Top Tips: how to get organised for your new school starter

 

Happy June! Can you believe that we are in June already? This year is speeding by at a colossal rate; we are now into the summer months and nearly at those wonderful summer holidays. If you have a new school starter, you might be thinking about the fast approaching start of school. A few tiny little months and your little one will be taking those first steps in through the school gates and embarking on their primary school journey. A journey that both you and your child have been thinking about, I’m sure, for a long time.

How are you feeling? Prepared? Scared? Excited? Anxious? All of the above and more? Starting school is a big step, for your little ones and you too. It can bring a whole host of emotions from nerves to excitement, worry to relief or even sadness that they are growing up so fast. Although it can be a scary step, it’s also an amazing journey. Children learn an incredible amount in their first year at school. They will begin to read and write, develop friendships, gain new maths knowledge, learn physical and emotional skills and so much more.

 

It might feel like children need to know lots to be ready for school but being ready can look different for each child. Teachers are a wonderful bunch and they know that every child is unique and will start school with their own individual needs and strengths. You don’t need to worry about whether your child knows the alphabet or can count to 20, school is where they will learn this and so much more. Being ready for school is more about children developing independence, confidence and a sense of who they are as growing little people. There are, however, some little things that are really helpful for them to practise before they start:

  • How to take their coat off and put it on.
  • How to follow a simple instruction e.g. find your coat.
  • How to go to the toilet by themselves.
  • How to wash their hands by themselves.
  • How to ask for help if they need it (what words/ gestures can they use?)
  • How to say goodbye to you or other caregivers at drop off (this can be tricky and it’s very normal for children to need some help from teachers so try not to worry.)
  • How to feed themselves and have a drink by themselves.

Try making things fun by having races, getting toys to join in and giving lots of praise when your child has a go.

But what about you? What about all of the school admin and upcoming events in the school calendar that you have never even heard of? Did you know that we have designed and created a School Starters Planner? Working in collaboration with all of our lovely members in our Facebook community, School Starters Hub, we have condensed the year into a handy bag-sized planner that not only looks good but is packed full of handy information to keep you one step ahead. Our planners are available to purchase on Amazon now and come in both a weekly view or monthly view format. They are aimed at providing you with all of the key information you will need to keep all those plates spinning by providing you with pre-populated pages with main dates for school events. World book day? Yes, I got the costume 2 weeks ago!

Here are our top tips to beat the school admin overwhelm! We’ve been on both sides of the classroom door and have found some important things to try and do to stay on top of it all.

1. Put all dates from school into the planner as soon as you can.

2. Use a phone calendar to set reminders and alarms for important things to remember.

3. Schools will communicate with you in lots of ways; emails, texts, newsletters and via an app. Check school communications regularly (the planner will remind you to do this)

4. Check your school app or website monthly to find the specific information to add to the planner.

5. Add the School contact details and all logins to the Important Info section, you’ll be so glad you did!

6. Add notes for weekly things to remember – letters or colour codes work well, for example add a red star every Friday if it’s a PE day.

7. Keep all of the information in here, then you won’t have to go hunting for bits of paper and you’ll feel like an organised superhero!

We hope that you find all of this information useful. As ever, let us know if you have any questions about your new school starter, school or life in general; we would love to hear from you.

Enjoy the sunshine,

Vix

10 Great Books for Starting School

10 Great Books for Starting School

Ok, I’ve lied here already, it’s actually 11 books! There are just so many brilliant ones!

Starting school is a big deal for little ones and their families. There can be a huge amount of change to routines, expectations and relationships so it’s great to help children feel more prepared. As teachers we are big advocates of using books and stories to support children’s understanding of anything new. Stories have characters and experiences in which children can relate to. Being read to and seeing wonderful images enables children to explore events, possibilities and feelings from the safety of home. 

