Joe @droedmawr Twitter profile

Last Seen Profiles

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Joe

@droedmawr

2 years

If you were to choose a book for a baby that loves dogs, it would have to be this one, wouldn't it?

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@droedmawr

6 months

Out for a walk. This used to be the local Post Office, until it closed in 2011, when the sub-postmaster who ran it was convicted of theft and sent to prison for 8 months. He missed his child's first Xmas. It took him 9 years to get his conviction overturned by the Court of Appeal

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@droedmawr

2 years

Teachers on a school trip:

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@droedmawr

2 years

Love spending World Book Day helping 3 year olds get in and out of their superhero costumes every time they need to pee.

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@droedmawr

3 years

I remember having to carry a letter saying I was a teacher in case I got stopped by the police back in May 2020. We were only allowed outside to exercise once a day.

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@droedmawr

9 months

I think this might be the best double-page spread in modern picture books.

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@droedmawr

2 years

Just discovered these adapters to fit Brio train track to Duplo blocks. I don't even own a train set but I want one now.

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@droedmawr

2 years

A parent said that their child often comes home with little objects in their pockets. Yeah, I know, those are my resources!

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@droedmawr

3 years

Saw that tweet about a 7 year old being violent towards a teacher. Don't want to engage directly because I see the usual accounts jumping on it to further their agenda on zero tolerance and exclusions. But I do have something to say about it.

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@droedmawr

2 years

Ok, my partner and I made some decisions in December that make it highly likely this will be my last year of teaching (for now, at least). Today I told my Head I'd be leaving at the end of the year, so I guess I can now be a bit more open about it.

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@droedmawr

2 years

The Easter holiday should be 3 weeks. 1 week to do nothing, 1 week to do something, and another week to do nothing.

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@droedmawr

4 years

Feel like I have to keep shouting about this. London Early Years settings (nursery schools, children's centres, and PVIs) are still required to open as normal on Monday. This isn't safe.

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@droedmawr

4 years

Top tip for NQTs: build a good relationship with your school chef (as well as all office staff).

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@droedmawr

3 years

We could have a society that gives children and families the support they need, but we've made a political choice not to. Punishing those children just transfers the blame for that choice onto them.

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Joe

@droedmawr

3 years

Took the little one to meet my Dad today. It was a pretty special moment. Wish my Mum could've been here.

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@droedmawr

10 months

Madame Gazelle is worryingly out of ratio here. I don't think she has QTS, as it's a playgroup, so the ratio should be 1:8, and that's for her cohort of preschoolers. She's got 10 four year olds and 3 two year olds all by herself.

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@droedmawr

2 years

Quite proud of something that happened in my class this week. A child had a real moment of dysregulation and trashed an area of the classroom. We went outside, I gave the child some space to calm down, came back to it later and together we cleared it up while talking about how..

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@droedmawr

11 months

School children must have 100% attendance. Unless their school is about to fall down because we haven't kept it up. Or unless they've been suspended for not wearing the correct uniform.

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@droedmawr

1 year

@AyoCaesar One of several private streets in Hampstead, where houses sell for £10M+.

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Joe

@droedmawr

2 years

If you don't know why people say #DontBuyTheSun , here's why.

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@droedmawr

11 months

Read that glue gun report yesterday and it just left me thinking how easily it could've been me up before a TRA panel.

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Joe

@droedmawr

2 years

I can't remember who suggested this tip for changing after swimming, but it works a treat.

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@droedmawr

11 months

The glue gun story is really about excessive workload and the impact it has on both safety and communication with families. The really sad thing about this case is that responsibility for that has been placed entirely onto the teacher.

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@droedmawr

1 year

Just seen a tweet where a teacher said their class has to use dojo points to 'buy' a toilet pass. I don't understand how people can implement these rules without realising how wrong they are.

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@droedmawr

3 years

Baby arrived last night. Everything is good, everyone's safe and well. Pretty relieved that she's out, and obvs. never been so happy.

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Joe

@droedmawr

1 year

Idea for a fly-on-the-wall documentary: Gillian Keegan drives a minibus around the country, knocking on doors and trying to convince students (and maybe teachers) to come into school.

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Joe

@droedmawr

2 years

So when the self-isolation requirement ends in 2 weeks' time, the expectation from employers will be that you go to work with Covid symptoms, right?

