Special Announcement

Before I begin, I’m very proud to announce that I am an official speaker at the Childcare Expo in the Midlands on the 27th of September 2019 at 12.30pm.

Please do come and join my workshop to get a real hands on experience of More to Books.

https://www.childcareexpo.co.uk/midlands/workshops-midlands/

And now for the blog…

I’m not an advocate for screen time. I think it should be limited.

But I’m also a 24/4 nanny, who knows that children need down time as much as nannies or parents do.

Here are five tv programmes that can be useful in those times that you need to cook or do jobs, and of course, books to go with them, because after all, there’s more to books than reading.

Maths

Odd Squad is an American TV show where a group of children run a department investigating all things “odd”

I particularly love the episode where someone steals a cake and they have to work out the shapes.

I usually get drawn in to the excitement as much as the children and there are many a joke that I also appreciated. The episodes tackle lots of mathematical problems.

History

Horrible Histories (photo credit: IMDb.com)

Eagerly awaiting the Horrible History film on Romans as I mentioned in my last blog, but I’ve watched this with Nanny children whose children are as young as three. The magazine style to this programme means the little short songs and sketches are interesting for all ages AND the amount they discuss poo will get any child giggling.

Geography/Science

Andy’s Wild Adventures (Photo credit: cbbc.co.uk)

To take your child around the world without leaving the television are these short but sweet fact files on habitats, eating habits and offspring.

Not only could this be under history as well, these small delicious programmes are exciting and packed full of facts. Awesome for if your little one is obsessed with dinosaurs too. I once took a nanny child to the Natural History Museum just to look for Andy’s clock but sadly it isn’t there. I’d totally commission one if I worked there.

Check out https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/andys-dinosaur-adventures for episodes and fun games.

Charlie and Lola

Encourage your child to look at the book while they watch the programme and they can match some of the speech up to what Charlie or Lola are saying. Although these are fiction unlike the 4 programmes above, they follow every day topics that support daily routine and life.

Head here for some episodes:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00d6l9l/episodes/guide

More to books…

Literally, going to the library or book shop and finding books on maths, science, geography, history and daily routine will enhance their learning through watching these programmes and reading around the topics.

For maths books, Activity books that are interactive, you can get ones that come with a wipeable pen so children can re do maths sums/word problems. Above is an example of a times tables wipeable book.

For history books, as well as reading the Horrible History books, for older children, choose a period in time of the history you watched and get age appropriate books to enhance their learning.

For geography books, after watching the Animal programme, read books about the country that the animal is from.

For science, read books about the animal that is in that programme. These can be fiction or non- fiction.

For Charlie and Lola, get Charlie and Lola books!!!

What educational programmes do your little ones love to watch? Send me a photo!

Let me know if you’re coming to the ChildCare Expo in the Ricoh Centre on the 27th of September.

I hope to see you there.

Love Kat x

I am literally obsessed with Roman history to the point that I think I was Roman in a past life!

I went to Hadrian’s wall to do research for my chapter book which will be an adventure story for children in key stage 1. I am currently looking for representation for my children’s books.

But you don’t have to go to Hadrian’s wall to help your child become excited about Roman history.

• Bath at the Romans Baths in Bath*

*sadly, you are no longer allowed to go in the actual water.

• Get your youngster in a fluster for Chester

Visit the Dewa Roman experience (I have taken a school group here when I was teaching in Manchester, I highly recommend it) or simply walk around this amazing city as there are ruins everywhere for you to explore, especially the amphitheatre.

Muse in the Museum of London

Take a walk in York

I did my first Degree in York. There are some interesting Roman Ghost stories in the Treasurers house.

Cirencester

Roman Shields

Why not make your very own Roman shield.

More to books…

Move over, Horrible Histories, a library find, Romans by Philip Ardagh is literally “packed with facts and fun!”

Just kidding, I LOVE Horrible Histories

Ruthless Romans by Terry Deary

Also, I am eagerly anticipating the new Horrible Histories Movie about Romans this year!

This is a library find, but I love it. For GCSE History, I made the Roman Villa. Roman Villa by Gillian Clements.

Where would you like to take your little one?

Show me your shields!

