Littlemummy.Com

The subject of kids’ handwriting is a hot topic at the moment. Whitney Hoffman has a great article and accompanying podcast (no ipod required!)

Well I messed up NaBloPoMo and I haven’t posted for a few days… My laptop died, very sad. The good news is that I have bought a replacement it’s nothing amazing and not the all singing all dancing machine of my dreams. However, it is light, quiet, and doesn’t burn my legs after only ten minutes of use.

So it is ‘business as usual’ as of now

Why start a blog?

As a mother it’s a great way to keep track of milestones. When your child gets older they may like to take over the blog themselves - if you can give it up!

If your child is already a bit older it’s a great activity to do together, use it as a reason to research interesting topics to post about or to display art and craftwork.

If your interested in starting a blog here is a great HOWTO.

Join the conversation at GNMParents

Erin and I made this crown.

We used some card from a box, paint, glitter glue and star stickers.

I cut the shape from the box. Erin helped paint the crown purple. We decorated it with glitter glue in green, gold and red and added the final touch with gold star stickers.

It was a lot of fun, Erin particularly enjoyed the glitter glue part

I am currently working on a number of updates and changes at LittleMummy.Com, but I have commited to NaBloPoMo so the need to post is getting greater as the minutes tick by. Erin and I made a crown today, so I’ll post about that soon. In the meantime have a peek at some of the blogs I am currently reading….

Brazen Careerist: is written by a friend of mine from when I was helping out Career Mom Radio, she always has a ton to say on work, careers and business.

INHABITAT: Cool things for the home, and cool homes too..

Maine-ly Megin: A friend who I blog with at www.gnmparents.com.

The Silent ‘I’: Another friend through career mom radio.

Check them all out, hope you enjoy

I have long wondered, should I have been started much earlier in my language training would I now be bi-lingual, or even fluent in more than two languages?

It’s a long argued point that kids in Britain do not start language training early enough, and, not enough emphasis is put on it during the primary school years.

My first taste of a foreign language came very late in my primary school education, I think I was about ten. With these thoughts playing on my mind and recognising the importance of learning other languages and the lucrative jobs that this skill can land you, I have decided to start super early with Erin.

My first move was to buy this bi-lingual toy for christmas. For her birthday I have asked her aunty to buy a French learning pack. I’m not going to sit down and attempt to ‘teach’ her anything at this stage, after all, she is only a baby. However, I will be integrating french words and songs to our daily routine to get her used to hearing the sounds.

I hope that by doing this I will encourage a life long love of learning languages that will open up a variety of opportunity for travel and work in her future.

More to come on learning a language….

Are YOU teaching your kids a second language?

*Subscribe to littlemummy.com by RSS

In the future I will be writing more on junk modelling, it was one of my favourite pastimes as a kid, as a babysitter, and nursery assistant.

In the meantime keep a plastic box stowed away and add ‘nice’* junk to it, allow your kids at it on rainy afternoons to make stuff. Don’t tell them what to make, provide the junk, some PVA glue, and some paint - sit back and see what happens….

*Nice Junk: Washing-up liquid bottles, egg cartons, kitchen rolls, cereal boxes, washed out butter tubs and yoghurt cartons.

Watch this space for some inspiration on junk modelling

Help! What is RSS and the Orange Button?

I’m going to explain this in the only way I know how - in the really simple way (how I understand it).

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.

In a nutshell RSS makes it possible to read all the updates on a blog (web log, like an online diary) or website without having to visit each individually.

You do this using a feed reader (there are lots of different kinds) - the updates from a blog or website using rss are called a ‘feed’, think of it like it is feeding you information, or content.

I use Newsgator to read my feed. If you want to set up an account just click the link and sign up. It’s free.

Once you have your account you need to add sites. If you find a site you like (ie littlemummy.com!) you can add the feed by clicking the orange button (scan the front page of a site for this, mine is on the right hand side) or a button that corresponds to your particular feed reader. There are other ways to add a feed, however, this gets a little more technical, if you want to read more on RSS this is a good place to start.

If you think that RSS doesn’t sound like your cup of tea many websites offer updates by email, this means that every time new information appears on the blog or website you will receive an email. This is fine if you only have one or two, beyond that it is easier to sign up to newsgator or similar.

To sign up for email updates simply input your email address in the box on the right hand side and click subscribe.

Following on from my last post;

I was saying how Erin loved playing her piano, here is the link

also, today, I gave her a special treat. This Fisher Price Musical Pipes toy was supposed to be for christmas but I sneaked this one in early sorry, no link, can’t find it anywhere, perhaps Erin has the last one….in the whole world!!

I’m finding that only now has she started showing any interest in toys, this bodes well for christmas!