Family Recipes

Welcome to our new Recipe Page - we are going to be building this page up over the next year but there are already some great ideas for something different for the family to try - please visit this page regularly and if you have any recipe ideas please email them in.

World Foods For Children

Annabel Karmel, MBE – the UK’s leading expert and author on children’s food – is launching an exciting new range of very different meals for children, taking inspiration from fabulous cuisines around the world. The new World Foods provide a convenient solution for busy parents and, with their international flavours, can really help develop your child’s palate to ensure they don’t become fussy eaters with a taste for bland foods

Out of the chorus and into the spotlight

The success of TV shows like X-Factor and Britain’s Got Talent has left a generation of children that are obsessed with the idea of being a famous pop star.  Unfortunately not everyone was born with a set of lungs like Leona Lewis, or Girls Aloud. If you think that your little darling could do with some help, then you’re in luck. Nicki Chapman of Popstars and Pop Idol fame is here to share her top tips on giving a winning performance.

Credit crunch hits disabled children

Disabled children across the UK are emerging as some of the largest victims being hit hard by the credit crunch.  The UK’s leading child disability charity, Newlife Foundation for Disabled Children, has reported an alarming increase in requests for help from struggling parents refused assistance by the government funded statutory services, turning to the charity.

Countdown to Christmas

Ah yes, it’s the season to be jolly-well stressed! As if the other eleven months of the year weren’t hectic enough for busy parents, December brings with it a unique concoction to test wits, resolve and the will power of fraught grown-ups across the nation. But if you think you’ve got things tough, just think.

Kids Stealing Parent's Details

A fifth of children are going behind their parents' backs and shopping online without parental permission. And half of those who buy through the internet are using their own parents' credit cards to make purchases. That's according to research from life assistance company CPP.

Get Your Skates On

Lifting children out of the winter doldrums is often more of a challenge than the fight to reduce winter energy bills, and getting them to venture outside can seem like a near impossible task. Mind you who can blame anyone for wanting to stay in during the bleakest months of the year? After all who wants to step beyond the front door into variable and blustery elements when a snug homely environment is oh-so inviting.

Anti Bullying Week 2008

Every year in November the Anti-Bullying Alliance, runs
a national Anti-Bullying Week. During this week lots
of people in England get together to stand up against
bullying. It’s a chance for children, young people and
adults, in school and in the community, to work together
to stop bullying. Bullying is not cool or funny – it’s always wrong and is very hurtful.

Lifting The Lid On Lunchboxes

Packed lunches eh? Days were when we were all happy with a cheese sandwich, carton of drink, some bruised fruit and a packet of crisps. But that’s all changed now, as the numerous healthy eating campaigns over recent years have emphasised the need to ensure children are getting the nutrients they need to see them through the day.

Green's Family Website

The UK's top children's cooking expert and TV personality, Annabel Karmel, has joined forces with Britain’s much-loved baking company, Green’s, to whip up the ready made recipe of Marshmallow Sheep Cake Kit for kids to enjoy this Christmas.  Complete with marshmallows, buttercream topping and decorating tube, the easy-to-make cake kits can also be made into snowmen.  The dual recipes in one cake kit are available to buy in supermarkets from November 2008 and are designed to keep even the littlest baker out of mischief during the holidays!

Sporting in a Winter Wonderland

As the last rays of summer sun fade to a distantmemory it's time to look forward to the delightsof the winter season.  Stop right there, remove from your thoughts that tempting picture of snuggling down in front of the TV in your big fluffy slippers and baggy top dipping your hands in a box of chocs, cocooned away until the first daffodil rears it's head.

Oz Clarke’s favourite tipple

British wine taster extraordinaire Oz Clarke has admitted that his desert island drink wouldn’t be some grand red wine, an exalted champagne or a venerable vintage port. Instead he would choose the drink of his childhood, pure British organic milk, and in our video Oz is teaching the nation how to become a connoisseur of the white stuff.

Wish you were back on the beach?

Independent beach review site Onbeach.com (www.onbeach.com) compares over 3000 beaches in Western Europe using over 100 criteria such as cleanliness, facilities and suitability for swimming.  

Butterfly Conservation

Schools Minister Jim Knight has launched a new children’s website as part of celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of the charity Butterfly Conservationremarkably, as he was posing for pictures at the launch, a Red Admiral butterfly landed beside him and then moved onto his finger.

