back to top Stories Five Funny Stories About Kids & Teachers 5 funny short stories: Don't Get Dressed in the Dark The Good Old Days On Your Knees Peasant The Best Teacher Ever Ground Please Swallow Me For Links To Other Funny Story Pages Older and Much Less Cute Spaghetti Fingers As You Age Life Gets Funnier Anchor 1 Anchor 2 1. Don’t Get Dressed in the Dark ​ When Mr Newby was a beginning teacher, and hadn't long moved out of home, to save on washing he wore the same pair of jeans all week. Now on this particular morning he'd slept in so pulled his jeans on from off the floor, and hurried off to an early morning staff meeting. From there he went straight to his classroom. And he'd only just began his first lesson for the day when he felt something move, down near his ankle. His heart chilled....'Spider!' he yelled as he visualised a Funnel Web sinking it's fangs into his leg. He automatically flicked his leg up in the hope to dislodge the spider. ​ But can you imagine the uproar, as a pair of yesterday’s undies flew out from the bottom of Mr Newby's trousers across the room, landing on a young girl's desk. She immediately shrieked, flicked the undies up in an arc through the air with her ruler as kids dodged and screamed. ​ 'I thought it was a spider,' Mr Newby yelled an apology, as his undies were again flicked across the room to more dodging and screaming. The most-street-wise kid in the class had picked up the undies on the end of his ruler, readying to flick them at some of the girls, when the Principal roared into the room. 'What's going on in here?' The Principal yelled. ​ The kid with the undies dropped them, stepped forward onto them and said. 'There was a spider and I just flicked it out the window... It's all over now.' He angled his head towards Mr Newby and winked. ​ 'I'm pleased to hear you were so responsible Jayston,' the Principal growled. That's a big improvement from last week's efforts.' And he turned and huffed out muttering something about 'fuss over nothing.' ​ But by then Mr Newbie was next to Jayston. He grabbed his undies and stuffed them in his pocket. ​ And from then on Mr Newby was known as 'Commando.' 2. The Good Old Days (The 70's) ​ The District School Inspector had driven for hundreds of miles and this was one of the last country schools on his list. He knew they weren't expecting him until Monday but it shouldn't matter if he called in early... Yet when he arrived, there was no one there. ​ He called out as he searched the musty two-classrooms, then the admin area. The only thing that broke the silence was the 'Tick, tick, tick,' of the clock. Have they gone an an excursion... he thought. Not likely. Because if that were the case the school should be locked. (Strike One.) He noticed a large school bell in the playground, and just before he left, he rang it, hoping someone might appear. And surprisingly someone did. ​ Can you imagine the inspector's surprise when a barman, from the pub across the road, ambled over with two schooners. And went down to the back shed where the two teachers were playing cards. He was later to learn the kids had been taken down to the local footy oval and were being minded by the Year 6 kids. (Strike Two, Strike Three. You're out!) Anchor 3 4. ‘On Your Knees Peasant.’ ​ ‘On your knees peasant.’ The head teacher in the room next door flinched as he heard his new colleague’s voice boom through the wall. He stiffened in alarm. Oh no! he thought. Don’t know much about him yet. Transferred. He sighed and shook his head. His shoulders slumped. I’ll have to check this out, he thought.. So he bolted into the class next door. And out the front of the class was a student, on his hands and knees on the floor, bowing to the teacher. ​ ‘What’s going on!’ the head teacher yelled bristling in alarm. The new teacher smiled. ‘Oh, Jack insisted he was right, even though I told him he wasn't. He said he was so sure this time, that if he was wrong again, this time he’d get down on his hands and knees to apologize... So w e checked. I said, 'On your knees peasant…’ And the whole class laughed. 3. The Best Teacher Ever. ​ It was a hot day. We were all tired. And the third kid (in a row) gave Mr Charlie the wrong answer to his maths question. Mr Charlie put his head down and shook it. Then he raised his clenched fists above his head like he was about to tear his hair out. 'Look at what you kids are doing to me,' he cried in exasperation, arms raised for effect. Then he laughed. ​ And we all laughed too because Mr Charlie was totally bald. There was not one hair left to tear out. ​ He feigned mock surprise at his empty hands. And we all laughed again. Our attention was fully focused on him. And he slipped some maths into us before we even realized. Best teacher ever... ​ ​ Anchor 4 DISCLAIMER: Any similarities in the stories on this page, to people living or deceased, are purely co-incidental... After all, you never let the truth spoil a good story. Share Anchor 5 5. Ground... Please Swallow Me. ​ I was talking to a colleague about her mother, who was also a teacher. 'She was the worst woman God ever put breath into,' she said. 'You went to this school so you must have heard of her. If you'd ever met her, you’d remember her for sure. She was an absolute monster.’ ​ ‘Awwh,' I cooed. 'I can’t believe you’d have a monster for a mother Kinderbella. You’re such a sweetie. The only woman I can ever remember being a monster was Mrs Killjoy. She beat me over the head with a ruler on the first day of class. She was like Miss Trunchable off Matilda. She scared hell out of me.’ ​ 'Right. That was her,’ she said shaking her head. 