alieh

We had exactly this dilemma and found a good option this summer. Most of the other children were Dutch, German or Italian but most of them spoke English. It was called Belmonte Vacanze in Tuscany. Close to Pisa and Florence but we flew to Bologna as it was much cheaper

Thanks! Geography will probably be a pretty important consideration because our nanny doesn't drive. In terms of cost, we hadn't worked it out exactly. A sole charge full-time nanny usually costs around ?14-?15/hour including taxes. I imagined this arrangement coming in a bit less due to the limitations on hours. So perhaps in the region of ?12/hour? We could also be a bit flexible, if there were occasional days when care needed to extend beyond those hours as our nanny could probably juggle our 3 (school age) plus one other in a pinch. And similarly for occasional extra hours in school holidays.

The Devonshire Road Nature Reserve has a well-priced room. Harris Girls has a big gym with bouncy castle included for ?120 I think. Most church halls still come to around ?100 in my experience, and gets very pricey if you add entertainment on top of that.

We are trying to find ways that we can keep our AMAZING nanny on from September 2018 when all 3 of our children will be in school full-time. Our nanny has been with us for over 4 years and is seriously the best nanny out there - other parents and teachers at our children's school comment on how amazing she is. I am wondering if anyone would theoretically be interested in a nanny-share from 10:00 to 14:30 Mon-Fri during term-time? Could be at our house or yours, if it was easy enough for our nanny to then collect our children from school by 15:20 (we live near Dulwich Library and our children's school is near Honor Oak). Keen to understand if there is any market out there for this kind of arrangement!

Fairlawn Christmas Fair is Saturday December 2nd, 12-3 pm. Attaching the flyer! All welcome!

Seconding the recommendation from Anna M! This is a great activity for girls and boys from 5 and up.

Pizza Express at 4:30 pm, they should have known there would be loads of kids! Not like it's a Michelin-starred establishment. Incredibly rude of them. It's hard not to feel embarrassed, but in future I would try to ignore. I've had somewhat similar experiences with older people and I just smile in a sickly sweet way and say "Yes, funny how much times have changed since you were young!"

Just to add to the high recommendations for Dave from "Down the Drain". He came today on short notice, assessed that there wasn't a problem we needed to worry about, and didn't charge us a penny for his time. Plus left us his card for our housesitters in case a problem arises while we're away. Much appreciated!

There are some "big box" stores not too far in Sydenham (Bell Green). A big B&Q, Next, Currys, etc. I do a lot of shopping online however!

Help! Exactly the same age. Exactly the same problem. It's making me very cross and I ended up shouting last night. She hasn't napped at all for months, meaning she's now down to 10 or 10.5 hours sleep overnight and that's it. Still wakes up early, 6 or even earlier.

I can recommend Nicholas Driving Academy. I just passed on my first go after a few months of lessons with Nick. http://www.nicholasdrivingacademy.co.uk/

From my group of friends and acquaintances, there are absolutely loads of 5 year olds still in pull ups at night. I would save yourself the hassle and let her wear one at night! In the day, I think it is not that uncommon to have slightly damp knickers by the end of the day for 5 year olds. I would try not to worry, try to get her in the habit of trying to go a few times a day and hope it resolves. I think the GP would say they wouldn't take any other steps until closer to age 7?

Actually it looks like they have more structured pre-school classes too: http://southwarkgymnastics.co.uk/classes/pre-school/

Tiny Gym run by Southwark Gymnastics is brilliant: http://southwarkgymnastics.co.uk/classes/tiny-gym/ But it is unstructured - i.e. they set up the equipment and you just play.

If you do it today you might be okay with the 1-week fast track service?