born&brED

A family friend of ours is moving to London during the Easter holidays and will be offering piano (and even organ!) lessons up to Grade 8. He is currently the Director of Music at Chester Cathedral, and has a long list of experience. You can view this at his website - http://www.benjaminchewter.webeden.co.uk/home/4572202932 He is willing to travel to Dulwich and the surrounding areas. If you'd like his contact details please send me a PM. Katy x

Fancy a trip to the seaside this Saturday? Look no further than SE23! 🍦🍭🐚🐠☀️🎠🇬🇧 Dalmain Primary School welcome you all to their summer fair, 'A trip to the Seaside'! You can expect all the usual beachy fun, including: 🍦inflatable helter skelter 🍦surf simulator 🍦end of the pier games 🍦sandy beach 🍦story telling mermaid (from Tea Dance for Little People 🍦giant bubbles 🍦crafts 🍦traditional games (raffle, tombolas, find a friend) 🍦tea and cakes 🍦 pizza and chips 🍦 cocktail bar 🍦raffle We hope to see you there! Saturday 20th June from 12-3pm Grove Close, Brockley Rise, SE23 1AS

Just so you all know for next year - we had a great time at Morden Hall Park (National Trust) this year. 30 mins drive from Dulwich. We were 4 adults, 6 kids (ages 3-8) and an oblivious newborn. There was a lovely christmas market with handmade produce and food, music and dancing and a couple of massive inflatables for kids (tho v pricey). In the stable yard there was a room with 3 different crafts for children - and really lovely ones too - pomanders, wax candles and lollipop stick decorations - all 3 for just ?2.50 and the kids spent about 1.5 hours doing them!! Santa (pre-booked) was reasonable -?8 per child and you get a quality book - Santa himself was great! The park itself is big with a river, pretty bridges, natural play areas, an old mill, trails, cafe/shop/bookshop/art galleries, garden centre and free parking. Would def recommend! Sounds like a bargain compared to the above!

Yes, it's really hard to get through to their landline. Call surgery and ask to be put through or if all else fails call their pager number!

Really hope the weather is more like today - the autumn colours are so pretty! Def go for a proper village walk along the shops and into the Park or down to belair and Dulwich college. If it does rain, I reckon the horniman (with market!) then picture gallery would be fab x

Fab news! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you Leons! That's great to know!

Hello, I'm looking for a Saturday morning football session, preferable in Dulwich Park for my nearly 4 yr old. I've seen so many but am wondering who runs them? I'm particularly interested in drop-in sessions and those particularly for you get ones. There's one near the playground at 9.30ish that seems to fit this - does anyone know anything about it? Many thanks!

According to the website, this opens today!

Oliveoil - big sympathies! I feel your pain! Helen GV and telemum - thank you sooo much for clarifying that - that really helps! I didn't really understand how the council distributed places. I think I need to see exactly how many metres we are from Stillness, up on Gatthorne. But to be honest, we really are well-off for good schools aren't we?! I really wouldn't mind my son at either Stillness or Dalmain - can't imagine we're in the catchment for anywhere else. Good idea to visit the fairs - will do! X

Excuse typos and auto-corrects! :-/

Yes, the intake doubles at Stillness from 45 in nursery to 90 in reception. So def more of a chance there! We've lived in Garthorne Riad, HOP for 6 years now. Our eldest is 3.5 years. We've looked around Dalmson and Stillness and liked both - applied for both at nursery - acceptance from Dalmain, No place from stillness. In the end we decided to keep him at his v small private nursery in Nunhead anyway (as he was so settled there). For reception tho (for sept 2014) we're in a quandary as to what to do. Both schools say you must put then as first choice if you want to get in. What if I put Stillness first and didn't? I wouldn't get my son into Dalmain either? Where would we go? It's seems that most kids from our block (brockley rise up to Garthorne including Gabriel, bovill, ebsworth etc etc) go to Dalmain. My neighbours kids go to Stillness - did their eldest just strike lucky that year? Thanks in advance! And yes, I agree - HOP is a FAB place to live - fab community, independent shops (no, I don't support the new sainsburys local - keep giving Honor Oak Supermarket, Hills and Parkes, etc your custom!) great transport links and parks.

