School uniforms with logos are a rip off

A letter from our local rag (Worcester Gazette)caught my eye…

John Brayne from Redditch wrote:

“I felt the need to write regarding the huge financial burden placed on financially hard-pressed parents.

A new trend since the days of my sensible schooling is to have the school logo on each of the items that the children [...]

Recycling fish and chips

A tip from my mum who cannot eat a full portion of fish and chips and lives on her own:‘Recycle them!’. She puts them in the fridge and then the following day spreads the chips and battered fish out on a baking tray and heats for about 20 mins on a high oven setting.

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Cutting and sticking

Instead of throwing away all the flyers and brochures that come through the door we put them in a box and almost every other day one or both of the kids ask to do cutting and sticking.

While they are randomly chopping and hacking through pieces of card or magazines I quietly cut various pictures [...]

The consumerism conspiracy of Christmas

My kids are still wearing open toe sandals and summer clothes yet the local village Co-op store has half an aisle dedicated to Christmas paraphenalia:cards,selection boxes and of course must-have stockings for dogs &cats!

Why isn’t it obvious to everyone that the alleged ‘need’to buy loads of gifts,decorations,cards and [...]

Should I give my kids echinacea to ward off colds?

My friend Beki says that her little niece is given echinacea drops in a drink each day and is very rarely sick.

I popped into the local health food shop this morning and found that a small bottle is £5 so I’m going to do a bit of research before I start forking out for [...]

Creating a home education network

I made a new friend today called Zoe who is also considering home education for her son and daughter who are just a few years older than mine and she lives in Worcester. We made initially made contact via the Freedom in Education website last week and met up for a coffee today for a [...]

How to make clear chicken stock for loads of easy dinners

Thanks to my husband Darren we always seem to have a ready supply of delicious frozen portions of (organic) chicken stock.

I then use it for as the base for really tasty risottos and soups,he uses it for lovely clear noodle dishes with veg and tofu (made from his Wagamama cookbook),and my mum [...]

Downshifting

The more money you spend,the longer you have to be out there earning it and the less time you get to be with the ones you love…

What is Downshifting?

Downshifting can be defined as ‘Moving from a lifestyle based on consumerism and a relatively high income towards one of [...]

Whether to home educate (part ii)

I’m trying to decide whether I’ll send my kids to school like the majority of people do or whether I’ll keep them at home and provide their education myself with plenty of visits to interesting places.

Here are some comments from various websites/people who have experience in home educating and extoil the benefits it brings:

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‘How bullying begins’an excerpt from The Science of Parenting by Margot Sunderland

In my quest to figure out whether home-education or sending the children to school when they are five is best for our family I came across this case study in Margot Sunderland’s book ‘The Science of Parenting’. It really makes me want to keep my kids at home to learn. How Bullying Begins

Joe [...]

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