Yearly archives "2020"

Thank You, Teacher

It’s been a hard year… but it has also been a year of growing, helping and appreciating not only what we normally take for granted but one another. One of the things you may have been reminded of is just how important teachers are – sometimes it takes walking in someone else’s shoes to understand how things really are. So if you are wanting to say a special ‘thank you’ to your children’s teacher this Christmas you’re in the right place. We have gathered some suggestions that you and your children can do together (or your child can do with some supervision) to show their teacher you appreciate them.

1 – Homemade Biscuits

Even teachers have a sweet tooth and some homemade biscuits is a lovely way to cure it. It’s also no secret that baking is a great way to keep children entertained. Look for recipes that seem not only delicious but fun to make! You can find so many options online, such as CupcakeJemma on Youtube.

2 – Christmas Tree Ornament

Help your child’s teacher decorate their Christmas tree! You can of course buy one or you can make it with your child. They can be quick and easy to make with things you have at home.

3 – A Sculpture

It is so easy and fun to get some clay and make something unique. Who knows… maybe your children is a gifted sculptor!

4- Homemade Jam or Chutney

Jam and Chutney are always great to have at home and while the store brought ones are fine there is definitely something to be said for homemade. It’s also a great little gift because it’s one of those things everyone likes to have but very few can be bothered to make!

5 – A Postcard

Sometimes it’s as simple as that. Write a few words to show them you see and value the work they are doing – maybe tell them the story about your little one coming home from school enthusiastically chatting about something the teacher did in class. It’ll make their day.

6- A Set of Labels!

Teacher, like children, are prone to losing their stationery or getting it mixed for someone else’s so some labels may come in handy. Head to our site and you’ll be able to find a combination that fits your child’s teacher!

And if you are not the type to give a gift, sometimes a smile and a genuine ‘thank you’ can come a long way. Whatever you decided, just make sure you don’t forget to show your appreciation. They do put up with your children after all!

Metallic Ministickers

Match your labels to the season and your spirit!

When the Christmas lights start being put up, the trees start being decorated, the carols start being heard you know it is time for our metallic ministickers to come out again. Everything looks better when it’s shinny and our stickers are no exception! Our range of Metallic Ministickers will add an extra layer of class and sophistication to your items.

We have four sets for you to pick from. Christmas in christmassy colours like red, green, gold and silver. Active, our set in cooler colours in a range of greens and blues. Our warmer, rosier set Aurora in pink, purple, blue and green.
And, of course, the shiniest of them all: Frosted in pinks, silver, purple and light blue with a silvery tint throughout.

Show us how good your Metallic Ministickers look – tag us in your pictures on Instagram and Facebook!

Five Great Games For Kids

This blog post is a shorter version of an article written by Cristin Howard on the blog Smart Parent Advice, find the full article here

Playing games is one of the best parts of being a child. Here are some easy to play ones that you can teach your kids. If you’re lucky, they might even let you join in with the fun. Otherwise, you can sit back and listen to the happy giggles.

Marco Polo

It’s an oldie but a goody. This game has probably been played since the 1700s. Just in case you need a refresher, here’re the rules.

One person is ‘it’ and has to try and tag another player. However, they have to do this with their eyes shut. They, instead, must rely on hearing where the other players have gone. To help, they can shout ‘Marco.’ On hearing this, all the other players must respond with ‘Polo.’ Once they tag someone, that player becomes ‘it.’

We use an extra rule to keep things moving. It’s the 5-minute rule. If no one has been tagged after 5 minutes, whoever is closest to the hunter is now ‘it.’ If you’ve got younger kids, you might want to get them a pool float so they can be involved in the game too.

Capture The Flag

If you’ve got ample open space to play in and enough kids to form two teams, then capture the flag is a great game. It gets kids running around and encourages them to think strategically.

All you need is two items to act as your flags. You really can use anything at all as the flag, so get creative.

To play, you divide the space into two territories. When a player is in ‘enemy’ territory, they can be tagged. If so, they must perform a penalty before returning to their base. The winning team is the first to get the enemy flag into their territory.

If you want to spice things up, why not bring along some walkie talkies. This can let the kids roam over a larger area and encourage them to work as a team. With walkie talkies in play, the strategies can get even more intricate.

What’s Missing?

For a bit of mental exercise, why not give this memory game a try. All you need is a tray, a cloth, and a random selection of small items.

You arrange your selection of items on the tray and give the kids one minute to look. Then you cover the tray. Without the kids seeing you, take something away. The winner is the first kid to identify what’s missing.

You can make it as hard or as easy as you need to. The more objects, the harder it is. The bigger the items, the easier it is.

