amydown

Hi Elizabeth, Not a tutor recommendation but have a look at www.schoolexams.co.uk for quality bite-sized learning videos for Maths & English past papers (GCSE, 11+, SATs) There are videos created by one of England?s most respected exam setter & marker, taking you through the most effective way to tackle the questions. The content is completely free - no advertising either. It is a social enterprise with a mission to level the playing field for everyone. Full disclosure - I have just started supporting them as a non-exec (also non-paid). We are actually gearing up for some further development work so if anyone has any feedback, would be great to hear via PM!

Strictly speaking, it's not a family topic but we are an education start-up started by two mums in Dulwich and we are currently looking for a lovely photographer (being totally in tune with children would be a huge advantage!) who can take a few product photographs for us. We would ideally like someone with a studio in SE London area or happy to have the shoot done at our house. Many thanks in advance! Amy

Thank you Lorraine - her work looks amazing!!!!

We live on Mundania Road and it is exceptionally quiet - friends from out of town who come and stay can?t believe we are in London!

Hi mums and dads I am staring an exciting business and am looking for a children?s illustrator (i.e. story books) that can help me create an engaging and interactive illustration-based stories for digital/ print format. I would ideally love to work with a local mum or dad, leveraging off the great network and the community we have here so if you know anybody or is interested in finding out more, please drop me a line at [email protected] or send me a PM. Thank you!

Also agree on 50:50 split and have done so in the past (although my two were at school and the other nanny share child was not). Ultimately, you can?t really split ?attention? based on the number of kids as harsh as that sounds! If it does bother you though, you may be better off with a 1:1 share or sole charge perhaps?

We just switched to Sky after 3.5 years with Virgin and crap broadband, landline that never works and incredibly poor customer service. I have also officially requested all records of complaints we logged over the past few years as I want to take this up further. I just don?t think it?s acceptable. When we ended the contract with 30 days notice, I was then told the direct debit for next month has already been requested so I would simply have to pay it and call them to request a cheque for a refund, which can take up to 30 days to process. It?s just one thing after another!

Used to live off Melbourne Grove and now near Peckham Rye having spent a while specifically waiting for a property to come on the market on Marmora, Therapia and Mundania Roads. We primarily wanted to move for more space and a bigger garden but towards for end of our time in East Dulwich, the train service was so bad that it was turning our daily commute into pure misery. Peckham Rye is incredible for transport (63 or 363 takes you straight to station), park on doorstep is so nice and all the hip restaurants popping up on Peckham high street are making the area really quite lovely. Plus the parking space!!!! Have honestly never looked back and this is coming from someone who absolutely adores Lordship Lane.

Thank you James - will send you an email now!

Resurrecting an old thread as we are looking to apply for a dropped curve to have our front garden turned into a driveway and are struggling to get an idea of cost and timescale from the council. Has anybody recently done this in SE22 and if so, would you be able to share how long the process took and the cost payable to the council?

Went to CP Hart for inspiration, then replicated the look we liked using Bathstore items and builder making us a bespoke double basin stand. Happy to send you some photos if you send me your email address! The basin that we had made - I got the idea from deVol which is primarily a kitchen company. I also read that it's worth getting good quality taps (from a mechanical point of view) so that's what we did. We got quite cheap basins and bath though.

We would be interested in this!

We make a massive deal out of Christmas in our house (3 trees is given). One new "tradition" we started last year is picking out toys that the kids have grown out of, or never opened duplicate ones, wrapping them up in gift wrapping with a tag for boy/girl and suitable age. We had a fun filled but meaningful day doing this together and then taking them to Barry House in the run up to Christmas. Our two boys have already started picking things out they would like to donate.

All very helpful suggestions. Thank you so much! I think I will definitely try a few trial runs.

Very helpful. Thank you all!

Hi, I am considering a job in East Croydon area and am likely to try driving. I just wanted to check if anybody does this commute regularly around rush hour to get a sense of how long it might take and whether traffic is bearable? I have two young children and therefore can leave the house at around 7.30am and need to get back for 6.30pm at the latest... Thoughts/ advice much appreciated!!!

Another Easigrass fan here - we had the Kenisngton range installed for out football mad son and it is AMAZING!!!

We have just put in a second dishwasher in our kitchen - when husband suggested it a while back, I thought totally unnecessary. However, now I couldn't live without it. It's amazing!!

We looked into it this a lot and then decided to ask our builder to build a few things for us - a climbing frame with spider web, a slide, and a rock climbing wall (the latter not yet finished). We went for the above option because the off the shelf ones I saw didn't really work with our space and I couldn't find any decent ones to try out first... Happy to share pictures if you PM me if that's of interest.

We have two lively boys at the Prep and we absolutely love it. Yes, they are quite structured in many ways but I'm glad to report it really isn't about stopping the boys from having fun! My 6-year old is ultra sporty, whilst our 4-yr old is a lot gentler and more into creative things, and both are thriving in the Prep. The teachers are very in tune with individual boys' needs in my personal opinion. They have Twitter accounts which are brilliant for getting a glimpse into what life is like at the Prep from a child's perspective, which you might be interested in taking a look.

It may be helpful for you to give one of the nanny payroll companies a call - even if you don't currently use one, they are very helpful in giving ad hoc advice in my experience. We use Nanny PAYE (have done so for 6 years) and they are very helpful. My personal interpretation of the above is that the notice period does not apply to probation period but I'm not a lawyer!

We had it at JAGS indoor sports hall and it was fab! The only downside to JAGS I find is that the gap between parties isn't long enough so it can feel really rushed setting up and clearing up,

I've recommended our architect and builder on here before - 3 of my friends have also had them for various bits of work, including a kitchen extension and all very happy. Jino and Lee (ArchInno Ltd) did a huge project for us about a year ago, gutting the whole house, and then doing a big kitchen extension and loft conversion. This was our second big project and we had used a local firm before, who I would NOT recommend (feel free to PM me for details of the builder to avoid!). Jino and Lee are actually based in Wimbledon area but doing a few projects in Dulwich currently. They are back with me at the moment doing building a large decking area with integrated slide and play stuff for our kids. They are fabulous! Best thing is their accountability - with our previous builder, we couldn't get hold of him when we had issues. With Jino and Lee, 18 months after they finished in site, even for a minor issue, they will be here in a shot to sort stuff out and that is just impressive in my view. Jino's number is 07786 985564.

We have these for our kids and it's good (it does slouch a little as it's made from canvas). Easy to bring them downstairs too and our kids put their clothes away themselves. Currently on sale - Cox and Cox also do a lot of discount codes. Plus, if you go and register with Quidco, you get additional cashback: http://www.coxandcox.co.uk/colours-whites-laundry-bags

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