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@droedmawr

2 years

Trying to clean Weetabix and milk off a surface is surprisingly difficult. If you leave it for about 10 minutes, it hardens into a kind of cement. If the 3 Little Pigs had built their houses out of soggy Weetabix, I doubt they'd have had too many problems.

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@droedmawr

9 months

Here's another contender for the greatest page in a children's book.

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Joe

@droedmawr

2 years

Hardly seen this little one all week. Don't think I've been home before 6.30. Today was much needed.

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@droedmawr

3 months

I see people are arguing that Sure Start was ineffective because it was universal. In my experience of teaching in an MNS and a Children's Centre, the universality of what we provided was one of the best things about it.

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@droedmawr

3 years

What those children really need is consistency and boundaries, but also love. They need to be shown that they're worthy of something better, and to be taught ways of seeking positive responses from others. That's hard to do when you're being hit or sworn at, for sure.

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@droedmawr

3 years

I hate having to say this because it's a horrible statistic, but the 4 local authorities with the highest rates of child poverty in the UK are Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney, and Islington. This is your "metropolitan elite."

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@droedmawr

6 months

I watched the full Katharine Birbalsingh interview and her argument is actually that her school should be allowed to discriminate against Muslim students because its ethos is threatened by allowing them to pray.

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Joe

@droedmawr

1 year

The toddler initiated a game of hide and seek as a way of delaying bed time. Can anyone help me find her?

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@droedmawr

3 months

2 types of tweet about Sure Start in the last 24 hours: Ones from mostly women who have worked in EY or used Sure Start themselves, recognising the impact it had. And ones from mostly men who did neither and think they know best how it should've been run.

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@droedmawr

1 year

Children are not identifying as cats. There are people who want you to believe children are doing this, because they really want you to believe that schools, teachers and parents are pandering to every whim of this generation of young people.

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@droedmawr

3 years

I want to add something to this. Getting hit is horrible and shouldn't be a part of the job. We didn't sign up to be abused or hurt. But we're doing so much that isn't part of our job description, because these children aren't one of society's priorities, and they should be.

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@droedmawr

1 year

It's deliberate, right? They don't want to reach a deal, they want to play politics with school budgets and try to convince the public that teachers are desperate to strike.

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@droedmawr

2 years

I sent an email to parents and carers asking for them to return any toy cars their child might have accidentally taken home. We've got through about 150 since October. Within a couple of hours, a parent had offered to bring in spares they had at home, and another bought us some.

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@droedmawr

3 years

Went out at 8.30 this morning to get the baby to fall asleep in her pram. Got home 8 hours later, having walked 10 miles and taken a trip on the DLR.

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@droedmawr

3 years

She's been home a week now. Like a little hurricane that has turned our lives upside down, even while mostly being asleep.

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@droedmawr

7 months

My bed for tonight and the last 2 nights (plus tomorrow night), while my wife and toddler have my old teenage bed upstairs. It'll do. #duvetknowitschristmas

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Joe

@droedmawr

3 years

I love the way my child looks immediately after breastfeeding. Like a drunk who's been thrown out of a pub at closing time, and has then fallen asleep against a lamppost.

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@droedmawr

3 years

Contents of my trouser pockets at the end of the day today. Didn't even check my coat pockets

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Joe

@droedmawr

2 years

I'm late for work because the baby started walking with this trolley.

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Joe

@droedmawr

2 years

Today is the first day we've been able to have parents and carers come in for pickup (only after 4pm). I watched one of my children show his Mum around the classroom for the first time ever. "This is the door. This is the chair..."

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@droedmawr

4 months

Watching an episode of Peppa Pig where Madame Gazelle takes a phone call on her personal mobile while teaching, then leaves an unqualified member of staff (Mr Bull) alone with the children while she goes to a dentist's appointment because she hadn't arranged cover. Not impressed.

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@droedmawr

3 years

I haven't got a clue what original sin is, but I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be used as a lens to view young children, especially by educators.

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@droedmawr

3 years

But 3 year olds aren't always in control of their emotions, and neither are 7 year olds. They're not fully developed adults, and they're not to blame for outbursts that they can't control.

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@droedmawr

3 years

This shouldn't be a job that you need to spend your holiday recovering from. No job should.

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@droedmawr

3 years

Grandparents bought the baby this amazing giant leaf (baby included for scale).

