Written by Dr Lisa Turner. The festive season of Christmas is often celebrated as ‘the most wonderful time of the year’, but for many, it brings significant stress and emotional turmoil. Christmas often has a way of amplifying everything - good or bad and frequently comes with expectations to spend time with people or engage in activities we may not enjoy. This is often driven by the desire to please others.
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You can also check out all of our practical videos on our YouTube Channel here - these include nappy changing, making up a bottle, topping and tailing and so much more!
Written by the experts at Trinity Healthcare. With life expectancy increasing, many families now find themselves caring for elderly parents / relatives well into their own adulthood. While caring for a loved one can be incredibly rewarding, it also brings significant challenges, especially for those balancing the demands of a young family, work and personal well-being. To support you on this journey, the professional carers at Trinity Homecare have compiled some practical tips and resources to help you achieve a healthier balance between caregiving, family life and personal wellbeing.
Read MoreWritten by the experts at Wayman & Long Solicitors. As parents, we go above and beyond to ensure our children are happy regardless of what we might be going through as an individual or as a couple. Unfortunately, going through a divorce is an emotionally complex and daunting process that can be increasingly difficult when there are children involved.
Despite knowing that divorce is the right thing for your family in the long run, there is a fear of hurting your children in the process. Thankfully, there are ways you can make the process easier for your children, starting with telling them in the right way, at the right time.
In this blog, we are going to share our advice for when to tell your children about the divorce. We will also share additional tips that may make the process a little easier.
Read MoreWritten by Kate Burgess, Speech and Language Therapist. Language and Communication development in children is a phenomenal process. Babies go from having an instinctive, reactive cry to being able to use hundreds of words in short phrases by the time they are three years old. And it continues to grow and develop well into primary school and beyond.
For some children, this process happens smoothly without parents and carers feeling like they’re doing anything ‘extra’ or ‘special’. Just chatting along to your child, reading books, singing songs and hey presto! Language is developing.
Read MoreWritten by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. The first and most important thing to say here is that preparation is key! Think ahead and have a plan of the weeks that you are looking to cover with childcare. Having a calendar is essential to provide a visual outline to see when and where you will need cover and have it available either online or somewhere visible for all family members to be able to refer to it if needed!
Read MoreWritten by Katie Crouch, Senior Lecturer, Researcher and Consultant in the Early Years. Due to Covid and subsequent home-schooling, we have all become aware of the pressures faced by families when trying to support learning in the home. Now that schooling and home learning are becoming separate entities again, we look at how we can build healthy routines and home learning habits.
How can we as adults help our children to develop a love of learning outside of the school environment? In fact, the learning which takes place outside of the school can often hold a deeper sense of meaning and understanding for many of our children and this leads to question why this could be the case?
In my experience, it is down to just a couple of simple factors;
Learning away from school can have fewer boundaries, such as time constraints.
Children are also more likely to feel emotionally safer with their significant adults and fewer opportunities for self-comparison with peers.
In this blog I will look at how we can maximise children’s learning potential within these circumstances.
Read MoreWritten by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. When planning a holiday abroad we often have to consider jet lag and how this might affect our children. For some families the idea of jet lagged children can put them off wanting to travel at all, but try to not let it put you off as there are a few things you can do to help!
Read MoreBy Holly Dodd. My name’s Holly I have a passion for writing content based on my personal life as well as what’s going on in the world around me as I believe it can bring different insights into my readers’ lives. This article was inspired by my past grandparents, I believe it’s so important to spend time with your elders and try to gain as much knowledge as you can from them. They have lived a life full of problems they’ve had to face, meaning they have got experience with issues you might be facing at this moment in time. They didn’t have access to the internet or advanced technologies they had to figure out how to navigate their own lives, allowing them to understand what a good decision looks like.
It’s a well-known fact that some of the best advice you can receive comes from those who have been around long before us. Every generation has its own unique set of experiences and knowledge to offer, and it’s important to take note of these lessons and strive to pass them on to your younger family members and friends. That’s why in this blog, I’m going to be exploring some of the pieces of advice that should be passed down from generation to generation.
Read MoreBy The Golden Circle. Reading and writing skills provide the foundation to succeeding in many aspects of life, both academic and personal. For some children, getting lost in the adventure of a book, or putting their imaginative thoughts on paper comes naturally. For others, developing this skill set can be a challenge and require a little extra encouragement. If your child falls into this category, here are some handy strategies from The Golden Circle’s team of qualified teachers to help make reading and writing a more enjoyable activity.
Just like adults, not all children are affectionate (when I say affectionate, I mean cuddly as this is what most people see as a sign of affection from children). When a child is not showing affection (in the way we expect as an adult) it can be due to their personality but also where they are in their developmental stage.
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