'That was 'my mother.' ​ ​​For more funny stories about kids and teachers go to the following links:​ ​​If you've never taught in a tough school, these funny stories may be a shock: What's Funny About Tough Schools Spaghetti Fingers Spaghetti Fingers. An eight month old eating spaghetti As You Age Life Gets Funnier As You Get Older Life Gets Funnier: How Old Are You What's Funny About Tough Schools What's Funny About Tough Schools Did you know Best Parenting Advice.com offers quick & easy family recipes for busy parents. All recipes have been tried and tested by busy working parents over years and these are some of their best recipes. Check them out. Sue's Best Ever Fudge Brownies Best Ever Baked Cheesecake Best Ever Baked Cheesecake Caramel Date Slice by Lorraine caramel date slice delicious recipe I'm asked for it all the time Back to Home Back to Top Best Parenting Advice.com is a high quality parenting website designed with child and family success in mind. It highlights what successful parents do differently to those who struggle. Best Parenting advice.com provides free resources for busy parents who want the best practical advice on: how to give kids a best start in life, better tips for parenting toddlers, effective child rearing strategies, behaviour management tips, successful goal setting and organizational strategies for successful families, easy family dinner recipes, self-care tips for time-poor parents and free kids learning games. The aim of Best Parenting Advice.com is to provide quality practical parenting tips and advice to best help children and families succeed. This site provides examples of what worked for me over decades and you are welcome to use these ideas as you see fit but you do so at your own risk. Best Parenting Advice.com does not provide any guarantee that this information will work in every circumstance with every family or with every child. It is your responsibility as a user of this site to ensure that you adhere to any recommended safety suggestions either implicit or explicit on this site and supervise your children while playing any games suggested. Similarly users of this site are advised to follow any recommendations for seeking professional advice as all information on this site is generic. Best Parenting Advice.com is not affiliated with any other groups, clubs, religious organizations or educational systems. Best parenting takes time. The best parenting advice ever is simple: Do your best, don't give up and love your children, no matter what.

back to top As You Age, Life Gets Funnier 'I taught your grandmother? Her voice was incredulous. 'What are you talking about this time Kardinia?' Mrs Bright frowned at Kardinia's latest attempt to disrupt her lesson. ​ 'Well I was at Nan's the other day and she reckons you taught her at Eastfield High when she was in Year 10.' ​ Mrs Bright's frown deepened. She looked away, confusion creeping across her face. Memories of white halls, clattering staircases and congested art rooms flashed through her mind. 'Well I did teach at Eastfield High for a little while. What was your Nan's name?' Mrs Bright's eyes shone. She put her hand to her lips. 'Yes I remember her.' But then she frowned. 'So how do you fit into this Kardinia?' 'Well turns out my mum had me young too. This is us together. Nan got us a photo shoot for Christmas.' She handed Miss Bright another photo and the family face stared back again. ​ 'Oh my goodness, you all look the same.' Mrs Bright put her hand over her lips and looked into the distance, processing the enormity of what she'd been told. She exhaled. 'Wow! I expected one day I might teach a child that belonged to someone I'd taught, but never a grandchild.' DISCLAIMER: Any similarities in the stories on this page, to people living or deceased, are purely co-incidental... After all, you never let the truth spoil a good story. How Old Are You? ​ Kardinia killed the background burble of the art class as she hurled her comment at her teacher... 'I found out something about you the other day...' She pursed her lips as she let the comment hang in the air. Her tone an accusation. All ears pricked up. She continued, 'You taught my grandmother!' ​ For the first time, every child in the art class, was silent & still, processing the ridiculous... Or was it ridiculous? The teacher, Mrs Bright looked up to see twenty four pairs of eyes fixed on her, studying her. She could see their little minds ticking over. Kardinia licked her lips, flicked her hair and smirked, 'Well her last name's Acres now, but it used to be Green. She was Jayla Green. She said you taught her when she was sixteen.' ​ 'Jayla Green... I did teach a Jayla Green... It was my first year of teaching.' Memories of a pretty dark haired girl began to emerge. 'She had a child when she was young didn't she, (more statement than question.) ​ 'Yeh! She left school at the end of the year to have my mum. Here I've got a photo of her.' She handed Mrs Bright the photo. 'Yep, that's me.' Kardinia giggled. 'Surprise!' Mrs Bright looked down in disbelief. But when she looked up again all the kids were staring at her. Some were slack jawed, others were shaking their heads. But one, a little quicker than the others, boomed his incredulous voice from the back of the room. 'So how old are you?' ​ Mrs Bright scoffed. 'Awwwh thanks for the interest; Jack. It's really touching.' And she laughed. ​ She was 58 at the time and dined out on the story for months. Share If you like it, your friends might too. For more funny stories click on the links below: 5 Funny Stories: Kids and Teachers 5 funny stories about kids and teachers. Happy male teacher What's Funny? Tough Schools What's funny about teaching in tough schools. Drug dealer counting money Spaghetti Fingers Spaghetti Day. An eight month old eating spaghetti Back to Parent Stories Back to Top Best Parenting Advice.com is a high quality parenting website designed with child and family success in mind. It highlights what successful parents do differently to those who struggle. Best Parenting advice.com provides free resources for busy parents who want the best practical advice on: how to give kids a best start in life, better tips for parenting toddlers, effective child rearing strategies, behaviour management tips, successful goal setting and organizational strategies for successful families, easy family dinner recipes, self-care tips for time-poor parents and free kids learning games. The aim of Best Parenting Advice.com is to provide quality practical parenting tips and advice to best help children and families succeed. This site provides examples of what worked for me over decades and you are welcome to use these ideas as you see fit but you do so at your own risk. Best Parenting Advice.com does not provide any guarantee that this information will work in every circumstance with every family or with every child. It is your responsibility as a user of this site to ensure that you adhere to any recommended safety suggestions either implicit or explicit on this site and supervise your children while playing any games suggested. Similarly users of this site are advised to follow any recommendations for seeking professional advice as all information on this site is generic. Best Parenting Advice.com is not affiliated with any other groups, clubs, religious organizations or educational systems. Best parenting takes time. The best parenting advice ever is simple: Do your best, don't give up and love your children, no matter what.

