© Vukx | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

“I’m paying my children’s school fees, why should I be paying any more?” This is a question often reiterated when parents start to look towards further educating their child with private tuition.

But at a time when the government is looking to increase the size of infant classrooms to 32 – the average classroom size for any age being amongst the largest in a developed nation – and an increase in demand for top university placements, it is now more important than ever to look outside the classroom to give your child a well rounded education that can set them up for life.

Private tuition can mean that your child will be able to excel in a classroom where they would otherwise be lost. Children attending school within the capital are particularly vulnerable to missing out on a decent education with part of the teaching work force coming from overseas on a two year working holiday visa. An increasing transient and migrant population can also disrupt a classroom, with teachers having to spend more time catching those children up on the course work.

A child who feels like the school work is not challenging enough will become disengaged, not meet their full potential and develop bad and lazy habits. Likewise, an average or mediocre child can also flounder because of a lack of attention from a teacher who is already struggling to deal with more problematic children. This can not only damage the education that they are receiving, but also create disruptive behaviour.

If you’re considering for the first time whether private tuition is right for you and your child take a look at their school work. Note whether there has been any improvement and if it has been challenging enough. Start a dialogue early on with your child to see what they enjoy about school and what subjects they struggle with. You’ll need your child to be on board with the decision making process for them to be actively engaged in improving their education - after all, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink!

Set goals and rewards with your child and their tutor to help keep them engaged in afterschool education. For smaller goals, like a particularly good grade or mark, give them a day or even a week off chores or for a bigger goal being achieved take the family on an outing of your child’s choice. Make sure the goals you do set are realistic and achievable. If a goal is set too high your child might feel overwhelmed and this may lead to anxiety and unnecessary stress.

Unless you want your child’s work to end up on funnyexam.com pay attention to their education now before it’s too late!

Simply Learning Tuition is a private tutoring in London that provides expert private tutors and educational consultancy.

Two mums, three kids and a stork

Normally, I’ve got plenty to write about. Words swim around my head and I need to grab a notebook and pen to write them down before they get lost in the deep, dark recesses of baby brain. The only real problem I have with writing is finding the time to do it, between changing nappies, ferrying the kids here, there and everywhere, fighting my way through a dozen loads of laundry, and trying to get a fledgling business off the ground.

But when someone says a certain three little words, my fingers freeze.

Write about yourself.

So I’m copping out and I’m going to tell you about my new baby instead. No, I haven’t added to my brood (two children are plenty for now). The latest addition to my life – one that demands just as much attention as a newborn, and is the next best thing in terms of challenge and reward – is StorkUp.

StorkUp was conceived last year and actually has two mummies. Fiona and I met through a local Facebook group and quickly realised that apart from having young children (three under 5s between us) we had lots in common – including something of an obsession with internet shopping. We both loved and were frustrated by it in equal measure. We wanted to find the best products for our children, at the best prices. Not too much to ask, surely? Unfortunately, in our experience, it seemed to be.

So we decided to do something about it. Several months later, we’ve just invited our first pool of beta testers to try StorkUp, a social shopping community for mums and mums-to-be. It’s a place for them to discover, organise and share all the great baby and children’s products they find online. It’s going to bridge the gap between online shops, review sites and parenting forums, and make deciding what to buy for our kids easier, less time-consuming and a whole lot more fun.

Starting a business can be exhausting and frustrating. Juggling it with family life makes it even harder. As if I didn’t already have enough on my plate, I decided to start a blog a few months ago. When my son was born in December 2007, I started taking photographs – lots of them. I diligently printed them and created photo albums documenting every stage of his first two years. By the time his little sister came along in August 2010, the photo albums were a thing of the past. I still loved to look at them and remember those amazing early days of first-time motherhood, but I had long stopped updating them.

So my blog, At least Daddy can cook…, is an alternative. It’s a random collection of photos of my children, recipes (as I try to match their Dad in the kitchen) and tales of family life, past and present. It has become my virtual diary – something to help me remember these changing, exciting times.

For exclusive pre-launch access to StorkUp (i.e. a sneak peek before the rest of the world), Mums on the Blog readers can click here to sign up. If you refer three other mums to StorkUp, you become a Founder Member and get lots of special perks! 

Photo: Betsssssy/Creative Commons

As soon as the birthday celebrations were over, Edie was starting to walk. Which is wonderful, and I am fully encouraging of this. She is wearing some great little shoes called Pedipeds.

They are softer than first shoes, but as they have a sole I find they are a bit more solid than the very soft crawling shoes. She’s been wearing them with pride for nearly a week and my, oh my, what a difference they have made. She is off, quick as an Olympic 100m sprinter. Well, possibly a slight exaggeration but it feels like greased lightning. She has found her food cupboard in the kitchen and that is her first port of call when she’s on her feet. Quick as she can, she’s in there, scavenging like some urban fox, trying to get to her snacks! Little porker!!!