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@droedmawr

3 years

What's important is how you respond to the child. Some children - like those experiencing abuse or neglect at home - might seek to provoke anger or disgust in the adults that work with them because that's what they've been made to believe they're worthy of.

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@droedmawr

3 years

... what's happening to them at home, and also because they need an adult to step in to help them regulate those feelings that they don't understand. They know this is a way to get immediate attention, regardless of whether it's negative attention or not.

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@droedmawr

2 years

... he felt and what he needed to help him regulate himself in moments like that. He has a real fight or flight response to feeling stress, so sometimes these things happen. But he is beginning to understand those feelings, if not exactly in the moment.

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@droedmawr

2 years

The problem with Early years in the UK at the moment is that we're being asked to solve wider social problems that are caused by 10+ years of Conservative government.

Huge numbers of children starting school developmentally delayed - study

Around half of four-year-olds were ‘not ready’ to start Reception last September, according to a new survey by education foundation Kindred Squared.

www.nurseryworld.co.uk

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@droedmawr

2 years

If you're an influential voice in education - and Bennett is, whatever some people say - you should be wise about how you use this platform. Patronising a teenager and belittling their concerns for 3 days now makes you seem the opposite of wise.

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@droedmawr

6 months

It's a very straightforward legal issue. The Equality Act says that schools can't discriminate against pupils based on their religion. Muslim students need a space to pray in, because their prayer involves physical action, it's not just in their mind. They were denied a space.

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@droedmawr

1 year

When I first volunteered in a school, in 2012, there was a trans child in one of the classes I worked in (Year 7). The teacher had a quiet word with me beforehand to let me know their pronouns, and that was it. No one was bothered. I never imagined we'd end up here.

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@droedmawr

2 years

We are going on a whole nursery trip to the seaside on Friday. Two and a half hours on a coach each way. 😬

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@droedmawr

3 years

So you have to do that in times when the cortisol isn't pumping in either you or the child. Relationships aren't always positive 100% of the time, but you try to show the child that you care about them and that they don't have to resort to violence to get your attention.

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@droedmawr

2 years

Here's an idea to solve the cost of living crisis. Instead of cutting childcare ratios, what if the government just funded Early Years properly? Maybe even Ofsted could get behind that proposal.

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@droedmawr

2 years

It's not really a conscious decision to leave teaching. My wife got a job there, and it sounds great, so it'd be stupid to turn down the opportunity. The stress of teaching, not to mention Covid teaching, definitely played a part in that decision, but it wasn't the main reason.

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@droedmawr

3 years

I've been hit by children. 3 year olds tend to do that a lot when something doesn't go their way. The more serious times have been when children are experiencing terrible things outside of their control. I've had children hit me and other adults because they can't process...

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@droedmawr

4 years

Aaaannddd... just got the call that one of the children in my class has tested positive.

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@droedmawr

2 years

My job is physical. I hug children when they're upset. They sit on my knee, lean on my shoulder, wrap their arms around my neck. There is a lot of touch involved every day. I am a big guy and usually just soak up the impact of 4 year olds grabbing my arm or running into my legs.

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@droedmawr

3 years

A couple of months ago, I took a bag of baby clothes that my daughter had outgrown in to use in the home corner. Most of them were 3-6 months size. Today, a 3 year old came over to me, wearing a bodysuit as a kind of skintight vest.

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@droedmawr

3 years

Christmas is cancelled, but at least I've got a good Christmas card photo.

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@droedmawr

4 years

Had our 20 week scan tonight. It took ages because the baby had its legs up in front of its face. All is well though. Oh, and it's a girl.

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@droedmawr

3 years

But it's important to recognise how this makes the adults in the child's life feel. It often makes me feel frustrated, even angry or disappointed. In the moment, those feelings are normal and healthy. I think we should acknowledge and respect those feelings.

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@droedmawr

3 years

Secondary teachers who are annoyed with the NEU for suggesting an assessment revamp in the middle of a pandemic, spare a thought for your Early Years colleagues facing an entirely new framework.

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@droedmawr

3 years

Haven't really done much at all this summer. Just enjoying spending time with this little one.

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@droedmawr

3 years

Current situation.

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@droedmawr

2 years

Today is our 8th wedding anniversary. Took each other out to celebrate. The baby tagged along too.

