Home, Health & Style

Living With Rosie – My Child Has Special Needs

Rosie wrote an article last week for Jump! Mag, telling us about her life on a farm. What you did not know when you read that piece, is that Rosie has special needs. Her mother explains how it is to live with a child with special needs.

 

I believe that you know immediately after giving birth that your child is different somehow.

As they grow, you notice that some milestones are different from the ones that your other children had and you silently chide yourself for comparing them.

Slower with walking, not speaking, unusual behaviour, unusual reactions to noise or red food.

You live with it every day and it becomes normal behaviour to you and your family, you adapt to the child’s needs and try to help them make sense of all that their jumbled up senses bring them.

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Popular, Science, Nature and Tech

Untangling Quantum Entanglement and Teleportation – A Child-friendly Explanation

child friendly explanation of quantum entanglement

You may have heard something on the news recently about an exciting scientific discovery, of Quantum Entanglement and Teleportation. Sometimes it can be quite hard to untangle a news story like this, because it all sounds rather complicated. Our new Science Writer, Samantha Gouldson has ironed out the details and explains Quantum Entanglement and Teleportation in a child-friendly manner.

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Food and Recipes, Home, Health & Style

Egg Box Gardening

I started a little experiment of my own this spring. I wanted to find an easy way of sowing seeds for growing vegetables at home. I have a small veggie patch, but I worked out last year that I could grow a lot more, if only I had  many more seedlings to plant out.

But sowing seeds can be a bit fiddly, and then you’ve got to plant out each tiny plant. That takes a lot of time. I wanted more veggies for less work, so I collected as many egg boxes as I could find, and sowed seeds into each egg holder. The pictures show the planting and growing on of broad beans, but I have also used the egg boxes for runner beans, radishes, beetroots, spinach, tomatoes, rocket, pak choi and patty pans.

And it’s not too late to start growing your own right now. You don’t even need a veggie patch in the garden; plant the egg boxes into a pot or container for your window sill or patio.

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School & Career

Unsung Heroes – Lollipop Men and Women

Is there a Lollipop Man or Woman on your road to school? Do you know his or her name?
When I take my children to school, we walk  if we can, because the parking situation near the school is a bit difficult. On our way we cross the road where the Lollipop Man stands guard.
He isn’t particularly talkative, but is friendly and helpful. It has been warm these past days, and still he stands, in his reflective jacket and ear-muffed reflective hat. I am waiting for him to take the hat off, he must be sweltering under there. Perhaps he has a lighter hat in his cupboard, which doesn’t get worn until summer.

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Written By You

I Love You Natty – A Siblings Introduction to Down’s Syndrome

My name is Mia and I’m ten years old. 

I’m the first person in my family to write a book. It’s called I Love You Natty and is about my younger sister who has Down’s syndrome. Natty is 7 and there isn’t anything particularly ‘special’ about her, but she does have an extra chromosome in every cell of her body, which looks like a jelly bean.

 

DSC_1169

 

She needs some extra help sometimes, for example I learnt Makaton to talk with my hands with her. She used to have physio therapy and also had surgery on her heart when she was small. But we all need support sometimes don’t we?

Most of all Natty is just my little sister. I love that when she was small she would force herself to open her eyes to look at me because she recognised my voice. I love Natty and my life wouldn’t be the same without her.

I wrote this book with Mum so that other children could understand what Down’s syndrome means. I did lots of drawings and we chose lots of family photographs to go in the book too.

I hope you enjoy it. Natty does. 

 

 You can order I Love You Natty on Amazon or via your local bookstore

 

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