Today’s blog will show you how to make maths easy by bribing your children with sweets. Just kidding! Although this activity does make maths more fun and children actually want to do these “games”.

A great maths activity for a rainy day is what has become known in my Nanny family house as “Fruit Pastille maths.” To make this healthier you can use fruit (although it could get a little messy and don’t forget to wash your hands)

I also like to use Skittles or Smarties as the numbers get a little higher then.

Sorting colours

There are many aspects to this activity and you can start with children as young as two. For the younger ones, just sorting them and naming the colours is a great start.

Counting

The next step is to count them. A target in the Early Years is to count to 5, 10 then 20. There are three ways to help your child to count. The first is to physically move them, the next is to put them in a line to make it easier and touch each sweet as you say the number name. These are examples of one-to-one correspondence.

Eventually, the child can count by sight.

Recording

It is good to start supporting your child to record their maths. I would encourage them to draw a dot in the colour of the sweet or fruit and you can scribe the number for them to copy.

Adding (plus)

The next activity is to start adding the colours together. To make it harder, add more than one colour together. I like to generate the sums to help the children memorise number bonds to 10 and 20. Eventually, using sums that go over the tens boundary such as 9+3 or 17+4.

Taking away (minus)

For taking away, (and this is the fun part) start with one less, let them eat one and count how many are left. For larger take away sums, encourage your child to move the sweets or fruit taken away to see what is left. Always put the biggest number first.

Times tables (multiplying)

Times table sums can also be generated using this “game.” Doubling is the times table to start with. Then counting in tens. Counting in 5s. (Eg let’s say there are 6 oranges. Orange times by itself, orange times by 10 etc.) I always remind them that when you times by 1, the number stays the same and when you times by 0, the answer is always 0.

Sharing (dividing)

My Nanny child’s favourite activity is “sharing” mainly because that’s when she gets to eat the treasures of her hard work. I select a colour and generate the sum. So an even number can be divided by her and her sister. Or 8 for example can be shared between her, her sister, her mum and myself, if I really feel like I need a couple of sweeties that day.

To share, they can literally move the sweet or fruit to the circle with the name of who it is going to above it. Eventually, they can draw the dot and count until they get to the number, then count how many is in one circle to get the answer.

The next step will be sums with remainders!

And even change the language to one of your choice. We use Italian colours and numbers.

As the sums get easier, increase the size of the numbers.

There’s more to books than reading…

The books I recommend to support counting and adding for nursery and reception aged children are as follows:

Show me your pictures of fruit or sweet maths fun…

This is not a blog about counting coins or about taking away- although money is a great tool for that and arguably a needed skill. (You can even use them to help with times tables)

I once taught a little boy in year 2 who had many disadvantages in his life which meant he needed extra support in many areas. He couldn’t read or write but money was his language. He outweighed many of his peers on knowing what coins were which and he knew what coins he should get back in change.

Dr Joanna Martin

For this blog, I spoke to the amazing Dr. Joanna Martin (http://Oneofmany.co.uk) who said it’s great to get nannies (and parents) to help little people learn about money. In her recent Facebook live, she mentions that herself and many of the adults she works with didn’t have much education on money as children either from parents or school! We can change that for future generations!

Joanna said that the psychology of money in adults is all based around emotions such as fear, shame, anger and guilt so we must bring consciousness to the language we use with little ones to take the emotions out of it.

Her son, James, was given a cash register at about the age of two and Joanna noticed the the language around money felt wrong such as one time he was holding a handful of coins and she said “wow, look at you, you’ve got so much money, you’re so rich!”

So, going forward they decided to speaking about money very matter of factly and just say what was so such as “oh look, you’ve got 1p and 2p, that makes 3p” taking away the language of rich and poor.

So for choosing a birthday present for a five year olds party when James chose a present at £50, they would say “that’s £50- how much we are spending today is around £10 to £20, would you like to choose something around that price?”

As a nanny for very wealthy families, I’m always very conscious that I don’t want my feelings about money to make any impact on the children I work with. Either as a parent or a nanny, Joanna advises us to deal with our own emotional stuff around money so that we can be an example for the children. To normalise the relationship to money.