back to top Parent Stories ...Where it's okay to share our joys and our tears. Parenting can be a huge leveller. Maybe like nothing else you've ever experienced before. ​ It doesn't matter how cool you are, how clever you are or how much money you've got; if you're not interesting, you're three year old will just walk off when you're speaking. ​ Ray Romano on having children: "Having children is like living in a frat house - nobody sleeps, everything's broken & there's a lot of throwing up." Parenting can make you howl with laughter when a child says something that's cute, or if they make a comical mistake due to their innocence. It can really bring out the best of us. Yet at other times we may just feel like howling. Parenting can be overwhelming, bewildering or just plain exhausting. It's 24/7, 52 weeks a year, for life... And we pay for the privilege. I thought that because all of us parents are muddling through trying to do our best with what we've got, a sense of humour is a great asset to have. These are some of the stories I've had shared with me. And in typical writer's form, I don't let the truth spoil a good story. Let's share the joy, the sadness and the triumph. If you have a parenting story you'd like to share: ​ Log in to become a member and send your story to: contact@best-parenting-advice.com ​ Please note: Stories will not be paid for as no income is generated from this website. Authors will need to ensure any stories do not contain names or details that allow characters to be identified, as those that do will not be published. The best stories submitted however will be edited and published along with the author's name (if they wish,) or published anonymously. Any images to be used with your story will be supplied by Best Parenting Advice.com (at their cost) and while there is no word limit, stories are recommended to be less than one thousand words. However longer stories will be considered if they're particularly insightful. ​ Best Parenting Advice.com is grateful for any stories submitted however it reserves the right to refuse to publish stories, without explanation, if they're deemed inconsistent with this website. For more information on publishing criteria contact the editor: ​ contact@best-parenting-advice.com If you're an author, and to see if you may be interested in submitting a story yourself, check out the links to our stories below. Or just simply enjoy those submitted by others: Share If you like it, share it 5 Funny Stories About Kids & Teacher five funny stories about teaching What's Funny? Tough Schools What's funny about teaching in tough schools. Drug dealer counting money Spaghetti Fingers Spaghetti Day. An eight month old eating spaghetti How Old Are You? how old are you Cute Stories About Little Kids cute stories about little kids What No One Tells You What No One Tells You Back to Top Best Parenting Advice.com is a high quality parenting website designed with child and family success in mind. It highlights what successful parents do differently to those who struggle. Best Parenting advice.com provides free resources for busy parents who want the best practical advice on: how to give kids a best start in life, better tips for parenting toddlers, effective child rearing strategies, behaviour management tips, successful goal setting and organizational strategies for successful families, easy family dinner recipes, self-care tips for time-poor parents and free kids learning games. The aim of Best Parenting Advice.com is to provide quality practical parenting tips and advice to best help children and families succeed. This site provides examples of what worked for me over decades and you are welcome to use these ideas as you see fit but you do so at your own risk. Best Parenting Advice.com does not provide any guarantee that this information will work in every circumstance with every family or with every child. It is your responsibility as a user of this site to ensure that you adhere to any recommended safety suggestions either implicit or explicit on this site and supervise your children while playing any games suggested. Similarly users of this site are advised to follow any recommendations for seeking professional advice as all information on this site is generic. Best Parenting Advice.com is not affiliated with any other groups, clubs, religious organizations or educational systems. Best parenting takes time. The best parenting advice ever is simple: Do your best, don't give up and love your children, no matter what.

back to top Easy Beef Recipes For easy family meals that are relatively inexpensive to produce and popular with children you can't go past minced beef. Here are some of my best easy family dinner recipes. Betty's Easy Beef Stroganoff Retro Cabbage Rolls Recipe delicious easy cabbage rolls Chorizo Sausage and Pasta Homestyle Corned Beef Corn and Corned Beef Fritters Jamie's Healthy Hamburgers Deb's Mexican Steak Sue's Slow Cooked Steak Honeyed Meatloaf honeyed meatloaf delicious super easy beef dinner Share these recipes with a friend Back to Top Best Parenting Advice.com is a high quality parenting website designed with child and family success in mind. This site provides free resources for busy parents who want best practical advice on: effective child rearing strategies, easy healthy family meals, self-care tips for time-poor parents and fun learning games to help best educate children while also encouraging positive relationships within the family. One of the best pieces of parenting advice to help support healthy cooperative families, is to provide regular nutritious meals, eaten together as a family as often as possible. Best parenting advice provides a range of quick and easy family dinner recipes supplied by busy working parents. These are the recipes asked for: because they taste great, they're quick and easy they're family friendly and they're foolproof. ​ This site provides examples of what worked for me over decades and you are welcome to use these ideas as you see fit but you do so at your own risk. This site does not provide any guarantee that this information will work in every circumstance with every family or every child. It is your responsibility as a user of this site to ensure that you adhere to any recommended safety suggestions either implicit or explicit on this site and supervise your children while playing any games suggested. Best Parenting Advice.com is not affiliated with any other groups, clubs, religious organizations or educational systems. Best parenting takes time. The best parenting advice ever is simple: Do your best, don't give up and love your children, no matter what.

