The statement in the above picture is one I often think about. It was written by Magda Gerber who was an early childhood educator in the United States and is known for teaching parents and children. When you have children you pretty much presume they will pick a book up and in time the words will click together and with support from you and teachers, reading will come naturally, like walking and talking. Sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes things happen to make it more difficult than that. In our ...
Thoughts and happenings
Anxiety and me
78 days (at this current time) since the doctor told me to take time out. 78 days since I was told I have anxiety and stress. I could break it down to the hours and minutes. This winter we had snow, enough snow to build a igloo. With nothing but a ice cream tub and a few pairs of gloves we had a good go at building a igloo. I told Dylan to be really careful as we started to make the walls higher. It was curving in and I knew that if we put on any more bricks it would fall down. This is the best ...
Tuesday’s thoughts – Being a exausted working mum
I have been working crazy shifts. Working though the night and working till 11pm with the odd 7am shift thrown in. It works around the children and childcare and I am lucky to be able to swap shifts when i need to but I am tired. Worn out. Shattered. Eyes drooping, squinting at the TV as if I was drunk, fighting the urge to go to bed at 8.30pm, unable to conduct a sensible conversation exhausted. I’m propped up on the sofa, intermittently nodding off, desperately trying to make conversation ...
Animal Tracking with children
Before becoming a mum spending time walking in mud and splashing in muddy puddles was not on my list of ways to have a good time. Things have certainly changed! We spend so much time outside and living in the country we are lucky to have so much nature on the doorstep. As part of the Autumnal RSPB challenge we have been out and about looking for animals and animal tracks. The RSPB also have a downloadable sheet to try and help with all of the tracks you may see, my two loved using this ...
Not for boys. Not for girls. Clothes for children.
Piccalilly clothing have asked me to guest post for them. Pretty exciting as I've never produced a guest post before. They wanted someone to write about unisex clothing. This is a subject that I have been meaning to write about for sometime as having a boy and a girl it has become something that at times has really frustrated me. I admit that I do love a dress. I suppose after boys clothes shopping for 8 years it's a nice change to look at all the lovely girls clothes or is it simply that ...
Living in the Sticks
I'm not sure where the past six years have gone. The time here at Garden Cottage has flown by. At times it is hard and has been a huge challenge but I wouldn't change it for the world. I lived in Manchester for 18 years. Dylan was born at Salford Royal and has spent so much time visiting Manchester over the years he thinks of it as home as much as living in Herefordshire. I grew up in the town of Hereford not in the country itself, then moved to Manchester for university when I was ...