Best Ways to Document Your Child's Life

Have you ever looked at your child and realised how fast they are growing up? The hardest part of being a parent is seeing your child growing and knowing that you can't pause it, even just for a moment. You don't get to go back and give those cheeky rolls a squish for one more day once their limbs are long and slender. You can't rewind to their newborn days and refresh your memory on their eye colour... However, our generation is fortunate since people in the twenty-first century have access to a wide variety of digital devices. You can use them to record your child's first steps, first words, and funny or lovely events. You can also share your child's accomplishments on other social media platforms.

 

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Most of us associate our childhood with our hometown, relatives, holidays, and parents. Imagine your adult child being able to see many videos from their childhood after many years. Videos and photos can help people to plunge into their memories. For example, it could be a video of a family celebrating Christmas or a child's birthday...how many times do you take a photo and think, "I'm saving that one for their 18th birthday!".  Furthermore, with the growth of technology, children might pass videos and photos from generation to generation. Unlike when many of us where young - your memories don't have to be put on a shelf because photos and videos can easily be stored in the cloud.

Since memories are valuable, nothing is more important than recording your child's life. This article will teach you the finest ways to document your child's life.

First Day of School Poem

It's here. Now’s the time. I tell myself I’ll be fine

Its your first day of school, a new book, a new line

But one day you were here every day of the week,

playing with toys, reading books, hide and seek

Now those little legs skip on the pavement to class, as your hand fits in mine - but I hold it like glass...

A Poem for your First Day of School ...

School readiness – preparing your child for Reception Class

School readiness…its something you’ll probably hear quite a lot if you have a child who is preparing to start Reception Class in September, but what does it actually mean??

How can we, as parents, make sure that we are helping and not hindering when preparing our 4 year olds for big school?

Most of my Teaching career was spent teaching Reception, and so this is something I thought long and hard about when passing on information to Parents. What would I hope, as their Teacher, they could do already? What sort of things would I discuss in the Parents meetings for new starters? Where would my expectations be bearing in mind I don’t yet know the children or what level they are at?

Its not what you might expect….

What to Write in a Rude Birthday Card

Rude birthday cards are a popular choice for people who like to push the boundaries. Are you searching for something especially unique and memorable to put in your friend’s birthday card this year? Well, why not try creating your own custom rude birthday card to leave them with red cheeks and a smile from ear to ear. This is the perfect opportunity to showcase your wit, racy humour, and general naughtiness. If you are struggling for inspiration, at Boomf they've got some excellent examples of your next rude birthday card message.

 

This is a collaborative guest post

Every year we spend time searching for the funniest, rude birthday card we can find for my brother in law - it has become a bit of a tradition and a definite expectation that the card we choose should be anything but boring...You'll usually know if your card recipient is fair game for this sort thing...

10 ways to cope with exam stress

As exam season approaches, students can often feel overwhelming levels of stress that can hinder their revision preparation. Exams can feel like a lot of pressure as students need to get certain grades to get into their chosen University.

 

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Students often feel anxious and nervous when approaching this time, so we’ve devised a list of some handy tips on how to manage exam stress...

New Baby Essentials gift guide

Are you having a new baby soon, or know of someone who is? It can be hard to work out just what to buy as a gift for a new mum or a newborn baby - making sure your gift is useful or meaningful is key, as you don't want to be adding to the amount of 'stuff' that new parents seem to acquire once a baby comes along! Some parents may be starting out with nothing, and so helping out by purchasing the 'essentials' rather than something more luxurious may be your preference. You may wish to treat the parent to a useful gift, rather than the baby...after all, they have likely spent 9 months growing a baby (and all that goes along with that!), to then be faced with labour, birth and sleepless nights. Whatever your prefer, this new baby essentials gift guide has a range of ideas for every budget and preference...

 

Disclosure: Paid partnership - some of these items are affiliate links or gifted items for the purpose of an honest review. 

From purchasing the newborn essentials, to making sure you have new mother and baby well-being covered, this blog post gives some suggestions and honest feedback on a range of products for both parent and baby...

Home office essentials for dealing with back pain

 Back pain is no laughing matter, and unfortunately if you have a sedentary job which requires you to sit at a desk or be in an office for a large number of hours during the day, you may find that this low level of activity combined with poor posture can have a big impact on your back health. Whether you already suffer from debilitating back problems, which your current job exacerbates, or whether your current set up is leading to back issues - there are a number of things you can do to help deal with back pain at work...

 

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A few years ago, my husband ended up with a herniated disc in his lower back, we had a 2 year old toddler at the time (I'm sure picking him up and lifting prams and pushchairs etc probably didn't help!) and he found the pain debilitating. Regular physio and visits to see an osteopath were not successful in treating the problem. A dalliance with strong painkillers to help with the pain lead to severe withdrawal symptoms (I'm talking about you Tramadol!) and the injection at the hospital to try and numb the pain in the nerve next to the spine was unsuccessful. Eventually, the only option was surgery to 'shave away' the offending protrusion pushing into his nerve, and remove part of the bone. Thankfully, the operation was a success BUT there are measures that needed to be put in place to help manage his condition and recovery moving forward, and to make sure that he did not end up with more back problems. Here are a list of things to help with back pain at work...

Why Poetry?

NB: Words are subject to copyright and must not be copied and pasted or used elsewhere without permission. If you would like to share this poem you may use the URL of this post to share.

You may enjoy some of my other poems here

Why poetry?

Why poetry? You may but ask

As you tire of another thankless task

The words they mingle in your mind

Grabbing any emotion they may find

And as your thoughts they wander on

You find despair has been and gone…

Taken from inside your head

To burn through paper notes instead

And when those words are shared around 

You find yourself on breaking ground 

For you were not alone in this 

Those thoughts that opened the abyss 

So many others felt the same

And now they let go of the shame

As they read the words you’ve written down 

You gave them air, now they won’t drown…

Drown with the weight of all they feel

You wrote it down and made it real

And they breathe a sigh of great relief 

Their burden halved: “it’s not just me”

The pain I feel … it’s not just me

The thoughts I steal…it’s not just me

The things I’ve seen …it’s not just me

The depths I’ve been … it’s not just me

Your words translate, “it’s not just me”

And this is why…poetry

EYFS Writing | Success Criteria grid for Self Evaluation

Help children to be more independent when self-checking and evaluating their writing, by offering an EYFS success criteria grid with visual prompts of sentence writing steps. Children can mark their own work before asking a friend to peer review...

This blog post includes a video demonstration and a free print to download (including a cursive option) so that you can use this sentence writing success criteria grid within your setting, or at home with your child for home-learning. I introduced this to my own Reception class towards the end of the year in the Summer term, and have done the same for my own Reception aged child at home...

Covid symptoms before vaccines vs after when pregnant

Back in March 2020, at the start of the first lockdown I contracted Corona Virus, or, Covid19 as it is more commonly known. This was before vaccines were available, and even before routine testing - although my symptoms were all in line with covid and became severe enough to warrant a visit from the emergency services. 10 months later I was also diagnosed with 'long covid' as my symptoms and the after affects took such a long time to improve. 

 

At the time, I quarantined in my bedroom away from my family for 7 days as per the rules at the time. I have since had both vaccines and a booster jab at 12 weeks pregnant making me 'fully vaccinated'. I am currently 25/26 weeks pregnant with my third child and have (along with the rest of my family) contracted covid again.

During my first bout of covid I started a video diary of my symptoms. I never did publish this video to my YouTube channel as my recovery took such a long time it seemed pointless by the time I felt better! However, looking back at this video has enabled me to create a comparison of day by day symptoms which I have listed in the post below....