Back to Top SELF CARE FOR PARENTS More on the Table in Minutes Making Family Life Easy 5 ​ ​ The Value of Cutting Up Two or Three Days Worth of Vegetables at a Time. When preparing daily meals having something, even partly organized, can make a difference between getting a meal on the table, or resorting to take away. ​ Cutting up three days worth of vegetables at a time saves time and clean up. ​ It allows small pieces of vegetables to be salvaged and easily used for soups, fried rice and stirfries It takes little more effort to cut up three days’ worth of fresh vegetables than just the one day’s worth. I minimized the time I spent getting things in and out of the fridge and sorting through bags. And best of all, it prevents you finding those “dead vegies” at the back of the fridge that you would otherwise waste. HINT: I try to reuse the same bags that the fruit or vegetables come in from the supermarket and redistribute the cut vegetables into each bag. ​ I tie them up tightly and store them in the crisper ready to use. This process provides good sized portions of vegetables that can be accessed on even your busiest days. I cook the vegetables in a steamer which minimizes the loss of colour, texture and nutritive value. HINT: I often make soup or stir fries from pieces that broke off the cauliflower or broccoli or from the pieces that many people discard like the smaller cauliflower leaves and the centre stalks. I also peel the broccoli stalks and use them for stir fried vegetables or soup and store them in an airtight container for a day or two. I again store these vegetables in airtight containers in the fridge ready for salads, soups or quiches. ​ ​ I asked a number of my working friends for some of their best easy pumpkin recipes. The ones below are fantastic. ​ The criteria was they were family recipes that always worked, were quick to make and most importantly were delicious. ​ Click on the links below for: ​​Combined with some of the frozen chicken fillets I keep in the freezer, a soup or stir fry can be put together in minutes. And if I boil a kettle of water for noodles, or rice, to speed up the initial boiling, then they can also be on the table within twelve minutes. ​ This is providing fresh healthy food fast for your family. ​ ​ ​You may have noticed I do not pre-cut potatoes, pumpkin or sweet potato. ​ But what I do instead is chop up large amounts of pumpkin and sweet potato and then bake them. Sometimes I also bake an onion or two as well. Making Family Life Easy 6: Next Share this page with a friend 'You don't need a silver fork to eat good food.' ​ Paul Prudhomme Jan's Pumpkin Soup Anne Maree's Pumpkin Risotto Lorraine's Pumpkin Quiche ​These recipes and more can be found in the Easy Healthy Recipes Section of this site. Links below: Easy Healthy Breakfasts Easy Healthy Soups Easy Healthy Chicken Recipes Easy Healthy Fish Recipes Easy Healthy Lamb Recipes Easy Healthy Beef Recipes Best Lunchbox Story Ever Healthy Lunch Easy Pasta and Pizza Recipes Easy Healthy Rice Recipes Back to Top Best Parenting Advice.com is a high quality parenting website designed with child and family success in mind. It highlights what successful parents do differently to those who struggle. Best Parenting advice.com provides free online resources for busy parents who want the best practical advice on: how to give kids a best start in life, better tips for parenting toddlers, effective child rearing strategies, behaviour management tips, successful goal setting and organizational strategies for successful families, easy family dinner recipes, self-care tips for time-poor parents and free kids learning games. The aim of Best Parenting Advice.com is to provide quality practical parenting tips and advice to best help children and families succeed, using the convenience of a website. ​ This website provides examples of what worked for me over decades and you are welcome to use these ideas as you see fit but you do so at your own risk. Best Parenting Advice.com does not provide any guarantee that this information will work in every circumstance with every family or with every child. It is your responsibility as a user of this website to ensure that you adhere to any recommended safety suggestions either implicit or explicit on this site and supervise your children while playing any games suggested. Similarly users of this website are advised to follow any recommendations for seeking professional advice as all information on this site is generic. Best Parenting Advice.com is an independent website and is not affiliated with any other groups, clubs, religious organizations or educational systems. Best parenting takes time. The best parenting advice ever is simple: Do your best, don't give up and love your children, no matter what.

back to top EASY TASTY RECIPES Quick & Easy Cakes & Desserts Peanut Butter Fudge by Alison Ingredients 400g can sweetened condensed milk 375g packed choc melts ( ¼ cup crunchy peanut butter ½ cup chopped peanuts or walnuts-optional Method 1. Combine condensed milk & choc melts in a saucepan over low heat until chocolate melts 2. Mix in peanut butter & nuts 3. Pour into lined 28cm x 18cm slab tin & refrigerate until set 4. Cut into squares Share this recipe with a friend For more Easy Tasty Recipes go to the following links: More Easy Tasty Cakes and Desserts easy tasty cakes and desserts lemon slice delicious Easy Healthy Soups East Healthy Fish Recipes easy healthy fish dinner recipe salmon mornay Easy Healthy Chicken Recipes yummy drummy easy healthy chicken dinner recipe Easy Healthy Beef Recipes Easy Pasta and Pizza Recipes Easy Healthy Rice Recipes Easy Healthy Breakfasts Easy Healthy Lamb Recipes Back to Top Best Parenting Advice.com is a high quality parenting website designed with child and family success in mind. This site provides free resources for busy parents who want best practical advice on: effective child rearing strategies, easy healthy family meals, self-care tips for time-poor parents and fun learning games to help best educate children while also encouraging positive relationships within the family. One of the best pieces of parenting advice to help support healthy cooperative families, is to provide regular nutritious meals, eaten together as a family as often as possible. Best parenting advice provides a range of quick and easy family dinner recipes supplied by busy working parents. These are the recipes asked for: because they taste great, they're quick and easy they're family friendly and they're foolproof. ​ This site provides examples of what worked for me over decades and you are welcome to use these ideas as you see fit but you do so at your own risk. This site does not provide any guarantee that this information will work in every circumstance with every family or every child. It is your responsibility as a user of this site to ensure that you adhere to any recommended safety suggestions either implicit or explicit on this site and supervise your children while playing any games suggested. Best Parenting Advice.com is not affiliated with any other groups, clubs, religious organizations or educational systems. Best parenting takes time. The best parenting advice ever is simple: Do your best, don't give up and love your children, no matter what.

