Just another WordPress.com site

Tag Archives: children

A couple of fun Jubilee celebrations for the family in Swindon….

Queen’s Park Diamond Jubilee Celebrations- The Big Lunch

Sunday June 3rd from 11am. Queen’s Park

Bring a picnic or enjoy a cream tea, Coronation Chicken sandwich or some Arkell’s Queen’s Tipple at only £1 for half a pint from the café.

Live music from local young singer Elliot at 1pm, followed by Nathan Jones Allstars jazz swing band. The mayor, Michael Bray will cut a special Diamond Jubilee cake at 2.15.

Prizes for the best King or Queen dressing up costumes for both children and adults!

Salt Way Children’s Centre Jubilee Party

Thursday 7 June

11.00 – 1.00pm,

Come and make a crown, flag or bunting and then take it straight out to their tea party, where they’ll be food, games and fun galore!

Salt Way Children’s Centre 
Pearl Road, Middleleaze, Swindon, SN5 5TD.

Tel: 01793 465364

I will add any information which falls in to my lap about other Jubilee Celebrations, but unfortunately don’t have time to look up more!


The Café at the Oasis in Swindon is another brilliant choice for people with babies and kids. In fact overall it’s probably the best all round café for choice of food and child- friendliness that I’ve found yet in Swindon, whether you are using the leisure centre facilities or not.

That said I wouldn’t make a special trip to the café during school holidays unless you don’t mind a very long wait for food and strong competition for a table. The same probably applies at weekends. It gets VERY busy during peak times.

Outside these times it’s great, though. Free parking for three hours (although you still must display your ticket!). There’s loads of space for buggies too, and the laminate floor isn’t too hard if kids fall over.

There’s a baby food station with a microwave and bottle warmer and from where I’m sitting I can see seven high chairs- there may be more. You certainly don’t have to worry about your kids screaming and bothering other customers here either as most other people are here with their own kids!

By any café’s standards there’s a great choice of food. A wide variety of jacket potatoes, baguettes, home made soups, salads, pasta, pub grub and burgers.

For kids there are choices of jackets (half) and pastas as well as plated meals which are all served with choices of chips, half jacket or pasta twists and also choice of peas, beans, fried egg or salad. At the moment there’s an offer where you get any junior meal with a carton of Ribena for £3.50.

All the food is reasonably priced and they also have classic slush puppies!

A private company takes over the Oasis in June, so all this may change soon- I really hope not too much.


The Male Carers Group at Saltway Children’s Centre meets on every fourth Saturday of every month from 10.00-11.30am. This month’s meeting is May 26th. The cost is £1 per family.

It’s a group for any male carers of children 8 and under with a range of activities for carers and their children to enjoy as well as the promise of a bacon roll for the male carers!

The group is great fun and they’re aiming to boost their numbers to ensure the continuation of the group.

Salt Way Children’s Centre, Pearl Road, Middleleaze, Swindon, SN5 5TD. Tel: 01793 465364


We made our first visit to Kidz About Soft Play in Swindon on Wednesday afternoon. It certainly won’t be our last!

Kidz About is the perfect drop-in, no commitment activity for a rainy weekday afternoon. We went to Jolly Roger about 3 months ago when J was 4 months old. While Jolly Roger probably has more to offer older kids, Kidz About seems better for younger babies.

There is a special baby section at Kidz About, which I didn’t discover at Jolly Roger (there may be one but we didn’t really look as we were with toddlers). There are a couple of baby-gym type arches with things dangling for younger babies. For older babies there’s a Jumperoo-esque activity station/ bouncer, a standing up activity station, a baby buckaroo-ish ride thing, some hand-held toys and a few other things. Some of the stuff seemed a bit used, but that’s probably because it is- a lot!

J wasn’t bored for a second but, just as important, the soft floor and surroundings offer babies a safe place to explore and practice their moving about skills!

If you have older children there are also Kidz About Parties on offer.

