Joyful Parents Blog

RIP Goosie

For those who do not know, Goosie was an integral, major feature on the island of Erraid. He has been here for over 30 years, he was very old and last week this old goose finally gave up the ghost and passed away. As we remember some of the fond memories we have of Goosie, we… [read more]

Greet the Day

On sunday morning I woke up early and was able to have the great privilege of witnessing a most incredible sunrise unfolding. A sky of scarlet, orange, purple and violet hues, the air was so serenely still, the light in the sky was reflecting off the water and I stood taking photos in absolute awe… [read more]

I don’t want to go to school!

Last week I wrote about the children deciding they wanted to go to school. After a fabulous year of homeschooling or unschooling. We’ve all enjoyed it.  (I’ve particularly loved not being tied to school holidays for our adventures). Going to school is quite an adventure – for living on an island as we do, means they… [read more]

“Mummy, I want to go to school!”

When we decided to move to Erraid for a year we also decided that we would home school our children. Having never homeschooled before this required some research I believed that my role as a home schooling parent would require a lot of imput from me.  I wasn’t so thrilled.  So, I took a slightly more alternative… [read more]

Time Away From The Kids

I think that parents sometimes believe that they shouldn’t spend any time at all away from their children and often feel extremely guilty when they do. Situations will, of course, vary from family to family, depending on the age of the child and the commitments of the parents. Some children spend time with one parent… [read more]

Celebrating Joyful Godparents

It seems unfortunate to me that some parents nowadays tend to shy away from appointing Godparents for their children. The title holds obvious spiritual connotations and is traditionally a role intended for those designated to bring children to the Christian faith. Seen in this light I can totally understand why those with more secular leanings… [read more]

When a baby dies

From time to time I hear news of another stillbirth. Last week, such news came to me as a sudden reminder  of my own journey of the loss of my baby, Ben. Although Ben died nearly eighteen years ago, I felt strongly the urge to write this and share my own experience of having a… [read more]

Gender Battles: Boy vs Girl

There has been huge inequality between men and women for many years and I think it is important to address this and somehow bring this inequality into balance. As parents it is interesting to take a look at how we might be raising our children a certain way depending on their gender. If, for example,… [read more]

New Parents ? 7 tips to staying joyful

The Joyful Parents guide to staying joyful when you become a parent for the first time, part of the New Mama (New Parents) blog hop…. [read more]

Commercial Free Childhood?

Are you interested in having a commercial free childhood for your children? [read more]

Imbolc

Being on Erraid means being very connected to the land, we are dependent on the garden in a way that I’ve never been before. Yes of course we can boat in our vegetables and supplies, but being able to go and harvest a fresh cabbage, some turnips and kale even in the middle of winter… [read more]

10 ways to be a rubbish parent

A tongue-in-cheek look at how parents set themselves up for failure and believe themselves to be rubbish – when in fact parenting is much more than being good or perfect… [read more]

More Island Life

We have just celebrated our third month here on Erriad… and with Christmas fast approaching, I try to savour each day, seeing this year will move by all too soon.. I can see our children are loving it and thriving, they are connecting with the other adults around them in really lovely ways,  my daughter… [read more]

The Seaweed Run

Winter storms throw up tonnes of seaweed to be harvested on Erraid, the whole community pitches in to gather the kelp a time old tradition on the Western Isles. The Children get to do the seaweed stomp… [read more]

School for Social Entrepreneurs

I am just in the final stages of getting a £4,000 grant that I have been given to help develop some support materials for parents.  The working title is  “Parent circles – support material ” and the grant will go towards the writing, designing and developing of materials, audio, video for groups of parents who… [read more]