goldilocks

Wondered whether other schools offer this and if the lessons are part of the class or separate (paid for) music lesson provision? Many thanks

Agree with above - if you block the space for a week in advance then people might not be happy - the day or so before - less so. Also agree that putting a notice on the bins stating when the skip is arriving helps - stops people thinking that its someone just trying to reserve a parking space! Think that the problem with the answer you got from the Met was that you asked and that is the 'official line' but the reality is somewhat different!

I'd go for the baby jogger - maclaren's are good, but a pain to push one handed, and if theres a chance that you might use it for baby number 2 then you will probably want something you can push one handed and hold your daughter's hand!

Lucy Sparkles have Anna and Elsa's - they're really good

Couple of thoughts 1. Buy cheap pants from sainsburys and bin them - see you said you had above, but really keep doing that - cleaning poo off pants is horrible and Sainsbury's pants aren't significantly more ?? than pampers! 2. Is there any other reason - ie is he constipated? If not its probably an annoying phase that will pass. Bribes may work? My eldest has had lots of poo issues and would only poo in a pull up for the first year he was toilet trained - suddenly decided he'd do his poos on the toilet aged 3.5 and hasn't looked back - frustrating at the time but we just left him to what he wanted as didn't want it to become a huge issue

Second the recommendation for Tiger - Sainsburys also often have good value craft sets in stock. I would recommend making Xmas bunting. You can cut out a shape on plain or coloured paper (Ikea is excellent for coloured paper if you have a trip there planned) and he can decorate it. Something like Xmas trees or snowmen would be simple. You could string it up and put it in his room after too!

yep - echo that, its fine with a pushchair. Pretty easy in the week - also tickets are valid for 1 day so you can go, leave for lunch and then go back. Overall its pretty good - just wish they wouldn't have the penguins there as feel its cruel - they never see daylight or have any fresh air - whereas the fish mostly have very large tanks so seems less unsuitable!

When the babies are tiny the main seat lies flat and turns into the bit they lie on and the bottom seat goes over the top - so its quite high up. Once they can sit up you turn the main seat back into a seat and put the smaller second seat underneath. (the 'smaller' seat really isn't that small btw)

Can I ask some more about why you are doing this research?

The wolseley is supposed to be great for that and I have friends who have taken toddlers / small children there and been made to feel very welcome.

Its been covered on here lots but put down 6 choices - better to chose your fallbacks than have them allocated. What is your closest school? Assuming its probably Bessemer from your list - but is there anything else nearby you could add to your list for the final 2 choices - maybe Goose Green and even the Belham whilst the catchment is larger in the early years?

Second the recommendation for Nellys. Both kids have been (ours went to Rosendale Rd) and we love it. Their waiting lists are very long though so go and visit and put your name down now if you like it.

Also - wrt the bottom seat - I also thought it looked like a bit of a rubbish deal but both of mine very happy to go in and have actually argued over who gets to go in. Technically once you have 2 children who sit, the smaller one should go at the bottom, but its not such an issue unless you're trying to get on trains with it (when you need the weight at the front to pivot it!)

The thing with this shop is that it isn't 100% of the sale price donations, it was 100% of the profit. There was never any transparency as far as I could see around how this was calculated and the accounts don't disclose their level of charitable giving vs turnover or profit. A more transparent business model may have made people less suspicious. It always felt as though giving stock directly to charities is likely to yield a larger donation per item, and potentially even selling stuff on ebay and then making a donation to the charity. On the other hand, Give and Take probably made it easy for some to give to breast cancer charities and that ease shouldn't be underestimated.

The Cherry Tree is opening on Xmas day- menu looks nice.

We have been to parties in St Barnabas hall in Dulwich village and the Goose Green Centre so maybe give those a call. Think that the Albrighton hires out for parties too as does one of the rooms at Brockwell Lido.

Hi Astrid. I don't have experience of extreme jealousy although do have an almost 2 year gap between mine. I've been lucky in that my eldest has always been amazingly good with his little sister, but I had a couple of thoughts on your post - you may already be doing these (so apologies if I'm stating the obvious!) 1. you say your 2 year old isn't talking yet -I assume you've spoken to your health visitor about this - but if you're not already going to them, the chattertime sessions - used to be at Bessemer children's centre and a few other places are a good place to go. If you have a nice health visitor you could also chat to them about any advice re the rivalry. 2. Find a way of never leaving them together when you're not watching - get a playpen and use it for either one of them if you need to leave the room / stick the 9mo in a sling / whatever works really. Hopefully it will be a phase - most things are!

