A Childhood Wild

I love nature. I live it and I breathe it. It calms me, inspires me and reaches deep into my soul. Outdoors is my happy place. With the grass under my feet and the sky overhead. With the sounds of my children's laughter and shrieks of delight when they stumble upon a minibeast they haven't seen before. 'Mum, come and look at this', they cry. Their excitement is catching and soon I am enthralled by a tiny moving creature and wonder at the beauty of nature.

Clear Speech: How to do Speech Therapy at Home - Online Course

Children learn to say sounds by listening to people talking to them and around them. Some children have difficulties acquiring one or more speech sounds and this makes their speech unclear to other people. It is important to remember that young children are not able to produce every sound. This is because speech is a complicated process and over 100 sets of muscles are used in the production of the vowels and consonants of English. It takes a lot of practise at coordinating these muscles before a child is able to produce intelligible speech. Furthermore, there is a process of speech sound acquisition which all children go through and each sound is acquired at a specific stage of development. Therefore, it is normal for children of certain ages to make errors in their speech.

Raising Talkers: How to Help Your Child to Talk - Online Course

Did you know that a child's vocabulary at age five is the strongest predictor of future academic success? Or that late talkers never really catch up completely with their peers? Early language skills are so important. They affect a child's ability to think, learn and be. Early language skills affect literacy ability and later academic achievements as well as a child's future prospects. The quality and quantity of language a child hears in their environment is the strongest predictor of their communication skills. Parents and carers have a huge impact on their child's ability to acquire language so it is important that they know the best way to achieve this.

Emergent Literacy and Beyond - Online Course

Literacy is one of the most important skills humans can learn. According to the National Literacy Trust, 'Lacking vital literacy skills holds a person back at every stage of their life.' Without the ability to read and write, children will struggle at school and in the work place. As parents, they will struggle to facilitate their own children's learning. The National Literacy Trust has carried out a lot of research into literacy and a person's ability to read and write has been shown to affect life outcomes and even life expectancy! The National Literacy Trust found that life expectancy can be shortened by 26 years for those living in areas with poorest literacy skills. So, having good literacy skills is highly important for learning throughout life and improving life chances.

The Big Garden Birdwatch

My children love watching birds. There is something so satisfying about being able to name a bird you spot out on a walk or in your garden. I didn't know much about birds when I was growing up so I wasn't very good at identifying them at first, but I'm getting increasingly better as time goes on. There is nothing better than seeing the excitement on your child's face as they spot a bird in the garden and call you to come and take a look. Birdwatching is something both adults and children can enjoy together so it's great fun for the whole family!

10 Ways to Raise Environmentally Conscious kids

A new year always gets people thinking about goals and resolutions. One thing that I hope to improve on this year is being more eco-friendly. I feel like I was doing well pre-Covid and then the pandemic came along and I started to question things. There seemed to be little point in trying to be plastic free when millions of single-use plastics were being used every single day in the form of Covid tests and face masks. It made it all seem like an impossible task to me. On the other hand, perhaps this just means we need to be more environmentally conscious than ever.  Afterall, no matter what others do, we can still do our bit for the planet and one of the most important things we can do is encourage our children to be environmentally conscious too.