Learning made fun

Including Visually Impaired Children Into Pre-School Activity Groups

At Musical Minis we realise that every child is unique and will benefit from the Musical Minis programme in a way that fits in with its ability, age and stage of development. The programme is child centred and allows the child to develop at a pace suitable to that individual child.

The Musical Minis programme caters for children from birth to school age and has mixed aged classes. Each child takes from the programme what is suitable for it at that stage of its development. The programme is all inclusive and children of all abilities and cultures can join in. For these reasons we welcome children with special needs and medical conditions as we know they will benefit from attending.

As long as the class leader has an idea of the child's needs they can make sure that the programme can support that individual. As you may know, my youngest child, Emily, is severely longsighted - you can read about how we found out here. At groups like Musical Minis, it was important that she was supported in a way that she knew what was happening so that she felt safe and confident with her surroundings. We have quite a few children who attend Musical Minis with various levels of vision.

Tea India - A Review

I was delighted to receive some teabags to sample and review from a new range of tea from Tea India. Tea India has launched some Indian tea blends, which are now available in the UK.

Tea India have been inspired by the fusion of tradition with the vibrancy of modern India. The range includes a premium Black Tea and three authentic chai flavours, Masala, Vanilla and Cardamom Chai. These bold flavours have been inspired to create the vibrancy of the bazaars where enterprising chai wallahs would serve them in steaming glasses to busy shoppers.

I was sent a pack of Cardamom Chai teabags, which has been awarded a 1 Star Gold rating in the Great Taste Awards. In addition I received  a pack of Tea India's Black Tea teabags, which has won a 2 Star Gold rating in the Great Taste Awards. The Great Taste Awards, which I must admit I had never heard of, is organised by the Guild of Fine Food, and is the acknowledged benchmark for speciality food and drink.

Aeroplane Toilets - Hours Of Fun!

On a recent flight, due to a problem with the seat pouch where the items are stored inflight eg. magazines, Rob and I were moved to preferred seats. Whilst these seats had lots of leg room, as they were by one of the emergency exits, they were also right by the toilets.

We thought this would be a major drawback, with people queuing by our seats and the smell from the toilets but instead they provided our inflight entertainment and were much more fun than watching the film!

I really don't like aeroplane toilets - I think it's because when they flush I think everything on board is going to be sucked out into space, including me! Watching people go into and out of them provided hours of entertainment though.

Numerous people had difficulty opening the toilet door. Despite a large sign on the door saying 'push' people think they have to pull the door or open the ashtray to get in. Quite why there are still ashtrays outside the toilets when all flights are non smoking I'm not sure - maybe they're there to entertain people sitting in the preferred seats! Some people spent about a minute trying to get the door to open and despite the vacant sign decided someone must be in there.