I’ve learnt a lot about sensory play in the last couple of years. You’d think, given that Belle is now 19, that my timings might be a little off, but it was only in 2019 that Belle was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder, (SPD), and then ASD in 2020, and so I’ve been catching up.

Reflecting back on when my kids were smaller, sensory play was definitely a part of our lives, we just probably didn’t realise that was what we were doing, that it had a name, or that there were actually a lot of benefits in terms of development and mental health. Playing the garden, building mud pies, splashing in the bath – this is all sensory play that we incorporate into our children’s lives instinctively.

Sometimes though it’s valuable to be a bit more aware of the concept of sensory play and why sensory play is important, and to be more proactive about building it into your day with your child.

In this article I’ve picked out just a few sensory play ideas, but there are loads more out there, so why not have a think about what might work for your child and have some fun with it?

Fidget toys

You may have noticed fidget toys becoming a bit of a craze over recent years – spinners, sheets of popping plastic – some schools have even gone as far as to ban them, which seems strangely counterproductive. While fidget toys may prove a distraction in the classroom for some children, for others they are actually a really useful way to help them focus and concentrate on what they’re doing. Many children with SPD or ASD find it very difficult to sit still, and having something to fiddle with can help to channel some of that excess energy and give them the sensory stimulation they need.

When Belle was at primary school she had one particularly mean teacher who was always telling her off for twiddling her hair. It was an unconscious act – I do it too so I know that – and yet this teacher focussed on it so negatively that Belle ended up being even more stressed than she started because she was so busy concentrating on NOT fidgeting!

There are a lot of different fidget toys available, so if you think your child might benefit from them then try out a few and see how you get on – you may find that just this simple distraction can have a big impact on their concentration and mental health, especially in stressful situations like school or in crowded spaces. You may even find that it paves the way for more calming activities, like mindfulness in the classroom – something which has also be shown to have huge benefits for kids’ mental health.

Creating a rich sensory environment at home

It’s easier than you think to build sensory play into a home environment, and there are lots of small tweaks that you can make to your home to help give your child that extra sensory input, indirectly as well as through play itself.

Let’s take your child’s bedroom as an example – what changes can we make here to enhance your child’s sensory experience and help them self-regulate? Lighting in one obvious way – rather than one bright overhead light, think about how to incorporate different lamps and colours and how you might change these according to your child’s mood. Lava lamps and bubble lamps are great for children to watch, and the movement and colours can be very soothing. Colour changing lamps or bulbs are also brilliant, as you can change these depending on mood or the time of day, using colour to stimulate different emotions.

Textures are another easy way to stimulate the senses – fluffy rugs, soft blankets, squishy cushions and soft toys – all of these work well. If your child experiences a lot of anxiety or has trouble sleeping you might also consider a weighted blanket for their bed, as these have been show to have a positive impact on mental health, promoting a feeling of safety and calm.

Finally think about the senses that are sometimes forgotten – think oil diffusers, scented candles, music and audio.

Sensory play for babies

Introducing sensory play from a young age is the best way to tap into its benefits and for babies I’m afraid this means mess and noise! Babies love exploring things with their hands, so let them go wild with textures, bang pots and pans, anything that gets their eyes sparkling!

Babies do love to put things in their mouths too, so building this into play can be useful. For example, how about sitting your baby on a big mat covered with cold, cooked spaghetti? They’ll benefit from the sensory aspect, touching the spaghetti and finding out more about it that way, but then if they want to give it a taste too then that’s okay!

We moved house a lot as a child. Every time we moved, my sister and I would entertain fantasies of discovering some kind of hidden part of the new house – a shed or a cellar maybe, ideally accessed via a hidden doorway behind a bookcase – where we’d find all manner of long forgotten secret and important things. This hidden area would become our BASE, in which we would eat secret snacks, solve mysteries and generally be very cool.

It never quite happened like that of course. We came (not very) close with the space behind the drawers under my cabin bed, (I mention that here), and a little closer with the brick built ‘shed’ in one garden of a house we lived in in Bridgwater, but we had to carve a space out in that amongst stacks of boxes and old fire extinguishers, which rather shattered the illusion of it being undiscovered by anyone but us. It really wasn’t very Secret Seven.

All of these memories came flooding back to me today when I read A Robot Called B4, a children’s book produced by Worcester Bosch on World Earth Day 2021. A Robot Called B4 tells the story of friends Ava and Alfie, who discover of a robot called B4 in a hidden garden shed and travel back through time to the age of dinosaurs to realise how our past actions are destroying the green planet we once knew.

