nunheadmum

If they like dolls these Lottie dolls are good. Only 7.5" tall so great to fit in a travel bag and come in lots of different outfits to suit different personalities. http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=lottie+dolls&tag=googhydr-21&index=aps&hvadid=82526525820&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2048619379035073391&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_5dmalyy48c_e

There's also the art shop in Camberwell if you need supplies. (http://www.cowlingandwilcox.com/) They cater for the kids market as well as the student/professional one. Good for when you want things last minute and forgot to order from Baker Ross / Yellow Moon. But be warned, there's a lot of tempting bits in there that will tempt even the most unartistic like me!

Thanks Extend10. I'll be in touch.

My youngest daughter is currently learning violin with a Suzuki teacher at school. She is able and has a good ear but she is finding that the rigidity of the Suzuki repetoire is turning her off playing. It doesn't help that her older sister plays too so she's been hearing the same songs for years. But the one thing I like about Suzuki is the group lesson - I think music makes more sense/fun when you play with others. Are there any other options for learning violin individually but playing regularly within a group? The Goose Green set up on a Saturday sounds good but they don't do strings. Is there anything else around like this that keeps it fun for the kids? At this age I'm more interested in something that they enjoy than drilling them through grades etc.

Ivydale is having a Christmas Event after school on Thursday 17th December. It isn't a full blown Xmas Fair - more of a get together for kids and parents at the school to celebrate the festive season.

I tried with a 'Mary Poppins' when my youngest was around 4 months but even she said she was the most strong willed baby she'd seen - so it's not a guarantee of success. But if you need to do it quickly, having someone around - like Mariana Trench used - will be a real help, even if just for moral support and to help you stay strong in your resolve. We spent a small fortune on different bottles. We passed them on via the forum to others struggling so maybe others will do the same these days. In the end though I don't think it was down to the bottle type - she just got distracted and picked up the one I was using that day without thinking and realised it wasn't that bad. I don't think there's any one way to guarantee success, sadly. Good luck with it all.

I'm presuming the contributions are for employees? If that's the case then you may want to look at going for early auto-enrollment as you'll need to do that very soon anyway. I'll PM with more info.

Samstopit - the music scholarship tests etc all start to happen mid-end of September so that decisions can be made and candidates informed before they submit their Application Forms to the central system. So I'd suggest reading up on it and visiting the schools when your kids are Year 5 if you think it may be an option you want to pursue - or be ready to get up and running as soon as they're back in Year 6.

I'd recommend getting a few companies in to discuss it. We had a low-ish height and different companies had quite different views on what they could offer us - one said no way, while others said it was fine. We've now got a lovely loft with reasonable height and haven't lowered ceilings. I did hear recently that someone had got planning permission to raise the roof ridge height from Southwark. Could be total balderdash or perhaps rules are changing. The loft companies will know though.

I'm just considering the options at this point so don't know exact hours but I expect it would be 9-5 every day. But ideally it would be more local than my current part-time role. I'm slightly wary that I'd find it hard to lose that time to catch up. And as the kids approach the upper end of primary, they don't need quite as much entertaining on school holidays. But equally as they get older, it becomes easier to do stuff with them so it'd be nice to have a bit more time together during the holidays. I think ED mummy is probably right and any extra money from it should go on a cleaner. Just wondered really if there were any angles I hadn't thought of, from anyone who's done it. slh2009 - sounds like it's working well for you.

I'm considering a change of jobs that would mean moving from a 3 day a week job to full-time term time working. Has anyone done this and found any particular issues with it? It would mean losing me-time on my home days (yes it's a lot of cleaning, ironing, organising etc but I have space/time to do it) but gaining time with the kids at holiday times. Not sure if that's a good trade off or not.

Sadly employers NEED to be aware of sex discrimination laws as even well meaning errors can land you in an expensive legal case. It's tough on small employers as they're experts in their field, not HR. But flagging it up isn't having a go at them - it's trying to be helpful

Deptford Green is really increasing in popularity and increasing numbers of Ivydale kids are going there - potentially from other primary schools over this side too. So it may well become as tight to get into as many of the others in the area.

Midivydale - I think we'd all cringe if anyone did a true 'then and now' analysis on us! Coming full circle almost, I now hear my two girls (age 7 and 9) saying things that I wish I could record and play back to them in later years. They see the world so purely as kids and can be so full of righteousness!

