Potential

The lovely Sardine Tin is running a mystery blog swap today. You can find out what it's about and check out the list of participants on her blog. Each of us has been paired up with another blogger and we've written guest posts for each other.

I've been paired with... well, that would be telling.

Once all posts have been linked, why not try to guess who has been paired with whom. Who is hosting my post today? Who do you think has written the following wonderful post on potential? I wish I had!

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(Mystery) guest posting on Baby Baby? Oh my. What to write?

I find myself browsing through Sandy's archives. Archives full of touching posts. Full of emotion.

So what to write?

I thought I'd write about potential.

After all, as parents, isn't potential what we're banking on?

A friend showed me an article in the Sunday Times this weekend about Tiger Mums (I would link, but it's behind the paywall). 

About how (and I'm paraphrasing) evidence shows that, all things being equal and assuming that a generally acceptable parenting standard is applied, the advantages that you try to give to your child make little difference. If any, it's temporary. 

The best way for you to influence your child's future? With your genes.

This obviously doesn't mean you should let them run feral. But all that all hothousing? The extra classes, the tutoring? It won't affect their long term success, any more than giving them a general ethos that education is important.

But what is my child's potential? How far should I, can I, try to influence it?

I take after my dad on this front. We're both smart. Good at school. Great potential. The opportunity to do great things.

And yet we both struggle to apply that potential. To do anything but to coast. 

That coasting? Partly because the things that material success bring are not all that important to us. The coasting gets us enough to be where we want to be, do what we want to do.

Partly because our families mean so much to us that we don't want to take too much time away from that.

And partly because that drive just doesn't seem to be there.

I have great ideas. I'm good at what I do. I could do much more. But why? 

I feel something missing. But I'm not sure what.

And if I struggle with this, with the gift of my genes, will my child too?

Will I have passed on potential, but without drive to do something with it?

Can I inspire action? Can I turn my coasting around, and show that great things can be done?

Can I achieve my potential to show the next generation of my family how best to achieve theirs?

I don't know. But I can try.




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Potential

Guest Post Day - Welcome NurtureStore

Hello everyone. I’m Cathy and I write over at NurtureStore, bringing you lots of cheap and easy ideas you can do at home to have fun with your kids and help them learn lots of important early learning skills at the same time.

In Sandy’s ‘Good Enough’ post I sensed a slight reluctance on her part to get the glue and glitter out and do some craft with Presley and Cash as she says she’s ‘not good with mess’. I thought I might use this as the inspiration for this guest post and bring you...

 A Reluctant Parent’s Guide to Kids’ Craft

Firstly, I want to tell you why craft is so good for your children.

Craft activities such as drawing, painting and model making offer children so many opportunities to develop important skills. If you’re making a model you’re working on maths concepts such as size, scale, shape, volume and dimensions. Working out how to get your egg box dragon’s eyes to stay on exercises problem-solving skills. Using scissors and peeling off stickers work on fine-motor skills, building dexterity and strength in fingers which one day will be expected to hold a pencil and produce neat writing. Craft play is important for even very young children as it introduces lots of sensory experiences as they use different materials.  And crafting gives children a chance to be creative and use their imagination. Transforming a cardboard box into a castle offers up a world of new play. Most importantly craft is fun and your child will feel such a sense of pride and achievement when they’ve created something of their own.

Craft is also good for parents. If it’s raining, if your child is tired or grouchy, craft can be therapeutic. Play dough or painting can calm frazzled children and occupy them for a good while. Crafting is also gentle on the purse and environmentally-friendly. Grab a big box and start filling it with all the items that you’d usually throw away, such as cereal boxes, string, old wrapping paper and bottle tops. You’ll soon have a well- stocked craft box ready to spark your children’s imagination, all for free.

And my top tips for stress-free and (almost) mess-free craft:

1.    Cover up: Protect the floor, table, your child and yourself using table cloths, newspapers and aprons. That way you can relax and allow a bit of mess.

2.    Supervise mindfully: Young children do need constant supervision when using materials such as paint and scissors but try to let them create using their own ideas, supporting them with tasks they find difficult.

3.    Choose your materials carefully: Having a recycled making box is great because it costs nothing, so you don’t have to be precious about how the kids use what’s in there. You can completely avoid paint and (heaven forbid!) glitter if you want to; wax crayons, pencils, play dough and stickers are all good, almost-mess-free options. Glue sticks and sticky tape in a sturdy dispenser are cleaner alternatives to runny glue and a spatula.

4.    Make something your kids love: Got a train fanatic? Make them their own tank engine. Got a princess? How about a beautiful crown? And for the very young, just let them have fun exploring the materials on offer.

5.    Extend the play: adding a few props to what you make can transform your child’s play. Four paper circles on a tissue box create a car. Add in their favourite teddy and they can spend the morning going on a journey together.

6.    Have a go! This is the most important rule of all. You don’t have to be a great artist - channel your inner Blue Peter and give it a try. You never know, you might love it.

And if you do, then I hope you’ll pop over to NurtureStore for ideas on what you can make next.

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Thank you so much, Cathy. I know this post was written for me and I have been inspired now. I'm off to rummage through the recycling to find items for my making box!

I'm guest posting at NurtureStore today, writing about nurturing a love of books. I've even written my first children's story in honour of the occasion, now if I could just find an illustrator...

