Category Archives: education

Why my daughter’s photo is now online

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When BiP was born it was decided that she would remain anonymous to the outside world. She was given the pseudonym of BiP (Baby in Provence) – she’s been anonymous for almost 9 years. BiP is Ziva.

For a couple of years Ziva has wanted her own YouTube channel where she wanted to do bilingual French and English toy demonstrations. It was her who wanted to be on the internet, so I said no.

It was a genius idea at first, but I was always too scared to release her to the the whole social media world where she would be torn down for everything. I also never wanted to use her for my own professional gain.
Social media is a thing, how we use is it key – kids have no place really but they have eyes and ears everywhere!

Every school and after-school activity asked for permission to share her photos and I said “no”…. I never realised that she would be singled out when it came to certain group photos because I’d ticked that box that said NO to photos.

One day Ziva turned to me and said “Mummy? Do you not share my photo because I’m not beautiful?” – I died.

I’m not a crazy poster, I guess that working in social media will kill your appetite for it, but when Ziva asked for the 100th time after knowing all the implications and still be ok I had to honor her request. She’s still not allowed to have her own social media accounts but I’m going to stop telling her to turn around every time I want to share a photo with her in it.

So this now you can all see is my greatest achievement, my biggest challenge and my best teacher xx

A

Educational Toys: Helpful Learning Tool for Children

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ab15507572ea6ac4_800x800arChildren just love toys. Toys form a critical part of fun for children, as they enable them to engage their senses, spark their imagination, and encourages them to interact with others. As a result, buying your children different toys to play with, including educational toys may make a delightful difference. This is because the toys will help your children to learn, and at the same time have fun.

Toys come in all sizes and shapes, each with a unique attribute and purpose. Some are mechanical based, hence can be manipulated, and in the process promote the child’s physical development. Other types of toys such as puzzles mainly deal with problem-solving. These usually give the child the opportunity to expand their knowledge and understand some basic principles such as colors and shapes.

If you never thought of buying educational toys for your child before, here are a few reasons why you should:

1. Developing their creativity

Educational toys support creative and open-minded play. For example, a box of plastic inedible food can inspire a child to spend a lot of time pretending to run a restaurant, or simply cooking food. A set of Lego city blocks can be turned into a fort, tower, a road system, or even animals. The main aspect that makes games such as those from Lego city so captivating and timeless is that modeling has unlimited possibilities. The more time a child spends exploring all these, the more their power of imagination will be. This is will help the child to develop his or her creativity and help to find creative solutions to challenges they face in life.

2. Self-confidence

Playing allows your child to assert him or herself. Open-ended toys like musical instruments and dress-up props improve their imagination and self confidence through activities such as performing, acting, and singing in front of an audience. These toys may include fake microphones, a drum-kit, and more to enhance the experience.

3. Independence and socialization

By buying toys that enable the child to mimic real-life events or daily realities, the child may become more independent. The toys will enable the children to create and direct their own plays, hence promoting interaction and socialization in the process. Such toys include medical kits that include items such as stethoscopes and first-aid kits, while teaching kits that include items such as a chalkboard, chalks and more.

In conclusion, every parent should buy their children educational-toys to help to positively shape their child’s development.

SOCS: Yes! I made something I saw on Pinterest!

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stream-of-consciousness-sunday

Months and months of pinning. Oooh, cool, oooh, pretty, oooh, shiny … yes! I decided to make something I saw on Pinterest! (are you following my pins BTW??)

So, first thing I decided to make was PLAYDOUGH!

Recipe looked so easy …

3 cups of flour
3 cups of boiling water
1 1/2 cups of salt
1TBS Oil
1 TBS cream of tartar
Food colouring as needed.

Easy! Except I read “cream of tartar” as “tartare sauce” and added 3 good tablespoons to my playdough.

My caper-filled Playdough

It worked, smelled funny, and instead of cool sparkles it had a few capers … I guess we can call that a fail!

But I did not give up! I went on to make rainbow rice!

This time it worked and it’s the ONLY things BiP wants to play with now! Yay me!

Rainbow rice

2 cups of rice
Mix in food colour until you have the colour you want
Spread out to dry overnight!
Voila!

(The recipe usually calls for rubbing alcohol to make the colours more vibrant but I was scared BiP would put it in her mouth)

So, what have you made from Pinterest? Did it work?

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This is my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

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