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So what do you do when you have children to look after and you are coming down with a bug yourself? Unless you are very lucky your children are unlikely to make allowances, so some tips for getting through the day are as follows:

1. Go to bed whenever your children do
2. Drink lots of clear fluids to flush out your system
3. Stay warm and eat warm food to minimise energy expenditure
4. Hit the chemist (or your first aid cabinet) for medicine to relieve your symptoms
5. Take it easy and try not to do too much (easier said than done!)
6. Let your kids watch some TV to give you some peace and quiet
7. Eat healthily to absorb those vital vitamins and minerals
8. If possible, ask your spouse / relative / friend to help out
9. Feed your children something quick and easy eg fish fingers
10. Bring the kids into your bedroom with lots of toys so you can stay in bed

The most important thing is to concentrate on getting better and not try to be a martyr. Know your limits rather than struggling on regardless or you may make yourself feel worse.

Where do kids pick up their ideas?

My son announced this evening that he wants “lots of money” because then he can buy all the toys he dreams about. I can only assume he is copying a friend of his who came to visit at the weekend and who proudly announced this same bit of news to me!

I spent a few minutes explaining to my son that money doesn’t make you happy. To which the response was “What does make you happy?”.

My probably not so wise comment was “Oh, family and friends and spending time together”

Hopefully the penny dropped because my son then said “Like hugs and kisses. They make you happy.”

My image of my innocent little boy has definitely burst! This little incident just goes to show that there is no escaping the commercialism that surrounds us all. In my view it just makes it all the more important to teach your child the right values (easier said than done, I know).

Maybe it is just my kids, but they have a rather annoying habit of not waking up on school days but happily jumping out of bed at the crack of dawn come the weekends.

They are too young to be able to tell the time, so I am tempted to buy either the bunny clock (shown above) or the Kidsleep. Both work on giving children visual cues about whether it is day or night.

I just hope this works!

28th January 2007 is internet free day, so you are encouraged to shut down your computer.

An idea promoted by the online think-tank of social innovation the Global Ideas Bank, Internet-Free Day is a day to log off, get out and enjoy the real world.

Why an Internet-Free Day?

- Because there’s no replacing face-to-face interaction with real humans: we are social animals
- Because you can’t get your five a day from e-mails
- Because you can’t subscribe to an RSS feed from your grandma
- Because people’s faces are clearer in reality than YouTube
- Because your Blackberry is surgically attached to your hand…
- Because we all need a bit of R&R: reality and reflection
- Because if this has riled you, you really need it….

Need I say more?

You’ve got to love Wikipedia. According to their entry for Christopher Robin

Christopher Robin (fictional) is believed to be an INFP according to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

The classic children’s toy, Etch-a-sketch, has now been taken to the next level:

Source:catbhordhi

If your kids are mad on tree climbing then you should check out Cat Bhordi’s website where she explains how to knit a treehouse!

NB The site does come with a warning that it is potentially dangerous because you might fall out of the tree

Quite cool and creative. What will people think of next?

I don’t know if you saw it, but there was a very funny but true programme on BBC2 this evening called “The Madness of Modern Families“. It described the extraordinary lengths that parents will go to to ensure that their children get into the “right” school. The usual ploys were discussed:

1. Move house to within the catchment area of a good state school (or alternatively rent a flat in the area or pay someone else’s water rates who lives in that area)
2. Suddenly discover your faith by attending church regularly (or say that your child has found his calling to be a Priest)
3. Coach your children to pass the private school entrance tests (or put their names down on the waiting list whilst still a foetus)

Some type of modern madness takes over parents when trying to get their chidren into a good school. Everyone wants the best for their children and they will go to increasingly dishonest lengths to achieve what they want.

Unsurprisingly, many parents who are friends temporarily fall out during the admissions process because they are essentially competing with each other. No one wants to share the information they have in case it increases the competition.

It is a sad but true state of affairs and few are immune to “playing the system” in some way. A recent example of someone caught up in this horrible process is Ruth Kelly MP. Everyone is concerned about their children first and foremost. It is ironic that the schools that are the most popular are those where honesty, discipline and hard work are in evidence. Yet, parents steep to some very low levels in order to gain entry to these schools.

One has to wonder how much effect the schools actually have on the children. Surely, families are a greater influnece?

There are some more amusing insights into today’s competitive parenting on Alpha Mummy’s blog post about Scary Parents. It would be funnier if you weren’t caught up in it!

I was reading a really good article in the Guardian yesterday all about the excess of toys children of today have. In days gone by, especially post-war, there just weren’t so many toys in circulation. That meant that children really relished the few toys they did have and took great care to look after them.

Most parents I know have toys bursting from the cupboards. Children are very savvy about what they want partly due to all the adverts on TV. However, there is definitely a bit of a backlash against too many toys at the moment. For example, I have heard that some groups of parents are putting a limit on the amount that is spent on party bags eg £2 per child and giving the same amount to a charity.

According to the Guardian article two health workers persuaded a nursery in Munich to pack away all playthings for three months. This is what happened:

Initially, the children were bored but by day two they had turned tables and blankets into dens and were absorbed in make-believe games. They became more imaginative and contented, and in the process learned to concentrate, communicate better and integrate more in groups.

So, what can you do with all those toys? Either you can sort some out and give the ones that are not needed to charity or you could put some away and rotate the toys that are on offer.

It is what a child does with a toy that is important but here are some ideas of simpler toys for different ages:

Under 1 year
Mirrors, mobiles, rattles, soft books, soft toys

1 to 3 years
Ball, threading toys, stacking cups, push-pull toys, sand and water toys, crayons and paper, plastic jug and beakers for pouring

3 to 5 years
Dressing up clothes, felt-tipped pens, colouring books, paper, an indoor tent, jigsaw puzzles, construction toys, a plastic tea set

5 to 7 years
Skipping rope, playing cards, little people toys, a post office set

7 to 10 years
Junior Scrabble, Snakes & Ladders, collections of things, a money box

Source:Transporters

The Times recently reported about a cartoon called The Transporters that has been shown to help autistic children recognise human emotions after watching it for only 4 weeks.

The Transporters was developed at Cambridge University’s Autism Research Centre and it uses computer technology to graft human faces onto trains and other vehicles. The theory is that autistic children are often fascinated by predictable things such as vehicles but shy away from looking at human faces. By merging the two, autistic children are given a way to look at human faces without finding the experience too uncomfortable.

FREE COPIES of the DVD are available to UK Residents from the National Autistic Society by completing this online form. Please note that DVDs will be supplied in March 2007.