She is everywhere. Trying to keep up is quite a mission. She is so inquisitive and has the attention span of a gnat! I am extremely proud of these traits of course, but where has my cuddly little baby gone????

If I try and get a squeeze, she pushes me away and just wants to be back on the floor exploring. I just about get a cuddle in at bedtime, only before she realises that she would rather chew her rabbit’s arm than snuggle with mummy.

Edie is also throwing the best of strops and tantrums. I know I shouldn’t laugh, but as the bottom lip comes out, I just can’t help myself. I thought this was supposed to be when they reach the terrible 2’s, not just after birthday one??

If she doesn’t get her own way we get to know about it. If we try and get something off her, she doesn’t like it at all. I wonder what she’ll be when she grows up.

I am enjoying every stage of motherhood and all the challenges that come with the job. By the end of the day I am done for, and by Friday nights I look at my husband as the saviour! He can take over with some weekend duties.
Tomorrow I am off to get a much needed massage and haircut.

Looking forward to the next year and all it holds. Walking more, talking lots, and who knows perhaps a little more cuddly again!!??

Everyone’s favourite spring holiday is coming up, so it’s time to make a game plan about how you’ll celebrate Easter. If there’s usually a family dinner with the exchange of baskets full of goodies for the little ones, you may want to switch it up this year by getting your adult relatives a little something, too. While creating a goody basket for everyone may be a bit overboard, giving Easter cards is the perfect way to express your love and excitement for the holiday. If you want all the best tips on how to celebrate Easter in style, read on.

Celebrating with a card

To start, don’t be surprised if you’re not the only passing around adorable cards with bunnies and eggs dancing across the front of them. BBC News reports that the UK purchases the most greeting cards of any other country, with the total coming close to 2.5 billion cards produced annually. Get in on the action by choosing some special cards of your own to give at this year’s celebrations.

If you truly enjoy the art of picking the perfect card for each person that you intend to give something special, then going to the store and sifting through an entire row of sentimental, comical, or short and sweet messages is probably an enjoyable time for you. But if you’ve got a busy schedule and simply can’t stop for cards on your way home from work one day, you should try ordering cards online. You can either have them shipped directly to the recipient, or you can order a whole stack of cards to be delivered to you so that you can give them out yourself. One of the most comprehensive services with one of the widest array of cards is the site for Hallmark Greeting Cards.

And if you want an easy and fast way to send an Easter message to the people that you won’t be able to see face to face this year, you can use the same service to send e-cards. They can even be personalised with music, animation, and your own written message so that you can get a chuckle out of your loved ones, or at least make them smile. E-cards are a great way to communicate because they nod to the digitisation of the way we connect, and they can be stored on the recipient’s email to view again later. Don’t forget about this convenient holiday trick, because you could also use it year-round to send birthday cards.

Whether you deliver your card via the postal service, face to face, or through email, don’t forget to pair your Easter message with some of the holiday’s most delicious staples, such as delectable chocolates or gourmet jelly beans. You can make a big statement by choosing some of the very best edible treats to go along with your card, and your family and friends are sure to love it.

Sending Easter cards should be fun for both you and the people who receive them, so make your gifts extra special this year with heartfelt messages and the fun, whimsical colours of spring. That’s how you celebrate Easter in style!

This is a sponsored post

Easter toys

Christmas is long gone, and Valentine ’s Day is, too. But there’s one spring holiday that everyone looks forward to. If Easter is a time of celebration for you — a time that you usually spend with family and close friends — make sure that it’s even more spectacular this year than last.

But you may be wondering how you can do that with a drained bank account and loads of food and gifts to buy for your family celebration. However, if you coordinate your Easter holiday with your spring cleaning, this problem is already solved. Read on to find out how.

Clearing your clutter for cash

If you’re going to make money off of your old belongings, it is best to start with the big-ticket items, such as that old treadmill that has been stashed away in the garage for years or the old sofa that you never use in the family room. Furniture and exercise equipment can be sold relatively quickly online because there is always an audience willing to take these off of your hands. Your best bet is to use a site that allows users to post and monitor their own items, such as Ebay or Gumtree.

After you get started with your first big chunk of change, you can move on to smaller yet just as popular items. Getting rid of old clothing is always a good way to clear out space and make money at the same time. If you have older pieces from previous decades, you can either sell them as vintage fashion or as potential costume pieces for a “Back in Time” or “Blast from the Past” themed party. And if you have more current, gently used items, any consignment shop will be happy to take them off of your hands and do all the work involved with selling them.

Another profitable area of second-hand sales is CD buybacks. MusicMagpie, for example, is a site that functions as a service for people who want to make money off of the old music that they no longer want. You can upload the bar code information for each disc that you want to sell, and then the site will arrange a courier pickup or send a pre-posted package for you to use. This means that you can get a cheque without even having to leave your home.