To make it exciting, Joanna told her son she would reveal the “secrets of money” when he was old enough. For James, it was five years old but she recommends you to do it when you feel your child is ready.

Teaching the rules about money

1. Make money (the earn phase) to earn money, you have to help people, to add value to someone
2. Money goes to whoever takes the best care of it- (budgeting) Joanna shares an anecdote of James finding some coins down the back of the sofa and said “no one seems to be taking care of this money, may I take care of it?”
3. Money likes to grow- (saving) as they are keen gardeners they link the fact that a seed need the right nutrition in the soil, with water and sunlight, money also needs the right environment to help it grow.

On Friday the 7th and Saturday the 8th of June they are holding a Wealth Insights taster (for adults) in London which is four hours. If you’re free, go check it out:

https://smarturl.it/WealthInsightsEvent

Savings

Joanna then talks about her jam jar system where the child has a “holding” jar which is then split three ways:

Fun

Give

Grow

On choosing which savings account is best, take a look at Martin Lewis’s advice here:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/child-savings-tax-free/

I asked some parents what they are doing to help their children…

Bryony Powell, Rossendale (aged 2)

Emily, Ontario, Canada (aged 6 and a half weeks)

“Grace got her money box at 6 months old for her first Christmas. She also has a savings account which we put money into monthly that we will encourage her to use (with help) when we think its appropriate. I’ve started giving her money and my card to pay cashier’s so she understands the transaction taking place.” (Lorna Thomson, Loughborough)

“I’m doing the help to save account through HMRC for Laiq (aged 3). You in upto a max of £50 per month over a 4year period and once after 2years they give you 50% interest and after the next 2years the same. Should have £3600 by the time its done i think and then all that is going into an ISA for him until hes 18” (Claire O’Dell, Rochdale)

https://www.gov.uk/get-help-savings-low-income

More to Books…

There’s a running theme of banking and saving in Mary Poppins by Pamela Travers. But for younger readers here are a couple of books that introduce the idea of saving and growing money.

I genuinely love Lauren Child and she has featured in a few of my blogs already. I love how she discusses everyday topics through adventures with Charlie and Lola.

A book for our entrepreneurs:

Show me your piggy banks!

Love Kat x

Taylor also has a 1 2 3 Santander savings account that is added to weekly which he will have access to when he is 18. https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/current-accounts/123-current-account

Ethan Fletcher’s Piggy Bank, Manchester (aged 20 months)

“This is my sons piggy bank which have pennies given by family or randomly finds around the house. He also has a savings account which I put in money from bdays and pay his child benefit into then he can have when he’s older” (Abby Fletcher, Manchester)

Last week, I went on a spa break to Arundel with a Nanny friend. When we had gotten over the fact that Arundel sounds very much like Arrendelle off of Frozen, we were amazed by the most beautiful castle, only about an hour and a half from SW London!

Odd Socks

I have always loved castles and have visited many as a child. We were English Heritage Members and we used to follow Odd Socks around to watch plays all over the country (we also used to wear odd socks!)

http://www.oddsocks.co.uk/

They are a travelling theatre company that put on plays on outside in historical grounds. They make Shakespeare fun.

Counting steps

The reason I love castles as a learning opportunity as well as the obvious history aspect is that it opens up counting and literary ones.

I have always loved climbing towers as well, which not only helps with counting (and fitness) but when you get to the top, you can use it to help with geography opportunities.

Why not take a pen and paper and draw a map from above?

Dressing up

Dressing up is not just for kids! And if you dress up with them, it will be an even more memorable experience for your child! This can lead to DT opportunities such as looking at fasteners (belts, buttons, zips)

Why not make a coin purse with your child to keep their pennies in? (And then you can do activities with money to help with adding, taking away)

Here is how to make a Donut Coin purse using magnets so no sewing!
https://youtu.be/qTmnXRXnzRg

Lego

Lego sets such as these are usually very intricate and have age guidelines…but there are Duplo sets or even Disney Lego sets that younger learners can build. It’s a great way to start talking about instructions with your child, just like the instruction activity in the Fruit and Veg blog from last week. https://moretobooks.blog/2019/05/15/fruit-and-veg/

You don’t have to buy a set…make it up. We make some really fancy palaces from Magnatiles.

