Sunday 31 March 2013

Happy Easter - some great ideas to keep the kids entertained this half term!


Easter is now here and whilst we welcome the long break to spend more quality time with our families, the unpredictable British weather can leave us stuck inside and feeling a little stir crazy.

Online care provider Care.com resident Nanny expert Rosemary Albone knows only too well how challenging it can sometimes be to keep the little ones entertained. Here, Rosemary offers some top tips for activities you can do with your children over the Easter holiday to keep them happy, learning and creative and that won’t break the bank!

1)     Have an ‘Indoor Holiday’, a Staycation in Your Own Lounge!
Set up a (small!) pop up tent, or create a den under the table, or get creative and build your own structure. Encourage the children to pack what they need and move in, at least for an afternoon. You can teach children all about the great outdoors without setting foot outside!

2)     Plan an Easter Show
Plan with egg related jokes and stories about the Easter Bunny - great fun for getting children to think about words and stories and get creative. Perhaps you can write a story script together, asking the child to make decisions on the storyline and ending and act it out for the rest of the family.

3)     Decorate Your Own Eggs
We all know that painting and decorating eggs (real or cardboard) can be a fun activity to do together; tune into everyone’s creative side and use interesting materials as decorations. Set your children the challenge of finding things around your home and in the garden to use as decoration. Find a small tree branch that can be safely cut and brought inside to hang your decorated eggs on to make an Easter tree.

4)     Plan a Walk- Whatever the Weather
Physical exercise is good for everyone and safe exposure to sunlight enables the body to make vitamin D. Let your children:
-         Plan the route, drawing it out on a homemade map with significant local points located on it (schools, shops, the library, friends’ homes etc)
-         Photograph interesting things on the route, then make a storyboard or story book with the photos when you get back home
-         Set a challenge to achieve on the walk, such as finding 5 specific things (stones, signposts, numbers on front doors, sticks, fallen leaves, something red and so on)
-         Choose and create a picnic to enjoy on the walk to get them engaged in selecting and making the meal too

5)     Have a Tea Party
As a family, think about inviting a neighbour or occasional acquaintance to tea. We know that the long bank holiday can feel a long lonely time for some people; help your children understand that kindness is easy. They could even make an invitation and help with deciding what to have and making the food.

6)     Seek an egg-stra pair of hands
Spending time with your family is a wonderful part of the Easter holidays, but you may have other things you need to get done – such as preparing an Easter lunch or even tackling some home repairs that need done while you have time off work.  https://uk.care.com/ offers short term care solution from baby sitters to cleaners who can provide some extra support.

Tuesday 26 March 2013

MUSIC PROJECTS IN THE SOUTH EAST GET BOOST WITH GRANTS OF £522,000 FROM YOUTH MUSIC CHARITY

                              

Rockinghorse Children’s Charity awarded £56,600 grant for unique hospitals project

Music-making across the South East received a boost earlier this week (Monday 18 March) when Youth Music announced grants totalling £522,000 for music projects in the region.  Organisations benefiting under the Youth Music Programme included a unique hospitals project by Rockinghorse Children’s Charity in Brighton and Hastings.

Youth Music is the leading UK charity supporting life-changing music experiences and learning for children and young people.  The £4.5m will be spent by music organisations helping young people with least opportunity access music provision. These include young people at risk of exclusion, children in care, those coping with disability and young people living in urban deprivation or rural isolation. 

Over the last year, Youth Music supported in excess of 380 projects benefiting more than 110,000 young people and children – the highest number ever.  This brings the total number helped by Youth Music to 2.5 million.  Grants have been made available across all musical genres from opera to hip-hop.

Child patients with complex health needs in The Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital (the Alex), Brighton and the Conquest Hospital in St Leonards-on-sea, Hastings are set to benefit from a unique project to improve their well-being through music-making activities. Rockinghorse Children’s Charity have been given a Youth Music grant of £56,600 to enhance the children’s well-being through lyric writing, improvisation, vocal work, soothing sounds and playing music together.  The money will also be used to help develop the highly skilled workforce needed to deliver the project.

Rockinghorse CEO Ryan Heal says: “Rockinghorse is delighted to have been awarded this grant from Youth Music to enable children from across the county to benefit from music therapy. This will be hugely beneficial for patients at the Alex and The Conquest Hospital and we look forward to working with the team at Rhythmix to make this possible.”

Youth Music Executive Director Matt Griffith says: “We are delighted to support Rockinghorse Children’s Charity to support young people in the South East.  We know that music captures the imagination of children and young people in a way that other learning often doesn’t and the benefits of their participation go way beyond developing musical skills. These benefits can include greater social and team working skills as well as enhanced self-esteem. We wish Rockinghorse Children’s Charity every success with their very worthwhile project.”