You may have already started talking to your child about starting school or be waiting a while so it’s not so far away or to lessen the time they may worry. The great thing about books is that children can be exposed to new ideas without it being personal, that’s why we use Ted in our School Readiness programme School Ready with Teddy, so that children can learn how to communicate and problem solve at school by helping Ted. We only introduce the idea that they are starting school too, in the final week. Having books about starting school as part of your collection is a great way to gently encourage conversations and questions about starting school.

Ok so let’s get into the books, here’s my top 11! I’ve chosen some new and hopefully different options which I hope you love.

*Just to let you know some of the links in this blog are affiliate links which means we earn a very tiny amount if you click through and buy from here. We won’t be offended if you’d rather search direct for the books but it helps us to keep creating content for you if you do buy through here.

 

The Tale of Starting School

The Tale of Starting School is always the first book we recommend to school starters. It’s not a classic story but instead a journey book that you can personalise. It’s designed by a teacher and has every element you would want to prepare your child for school. You add specifics with words and pictures, it perfectly supports children to feel more confident about where they are going and what it will be like. There’s spaces for adding first day photos, cards, first reports and more so it becomes a wondeful keepsake. Lily absolutely loves her Tale and often asks to look at it to remember her journey of starting school.

Kush needs a Push

This story has lovely illustrations from Lisa Galley and followd Kush the elephant as he conquers his nerves about starting school. Lots of little supportive pushes and encouragement from his teacher and new friends see Kush gaining confidence in himself.

The Invisible String

This isn’t specifically about starting school but about being apart from each other. A beautiful and heart-warming story giving children a tangible understanding of connection between loved ones – the invisible string.

The book helps children to know that when they are at school they are still loved and that they don’t have to be ‘with’ everyone to feel that love. It gives a lovely way to talk to your child about being apart from them but using the invisible string as connection.

NOTE – this story is written with the American spelling ‘Mom’ and as well as school also mentions the connection to a family member who is in Heaven.

Goose Goes to School

A cute story about Sophie going to school and having to leave her pet Goose at home, but Goose doesn’t want to stay at home and instead he follows Sophie to School! The Goose stories are created by Devon Artist Laura Wall. They are brightly coloured with simple and engaging text and illustrations. Both my girls love the stories and Goose goes to School is a big hit.

Not all of the books are available on amazon, here’s a link to Laura’s Goose shop – this isn’t an affiliate link:

 

Splat the Cat

Splat the cat is a firm favourite in our house! This is a story about splat trying to avoid school. The pictures are fantastically entertaining and a great opportunity to talk about how Splat might be feeling and ask questions about his behaviour. Splat is brave and goes to school and what happens when he is there is very funny. There are lots of books about characters feeling nervous and the outcome being positive but this book manages to do it with an extra sprinkling of humour!

Wiffy Wilson - The Wolf who wouldn't go to school!

 This is a great story about a wolf who can’t write his name and he’s not keen to go to school. His little friend Dotty helps him to see how much fun school is and is a great way to explain to children how many exciting opportunities await at school!

 

Please stay here, I want you near

Written by a Consultant Clinical Psycholigist and mother, this story is specifically designed to support children with separation anxiety. It follows the adventures of Bartley Bear as he navigates the big feelings involved with going to school. There are colourful illustrations and clever question prompts for discussion hidden behind the flaps. It’s an engaging and fun way to help you and your little one talk about separation and understand how to manage the feelings involved.

The Day You Begin

A lovely rhyming story about feeling different and finding your place. The language in this book is more complex than the others but it’s a great way to teach childen new vocabulary and it explores difference and uniqueness so well.

 

The Colour Monster Goes to School

We love the original ‘Colour Monsterr’ story for exploring feelings expecially when you have different ones at the same time. This version, where the colour monster goes to school, is a great way of helping children to express what they think school will be like and those muddled feelings.

Miss Molly's School of Kindness

At Miss Molly’s School of Kindness, three naughty fox cubs find out how to be kind to others, kind to themselves, and the importance of being kind to the planet. A perfect way to start conversations with children about kindness, with humour, a fun story, and a cast of lively animal characters.

