Some lovely toddler talking from 17-month-old cutie Felix

 

I had forgotten how very sweet it is when your children are learning to talk - wait til you hear Felix go, 'ooooo!' my heart is literally melting!

My friend Sarah very kindly filmed her son Felix reading our Small Talk At the Park story book - what a treat to have your mummy enjoying and praising all your attempts to say words and sounds, motivating you to say more. And lovely to see him eagerly turning the pages! 

She is a bit miffed though, that instead of saying 'mummy' he says 'buggy'! So I asked Small Talk's speech therapist whiz Nicky why this is and this is what she said...

First of all, it's great that Felix is attempting 'Mummy' when he knows he is meant to repeat it. It may sound like a strange interpretation of the word, but 'm' is a nasal sound - a sound that comes out of your nose and most sounds come out of your mouth.  It can be difficult for a little one to differentiate between the two. 

Nothing to worry about though - it's only when a child reaches 3 years old and still can't say it that 'm' would be considered to be delayed.  Lots of 'mmmm' practice at dinner time ('mmmmm' delicious food) is just the ticket! And try sitting on the sofa with him and your husband. Leave the room and get them to make a big fuss of waving goodbye and you waving back. Shut the door and pause for a minute, then get your husband to start calling, 'mummy!' encouraging Felix to join in. Reward his attempts by bursting theatrically into the room dancing a jig and falling on the floor - or doing something similarly silly to make him laugh. Repeat, repeat, repeat, modelling back 'mummy' correctly, and he'll soon get it!

Small Talk's new speech boosting baby books Bedtime and At the Park are out now on Amazon  Need childcare help? Check out my new website studentnannies.com - sign up is FREE! 

Tips on helping your children with maths...

Mum of three Katie Higham has been a teacher for over 10 years and has created Katie's Classroom to help children and parents further their education at home. Here are her tips for helping your kids with maths...

Regular interaction with your child’s maths teacher

Speaking to your child’s Maths teacher will help you to understand the gaps in your child’s maths so you can focus on less confident areas at home.

Practise, practise, practise!

If your child has an end of term test or is going through the rigorous and competitive process of 8+ and 11+ entrance exams then past papers are essential. Completing past papers will help identify specific areas to focus on and is the best way to help your child gain confidence.

Little and often

Even 15 minutes a day can help your child’s confidence in that specific area of maths that they’re worried about and improve their ability to problem solve.

Always show your working

Getting into the habit of showing working will help to show where your child may be struggling and or need help with technique. It’s a really important part of the process – it is not enough to just write down the answer! Encourage your child to jot down notes or show workings out – mental maths doesn’t mean you have to do it all in your head.

Give (small) rewards and praise

Small rewards and praise along the way will help to make your child feel like he or she is achieving. Even small things like setting a goal to buy them a book they love or taking them to see a film or for a family meal can help motivation. Try and build your child’s confidence. Change the mind set of “I can’t do it” into “I can’t do it yet”.

Good knowledge of their times tables

Good knowledge of their times tables makes all maths much easier. So keep practice makes perfect in their heads! Look for games on the internet or rhymes to help them consolidate number bonds and times tables. Try making them into a game - throwing a tennis ball to each other, one asking a quick fire question and the other answering.

Go back to basics

Checking calculations is a great way to consolidate learning and if that proves too hard, go back to basics and start with simpler calculations.

Try and understand their learning style

All children learn differently. Some children like a more hands-on approach so using equipment can help. Draw things out - this way you’re making it more visual and practical to allow for different learning styles.

Create a working maths wall

Display times tables and calculation methods or whatever their tricky area is around the house.

Make Maths meaningful

Making Maths part of everyday life makes it more meaningful. Real life situations like train timetables, recipes and receipts help your child see that maths is needed in all areas of life.

Specific areas children find difficult in Maths

• Decimals and Fractions: fractions of amounts, equivalent fractions and converting between the two. • Division: Bridge division and corresponding division facts • Time: 24 hour clock, telling the time, reading timetables and elapsed time word problems • Money: Finding change from £10 and £20 • Area: Finding the area and perimeter of compound shapes • Time tables

For more tips go to www.katiesclassroom.com and then click on the free trial link or on the menu bar there is a sign up page

Every good weekend begins with...

A Friday night tea of sausage, chips and beans! I've got that Friday feeling! Have a splendid weekend people.

Ours is looking rather jolly - we're walking our first Borrowmydoggy pooch tomorrow (he's called Bramble and is a very handsome fox terrier); then we've got a roller disco at the school (I am already fearing for Monty who can't stand up when he's walking let alone with wheels strapped to his feet!) and on Sunday we've got a little party to go to. 

Hope you have fun!

An easy win for next week's World Book Day...

We've all been there - totally forgotten World Book Day til the morning of the big day, frantically looked around the house for something (anything!) you can dress your kids up in that has a faintly literary connection. Minnie went as Cinderella once which was a bit of a stretch and I think Monty wore his Gruffalo dressing gown once. 

