Posts filed under 'children'
Did you know that this week is Child Safety Week?
This is the Child Accident Prevention Trust’s flagship community education campaign and the aim is to raise awareness about child safety issues. It highlights the importance of making sure that your home and car are as safe as possible. It suggests that we should all make some time to have a look around our homes and see if we can spot anything that may be a danger to our children. For example;
* Ensure that any unused plug sockets are covered to stop little fingers from exploring them
* Make sure that cords for blinds/curtains are not at a height that a child could get caught up in them
* Keep all sharp objects, e.g. knives, scissors, skewers, out of reach
* When using the hob make sure that saucepan handles are turned away so that they can’t be grabbed
* If you are chopping food move the knife out of reach when not being used
* Use stair gates at the top and bottom of the stairs to reduce the risk of a fall
* If your child can reach the front door handle, make sure that it is locked so that they can’t wander out (you will need to keep the key handy incase of an emergency)
As well as the home, your car also needs to be a safe haven for your children. New regulations came into effect on the 18th September 2006 relating to the use of child car seats. There are now strict guidelines in place as to the type of car seat your child should be using depending on their age and height. These guidelines exist to make sure that our children are as safe as possible in the event of an accident. The insurance industry is also trying to help with many car insurers offering to replace childrens car seats if they are in the car at the time of an accident. It makes me really cross when I see people driving around with children in their car that aren’t restrained in any way. Do these people not understand the importance of car seats and seat belts? I don’t think that these people understand the danger that they are putting their children in.
Unfortunately I don’t think that Child Safety Week has had the recognition it deserves in the news, hopefully this blog will go some way to help.
June 27th, 2008
There has been great concern of late as to the content of some websites that are targetting children and young adults. It is becoming increasingly more difficult for parents to monitor exactly what their children are accessing on the web.
New guidelines introduced in February 2008 now requires content providers to ’signpost’ material that may be deemed as unsuitable for children, i.e. using a pop up warning box. The guidelines have been endorsed by the BBC, Channel 4, Bebo, Google and Yahoo, but personally I’m not sure how effective this will be. Parents can’t supervise their children 100% of the time they are on the internet and surely children will just ignore the pop up box.
A report by the National Consumer Council reviewed 40 websites that are popular with children and found that users were being exposed to more than 200 ads. It covered activity across sites like CBeebies, Neopets, YouTube, Bebo, MySpace, eBay and Lime Wire. Many of the ads were advertising dating and gambling and other products or services prohibited to children under 16. However, many of the sites are not specifically aimed at children so it is very hard to regulate this activity.
On the back of this The Telegraph have listed their top 20 websites for children and families. Some of the sites like CBeebies, Mr Men, and Nickelodeon are aimed at younger children whilst other sites like How Stuff Works, Guinness World Records, Cool Reads and Funology are aimed at older children and are educational and fun.
One really useful website for parents is Travelling with Children which has some great tips on where to holiday, how to travel and some very useful products.
June 4th, 2008
As a member of the public, I was really pleased to read that The RSPCA has announced that at their Society summer conference they will be examining the challenge of managing dogs within our communities.
There have been many reports over the past couple of years where children have been unexpectedly and uncharacteristically attacked by family pets in their own homes, some leading to them sadly dying. It is certainly something that I am more aware of nowadays and more nervous about when I see a stray dog in the street.
Miranda Luck, RSPCA Strategic Campaigner said : “There is a concern amongst the public at the moment about dogs, whether it be high-profile attacks on children, organised dog fighting, or young people with tough-looking dogs on street corners. The RSPCA wants to bring people together to discuss these issues, and hopefully we’ll come up with effective solutions.”
Speakers at the one day conference will include Richard Brunstrom, North Wales Chief Constable and Neil Davies, the head of the Dog Unit for Merseyside Police. Following the death of Ellie Lawrenson in 2007, Neil Davies introduced the ‘pitbull amnesty’.
The RSPCA have also launched a new scheme in Brixton to try and address the problem of anti-social behaviour and the intimidation of dogs on London’s streets. The scheme brings together Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, The Blue Cross and the RSPCA and has the backing of the Mayor of London.
An educational pack was put together with a video exploring issues of dog ownership. It addresses topics like irresponsible dog breeding, inappropriate exercise areas and organized dog fighting.
With so many high profile attacks it brings to the fore the need to have some level of pet insurance. Make sure that you are covered if your pet injures or kills someone or damages someone’s property. It can happen so easily and can cost you thousands of pounds. Also, with pet’s rating so highly in our affections it is good to know that your pet will also be looked after if they are ever hurt or attacked by another animal.
April 10th, 2008
The BBC is looking for UK schools students to create a 60 second interpretation of Shakespeare.
I don’t know about you but I could never get to grips with Shakespeare at school and found it very difficult to be enthusiastic, so the idea of being able to watch individual interpretations is great.
The BBC says that you can interpret an act, a scene, or a theme or even a complete play (which would be a huge challenge) but it can’t be longer than 60 seconds.
For more information on the challenge and tips on how to produce a great film visit the BBC website .
It’s will be amazing to see what can be done in 60 seconds.
March 25th, 2008
As a parent I am all to aware of the problem parents have in helping their children to be happy with who they are and how they look. The perfect image portrayed in magazines, newspapers and online of the Celebrity often makes children feel very insecure about themselves. I was shocked to read over the weekend that a new ‘virtual fashion game’ had been launched targeting girls between the ages of 9 and 16 called Miss Bimbo. The aim of the website is for girls to create a Bimbo that is ‘the coolest, richest and most famous bimbo in the world’.
Players can choose where to live, what job to do, shop for the latest fashions, become a socialite, date a famous hottie and even resort to plastic surgery and diet pills. It is free to register but apparently you buy ‘dollars’ to spend on your character by texting at £1.50 a text.
