Gubodge

We're not veggie but a favourite supper is quick tarts. Use ready rolled puff pastry and top with mushrooms and/or leeks fried with thyme and plenty of pepper. Top with cheese (taleggio is best)and bake for 25 minutes in a hot oven and serve with a green salad. We also do a version with halved cherry tomatoes, but you could use pretty much anything.

We rented a Kia Sorento on holiday and there was a decent amount of boot space even with the third row up. Access from the middle was fairly easy, but I don't have anything to compare it with.

Don't remember a bookshop incarnation, but wasn't it the lovely Anterior Trading before that.

Sorry, MsMaz. Yes, my post should have been directed to Mick Mac.

I have no recommendations, but wondered if you'd considered a post-natal doula instead. They will help you with the baby, but can also support you with all the other stuff (tidying, laundry, feeding you) leaving you to focus on your baby. I'm not sure whether any do night work, but it might be worth investigating.

No, MsMaz, there isn't anything wrong with it at all, but to suggest it's not happening is naive at best.

Lily, the same letter has been given to me at Goodrich (twice now) including at a meeting about secondary school transfers, so directly targeting the yr 5 parent whose children could form the first cohort at the new school. I was also buttonholed outside the school today about it, and did not receive a particularly friendly response when I said I supported the nodal point being on the school site. The letter has also been emailed to all parents by the PTA. While it is not the school itself that has been lobbying, the claims that there has been no organised campaign for an eastern nodal point are, to be honest, bullshit.

Although I posted of the deaths of friends, it should be noted that I'm still here. I did have a lovely childhood, climbing trees, swimming in the river and setting of for hours on end with a friend, one on a bike, one on her pony. Although it should also be noted that I didn't actually like the friend, but she was the only girl of anything close to my age in the village. And in my later teens after we'd swum in the river we'd lounge on the bank smoking dope and necking cider; so not quite Swallows and Amazons. So it's not that a country childhood can't be great, just it shouldn't be assumed that it's a safe, 1950s bubble. But back to schools...I visited Newstead Woods last year, and if that's one of the best grammars in the country then I definitely won't be moving to Kent. The local schools around here were vastly more impressive.

I grew up just outside a small home counties cathedral city with excellent state schools; just the kind of place I'm sure a lot of ED refugees would love to move to. A number of my friends, all from middle class, professional families, were dead by their early 20's, some from drugs, some from alcohol and some from car crashes, speeding home from pubs down country lanes. The only sensible reason for moving out of London is for more space/cheaper housing. Anyone doing it for better schooling or to protect their teen from the dangers of the big bad city is fooling themselves. I admit that if our circumstances were different I could see myself moving out back to my hometown, but I don't think my children would forgive me for removing them from everything London has to offer. And I would keep a very close eye on them if we did.

Glad they were got. My husband was woken by the furore as the police searched the gardens around Crebor/Dunstans.

I'm an Isla evangelist. My younger daughter really didn't get on with cycling at all until we moved her from her ridgeback onto an Islabike. The weight was part of it, but it was mainly the ease of braking that really boosted her confidence. I think Islabikes do some kind of trade-in if you did decide to stick with them. I have no idea how much it's worth, but might be worth exploring.

Both track cycling and BMX require such different styles of bikes I'm doubtful you'll find anything that really suits both. I'd recommend getting a good all-rounder like the Isla Benin and borrow/hire proper track-bikes or BMX bikes when you need to. If you do want to get a specialised bike I say aim for a BMX, which will be much more practical elsewhere than a track-cycle. Track-cycles are fixed gear with no brakes and are not suitable for riding anywhere but on a velodrome. And I wouldn't be happy with a five year old riding on drop handlebars. He'd be less visible and have much less visibility. My 8 year old is longing for drops but I think it'll too dangerous for her on the roads until she's a good bit taller.

Don't change it! The stand offs always provide an entertaining diversion as I nip through on my bike. (See also anyone trying to get anywhere in a car in East Dulwich on a Tuesday morning.)

Or bushcraft? https://www.wildwoodbushcraft.com/bushcraft_course_list_sussex.htm#Family

I was thinking maybe the Lee Valley Whitewater Centre, but it looks like most of the really fun stuff is only for age 12 and up. If the 7 year old is nearly 8 then they could do kayaking there, but I think that's only on the lake, not on white water.

I enjoyed it while it lasted. It's much easier finding the candles these days, with a smartphone in the pocket ready to be switched to torch mode. And reading a back-lit Kindle is much easier on the eyes than straining by candle-light.

Congratulations! My children have been extremely happy at Goodrich. The size, which might cause concerns (it certainly did me!)is a positive advantage. It allows the school to offer a very large range of after-school clubs as well as enabling them to employ a specialist Head of Music and specialist PE co-ordinator, and has a visiting art teacher. Also reception have a separate playground, so the youngest children never feel overwhelmed and are given a gentle introduction to school life. Academically, you should have no worries at all, the school is going from strength to strength; but more importantly it's a lovely community, with a very engaged parent body. I hope your children are as happy there as mine have been.

A baby doll, that the 2 year old fed and changed when I was feeding and changing her baby sister.

Oimissus, I assume that was directed at me. Agreed, we had none of this new-fangled balance bike nonsense when we were kids and still learned to cycle. But we also all went through a stage, sometimes lengthy, where our poor parents had to run behind the newly unstabilised bike, keeping it upright while we panicked and made them promise to never let go. It's stressful for all, and a painful process for those of us with back problems. Being a slack modern parent I'm very pleased that there's a way to avoid that stage completely. It's allowed my daughter to teach herself to ride with no involvement from me other than an occasional injunction to try using her brakes rather than the nearest wall to slow down. That's progress for you.

A mix for us: One daughter managed to pedal off without stabilisers on her first go on a pedal bike when she was three; the other didn't get the hang of it at all (possibly because she'd had less time on the balance bike) so had stabilisers for a while. Once they've had stabilisers they do become dependent on them, so you should certainly give your child the opportunity to do without. If only for the opportunity for smuggery when he/she pedals straight off into the distance, unlike all those poor other wobbly children.

I almost always circle the park anti-clockwise, often have picnics there and have no dog. Must I leave SE22?

We didn't get on with the trail-gator at all. My daughter was a good and confident cyclist, but was very unstable on the trail-gator. 2nd time around we got a trek tag-a-long instead which we used a lot and that I'd thoroughly recommend.