Art!

On Saturday 8th October, 11am-3pm, Weston-super-Mum and MUSE, which inspires children to learn through music, art and drama, will join forces at Worlebury Glade on Worlebury Hill Road (Weston Woods).

Made possible through the sponsorship of Proper Job, families are invited to use their imagination to craft sculpture from Weston Woods' natural resources.

Some of the pieces made will form part of Weston-super-Mum's Our Children's Art exhibition, which takes place over the October half-term holidays at Weston-super-Mare Museum. This exhibition is a collection of art created by children at Weston-super-Mum and MUSE events at places around Weston, such as Anchor Head, Boomfest, Weston Community Show and Weston Woods and will include paintings, drawings, photos and sculpture.

Weston-super-Mum is asking for sponsorship from local businesses to facilitate the mounting and framing of individual works of art. Printing.com, Click Tat Photography and Bootcamp Somerset are some of the businesses who have already sponsored a painting. Businesses and individuals interested in helping to fund this project should log onto www.westonsupermum.com to find out more.

No Secrets - Keeping Our Children Safe

A BRAND NEW COURSE FOR PARENTS!

Starting 15th September and running every term-time Thursday, No Secrets aims to provide an environment that will enable parents to meet together in a relaxed setting where they will be able to access a range of information, facts and resources that will enable them to raise their own awareness and strategies to review how to keep their children safe.

Led by Christine Western, Family Support Worker with a BEd (Hons) in Primary Education, No Secrets will cover a range of topics: internet safety, bullying, road safety, sexual and physical abuse, drug and alcohol awareness, peer pressure and more.

Where resources are not available on any of the topics we would hope to get parents enthusiastically working together to come up with ideas to design resources that can be made available to parents to help them keep their children safe, and so being more proactive. This would be in the form of workshops with support from the team.

Join other parents for coffee and a chat in the first instance and help shape this brand new course - your input is so valuable

No Secrets is supported by

Time Out From Anger - Lighthouse.

On 10th March I began a parenting course at St. Paul's church on Walliscote road. The course is led by Julie Lanham, who works for an organisation called Lighthouse. I saw the course advertised on the Weston-super-Mum website and I would like to tell other Mums and Dads about how helpful I am finding it.

The title of the course is "Time out from anger". I think that some people may be put off by this title. It can be really difficult for people to accept that they get angry sometimes. The course is aimed at parents but the issues are ones that we face in all aspects of life. As a parent of over 5 years I understand that some parents feel they need to hide their feelings and pride can stop themselves seeking help. There is no instruction manual for this important role and we are all trying to cope in our own way.

The course is 4 sessions long. The first 2 deal with our own anger (as parents) The last 2 help us to cope with anger in our children. Each week there is discussion about why we feel so upset and ways we can deal with situations (for example, how to explain things to our children) There is also advice about having a break from your children, doing exercise or other relaxation etc.

Many of us who are attending the course have felt a lot better just by talking things through with other parents. We have been very open about our feelings. For instance, It can be reassuring to know that someone else has felt very hurt when their child refuses to eat the meal they have cooked.

For more information on this and other courses available see the web site.

www.lighthouse-weston.org.uk

Review by Weston-super-Mum, Emma Hartley

Relax Kids!

I first put the Relax Kids: Magical Meditations for Superheroes CD on in our living room late on Saturday afternoon, after a fun-fuelled party where my 4 year old had been playing with most of her closest friends and partners in crime. She was excited and not a little boisterous. Ah, who am I kidding? She was approaching manic.

I explained that we were going to listen to some new stories and she acquiesced, up for something new and exciting. The first track on this CD, that is designed to help children to relax and de-stress while using their imagination to put themselves into the minds of some of our best known fairy story characters, is "Aladdin," a tale she’s already familiar with, mostly thanks to the CBeebies Pantomime at Christmas. Within a very short while, she had sat down, crossed-legged, just like the soothing, but not condescending, voice in the story suggested she do.

I let the whole disc run, noticing how she had completely chilled out and it’s fair to say that she stayed that way for the rest of the evening. When "Aladdin’s Magic Lamp" came on, I saw her rub the small lamp on my computer desk and then head over to the fridge. “Oh, it’s not there!” she said, disappointed. “What’s not?” I asked, half guessing. “The chocolate!” That had been her wish: she was Master of the Story and by now we were on track 11. Impressive: that’s staying power.

I must’ve drifted off into my own world at some point because when she routed through the freezer and pulled out a bag of peas to place on her toes to “get my feet cold,” it didn’t occur to me until later that she was simply playing the role of “The Snowman” (track 5).

