Archives: February, 2008

Here in the UK, it is Mothering Sunday on 2nd March, otherwise known as Mother’s Day.

Mothering Sunday initially started out as a day when people would return to their “home” or “mother” church once per year. However, now it is closer to the US Mother’s Day; it is a time when children pay their respects to their mothers for all the love and care they receive during the year.

So what are the best presents? Well, it doesn’t have to be expensive. Often the simplest things are most appreciated:

I was at work today when I received a call from my son’s school to collect him because he has conjunctivitis. It turns out that he is now not allowed back at school until he has suitable eye drops prescribed by a doctor. I am surprised at this school policy and write more about this below.

Now, most parents are familiar with (bacterial) conjunctivitis. Your child has sore, red eyes and a rather unattractive, thick yellow discharge. Their eyelashes often stick together making it difficult for your child to open his/her eyes.

Whenever I go into a children’s bookshop my mind suddenly goes blank when it comes to the classics. So, I think this list of the 50 Top Children’s books (compiled by Booktrust) is quite handy:

1 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, C S Lewis

2 The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle

3 Famous Five series, Enid Blyton

4 Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne

5 The BFG, Roald Dahl

6 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, J K Rowling

7 The Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton

8 The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

• Charity Choice - UK Charities Directory
  We’re looking at supporting child and family related charities on our site, and this looked like a good place to start getting banners etc. 1244 records in all, so it, er, might take a while to get their ads up and running. Worthwhile though, we think.
  Tags: charity development directory resource

The children’s classic tales of the Mr Men are returning to our TV screens very soon. They will be appearing from February 25th on Channel Five. However, alongside familiar characters such s Mr Lazy is a new character that I certainly don’t remember called Mr Rude.

Apparently Mr Rude has a french accent and is prone to farting (especially when you pull his finger!). The makers of Mr Men do not think that Mr Rude will offend the French:

‘Mr. Men is a comedy show for four to seven year olds. The fact that Mr. Rude has a French accent is meant to be light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek and no offence is intended.’

Business Week have a fun list of “working mum moments”, gleaned from high-flying executive mums…

“One morning in my haste to get the kids off to school and go to work on time, I allowed my preschooler to pack his own backpack for school. I dropped him off and went on to work—only to be pulled aside by the teacher at pick up to inform me that the contents of my child’s backpack had consisted of a large pair of scissors, a steak knife, and a box of tampons.”

Check out this old commercial for a children’s game where you get smacked in the face with a cream pie. It is a world away from what kids do for a laugh now!

Source:Jim Snapper at Flickr

The Chinese New Year Celebration will be taking place on Sunday 10th February. There will be a grand parade along the Strand, Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue and on to Trafalgar Square. The parade will start at 11am and you will be able to see all sorts of performers including acrobats and Chinese dragons. There will also be fireworks to round off the celebrations.

There are lots of different activities for kids including:

+ China in London at London Zoo - learn about the species that form the chinese zodiac

Following on from the previous post, I’ve just received this from Andrew Pakes, a councillor for Southwark where the Livesey is

Hello

Thank you for signing the online ‘Save the Livesey Children’s Museum’ petition, there has been a great response from all parts of the community and from supporters across the world.

Despite the overwhelming response and positive coverage in the South London Press and Southwark News, this morning the Council tabled its recommendation that the Museum should close at the end of March. The announcement was contained in just one sentence in a 14-page report.

Southwark Council is threatening its museums with total closure from April. These are the Cuming Museum and the Livesey Museum for Children. The Livesey is especially vulnerable as it does not house a collection.

It’s depressing news, but news that we can hopefully all do something about. As the Facebook Group involved Save Southwark’s Museums, says

“These museums are located in one of the most deprived areas of London. The museums and their staff are already operating with minimal resources but reach local disadvantaged communities, schools and families and provide value for money. Everyone involved in the museums, as friend or staff, has plenty of evidence of the impact of the rich collections and innovative displays on visitors.