All Are Welcome

This book has bright colours and shows diversity in a school setting. It doesn’t talk specifically about the start of school but instead about how we are all different but all welcome. It’s a lovely book to ask questions and explore difference and value in everyone.

There, 11 brilliant books. I hope you find some you love and they help the start of school to be filled with excited anticipation. If you have some favourites we would love to know. If you’d like more information about starting school come and join me in our community group the SCHOOL STARTERS HUB, full of expert advice and support about getting prepared for school.

Em x

5 fun ideas to develop storytelling with your child.

5 fun ideas to develop storytelling with your child.

National Storytelling week runs from 30th January until 4th February 2021 and it’s an opportunity to celebrate and recognise the value of stories. If you’ve followed us for a while you will know we’re huge book fans, as teachers for many moons we have spent hundreds of hours reading to and with children. We plan the majority of our learning with stories and books as a starting point and in our home lives we read to our own children as much as we can. But what Storytelling week helps us to remember is that stories don’t always have to come from books. For thousands of years  stories have been told as a way of passing on important messages from generation to generation. Many cultures are famous for their storytelling, it’s a skill, a talent to be taught and learnt.

Storytelling for our children is a wonderful learning experience whether it starts from a book or something made up in the minds of a tired adult at bedtime (mine are always epically random but Lily seems to love these ones the best!) For children hearing stories being told and re-telling some themselves has so many benefits, here’s just a few:

– vocabulary acquisition

– speech development

– cultural understanding

– develops imagination and creativity

– increased concentration and focus

– develops senses and, depending on the story, increased understanding of their own and the feelings of others

I could go on but you get the idea; stories are great! We value storytelling hugely and have based all of our School Readiness programme session on the Character of Ted to create story led learning for the children. Be in our Facebook community School Starters Hub to hear about our next launch of the School Ready with Teddy programme.

Books can be a brilliant place to start but it’s great to have some other story ideas up your sleeve and if you have a child who has an allergy to sitting still then books aren’t always where they find the story magic! So here we’ve collected just 5 easy ways to use stories and storytelling to have all the great outcomes listed above but without needing to sit still and listen!

1. Act it out

Some stories are made to be acted out, especially ones with a journey. Going on a Bear Hunt is the perfect story to re-tell on a walk. To act out stories just start to re-tell them. “Oh no, grass, long wavy grass…..” You can do it on a walk or just pretend in the garden or inside. Ask your child what props they could find to set it up. Develop their imagination by using the sofa as the mud and a blanket on the floor as the river etc! You can also involve puppets and masks to add to the performance!

Other books that are great to be acted out:

Room on the broom

What the Ladybird Heard

Peace at Last

 

2. Role Play a Scene

Stories can be brilliant as a lead in to playful activities. Use your child’s favourite story to inspire some role play. The Tiger who came to Tea is a brilliant example. Set up a mini tea party/ picnic. You can have a tiger or other unusual animal already there or ready to knock on the door. Explore the story, role play what happened or let your child lead however they have been inspired.

Other great book/ set ups:

3. Story Cubes

Making up stories is loads of fun, but sometimes children can get stuck for ideas. Story cubes bought or homemade versions are a great way to give some structure to story telling. The idea if you have a set of storytelling cubes or dice with pictures on. You can roll them out and tell a story using the ones which are face up or you can pick/ roll one at a time to tell the next part of the story.  If you don’t have story cubes you can use post it notes with simple stick drawings or words, use flashcards with pictures if you have some or if you’re creative make some story stones by drawing on pebbles.

Some useful story elements for making your own prompts:

  • different characters 
  • a few settings 
  • some objects
  • different weather/ time options

4. Imitate a favourite story

This is a top teacher tactic, we’re giving you the inside scoop! Children can find it hard to make up their own completely unique story, actually adults can too! And there’s a huge amount to think about when trying to tell a story; charatcers, setting, plot etc. A great idea is to take a story you know and love and retell it just changing one or two details. For example imagine how ‘The Very Hungry Dinosaur’ story goes (instead of The very Hungry Caterpillar.) Fairy tales work well for this idea too; The Three Little Hedgehogs (Pigs,) Little Blue Riding Hood, Three Billy Cows Gruff. 

