It's World Book Day - Giveaway's & Offers

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World Book Day is a celebration! It’s a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading. In fact, it’s the biggest celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world.

On 6th March 2014 children of all ages will come together to appreciate reading. Very loudly and very happily. The main aim of World Book Day in the UK and Ireland is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own. That’s why we will be sending schools (including those nurseries and secondary schools that have specially registered to participate), packs of Book Tokens and age-ranged World Book Day Resource Packs (age-ranged into Nursery/Pre-School, Primary and Secondary) full of ideas and activities, display material and more information about how to get involved in World Book Day.

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Reading Eggs makes learning to read interesting and engaging for kids, with great online reading games and activities. Children love the games, songs, golden eggs and other rewards which, along with feeling proud of their reading, really motivate children to keep exploring and learning.

For more information on the program and to claim your special  4 WEEK FREE TRIAL simply visit www.readingeggs.co.uk and register an account and enter the code CYPRUS in the ‘Promo Code?’ box.

Why your child needs to learn how to dress

Why your child needs to learn how to dress

It’s the usual morning rush – you were supposed to be out the door five minutes ago, and your child is still putting on his socks. It’s no surprise that dressing your child yourself seems like the easiest and quickest option.

But your child needs to learn how to do it. The ability to dress yourself builds confidence, independence and a sense of achievement – and once your child has it mastered, it’s one less thing for you to do in the morning!

Getting dressed is about more than just putting on or taking off clothes. It helps your child develop many more skills, including:

1. fine motor skills as she learns to fasten buttons and zips
2. gross motor skills as she stands on one leg to pull on a pair of pants
3. cognitive skills as she remembers what bits of clothing go on first, and builds the patience and attention to finish the task
4. language as she names types of clothes, colours and sizes
5. awareness of time and space as she learns to dress for certain occasions and weather conditions.
6. Teaching your child to dress

Learning to dress requires patience, persistence and practice from both you and your child.
It also involves getting to know the things you have to do to get dressed:

1. picking out clothes that are right for the time of day, the weather and what you’re doing that day – the tutu might not be the best thing for a bushwalk!
2. deciding what to wear – the dinosaur t-shirt or the truck t-shirt today?
3. putting on and taking off clothes and shoes
4. doing up buttons or zips, getting collars and waistbands comfy, and getting socks on the right way around.

• Getting started 

Often very young children will start to be aware of their clothing by pulling off easy-to-remove items such as socks, shoes or hats. Sometimes they’ll then try to put them on again. You can build on this early awareness by naming the items of clothing your child’s taken off and the body part those clothes go on.

You can begin to include your older baby or toddler in the dressing process by giving him a limited choice of clothes, and naming them as you put them on him.

When you decide it’s time for your child to really start learning this skill, it can help to have some easy clothes on hand. These might include:

1. loose, elastic-waisted pants – these are good if your child is also toilet training or can’t manage zips and buttons
2. clothes with velcro or large buttons and button holes
3. jumpers, t-shirts and underwear with logo or pictures on the front to help your child work out front from back
4. clothes that are easy and comfortable for your child to move in.

• Step by step

Getting dressed can have a lot of steps. It helps to break it down into smaller steps – for example, putting on underwear, then t-shirt, shorts, socks and shoes.

Each of the steps in a dressing task can also be broken down, depending on your child’s skill and age. So putting on shorts might be:

1. face shorts the right way (try this at 3½ years)
2. hold onto the front of the waistband (3 years)
3. push one leg at a time through the leg holes while also holding pants (4½ years)

Talking your child through each step lets her know what to do and includes her in the process. In the early stages, simple words or phrases (for example, ‘shirt on’) are OK. You can say more as your child’s language develops (for example, ‘push your arm through the sleeve’).

A good way to teach your child to dress is to break each task down into small steps and teach him the last step first. Once he can do the last step of the task, teach him the second last step, then the third last step and so on. For example, when putting on shorts, you might help your child face the shorts the right way, hold the waistband and put his legs through the leg holes. Then teach him the last step – pulling up the shorts to his waist by himself. Once your child can do this, teach him to put his legs through the leg holes and pull his shorts up. You can keep working your way backwards through the stepsuntil your child has mastered them all and can put his shorts on for himself.

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About 

A unique space which opened on the 7th October 2013.With over 2000 sq.meters, the dp Sports Club is the biggest gym and health club in Cyprus. Meeting all standards, the building will make your workout efficient and pleasant. Our well trained personnel is always there to guide to meet and achieve your fitness goals.

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Outrage with dignity - Paula Manoli-Gray

It's been nearly a year since the infamous Haircut on bank deposits, and despite it being a hard and depressing time for the island and for the majority of individuals, it has certainly gone by fast.

At the time, I couldn't imagine what the state of the island would be like a year down the line and my head was filled with thoughts of Armageddon-type scenarios, especially in the period where everyone was panic withdrawing their money, and some places wouldn't accept credit cards.

One friend and her husband started growing their own food in a bid to become self sufficient as he had convinced her that people would be fighting in the streets for food as the crisis deepened. I have to admit, I stocked up on torches, batteries, matches and tinned food!

But what really surprised me is the lack of riots… although I am not sure if this is a positive or negative aspect of us as a society.

On the one hand, some might say that our lack of rioting and outrage is a sign of apathy, weakness and laziness. They would argue that in other countries all over the world, the people have risen up and displayed their unwillingness to accept the decisions that the powers that be have made on their behalf. They would probably be disgusted that we appear to have sat back and allowed ourselves to be used and abused.

But on the other hand, this shows that we are a nation with dignity who know that to start taking to the streets, setting them alight and looting, whilst attacking the police, would only do us more harm than good. You only have to look at the state of the countries that have taken to this method to see that it only makes things worse and prolongs the country's decline – sometimes indefinitely. That is not to say there haven't been protests and strikes, but there hasn't been any of the ugliness seen in other countries. Those on this side of the fence could further argue that the people of Cyprus – of all nationalities – did something far more powerful and impacting; they rallied around and supported one another.

In a previous column, I spoke about the real sense of community that the island has, and how people are showing compassion and generosity to those who are suffering the most. Even those who don't have much are giving to those who have even less, and I am so proud of my island for reacting in this way of love and humanity, instead of raining destruction and violence on its towns to demonstrate the pain and strain we are under. With this attitude, the island is going to bounce back far quicker than those who wrote us off have predicted.

It was never going to be easy or painless and at times the injustice and conditions that prevail make me want to scream. The weight of the sacrifices that so many are making seems insurmountable.

But when it all feels like too much, I try and think how things will be in yet another year's time, and I know in my heart that the way we chose to handle the situation will be a credit to us all.

First appeared in the Cyprus Weekly, 01/03/14

Beatrix Potter - Spring Tea Party