If you want to make it extra challenging, you can rearrange the objects on the tray after you take one away. This means they need to actually remember everything on the tray, not just look for the gap.

Charades

Games that encourage kids to be silly are always great fun. Charades is a good one to play with kids because if you’re good at it, you feel good about yourself. If you’re bad at it, it can be even more fun. It also encourages turn-taking, which is skill kids always need to be practising.

Here’s a quick rules refresher:

1. Pick a song, movie, or book title

2. Mime which option you’ve chosen

3. Indicate the number of words in the title

4. Start miming

Once the title is guessed, someone else has a go at miming. It’s good fun, with plenty of opportunities for silliness. It is worth having some suggested titles on hand for any kids who can’t think of anything. Try and pick easy to mime titles like Up, Jaws, Cars, or Little Women.

Board Games

There are so many great board games out there for kids to play that we’d be here all day if I started listing them. Board games are great for encouraging kids to get thinking. They develop logic and problem-solving skills. Also, they’re fun! So, here are a few to consider for different situations.

Dixit is an excellent game for any number of kids, it’s pretty and creative. It gets kids thinking.

Ticket to Ride is a board game that makes kids fall in love with board games. It’s easy to learn even for young kids. There’s a nice mix of luck and strategy, plus you get to build a train empire across Europe.

Finally, Spaceteam is a fun, frantic five-minute game that gets kids working together and shouting at each other at the same time.

All that’s left is to wish you fun.

Author Bio: Cristin Howard runs Smart Parent Advice, a site that provides parenting advice for moms and dads. Cristin writes about all of the different ups and downs of parenting, provides solutions to common challenges, and reviews products that parents need to purchase.

The New Classrooms

Going back to school this year will be different – but that doesn’t mean we can’t make the best of it!

Have a look at the different ways in which classrooms around the world are innovating and making an unconventional situation fun.

• By making social distancing fun with cool hats:

• By transforming the scary looking desks with protections shields into trucks:

• By reminding the children how nice it is to see them and each other again. And each pupil getting their own materials means no more fight over who gets to use what first!

We all want to go back to normality: going out as we please, hugging, breathing without worry. But seeing as this might take a little longer than expected the next best thing is to be prepared for the new circumstances.  

People have an amazing ability to adapt – children in particular excel at this. So on this back to school don’t panic and don’t worry about what you can’t control, simply adapt and make the best of an odd, unexpected, unpredictable situation. 

Do you have any ideas to make the start of school this year easier and more fun for children? Let us know!

MY NAMETAGS’ RESEARCH FINDS BRITS BIN 1.4 MILLION WEARABLE SCHOOL UNIFORMS EVERY YEAR

At My Nametags, we know how quickly children grow and how fast families can get through clothes. Whether it’s stubborn stains or growth spurts, the turnover of clothing in families can feel very high.

However, recent figures from WRAP suggest that extending the lifespan of clothes by just three months could result in a 5-10 percent reduction in carbon, water, and waste footprints. So, to try to understand this issue a little better, we conducted research into parents’ attitudes towards second-hand clothing for their children.

THE FINDINGS

To our surprise, our study found that more than one in 10 UK parents throw their children’s uniforms away once they have outgrown them, even if they are still in a wearable condition.

When it comes to damaged items, almost half of parents said they would prefer to throw the garment away than attempt to fix it. What’s more, over half of families own clothing that they have never worn.

It seems parents still consider new to be best as 81 percent always buy their children’s school uniforms new. There are several reasons behind this, with many suggesting it is easier (31 percent) and that they want their kids to have the latest things (19 percent). In addition, nearly half (41 percent) said they don’t like the thought of their children wearing previously owned clothes.

While it seems that some proactive measures are being taken to make clothing last longer, with almost a third of parents buying uniforms in bigger sizes so their kids can grow into them, our study found that school uniforms are still being replaced, on average, every 10 months – the equivalent to one uniform for every school year.

Interestingly, despite some parents in the UK adopting a throwaway attitude to uniforms, the research did suggest that parents are more likely to donate their old clothes to charity shops than they are to purchase second-hand clothing. In fact, over half of parents donate uniforms to charity shops once they have been outgrown, suggesting that there is a disconnect between the number of people who want to give clothing a new life, and those that actually do.

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY

Commenting on parents’ attitudes towards buying second-hand, Dr Jo Hemmings, Behavioural Psychologist, said: “There are a number of reasons why parents are reluctant to purchase second-hand uniforms for their children and continue to buy new year on year.

