Free Childcare in England vs Wales (England wins again)

"All 3 and 4-year-olds in England are entitled to 570 hours of free early education or childcare a year. This is often taken as 15 hours each week for 38 weeks of the year." [gov.uk]


In Wales however, the Wales.gov.uk equivalent page reads:

Sorry, the page you are looking for cannot be found. [Wales.gov.uk - as linked from above .gov.uk website]

It cannot not be found by searching the website for Early Years, or Rising 3s.

This doesn't surprise me at all, as the early year/ rising 3 funding in Wales is a challenge to understand.

As I understand it, it must have an education element, it cannot simply be free childcare, so my daughter had to move nursery to qualify.

Each child is entitled to attend up to 5 morning or afternoon sessions per week. These must be taken on separate days.

Each session is between 2 and 2.5 hours per day.

This is term time only.

Ok, so that makes sense, yes it does.

In my case, Miss Megan attends nursery all day, but her pre school session runs from 12:30 to 2:45 each day - 2 hours 15 per day

Given we have 39 weeks of education per year, I would expect her to receive just short of 439 hours of free childcare per year.

Already this puts Wales 131 hours of freeness down on England (or to put it another way, parents in Wales are £485 worse off than those in England)

But then when you query your nursery bill, it turns out the situation is slightly different to what it advertised.

Hours don't come it to it at all in Wales - each child receives £6.83 per session attended.

So off a monthly bill of £801, you get £111

Now let's put that back into hours - it's £1332 per year, doesn't sound bad initially, but in reality it doesn't cover the cost of the FREE sessions

Nursery is open 8am to 6pm (10 hours) and costs £37 per day, so £3.70

£1332, divided by £3.70 is actually only 360, meaning instead of the 439 hours I was expecting to receive, we actually only get 360 hours free per year - losing me another 80 hours on if we'd stayed living and working in England.

In reality we are 210 hours worse off per year than if we lived across the border. This is also known as £777

Put simply the government gives us 67p less per hour than we pay for the FREE sessions.

Therefore it costs  parents £130 for their child to attend the free sessions.

You might argue that our nursery is more expensive than average - but this is not true, in fact the nursery we moved from was more expensive again, and there is definitely no nursery in the area that charges less.

Potentially of course your child doesn't have to attend all day, they could just come for the free session and leave at the end.

While I was on maternity leave with my second child, Megan did this 2 days a week. But practically, although it may benefit the child in terms of an introduction to education, it would not allow the parent to work. 2 hours 15 is not really enough to do anything much at all.

Christmas tree baubles

This is a bit of an addition to my Paper mache Father Christmas decorations, rather than a completely new post or idea.

Basically you follow the instructions in the Paper mache Father Christmas decorations post to create a solid paper mache base, but then instead of proceeding to paint it pink and turn it into Father Christmas, we go down a very slightly more tasteful route!

You will need
 

• Pva glue mixed with a dash of water
• Paintbrush or spatular
• Christmas wrapping paper
• A paper mache bauble (see Paper mache Father Christmas decorations )
• Need and string

Begin by carefully ripping out motifs from your Christmas paper - e.g. a whole reindeer or penguin, the words Merry Christmas, or whatever is on your paper.

Set these aside, they go on last to ensure that they remain whole and are not covered by other layers.

Now rip the rest of your Christmas paper up any way you like.

Cover your bauble with glue and then build up a layer of Christmas paper.

Once the whole bauble is covered with bright Christmas paper, add the pieces you set aside earlier as a final layer, trying to keep the motifs whole.

Finally, once dry, take your needle and firmly, but slowly, push it through the top of the shell and pull string through to create a hanging loop.

Then you're done!

Paper mache Father Christmas decorations

So these are simple paper mache decorations, built from scratch using nothing but scrap paper and then decorated with felt.

However, they are also my revenge Christmas decorations! Every time my mum visits she brings more and more toys and bag loads of plastic tat, which subsequently ends up strewn across my living room.

As way of thanks, little Nutmeg and I are making her lots of very beautiful Christmas decorations which I am sure she will treasure (and feel obliged to display!)

