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Montessori and Gentleness
How does Montessori facilitate gentleness in children and what can you as a parent do to encourage your child to embrace their gentleness?
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Easy Vegetables to Grow with Children
Any outside space is the ultimate prepared environment, without any effort at all it provides a wealth of learning opportunities in just about every plane of development and to suit nearly every interest. Here's a quick guide on how to get started on the veg patch and how to get your toddler involved too!
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Wellies and Self Care
The lesson I learnt from the family shoes, how wellies can radicalise your self care and why your children need a mom who puts herself first.
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March in the Kitchen Garden
In the third of this year’s series on the Kitchen Garden I’m sharing our planting schedule and thinking a little bit about Spring. Spring On The March As a child of the summer Winter takes an unfortunate toll on my sun seeking soul, March therefore holds a special charm for me. It is in March thankfully that Winter finally surrenders though rarely with the dignity to accept the inevitable and more years than not with a decrepit stubbornness of threadbare fog cloaks and miserly dustings of frost. In March the evening is once again returned to us, ours are the dawn chorus and the evensong, ours are the fresh eggs…
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Montessori and Independence; The Self – Esteem Secret
Examining the link between independence and self esteem and discovering that it is not something we can expect schools to achieve without parental support.
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What’s on Our Bookshelves
A little look at the Spring books we will be reading with our toddler. What’s that you smell in the air?! It might be SPRING! I can hardly contain myself, while I’m trying to embrace seasonal living and have actually enjoyed Winter this year I’m still ready for longer days, blue skies and getting the feeling back in my fingers. We’ve stocked up our bookshelves with some fresh books for this fresh season. These books will stay on our shelves for a few weeks. They will make up the ‘core’ or our bookshelves, we will top them up with weekly trips to the library as well as a few old…
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Deciding What and When to Plant – February in the Kitchen Garden
The second in our series on Square Foot Gardening in our Potager Garden, this month looking at what seeds to sow and when to sow them to ensure a steady supply of home grown veg so you can Grow Your Own without a Glut.
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Snowdrop Walks at The Argory
This weekend The Argory (along with most of the National Trust) have launched their Snowdrop Festival, we went along for a walk. Snowdrops at The Argory The Argory is one of my favourite places. It’s beautiful even on the busy days when it’s full of day trippers and tricycles, but on its calm days when squirrels skip among the snowdrops, kingfishers glimmer as they dart just out of sight and a mournful mist rolls up from the Blackwater it is truly magical. The Argory wears its grandeur with grace and modesty and unlikely some other stately homes which feel austere the Argory is always welcoming and full of life. The…
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A Lingering Grief
My Daddy died when I was 21. Death is not like it looks in the movies, there is no grace or elegance, there’s no breezy sigh or dramatic halt. Instead it’s counting seconds between breaths and watching screens for neon flickers. And all the while you know what’s coming; that the person you love is going to walk though a doorway, close it behind them and leave you. That dread is exhausting, that fear is lonely. The certainty is crushing. Death is practically offensive in it’s invisibility. It pays no heed to the soul it takes or the dignity it costs. In life my Dad was scathingly funny, scarily smart,…
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Montessori – A Lesson For Parents In Trusting The Child.
Follow the child is a popular hashtag on instagram, but aside from letting kids pick their own books and toys what does it look like in practice? Sometimes it means trusting them when they tell you “I’m ready.”
