The Boy Wears…

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Here comes a truth: when it comes to children's clothing I'm a little bit of a snob. I'm particular in what The Boy wears, or more importantly, what he doesn't wear.

I don't like dressing my son in bright and loud colours and I don't like mini-men clothing. He is two years old and I'd like him to look like the child that he is. I am not in a rush to age him prematurely and dress him in shirts, waistcoats and ties, just so he can look like a smaller version of an adult male: he's two! I also dislike character clothing. I refuse to allow my child to be a walking advert for the latest popular television show, he may as well wear a sandwich board with the television channel and a time written on it.

When he was under 24 months old, finding clothes that fitted this bill was relatively easy. The high-street stores and online shops were full of sweet, baby-blue and soft-coffee coloured clothes that allowed him to look stylish but cute and babylike at the same time. Then all of a sudden he turned two years old and he had to wear faded and 'aged' denim, bright colours (which don't suit him) and be older than his delicate years.

Luckily, one of my favourite stores for buying baby clothes has maintained the same classic styles in their little boy ranges that are indicative of their general ethos. But then you can't go wrong with fashion influenced by the French. Vertbaudet (the children's division of La Redoute) is where I bought many of his dungarees, jumpers and cardigans when he was a baby…

Classic navy and white pinstriped dungarees with sensible poppers on the inside, I was devastated when he outgrew them.

Now, however, I can buy clothes like this for him instead…

Which is just as cute and will look much better than having his stomach emblazoned with a pig, train or sports car.

Empowerment: Pass It On

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Today is International Women's Day. Last year I didn't understand the point of it, we live in a modern society where women have the same rights as a man, and conditions in the workplace are basically the same. However, this year I understand a little more as to why it's important, because while most women in Britain have these basic rights, there are still a great deal, a quarter, who do not have the freedom of others.

Back in August this year I wrote about the Avon and Refuge campaign to raise awareness about domestic violence. In this post today? No extra nifty little anecdotes here, the subject deserves to be read for what it is.

Domestic violence is not about a row going wrong or someone losing control.

  • One woman in four will experience domestic violence at some point in her life.
  • Up to two women are killed by current or former partners every week in England and Wales.
  • Every single day in the UK, 30 women attempt suicide as a result of domestic violence.
  • The police receive a domestic violence call every minute in the UK.
  • In 90% of domestic violence incidents in family households children are in the same or the next room. 50% of those children are directly abused.
  • Only 16% of domestic violence incidents are reported to the police – the majority of women suffer in silence.

Domestic abuse can be physical, emotional, financial or sexual.

This is why today Aleisha Dickson, who has personally been affected by domestic violence during her childhood, has teamed up with Avon to become its Beauty and Empowerment Ambassador. Today she has helped to launch the cosmetics new Empowerment necklace and Pass It On campaign.

The necklace costs £3.50 and the proceeds will go directly to Avon's charity partners Refuge and Women's Aid to fund support services to women and children who have suffered from domestic violence. Avon has already donated £1 million just in the UK alone through sales of products like the necklace.

And here it is…

I'm wearing this necklace due to an idea from the marvellous Mummy Mishaps who explains why I'm wearing it here:

"I want to help the Pass It On campaign via my blog and I have an idea. 

I am going to open up a linky and I will send this necklace onto another blogger and she needs to take a photo of herself wearing it and link the photo back here and then she needs to pass it on to another blogger who needs to do the same and so on."

I'm sending this necklace on to Yummy Mummy Flabby Tummy who will be helping to publicise this campaign to help empower women and break the cycle of domestic violence.

 

'Hands Up' If You Love Justin!

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There is one man who is the king of children's television: Justin Fletcher is a genius.

I truly believe that every new parent should be given a voucher for an hour's entertainment, courtesy of Mr. Fletcher, upon the birth of each child. Just one hour to be used at a time that could be absolutely vital for the wellbeing of everyone in the house. Every television programme he creates is magical, and now he's turned his voice to a music CD, he's onto another winner!

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Learning Through Play: Changing Shape

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Before I became a primary school teacher, I trained as a nursery nurse and studied the importance of play as a part of a child's development. Learning through play is a subject close to my heart, and it's what the Foundation Phase (nursery and reception) teaching is all about nowadays. In my school, we embrace it up to the end of infants. I'm used to it, I love it, I provide The Boy with loads of opportunities for it, and yet I always forget to blog about it.

Which is daft.

However, last week on one of my favourite sites ever, I came across this little gem and immediately purchased the necessary equipment to make it happen. And then I sat and pondered exactly what to do with these tiny little beads that were not much bigger than hundreds and thousands. Luckily Cathy at The Nurture Store is a kindly soul who was more than happy to bounce ideas back and for' with me.

Changing Shape with Water Beads

Water beads are strange little entities. Incredibly popular with florists for vase displays, they start out life as very small pellets. 'Soak each 5 gram portion in 1 litre of water and within 24 hours they will have absorbed the water and swollen in size.' In reality, they were full size within 10 hours and we only needed half the water.

