Christmas - the season of joy, festivities, and, let's be honest, a touch of chaos. As parents, we've all been there, juggling the demands of the season while trying to keep our cool. Why is it that the most wonderful time of the year often comes with a side of emotional turbulence, especially for our little ones?

Supporting the development of social communication in children

As things start to edge back to normality, parents are understandably anxious about how the pandemic has affected their young children’s development in many areas. One of the most concerning for parents is the impact on the development of their social communication skills.

Getting the most from Orchard Games

We are big fans of Orchard Games in our house. We have quite a few and both oF my girls have really enjoyed playing the games.

If you haven’t tried them out yourself, the Orchard Games range has a variety of simple, structured games for playing with young children. Everything from lotto to shopping!

Tips for building attention skills

Attention and listening skills are the bedrock of language development and allow us to learn other skills. Learning to focus is a really important part of early development that helps us to listen to others and engage in shared activities. But how can we help our children to develop their attention skills?

How many clubs?

I have read several articles about how modern children are ‘over scheduled’ with a plethora of structured activities and clubs and that modern children need more time for unstructured and outdoor play. Kids can become overtired when they are engaging in too many sports and clubs and need the less structured playtime to develop their imagination, communication and negotiating skills.

This all sounds reasonable but how do you know how many activities to choose, when is it too much?