Imitating is a great conversation as you can ask questions about what changes you should make, explore how it changes the story. You can come back to your ideas over a few days and re-tell in different ways.

5. Turn Taking Stories

Often the best stories are the funny ones. And there’s nothing funnier than when you can’t control where the story is going. Take it in turns to tell a part of a story, it could be a sentence each or a few sentences. Here’s what happened when I tried this with Lily at dinner the other day:

Me: Once upon a time there was a….

Lily: Dragon called Lily…

Me: who was brave and fierce. One sunny morning Lily went exploring…

Lily: and she found a cave with treasure and some poo!

It only took two sentences to get some toilet humour in there!! She always names characters after herself and other family members too which makes me laugh. We did carry the story on and I tried to make it a cleaner version but children will be children! 

If your child finds it hard to think of ideas, in addition to the story cubes mentioned above, the You Choose books are a brilliant way to engage their creativity, develop vocabulary and explore new ideas. Each book has no words but a huge range of pictures to choose from.

 

So there’s 5 storytelling ideas with not one mention of reading or writing! Perfect for home schooling, developing vocabulary, creativity, connection and fun.

The pictures in this blog involve the wonderful Ted from our school readiness programme designed to get children ready for school in a fun and engaging way. Pop to our facebook community School Starters Hub to find out more about how we support families to prepare for school and to hear about the upcoming launch.

We’d love to know if you try some of these and what you think? Or if you have any of your own brilliant storytelling tips please share with us via the comment box or on social media.

Wishing you your version of a ‘happily ever after!’

Em xx

How can we prepare for school during a pandemic?

How can we prepare for school during a pandemic?

If you have a child born between 1st September 2016 – 31st August 2017 then you (hopefully) have applied for their Primary School place or are planning to do it in the next 7 days, applications close on 15th January. In just 7 short months your precious little baby will be starting their Education journey. If the thought of this in some way terrifies you then you are certainly not alone. I was in your position this time last year and for me the fear was mostly because I was realising how quickly time was flying by and how much my eldest daughter had grown. The leap into starting school for is exciting but it marks the end of an era whether you have children at nursery, pre-school or home with you and 2021 is already throwing us a heap of challenges. 

When I was thinking about preparing Lily for school I felt lucky that I knew what school would be like for her. I have worked in and seen lots of Reception classes and I understand how the start of school works; what the routines will be, what the expectations are and what she needs to know. But, I understand that this is not true for most of the population who will be dropping off their little ones in September and I know this sparks very understandable anxiety and worry for many. This year we have added worries like the lack of school visits, uncertainty about transition and what this will be like and whether September will be a more ‘normal’ start than we had in 2020.

Anticipation of the unknown is always difficult to manage. I would love to reassure you that their first day will be fab but to really know, you will have to wait until your little one skips back out of school from their first session and tells you all about it (which actually never happens, they say they have done nothing, but that’s a whole other blog!!) I’m a serial organiser, we always have a ‘plan’ in our household and I truly believe that ‘forewarned is forearmed’ and despite the lockdown last year, Lily having significantly less time in nursery and pre-school than we had expected and missing loads of experiences that I had planned for her she was still very ‘ready’ for school.

There is so much focus on getting children ready for school that I think parents are often forgotten in the whole process. We need to feel confident and as positive as possible in order to support our children and to get started on the best foot. And I promise that this can all still happen despite lockdowns, limited social experiences and dealing with the current pandemic. We have created an online community to support parents and families who are preparing for school in the current situation. 

Developing confidence often comes when you know what they are going to encounter at school and what the expectations are. That’s what we aim to offer via our facebook group, social media channels and in these blogs. To start us thinking about preparing during the current situation here are the top two elements to think about and try out whatever your current situation, in the moments that you’re not pretending they’re still tiny toddlers!