Nope that's not normal - I wouldn't expect an upset child to be left upset. Both mine have been in nursery from around 13/14 months onwards and that has never been the case. Upset kids are always comforted and the staff ratio is such that none are left on their own upset. There will obviously be unusual occasions when a child cries more than anyone would have liked in any nursery but this should be totally out of the norm and the response doesn't seem comforting. I've been really happy with nursery, but then the nursery is amazing and the staff are lovely with the kids. Fundamentally you want somewhere where they look after them and they're happy. If you want to discuss further re experience (currently in the 4th year of using nursery for childcare) I'd be happy to via PM.

As Saffron notes - I think that you would need to be more specific about what your expectations are so that you could get comments re whether things are likely to be similar elsewhere. Finding out whether other people have moved their kids won't really help you or give you any comfort that things would work out differently, but understanding whether the things you have issues with are commonplace may do.

Has anyone tried using the IslaBike Cnoc 14 as a balance bike (ie by taking off the pedals) for a 3 year old? My daughter has a puky bike but its a bit heavy for her at 2.5 years. I'm reluctant to buy another balance bike as she might not use it for too much longer so was wondering if this might be a good alternative given we could pop the pedals back on when she's ready.(she's reasonably tall). Posting here as thought that if it was an option might be something akd might consider too.

We love it - it works best on concrete floors - our kitchen extension is amazingly lovely with the heating on. Its pretty good throughout the rest of the house too on the suspended floors. I'd go for it again - no radiators is great in terms of where to put furniture!

Not sure I'd call it 'great news' - better than nothing news is I think more accurate. It will help but its a long way away for those of us who are being crushed on the overground between 8-9am most mornings from Peckham Rye. The route is becoming increasingly popular but the capacity isn't really coping.

I know it doesn't help with the immediate problem but I'd consider giving it 6 months and then seeing how it is. My 2.5 year old still will wake sometimes when there is noise but generally settles back on her own now (ie it doesn't fully wake her) - I wouldn't chance going in there unless I had to though. As noted above, my 4.5 year old sleeps through anything now which is amazing considering he barely slept at all for the first 16 months of his life and then would wake at anything for a little while longer. Controversially I'd also consider getting rid of constant white noise as wonder whether its the things that don't fall into that ongoing pattern that are the issue? May all be worth a go if you can find a week where you can face it?

How old is he? Both of mine woke when a floorboard creaked up until about 2.5 years but improved dramatically after that to the extent that I can now put clothes away in my eldest (4.5) bedroom when he's asleep. Just wondering if he might grow out of it fairly soon rather than you spending money on soundproofing?

My main issue with this approach is it completely negates the differences between 'main roads' and side streets. Traffic has no incentive to stay on the major roads and cuts through side streets that are unsuitable for the volume - especially where cars are parked on both sides making visibility poor of anyone crossing. As a child growing up we knew that the traffic on the main roads was something to be especially careful of (these were 30mph roads too), whereas we were able to cross the residential ones where no one really approached 30. I'm supportive of a 20mph limit on the side roads, mainly as a result of the parking down both sides and impact on visibility, but on roads such as East Dulwich Grove and the other main routes it doesn't work. A second issue is the narrowing of ED Grove supposedly to make it safer for cyclists. I really can't understand this at all - there now isn't room to safely overtake - the obvious argument is then to stay behind the bike, but I think this makes for a fairly intimidating cycle ride (yes I do give plenty of space rather than 'tailing'). Feels a bit like making chickens safe by putting a fox in with them to watch them! ED Grove feels like there are now so many 'hazards' for motorists to take account of - 1) monitoring speed to ensure that the 20mph limit is not being breached, 2)manoeuvring for road humps, tables, crossings, 3) finding a suitable space to pass cyclists if possible etc that I suspect drivers may be less vigilant in terms of pedestrians. This is all before you add in the person tailing your bumper and beeping at you for adhering to the 20mph limit.