We like to make castles for our small soft toys out of Jenga blocks too.

Postcards and Magnets

Check out my blog on Edinburgh (there is a castle there, dontcha know?)

https://moretobooks.blog/2019/04/03/edinburgh-scotland/

Find out how I use Siri as a learning tool at the end of that blog, and what I do with postcards from everywhere I visit!

I also collect magnets from everywhere I go, I really like them to be 3D! I had one of Carcasonne in France but my ex got that magnet when we broke up! I’ll just have to go again to buy a new one!

More to books…

The Kiss That Missed by David Melling is my favourite story to retell. I learnt it off by heart when I was at Durham University during my PGCE. I have since retold it at NannyPalooza, the International Nanny Day and my very own Book Launch back in 2016. It’s a great one for adults and children alike as there are many opportunities to get everyone doing actions such as the drawbridge coming down or the snow falling as well as getting the whole room noisy by being owls and bears and wolves! I like to choose (willing) actors to play the parts of the knight and the dragon. It’s a lot of fun.

I absolutely love this next book; it has a little story in it but then it converts into a 3D castles and has pop out characters that mean you can bring stories to life with our younger learners.

This one has beautiful 3D artwork for our older learners.

I am a lover of fiction books but it’s really important to use non-fiction too. The Usborne books are great for this. I always show the children the contents page and the index page, we use them by following what we are most excited to learn about. I encourage them to read the page number and go to the correct page. I also make a point of going to the Glossary so we can all learn new words.

Something I always talk about too, is the spine. We run our finger along the spine of the book and say it holds the pages together and then I run my finger along their spine so it tickles and we say it holds our bones together. In class, I would let them run their finger over their friends spine…making an action helps them remember better.

Show me your coin purses!

Send a pic of you dressed up!

Which castle have you visited?

Love Kat x

Eating healthily is something that I’m really passionate about. I have been so confused about the advice and what I believed to be true from my childhood, that I wish for all children to be able to learn good habits from the start. Rather than retraining, yo- yo dieting and learning as an adult, as I did.

To help my nanny children ensure they were getting enough different fruit and veg daily, we made a chart. It was a lot of fun learning all the different fruit and vegetables of different colours, some, I had never tried either.

Whenever we ate a fruit or vegetable of a certain colour, we added a ‘diddi-dot’ of the same colour to our chart. It helped us to try new things and keep on track.

Role Play

Using role play is lots of fun, they do learn about fruit and veg, but this can be used for other simple learning opportunities for our little ones.

• Counting
• Sorting colours
• Sorting fruit from veg

For our older learners, we can introduce maths and writing opportunities:

• Labelling
• Shopping lists

• Dividing/sharing
• Money

In real life, you can also use it to learn about fractions and even ratios, making their own fruit smoothies!

Snack time

Fruit Tea Party

Sometimes the children like to eat cold peas or sweet corn for snack!

Strawberry mice

More to books…

I love avocado! This is a great book, a funny story too. It will definitely encourage your little one to try avocado.

Why not make a fruit salad using all the fruits in Handa’s surprise by Eileen Browne or The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

Or make a sandwich (but hold the creepy crawlies) like in Sams Sandwich by David Pelham. Use this as a writing opportunity and get your older learners to write instructions as they make it. For your younger learners, take pictures of each step and let them order them after.

Library finds:

Go to the library and check out the non- fiction books but also, rummage through the fiction and get as many books as you can that have fruit and veg in them!

Also, have a look at recipe books. Let your children choose a recipe where you can cook together. Then you have maths opportunities but also, science.

I know why it’s yum mum – Natasha Gavin

Natasha Gavin and I met at NannyPalooza in London, November 2017 where we were both speakers.

