Family Disibility Swim

Fun for all the family at these special swim sessions just for disabled people and their families at

Hartsdown Leisure Centre in Margate.

Every Saturday 3pm-4.30pm from Saturday 4th April!

Free for under 16 years of age under subject to membership of Big Splash Scheme.

One concessionary adult swim per disabled person.

Standard admission policy applies.

Free Swimming! Starting from tomorrow!

SWIMMING for those under 16 and 60 years and over will become free from April 1 at Thanet’s two public swimming pools.

Young and old will be able to swim free of charge at both Ramsgate Swimming Pool and Hartsdown leisure centre in Margate.

The Government is funding the project and an extra £40,000 has been splashed on the scheme from the NHS.

Thanet council’s commercial services chief Cllr Shirley Tomlinson said: "We hope this will encourage more people to get in the swim and get active.It’s a great boost for local people and I hope, as a result of it, we’ll see an increase in the number of people taking part in sport and physical activity."

To access the scheme you will first need to register and prove your age. Documents accepted are photo ID driving licence, passport and/or birth certificate. Please note that for 16s and under, parental consent is required and therefore a parent or legal guardian will be required at registration. Application forms are available from all participating pools. Once registered, you will be issued with your “BIG Splash” access card, which must be shown on each visit to gain entry and will be valid until 31st March 2011. (lost cards will be replaced and charged at £5.00 per card) Under 16s cannot access free swimming between the hours of 9am to 4pm during school term times.

To find out more please visit Thanet Leisure Force Website

http://www.tlfleisure.co.uk/news/whatsgoingon/73.asp

Or visit Ramsgate/Hartsdown Swim Centre and ask for an application form etc...

Stay at Home Dads

Did you know that stay at home dads has become more popular?

Well because the number of stay at home dads there are in Britain now, a group of stay at home dads set up a website just for those who stay at home with the kids!

According to some of the dads that run the website, they could see that there was a rise in stay at home dads but the services and groups out there for them in particular were few and far between, so they decided to do something about it.

The website offers support and information in a friendly and easy way so if you are one of the up and coming stay at home dads come check out their website!
www.homedad.org.uk

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Also If you do live in Thanet there is a Fathers In Thanet Group which are always welcoming new dads from the area! If you would like to find out more about this then please visit:
http://mumsanddadsunite.net/FathersInThanetHomestart.html

Nikki-MADU

Dad Info - For Dads/Fathers!

Hello everyone,

As well as visiting the 'Mums and Dads Unite Thanet' website I just wanted to let you know about another cool website for Dads in the UK.

Dad Info is a website for dads offering information related to fatherhood, expecting, kids, work, money, health, separation,entertainment, Paternity Leave and more!

So if you are a Dad why not check it out!

Dad INFO

Nikki-MADU

Help for Busy Mums!

Hi there everyone!

Just wanted to let you all know of a great website for busy mums called Help for Busy Mums (although dads can visit too!)

This website offers info , time saving tips (for your busy day), support and more.

They can send you a newsletter twice a month and also have articles on various topics such as 'food for thought', health, family etc...

If you register with them (which is free!) you can join their forums, find discounts on various range of products and services plus find out about having your own personal coach - who can help you to achieve your goals)

So if you are a busy mummy why not try their website?

Hope this is useful!

Nikki-MADU

Turner Contemporary - new resource for Early Years practitioners

Turner Contemporary, the visual art organisation based in Margate Kent has put together a new resource, the Generate Toolkit, designed for Early Years practitioners and those who work with under 4s in playgroups and nurseries.

The Toolkit has been developed by Turner Contemporary in conjunction with staff from Children’s Centres in Margate and a group of Kent based artist/ parents who set up the Generate project in 2007. The aim of the project is to encourage parents and children to make artwork together through listening, sharing and celebrating outcomes. What is unique to this project is re-positioning of the roles of parents and children, with the idea that parents can learn from, and be inspired by their children.

In Spring 2008, the artists ran a series of eight creative workshops for parents and children in St Paul’s Community Centre in Cliftonville. These sessions were developed by Turner Contemporary working closely with Cliftonville Children’s Centre and Sure Start Margate, with funding from Safer Stronger Communities.

This led to a resource pack for staff working with Early Years in Children’s Centres, nurseries and playgroups. The Toolkit contains footage from the workshops and interviews with the artists and Early Years staff involved in running the sessions.

As a follow on to sessions in Children’s Centres and nurseries there are suggested activities for exploring artwork in a gallery with children. Other ‘tools’ include documents covering the principles of the project, eight Activity Outlines for Early Years staff to try out, and information about how the Generate project helps meet Early Years Foundation Stage Targets.

While the toolkit has been developed for professional practitioners, it contains lots of ideas and activities that parents and their children can enjoy together at home.

“It has increased my art and craft knowledge…got me involved with sticking and making stuff”
Chris Pitt, Parent

“I always watch children and think how amazingly open minded and exciting their attitude to creating is and I wish I could be that broad minded… that aspect of children’s creativity I’ve always found amazing.”
Sara Wicks, artist
“When children feel secure they respond much more positively and their learning is much greater.”
Lesley Watts, Manager, Thanet Early Years

This fantastic resource is free to download from http://www.turnercontemporary.org/ and includes information about the Generate project and how to replicate activities and processes.

For more information visit the website or telephone: 01843 294363

Teenage Pregnancy - Help and info for parents/carers!

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Easter Holiday Open Days - Monkshill Farm

Monkshill Farm are having some open days during the Easter holidays and as spring is coming it means they have lots to show!

