Childhood development stages

When you found out you were pregnant, one of the first things you probably did was get hold of a book or magazine that told you everything that was happening to your baby, week by week.

Once the baby was born, it was a different book, telling you when your baby should start to smile, roll over, eat solid foods. As they grew, your health visitor plotted their growth on a chart and asked you if they could pass little blocks between their hands and how many words they can say now.

Each stage is exciting but can also feel like a test of you and your baby’s abilities and achievements. Then before you know it, they are at school and you are faced with reading levels and spelling tests.

At each childhood development stages, you try your best to make sure that your child is progressing as you feel they should, but the difficulty is that, if you assume your child will do everything by the book, you might be surprised and even worried if and when they don’t.

It can even be tempting to compare your child with others: your child is on reading level 2 while their neighbour is on level 3, but your child is swimming 50 metres while others in their class are only swimming ten.

(more…)

Children seem so grown up at times

Sometimes, it’s easy to forget how young our children really are. With kids growing up with computers and mobile phones – things that were new to us just a few years ago – and seeming to take to them like ducks to water while we still struggle to set the Sky+, it can occasionally seem like we are the children and they are the adults!

Even the youngest children seem so grown up at times – my 4-year-old daughter diligently brought me a glass of water every 12 hours while I was ill in bed recently, and each time, she asked me how I was feeling and told me I was a good girl for drinking up the last one she brought!

And yet, I am regularly reminded of just how young she still really is, when I go into her room put her to bed only to find her hidden under the duvet, feet and hair sticking out, giggling audibly before she eventually tells me where she is as I dutifully pretend to look in all the wrong places.

(more…)

How to stop kids boredom with their toys

It’s been a while since Christmas, and you might be noticing that all those new toys that were so exciting at the time are starting to lose their shine a little by now, so here are a few tips to ring the changes on kids boredom without having to go out and spend any more money:

* Hold a toy swap: get together with friends who have children of a similar age or even older, and swap any toys that the children have grown bored with or grown out of. If you keep a log of who owns what, you can swap back again in a few weeks, when they’ve had time to forget about them, and they will feel like new again!

* Shop your cupboards: see what old, pre-Christmas toys you have lurking in the back of the toy cupboard that have been forgotten about since the influx of Christmas presents. Even if they were disinterested in them a few months ago, they will probably find them new and exciting again now. Make sure you have batteries in stock first though – there’s nothing worse than getting the kids all fired up about a long-forgotten favourite, only to find it doesn’t work!

* When is a toy not a toy? When it’s a kitchen implement! Get the pots and pans out, give them each a wooden spoon and put in your ear plugs! Or get all the cushions and blankets on the floor and make a den, or just collect random things from around the house in a basket and challenge them to make a game from them – it’s amazing what their imaginations will come up with given chance!

(more…)

Children’s neccesary items we may miss

We are currently without a safety gate at the top of our stairs. It is the result of living with young children in an old house – our first-born decided to swing off the gate and the ancient plaster around the screws literally crumbled under the pressure.

It takes 24 hours for the new plaster to be drillable, so in the meantime, we are freewheeling when upstairs. Needless to say, the youngest is never allowed up there unaccompanied and never let beyond a closed bedroom door, but even the rest of us feel a bit of a flight risk as we walk past the gaping hole and sheer drop that we are so unaccustomed to.

I almost feel that a safety gate should be compulsory regardless of how old the occupants of the house are. What if we stumble whilst on a dark, sleepy trip to the bathroom?

It makes me think of what other children’s neccesary items we have adopted since having children that we should consider keeping even after they grow out of them.

Maybe we should keep the latches on all the kitchen draws and cupboards – they stop you being able to get to the bottle opener or munchies cupboard when you’ve had one too many glasses of wine to be able to resist the temptation on your own!

And baby wipes will almost certainly stay with us long after there are any babies around – they are just so useful…

(more…)

Six surprising 5 a day for children tips

Unless you are one of the lucky ones whose children happily gobble down broccoli and cauliflower without even trying to hide them under a cabbage leaf, the idea of getting your kids to eat their 5-a-day probably makes you think of that age-old battle involved in getting children to eat fresh fruit and vegetables.

But it might surprise you to know that there are some hidden gems lurking in places other than the salad draw that can help you on your way to making sure the 5 a day for children quota is met.

Here are 6 sources you might not have expected that can help towards their 5 a day for children. Check the packaging to see how much counts as a portion:

1. Jars of pasta sauce, ready-made pasta-pouches or tinned pasta shapes contain plenty of tomato and some of the chunkier versions contain other veg, too.

2. Baked beans, other beans and pulses can count as one of your five portions.

3. Canned fruit and veg still count, even though they’re not fresh. That includes tinned tomatoes, so if you add those to a sauce, that’ll count, too.

4. Canned soups containing vegetables, beans or pulses can provide more than one of your 5-a-day if the whole tin is eaten.

(more…)