Blog.
Welcome to the Leaps & Bounds Blog. Here you’ll find our latest nursery news and useful information from the world of early years education, childcare and parenting.
Welcome to the Leaps & Bounds Blog. Here you’ll find our latest nursery news and useful information from the world of early years education, childcare and parenting.
Leaps & Bounds Nursery
161 Gillott Road
Edgbaston
Birmingham B16 0ET
0121 246 4922
Email us here
Our nursery is open
from 7.30 am to 6.15 pm
Monday to Friday.
(Closed Bank Holidays,
Public holidays & from
Christmas to New Year)
Leaps & Bounds is a high quality nursery & pre-school in Edgbaston, Birmingham, B16. It offers outstanding childcare near Harborne, Ladywood, Bearwood & Smethwick.
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Tummy Time for Babies — & Why it’s Important
The idea behind the activity is a simple but crucial one: to help babies strengthen their neck, core, back, shoulder and arm muscles as well as improving coordination and motor skills. These are important for newborn babies because they have comparatively heavy heads for their size, not much physical strength and poor coordination and motor skills when they’re first born. Tummy time allows them to improve in all these areas. After regular tummy time, they should become more able physically, they’ll gradually become more mobile and, crucially, will be better able to keep themselves safe. You could even argue that tummy time is a survival thing at its core.
Tummy Time Benefits
Tummy time benefits babies in many ways, including …
A-Z of Foods to Avoid Giving Your Infant
Foods to Avoid Giving Your Infant
In alphabetical order, foods that the NHS warns parents to avoid feeding babies and infants include …
Baby Banks – Help for Struggling Families
What Baby Banks Can Supply to Families
The growing number of baby banks offers all kinds of free items for families with babies and young children, usually aged up to five although sometimes also significantly older. Items that families can obtain, without charge, include:
N.B. not every baby bank offers …
Unpaid Parental Leave: Your Right to Extra Time Off
Reasons to Take Unpaid Parental Leave
Your Unpaid Parental Leave Entitlement
There are a few, simple rules around entitlement to unpaid parental leave in the UK:
20 of Our Favourite Quotes for Parents
Today we put the spotlight on 20 of our favourite quotes for, or about, parents and parenting. Each one of them either inspired, amused or resonated with us in some way — we are parents ourselves. Indeed, if they did not affect us in one of these ways, they simply did not make the list! Some are also quite profound and, we’ll be honest, may stir an emotion or two. If you are a parent too, see if any affect you or register with you in a similar way. Click any quote for a larger view and you can then also scroll through all 20 quotes individually.
20 Benefits of Outdoor Play for Little Ones
1. Outdoor Play is Great Fun!
2. A Completely Different Set of Activities & Challenges
3. A Greater Sense of Adventure
4. An Escape from Electronic Screens
Outdoor play is also a very healthy release from spending time in front of electronic screens like TVs, tablets, games and maybe even mobiles if children have them. Studies and a good dose of common sense show that too much screen time is not good for children and getting them outdoors is a great way to go back to basics and enjoy more natural, active play.
5. New Knowledge
6. Outdoor Play Supports the EYFS Curriculum
The varied nature of outdoor play supports the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum in many different ways. This includes support for ‘prime’ and key’ areas including Physical Development, Communication & Language Development, Understanding the World, Personal, Social & Emotional Development and even Mathematics.
7. Outdoor Play Helps Mental Health
Spending time outdoors and fresh air, particularly when surrounded by nature, is known to help the mental health and wellbeing of both children and adults. Study after study …
Is Your Child a Fussy Eater?
Don’t Stress
If they’re in their early years, food fussiness is rather common, so you’re far from alone. When they transition from milk onto solids, everything is new to infants, from tastes to textures — and even colours when you think about it. While some little ones take to the new sensory stimuli with relish, others seem put off initially by many of these new food experiences. After all, most of them will not be as sweet as the milk they’ve been used to. Being wary of new food is perfectly normal too, even instinctive for many. After all, they don’t know what’s good or bad for them at such an early age.
Some Think They Don’t Like it
Another major factor in disliking certain foods is that children often think they don’t like it. That’s common to many children and, indeed, even to some older children. It’s even common for adults to later eat and enjoy foods that they wouldn’t have given the time of day to during childhood, simply based on a misplaced early belief that they didn’t or wouldn’t like it.
Try, Try and Try Food Again
That, above, is one of the main secrets of encouraging children to accept a particular food i.e. getting them to try, try, … and try it again. It can sometimes take 10 to 15 times before they’ll realise that …
Microgreens: Fun Food Growing for Under 5s
What Are Microgreens?
First, though, what exactly are microgreens? Also known as micro leaves, they’re the very young shoots of edible plants like herbs and vegetables (more about those later). When young and grown from seeds, these can grow into a thick ‘blanket’ of tiny growing shoots that can be harvested and eaten as food. They’re very tasty, totally natural and extremely nutritious.
Which Seeds Can be Grown into Microgreens?
Seeds that are suitable for use as microgreens include those for the following herbs, vegetables, root vegetables and leafy greens:
Fun Food Growing Activities for Under 5s
Today we’re taking a look at some fun food growing activities that under-fives can undertake at home. As we said in that last post, teaching children to grow food has an enormous number of benefits, so our post today explains some easy and inexpensive ways that children can get started.
No Garden Required
Many of today’s vegetable and herb growing activities can be accomplished simply on a well-lit windowsill. So, if you do not have a garden, courtyard, balcony or access to an allotment, it doesn’t matter — your little ones can still get involved in these wonderful activities. The plants will simply need some water, soil, light and a little care.
Re-Growing Herbs for Free
All they need to do is pull or, with suitable supervision, snip off a few clippings, remove any leaves nearest the bottom of the stems and place those stems into water as shown in the photograph (right). If these are left dangling in water for a week or two, roots will start to grow from the stems. The clippings are then new plants, ready to be planted into soil, for example in pots on the windowsill.
Flower pots, used yoghurt pots or anything similar will do, so long as there is drainage in the bottom (place on a saucer or tray to protect the windowsill). Once they’ve been potted in the soil, they’ll need to be regularly watered and, in time, they’ll sprout into fully-fledged herb plants that can be harvested for food as they grow. New clippings can also be taken from the mature plant so that the whole process can be repeated. Children will love seeing and being responsible for this little miracle! And the best thing is that the cost will have been negligible. How’s that for sustainable food production!
Re-Growing Lettuce & Vegetables for Free
Children can use a similar approach using …
15 Benefits of Teaching Kids to Grow Food
Children don’t need a garden or allotment to grow food. A patio, courtyard, balcony or windowsill will do, so long as plants have water, soil and light.
1. Growing Food is Educational
2. Children Learn New Skills Growing Food
The quotation above, from Barbara Kingsolver, pretty much sums up the enormous positive impact that learning to grow food has had on the human race. And there’s no reason why the skills necessary to successfully grow food shouldn’t start in the very young. From preparing the soil, germinating and sprouting seeds, tending to seedlings and caring for plants as they grow, these are all …