Ruth@Yummy's Profile

Goodness what a lot of hating, the message in the comments seems to be one off gestures, events and ‘activities’ such as those mentioned in the post are vacuous and the best way to teach kindness is to demonstrate it day to day.

The thing is the writer agrees, before saying anything else on teaching kindness she writes “The obvious is that modelling such behaviour is the best and first thing we as parents should do if we want to see it in our children”. She also says that volunteering is ALSO a good way to keep it alive – not solely to teach but as one way to demonstrate kindness to others. On one of the links she highlights letting the children help to cook the food for volunteering – how is this different than having the children in the car when dropping off food cans or trainers?

Thankfulness, gratefulness and kindness are taught by example but for some children, particularly a young child such as the one in the post, something tangible to help demonstrate the principle may be helpful: or maybe we should teach all behaviour without anything such as sticker charts, naughty steps, time out or the word ‘No’ – after all if the ONLY thing children need is example then such things are as superfluous as the thankfulness jar.

I also believe that the child in the post does demonstrate kindness. To write a thank you letter is a behaviour that can be taught (or prompted) by parents and carers. Politeness and thankfulness is a good base for any child. The child took this further, thought about it by themselves and then wanted to thank the elves (who to him are real) for their work even though it wasn’t necessary. Yes at the moment he’s kind to imaginary beings but what makes anyone think that the respect and giving spirit he’s already showing everyone won’t one day translate into respect and giving to those less fortunate and decidedly less fictional?

Sounds like you’re doing a good job, keep it up!

@Arlingtonchick - don't worry, I'm from england and I tend to feel exactly like that whenever I see a project on here with american supliers. I'm sure you will manage to find someone who can suply it over your side of the pond too (and most likely in several more varieties than we can get over here!)

I enjoyed having a look at all these ideas but I enjoyed the writting style even more! Made me laugh.

Did anyone else read this as sleeping under the stairs and think "Oh thank goodness I wasn't the only one who had 'camping trips' under there when I was little!" - No, just me then. More on topic we bought the ladybird version of the turtle for our neice and the first time they put it on her parents sat watching the stars while she fell asleep in no time.

I have a feeling that you would be very happy in my closest toy shop which is Little Imps in Glastonbury. Its current display is a 4 foot slot together wooden tree complete with multi level tree house. I don’t know a single adult that doesn’t sigh like a child when they walk past it!

Oh and for the person asking about a DIY version of the light how about using the metal flower bowl from ikea http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/90184052/#/90110061. For £30 you could buy two, curve one of them into a tighter bowl shape so it fits inside the larger one, use a drill to make a hole in the middle of each, glue together and put a low wattage bulb in the middle. The flower filigree pattern would cast shadows in the wall (although not as nice as the £600 one of course!). Just an idea.

I'm a massive tea drinker (conforming to the British cliche) and so while the kettle boils I do some washing up, as I have a super slow kettle it normally only takes a couple of cups till I get rid of even a huge pile and I've not had to take time away from any other activities (other than the constant browsing of my own tea shelf). Silly tip - works wonders.

I rent a cottage in England which is 9" 2' at its widest and what I like to call 1 and a half floors (the top is a converted attic so slopping and I can touch the roof) and I never thought of it as hugely small although everytime I move in furniture I'm reminded of the sofa and stairwell scene from Friends. It's all about celebrating and loving what you do have.

I've use a black out blind as my projector screen and it works very well, I've found with a thinner blind you can loose a little bit of colour. As an added advantage the black out aspect of the 'screen' means that you don't see the whole film back to front when sitting in the dinning area. True it doesn't give as good a picture as a dedicated projector screen but unless you have a very nice HD projector I doubt that you will notice the difference - to be honest if you have such a nice projector you can afford to have the proper silver screens in the first place. Good budget (my 7ft blind was £23) option.

My Father was (and indeed still is) a vicar. He is currently in a victorian vicarage which is undergoing renovation - and the builders removed all the seasoned oak beams from the front (think thickness of railway sleepers and twice as long) and my mum threw them in the skip... I managed to rescue one of them but by the time I got there all the others had misteriously vanished. Monetry value might not be that high but there were 20 of them!