The best way to take your Easter profits to the next level is to think of multiple ways to use these selling outlets to your advantage. Consignment shops, for example, will also take your accessories and baby clothes, so you could potentially double the amount of money that you make from selling. And MusicMagpie also allows you to sell DVDs online as well as computer games, so it is a helpful service no matter what discs you want to clear out of your home.

As you anticipate a gleeful Easter holiday, you can rest easy knowing that not only did you pad your bank account but you also got to some much-needed cleaning. When it comes to optimising time and money, there’s no better way to do it.

This is a sponsored post

Dry Carpet Cleaner

Emily L tries out some eco-friendly cleaning products.

I’m sensitive to most cleaning products, they just seem slough off my skin and leave my eyes streaming, so I’ve always got gloves on and windows open during a spring clean.

This also means that I’m very conscious of the cocktail of chemicals I’m washing down the drain, and try to buy eco products where possible. But they’re not always very good!

This month, Natural & Clean, who offer a range of cleaning products using (when possible) only 100% recycled, biodegradable products, sent us:

• Natural & Clean Whoops a-daisy! – £4.99
• Natural & Clean Spot Remover Wipes – £3.43
• Natural & Clean Spot Remover – £3.43
• Natural & Clean Dry Carpet Cleaner – 500g – £5.19

As we have a four year old boy, we get a lot of drinks upturned on the floor, and we have a baby girl, we get the odd splash of baby sit gracing our carpets, so it was the ‘Whoops a-daisy’ that got first outing.

It’s a fine powder that you sprinkle liberally over a spillage. It then soaks up the liquid, turning into a rumbly gel that you simply hoover away. And it works well.

The spot remover spray is for those unexplained marks that always seem to appear, even when you ban shoes from the house. You spray it on to a cloth and then carefully work the stain out. It didn’t shift a smear of boot polish I’ve been battling for a while, but it shifted all the other marks I could find.  The spot removed wipes do the same job, but added onto wipes for convenience.

The dry carpet cleaner is very effective as well as being pH neutral and containing no solvents, bleach or phosphates. You brush in the little particles with the supplied brush and then hoover it away. I tried it on a high-traffic piece of carpet and it now looks cleaner than the rest of the room – oops. I’ll definitely be using it again.

All in all, a good range.

The Nectar Showerhead

We’re giving one lucky reader the chance to win a fantastic Mira showerhead. This simple addition is a great way to spruce up a tired looking shower.

Nectar can be fitted to any existing system in a matter of minutes, giving your showering space a modern, stylish look without breaking the bank.

The organic design gives a soft stylish look as well as providing fantastic spray coverage, and for added practicality come with rub clean nozzles for easy, hassle-free cleaning.

The stylish showerhead comes in both white and chrome to suit any bathroom interior.

To be in with your chance of winning a Mira Nectar showerhead, just leave a comment below answering the following question:

How many colours is the Nectar showerhead available in?

A.  12

B.    1

C.   2

One lucky winner will be chosen at random from the correct entries when the draw closes at 8pm 12th April 2012. One entry per person. UK entrants only.

For more information visit www.mirashowers.co.uk or call 0845 600 5000.

Image © UNICEF

This Mother’s Day, how about forgoing the expensive chocs and flowers and helping save a child’s live instead?

But if money is tight and your little ones are determined to spend their pocket pennies on a gift this Sunday, we’ve found some uber-bargains at Poundworld, each branded “Yummy Mummy” or “No1 Grandma”:

• Kitchen Towels £1
• Novelty Trophies £1
• Gift Bags £1
• Mugs £1
• Greetings Cards £1

No, they’re not posh, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

Image © A Mummy Too

With the holiday fast approaching, you may be asking yourself: How do I make this Mothers’ Day perfect for my mum? Indeed, knowing that you have to figure out gifts and occasions can be a bit stressful. However, it can also be a great deal of fun! This is an opportunity to show your mother how much you care for and appreciate her. So, this year, consider the following ideas for how to make this holiday special.

o Follow Traditions – Fortunately, when it comes to figuring out Mothers’ Day gifts, some of the work is already done for you, as there are certain traditions that are basically expected of any mother’s child on this holiday. For example, you might want to pick up some flowers from Marks & Spencer, and if at all possible you should take your mother out for a nice meal. These are simple but traditional gestures that your mother will surely appreciate.

o Spend Time Together – Thanks in large part to product advertisement, etc., there is a great deal of focus on finding physical gifts for your mother. However, you should also try to remember that your mother’s favourite part of this holiday is probably being able to spend some quality time with her children. So, if you can, find an activity to do with your mother, rather than simply a gift to give her.

o Find Personal Gifts – You should of course still have some sort of present to give your mother on Mothers’ Day, and the best way to go about your shopping is to think of something personal for her. There is often temptation to simply pick up a pair of earrings, or something of that nature – but it shows a good deal more care and preparation if you give careful thought to what your mother enjoys or needs. A personal gift adds a nice touch to the holiday.

This post is brought you by Marks and Spencer – see our editorial policy