Showing posts with label parenting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parenting. Show all posts
Thursday, 18 April 2013
The Tooth Fairy comes to visit
Hi everyone,
I thought I'd share with you all a poem I wrote when we had a run on wobbly milk teeth in our madhouse!
I HAVE A WOBBLY TOOTH
AND I CAN MOVE IT WITH MY TONGUE
MUM SAYS THIS ONLY HAPPENS WHEN YOU ARE VERY YOUNG
SHE SAYS MY TOOTH WILL FALL OUT
AND A FAIRY WILL GIVE ME SOME MONEY
SHE'LL TAKE MY TOOTH WHILE I'M FAST ASLEEP
WELL, I THOUGH THAT WAS VERY FUNNY!
NOW I KNOW I SHOULD BELIEVE MY MUM
COS MUMS ARE SUPER CLEVER!
AND I DON'T THINK SHE'S EVER FIBBED TO ME
NO HONESTLY, NOT EVER!
I'VE BEEN THINKING LONG AND HARD
AND THIS TIME I DON'T THINK MUM IS RIGHT
COS I SAW SOMETHING REALLY ODD
WHEN I COULDN'T SLEEP LAST NIGHT
I'LL TELL YOU THE END OF MY STORY
IF I MAY BE SO BOLD
YOU SEE, GRANDAD IS STAYING WITH US
AND I KNOW HE'S VERY OLD
WHEN I CREPT INTO HIS BEDROOM
YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT I SAW...
YES REALLY... ALL OF GRANDAD'S TEETH
WERE IN A GLASS RIGHT THERE BY THE DOOR...!
Written by Bev.
Thursday, 21 March 2013
Karma Family Life, now on Twitter!
That's right!
You can now follow all of us here at Karma Family Life on Twitter by either searching for
@karmafamilylife or by clicking here!
Please do stop by and say 'Hello' we would love to hear from you!
Kerry, Betty, Andrea, Victoria, and Bev x
Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Delicious Diary Dates!
I love the randomness of picking up new vegetables to try at the supermarket, if they're on a special offer, and when I get the shopping home, trying to incorporate them into something that's going to lead to an empty plate and not a full dog!
However, my children, who are seven and nine, are typically average kids at trying new things when it comes to eating their dinner. This is why we are trying a new activity at meal times - whenever there is a country's national day marked on the calendar, we are trying that cuisine... Best of all Jasmine and Sam help me with researching what we should cook, then help with preparing and cooking it if it's on a weekend.
So far we have tried Chinese (Chinese New Year) - sweet and sour veggies with brown rice, American (President's Day) - we made meat and also lentil burgers with potato wedges - and Wales (St David's Day) - leek and potato soup with freshly baked bread rolls.
Coming up, we have St Patrick's Day which is of course Irish food and then Anzac Day which is Australian and New Zealand recipes - sometimes the imagination has to stretch a little with what can be cooked on a rainy day far from the warmth of Sydney!
The kids have really taken to the idea and look up the countries on the globe we have in the lounge - it can also lead into many other activities such as themed reading, finding out about the day to day life of children in those countries, or activities online such as www.activityvillage.co.uk/
If the recipe that day is not a hit, there will soon be another special day on the calendar - it can be developed even further into celebrating Royal Day (Queen Elizabeth's birthday) with Queen of Puddings or International Women's Day (baking gingerbread women!).
The only limit is your imagination!
However, my children, who are seven and nine, are typically average kids at trying new things when it comes to eating their dinner. This is why we are trying a new activity at meal times - whenever there is a country's national day marked on the calendar, we are trying that cuisine... Best of all Jasmine and Sam help me with researching what we should cook, then help with preparing and cooking it if it's on a weekend.
So far we have tried Chinese (Chinese New Year) - sweet and sour veggies with brown rice, American (President's Day) - we made meat and also lentil burgers with potato wedges - and Wales (St David's Day) - leek and potato soup with freshly baked bread rolls.
Coming up, we have St Patrick's Day which is of course Irish food and then Anzac Day which is Australian and New Zealand recipes - sometimes the imagination has to stretch a little with what can be cooked on a rainy day far from the warmth of Sydney!
The kids have really taken to the idea and look up the countries on the globe we have in the lounge - it can also lead into many other activities such as themed reading, finding out about the day to day life of children in those countries, or activities online such as www.activityvillage.co.uk/
If the recipe that day is not a hit, there will soon be another special day on the calendar - it can be developed even further into celebrating Royal Day (Queen Elizabeth's birthday) with Queen of Puddings or International Women's Day (baking gingerbread women!).
The only limit is your imagination!
Written by Andrea.
Monday, 18 March 2013
Getting Crafty
If you are like me, and love doing crafts, and you also love your children, but the idea of mixing the two gives you palpitations with the thought of mess and the clean up job afterwards, I'm afraid you're going to have to suck it up and get on with it, like me, as it can be really good fun for all involved.
Crafting with children doesn't have to involve the dreaded paint..
The thing to think about is, is it just for fun? i.e. messy play or would you rather make something to keep?
There are so many choices, but I'm going to give you a simple idea. Making a bag.
Sounds tricky right?, but it's easy!
My daughter outgrew her favourite denim skirt.
Trust me she wore it until it was so short it was verging on looking like a belt! -Now I sound like my mum!
Anyway, following yet another conversation on why it was inappropriate for her to wear it anymore, we decided to turn it into a bag!
This made her happy but sceptical, as she is the better sewer out of the two of us and she couldn't work out how we would do this. Hard to believe an 8 year old is better than her mum but I owe it all to my own mum for teaching her. (Thanks Mum, I will always have someone to sew on my buttons!)
Here's how we did it:
First, turn the skirt inside out.
Put some pins in along the bottom to keep it secure.
Sew across the bottom of the skirt. (We used 3 different colours to make it a bit funky).
Turn the skirt back and pop something in it to make sure your stitching holds!
We then used a bright pink material belt from a pair of jeans that she had outgrown to make the handle.
A few pieces of ribbon or twine plated together would be great too.
We sewed one end of the belt to the inside of the side of the waist of the skirt. Then the other end to the other side.
The good news is all the sewing is inside so it won't show on the finished bag.
As our skirt had some details with zips and coloured stitching on it, there wasn't much need for anything else. But I did personalise it further by stitching the first letter of my daughters name on the front then added a flower sequin
.
You could add buttons or tassels to make it perfect for you.
Don't forget you can do this with almost anything! Why not make a back pack for a little boy by using some old shorts, and adding some badges to funk it up?
My daughter loved the end result, and so far, her new bag has lasted a year, but the most important thing is that we spent time together, having fun!
Written by Victoria
Crafting with children doesn't have to involve the dreaded paint..
The thing to think about is, is it just for fun? i.e. messy play or would you rather make something to keep?
There are so many choices, but I'm going to give you a simple idea. Making a bag.
My daughter outgrew her favourite denim skirt.
Trust me she wore it until it was so short it was verging on looking like a belt! -Now I sound like my mum!
Anyway, following yet another conversation on why it was inappropriate for her to wear it anymore, we decided to turn it into a bag!
This made her happy but sceptical, as she is the better sewer out of the two of us and she couldn't work out how we would do this. Hard to believe an 8 year old is better than her mum but I owe it all to my own mum for teaching her. (Thanks Mum, I will always have someone to sew on my buttons!)
Here's how we did it:
First, turn the skirt inside out.
Put some pins in along the bottom to keep it secure.
Sew across the bottom of the skirt. (We used 3 different colours to make it a bit funky).
Turn the skirt back and pop something in it to make sure your stitching holds!
We then used a bright pink material belt from a pair of jeans that she had outgrown to make the handle.
A few pieces of ribbon or twine plated together would be great too.
We sewed one end of the belt to the inside of the side of the waist of the skirt. Then the other end to the other side.
The good news is all the sewing is inside so it won't show on the finished bag.
As our skirt had some details with zips and coloured stitching on it, there wasn't much need for anything else. But I did personalise it further by stitching the first letter of my daughters name on the front then added a flower sequin
.
You could add buttons or tassels to make it perfect for you.
Don't forget you can do this with almost anything! Why not make a back pack for a little boy by using some old shorts, and adding some badges to funk it up?
My daughter loved the end result, and so far, her new bag has lasted a year, but the most important thing is that we spent time together, having fun!
Written by Victoria
Thursday, 14 March 2013
Being Accountable
Some people amaze me.
They seem to go through life with blinkers on. Completely blanking out what they don't want to see.
Don't get me wrong, this could be a highly sought after skill, should they not apply it to every aspect of their lives. I wonder how many of these people suffer from a mental illness, for example? Certainly none of the ones I know..
The main worry I have about these people, is their complete lack of responsibility where their families are concerned. Where a child was more of a fashion accessory, or a money ticket, then a person they would have to take care of for the next 18 years.
You can recognise these people by the sheer amount of pathetic excuses they come out with as to why their child is a bully, or rude, or has absolutely no respect for anyone or anything. And it doesn't matter if they are a single or dual parent family. They just do not understand that they, as the 'responsible' adult are at fault if their child is a tearaway.