Does anyone know if the fountains and sprays are working in the main playground at wells park in Sydenham yet? Thanks in advance!

Oooh, glad to see this! We too are in Stillness catchment and going to get our eldest into reception there for sept 2014. We loved in when we looked around and have heard great things.

Hope all goes well! I'd recommend www.theimaginationtree.com - full of ideas to keep unders 5s entertained easily and cheaply!

Fab advice - thanks everyone! Will have a look at those suggestions. Otta - thanks so much for the offer, but this will be a pressie from the grandparents so may even be able to suggest a brand new early rider! Hope you sell it soon!

Hi Supergolden, I have a friend who made one for her 2 year old about a month a go - it was fab! I can put you in touch with her if you like.

Hello! There are far too many balance bikes out there to choose from. I feel like I'm buggy shopping all over again. Was going to go for the Early Rider but not sure I want to pay ?100 when other brands, eg Kettler and Puky have such good reviews. What are your experiences, or rather your children's?! Thanks in advance!

I'd definitely try without a double at first if you're looking to save space, and you'll save money too! At least you'll have 3 options: either buggy and board, buggy and sling, or your 2 singles (with 2 adults!). Can't think of any doubles out there that are as narrow or fold up as small as the Bee, so don't fork out just yet - see how things go! You never know, your toddler might rise to the occasion and happily sacrifice her throne to the newborn! Hope all goes well x

Yes, I do! There's a mum on this forum ('NZ Emma') who is a hairdresser of small children. I was really pleased with my haircut by her. She works some evenings too which means the kids don't have to be around, but she said she does a lot of cuts where the kids are around. Her number is 07990 528383.

Just wanted to recommend this music class to you all - I read about it last week on this thread. I went to the walkers class last Friday at Push Studios and we all (being myself and 2 sons) had such a lovely time (there is a Monday class for babies too). Colette, the leader, is really friendly and interacted really well with the children. All the activities were really hands-on and fun, with lots of movement, songs, sensory and heuristic play. It was really different and refreshing from other music classes I'd been too - not a nursery rhyme or plastic instrument in sight! I thought it was really reasonably priced too - ?5 for drop-in, ?4 if you book a few at once, half pricing walking siblings or free baby siblings. DEF worth a try!

As you can see, Lucy, the advice varies a lot, and yes, everyone goes with what they think is best! You yourself will have the BEST idea as to your baby's specific needs - there may be some tell-tell signs that you simply can't ignore - change in sleeping habits, milk not satisfying, etc etc. And who can tell you not to then? There is actually more evidence to show that delaying weaning much past 6m is worse than 'early' weaning (i.e. 4-6 months) - see here under the 'when to begin weaning' section. I weaned my first son from 17 weeks, very very slowly, nothing apart from fruit, veg and baby rice til 6m, then more things very gradually. I started weaning my second son at 5.5months, but wish I had a bit earlier - he stopped sleeping well and just wanted to put EVERYTHING into his mouth! His weaning consisted of much more finger food. By the way, if you were hoping to do (proper) baby-led weaning, I guess you'd let your baby decide when to start weaning - now there's a thought! What if they wanted to at 3-4 months? (My sons were chewing on everything by then!) Would you stop them?! *edited to say that I didn't replace milk with food! I continue to BF til 12 months, tho obviously reducing the feeds more and more)

Thank you everyone (both above and in private messages!) for your help - that's exactly what I needed! Will def be looking at all the suggestions and thanks for all the detail about customising / shops etc. xx

Hello all! I thought the Family Room might be a good place to seek the advice I need - I'm a local mum, hoping to set up a small home-based business. I've seen on the EDF before a few links to sites that local mums and dads have set up (cakes etc), and have been very impressed! I was just wondering if anyone could recommend a web host that is easy to use, reliable, fairly cheap and which is quite flexible and arty in terms of design. Or is that wishful thinking?! I was wondering whether to go through blogger / blogspot, but not sure how that'd work if I wanted it to become an online shop. I'm fairly happy to start off on Etsy or facebook, but would ideally want something more 'official' and direct eventually. Thanks in advance! :)

This sounds brilliant! I hope to be there with my 2 this week - thanks for this, Clare!