I can’t say I wasn’t more than a little jealous of Ava and Alfie.

There was always a slim hope when my sister and I were on a secret shed hunt that we would accidentally come across some sort of time/space portal, that we would clamber in through a rotten wooden shed door and find ourselves in wartime Britain, Goodnight Sweetheart style. I never hid in a wardrobe as a child without a tiny part of me convinced that Narnia was waiting for me. View Post

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I have to be honest, everything about this post thrills me.

I am easily thrilled, that’s probably fair, but the process of writing this post has actually fulfilled a childhood dream of mine, similar to always wanting a Mr Frosty but never getting one.

No, I don’t finally own Mousetrap, and I’ve not been allowed to join the Secret Seven, so what could it be?

Here’s a clue in the form of a photo.

Can you spot my family jewels in my kitchen cupboard?

No, I didn’t think so.

How about on this bookcase – can you spot where I’ve hidden all my very important family documents, like the deeds to the family mansion and the government bonds worth millions? View Post

Advertisement feature in association with Headway Tutors – providers of in-home and online tutoring.

It’s a fun fact about me that, if you don’t count the paper round I had for literally 45 minutes, (which we don’t), my first job was as a one to one maths tutor. I was a personal tutor for about three years while I was at university and it was a great way for me, as a single parent to a toddler already, to make some extra money but work flexibly.

I guess when you think about it it shows how well suited I’ve always been to working for myself, because I took the initiative, found all my own customers and managed everything myself. It’s also quite staggering how far technology has come since then. There was no such thing as online tutoring companies back then because there was no such thing as online. Once I’d had the idea, the only way to find the people who wanted tutoring near me was to put an ad in the local paper. You couldn’t Google it – if you wanted to find a maths tutor you looked in the classifieds, or maybe at the postcards in the window of the newsagents.

I remember quite distinctly going into the newspaper office to place my ad, checking out the competition from the other private tutors and tutoring companies, and trying to come up with an enticing way to say ‘inexperienced but cheap’. My maths resources were Lego, (excellent for making fractions seem fun), a maths version of snakes and ladders that I drew myself on a bit of cardboard from a box and covered in sticky back plastic, and, if I was feeling flush, pages from workbooks that I photocopied in the library.

I charged £7.50 an hour. Happy times.

Nowadays the world of online tutoring is big business and there are masses of different online tutoring companies offering support with everything from the 11+ to GCSE Spanish. Many of these tutoring companies will offer the option of in-home tuition as well as online, and some may also run workshops or group tuition sessions, which can be more affordable than one to one tuition.

Because the options are now so much broader than the selection of postcards in a shop window, it can be hard to know how to choose the best online tutoring option for you and your child, so I’ve teamed up with tutoring website Headway Tutors to help you think about some of the questions you might want to ask yourself or a tutoring company before you make a decision. View Post

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Raise your hand if you’ve been less active over the last 18 months that you’d like?

*raises hand*

Okay, to be fair, that’s not 100% true. I’ve done a LOT of walks. Haven’t we all? I’ve done so many walks near my house in fact that I’m pretty sure I could tell you exactly where every plant and tree is within a two mile radius. To say I’m sick of it is an understatement. And yes, I know I could have tried something else, like running, but long term readers will know that I am most definitely not a natural runner.

What I think we’ve all lacked during the pandemic, exercise wise and generally too, is VARIETY. Everyone knows that variety is the spice of life, so no wonder we’ve all got a little bored and sluggish.

I recently took on a challenge with Everyone Active, the UK’s leading provider of local leisure, gym, swim and activity facilities, to promote Everyone Active’s summer campaign, Everyone is Family.

Everyone is Family is running throughout August and is all about encouraging families to try something new, to get out and be active. What’s great about the campaign is that although of course they want to showcase the facilities they have to offer at their centres, the focus is more on just enjoying being active together, regardless of where you do it or how much it costs, even if that’s just kicking a football about in the park.

My task was to try a different activity every single day for a whole week. This included tennis, yoga, cycling and even some garden based online classes. I shared photos and videos everyday on Instagram, so if you want to catch up in detail head to my profile and watch the ‘Get Sporty’ highlight saved just above the grid.

Just a sample of the exciting content you can see on Instagram!

Belle and I have both been members of Everyone Active in the past, and pre-lockdown I’d quite gotten into the classes, particularly yoga. I’d starting making an effort to try new things too, including a 90s dance class at the centre in Wellington where we had actual glowsticks. And then the pandemic hit and there I was, lying in the garden reading Poirot.

