of clues. I’m not sure why but other years it seems he gets rushed for time and the maps are quite simple and basic:

You can purchase small clear plastic eggs which are ideal to fill with a small treat to leave at each clue or hiding spot (or just leave a handful in a small sandwich bag) I’ve found these yummy little things which I think are just perfect:

1. These Chocolate mini eggs from D and D chocolates are covered in brightly coloured foil so very appealing for kids.

2. These Chocolate half eggs from Plamil are milk chocolate so always a winner for those who don’t like the dark variety.

3. I buy these Chocolate disks from Sainsbury’s a lot, they often come in brightly coloured foil wrappers not just gold.

4. For a change to chocolate, but much healthier than regular sweets, Goody Good Stuff sweets are all natural and feel just as firm as “real” gummy sweets. There is a wide variety including sour ones!

But of course at the end of any treasure hunt you need a prize! Instead of more chocolate or sweets why not go for something a bit different?

1. I’ve never hidden the fact that I love crafts, this little pop up puppet kit from Baker Ross is just adorable!

2. Hex bugs are great little gifts for an older child, I’ve even heard they have a limited edition Easter one!

3. Does your child love lego? Why not buy this lovely Easter Bunny set available at Tesco

4. This lovely Easter Bunny from Teddy Bear Friends is such a cutie and is bound to win any little ones heart.

5. Of course you needn’t spend a fortune, these cute and fluffy soft toys from Poundland are just adorable

So this is just a selection of dairy free Easter products suitable for kids that I have found. Some of these dairy free items are also vegan friendly as well as free from other allergens such as Gluten and egg.

Is there anything else you would add to this list?

My little tip to you is to buy your dairy free Easter eggs early as they tend to go out of stock quite quickly!

***Disclaimer: I was sent a selection of Goody Good Sweets, a Hex Bug and an Eco Egg as requested by me for the purposes of this post but all thoughts and ideas are my own***

Half term Fun with Flora

As anybody with a school aged child will know, this week has been half term. Due to the poor weather (it is February after all) my house usually contains four grumpy kids who are forever getting under each others feet and can’t possibly find anything exciting to do amongst the billion games, toys and electronic devices that we have packed into our tiny house!

So a few weeks ago I was quite pleased to be offered the chance to review a copy of Flora’s Family Fun Guide. This book has been put together to give families a little inspiration to keep occupied at home during the holidays when going out isn’t feasable. We were sent a fantastic ‘Boredom Busting Basket’ filled with lot’s of crafty bits, more than enough for three activities, along with all the ingredients we needed to make two of the recipes from the guide.

It was lovely to wake up on Monday morning knowing that we had at least one thing to do that day that didn’t involve getting wet in the rain, or lots of preparation, as all the activities in the Family Fun Guide are quick and easy to set up and mostly contain items that you have in your cupboards already.

We started by colouring the pasta shells as we knew these would more than likely take overnight to dry. Who knew that covering your pasta with hand sanitizer gel would help the food colouring distribute more evenly? I’m not sure if we did something wrong but the red worked really well, but the blue and green not so much.

After laying them to dry on the windowsill we got on with our main activity, making sock puppets! Now most of these activities I would say are probably aimed more at 3-10 year olds maybe? But I even got some teens involved in this one. We now have a fantastic little sock puppet family lodging in our house!

Tuesday I didn’t have many kids here at all so O and I had a great time lacing the pasta gems onto string, he knew what he needed to do, but couldn’t quite get it. A great activity to help develop fine motor skills in toddlers this one!

Wednesday, again no big kids as they were off gallivanting so following the guides advice we adapted one of the crafts from making a crocodile out of egg boxes, to making a caterpillar. All you need is to cut off 3 of the egg cups, paint and add a face, we used buttons, and something for a mouth. He needed a little help with the face, but had a fantastic time painting everything green!

On Thursday E&Ff took charge of the first baking activity, with a little ‘help’ from O. These Cinnamon and Raisin Cookies were very simple to make, although I do have to admit we omitted the cinnamon as it makes my lips burn and nobody else likes it. I did want the cookies to be eaten after all!

Friday, the last official day of half term, was a slightly manic day in the Mami2Five household so although we managed to create these lovely moist cakes, there were no other pictures I’m afraid 🙁

This morning the eldest four trudged off to school in the snow and hail and I got to have a nice sit down after our very busy week. Well, for five minutes, until O brought me the bottle of glue and a handful of sequins that is!

Did you get up to anything exciting during the half term holidays?

My Captured Moment ~ Thumbs up

I came across this photo recently and it really made me smile. It was taken on LV’s 4th birthday ( in 2010) he still likes to dress just as funky now.

I also had a bit of a giggle because we have a running joke in the family that our girls have never been able to wear skinny jeans or leggings without them being baggy!

Thumbs up everyone 🙂

Some big ideas for our small attic space.

If you recall my last post about our attic space renovations ( you can read it here if you missed it) we are currently at a standstill until our roof is replaced. I haven’t even been up there in weeks as there is simply nothing I can do and it was depressing just standing up there wishing it was done.

So instead I have been hitting Pinterest and Google trying to find some inspiration as to how I would like it to look. Here are some of the things I found while googling:

The Sunday Night ‘School Uniform Scramble’

Picture the scene. It’s Sunday night. The kids are all bathed and are finally sleeping in their beds. You are just settling down with a cuppa to watch a bit of TV when you get this nagging feeling that you’ve forgotten something.

Homework?

Nope. You have a miniature garden, complete with tiny vegetables and an Anderson shelter drying against the radiator.

Reading book?

No, not that. All done and reading log filled in.

Wait….

The radiator. Hmm, there’s something missing!?!

Oh no!!!

THE SCHOOL UNIFORM!!!!!!!!!

100th post special!

Following on from my Bloggy birthday post from Monday, here are some more answers to your questions so you can find a bit more about me! I haven’t been able to answer all of them so apologies if I didn’t get to yours!

My daughters wanted me to celebrate my 100th post by creating a collage of 100 selfies (of them not me!) from the thousands that they have taken on my phone. There’s no way I was going to crop 100 photos though, so here is just a small selection for you!

And now on to the questions: