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The Expense of Going to School*
In England, children start school the September after they turn four. For me, it’s too young. It’s too young to be in school 5 days a week for over 6 hours a day. Not only that but it’s so much more structured from the very start in comparison to when I went but I guess in a way, my daughter needed it. When my daughter started school, I was not prepared for the sheer cost of a child in primary school. Yes, I know from experience that being in University is an expensive business, but I did not anticipate how many hidden costs there would be of a child in…
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TV Show Tie In Toys My Daughter Loves
I’m not going to lie, TV has always been a particularly large part of my daughter’s childhood. As I’m self employed I’ve always needed those few hours every day to do some form of work or admin and although I don’t believe in letting TV be a substitute parent, she does watch it at least once a day. Because of this a lot of the toys my daughter has enjoyed playing with over the years have been part of the merchandise promotion for kids TV shows. She’s had In The Night Garden Toys, and Mister Maker Art Sets, Ben & Hollie’s Little Kingdom figures and she even went through a…
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Days Out in England – Quentin Blake: Inside Stories at Laing Art Gallery
Despite being ill on Tuesday, Little Miss and I had a day away to Newcastle, just the two of us. We’d been offered complimentary tickets to the Quentin Blake: Inside Stories at the Laing Art Gallery, and being a huge Blake fan, I just had to go. So we hopped on an early train (train tickets having been bought using my Nectar points) and headed down to the city for a few hours. After a morning of shopping and a terrible lunch, I was feeling all but defeated but thankfully the exhibit was lovely and well worth the trip for. I know what you’re thinking, an art gallery with a…
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Things to Do With Kids in the Newcastle
Next week Little Miss is on half term for a week, so as usual the week before I’m trying to plan a few activities for us to do. We’re not going anywhere special as March is shaping up to be a busy month for us so I’m trying to save as much money for that instead, however unless the weather is truly terrible I’d rather we didn’t spend the whole time in the house. We live on the Scottish Border so we can either go north or we can go south when it comes to finding thing to do. North we have up towards Edinburgh and south we have the…
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Childhood Toys My Daughter Still Plays With*
In my ways I’m so thankful my parents are hoarders, my dad more than my mum and this 100% applies to stuff that belonged to my sister and I. The attic at their house is like a museum of childhood and every time my dad is on holiday he insists he’s going to sort it out. I know somewhere there is a huge box of all my classic novels like Little Women, Alice in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows that I collected as a child. There’s also so many plush toys from the Disney Store i’m sure I could make a fortune on eBay. Somewhere there is replica Cinderella…
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Hello Five!
On Saturday Little Miss turned five! I’m not sure why but five seems a lot older than four! Maybe it’s because she’s at school now, or has almost lost her third tooth, or just the fact she really is no longer a baby. She is starting to read and write and is completely independent as far as dressing and undressing herself, brushing her hair, teeth and feeding herself. She really is a big girl now. Unlike last year I didn’t find done to do a pre-birthday photo shoot and put together a post because she was at school and then in the evening I had a cake and balloon disaster…