We’re really lucky in that we have loads of Everyone Active centres in and around Taunton, including an outdoor high ropes and mini golf centre just a few minutes walk from me in Vivary Park. For this challenge though I focussed on the centre at Blackbrook, which has a gym, classes and tennis centre as well as a fairly new pool and spa complex. Everything you need basically for bringing variety back into family activities. View Post

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If you could sum up the pandemic in one word, what would it be?

Maybe you’d chose something serious like ‘tragedy’ or ‘loneliness’ – both very valid – or maybe for you it’s ‘banana bread‘ or ‘Netflix’.

For us it’s ‘loungewear’.

I haven’t been keeping a spreadsheet exactly, but I reckon a good 43% of our time since March last year has been spent in loungewear, and a significant proportion of that has additionally been under a blanket. Right at the end of December, when we knew we’d be going into a new lockdown the next day, we spent the afternoon on an emergency shopping trip, stocking up on coordinating pyjamas and matching silky blankets. (Belle has pink and I have cream, which is honestly a disaster waiting to happen every time I eat dinner on my lap.)

When Glamify asked if we’d be up for a bit of twinning then in the loungewear department, well, I can’t think of anything we’d be better suited for.

Belle will only let me use pictures where she’s completely happy with her face, so obviously then I always look weird because we can’t co-ordinate both looking normal at the same time.

Let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want to live in comfy, stretchy loungewear all of the time if they could? I’m no economist, (apart from the economics degree), but I’m going to guess that sales of anything with an elasticated waist have soared over the last 14 months, and I reckon it will be a while before we want (or are able) to squeeze ourselves back into jeans or suits every day.

And why would you when you could stay home in your loungewear playing with your cats? View Post

This post is in conjunction with Boots UK. All thoughts are my own.

Today’s post is part of the #ParentYourWay campaign from Boots UK. Becoming a new parent is challenging for most people, but factor in a global pandemic and lockdown restrictions and you’ve got yourself the perfect breeding ground for increased loneliness and isolation. Repeated lockdowns have been hard on us all, but for new parents it’s been especially tough missing out on the opportunity to socialise, to get out of the house and to form friendships with other new parents.

I think back to when Belle was little, how every day had to be focussed around an outing, a meeting with friends, just to make it bearable, and I wonder how on earth I would have coped living through the virus. Those daily activities and interactions were what kept me sane, the other mums I met at breastfeeding group every Thursday, and went on the form forever friendships with, how would things have been different if I’d never had the opportunity to meet them?

Even little things I remember, like taking Belle to the big Mothercare when she was about nine months old for her first ever pair of shoes… so many of these new parent landmarks, shopping for your baby nursery bits, first haircuts – they have been made difficult or impossible by Covid.

I know that I’ve been massively lucky as a new grandparent during the pandemic. Bee and her partner and baby Joey moved down to Taunton literally a few days into the first week of lockdown in March 2020. It was a bit of a fraught day, as we weren’t entirely sure it was even allowed, but they’d given up the old house, the new tenancy was starting – there wasn’t much of a choice really. I remember asking Bee for a copy of their new tenancy agreement, which I printed out and kept with us in the van just in case we were stopped by the police and had to justify our presence on the road.

(I had imagined a post-apocalyptic scene on the motorway – armed police guarding the border into Bristol, a tuck and roll from the cab of the van, shots fired while I waved the printed tenancy as a flag of surrender. Nothing happened, it all went very smoothly.)

I’m so glad they were able to make the move though as being just a five minute walk away from me has made the pandemic considerably easier for all of us. View Post

Advertisement feature – Mother’s Day with Moonpig

I count myself incredibly lucky that I have my Mum. She’s not perfect, nobody is, but the older I get and the more I come across people* who’ve not had good relationships with their mothers, or not had them around, the more I see how positive an impact she has had on me.

The key thing is that with both my Mum and Dad I’ve always felt loved, and I’ve always felt good enough. 

That sounds like such a simple thing, and I think I’ve taken it for granted over the years, but I was talking to my sister a while ago about it and we realised that a lot of people don’t have it. Lots of people feel like they’re constantly living up to some set of expectations or ideals, that they’ve disappointed their parents, or they feel obliged to follow a certain career or family path.

So I’m a very lucky woman. I’m lucky too that my Mum has been my support bubble during the virus and so I’ve been able to spend time with her. I do feel like I’ve run out of things to say a little bit, with nothing much else going on in life, but I know she doesn’t really mind if I just kind of sit there. It’s just nice to see different faces isn’t it?

