For adults, Christmas is often a time for organisation, spending, shopping, stress and indigestion, but for children it is a magical time that means one very important thing – presents! My friends with young grandchildren are already informing me every time I see them how long their little ones’ Christmas list is and I can’t [...]
Retro Sweets
There are few things as evocative of childhood as the smell of an old-fashioned sweet shop. Those hours spent lingering inside, deciding how each penny of one’s precious pocket money should be spent are some of the happiest many of us can remember. I think, more than the sweets themselves, it was something to do [...]
The serious message behind the Haribo TV ad
Each time I catch the Haribo advertisement on television I feel a smidgen of discomfort. The premise is that ‘Haribo is just too good’, so the assembled children are told that if they can resist eating the sweet placed in front of them for a few minutes they will be given another one. When I [...]
Looking back at children’s television
I looked after a hoard of children at the weekend while their parents went to the theatre in London. They enjoyed the play very much, while I had a wonderful time walking with the children, doing some baking and, once their energy levels had subsided a little, watching some television too. I was struck children’s [...]
Competitive parents
Is it just me or have the school gates become more competitive than the boardroom? I notice it a lot when I pick up my nephews from school and also when I’m supply teaching or doing playground duty. At one of the schools I work at there is a teddy bear that goes home with [...]