The charity sector is pretty good for part-time finance jobs. Often they can't afford a full time post but need the expertise. I am getting lots of approaches from agencies at the moment so maybe there are a lot of people on the market. I would advise looking at the online sites - Charity Job, Third Sector. See which agencies advertise the charity finance roles and approach them. Look also at Charity Finance Group (www.cfg.org.uk) who have a jobs page. Timewise are also good for part-time roles, often including charity roles. If you get an interview I can't stress enough doing your homework on the charity. It's not enough any more to say finance is finance regardless of the organisation - which it is. But there will be other candidates out there who know more about the specific organisation. Try to see what differentiates the organisation from others in the field. What's their key stats that they're trying to change. If you can, try to show how you can link finance beyond the bounds of the finance department - what do you understand about fundraising, donor reporting, HR, IT etc. Good finance folk who know their stuff and can go beyond bean counting can be hard to find. Try to strike the balance between showing them how great you are while being open to learn about them. Hope that's some help. There are roles out there.

I saw two similar schools on the recent round of open days - one with and one without sixth form. I noticed a real difference. The one with a sixth form had a lot more vibrancy, with more complex work on show which, one would think, would help inspire the kids lower down the school. It's always possible that it was just the schools - nothing to do with 6th forms. But it did make me wonder if it was.

If he's only grade 2, I wouldn't think that swapping instruments was unthinkable. I know I took up the clarinet at secondary and I was regularly trying other instruments. The embrochure wasn't really an issue. Maybe it would have been had I been serious about playing professionally but for enjoyment it was fine. It would be great if you could find a source of an instrument. But changing instrument isn't such an awful option and possibly he could always change back at a later stage if he really wanted to. Maybe worth trying the 'Have a Go' instrument sessions at the Royal Festival Hall around the Funharmonics concerts (http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/lpo-081115-89095). You don't need a ticket to try the instruments before or after the concerts and there are lots of instruments to try.

I think during the school holidays they were closed at weekends other than for private parties and the special Sunday session - probably due to having activities on all day during the week. It was rather annoying for parents who were working during the week but I tried to appreciate the reasoning. (Presuming that was why.) Usually it's open from about 11am I think on a Saturday. Sunday it's only open for a special session, not open to all.

Once again we've had great service from Steve for our dishwasher. Prompt, polite, reliable. Hoping we don't need to see him again for a while (nothing personal Steve!!) but would get him back without a doubt!

Hazelnunhead - we have an ongoing issue about where money gets kept. My 9 year old is reasonably good and keeps it in a purse or piggy bank and knows exactly what she has. The younger one (7) keeps playing with it and moving it around and half the time loses it but then miraculously 'finds' it....or was that the change I took out my pocket? Now we've moved onto a chart with a running total rather than giving out cash. It makes it easier to keep track of (no issues of finding the change to dole out) and they are less likely to spend it on trash or sweets. But I'm aware it also takes away a little of the basic concept of them learning how to handle money. Like most things, there's never a definite, perfect way to do it!

We do ?2 a week - which gets broken down as ?1 from each of us - so we can individually withdraw it if behaviour is dodgy. They're allowed to use ?1 for sweets now and again. But generally they save it and tend to buy things when we're out and about - the stuff we wouldn't buy ourselves for them. We do buy them magazines on top of that when we manage it. Unfortunately we're bad at remembering to hand over the dosh so we've had to start a chart - but it does help them to save it up a bit!

Thanks for all the comments. Yes, it's the Cherbourg one. Going armed with kwells, Gin-gins, crisps - and a stock of old Potette bags just in case! (Being positive - at least I'll have found a use for them if they do barf.)

We're off to France via Cherbourg and just realised that it's a catamaran. We've been warned that they can induce sea-sickness in the best of travellers. Our eldest gets easily car sick so it doesn't look good. Any tips for surviving the journey? We've had Gin Gin's recommended but not sure my daughter will eat ginger flavoured sweets. We've used Travella in the car but not sure it will be strong enough to counteract a catamaran. I'm going to try and find travel bands - but last time we tried them she complained that they hurt her wrists. Do Kwells kids work? Any other tips for the catamaran? I've heard sitting at the back is better? I really don't want to start and end our hols with a barfing session if we can avoid it!!

I was certain my kids wouldn't either - until I discovered they'd munched through all of daddy's secret chocolate stash! I did expect more and told them in no uncertain terms. But at the same time I appreciated that self control is a difficult skill to learn if you are confronted with something that tempts you. And no one had expressly said that they couldn't eat it. So maybe a little bit of boundary testing. I think the test is more whether, now knowing that it's wrong beyond doubt, they don't do it again.

Maybe try contacting them via their Facebook page. Shona used to be quite good for responding there.