Come and see the lambs being born, newly hatched chicks, bottle feeding lambs and bucket feeding calf's.

Watch the pigs and stroke the goats, rabbits, guinea pigs and donkeys.

All ages welcome!

Admission Free!

(Although donations will be gratefully received.)

Face painting & Easter Raffle!
Local produce for sale!
New refectory open!
Light Refreshments available!

DATES OF OPEN DAYS
4th, 5th, 6th & 7th April 2009
Opening hours: 10am-4pm

Post Natal Pamper!

Hi everyone just thought that I would let you all know about this post natal pamper offer that Obsessions in York street Ramsgate are offering. I picked up the leaflet from my local doctors recently and wanted to share it with you all as I love the idea they have come up with for us new mums etc...

Here is what the leaflet reads -

"As a new mum myself I am fully aware of the hard times and the genuine need for 5 minutes (guilt free) to yourself. So I am offering all new mum's extremely discounted treatments on Mondays & Tuesday.
You have no need to worry about bringing your little bundle with you as we are a child friendly salon. Just bring along your red book, (the one you take to your health visitors check ups) sit back on our shiatsu massage chairs & relax.

Wash + Style - £7
Cut + Style £14
Colour Cut Style £34
Foils through parting cut + style £28

"Hope to see you soon" Jenny, Nathen & Fran
22 York Street Ramsgate CT11 9DS
Tel:01843 852662
clients@obsessionsalon.co.uk
http://www.obsessionsalon.co.uk/
Appointment not always necessary but advised.
Monday-Saturday 9-5 late night appointments available.

Hope this helps some of you ladies out there! Go get pampered and relax! :0)

Fantastic Eye Opening Disibility Training!

I thought that I would write a bit about the training I had today. I found it a very refreshing and eye opening session and would suggest it to any one who works in the public or someone who would like to have more understanding in this area.

The 4hour training was called BSL communication and disability training which dealt with basic understanding such as what we understood by the word disability, the actual disability discrimination act's definition and global disability statistics which really shocked me as apparently there are at least 650 million disabled people in the world.

Also we touched on visual impairment which included trying on some glasses to help you understand the different types of impairment that people can have such as someone with cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, tunnel vision and more.

We then moved on to look at people with limited mobility, hearing impairment including deafness, guide dogs, learning disabilities and more, looking at ways that we as local services could improve access and understanding etc... This was very thought provoking and made us all more aware of what might be needed when holding events, running workshops and groups etc...

Then we learnt about hidden disability which if I am honest, have never heard of before although I have heard of the types of problems included in this area. These hidden disabilities include things like asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, mental health issues, autism, ADHD and more.

Anyhow I enjoyed the training very much which as I said before was very thought provoking and would recommend it to any one interested in this area or offering a service to the public etc...

To find out more about Moore Communications and what they could offer you, your business or service please visit Moore Communications Website who can offer professional training facilities and British Sign Language (BSL) Communication Support to all of its customers.

Hope you may find this helpfull! :0)

Searching for more info on local support!

Hi there,

I have been searching today for more information about the different support there is in Thanet for parents, carers and families etc... This has proved quite difficult on the web as there are many sites that have old information such as from 2006/7 argh! lol 

Also lots of planned support for Thanet which was from a few years ago that has not been offered yet. Hopefully they will be successful in producing these services soon as they sounded like quite useful ideas!

Apart from actually typing the correct name for a service and researching, searching (support in thanet) etc.. does not show up much.

Sorry to those who do have this info! Perhaps I missed you in between all the jargon lol Please do get in touch with me if you have any info on this. :0)

mumsanddadsunite@live.co.uk

Any how  I will keep on searching and making those contacts for the future! :0) 

We shall find them all! lol hehe!

Nikki K - madu

A bit about the blogger!

Hi there!

My name is Nikki and I run Mums & Dads Unite Thanet Website, Forum and Blog.

I am currently a 26 year old mum to a boy who is nearly 7 years old and am due a baby in July '09.

I live with my partner and we enjoy family time, going to church, hanging out with friends and all things fun! (Within reason hehe!)

I am a a qualified childcare and education practitioner and have experience in working with families which I enjoyed deeply. I also volunteer at various places in Thanet.

I am having a little break at the mo as pregnancy has slowed me down lol

I decide to set up Mums and Dads Unite Thanet as I found there was not a lot of info for parents and carers on the web that was up to date and easy to find in one place. Using the contacts I had made through work I started a website (had to learn how to start one as had never made one before! hehe!) Eventually the website I was using became unable to cope with the amount of info I was placing on it so I invested in another web builder that could cope.

I cannot believe how large the website has become and every day there are new services, organisations wanting to add their info to spread the word to parents and carers in Thanet.

So far to date roughly 700-800 parents/carers are connected to MADU Thanet by various ways and this is continuously growing. (How Fab!)

Have just set up the new forum for parents and carers which I am trying to get kick started so it becomes a community for us all to post and discuss things related to parenting/caring and thanet life. You can join us by clicking here!

Anyhow it's great to see that it is all worth it and that it's helping in one way or another.

Just want to say a big Thank you to all those who have helped to make Mums and Dads Unite what it is today!

I am still running MADU voluntaraly but have kindly been offered office space by Global Generation who amongst other things offer Thanet Youth events such as Pipeline!

This helps greatly and then I just use the computer at home to do the rest of the work and researching etc...

Anyhow have waffled enough for now so will say bye and hope you enjoy all that MADU has to offer!

Nikki :0)