Hope Skinner, founder Nanny Shecando

Book Week 2014: Connect To Reading

It’s almost that time of year in Australia. The time of year that kids love going to school, heading to the library and seeing what Scholastic has to offer in the way of new reading material. It’s a time to get dressed up into your fancy dress and resemble your favourite book character. It’s time for Book Week 2014!

Book Week is a special time for us here in the nanny life. Given that I’m pretty big on the importance of reading, and so too is Miss7 who loves a good book, we just love it!

| “Escape into the world of books and you could escape to anywhere!”

This year’s Book Week theme is Connect To Reading. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited! Because for the past few weeks I’ve been working on a routine with Miss15months. Each morning after the older kids have gone to school, and soggy weet-bix has been wiped off baby fingers, we sit down to read some books together. She points at the pictures, babbles away in a high pitched excited voice and turns the pages. This is our little moment to connect with each other and to connect to the story.

At the moment we’re loving the Usborne touchy-feely “That’s Not My” Books by Fiona Watt. The vibrant colours and the sensory touch and feel features make it a very engaging activity that provides great opportunities for developmental milestones. Plus, they’re super thick and baby teeth resilient.

Connect To Reading

It might be a great opportunity to really sit down with your kids and enjoy the moment with them. Read their books together as a family activity and discuss the book once you’re finished. Two very simple questions that allow for great dialogue are, what happened, and why? Doing this can be a great way to gauge how your child’s reading ability is progressing, and also understand their comprehension and thoughts about the events within the story. Reading is always more powerful when wonder and meaning is inferred!

Of course the downside to Book Week, is that many parents dread it. Because although book week is super fun for kids, and teachers love scheduling plenty of activities for Book Week in their classrooms, parents are always the ones sitting up late the night before the book parade sewing costumes.

And so because I know that being arm deep in paste and glitter is not always your cup of tea, and that most times your cup of tea will go cold whilst attempting to contain the spread of finger paint, I’ve got a good mix of activities to share with you for Book Week 2014. We’re going to have fun here on the blog, and get in on the action with the magic of reading and story telling!

Book Week 2014 On The Blog

Stay tuned for book reviews of what we’ve been reading lately in the nanny life, and my recommendations on the best children’s books for bedtime reading. There’s craft and DIY activities inspired by our favourite books. We’ll be bringing picture books alive in the kitchen, and even getting out that dreaded sewing kit to string together a Book Parade Costume. Like you, I’ll probably be doing that last minute the night before also!

We want kids to connect to reading by simply participating in the act of reading – and to enjoy the experience!

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Do you read books with your toddler? Do they sit still long enough to enjoy the story?

Official Book Week dates run from Saturday 16th August through to Friday 22nd August, and this years theme is Connect To Reading. For more information on Book Week, you can visit The Children’s Book Council of Australia. All images of Usborne’s touchy feely books from Usborne Children’s Books.

In Search Of Time – Sunday Style

In search of time, equality and balance, I took this past week off from the blog. In light of recent events where I came to learn that one of my articles had been reproduced and republished as their own on another company’s blog, I felt a little disheartened. I mean, what are we all working towards, what are we all putting in more hours than we have to give, if this is what happens? Why work tirelessly on a piece of 650 words that you’ve put your name to, stressing over the length of sentences, improper phrases and whether the first line is going to hook you in and keep you coming back for more, if it can be so readily copied and pasted into someone else’s portfolio?

Is it right? No. Does it happen? Yes. More than it should.

So I took the week off to get a handle on everything happening in my life. Considering I nanny upwards of 50 hours per week, regularly babysit, allocate an average or 15 hours per week to the blog and the same towards my evolving business plans, it can get a bit hectic if I don’t manage my schedule. I’m always in search of time!

“Speaking of time, where can I get some more? Time, that is. Because it’s not as if I’m running out of time, it’s as though it were never mine to begin with.”

Until I do figure out that magic recipe to creating more time, today I’m living on Sunday time. Sundays are a special day. It’s a day to recoup and rejuvenate, cleanse the mind and body and regroup my thoughts. It’s a fine balance between work life and family life, but leisurely coffees over café breakfasts and inspiring magazines sure give me back that all important Sunday time.

For more thoughts on creating & sharing content, the Proper Pinwheel has a rather timely post, and so too does Catherine & Grace with her #createorcredit initiative and the moral rights of the creative.

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How do you manage the work and life balance? Like my “Sunday Time”, do you have any sacred moments to your weekly routine that simply can’t be compromised? And I hope you never have to go through the horrible ordeal of fighting for the rights to your own creative work!

Winter Family Meals: Veggie Super Food Bowl

Morning lovely, how’s your Sunday going so far?

I hope you’re sitting with a coffee somewhere in the sun, maybe catching up on Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine or reading the many food blogs we all like to do on the weekend. If you’re not drooling over the always beautiful photographs and recipes from Local Is Lovely then you’re missing out!

I know I’m thinking about winter and what to cook tonight. Sundays usually mean I put in a little more effort to the preparations than quick mid-week dinners. We crack a bottle of red, light a few candles, get some smooth soulful tunes happening care of the lovely Norah Jones or Michael Bublé and settle in for the night over a home cooked meal. We catch up on the week that was and talk about what’s on the agenda for the coming week.

| “It’s a great excuse to down tools and reconnect without the constant interruptions of Instagram and Facebook and Twitter.”