How to be butty brilliant

The sandwich was born and 'bread' in Britain, and our love of sarnies is famous the world over. Concerns about cash in recent times have prompted a swing away from buying pricey shop-bought sandwiches and back to making our own. More and more people are packing their own lunches and eating them 'al desco' at work, and in doing so they're inadvertently rediscovering the joys of the classic British sarnie. And, if it needed to be said, schoolkids love them too.

Kidspoints

Kidspoints is the world’s first reward system for kids and parents available online and via the mobile phone.  A new FUN, FREE ‘positive parenting’ tool, Kidspoints recreates the popular concept of reward wall charts online that offer a helping hand to parents and fit in with today’s busy family lifestyle.  Available to everyone from September 2008, Kidspoints is guaranteed to point both parents and kids in the right direction.

Preparing To Welcome Home Baby

It’s amazing to see, despite months of planning; how ill prepared some new parents are for the arrival of their little bundle of joy. Many aren’t aware of the implications of having a little person join their family at all and have no real understanding of the basic do’s and don’ts.

KIDS GO DIPPY FOR HOUMOUS

Gone are the days of feeding children a mashed banana and a cheese sandwich.  Their tastes are now much more sophisticated, with houmous becoming a staple in many parts of the country, particularly in London according to a recent survey of mums with children.

Family Breakdown – Child Support

Parents who are separated each have a legal duty to maintain their child which means both parents are financially responsible for their child, broadly speaking if (s)he is 16 years old or under, or up to the age of 19 years and in full time secondary education. 

Preston Museums Group

If you’re looking for a brilliant family day out in Preston, meet the Hands On Gang who want to introduce you to round 5 great museums across the city ! 

Lighten Up the Lunchbox

There has been a lot of media coverage recently about getting children to eat healthily but getting children to “eat their greens” has always been a problem since time began!

Connecting Parents

A groundbreaking new online service and social networking site supporting parental relationships will be unveiled at the DCSF’s Parent Know How showcase on Wednesday 7 May 2008. Thecoupleconnection.net is being developed by the UK’s leading relationship research organisation One Plus One, to help couples understand and work on their relationships.

Entertaining the kids becomes child’s play

Although you want to keep the kids entertained over the holidays, day-trips out with the family can be a nightmare if you don’t plan them properly.  Above all you want the kids to have a good time and stay safe. The question is: How do you turn this into a reality with minimum effort?

Invest in your Child's Future

Uphill all the way, with plenty of scope for a serious fall:
starting adult life from a financial viewpoint can be likened to scaling a mountain. So when it’s time for your child to turn 18, wouldn’t it be great to give them enough cash to establish a solid base and help them take that mighty step upwards towards independence.

Making Story Time Special

Every parent understands the importance of reading to their child but exactly when should you start? According to new research more then three quarters of parents begin reading to their child before their first birthday and over a fifth introduce their kids to the world of books before they are 3 months old!

Kid's Kitchen

With obesity reaching epidemic proportions, the emphasis on healthy eating for children has reached an all time high. It goes without saying that wholesome nutritious food should form an integral part of the diet, and by blending this into a daily menu plan will help us and our children avoid treading onto the slippery road to obesity.

Road Safety Week

Parents are being encouraged to think now about how they can get involved with national Road Safety Week 2008, which runs from 10-16 November. The theme of this year’s week is 'Family Safety - Protect the Ones you Love'

Being a Mum!

It’s that special time of year when I get my breakfast in bed with the Sunday papers and a lovely cup of tea - aaah ….. it must be Mother’s Day! But what does being a Mum really mean to you?

How to build a Confident Child

Confidence comes in many packages, in many different forms of character, but it is always closely linked to a foundation of healthy self-esteem. Your child will be handed a passport to happy, healthy social skills and success as an adult if he or she has this sense of self-worth. Nurturing self-esteem is one of the greatest gifts a parent can give to a child, so let’s look at a number of ways on how it can be achieved.

Belt your kids for their own safety call

Belt ‘em up and keep ‘em safe is the message being put out to parents this week by the Staffordshire Casualty Reduction Partnership. It is a shocking fact that around 2000 child deaths or injuries would be prevented if children were always restrained correctly when travelling in vehicles.