When it was bedtime, I asked whether she wanted to listen to the CD again. She did. While she was brushing her teeth, I prepared the system for our meditative bedtime stories. “Don’t put it on until I’m ready,” she shouted, dribbling toothpaste down her pyjamas. As if I would.

Duly prostrate and comfy-cosy, I put Superheroes on again from the start. She closed her eyes to listen, wanting to get the full benefit of the experience. Two minutes into the CD, she asked, “How long can we have it on for?” Until it’s finished or you’re asleep, of course.

She never heard the end.

We have a copy of Relax Kids: Meditations for Superheroes to give away on the Weston-super-Mum Website .

The Relax Kids website has a range of CDs, books, Keyskills packs and many other products, as well as offering training, classes and publishing a magazine.

Ping and Pong - Splash

Book Review - Ping and Pong: Splash.
Written by Amy Trevaskus, illustrated by Alison Heath


"I've got you a present."

"Wow!" said my 4 year old girl.

Two minutes later, we started to read Splash, the first in a series of books about Ping and Pong. She's just started school and has recently learned most of her letters, phonetically of course.

As I told her how Lucy was going to the park with her two friends, Ping and Pong, miniature beings, who live in the clock in the hall, she listened. On the fourth page, My Girl let her fingers glide over a series of letters and voiced them, "P-I-N-G. P-I-N-G," she looked up to the ceiling. "Ping!" she announced suitably proudly. Then she searched the text. "P-O-N-G. Pong!" We both got excited. And so the journey has begun.

After school today, still with her uniform on, she sat down with Ping and Pong and read quietly to herself. I was unable to hear the words of the story, until she shouted, just like Pong does, "I LOVE PUDDLES!"

At bedtime, we revisted our new friends. She relayed the story, in her own words first. It went something like this:

"Right, what do you think is in the story?" I ask what happens. "That's Lucy. Look. Ping got all ready to go out in the park. She puts her boots on just in case it rained. They went out. What do you think happened? It's really good!" She turns the page, "Hello frog, where did you come from? I came from the pond." There is no frog in this story, it's called imagination ;)

"And what do you think happened? It's not good! It got raining and raining and raining. And Pong said, 'I LOVE PUDDLES'. And what do you think happened? She poured water out of her boot. That's Ping."

Then, she spells out ten words. We both get excited again. Cue my turn to read the story, this time in the author's own words, beautifully written and cleverly illustrated, one of those books that I actually enjoy reading and one that she hangs onto every word of, only interrupting me to give her analysis, "Pong likes to go up high in the swing, Ping doesn't like swings a lot." Or to ask a question, "Why is she taking the water out of her wellies?"

We finish reading our new book and she says. "I love Ping and Pong. I love your presents, Mummy. Thank you."

If only all bedtimes were this easy! She's asleep now: I wonder what she's dreaming about....

Weston-super-Mum has a signed copy of Ping and Pong: Splash to give to one lucky winner.

For more information about Ping and Pong and to order your own copy, please visit their website

StoryShed @ North Somerset Museum

We hadn't been to North Somerset Museum in Burlington Street since their highly successful arts and crafts sessions with Helen and the Punch & Judy shows by Professor Walton during the summer holidays, so after Bargains 4 Babies and Toddlers at Victoria Methodist Church on Saturday, we decided to pop in for an hour.

The women on reception kindly let me put my shopping bags behind the desk and we entered the courtyard to a new but temporary structure - StoryShed! This turned out to be a locally recycled wooden hut decorated with all manner of sparkly and interesting items, each one relating to one of the stories that you can listen to on the laptop inside.

My 4 year-old, attracted initially by the fairy lights overhead, made a bee-line for the computer and clicked randomly. The first story we listened to (and that she wanted to hear 3 times!) was called "Dancing at the Hippodrome," all about Jasmine's experience of going to the Bristol theatre, a venue we could both relate to. Hearing another child's voice kept mine transfixed and she listened intently. An accompanying logbook assigns each story a set of keywords that can be used as an educational extension and you can search for the related objects dotted around. We looked for an item or two on display that might be connected to the story and we found a pair of ballet shoes.

Produced by Theatre Orchard, StoryShed brings together pupils from our local Priory Community School and adults from Somerset Racial Equality Council's Friendship Group, who, between them, have documented their personal experiences and diverse cultural backgrounds. It's a good example of how interactivity can really work in a museum setting, relying on visual, audio and kinesthetic stimulus.

It kept us occupied for a good 10 minutes and then she was off to dress up as a ladybird, torment Mr Punch, decorate a paper vase with coloured pencils and set up an imaginary picnic for both of us.

Storyshed closes on October 22nd.