It amazes me that such a website can be launched. It clearly plays on the desire of young girls to be famous and encourages them to take diet pills and have plastic surgery in order to be the best. As adults we can differentiate between what’s online and the real world but children can’t do this so easily. Dee Dawson, the medical director of Rhodes Farm Clinic, treats girls from the tender age of 8 who are suffering from eating disorders. He was commented in The Times Online as saying “This is as lethal as pro-anorexia websites. A lot of children will get caught up with the extremely damaging and appalling messages.”
Mr Dawson isn’t the only one to be outraged. Many of the national newspapers has picked up on this new website and I am sure that there will be lots of debates on this over the next couple of weeks but in the meantime, this is definitely one of those websites that I will be blocking on my home PC. Will you?
March 25th, 2008
It seems that this year’s ‘Most Wanted’ present - or at least ‘Most Wanted But Hard to Find’ present is the Nintendo Wii. This is the games console that famously comes with a wireless controller that lets you simulate playing golf or tennis by waving it like you were swinging your club or racket. From the reports in the media, there are going to be a lot of disappointed children - and adults too - who don’t get their Wii for Christmas. One article suggests that the shortage is a deliberate ploy by Nintendo so that parents buy the software games now and then are committed to buying the hardware (the games console itself) later. This seems too far fetched to me: I’ll bet that any child old enough to want a Wii will not be impressed by a couple of games in boxes that they can’t play until some unspecified future date.
Anyway, if you are still on the hunt for a Wii, then you could do worse than visit this clever website. You just leave the site open and every 60 seconds it crawls though webistes of a wide range of retailers and pops up a message telling where if anywhere a Wii is available as new stocks are added online. Just be sure to check the delivery dates when you order if you really need it in time for Christmas!
December 17th, 2007
Reading bedtime stories to children can be a great pleasure - and sometimes a bit of a chore, especially when you’re tired, and it’s at the end of a long day. I found these audio stories on the Times Online website - classic fairytales read by celebrity story-tellers - and I am going to download them all if I can, or at the very least begin to stream them at bedtime for the kids. The complete set of stories - produced in association with Ford Galaxy and by Classic FM for the Times Online includes:
- Robert Lindsay reading Rumpelstiltskin
- Ashley Jensen (from Extras) reading Cinderella
- Maureen Lipman reading The Gingerbread Man
- Julian Clary reading Puss in Boots
- Shane Ritchie reading The Tin Soldier
- Samantha Morton reading The Princess & The Pea
- Greta Scacchi reading Rapunzel
- Miranda Richardson reading Little Red Riding Hood
- Imelda Staunton reading Alice in Wonderland
- Sanjeev Bhaskar reading The Ugly Duckling
- Tom Baker reading Aladdin
- Jack Davenport reading Jack and The Beanstalk
- Tamsin Outhwaite reading The Little Match Girl
- Geoffrey Palmer reading Tinderbox…
…and many more besides. Now, I enjoy bringing the stories I read to life, but having listen to a couple of these already, these really are wonderful productions and will really provide a special story-time at bedtime or on a car journey…
November 7th, 2007
With half-term on the horizon, many people will be thinking of things to do with the children. Having recently tried ten-pin bowling with my kids - and quickly learned a few things:
- small children trying to pick up heavy bowling balls can be dangerous - mind those toes!
- you really do need to get the side rails up so their bowling balls don’t all slide off to the side
- it might be more diplomatic to let your children win, but its hard to resist the opportunity to smack all the pins down!
- it can be quite expensive unless you take your children during school-term time and in fact during school-time too
To remedy this expense aspect I have recently been playing on a free online ten-pin bowling game - and I think it is almost as good as the real bowling experience itself. Just follow the link below and see what score you can get - you’ll have to top 149 to beat the best score round these parts, but I would say anything over 100 is okay.
Worth noting that this game has proved to be a big hit in my household with everyone aged 3 to 30+ all enjoying it. Easy to play, totally free, great fun and ideal in case it gets a bit too wet and cold to go out over half-term.
Fee l free to let us know the best score you can get - and if you can beat 149 then send in a screen grab and we’ll post it up and honour you!
October 17th, 2007
It’s going rain this bank holiday weekend. Or be sunny. Or perhaps something in between. Apparently. For many this is the last weekend of the summer before the kids go back to school, and all your colleagues show up again at work. So what can you do on a wet weekend. Here’s what the Telegraph have come up last week - mostly family-oriented ideas, though one of them - going for a swim in an outdoor pool - will probably win few votes from parents!
For those of you more inclined to hide away and embark on a catch-up of some good films here is the list of the Top 250 films of all time from the IMDB (Internet Movie Database) website, the ‘biggest, best and most award-winning movie-site on the planet‘. To my shame, I haven’t seen the all-time number one or number three but I am glad to see Pulp Fiction, The Usual Suspects and Memento in the Top 30, three masterpieces that absolutely stunned me when I saw them at the cinema when they came out. Though these do all have some violence in them, I still think I am too squeamish to watch the numero uno on the list. Maybe I’ll take the plunge this weekend. Not in the outdoor pool, but watching ‘officially’ the best film of all time!
August 23rd, 2007
If you’ve got school-age children, then you’ll know that getting them out of the front door each morning is easier said than done. Every morning can be a real drama what with getting them washed and dressed, fed and teeth-brushed, and ready with packed lunch and other acoutrements ranging from sports equipment to homework or something to show and tell the class. With the new term looming, you may find these tips on the M&S website aimed at reducing the school-day stress helpful. There’s ten tips in all, but if I can successfully get just one or two adopted in my house then I’ll be pleased. See what you think - and please do add some tips of your own if you have any below.
August 21st, 2007
