• Almost always open
CalmFamily
  • FIND US
    Local consultant
  • CALL or TEXT
    (44) 07943 064 853​
  • EMAIL US
    hello@calmfamily.org
  • Preparing for baby
  • Home
    • About CalmFamily
    • Meet the team
    • Contact us
    • Media and press
    • FAQs
  • Family education
    • BirthCalm
      • Birth choices workshop
      • Caesarean birth workshop
      • Birth after caesarean workshop
      • Pregnancy calming classes
      • Your calm birth course
    • BabyCalm
      • Preparing for baby course
      • Fourth trimester
      • The new baby course
      • Calmer beginnings group
      • Calmer babies workshop
      • Building babies brains workshop
      • The developing baby course
      • Calmer baby sleep
      • Calmer weaning workshop
    • ToddlerCalm
      • Toddler behaviour
      • Toddler sleep
      • Toddler eating
      • Building better brains
      • Toilet learning
      • ToddlerCalm course
    • NurtureCalm... loading
      • Nurturing newborns
      • Nurturing baby
      • NurtureCalm toddler
      • NurtureCalm develop
    • ChildCalm - coming 2020
  • Professional education
    • Development events
      • CPD November Manchester
    • Consultant training
    • More coming soon
  • Find support
    • Find a consultant
      • South Central
      • South East
      • South West
      • London
      • West England and Wales
      • East England
      • Home Counties
      • Midlands
      • Yorkshire
      • Lancashire
      • North West & Cumbria
      • Scotland
      • Northern Ireland
      • The Channel Islands
      • International
    • CalmFamily online support hub
    • Bonnie Parenting online community (for Scotland)
  • Training
    • New online consultant training
    • Dates and booking 2021
    • Training information
    • Consultant specialisms
      • Birth specialist training
      • Baby specialist training
      • Toddler specialist training
      • Nurture specialist training
      • Child specialist training
    • Training FAQs
    • Community membership
  • Blog
  • Hire & buy
    • Free stretchy wrap hire
    • Carrying
    • Calming
    • Sleeping
    • Playing
    • Eating
    • It's a Sling Thing
  • Home
    • About CalmFamily
    • Meet the team
    • Contact us
    • Media and press
    • FAQs
  • Family education
    • BirthCalm
      • Birth choices workshop
      • Caesarean birth workshop
      • Birth after caesarean workshop
      • Pregnancy calming classes
      • Your calm birth course
    • BabyCalm
      • Preparing for baby course
      • Fourth trimester
      • The new baby course
      • Calmer beginnings group
      • Calmer babies workshop
      • Building babies brains workshop
      • The developing baby course
      • Calmer baby sleep
      • Calmer weaning workshop
    • ToddlerCalm
      • Toddler behaviour
      • Toddler sleep
      • Toddler eating
      • Building better brains
      • Toilet learning
      • ToddlerCalm course
    • NurtureCalm... loading
      • Nurturing newborns
      • Nurturing baby
      • NurtureCalm toddler
      • NurtureCalm develop
    • ChildCalm - coming 2020
  • Professional education
    • Development events
      • CPD November Manchester
    • Consultant training
    • More coming soon
  • Find support
    • Find a consultant
      • South Central
      • South East
      • South West
      • London
      • West England and Wales
      • East England
      • Home Counties
      • Midlands
      • Yorkshire
      • Lancashire
      • North West & Cumbria
      • Scotland
      • Northern Ireland
      • The Channel Islands
      • International
    • CalmFamily online support hub
    • Bonnie Parenting online community (for Scotland)
  • Training
    • New online consultant training
    • Dates and booking 2021
    • Training information
    • Consultant specialisms
      • Birth specialist training
      • Baby specialist training
      • Toddler specialist training
      • Nurture specialist training
      • Child specialist training
    • Training FAQs
    • Community membership
  • Blog
  • Hire & buy
    • Free stretchy wrap hire
    • Carrying
    • Calming
    • Sleeping
    • Playing
    • Eating
    • It's a Sling Thing