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@droedmawr

2 years

Edutwitter should be banned from talking about pens until they've taught a class of 3 yr olds who go through about 600 pens/week. Pens without lids, pen tips that have been smushed from pressing too hard, pens that have been dropped in the water tray, or clogged with playdough...

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@droedmawr

11 months

Got paid today for the first time in 362 days. My gross salary is almost exactly half what it would be if I was teaching in London this year, but I think the trade-off is worth it for the lack of stress and cheaper cost of living here.

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@droedmawr

1 year

I picked up my copy of The Tiger Who Came To Tea this afternoon. The toddler wasn't really interested in it, but I found myself admiring Sophie's parents' mid-century formica table.

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@droedmawr

1 year

Had this for nearly 6 months now and it's still getting daily use.

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@droedmawr

7 months

It almost makes it worse that they think this is something they can fix with one day of mandatory training.

Schools Week

@SchoolsWeek

7 months

Breaking: Ofsted will delay inspections next week by a day to give lead inspectors urgent extra training on dealing with anxiety and when to pause their visits It comes after a coroner ruled inspection contributed to Ruth Perry's death

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@droedmawr

1 year

I'm trying to take more photos of mundane daily stuff like this. Probably won't share a lot of it here, but these are the kind of pics I will probably come back to years from now.

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@droedmawr

3 years

My old colleagues from my last job got me a Heuristic treasure basket for the baby. Very touched.

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@droedmawr

6 months

I don't care what anyone says about Michaela. It is just a deeply weird school run by people with awful politics and cranky ideas.

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@droedmawr

2 years

Really shocked that our water bill is £14 a month. We didn't have a bill at our last place because water was included in the rent, but this seems really low. Turns out the water company here is publicly owned and run as a not-for-profit.

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@droedmawr

2 years

@mrlockyer Looks good for student teachers who need to have written plans for every lesson, probably 75% of which bear no resemblance to the actual lesson taught.

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@droedmawr

12 days

Saw this on Instagram and yes, perhaps. But in my experience, they mostly make brown. 😂

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@droedmawr

2 years

Reading Peepo! tonight and I'd forgotten that this was a book (published in 1981) about life 40 years earlier. Now it's another 40 years on, I wonder if children can still relate to these images. My parents' house still looked a bit like the one in Peepo! back when I was little.

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@droedmawr

6 months

*Whispers to UK edutwitter* There are other perfectly good universities outside of the Russell Group.

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@droedmawr

4 years

If it's not safe in primary schools then how is it safe in EY settings?

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@droedmawr

8 months

Mummy Pig has left Daddy Pig for Madame Gazelle. Daddy Pig is not taking it well.

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@droedmawr

2 years

WTAF? I know people say "don't give these grifters oxygen" but this is a government official justifying extreme misogyny and trolling.

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@droedmawr

3 months

@TabitaSurge Stop-Collaborate-& Listen.

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@droedmawr

2 years

Parents are handing me cars that were never in preschool before.

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@droedmawr

3 years

8 months old now. It's going so quickly.

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@droedmawr

4 years

Ok, @cyclingkev , @NEUnion , @MaryBoustedNEU time to put your resources and efforts into keeping EY, SEND and AP members safe. We need your continued support.

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@droedmawr

2 years

I'm not a Phonics expert. Most of my time and energy is spent on Phase 1 and what comes even before that. But it's good to know that so many secondary teachers have such a solid understanding of how very young children learn to read.

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@droedmawr

3 years

Her hair is mostly flat now, but occasionally you get a day when it sticks up in this glorious way.

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@droedmawr

9 months

Saw this book online and my first thought was, "Oh yeah, I remember that nursery rhyme from my childhood. I should introduce it to my daughter." It wasn't until the book arrived that I remembered why people don't do that anymore.

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@droedmawr

3 years

It's not until you become a parent that you realise how useful muslins are. Pretty much the greatest invention of all time. But I think someone needs to market these to non-parents. They've been stuck with an association with babies that belies their true versatility.

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@droedmawr

2 years

I love small world dinosaurs but I'd like to propose, on behalf of parents and EY staff, that we just pretend the Ankylosaurus never existed. They're just a hazard.

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@droedmawr

2 years

I thought we'd just do a bit of painting this afternoon. Nothing too complex. 15 minutes later...

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