Being a childminder, I have head it all. In fact, this excuse has been used so many times, it just isn't worth listening to anymore:
Yet, asked what they do all weekend with their child to make up for the fact that they haven't seen him all week long, and the unbelievable response is commonly:
Yup. You state the obvious, that little Tom, or Katie don't see you all week long and you can only guess that this is the reason for their poor behaviour, yet, instead of spending your weekends together, reconnecting, you push them away further, but it will all be fine in the summer when you jet off to Ibiza for 10 days with your friends, because then you will get to spend some 'real quality time' together..
Parents. You are the adults. If you choose not to put your child before your own needs, don't go making up excuses about their poor behaviour. Like with everything else in life, if you only put in 50% of the effort, expect to only get 50% of the result.
This is also an issue for stay at home parents too. Those whom would rather sit watching Jeremy Kyle and catch up on their soaps or even the ones who spend all of their days cleaning their house instead of sitting down and playing or talking to their children. Too many people have completely lost the balance of work/life/giving/taking/educating.
Teach your children respect, good manners, and independence. No one is perfect. I'm certainly not. But I don't make excuses for it. If I've messed up, I'll admit it and find a solution to turn the situation around and make things better, not just for me, but for everyone involved.
It's not hard to do this. All it really takes is admittance, commitment to rectify, and determination to not let it slip, at least too often.
Don't be perfect. Be accountable.
Find a balance that works for you and your family.
Be a good parent and learn from your mistakes. Everyone makes them, show your children that things go wrong, but you will always seek to make things right again.
Tell your child that you will find more time for them, and follow through.
Don't be the person that the other mothers talk about at the school gates, because their child is constantly craving attention for all the wrong reasons.
Listen to your children. They will tell you if and when you are failing them.
You made this tiny little person. Take pride in that. You did a wonderful, amazing thing!
Don't mess it up by being ignorant. You can do this. You can make the difference in your life, and I guarantee that you are everything in theirs.
Written by Betty Blue.
They seem to go through life with blinkers on. Completely blanking out what they don't want to see.
Don't get me wrong, this could be a highly sought after skill, should they not apply it to every aspect of their lives. I wonder how many of these people suffer from a mental illness, for example? Certainly none of the ones I know..
The main worry I have about these people, is their complete lack of responsibility where their families are concerned. Where a child was more of a fashion accessory, or a money ticket, then a person they would have to take care of for the next 18 years.
You can recognise these people by the sheer amount of pathetic excuses they come out with as to why their child is a bully, or rude, or has absolutely no respect for anyone or anything. And it doesn't matter if they are a single or dual parent family. They just do not understand that they, as the 'responsible' adult are at fault if their child is a tearaway.
Being a childminder, I have head it all. In fact, this excuse has been used so many times, it just isn't worth listening to anymore:
"He's only acting out because I have to work.
He just doesn't get any time with me at the moment"
Yet, asked what they do all weekend with their child to make up for the fact that they haven't seen him all week long, and the unbelievable response is commonly:
"Well, the weekends are my 'me time'. I went out with friends on Friday night, was hung over all of Saturday and picked up my little man from his grandparents on Sunday evening"
Yup. You state the obvious, that little Tom, or Katie don't see you all week long and you can only guess that this is the reason for their poor behaviour, yet, instead of spending your weekends together, reconnecting, you push them away further, but it will all be fine in the summer when you jet off to Ibiza for 10 days with your friends, because then you will get to spend some 'real quality time' together..
Parents. You are the adults. If you choose not to put your child before your own needs, don't go making up excuses about their poor behaviour. Like with everything else in life, if you only put in 50% of the effort, expect to only get 50% of the result.
This is also an issue for stay at home parents too. Those whom would rather sit watching Jeremy Kyle and catch up on their soaps or even the ones who spend all of their days cleaning their house instead of sitting down and playing or talking to their children. Too many people have completely lost the balance of work/life/giving/taking/educating.
Teach your children respect, good manners, and independence. No one is perfect. I'm certainly not. But I don't make excuses for it. If I've messed up, I'll admit it and find a solution to turn the situation around and make things better, not just for me, but for everyone involved.
It's not hard to do this. All it really takes is admittance, commitment to rectify, and determination to not let it slip, at least too often.
Don't be perfect. Be accountable.
Find a balance that works for you and your family.
Be a good parent and learn from your mistakes. Everyone makes them, show your children that things go wrong, but you will always seek to make things right again.
Tell your child that you will find more time for them, and follow through.
Don't be the person that the other mothers talk about at the school gates, because their child is constantly craving attention for all the wrong reasons.
Listen to your children. They will tell you if and when you are failing them.
You made this tiny little person. Take pride in that. You did a wonderful, amazing thing!
Don't mess it up by being ignorant. You can do this. You can make the difference in your life, and I guarantee that you are everything in theirs.
Written by Betty Blue.
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