Diary of an (ex)London mum

It might be because the days are getting longer and it is getting lighter earlier, I woke up at 4 this morning raring to go out for a run. I have always liked running but have not had time to do much since Baby arrived- there was always something to do in the flat. However, I have recently taken to running in the morning at the weekends and have found that I am performing much better as a person, much more like I was before everything in life appeared to be thrown at me at high speed and I was just coping. I have no complaints about having a child- he has enriched our lives in ways I could never have imagined before him. We did give up some things because our time was at a premium and I gave up being me a little. I guess I worried that he needed me all the time when in actual fact that makes no sense at all. He is asleep at the moment and his dad is with him so there is no reason for me to sit in the living room in case he wakes up. I don't quite understand why I thought that was...

I thought about the pros and cons of home-schooling a little as I know someone who has been home-schooling her twins and her and kids really love it.  It requires effort on the part of the parents but education can be a lot more dynamic than a school-based system and it can increase the strength of family bonds.  The prospects of spending as much time as possible with Baby before he leaves the nest was very appealing.  I didn't take it further than just thinking about it as a possibility: what would I do with myself, without a career, when Baby leaves home?  This article in the Guardian brought back the thought processes from those days, and reminded me that things can be done differently even if we were to undertake only parts of the elements that people use for home schooling on an ad hoc basis. 

As mentioned in my previous post, I did a sweep of the internet to look at things we need to prepare Baby for in the run up to starting primary school.  Other than preparing him for a new environment (which I will discuss in a later post), there were a number of practical skills that were consistently highlighted as useful to have for children starting school.  I have mentioned in a previous post that being able to handle a packed lunch was considered useful so we have started practicing using sandwich boxes, thermal lunch boxes, etc.  We frame it as a fun activity like going to a picnic so it doesn't feel too contrived. Another thing that may be useful is being able to change into their PE kit at school.  Baby can change in to and out of trousers, pants, socks and shoes but he sometimes still struggles with putting a top on and he isn't very good with buttons so we will need to work on these actions before he starts school.  Practice makes perfect and the on...

I did a web search on preparations for first day of primary school and now have a 'To Do' list.  Helping him prepare for school lunch was the first task I chose to tackle. Baby's primary school will not provide school lunches so we will need to pack hot/cold lunches daily.  Cold lunches are fairly straightforward to prepare but hot lunches may be a bit more problematic.  Aside from the time required to cook the meal, the food needs to be transported in containers that can keep food warm till lunch time, i.e. for about 4-6 hours from packing time.  It will take some planning and a fair bit of discipline to keep on top of the cooking but it should be do-able. A quick search on the internet led to a haul of potential lunch box fillers. It also revealed that, apparently, not all thermal lunch boxes actually keep food warm and price is not a reliable indicator of functionality.  I spent a fair few nights looking for something that would match our requirements: the ...

I haven't posted on this blog for a while.  Life has been busy and there hasn't been much time to record any thoughts and experiences.  Baby will be starting school in September this year and  I have been doing a fair bit of reading in the last 8 months or so to prepare for this. In the U.K. it is a legal requirement for children to be in school in the school term after they turn 5.  As the start of the school year is normally in September, a fair number of children start school at the age of 4.  It is possible to defer entry till the child turns 5 but, as it is advantageous for the child to start with the rest of the year group so that s/he has time to bond with the other children, most parents choose for the child to start earlier rather than later.  There are studies indicating that children who start too young are generally less able to cope with academic demands and that this early disadvantage is likely to hamper their learning for life.  Thes...