Speaking of quick mid-week winter meals, I connected with a few blogging friends this past week to collaborate on a series of Winter Family Meals On A Budget. The lovely Money Mummy, our resident financial adviser in the blogging world, has been hosting winter warming recipes designed to keep both your budget and your belly smiling. And I don’t know about you, but I’m always on the hunt for recipes that are quick and easy that also won’t break the bank!

As well as my Jamie Oliver inspired “One Pot” Italian Roasted Chicken + Vegetables, earlier this week I shared a super easy mid-week throw together. I called it the Veggie “Super Food” Bowl, and it’s over on Money Mummy now.

“This is one of my mid-week “throw together” meals. They’re meals I turn to when I’m not in the mood to spend any longer than absolutely necessary in the kitchen. Considering that I often find myself making three different meals of an evening at work before coming home to see to my own dinner, an easy and nutritious meal is usually the best I can do.”

For more of the Winter Family Meals On A Budget, head over to see recipes from Mums Take Five, Fresh Home Cook, and Sheridan Anne.

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Italian Roasted Chicken + Vegetables

Winter means I tend to feel a resurgence in the need for comfort foods and slow cooked meals. But just to make things interesting, my schedule always seems to kick up a gear. Which means even though I’m far more inclined to devote longer in the kitchen than it’d normally take to throw together a light summer salad, I simply don’t have the hours to give.

| “On those busy mid-week winter nights, I quickly become a big fan of the one pot all-in-one dinners.”

This week Money Mummy has been featuring winter family meals on a budget. Meals designed to keep both your belly and budget smiling. Today I’m joining in with the series over at Money Mummy to share one of my own winter family meals.

Winter Family Meals:
Italian Roasted Chicken + Mediterranean Vegetables

On a budget!

The best thing about quick one pot winter meals is that they’re super easy and super budget friendly! You can mix and match with whatever you find leftover at the bottom of the fridge crisper, and slow cooked meals let you get away with using cheaper cuts of meat.

A great way to keep the costs low is to freeze your fresh herbs in olive oil ahead of time. Because if you’re anything like me, a herb garden will face certain death and a bunch of store-bought always wilts before it can be used!

[gmc_recipe 2656]

Recipe Notes:
I usually use Rice Bran Oil instead of Olive Oil. For an added indulgence, serve with fresh crusty bread and a generous glass of red wine. Italian of course!

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You can see the full Winter Family Meals On A Budget Series here.

Money Mummy aims to help you make the most of your money by giving you simple, accessible, independent, jargon free information on important money matters. “Once upon a time I saw myself as a female ‘Gordon Gecko’ sort, working as a stock market analyst for a range of companies for the last sixteen years. Now I enjoy being a mum, play dough in one hand, Financial Review in the other.”

8 Ways To Squeeze Exercise Into Your Day

Exercising Whilst At Work

Finding the time in your busy day for exercise can be tough at the best of times. Finding the time for it whilst at home with kids is even more of a challenge. So it’s then no surprise that fitting exercise into your schedule whilst working as a nanny can be downright difficult.

A sheer lack of hours in the day can feel like the odds are stacked against you, especially if you’re working long hours. Scheduling your alarm for 4.30am so that you can get up and go for a run and be back and showered and off to work for a 7am start is just not realistic. Neither is trying to get to a gym class in the evening when you’ve got off work at 7pm. Because if you’re like me, you’re desperately craving some alone time, some quiet time, and some bedtime!

And yet we all know it’s important to exercise.

| We know we need to be fit and healthy and be seen as a role model for our children.

More than that, we need to be fit and healthy for ourselves; so that we can be peppy, and positive. So that we can be the happy-go-lucky people whom enjoy spending our days deep in glitter and Frozen costumes.

Right now I have a hectic schedule in the nanny life. I’m booked on for 5 days a week with 4 kids, one of which is a full on toddler with ants-in-her-pants all the time. There are days when I barely have time to stop and think let alone take my coffee out of the microwave after it’s been reheated twice. But I know that if I don’t squeeze exercise into my day, I can quickly lose control of things. Because when you can get away with wearing sweat pants and loose, kid friendly clothes at work, you can often get away with hiding a few extra-unwanted kilos too.

So here’s 8 ways to squeeze exercise into your day, even when you’ve got a house full of kids and a to-do list to stick to.

8 ways to squeeze exercise into your day

Get your Buda on | pull out the soft mats in the playroom and do some yoga with the kids. They’ll enjoy it as much as you do!

Jump high | join the kids on the trampoline for a quick but intense cardio session

Embrace your Beckham | instead of watching from the side-lines, join the backyard soccer game

Walk the dog | by taking the dog out for a half an hour walk each day you can get some fresh air and sunshine, keep active and teach the kids about caring for their pets

Hit up the local park | if you find yourself usually stuck inside, schedule time into your day to get to the park. Grab a Frisbee or play a giant game of hide and seek with the kids

Invest in a running pam | running prams are expensive. But they pay off big time! Most prams can hold children up to the age of 8years, so there’s no excuse not to clip them up and head out for a solid run.

Dive into the pool | swimming is a great activity and an essential life skill for Australian kids. Be sure to remember your 1-piece and get swimming!

Boot Camp | if you’ve got littlies, book into a small closely run exercise class that has an onsite crèche. That way you can get in some exercise whilst the little one benefits from some much-needed socialisation and interaction.