The parents of pre-school children can sometimes find themselves in limbo when trying to plan entertainment to keep their children occupied on rainy days, in doctors’ waiting rooms, and on long car journeys.

Children of this age are no longer content to play with plastic toys or dangly mobiles, yet not quite ready to read quietly to themselves, write in a journal or play hangman!

But they are ready to use their imagination, and there are lots of simple games or simplified versions of classic games that you can play anytime, anywhere with pre-school children to gently stretch their brains.

Many can also be turned into reading and writing practice without your child noticing! Here’s some ideas to entertain your pre-school child.

‘Snap’ and ‘pairs’ are firm favourites in our house. At the moment, we favour the animal cards, but I am gradually introducing the flashcards we have stashed away, which luckily have two copies of each word (although you could buy two packs!). This helps with learning to recognise word ‘shapes’ even before learning to read them.

‘I spy’ is another one my daughter is particularly keen on. Before she became interested in letters, we used to play the ‘colours’ version: “I spy with my little eye, something that is red”.

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Bling is in peeps. And personalised bling is way in. Deck your baby out in silver keepsake jewellery that is specially designed with your baby’s fingerprint, handprint or footprint.

Cute, right! But how do you get your baby’s handprint shrunk to the size of a necklace pendant?! A relevant question I think.

Word on the street is that anyone’s fingerprint, handprint or footprint can be incorporated into a piece of silver jewellery and the best personalised keepsake jewellery.

Here’s how the magic works: you take the impression (of finger, hand or foot) using a ‘quick and simple kit’ provided by the store/designer of your choice, send it back and then the impression is turned into a beautiful piece of silver jewellery.

Obviously hand and foot impressions are resized to fit into charms, cufflinks or key rings but fingerprints appear in the finished jewellery just as they are taken in the impression putty – even adult fingerprints (for which it is recommended that larger charms or pendants are chosen).

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This week’s Mummy Blogger Post of the week award goes to Muddling Along Mummy.

Our tenacious mummy blogger writes about a world inhabited by a husband, two children, a home, two chickens and a full time job – a world that often makes no sense and can only be negotiated with massive amount of juggling prowess.

Muddling Mummy shares her sadness over yet another miscarriage… and keeps it real! The millions of mums who have been through the same will identify and anyone who wants to have a child will empathise. Read on…

Feeling fed up, another month goes by

Feeling a bit down.  Actually make that a lot down.

Another month passes.

Another month and another time that I have managed to get pregnant but not stay pregnant.  Because obviously the important thing is to stay pregnant so you can actually BE pregnant.

The trouble with us both being so silly busy at work and everything else is that I chart so I at least have an idea when we should be making more of an effort.  And then the trouble is that having started a chart you carry on doing it and then you more or less know when you might just have managed to conceive.  And if you are really messing with your own mind you might take a teeny, tiny test despite the fact that experience says that testing before 6 weeks is a really bad idea.

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A herd of cows from China has been genetically modified to produce a human breast milk substitute.

The cows’ DNA has been changed so it contains the same nutrients as breast milk.

Um…

… not quite sure what to think about this other than WEIRD.

The scientists behind the research believe milk from herds of genetically modified cows could provide a human breast milk substitute and formula milk for babies, which is often criticised as being an inferior substitute.

The Telegraph reports that scientists hope genetically modified dairy products from herds of similar cows could be sold in supermarkets, and that the research has the backing of a major biotechnology company.

So… breast milk that comes from cows and can be made into cheese? It sounds a little too Romulus & Remus for my liking. If nature had wanted cows to produce breast milk, I guess that that’s what they would do.

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When I was pregnant with my daughter, I talked to her a whole lot. Singing… not so much.

Of course I’d sing along to my favourite songs but singing directly to my unborn child felt a little conspicuous.

And I am not the only one to feel a little self-conscious.

An innovative new programme of singing workshops for pregnant women—Womb Song—being run by Hospital Arts, part of Chelsea and Westminster Health Charity, is attracting wide interest.

The programme is testament to the fact that mums-to-be want to connect with their babies but need a little help overcoming their inhibitions.

As well as helping mothers develop a closer bond with their babies, the Womb Song classes are intended to boost language skills in infants.

Anna Matthams, arts assistant for Chelsea and Westminster’s health charity (where the programme was initiated), said: “The baby’s auditory system is one of the first things to develop and there’s a lot of physiological evidence that singing helps with language development.”

When I think about Womb Song I can’t help but have this ridiculous image of a group of mums standing in a circle cooing over their bulging bellies – like some sort of weird chanting circle that should take place in a forest on the night of summer solstice.

I just don’t know if I could take womb crooning seriously?

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