Thank you too to Erica at Littlemummy.com for organising Guest Post Day.

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There are also a couple of blogging carnivals to tell you about.  

Firstly the lovely Rosie Scribble hosts the BMB carnival. Thank you for including my post, Rosie. I know how much work goes into each carnival.

Finally the wonderful Karin at Cafebebe hosts the MADs carnival. Here you'll find posts by most of The MADs finalists (including NurtureStore, Littlemummy.com, Cafebebe and Baby Baby). If you haven't voted yet, head on over for some inspiration. Even if you have voted there are some wonderful 'best of' posts that you may have missed first time round.

Guest Post Day - Welcome NurtureStore

Guest Post Day - Baby Baby Welcomes Sam from Mumazing

Please give a warm welcome to my lovely guest for the day, Sam Thewlis from Mumazing.

Can I start by saying I am scared?

It is nervewracking enough agreeing to guest post on someone else’s blog, let alone a blog you know and read, so thank you Sandy for having me, and thank you also to Erica at Little Mummy for putting me through this!

Sandy and I decided that we wanted to both attack the same topic, and Sandy came up with the title of Perfect Moments. Ignoring the strange mish mash of the Quality Street Magic Moments song and Martine McCutcheon now running round my head (which I naturally wanted to share with you all) I thought that was a pretty good title, and so here it is.

Perfect Moments

The idea behind us both having the same prompt was to see how differently we approached it, being two mums of similar age with two children each. I have already posted Sandy’s blog, and it was perhaps no surprise that we both cherish the little moments just as much as the big ones.

When I first starting thinking about perfect moments, my mind was naturally drawn to the obvious suspects, my wedding day, passing my exams and the births of my two wonderful children for example. But the problem with *just* having huge, life-changing perfect moments is that, by their very nature, these things are few and far between. I am not planning on having any more children, I am certainly not planning on getting married again (unless Mr Thewlis has other ideas!) and if I take any more exams, their effect is unlikely to be as profound as the ones I already have behind me.

I don’t want to limit my potential for perfect moments, and if these were my only such times, it would be a very sorry state of affairs if I were to think I had no more perfect moments left in life. So I take what I can get; a hundred kisses from my daughter, a cuddle from my son, a glint in my husband’s eye.

I know I have perfect moments waiting for me in the future; maybe my son will grow out of his allergies and eczema, maybe I will learn to love myself as much as I love my family; maybe my husband’s cancer will never return.

Maybe I will be mother of the bride, and maybe I will be mother of the groom, but I *will* be mummy, as well as wife, daughter and sister. Perfect in every moment.

Thank you Sam, a lovely post and a perfectly gorgeous photograph :-)





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Guest Post Day - Baby Baby Welcomes Sam from Mumazing

Proud to be Meme

Thanks to the lovely Linda at You've got your hands full for tagging me with the 'proud to be meme'. You can listen to Heather Small singing 'Proud' while you read if you like. Isn't youtube wonderful?!

I'm proud of so much in my life, but I also have a few not so proud skeletons lurking in the Calico closet. What do you mean you want to hear about those? No!

I' ll stick to listing five things that I'm proud of today:

1. Presley walked to and from playgroup today. He held on to Cash's pushchair all the way and stopped patiently on the kerb as I taught him the Green Cross Code.
2. At playgroup the boys were spectacularly well behaved, (if you ignore Presley trying to open the main door - my 'UH UH' cut through the hubbub and he walked sheepishly back). Today was the first time Presley asked to join the craft table. He glued some paper and felt on to a squirrel-shaped piece of paper. It's lovely *wipes away a tear*. Yes, child art work is still a novelty. Yes, it's going on the fridge!
3. I managed not to pass out with the pain when Cash whacked me round the face with the potty. I saw stars. Unfortunately not the George Clooney/Johnny Depp kind of stars.
4. We survived day five without CBeebies. I will write a post on this soon. Incidentally, our television was unplugged before the news report about the Aussies banning it for the under-twos. I just couldn't watch another episode of 'Big and Small'.
5. I'm proud of being involved in all this blogging erm... stuff:

• The Best of British Mummy Bloggers Carnival is being held by Antonia at Family Friendly Working.
• A Mother's Secrets has a collection of posts on pregnancy lows.
• I've written another Blogger Basics post for Carol at New Mummy's Tips, this time on adding images to posts.
• I've reviewed the best children's dressing up costume in the world ever on the Great Toy Guide. If you're looking for a Halloween costume you'll find the best twelve here.

Now to pass the meme on to five unsuspecting bloggers, off the top of my head:

Bringing Up Charlie

The Wife of Bold

Clarebabbling

The MadHouse

Gigi's Ramblings

Consider yourselves tagged!

Proud to be Meme

Here, There and Everywhere!

It's been a busy old week.

My head has been all over the place, a bit like my blog posts.

They've been here, there and everywhere.

Firstly there is still time to enter my little giveaway.

Click here to enter.

My tea set review has been published on the Great Toy Guide.

The Best of British Mummy Bloggers' carnival

is being hosted by the lovely New Mummy.

You can read my fragrant post and 41 others here.

I also have a post in the Boy or Girl debate at A Mother's Secrets.

And finally.....

I've written a guest post for New Mummy's Tips.

It's the first is a series, called Blogger Basics.

If you're new to blogging, and using Blogger, it's a must read.

Here, There and Everywhere!