We’re talking about the return to school this week – some will be looking forward to it with gleeful anticipation, others with dread! Nothing changes here as my kids are Home Ed and we don’t take long holidays, but I do remember the days of getting ready to get them back to school. Also, although we don’t have the scramble out of the door for school, I do still need to get my kids up and ready for the day every day. The biggest thing here is that we want to take the stress

This week we are facing the dreaded piles of toys! These seem to be such a flash point in many homes I am in, but they really needn’t be. Once again, remember to try to keep your eye on the long-term goal of raising children/adults who know what they want in their lives. They may have very different priorities to you. I always used to love the wooden toys, but my kids always seem to get attached to plastic tat instead. I try not to throw these things away without their pe

I don’t know about other people’s children, but mine seem to breed these in their rooms; there are frequently piles of books on nightstands and desks, and papers shoved into the cupboards. Once again, remember that when working with children, we are focusing on a long-term goal of them being able to make decisions themselves, so if they are over the age of about 3, please allow them as much autonomy over this process as possible and remember to lead by example, doing your own

The very first thing to remember when working with children is that they often have very different priorities from ourselves. We may love certain toys, such as the beautiful wooden rainbows, whilst they hang on like grim death to the tiny plastic toy that arrived stuck on the front of a magazine. What I always say to people if I am working with their children is to focus on the end result. What do we want? Children who grow into adults able to make decisions about what th

This week, however, we are focusing on Film and Music. This category can be a funny one as when you were born probably defines how what type of physical media you have and how much of it. Some people may still have lots of physical media, some of which may be obsolete, whilst others have none at all Regardless of the type of media you have your collection on, as always, you need to gather it together to have a good look through it. Decide which ones to keep based on how mu