Back to Top SELF CARE FOR PARENTS How To Have Meals on the Table in Minutes Do you ever feel like there are never enough hours in the day and you always seem to be rushing? Two things can make a big difference: ​ 1. When a gift of time presents itself (e.g. kid's sport is rained out) use the half a day cooking large amounts of meals. ​ Simultaneously cook up multiple different meals, reusing pots as you go ​ You make one huge mess and then daily life has a much reduced mess ​ 2. The use of a freezer Easy, safe storage of large amounts of food ​ Allows for greater variety of pre-prepared meals Here I have chicken thigh fillets cooked and rolled ready for quick stir fries or wraps. ​ I also always keep wholemeal flour in freezer so it doesn’t get pantry moth. ​ I use the same size flat rectangular containers for storing foods in the freezer as I do for my salads. ​ Containers store the appropriate amounts for four people for curries, stews, spaghetti bolognaise sauce. Chinese food containers work well to store meals for one or two people and also stack very well. 2. To combat this free time starved lifestyle I had what I would call cooking days. ​ This was when I would spend a morning cooking; and I would cook massive amounts of foods and freeze them. ​ If plans I had were cancelled, like say, if my child’s sport was rained out, I saw I had a gift of time which I wasn’t expecting. I've often made 16 to 22 meals for a family of four. I had at least 2 pots cooking away on the stove at the same time as the slow cooker and the frying pan on the bench. While I made a mess at the time, it was one huge mess once not lots of messes daily. I washed and reused pots and cutting boards as I went and this reduced the overall mess. And just one busy morning saved me a month of stressful afternoons of food prep. This efficient use of my time meant I would go out to the supermarket/ butcher very early and get the larger volumes of foods to accommodate the large amounts of food I intended to cook. ​​ This can also be a great way of catching up with your mum, mother-in-law, dad or a family friend that loves you but you never get enough time to see. They will often quite happily work alongside you, especially knowing that they are helping you. ​ ​ Making Family Life Easy 4 ​ ​ 1. The kitchen appliance that made the greatest difference for me was a freezer. And it saved me so much time and money over the years. I always make at least double quantities of spaghetti, curries or stews which I freeze for use later. But I usually try to ideally make quadruple quantities of these recipes and store them. I understand that many of you may put in very long hours. My son as a young surgery registrar regularly puts in twelve or thirteen hour days, often longer. He does it day after day. At times he’s had shifts of ten days straight doing fifteen hour days, or nights. Recently when I looked at some of the organizational aspects of his life it reminded me of the strategies that I used when I had no spare time at all. When you are arriving at home with a family at seven o’clock at night you need food on the table within ten to fifteen minutes. On these days I would rush out to the butcher and buy fresh meat and chicken. I'd cook up: 2kg (5 lb) lots of mince for spaghetti (at least 4 meals), 6 huge slices of chuck steak in the slow cooker for Mexican steak (3 or 4 meals), 16 chicken fillets for each lot of curry I made (at least 3 meals each), 12 lamb forequarter chops for lamb stew (at least 2 meals maybe 3). ​Put on some music and have some fun with it. I help my son out in this way and it's enjoyable, bonding and productive. ​ ​​ ​The use of the freezer means that if you cook large amounts of foods you don’t have to eat it day after day until it is gone. ​ The biggest and best advantage is if you know you'll be coming home late, you can put the pre-made frozen food in the fridge ready for that evening. Dinner takes as long as it takes to boil a kettle and cook the pasta or rice. Making Family Life Easy 5: Next Share this page with a friend You'll note I've allowed large portion sizes for my meals and that's deliberate. In my home the teenagers were often hungry and I found that leftovers were devoured as soon as they came through the door. Having quality food available allowed them to eat well, even though their schedules may have been haphazard, due to either work commitments, or study demands. ​ For more Time and Money Saving Ideas go to the following links: More Meals in Minutes Easy Family Recipes Establishing Healthy Routines Back to Top Best Parenting Advice.com is a high quality parenting website designed with child and family success in mind. It highlights what successful parents do differently to those who struggle. Best Parenting advice.com provides free online resources for busy parents who want the best practical advice on: how to give kids a best start in life, better tips for parenting toddlers, effective child rearing strategies, behaviour management tips, successful goal setting and organizational strategies for successful families, easy family dinner recipes, self-care tips for time-poor parents and free kids learning games. The aim of Best Parenting Advice.com is to provide quality practical parenting tips and advice to best help children and families succeed, using the convenience of a website. ​ This website provides examples of what worked for me over decades and you are welcome to use these ideas as you see fit but you do so at your own risk. Best Parenting Advice.com does not provide any guarantee that this information will work in every circumstance with every family or with every child. It is your responsibility as a user of this website to ensure that you adhere to any recommended safety suggestions either implicit or explicit on this site and supervise your children while playing any games suggested. Similarly users of this website are advised to follow any recommendations for seeking professional advice as all information on this site is generic. Best Parenting Advice.com is an independent website and is not affiliated with any other groups, clubs, religious organizations or educational systems. Best parenting takes time. The best parenting advice ever is simple: Do your best, don't give up and love your children, no matter what.

