It is called Kidstart and it can help you to save some money for your children. Parents sign up (for free) and then when they spend money with their credit/debit cards at one of the listed online or high street retailers, they earn 20 per cent back.

The cash that is earned is paid into a Child Trust Fund or a nominated children’s savings account.

Considering the list of approved retailers includes Mothercare and Tesco, it seems to me that you can’t lose. So, I am going to sign up and see what happens.

Recently, my six-year-old son came home and asked me to teach him how to knit. (Yes, boys knit too!) I knitted a bit as a child but couldn’t remember how to start. So, I decided that I would learn how to knit in order to teach my son.

The thing is that now I have started I don’t want to stop!

Several other mothers I know have told me that their kids are keen to learn knitting too, so I decided to create a website to help out all those novice knitters. It is called the How to Knit Guide

I have included a special section on Knitting for Kids.

My advice is to start kids off with a bit of finger knitting or french knitting.

It is great fun and a great way to just hang out with your children.

Happy knitting!

“We propose to make public space more child-friendly through a variety of actions including placing a stronger focus on spaces for play in the planning system; training for people who design and manage public space; supporting local community ownership of space suitable for play; and supporting more positive relationships between adults and children in public space. “

All sounds good. But then Kevin spotted a possible hiccup. He’s done a quick schematic of the decisions he goes through as a parent:.

At the bottom I scribbled ‘Too much traffic?’ and a subsidiary question, too seldom raised: ‘Too many cars?’ … ‘Wait for policy to confront car lobby’

It’s an interesting point. How can we make places safer for kids if the numbers of cars on the roads are increasing? Kevin’s follow-up piece in The Guardian is worth a read, I think.

the Moses basket has once again become a symbol. A symbol, this time, of how much better motherhood is second time around. A symbol of the fact that, this time, I’ve found my way to being the relaxed, laid-back getting-on-with-life mother that I meant to be when Jamie was a baby but somehow lost sight of in the anxious scrabble to Get Motherhood Right. A symbol of the fact that I’ve finally got it the only ‘right’ that counts - right for me and for us, not bothering too much about what The Books say but doing what works for this family.

Worth reading.

Citrus - My husband’s family members often freeze a small citrus fruit called kalamansi in ice cube trays and then put the ice cubes in water for flavor. The same can be done with other citrus fruits and the water produced would be infused with vitamin C.

Although I’m not sure number 6 is a goer for children, they might be fun ways to encourage some healthier drinks over the summer.

That said, over at NPR, there’s a surprising post about the benefits of drinking water

Is bottled water better for you than tap? Or should you choose vitamin-enriched water over sparkling? Experts say, skip it all. None of these products are likely to make you any healthier.

Even if it doesn’t make you healthier, it’s got to be better than supersugaring your fluids. {now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d write ;)]

Thanks Terry for this. I very much enjoyed John Stein’s “neuroscience” approach in his podcast. Even if a teeny part of me was thinking bah humbug, in my day we read things like this ;

There’ll be a bit more of a lull (while I upgrade some back end things), but then fingers crossed there’ll be a bit of a spurt of activity.

We’ll be aiming at making the Browse section much more friendly. Perhaps through city/town focused metros. There’ll be more maps. There’ll be more of a sense of what’s happening on the site. There’ll be Open ID (a good thing). And there may even be a mini Facebook app, just to show we’re really ahead of the curve [ahem]

Do say if you think any of these things aren’t worth it, or you’ve got any requests that would make the site easier for you. It’s great to hear feedback, good and bad.

Timings I’m not sure of because I’m back teaching on Wednesday, and more to the point I seem to have killed my computer at home…

Ladybird prints contains over 4000 images from the Ladybird Books, now available to browse and buy as prints and canvases.

If nothing else, it helped reassure me I do have a memory, and it’s full up of old Ladybird images …