applemarmelade

I love the idea of trying to learn a bit myself to engage with the kids - that?s great. Thank you.

Thank you. I will check it out!

Evening all, My two year old boy loves music. He sways to it, dances to it, sings to it. He plays his small drum and xylophone instruments and seems to have some sense of rhythm. However my husband and I are totally un-musical and have very little idea as to how to give rein to and develop his interest. I am really hoping that we can learn from the collective wisdom on this forum. (1) any recommendations for musical performances/concerts for toddlers? (2) when is a good age to start learning a musical instrument? (3) what is a good instrument to start with? (4) any other suggestions? THANK YOU.

Thank you!

Hi all, I?m after a fabulous drama class for my 5 year old boy. Ideally after school. He loves imaginative role play, dancing and singing. Any suggestions? Thank you!

Thanks!

Hey folks - Does anyone on here have a Skoda Octavia/Superb or VW Passat? Would love thoughts on whether you can get two child seats plus an adult in the back? Is this comfortable? Our current car has kicked the bucket and we are figuring out how to port enough family/stuff in new one. Any thoughts much appreciated, TIA.

Hello - we?ve used two sleep consultants. The first we used - Linda Elderkin, if you google her her website comes up - was effective with our first born but relied largely on a cry it out approach which we found hard going. However she was extremely responsive and available to us during the two weeks we worked with her. However we weren?t willing to use this approach when our secondlittle one had sleep issues during teething, which meant she couldn?t really help us in this situation. I then used Helen Broadhead from Infant Sleep Solutions to help our baby get back into good habits after a prolonged bout of bad teething. She seemed extremely experienced, she explained the range of approaches to improve sleep and then we chose a pragmatic solution that I felt comfortable with. As well as a schedule for day time and night time she gave us great advice on how to respond when he is crying and how to deal with ups and downs in the process of getting him to sleep better. After 2 weeks we had gone from waking 3-5 times a night and shushing our baby to sleep to him settling well and sleeping through the night most nights. After a month the new routine had really clicked and he was settling beautifully and happily to sleep by himself and sleeping through every night. Good luck!

Great, thanks!

Brilliant, thanks all!

Hey! Can you recommend a great local holiday club or activity suitable for a four year old for the summer holidays? (The onset of the Easter holidays has really motivated me to start looking for a holiday club for part of the summer, : ) We?re based in Brockley and ideally looking for a morning or afternoon or short session rather than a full day. These are what I have found online - would love feedback if you?ve tried them: Southwark Gymnastics Jolly Foresters Pointer School holiday club in Blackheath. Thanks everyone!

Thank you!

Hello everybody - any recommendations for a sleep consultant or night nanny? We need some help getting our 1.5 year old to sleep better. He's currently waking 2 - 6 times a night and requiring patting and shushing for upto 40 minutes to get back to sleep. This is not a sustainable situation for our family and we need some help. I'd love to hear from you if you have a recommendation or would like to share your experience of a method that's worked for you. Thank you!

Hi! Just seen your post about your au pair looking for local friends. Not exactly a response I'm afraid, but we live in Brockley and are considering hiring an au pair to provide childcare to two toddlers 3 days a week, and I was wondering if you would be happy to share details of how you found your au pair (e.g. Through an agency or website), what childcare she provides, how long she has/will be with you for, how much you pay her and whether you would recommend having an au pair? Sorry to bother you - but any answers would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Hi! Just seen your post about your au pair local for local friends. Not exactly a response I'm afraid, but we live in Brockley and are considering hiring an au pair Anto provide childcare to two toddlers 3 days a week, and I was wondering if you would be happy to share details of how you found your au pair (e.g. Through an agency or website), what childcare she provides, how long she has/will be with you for, how much you pay her and whether you would recommend having an au pair? Sorry to bother you - but any answers would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Thanks very much everyone - we're sorted now!

Evening all, We are moving house soon and have two requests for help: - we need to get the carpets in new house steam cleaned (they have cats, husband has cat allergy), does anyone know of somewhere local to hire a carpet steam cleaner or someone local who will do it? - we need a man with van to help us move our stuff. We don't have many big items - biggest is probably our double mattress and one large sofa. Anybody with any good experiences? Thanks so much!