“Firstly, the word ‘second-hand’ has the connotation that somehow parents are not doing the best by their children. ‘Brand new’ has much more positive connotations. In addition to this, parents know that children can be very judgemental of each other in terms of clothing.

“In both instances, the parents’ attitudes towards second-hand clothing stem from their inherent sense of pride – a fear that people will assume that they can’t provide for their child effectively if they can’t dress them in a brand-new school uniform. This type of pride, which is primarily driven by other people’s opinions, is known as ‘hubristic pride’ and adds very little positive value to life.

“However, there is a second type of pride, ‘authentic pride’, which is centred around the fulfilment and achievements of yourself and those around you. This has a much more positive value and, importantly, cannot be achieved by wearing a new blazer. It can, however, be achieved by teaching children valuable lessons about the environment and the fact that the clothes they wear have no impact on their ability to ‘fit in’ or to be successful in life.”

STRETCHING THE LIFESPAN

With awareness of the environmental impact of our clothing growing, it is important for us all to consider how our attitudes towards the disposal and re-use of clothes could be affecting the planet. Clothing which has been cared for can and should be reused, and with a little help from a name tag, can become another child’s personalised piece.

Back to School – The Importance of Labelling

This year’s back to school, while long awaited, may also be the cause of some concern. How many measures against covid-19 will schools realistically be able to implement – will children respect social distancing? Will they bother sanitising when you know at times you struggle to make them wash their hands?

It will most certainly be a whole new experience for both you and your children. People have become increasingly aware of how quickly and easily germs can spread. With that in mind, we start to think about what exactly our children do that could be putting them at risk, and sharing items is at the top of the list. Stationery items children bring to school: pens, colouring pencils, rulers, calculators are amongst the most commonly shared items between children. But sharing is no longer caring, now it means circulating more germs.

Labelling your children’s things has always been useful to help reduce lost property, but now using name tags can help in another, more important way. Being easily able to identify one’s items will encourage children to keep to their own things and help reduce the spread of germs. They can be fun and colourful while also helping your children be safe.

This pandemic has bought with it a new perspective on things, it has made us aware of the places we really cannot go without visiting, the people we really need around us. Shown us how nice slowing down can be and how resourceful we are coming up with alternatives to make sure we can continue. Chances are that as a parent, you cannot wait for your children to go back to school but we cannot forget that we still need to be prudent and do the best we can to care for our parents, siblings, children, friends, neighbours and everyone around us. If something as simple as labelling things can help, do it!

Family Summer Staycations – Why they are great!

Staycations are currently rising in popularity for reasons beyond our control… We mean that quite literally, it does not seem to be something one is actively opting for but the default option this year. But do not panic, holidaying at home rather than going abroad can be just as good! We want to share with you the top reasons why we love Staycations – and why you should too!

ECO Friendly

With lockdown people were able to see how much what we do affects the environment which may have got you thinking about being more eco conscious. Staycations are a great way to be more eco friendly. Travelling by train, bus or car will have a much lower impact on the environment. You’ll be able to walk around your city and take comfort in knowing that you are helping the air become a little less polluted.

Supporting Local Businesses

Covid-19 has surprised us all and while for some people this meant working from home, some businesses were not able to continue operating and have been greatly affected. Supporting small and local businesses is a small, simple way for you to help those struggling to keep their businesses afloat. Go to that restaurant just round the corner you always said looked nice, treat yourself to that beautiful dress displayed in the boutique’s window you’d been eyeing. Make sure that bakery you love to get breakfast from is able to stay open by continuing to enjoy their baked goods – now you’ll actually have an excuse – ‘I’m helping the business, they need it!’

Less Stress

Packing for the entire family can be a nightmare. Airline restrictions such as luggage size and liquids you’re allowed to take make the thought of travelling, even for a holiday, a lot less exciting and relaxing. Not to mention getting everyone to the airport, getting everyone through Airport Security, entertaining everyone while you wait to board, entertaining everyone while you’re on the plane, getting to the hotel, unpacking… The list is endless. Having a Staycation means none of this, you won’t even have to worry about all that for a second time on the return!  

Cost Effective

No expensive airline tickets, Visas or taxes means you end up saving more than a few pennies! You can also search for some great family deals and packages that are available at the moment and discover the beauty in the place you live in. 

Pets can come too

Nobody likes saying goodbye to their beloved pet when they go away, or leaving them in the care of someone you don’t know that well. With a Staycation this won’t be a problem! Many campsites, holiday homes and hotels are pet friendly so they can come along on the family holiday…they deserve a treat too! It’s nice when the whole family gets to be there.

Have we convinced you family Staycation can be amazing too? Let us know if we have and what other perks you can think of!

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