As each layer is added it will need to dry, so this is a project that we have been adding bits to every day this week. (Perfect for a 3 year old who gets bored quickly as she can do a little bit each night)

You will need

• PVA glue mixed with a dash of water
• Paint brush or glue spatula
• Balloon (or water bomb for nice round shape)
• Scrap newspaper or brown paper
• Pink paint or pink paper
• 1 sheet of red and 1 sheet of white felt (or thick paper)
• Black pen
• Scissors
• Toilet roll tubes (optional)

Getting started

Blow up your balloon to the desired size. My decorations are going to be hung on a tree, so were kept quite small, but there is no reason why you couldn't go BIGGER!

Mix some PVA glue with a little water

Rip up your scrap paper into small pieces (it is important that it is torn and not cut so that the edges blend better)

Next begin covering your balloons in glue and then paper, painting each piece of paper with glue as you go

Once the balloon is covered in paper, it's ok to add a second layer of paper immediately.

After this, place your balloon on a toilet roll while it dries (avoid it sticking to the table etc)

Once completely dry it's time to burst and remove the balloon...

Make sure that you are holding the end of the balloon as you burst it to ensure that the balloon doesn't fall inside your decoration.

Then gently wiggle it out through the hole.

At this point your decoration should be quite firm, but would benefit from a couple more layers to give it extra strength and to cover the exit hole.

Paint the whole decoration with glue and add 1-2 more layers of paper.

Standing the decoration on a toilet roll tube may make this easier and avoid sticky fingers.

After letting decorations dry over night, either paint pink them or cover them in pink paper

Either way, they will need to dry again...

Now for decoration

To make the hat, draw a circle on the red felt/paper and cut it out.

Cut this in half and then wrap it around to create a cone. Gluing down the seam.

Add a strip of white along the bottom and then add details like a beard, mouth, eyebrows and eyes

My final step will be to put a piece of white wool through the hats so that they can be hung on a Christmas tree.

Alternatively you could colour/decorate the toilet roll tube and display your Father Christmas as a standing decoration.

With the 3rd balloon we covered, we will be making an angel/fairy for the top of the tree next week. Isn't my Mum a lucky Grandma!!!

(Please see also a slightly more tasteful version of this craft project where the baubles are covered in Christmas wrapping paper - Christmas tree baubles )

Sew simple, homemade Christmas cards

Sew simple Christmas cards (made by a 3 year old)

Christmas is coming and my daughter is at home with me (and her baby brother) 2 days a week, so I am always looking for things we can do together.

It's an extra bonus if it isn't messy and makes something that you might actually want at the end of it! I think this ticks both of these boxes.

Today we made Christmas cards from blank cards and scraps of coloured wool.
Megan is only 3 and hers came out good enough to send (with help of course) so I am sure older children will enjoy this and be able to create their own designs too.

You will need...

• Blank cards and envelopes (mine were from John Lewis)
• Pencil
• Bodkin (not very sharp wool needle)
• Coloured wool
• Merry Christmas stickers/stamp (optional - especially if your children are old enough to write, my stamp was from John Lewis)

Let's do it...

Begin by drawing out your design on the blank card. As wool is quite thick it is ok to do this on the right side (front) of the card, the wool will cover any lines.

 



Next take your needle and make guide holes through the card evenly around the design. This will make sewing much simpler and mean that your child is only gently pushing the needle through an existing hole rather than needing to force it through the card.

Now begin to sew between the existing holes. This should be done using back stitch where you skip a hole, and then work back to the previous hole filling in a gap. The next stitch is then started from end of the previous stitch. (repeat)

 

It is not essential that back stitch is used, but this avoids oversewing the whole design twice and means the back of the design shouldn't be too untidy

 

 

Finally tie off any loose ends and add a greeting of your choice.

 

Simple but I'm sure our family will like receiving cards Megan has made herself.

 

 

 

 



Secret centre spooky spider (halloween) cakes

Just finished baking these spider Halloween cakes with my 3 year old. She is so pleased with them I'm not sure how she'll wait for her grandparents to come on Sunday to show them. The poor postman only just managed to get away without being dragged in to see Megan's cakes!

As well as the spider decoration on the top, these cakes also have a hidden jammy centre (and taste fantastic!)



You'll need...