Developing Independence:

Think about independence and giving your child opportunities which are similar to school. At school they will be expected to find their way around including finding belongings, make choices about what to play with and be able to do this without an adult and also do things like put their coat on, go to the toilet and eat their lunch independently. 

There is lots of time to practise these things at home. You can do it in a fun way and reward independence: have dressing races, make treasure hunts for items to find or have picnics in dens around your house to practise eating skills.

Lots of parents mention to us that their child finds playing alone a challenge. To work on playing independently try to set up play situations which they can find and start by themselves. You could set up a tea party with teddies, lay out part of a train track to be completed or put playdough rolled out with toy animal footprints in to explore.

If children start playing alone they are likely to be able to continue, you can dip in and out and praise them for great independence. Try not to feel guilty about letting them get on alone, fostering their independence and getting used to not always being with them is good for both of you and you might even get an uninterrupted coffee if you’re lucky!

Listening Skills

Think about how well you both can listen and I don’t just mean listen to music or stories. At school, your child will be expected to listen to these things but in a large group which can make concentrating more challenging. They will also be expected to listen to and follow instructions which involve more than one part for example ‘go to the toilet, wash your hands and line up by the door.’ This can be difficult for children and requires some practise for them to remember key parts. Many children will use other strategies when in school to help them, teaching them to ask an adult to repeat the instructions or following others’ lead can be really useful. 

When you give instructions at home try asking them to repeat back to you the things you have asked. Maybe they could count on their fingers and then check at the end if everything has been done. Bedtimes or the dreaded ‘trying to get out of the house’ routines are great for practising these skills and also sending us parents running to the wine rack!

 If your child finds several instructions difficult try using pictures of the routine, just draw a quick picture of each thing in a line. For example getting up, having breakfast, putting on clothes, brushing teeth. It acts like a map so they can follow what to do next. You could keep key ones to use each day for regular routines.

Your listening skills will be really important when they start school too. These are more about tuning in to your child’s emotions than always listening to their words. Starting school is a hugely overwhelming experience even though it’s an exciting one and often children can’t communicate their feelings with words. They will need you to be in tune to offer hugs, chill out time, physical activity to run off frustrations or a trailer load of after school snacks! 

We are passionate about supporting parents and children with everything relating to school. School readiness is a cause of anxiety and worry for many families and our unique school readiness programme ‘School Ready with Teddy’ is cleverly designed in an online format to dispel the fears and give families a window into a Reception class. Developing Independence and listening skills are a key part of the sessions alongside lots of other school ready skills. Our programme is closed for enrolment at the moment but will launch again soon. Join our friendly facebook community: School Starters Hub for support with last minute applications, tips for preparing you and your child and loads more…

School Starters Hub

Join our friendly community supporting families to prepare for Primary School during the pandemic and beyond. 

I hope these ideas are reassuring and useful as a starting point for preparation. Vix and I have lots more planned to share in the group and on our social media pages so please do check those out. And get in contact if you have any concerns, we’re always happy to help.

Em x

Planning for positive School drop offs – for you and your little one.

Planning for positive School drop offs – for you and your little one.

Dropping off your child at the school gates can be an emotional time; you are probably thinking about how your little one might react? How are you going to react? Will they be ok? Will I be OK? After such an extended break and regardless of how many times you have done that drop off before, this year might have you feeling more worried about how it is going to go than normal.  We all want to do everything possible to ensure a positive school drop off experience of course we do.  So let’s explore this further.

Maybe this is your child’s first day/week or year at school or Pre-school, your first ever drop off or perhaps you are sending number 2 or 3 in for the first time.  Whatever your situation you may be experiencing some anxiety, worry or tension.  You might even be feeling it physically with a dull ache at the pit of your stomach, oh and you might be feeling guilty because you and a little bit, excited for what that drop off gives you! We are here to tell you that all these feelings are all perfectly natural and normal and you will likely feel some or all of them over the coming days and weeks. More often than not it’s more difficult for us to deal with drop offs than it is for our children. We can tell you this with confidence, we have first-hand experience both as Reception class teachers who greet those new curious eyes during those first days of school, but also as Mums who have had to drop our own children off and leave them in a new setting surrounded by new faces.