Although more fun with friends I would absolutely come alone with J too. It’s 75p for adults and babies 0-6 months go free. Price jumps to £2.95 off peak for under 2s, £3.95 for under 5s and £4.95 for 5-12 years make Kidz About slightly less of an everyday activity. However it’s still pretty good value to keep your kids very happy for a couple of hours and you can have a bit of a break from thinking up play ideas.

For the grown ups Kidz About has a café, a couple of sofas and loads of tables and chairs. The café has Starbucks coffee, a good variety of snacks and meals and a few very nice looking cakes, as well as chocolate bars etc.

Living in a Swindon Victorian terrace which has not been knocked through as many have- I’m always keen to escape our dingy sitting room. Even on a rainy day this place seemed light and airy.

Kidz About is an excellent choice for escaping the house whilst staying indoors and keeping your baby, toddler or kids happy!


Please find here Salt Way Children’s Centre Timetable May 2012

This includes a Baby First Aid Course- open to people who are already registered with them- on the morning of May 23rd, although the creche is already full for that.


Little Pickles Markets have two events coming up near Swindon.

Little Pickles have markets coming up in the Swindon area

Little Pickles have markets coming up in the Swindon area

Pre-loved maternity, baby and children’s clothes will be on sale along with toys, books, furniture and essential equipment like pushchairs.

The two Little Pickles Markets near Swindon will be at:

Ellendune Community Centre in Wroughton, SN4 9LW on May 26th from 2-3.30pm

and

Dorcan Recreation Complex, SN3 5BY on June 16th also from 2-3.30pm.

I’ve never been to any of these markets but Eddie from Aquababies recommends them. If I can make it to the Dorcan one I’ll write about it for future reference.

If you’re sure you’re not going to be popping any more babies out you can book a table to sell your quality toys etc by contacting jackie@littlepicklesmarkets.co.uk

It’s £1 entry for adult buyers and children go free.

The Little Pickles website has details of other upcoming markets if you can’t make either of these.


Tomorrow, April 27th, is the deadline for nursery/ pre-school place applications. Thanks to Butterflies Children’s Centre for the reminder, and for the attached Early Education Providers List  of nurseries. Just passing the information on….

Please contact the relevant nursery directly. This is for children born between September 1st 2008 and August 31st 2009.


The M&S Cafe in town came in handy on Wednesday when my badly teething baby had had enough of my important errands.

Our milk bottle leaked everywhere,  J continued to kick off because of her pain and a few of the other customers seemed annoyed at our sporadically noisy presence. However the staff were extremely helpful- offering to carry my tray and lending us scissors- and I discovered that there are not one but two disabled toilets with baby change facilities upstairs in the M&S in town. Like.


Butterflies Children’s Centre at Abbey Meads Community Primary School have just released their Summer Timetable.

There’s loads for people in North Swindon to get involved in, from Musicality and Breastmates on Tuesdays to a Single Parents Support group on Wednesdays. In fact you don’t have to be local, there are a few things I fancy on there…

To see the full range of activities available download the new timetable for Butterflies Children’s Centre on the Abbey Meads Community Primary School Website.


Swindon Libraries run Story and Rhyme Sessions at libraries all over town and beyond.

This morning J and I went to a session in Highworth. We had a great time and there were a few other babies there. The slightly older children will have gotten a bit more out of the session, but only because they can talk and therefore understand more.

The lady taking Story and Rhyme (I think her name badge said Lara) really did a great job of including all the children, involving them by getting them to put their head through a book to become various animals/ letting them touch the touchy feely books etc.

There was a bit of singing of rhymes which the children all seems to love and it was handy for me as a reminder of a few more I can now use at home!

The sessions are half an hour long, so perfect for little attention spans. No need to book, you just turn up. To top it all the sessions are free. At least I hope they are as we didn’t pay!

This list of Swindon Libraries Story and Rhyme Sessions should help you find your local session, or one with timing to suit.



Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.