I have since employed her to do a party for my nanny child and her school friends. I interviewed her on her tips to get your children to try new fruit and veg:

As a fussy eating expert who has tried to ‘sell’ healthy eating to thousands of children, I know it isn’t easy. Conflicting messages about what is healthy/unhealthy, busy lifestyles and supermarket aisles ruining your best efforts to keep the kids focused on the right stuff are just some examples of all the challenges parents and carers need to overcome. My top three tips for helping your charges eat healthily include:

MAKE IT FUN

Games, treasure hunts, songs, books, art and craft, TV shows.. all are a means to brainwash children without them realising they are actually being SOLD the concept of healthy eating. Be subtle, give information ‘in passing’ rather than with intent.. “Guess what, I heard that broccoli has the same amount of calcium in it as milk?” Amazing eh? Strong bones from eating broccoli..Then remind them of the fact later when telling another friend/ their parent?

VEG OUT

The healthiest thing you can eat is VEG. End of. If your charges don’t like fruit but love veg, you are so lucky. Focus on de-sensitising children to veg- handle it, shop for it, cook with it, play with it.. eat it often in front of them. Don’t offer it overtly- young children love stealing food from a grown up’s plate, especially if you are making all sorts of subtle sounds because you are enjoying 😉 

BE STRATEGIC

By this I mean think about how you can get healthy food into your charge- during a journey (for example when they can’t ask for anything else because you are driving), when they are hungry (and nothing else is on offer), when they are unfamiliar with the contents of a meal (at a friend’s house? in a restaurant? Then tell me them after they have eaten something they enjoyed about what was in it), when their excellent eater friend is over and they want to impress them, at an amazingly colourful street market? Give healthiest foods first (as a starter?), keep carbohydrate portions very small (so they aren’t too full to eat the really healthy stuff initially, and reward little steps (licks, nibbles) in the right way.

Our CD can be bought online at www.iknowwhyitsyummum.com (digital download and/or CD)

Madeliene Karlsson

In my personal life, I also seek advice from an amazing nutrition and health coach. I asked her for her top tips as well as a healthy breakfast recipe that you can try with your children!

Check out her website at www.nutritionfornaughtypeople.com

Eat real food: our digestive systems were designed to digest foods we find in nature and these are the foods we survived on for millions of years before the industrialisation of our food system. Eating real food fills us up in a different way than eating processed foods or foods that come out of packets. Teach your kids about the virtues of real foods and the vitamins & nutrients they contain. 

Eat seasonal & local: foods grown in summer tend to be cooling and those grown in winter tend to be warming. By eating local & seasonal we are able to better regulate our internal temperature and it allows us to enjoy a variety of foods throughout the year giving us diversity in our diet. 

Ingredients:

1 ripe medium banana

2 eggs, large

2 tsp coconut oil, divided 1⁄4 tsp cinnamon

Toppings:

Fresh or frozen berries (reheated)

Almond or peanut butter

Coconut yogurt

Directions:

1) Melt 1 teaspoon of coconut oil in a fry pan over

medium-high heat

2) Mash the banana in a bowl and mix in the eggs to form a batter

3) Pour 1⁄2 of the batter into the pan, turning pan to spread evenly

4) Turn the heat down and fry for 4-5 minutes until edges of pancake loosen easily with a spatula

5) Flip the pancake over, and fry for another 2-3 minutes

6) Slide out of pan onto plate and do the same for the other 1⁄2 of the batter

7) Sprinkle with cinnamon and your toppings of choice

8) Enjoy!

Show me your snack plates!

Share a picture of you enjoying the pancakes!

What fruit and veg non-fiction books did you find?

Love Kat x

Last Wednesday, I was in the audience of Loose Women (an ITV talk show) I got to do ‘a bit’ to the audience where I walked on stage as a ‘Loose Woman’ and announce the competition before the show started.

Anyway, Davina McCall was the guest and she was on to talk about her initiative with schools on recycling.

Myself and three other pretend ‘Loose Women’ with Ruth Langsford

Recycle Plastic to make your school fantastic by Garnier fronted by Davina McCall

In the discussion, Davina was saying clear plastic bottles are recycled but if we don’t take the lids off, the whole thing goes in landfill!

The initiative is to educate children and hopefully empower them and in turn, help parents to know how to recycle properly.