Your child will be experiencing a range of emotions too, but they might struggle to understand exactly what these emotions are and will find it difficult to verbalise them.  Some children will be confident and eager for these early days whereas others will avoid having any conversation about it at all. They are likely to have some fear of the unknown and obviously they are used to having you by their side to remind them that everything is ok. In the vast majority of cases those early drop off jitters are quickly overcome. Reception classes are exciting places, by design, and provide the perfect distraction to help your little one to relax and settle in quickly.  As you both become more familiar with the school’s set up and the routine of the school day it all becomes normal and the fear and worry quickly diminishes for both of you.

There are rare cases where this isn’t the case and little ones might need a little longer to settle in.  This is uncommon so if you feel that your little one is taking longer than the others to settle speak to your child’s class teacher, they will be experienced with this and you can work together to develop a plan to support you and your child.

As the big day approaches, we wanted to share some tips so that you can prepare yourself and your little one for positive school drop offs? There are many different tactics that you could employ to promote a positive school drop off.  In fact, the list can become quite overwhelming, so we have selected our top three for you:

1. BE CONSISTENT/ROUTINE– Remember this is just as hard if not harder for you as the parent. Much like a removing a plaster quick is usually better than slow and drawn out.  As teachers we have been there, many a time, in the classroom ready to start the day when some parents are still giving the 20th kiss and one more cuddle! We love kisses and cuddles too but be firm with what your expectations are for saying goodbye and try not to deviate from this.  If we have 10 kisses on Monday these little people will quickly learn they can drag it out to 15 or 20 by the end of the week.  A kiss and a cuddle then off to play with their new friends is perfect.

2. INFORMATION IS KEY– Your little one has an inquisitive mind, talk to them, let them know what you will be doing whilst they are at school? Involve them in the routine, let them know who is picking them up after class? Make sure you share routine of the school day with them so they can understand and take ownership? Remind them of the names of the class teacher and ask them about the names of their peers? Schools have amazing websites that are packed full of information regarding your child’s class, get involved and share this information with your little one. They, more often than not, have a comprehensive staff list that will enable you to tell your child the names of those that will be helping them at lunchtimes and those that will greet them at the classroom door. Knowledge is power – this is a great time to empower your child and help them to begin to learn to be independent even if you aren’t quite ready to let them go.

3. MINDSET– We all know that our children feed from our emotions so if we begin to falter, they will, no doubt, pick up on this too. Try and remain a positive Polly regardless of how pear-shaped the drop off is going and save the tears until those little feet are firmly inside the door. See if you can team up with other mums from your child’s class and do something really lovely after that first drop off- go for a coffee, cake or even a little shop. Anything to take your mind off of the anxiousness and worry. Remember, you will not be the only one feeling whatever emotions you are feeling so share that with others.

 

We really hope that you have found this useful and remember, whether you are excited, teary, anxious or all of the above you are not the only one feeling this and it is totally normal. Good luck for that first week- we do hope you have a really positive school drop off experience – stay strong, you can and will do this.

If you are still nervous and would like a little more support and guidance through the coming days and weeks our positive drop offs mini course is designed to give you and your child the tools to create confidence when separating at the start of the day.

  • Ted our lovable bear provides engaging sessions and fun activities for your and your little one to enjoy together.
  • We also provide you with an adult guide to coach you through preparing for and creating positive drop offs.
  • With 2 videos, a download with 3 activities and a reward chart we set you up for positive drop offs whatever time of year.

Click below for more information and to join us.

 

Vix + Em

Positive Drop Offs Mini Course

Uniquely designed course to involve your child in the process of creating a positive drop off experience.