We had great fun swirling and squidging them, watching them expand and change shape.

The next day we came back to them when they'd fully absorbed the water. I drained off the excess water and gave the tray full to The Boy to play with, along with some coloured bowls, spoons of different sizes and funnels. I left him to it for a little while, sitting back and noting what he was doing, only contributing when asked something. I wanted to see what he did, his thoughts and observations.

He realised straight away that they'd absorbed the water, and he loved the change in texture and size. He poured, stirred, squidged, bounced (rubbery now!) and had great fun pouring and playing. (Scientific development: changing shape)

After a while he asked what the bowls were for. I asked him what colours they were and if he noticed anything that was the same. He pointed out the colours of the beads, and started to try and pick them up with his fingers to put into the bowls. Thing is about these water beads? They're slippery little blighters and they kept popping out of his fingers. I asked if there was anything that he could use to help him get them out, and he chose to use the spoons. (This helps mathematical development: sorting into colours is a pre-maths skill. Also develops fine motor skills: hand-eye co-ordination and control)

The funnels were the best part of the exploring session. £1 for 2 from Ikea and he loved pouring them in and seeing them cascade out the bottom. One clear bead got stuck and he and Mr. TheBoyandMe decided to use it as a looking glass. They noticed fairly quickly that the image was upside down. Cute alert: The Boy tried to turn it around to make it go the right way up! (Scientific development: physical processes)

Water beads = great fun!

Our next step is to take a bowl of these, lay them out on a tray lined with kitchen towel and put them in the airing cupboard. We're going to try and get them to shrink back to their original size!

—

I'm linking this up to Science Sparks

Sciencesparks3

Bluestone Responds

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About a month ago we went away to Bluestone Resort, west Wales for a much needed recuperative break after the ghastly Novovirus had hit the entire family. The five-star resort with an excellent reputation was a natural choice as it's only an hour and a half down the road from us, and the lack of commercialism is exactly the type of thing we look for when searching for a relaxing break.

Unfortunately, two rather important errors in the accommodation during our stay, prompted me to write this blog-post sharing the failures, and successes, that happened to us that weekend. It seems I find it very difficult to go anywhere now without my review hat on. I e-mailed them the link and waited to see what would happen.

I received a phonecall within a few days from one of their customer service representatives who assured me that my complaints had been referred to the board of directors and were being investigated fully. He was incredibly sincere and co-operative, and I thank him for his attention. I've since had this e-mail which I thought I'd share part of it with you:

I am writing in response to your correspondence regarding your recent visit to Bluestone.  Please be assured that we have taken your comments on board.  We value your thoughts as we operate within a culture of continuous improvement at Bluestone and without our customer feedback, we would not be able to fulfil our objectives, which is to improve our standard of services from one guest to the next. 

Thank you for your honest review of Bluestone. We would like to take this opportunity to thank for the depth and detail that you have included.

I am very pleased to hear that you were happy with the Adventure Centre facilities and the Customer service you received during your stay with us. I have passed on your comments to the relevant departments who are delighted to receive them.

With regards to your buggy hire, the current rate is £70 for your stay. The daily rate is only available to guests already staying on park and is not available to pre-book as the buggies are subject to availability.

Please accept my sincerest apologies for the level of cleanliness of your accommodation. This certainly is not the standard that we expect at Bluestone. I have been in touch with our Housekeeping Manager who has assured me that the toilet area is included on their check list, however it does appear that this was unfortunately missed in your accommodation. This issue has been highlighted to all supervisors and all members of staff have now been re-briefed to ensure this type of incident does not happen again

I have noted your comments relating to the mattresses. Our new lodges (Gateholm lodges) which are currently in the completion stages do contain new and different mattresses to the ones used in our current lodges; we also have an ongoing renovation program of all lodges during which we are replacing mattresses in all current lodges.

There was obviously some additional information relevant to our particular situation, which I won't be sharing. However, I am thoroughly impressed with the level of care and attention that Bluestone have given to our experience at their resort. I can accept that the dirty toilet was a one-off situation that slipped through the net, my main concern was the mattresses and so I've very pleased to see that they are replacing them all with a different type of mattress as part of their renovation process.

Well done Bluestone, my faith is restored!

Project 366 Bonusprint Competition 1: Winners Announced

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I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am that the first of the #Project366 competitions has been judged by Bonusprint and three fabulous winners have been chosen!

Without further ado, I give you these three images as the winners of either an iPhone 4 personalised cover, or a £20 voucher for Bonusprint. Click on the image to see the original post, and blog-host:

Congratulations to Edspire, From Fun to Mum and Do Snails Need Doulas for being chosen as this week's winners! I'll be e-mailing you for further information.

Thank you to everyone for entering, there's a duplicate competition next week so keep snapping!

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