It’s also a competition where you could win a £10,000 Playground Makeover (using recycled plastic) at your school! You’ve got until the 5/07/19 to sign up. If you’re a parent or a nanny, you can encourage your children’s school to take part by downloading the PDF and taking it at drop off or pick up! ♻️

https://www.garnier.co.uk/plasticfantastic

Sorting

I would say I’m very good at recycling but I could be better. I always separate my food waste so what goes in my bin is very clean but then I always have to sort through before I take them down from my flat. My kitchen is very small and I’d been thinking about getting another bin…

Funnily, two days later, I was at my friend, Pippa Kay’s, house for a delicious vegan risotto. She has just moved house. Pippa and her housemate bought two recycling bins, but both were too small so they bought yet another albeit bigger one. She was explaining about not being able to return them easily and I just said, “I’ll take one”

But then she proceeded to try and sell it to me! She even got it out for a demonstration!!

Little bin, big bin

Knowing what things are made of will help your children in Science. Getting them involved in sorting the recycling can be made fun. So long as they are clean and safe (not sharp tins) then use it as a counting activity or colour for our smallest ones.

If the recycling has labels on, you can even use it as an opportunity to practice sounds and words…try “fastest finger first” from my previous blog on Spellings.

https://moretobooks.blog/2019/04/24/spellings-how-to-get-your-reluctant-readers-interested/

Walking

It’s not just in our own homes that we can recycle. Recently, on dog walks with my nanny children, we wear gloves and each pick up rubbish, mainly plastic…in the local park. It gives the little one something to focus on and we can talk about shape and colour and what it is made of, all while making our environment a better place.

My dad has always gone for walks to pick up drinks cans…he even roots through bins to get them out, as there is a local centre that actually pays for aluminium cans. I remember as a child, we would know which cans (Pepsi) were always steel so would have to bin those…and which cans were recyclable.

On another note, being an adult now, beer cans are good to keep the pesky slugs from eating your plants in the garden, as they are attracted to the smell…

Street Style Surgery with Sissy Rooney

If you are a school or group in the North of England, I highly recommend working with Street Style Surgery with Sissy Rooney. I employed her in a couple of schools while I worked as a teacher around Manchester. If you are a parent or nanny, why not consider using them for a birthday party?

We used old materials to sew flowers and we used magazines to make beads for necklaces Or bracelets as well using recycled pots and magazines for pen pots.

Magazine Bracelet and recycled flowers

For recycling workshops, go check it out:

http://www.streetstylesurgery.co.uk/workshops/particle-article-recycling-workshop-134/

They have other workshops including sports, music, fashion, drama, health and well-being, business. Well worth a look out for an exciting way into lots of topics.

http://www.streetstylesurgery.co.uk/workshops/

There is probably something similar in your area, so have a Google!

More to books…

It’s sometimes obvious to use non-fiction books. Most of the books are about the whole topic of how to save energy and save the planet, not just recycling. The first three books are library finds. I only share the ones that I like. Some don’t make the cut as they are toooo boring!

What a waste by Jess French was my favourite library find ad it was interesting and the pictures are fun and engaging.

What a waste by Jess French

101 ways to save the Earth by David Bellamy

For older children, What’s the point of being Green by Jacqui Bailey was a great library find:

What’s the point of being green by Jacqui Bailey

Fiction books that tackle recycling are brilliant.

Carol Bass is a Canadian author who is very passionate about recycling as it can save our oceans. When I interviewed her she said:

“I have been scuba diver for over 45 years and love the ocean. My first book on sharks was to impress on children that our oceans would not exist as they are shepherds of the sea. They have been in existence for over 400 yrs before dinosaurs. Marine life is ingesting all the plastic and garbage dumped into oceans and dying painful horrendous deaths. 70% of the oxygen we breath is generating by the oceans so if we dont save our oceans our world or at least humans will not survive. I wrote for children as they are our future and maybe they can have a voice to impress on government”

Go to her website for more information:

http://www.sharkeyandfriends.com

I love Lauren Child’s for her Charlie and Lola books as she covers most topics. “We are extremely very good recyclers” is a good one for reading about recycling.

Lauren Child at a book signing in Kew Bookshop. She gave me a quote for my book!

Show me your new objects using recycled goods!

Whose school is following the ‘Recycle plastic to make your school fantastic’ campaign?

If you are, lots of luck!

Love Kat x