 

Small Business Buys for September

Small Business Buys for September

Whether you have a child who is starting school or going back to school in September, here are four small businesses that we recommend.

Going back to school in September, or starting for the first time this year is going to be a big deal after so much change and chaos. We know we have to buy the uniform and the shoes and the book bag, which I would always recommend buying early, in fact if you haven’t bought these bits yet then invest now if you can. No-one wants to be stressed out in September trawling online shops and maybe even the high street looking for uniform and shoes in the right size! It’s also really lovely to think about the extra’s that go alongside the uniform to prepare children and us as parents for School. We love supporting fellow small businesses and so here are the things which I’ve bought for Lily so far. I may have to add to the blog before September (don’t tell my husband!)

Tales of Me Books

For school starters, The Tale of Starting School is such a beautiful book and for those going back to school there is a free download version. As soon as I caught sight of the book on an Instagram feed a few months ago I just knew I would love it. All of their designs use gorgeous illustrations packed with bright visuals to help personalise the stories for your child. Written by a Primary School Teacher they are brilliantly thought out and include so much information to support your child in being prepared for school. The Tale of Starting School includes everything you will need to think of from uniform, to teachers names and lunchtime to toilets. They even have space for you to add pieces of work and notes from their first parents evening. 

Lily absolutely loves her book and even before we started adding pictures to it she was asking me to read through it over and over and was explaining to me what she would be doing at school. I know this book will be something we treasure forever and it absolutely had to be number one on the list!

Stamptastic

There are so many ways you can label your child’s uniform; stickers, labels, stamps and pens. I’ve chosen a personalised stamp from Stamptastic because I can’t sew and I know Lily would be determined to peel stickers off! A sharpie works well, that’s what I’ve used for the last four years of labelling nursery clothes but I wanted something special. The stamps are great quality, you choose the lettering style and an image. The image idea is great to help children locate their items quickly. As Reception teachers Vix and I would have been eternally grateful for anything that saved us the stressful 15 minute job at the end of every school day trying to reunite lost clothing with their rightful owners! Lily chose a mermaid and and although she can recognise her name I know this will make it a bit easier for her to see hers amongst up to 59 other cardigans or jumpers! You get an ink pad with the stamp and you can use the stamp on most materials and even some plastics (we tested a picnic box and it’s stayed on despite several runs through the dishwasher already!)

Nannas Manners

 

Being independent with lots of different things is really important for children at school. There are lots of adults to help with doing up zips, putting shoes on the right feet and cutting up their jacket potatoes but if they can do these things themselves then they don’t have to wait. That means more time to play and learn with their friends! I don’t know about you but some table manners rules have slipped over lockdown and the summer in our house so I was keen to find something to encourage her to use her cutlery properly.

Nanas manners stage 3+ independence cutlery is great. It is designed to give children the correct grip and to learn to cut up their food independently. You can get them in 6 different colours, we’ve got a pink set (because everything Lily chooses is pink!) We were having some mealtime battles especially around using a knife and fork which I now think was because she found it tricky. They have really helped her to become more confident with using cutlery and I’m so pleased that she will be able to eat her lunch more independently in September and then get out playing with her buddies!

Peggy Pip

Peggy Pip makes gorgeous peg dolls in a huge number of shapes and styles. I’ve bought Lily a personalised school doll which has blonde curly hair like hers and wears a school uniform just like the one for her school. They are a really lovely idea as a keepsake, or a worry doll idea to support children in feeling safe about starting or returning to school. The compant also do name dolls, families, occupations and more. Sets can be culturally diverse too which I think is fantastic, I’ve ordered Lottie a name set!

The delivery time is long at the moment because they are so popular but I couldn’t not include them. Definitely worth a look as something to look forward to arriving during the first few weeks.

We hope you love this list and have a great time with some online shopping. I really need to curb mine now! We would love to hear what you think or any other recommendations that you have. Drop us a comment to tell us!

Em x

error

Finding this helpful? Please spread the word :)