9 Ways To Boost Your Social Life As a Busy Mum

Socialisation is an important life process which occurs when you interact with others. In its most basic sense, socialisation is important in order to develop the skills necessary for living. Without socialising, we would never have learnt the crucial skills we need to survive. Through socialising we learn to talk, walk, eat and use the toilet. We learn how to be a part of the society in which we live and conform to its rules and norms. We learn the language of our environment, our role in life and what is expected of us. Socialising also plays an important part in the development of personality in children.

Dangers of Sleep Training and What You Can Do About It

Recently, I wrote about my cosleeping journey with my own children. I talked about how I did not cosleep with my eldest daughter because I was advised against it and trusted the health professionals to give me the best advice. Although I did not cosleep with her, it never crossed my mind to sleep train her. It just went against my natural, maternal instincts. However, there are many people who still practise sleep training and there are many who advise it. 

How to help your child to talk

        

Learning to talk is an exciting milestone that all parents are keen to see their child reach. Eager parents may try new developments such as baby signing or baby DVDs in a bid to help their child acquire speech and language skills more quickly. However, there is no concrete evidence that shows these do, in fact, boost babies ability to talk.

Benefits of Cosleeping

When I had my first child, I did as I was told, as a lot of first-time mothers do. I bought a cot and put my baby to sleep in the cot beside my bed. After all, the health professionals at the time were convinced that cosleeping was dangerous. It was thought that baby could get injured or even die by suffocation if they slept in bed with you.

I was breastfeeding both night and day and I remember feeling utterly exhausted. To prevent myself falling asleep with baby in bed with me, I would sit up to breastfeed at night. I remember that my daughter would appear to be sleeping but as soon as I placed her into her cot she would cry. This led to more breastfeeding upright in bed and more exhaustion.

Grandma's Favorite and Grandpa's Favorite Book Reviews

I am thrilled to be taking part in Multicultural Children's Book Day for the second year running! Multicultural Children's Book Day is a great initiative that aims to promote and celebrate diverse children's books as well as get more of these books into libraries and schools.

Learning About Astronauts and Tim Peake's Spacecraft!

Recently, we took a trip to Cardiff to go and see Tim Peake's spacecraft and spacesuit at the space exhibition at Cardiff Museum. I had never been to Cardiff Museum before so I was intrigued to find out what it would be like. As it happened, we did not get to explore much of the museum as we spent most of our time at the space exhibition. As it was the first weekend the exhibition was open, there were a lot of special things to see and do.

Reading Challenge

I recently wrote about my new year's resolutions and if you read about them or watched my video, you will know that my first one is to read more. I have a terrible habit of buying books and not reading them. Perhaps worse, is my habit of reading the first few chapters and then neglecting the book altogether! I am a huge book lover with a thirst for knowledge so when I spot an interesting book I just have to have it! However, my pile of unread books is growing ever larger and I have to do something about it.