Not everyone has their mum in their life but, even if you don’t, chances are there is someone who takes on that maternal role – an aunt, an older sister, a good friend – anyone who knows you well, who you love and trust, can be that mother figure for you, and wouldn’t it be nice to acknowledge that and show that person some love on Mother’s Day this year? We could all do with a bit of cheering up right now.

This is where Moonpig comes in.

While we might not be able to visit our loved ones in person, thanks to Moonpig you can still show someone you are thinking of them, whether that’s sending them a personalised Mother’s Day card, chocolates, or something a little fancier. View Post

Advertisement feature in association with Puffy mattresses

I’ve had the full spectrum when it comes to kids and sleep. Bee was sleeping in a cot, 12 hours a night, from six weeks old. Belle, on the other hand, was not. She woke many MANY times a night for years, slept in my bed until she was two and a half and only finally slept through the night when she started school, aged four.

Lack of sleep was a permanent feature of my twenties.

Falling asleep continued to be an issue for her throughout childhood, and I’ve spent many an evening sitting on the floor next to her bed in the dark, Googling things like ‘how to sleep better’ and ‘foods that help you sleep’, desperate to find the one sleep hack that would make the difference.

Unfortunately, when it comes to how to fall asleep there isn’t normally one miracle cure, especially with kids. While small things like essential oils for sleep and calming sleep music can play a part, sleep is a much bigger picture and you need to think about everything from how much exercise your child is getting during the day to choosing the best mattress and bedding. 

Here are four things to consider when it comes to helping your child sleep better.  View Post

It’s hard to believe that the festive season is almost here. But it’s already starting to get dark very early, and the TV schedules are packed with endless Christmas adverts. With the average UK family spending £500 extra each December, it’s no wonder that many people head into the festive break with a fair degree of trepidation.

While many people can understandably get stressed around Christmas, it’s sometimes fun to just go with the flow. Many families love using the holiday season to enjoy watching films on television or catching up with their TV shows. I have a soft spot for whiling away the dark evening with a selection of Christmas jigsaw puzzles. Some of them even like to relax by playing puzzle and sports video games and some of them enjoy battle arenas online. In addition to that, many of the adults also like playing casino games on sites like casinodeal.co.uk. But when it comes to keeping the whole family entertained during the holiday season, here are 5 activities you and your family should definitely consider.

Getting Crafty For Christmas

Christmas is a time where we can all enjoy trying out our craft skills. It’s a great way to get the kids involved, and they love to keep their hands busy. Think about making some fun Christmas decorations for the tree, or even just some festive paper snowflakes. Just don’t aim for perfection as it’s all about taking part and keeping busy. At least there’s no way of ending up with something as tasteless as most women’s Halloween costumes, as Christmas is all about the feelgood factor.

Cook Some Delicious Treats

Cooking at Christmas doesn’t always have to be just about getting stressed out with a massive turkey. All kids will love to enjoy getting messy in the kitchen, and as long as they get appropriately supervised, it’s a fun way to learn about what goes into the food that we eat. Check out some of these fun Christmas recipes for kids that show you how something as simple as a gingerbread man or even a snowman cake can be enjoyable to cook and simply divine to eat.

Play Some Board Games

When the weather’s too nasty to head outdoors, playing games can be a great way to let off steam. Video games consoles like the Nintendo Wii can be perfect for entertaining over-active kids. Plus never underestimate the power of old-school board games like Risk and Snakes and Ladders. Even when the little ones have gone to bed, adults can keep getting into wild arguments over the Monopoly board. Surely a more exciting way to spend the festive season than just watching endless episodes of Strictly Come Dancing and Call The Midwife.

Go For A Lovely Walk

Once you’ve filled up on lots of festive food, it’s often a good idea for a nice family walk to prevent any stomach cramps. While it can often be tough in trying to gather everybody together to leave the warmth of being indoors, you will definitely feel so much better once you’re out in the crisp winter air. Even something like a short walk around the local park can do a world of good. And also if the weather’s horrible outside, it will make coming back home all the more enjoyable.

Enjoy Some Festive Music

Just about everybody loves a good Christmas carol, and even the most tone-deaf person can’t fail to be moved by the beautiful melody of Silent Night. That is why it’s an excellent idea to try and get out to your local church to sing some carols on the run-up to Christmas. Of course, there are many other places where you can hear some of this traditional choral music. Anywhere from your local shopping centre to your doorstep can suddenly witness an outbreak of carol singing. While not all of us can sing like angels, if you get your entire family involved, it can help to mask any dud notes!