The CalmFamily community blog

Categories

All
Acceptance
Activities
Babies
Baby Experts
Baby Products
Baby Sleep
Babywearing
Behaviour
Birth
Bonding
Children
Christmas
Collaborative Business
Connection
Coparenting
Danielle Heap
Discipline
Emily Wilding Fackrell
Equality
Expectations
Infant Feeding
Mothers
Neuropsychology
Pregnancy
Professionals
Rhythm
Screen Time
Siblings
Teenagers
Toddler
Toddlers
Travel

Archives

April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
March 2019
November 2018
September 2018
July 2018
June 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
October 2017
September 2017
March 2017
January 2017
November 2016
May 2016
January 2016
January 2014
December 2013
October 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
October 2012
September 2012
May 2012
April 2012
February 2012

Simple games with wooden blocks

30/3/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Everyone has some sort of building blocks right? Even if you don't there's bound to be something in your house that you can use instead. In this series of blogs the aim is to get you thinking creatively about the materials you have to hand and how you can use them in different ways to play with your children.

At at time when it's difficult if not impossible for some to get out of the house and add to your collection of available resources, its really helping me to improvise with what we have. If you've already read the Lego blog, a lot of those activities will also work with wooden block and vice versa. There are so many possibilities for creating games and activities with these simple materials without costing you a penny. 

Once you've done a couple of them with your small people and given them some inspiration as to what they can do with the blocks, it's likely they'll start coming up with ideas and adaptations of their own. So, you can grab yourself a well earned cuppa or get in half hour of email catch up in (works for me about 50% of the time anyway!)
​

Read More
0 Comments

Alternative activities with tech

27/3/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
It's been the subject of many a conversation over the last week or so; tech, screen time, devices… To impose limits or not to impose limits? To allow more freedom and flexibility or not? Now, I'm not actually here to tell you the answer to that I'm afraid. Striking a balance and what works for you and your family is the key here and only you know what's best.
 
What I can offer you, however is some ideas for using tech in ways that might not spring to mind immediately. When we think of devices and screen time we tend to default to thinking we are somehow doing something wrong. The activities we tend to associate with them is watching cartoons and playing games.
 
It's so much more than that, my small folk love tech and so do I. There's a whole world of things out there for you can learn and do and discover!
​

Read More
0 Comments

Store Cupboard Play Dough

26/3/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
​My small folk love play dough, it's one of those activities that will literally entertain my 3 and 4 year old for a good hour or so. I've always made my own, something I started, mainly due to cost when my, now teens were small and I've been doing it ever since. I can knock up a batch of this in less than 10 minutes for pennies which, when money is tight makes a big difference.
 
I also find it doesn't dry out as quickly as the commercial stuff and the recipe is very forgiving of you not having quite the right ingredients! That's quite handy at the moment when nipping to the shop for supplies isn't practical or even possible.
 
I use a cooked method for making play dough, there are lots of other methods on the internet and I'm not saying this one is the best, but it is the best one I've tried. It's pretty foolproof and lasts well for a month or so in a sandwich bag so you will get lots of play sessions from a single batch.

Read More
0 Comments

Activities with a pen and a piece of paper

25/3/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
This really is as simple as it sounds! These are all activities that you can do easily at home with a pen and a piece of paper and that can be really flexible it doesn't need to be a pen and there are loads of different options when it comes to paper. There is no additional equipment required today, in order to do all the activities listed here, you will need.

A pen

If you don't have a pen, then a pencil, pencil crayon, felt tip, marker pen, was crayon, piece of charcoal literally anything you can use for mark making.
​

Paper

Any paper is fine and can be used and adapted for the activities here. You can use printer paper, sugar paper, card, scrap paper, the back of an envelope, an old colouring book, a note pad or old diary, anything you can draw on will work just fine.