back to top EASY HEALTHY RECIPES QUICK & EASY CHICKEN DINNERS Baked Chicken, Prunes and Olives Ingredients 14-20 chicken thigh fillets (depending on the size) HINT: Try to ensure uniform size if possible 2 cups prunes 1 cup kalamata olives 1/2 cup olive oil 1 cup white wine 2/3 cup red wine vinegar 10 sprigs thyme 2 bay leaves 2 tablespoons brown sugar Method Tip oil into baking dish and move it around so it covers the bottom Place chicken thigh fillets into the dish Mix white wine, red wine vinegar and brown sugar together and pour over chicken Pour olives and prunes over mixture Place two bay leaves and sprigs of thyme into the liquid keeping them together so they can later be removed Cover with foil and seal edges Cook in oven at 180 degrees for 40 -50 minutes or until chicken is cooked. HINT: You are aiming for chicken to be well cooked but not dry remove foil and serve while hot or let people serve themselves ​ Serve with Pumpkin and Chorizo Couscous, boiled rice and/or steamed vegetables ​ ​HINT: This is an inexpensive family recipe that can be easily scaled up to feed the masses. The quantities above feed six to eight easily. Put it into a large plastic storage container for if you have to take a dish for sharing and reheat in slow cooker. ​ If you needed it for a smorgasborg, or work function (where you're expected to bring something, this is a real winner.) I suggest, if you're sharing with a large group, cut the pieces of chicken into halves or thirds before you cook it and reduce the cooking time by ten minutes. My Favourite Recipes 9: Next Share this recipe with a friend For more Easy Healthy Recipes go to the following links: Easy Healthy Breakfasts Best Ever Lunch box Story best ever lunch box story Easy Healthy Soups Easy Healthy Fish Recipes More Easy Healthy Chicken Recipes Yummy Drummies Easy Healthy Lamb Recipes Easy Healthy Beef Recipes Easy Pasta and Pizza Recipes Easy Healthy Rice Recipes Back to Top Best Parenting Advice.com is a high quality parenting website designed with child and family success in mind. This site provides free resources for busy parents who want best practical advice on: effective child rearing strategies, easy healthy family meals, self-care tips for time-poor parents and fun learning games to help best educate children while also encouraging positive relationships within the family. One of the best pieces of parenting advice to help support healthy cooperative families, is to provide regular nutritious meals, eaten together as a family as often as possible. Best parenting advice provides a range of quick and easy family dinner recipes supplied by busy working parents. These are the recipes asked for: because they taste great, they're quick and easy they're family friendly and they're foolproof. ​ This site provides examples of what worked for me over decades and you are welcome to use these ideas as you see fit but you do so at your own risk. This site does not provide any guarantee that this information will work in every circumstance with every family or every child. It is your responsibility as a user of this site to ensure that you adhere to any recommended safety suggestions either implicit or explicit on this site and supervise your children while playing any games suggested. Best Parenting Advice.com is not affiliated with any other groups, clubs, religious organizations or educational systems. Best parenting takes time. The best parenting advice ever is simple: Do your best, don't give up and love your children, no matter what.

back to top BEST STARTS FOR KIDS Experimenting With Dot Painting ​ Prompts Type Aboriginal Artworks into Google Images Look at Australian aboriginal art and discuss the use of repetitive dots and patterns to inspire dot painting Discuss the concept of earth colours: Named because paints were made from the earth Note the use of specific symbols (often repeated in artworks) to depict meaning. e.g. river, meeting place, person, etc ​ Simple ideas: use various sized paper, cardboard shapes (like a shield for example) or a long cylinder (to make a didgeridoo,) rocks, fabric, boxes use different types of paint: water or acrylic use different brushes, sticks, printing media ​ ​ You may like to paint the background first so the dots stand out in contrast. And experiment first to find the best technique to create uniform circles (dots.) I have found the best result is achieved by loading just the very tip of the brush. ​ Extension Type Mandala into Google Images Look at and discuss the extensive use of repetitive dots to create and supplement line usage patterns Substitute paint for black textas and plain white paper Extend using a variety of different colours ​ ​ Share this page with a friend ​As a starting point for young children you can supply food colouring as water paint for as little as $3.60 in small bottles that your children can dot paint with, without creating any mess at all. Or cheap paint sets can be bought for around $10 and the quality of the paint is reasonable. It's important though to supply some reasonable quality paintbrushes ranging in size from fine to thick as this allows them to create quality work. ​ But I believe the best results for dot painting will be achieved using acrylics ​ ​Some of the skills