MUSIC MANIFESTO OFF KEY FOR PARENTS OF PRE-SCHOOLERS

Leading pre-school music and movement group, Jo Jingles has launched a call to action to get families with pre-school children singing in the home and for both parental and child participation in music groups to be seen as of equal importance to swimming classes and gym tot activities.

Parents more open to hard drugs than hard drives

Despite living in a world of 3G mobiles, PDAs, and mp3 players parents are not the software-savvy role models you would hope for.  Even computer literate parents would prefer to chat about the trying topics of alcohol abuse and bullying than strike up a conversation about modern technology.

Dealing with Divorce

In the early days of separation, children may find that they have to move house, change school, and start to divide their time between Mum and Dad.   With the parents suddenly living under separate roofs, money issues may arise, and puts pressure on whoever pays the bills, the mortgage and so on. As a result, a child may find that the trickle of life's little luxuries temporarily dries up.

Dads are as Good as Mums

7 out of 10 mums (68%) believe dads are as skilled at parenting as they are, yet the father role is seen as still secondary by much of society, according to new ICM research launched by the Fatherhood Institute today.  The new institute says involving fathers has a major impact on child welfare yet they spend on average a month less with their children than mums every year, mainly because of unsocial hours and inflexible working.

Improving Child Literacy Gaps in Britain

The Department for children, schools and families recently released results about 7 year-olds schooling, stating that writing standards have fallen for the second year (80% reaching the expected standard, down from 82% in 2005).

Pre-school nerves make starting school a bed-wetting experience

Thousands of children began their first day at school last week and while many of us might look back on one of life’s major rites-of-passage with fond memories, many children are so terrified; it results in wetting the bed.

Children's Poetry

Josie Whitehead is a retired teacher who has written hundreds of children’s rhyming poems and, at the request of children in her local primary school, has made them freely available on her own internet website.  What makes them especially valuable is that she has added her own clear voice recording to the poems, to help the children with their reading

Tantrums

When a child throws a tantrum in front of his peers in school, it may frighten other children and make it more difficult for that child to form friendships and to be included in playground games. The safest and best place to deal with tantrums is in the loving environment of home, as that is usually where the first tantrum happens.

How to Hire Private Tutors Safely

Despite the fact that one in four families in the UK employs private tutors for their children (University of London, Institute of Education 9/05), tutoring is an unregulated “industry”.  This means that, unlike teachers who work with schools, private tutors do not have to have a Criminal Records Bureau check or even a university degree to teach. 

Bullying - How Parents Cope

What do you imagine was the most common problem dealt with by Childline during the past year?  Believe it or not, more than 20,000 children and young people last year called the charity with their concerns about bullying. And in a survey by the organisation, half of primary school children said that they had been bullied in some way or other in the last 12 months. So, how can parents deal with the issue?

Modern Parenting

If you are lucky enough not to fall straightaway, after a while you will finely tune this balancing act. But before you know it, your children will grow. And as they get bigger, you have to start finding the perfect balance all over again. That is what being a parent feels like to everybody - not just to you. More challenging than a commando obstacle course: more rewarding than an Olympic gold medal.

Cost of Raising Children reaches £180,000

Children come with a £180,000 price tag If you think babies are expensive, wait until they get to university. Esther Shaw on the cost of child-rearing Published: 12 August 2007. What price parenthood? The cost of food, clothing and childcare soon mounts up, and that's before you've even contemplated putting your child through higher education.

Car Seat Belt Safety for Children

Car manufacturers need to ramp up their safety measures for children according to the Local Authority Road Safety Officers’ Association (LARSOA). Consumers have already been alarmed by a new Which? survey that urged them not to buy four models of child car seats that failed their latest round of safety tests.

Swimming

“There is nothing quite the look on a young child’s face when they put their face in water, blow bubbles and realise that learning to swim really is possible” So says Carol Taylor a local authority swimming coach based in the North.

The Pinocchio Effect

Children telling lies at any age can be a problem for parents, for teachers and for the children themselves. Tell-tale signs can be hard to spot by even the most clued-up parent. Jane Sullivan presents possible solutions.

Get Your Skates On

Lifting children out of the winter doldrums is often more of a challenge than the fight to reduce winter energy bills, and getting them to venture outside can seem like a near impossible task. Mind you who can blame anyone for wanting to stay in during the bleakest months of the year? After all who wants to step beyond the front door into variable and blustery elements when a snug homely environment is oh-so inviting.