Read More
0 Comments

Activities With Lego

24/3/2020

0 Comments

 
​The idea behind this is to get you thinking about really simple stuff you can do with your small folk that really is no cost and involves only the things that you have lying around at home. This involves a bit of creative thinking and using what you've got in a different way. I'm going to try and help you to not feel restricted by not having the 'right' things available and learn to improvise with what you have to hand instead.
​
Picture

​To do all these activities you will need

10 lego bricks per person - If you don't have lego/duplo them wooden blocks or stickle bricks or dominoes or jenga or anything that you can stack up basically.
 
A dice - if you don't have one, perhaps check your board games you may find one there, or a spinner from a game or even a random number generator on your phone will work.
 
A tea towel - or a muslin square or a sheet of paper or some kitchen towel or a
​t-shirt. Anything that you can use to cover things up
 
Tape - or string or a ruler or a piece of paper or the edge of your rug, anything you can mark a straight line with.
​

Read More
0 Comments

Emergency budgeting

23/3/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
​​​​​​Things are really scary at the moment and lots of us have money worries right now. If you're off work because you're self isolating, if you have Corona virus, if your workplace is shut or your self employed you might be really concerned about your finances. I'm hoping that this will also come in handy (as it has in the past for me) when I've had a really bad month or the car has had to be replaced or I've had an unexpected bill as a way to make it through in the short term.

Read More
0 Comments

Announcement: CalmFamily is growing

17/3/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture

We are hugely excited to announce that...

CalmFamily and It’s A Sling Thing are merging to create CalmFamily LTD, one organisation dedicated to supporting families in the UK, and as we work together, globally.

Our two companies have been working together closely for the last year and with an aligned vision we are ready to take the next steps together. This merger will be finalised on 24th March 2020. Through research, education, and support,

CalmFamily brings evidence-based knowledge of human needs and development, and individualised strategies, to families and professionals, so as to create a world where humans can lead calmer and more equal lives.

The CalmFamily values of Evidence, Equality, Empathy, Empowerment, Excellence and Ethics will underpin all the work we do together. We will be continuing to work as a social enterprise, with our company structured to ensure that part of all profits will be reinvested into community projects to support families. The company will continue to provide all the services we are now. The excellent CalmFamily training, the support of the CalmFamily consultant community and development of new programs, the shop retailing ethical and useful products and the online sling library and advice service. For the short term we will continue to trade under separate names but there will be a move to trade solely as CalmFamily, with the launch of a new website later in 2020. All current memberships of CalmFamily and of It’s A Sling Thing will remain valid with the same terms. All bookings of training and sling hires will remain valid. For now, business will continue as usual. We plan to develop the services we offer and will continue to keep you updated with any and all changes.

​We are incredibly grateful for your continued support of both CalmFamily and It’s A Sling Thing and hope that you will continue to support us as we move the CalmFamily community together. If you have any queries please get in touch with us at hq@calmfamily.org
0 Comments

    Categories

    All
    Acceptance
    Activities
    Babies
    Baby Experts
    Baby Products
    Baby Sleep
    Babywearing
    Behaviour
    Birth
    Bonding
    Children
    Christmas
    Collaborative Business
    Connection
    Coparenting
    Danielle Heap
    Discipline
    Emily Wilding Fackrell
    Equality
    Expectations
    Infant Feeding
    Mothers
    Neuropsychology
    Pregnancy
    Professionals
    Rhythm
    Screen Time
    Siblings
    Teenagers
    Toddler
    Toddlers
    Travel

    Archives

    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    May 2016
    January 2016
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    October 2012
    September 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012

    RSS Feed

Picture

  Company


about
contact
testimonials
terms and conditions
privacy policy
meet the team
faqs
blog
media & press
shop and library
consultant log in

Contact


hello@calmfamily.org
07943 064853
Find local services

 ​Receive our emails


Sign up
Photos used under Creative Commons from Ah Wei (Lung Wei), philwarren, treehouse1977
© Copyright ​2016-2019 CalmFamily CIC