they will likely develop are: increased hand eye coordination increased hand strength and technique mathematical language linked to colour mixing and shades: lighter and darker increased knowledge of colour blending (making earth colours) creativity and the joy associated with creativity perseverance refining & trial and error processes the ability to plan then create or not plan and create self-esteem & confidence building ​ Some Mathematical Language: blend light lighter lightest dark darker darkest red, crimson, orange, salmon, apricot yellow, ochre, lemon white black grey brown, tan, muddy primary colour secondary colour Some Language Linked to Materials and Technique ​ paint: line, solid, swish, press, hold, acrylic, oil, water paper: water colour (absorbent) craft (divide, fold) tissue, tracing, newsprint, cartridge, waxed, textured, cardboard, repeating pattern circle, dot, cylinder Go Back to Activities Gallery Back to Top Best Parenting Advice.com is a high quality parenting website designed with child and family success in mind. It highlights what successful parents do differently to those who struggle. Best Parenting advice.com provides free online resources for busy parents who want the best practical advice on: how to give kids a best start in life, better tips for parenting toddlers, effective child rearing strategies, behaviour management tips, successful goal setting and organizational strategies for successful families, easy family dinner recipes, self-care tips for time-poor parents and free kids learning games. The aim of Best Parenting Advice.com is to provide quality practical parenting tips and advice to best help children and families succeed, using the convenience of a website. ​ This website provides examples of what worked for me over decades and you are welcome to use these ideas as you see fit but you do so at your own risk. Best Parenting Advice.com does not provide any guarantee that this information will work in every circumstance with every family or with every child. It is your responsibility as a user of this website to ensure that you adhere to any recommended safety suggestions either implicit or explicit on this site and supervise your children while playing any games suggested. Similarly users of this website are advised to follow any recommendations for seeking professional advice as all information on this site is generic. Best Parenting Advice.com is an independent website and is not affiliated with any other groups, clubs, religious organizations or educational systems. Best parenting takes time. The best parenting advice ever is simple: Do your best, don't give up and love your children, no matter what.

back to top EASY TASTY RECIPES Quick & Easy Cakes & Desserts Five Minute Butterscotch Sauce by Debbie Ingredients 30 grams butter ½ cup brown sugar 150 ml (½ carton cream) Method 1. Melt butter on low heat in a saucepan 2. Add brown sugar and stir through butter until all sugar had melted; continuing to stir until brown sugar has dissolved 3. Add cream and stir through, cooking for an additional minute, ensuring that mixture does not boil 4. Serve with banana cake, or sticky date cake and ice cream for an easy dessert Share this recipe with a friend For more Easy Healthy Recipes go to the following links: More Easy Tasty Cakes and Desserts easy tasty cakes and desserts lemon slice delicious Easy Healthy Soups East Healthy Fish Recipes easy healthy fish dinner recipe salmon mornay Easy Healthy Chicken Recipes yummy drummy easy healthy chicken dinner recipe Easy Healthy Beef Recipes Easy Pasta and Pizza Recipes Easy Healthy Rice Recipes Easy Healthy Breakfasts Easy Healthy Lamb Recipes Back to Top Best Parenting Advice.com is a high quality parenting website designed with child and family success in mind. This site provides free resources for busy parents who want best practical advice on: effective child rearing strategies, easy healthy family meals, self-care tips for time-poor parents and fun learning games to help best educate children while also encouraging positive relationships within the family. One of the best pieces of parenting advice to help support healthy cooperative families, is to provide regular nutritious meals, eaten together as a family as often as possible. Best parenting advice provides a range of quick and easy family dinner recipes supplied by busy working parents. These are the recipes asked for: because they taste great, they're quick and easy they're family friendly and they're foolproof. ​ This site provides examples of what worked for me over decades and you are welcome to use these ideas as you see fit but you do so at your own risk. This site does not provide any guarantee that this information will work in every circumstance with every family or every child. It is your responsibility as a user of this site to ensure that you adhere to any recommended safety suggestions either implicit or explicit on this site and supervise your children while playing any games suggested. Best Parenting Advice.com is not affiliated with any other groups, clubs, religious organizations or educational systems. Best parenting takes time. The best parenting advice ever is simple: Do your best, don't give up and love your children, no matter what.