For the cakes

• 12 Cupcake cases
• 2 large eggs
• 120g Self raising flour
• 140g Caster sugar
• 140g Marg or butter
• 30g cocoa powder
• Jam

For the decoration

• 12 Minstrels (or similar, like Maltesers)
• Fruit strings/laces (see footnote)
• (Around) 100g icing sugar
• 5 Blackberries

 
Make the cake mix...

1. Pre heat the oven to 160
2. Whack the caster sugar and butter into a large bowl and whisk until light and fluffy
3. Next sift half the flour into the bowl
4. Add an egg
5. Mix well
6. Add the remaining flour, cocoa powder and egg
7. Mix well

Make now hide the jam!

1. Put 2 teaspoons of the cake mix into each cupcake case
2. Then, into the centre of each case add a teaspoon of jam

1. Gently cover the jam with the remaining cake mix (but try not to overfill)

1. Bake for 25-30 minutes

Now for the decoration

1. Warm the blackberries over a pan of boiling water until they are soft and can be squashed into the icing sugar

1. Keep stirring in icing sugar until you have bright purple lumpy icing that is spreadable but not too runny (add a drop of water if necessary)

1. Ice each of the cakes and allow to set for a couple of minutes while you cut up the laces to make legs

1. Place a Minstrel into the centre of each cake, and then push the legs gently into the icing around the Minstrel (using artist licence about how many legs each spider may have)

Spider (hidden centre) Halloween cupcake recipe

(Little footnote on strings/laces.... I used real fruit strings(see image below) but these could be strawberry laces or liquorish

Personalise your own Christmas stockings

I was looking for small personalised stocking on the internet and was amazed that they were around £20.

I know these aren't quite as good, but they cost me £3.75 each, and were very simple to make. In fact if you have older children, they might be able to do this themselves.

You'll need

• Christmas stockings (£3 from Morrisons)
• Coloured felt (50p per sheet from Hobbycraft)
• Embroidery thread
• Needle
• Sharp scissor
• Pen
• Paper and laptop (optional)
• Glue (optional)

Let's get on...

ok, so the laptop is optional, but helps if you want to trace the letters onto paper first.

I usually use WordArt to create the letters in the correct size and then trace them onto paper.

Next, cut out the letter templates and draw around them on another piece of paper to create a second slightly smaller letter.

Draw around the larger letter (reversed - so the pen is on the back) on the white felt, and the smaller letter (reversed) on the coloured felt.

It may then help to glue or pin the two letters together and then on to the stocking.

Finally, using 3 strands of and backstitch, sew the letters on to the stocking with a single line.

Simples!

(No sew) personalised applique t-shirt

This is a really simple way to personalise a plain vest or t-shirt, with a name, word or design of your choice.

Bondaweb allows the design to be easily traced and then simply ironed on to your garment.

The design can then be stitched in place for extra decoration and security, or left as it is.

My personalised baby's Christmas vest took around 15 minutes start to end, and very little skill!

You will need

• Laptop (optional to help with design)
• Bondaweb
• Pencil
• Sharp scissors
• Scraps of coloured material
• Garment to personalise (vest, t-shirt, bag etc)
• Iron

Let's do it!

So the laptop...this is to help get the lettering or design right.

To make this easy, to use Word Art to get the lettering the correct size for my item (make sure it will fit!!)

The main thing to remember is that once transferred the design will be reversed.

So take a screenshot, paste it into Paint and then flip the design so it's back to front

Then trace the design onto the smooth side of the bondaweb - one side feels like paper, the other is rough. It is important you always get the paper the right way up, or your design will be ironed on to your iron rather than the t shirt!

Next choose your material and most importantly make sure the design is still reversed and that the rough side is down. You should also be laying the design onto the back of the fabric.

If any of your letters (e.g. the O) look the same both ways around, it may help to also write your initial on the paper to help you determine the right side of the paper.

Use a hot iron to apply the design, making sure the heat is equally applied (right to the edges) and that steam is turned off.

 

Cut out the letters/design...

The bondaweb backing paper should then simply peel off

Finally lay out your design, the correct way round and on the correct side of your garment, and then iron.

If you fancy it, you can then add backstitching and buttons to embellish your design - here's one I made earlier