I've just received a press release from George at Asda and there is no need to panic about DIY costumes this year – you can order a Harry Potter, an Alice in Wonderland or a Little Red Riding Hood as well as many more, prices start from £10 and are all under £15. It's on 2nd of March folks - get it on your family planner/blackboard/a PostIt on your fridge!

 

Karen has just changed my life...

Huge thanks to blog reader Karen who saw my Lego plight (above) and left a comment for me about a Lego drawstring mat where they play on the mat with all the bricks, then you just draw the strings to clear it up in minutes. Thank you Karen! Ordered!

Need childcare help? Check out my new website studentnannies.com - sign up is FREE! Small Talk's new speech boosting baby books Bedtime and At the Park are out now on Amazon 

 

We get arty farty

In a recent clear out James found some old canvases in the loft that we hadn't used (or frankly even known about!) for years. Instead of putting them back in the loft James decided we'd have a family paint off. The theme was 'the sea' and we all had about 20 mins to perfect our masterpieces. The children thought it was really exciting to be working on a real canvas, and we all rather enjoyed it. Embarrassingly, all our works were out drying and a friend who came to our house mistook all of the pictures for being the children's. I thought it was hilarious but she was mortified when I told her that two of them were James and I's! Can you guess who painted which one?!

Here we go again!

I've told him that if he tips it all out again he'll be tidying it away by himself. I do love Lego but it isn't half a tricky one to manage!

This is the situation here...

I've had the day off today and we've been in full-on half term mode. We visited my cousin Cathy and her children this morning, at my Aunt and Uncle's. We had an unexpectedly successful game of bingo. My cousin's big girl is nine so we always pick up good tips from her and it seems that bingo is a winner - who knew? I particularly enjoyed making up silly rhymes for the numbers ('33 do a wee!'), the children got into this too and also read out and spotted lots of numbers. And got to shout 'House!' and 'Bingo!' really loudly!

This afternoon we've had three friends over to play. Every container of Lego has been tipped out, Monty has spilled a whole bowl of jelly on the floor, Minnie has insisted on facepainting everyone, the children keep sneaking biscuits and I am SO ready for a glass of wine! 

Hope your half terms are going well!

Why we need to fill our kids with kindness...

I am not usually a fan of these various 'days' given that, working at a newspaper we are constantly getting these pitched to us (did you know that today is Single Awareness Day, for example?!) but Random Acts of Kindness Day is something I wholeheartedly support.

It's this Friday (17 February) and the message is that as parents we should all be instilling ‘kindness genes’ and teaching our children empathy and generosity of spirit from a very young age.The hope is that by demonstrating and encouraging acts of kindness from birth we could actually reduce the likelihood of a child becoming a bully in the future. A new poll today, from leading online parenting resource Families www.familiesonline.co.uk, has revealed that 97% of parents believe that teaching kindness and empathy to children from a very early age could help to tackle the evolving battle against bullying in school.

Mother of two and Marketing Director at Families, Faye Mingo, thinks the idea has legs: “Teaching kindness enhances positivity and helps children feel good about themselves. Acts of kindness can help children to form human connections with others, which are reported to be a stronger factor in increasing happiness.  Although such acts are unlikely to stamp out bullying altogether, they are certainly a positive place to start.”

The survey also looked at building children’s self-esteem which is also very often associated with bullying issues, with 76% of parents saying the best way to build self-esteem is to embrace differences and to encourage your child to be confident in their own skin.

Families has issued some top tips to help create some of the good feelings that we experience when being kind. These feelings are produced by endorphins that activate areas of the brain that are associated with pleasure, social connection and trust. Feelings of joyfulness are proven to be contagious, encouraging kinder behaviours by the giver and recipient.   

Top 10 simple acts of kindness to try with your children:

1. Give away old toys (no longer played with) to younger children or charity
2. Feed some birds or ducks
3. Hold the door open for someone
4. Leave happy notes or pictures around the home/town
5. Donate outgrown clothes to charity or others
6. Tell someone why they are special to you
7. Make a homemade gift and surprise them with it
8. Bake cakes for a neighbour
9. Leave flowers on somebody's doorstep
10. Smile at everybody even if you don’t know them, it's contagious!

Need childcare help? Check out my new website studentnannies.com - sign up is FREE! Small Talk's new speech boosting baby books Bedtime and At the Park are out now on Amazon 

Minnie's doggie shrine...

Regular readers will know that Minnie is bonkers about dogs, so it's no surprise that when James came back from Ikea with some light up LED display boxes, Minnie knew exactly what she wanted to put in hers - pooches. This is a mummy dog with two puppies and actually looks strangely like a modernist art installation as it's just a bit weird! 

Just as predictably, Monty has Batman Lego in his! A great buy for kids as they can swap and change as they wish - the lid comes off really easily. What will your kids put in theirs?