Back to Top EASY HEALTHY FAMILY RECIPES QUICK & EASY SOUPS Deb's 10 Minute Asian Style Soup Ingredients Olive Oil spray 2 chicken fillets (ideally precooked and thawed but you can cook it fresh or alternatively you can use left over chicken.) 1 spring onion 2 Massel chicken stock cubes 1 carrot 3 broccoli stalks 1 cauliflower centre stalk 1 stick celery 1 handful of beans 1 packet of mini Dim Sims or Pork Dumplings 1/3 packet of organic Udon noodles (or Golden Hokkein Noodles) ​ Optional Bok Choy 1 chilli mild ​Method Chop chicken into small pieces suitable for a soup If chicken is uncooked spray saucepan with olive oil spray Add chicken and cook for two minutes Add water and two chicken stock cubes, stirring until chicken stock cubes have dissolved Add Pork Dumplings (or Wontons) and cook for three minutes Meanwhile chop up all vegetables. Add vegetables to soup along with Udon noodles. Cook for another five minutes or until vegetables are still slightly crunchy. Dice spring onion finely and add in the last minute of cooking along with bok choy and chilli for a more authentic Asian meal. ​ ​Serve immediately ​ HINT: To make it easier I keep lots of two cooked chicken fillets frozen and wrapped in the freezer so I can have a soup or stir fry prepared in the time it takes for the noodles to cook (5-10 minutes.) Share this recipe with a friend For more Easy Healthy Recipes go to the following links: Easy Healthy Breakfasts 10 Tips to Make Meals Kid Friendly 10 Tips to Make Meals Kid Friendly More Easy Healthy Soups Easy Healthy Soups Easy Healthy Fish Recipes Easy Healthy Chicken Recipes Yummy Drummies done the healthy way Easy Healthy Lamb Recipes Easy Healthy Beef Recipes Easy Pasta and Pizza Recipes Easy Healthy Rice Recipes Back to Top Best Parenting Advice.com is a high quality parenting website designed with child and family success in mind. This site provides free resources for busy parents who want best practical advice on: effective child rearing strategies, easy healthy family meals, self-care tips for time-poor parents and fun learning games to help best educate children while also encouraging positive relationships within the family. One of the best pieces of parenting advice to help support healthy cooperative families, is to provide regular nutritious meals, eaten together as a family as often as possible. Best parenting advice provides a range of quick and easy family dinner recipes supplied by busy working parents. These are the recipes asked for: because they taste great, they're quick and easy they're family friendly and they're foolproof. ​ This site provides examples of what worked for me over decades and you are welcome to use these ideas as you see fit but you do so at your own risk. This site does not provide any guarantee that this information will work in every circumstance with every family or every child. It is your responsibility as a user of this site to ensure that you adhere to any recommended safety suggestions either implicit or explicit on this site and supervise your children while playing any games suggested. Best Parenting Advice.com is not affiliated with any other groups, clubs, religious organizations or educational systems. Best parenting takes time. The best parenting advice ever is simple: Do your best, don't give up and love your children, no matter what.

back to top Fun Phonics FUN LEARNING GAMES Complex Combination Sounds Level 4: You will notice that sometimes there can be a number of ways to produce the same sound. For example 'ee' (as in street) 'ea' (as in clean) 'ey' (as in donkey) and 'e_e' (as in scene.) ​ The following sounds, along with previous combinations are ideally known by the end of the first year at school. The earlier kids can identify all combination sounds the easier reading is for them. Ensure single lower case sounds and simple digraphs are known first. ​ Many complex combinations, will have already been encountered, and may have been picked up incidentally in routine words at school, such as r ai ny when discussing the weather, or in high frequency words such as b oy . Back: Level 3: Simple Digraphs Check out Level 3 before continuing with Level 4. ​ You can either screen shot letter sheets, copy them on your phone, download and print them. Or if on a desktop you can click on the image, press save image then print it. If you're having difficulty with either you can contact me for pdfs to be sent to you at your email address. ​ The next lot of sounds are more difficult and are used less frequently so your child may benefit from them being taught in isolation and reinforced as they come up during their oral reading. ​ I found it's advisable to revise sound combinations and digraphs every fortnight or so. I was surprised when assessing a Year 3 class at the beginning of the school year how many of them had forgotten their sound combinations during the Christmas holidays. This can greatly affect reading fluency and therefore comprehension. It usually takes less than two minutes to go through the lot once they're known. How to make it fun Lay out three known digraphs close to each other in a row, (each the correct way up for the child.) Sit opposite, facing my child ready to play The Phonics Game. ​ 1. Call out a sound (say ch) and both players attempt to snap the sound before the other player. ​ 2. Call out a different sound (say er) and both players attempt to snap the new sound before the other player. ​ For more Reading Ideas click on the links below: 3. Repeat the process using three different sounds. (say ch, ch, er, ay, er, ay, ch, ay, er, etc) getting faster. You might even change the letter positions. 4. The game continues until you're reasonably sure your child knows the three digraphs involved. ​ 5. Then removing the digraph they appear to know best. Introduce a 'new' digraph that ideally looks different to the others. For example 'oo'. And continue the game again. ​ 6. You can repeat Step 5 over and over again always increasing the number of known digraphs. ​ ​ Share this teaching game with a friend My Favourite Childrens Books I Love Reading How to Best Read a Book For FUN READING GAMES click on the links below: Level 1: Snapping Turtles Game Level 2: Crunch Crocodile Game Level 3: Micey Dicey Game Level 4: Lion Dancing Game Level 5: Iranaconda Game Level 6: I Can Toucan Game For FUN MATHS GAMES click on the links below: Fun Maths Games 3-5 Years Fun Maths Games 5-7 Years Fun Maths Games 8-10 Years Back to Top Best Parenting Advice.com is a high quality parenting website designed with child and family success in mind. This site provides free resources for busy parents who want the best practical advice possible on: effective child rearing strategies, easy healthy family meals, self-care tips for time-poor parents and fun learning games to help best educate children while also encouraging positive relationships within the family. ​ The best parenting advice regarding creating engaged learners is to make learning as much fun as possible. That's why games work best to revise new information. Children practise skills over and over in play situations, yet aren't even aware they're doing it. Best parenting advice.com provides many examples of quick and easy games to help develop both early reading and maths skills. This site provides examples of what worked for me over decades and you are welcome to use these ideas as you see fit but you do so at your own risk. This site does not provide any guarantee that this information will work in every circumstance with every family or every child. It is your responsibility as a user of this site to ensure that you adhere to any recommended safety suggestions either implicit or explicit on this site and supervise your children while playing any games suggested. Best Parenting Advice.com is not affiliated with any other groups, clubs, religious organizations or educational systems. Best parenting takes time. The best parenting advice ever is simple: Do your best, don't give up and love your children, no matter what.