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Instagram post 2192222994959524316_184009684 Caption: He’s not allowed on the bed! 😂

Sorry for being very quiet on here. I’m battling my usual Winter blues. Not much to say really. I’m trying to keep active, to get into the spirit and not let the overwhelm consume me. It’s just one day after all! ❤️ Christmas pjs, their smiley faces and morning bed invading labradors are the things keeping me going. How are you? Are you ok? Tell me happy news if you have any! Or share your woes. Either is allowed here. 💗
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Rare family photo alert! On Friday night I made Dave finish work early and we headed to @thebreweryquarter in Cheltenham for some incredible ice cream sundaes in the very funky @creamscafecheltenham (I had no idea it was so big inside! Very cool interior design too.) and then onto the @cineworld cinema to see...you guessed it! Frozen 2! I was SO excited. (Never mind the kids!) And we weren’t seeing it in 2D, nor 3D, oh no, we went to 4Dx! It was an incredible experience, the seats moved, there was cold air blown at us in snowy scenes and water sprayed.
In all honesty, I think 3D might have been enough for me though, it was seriously magical, I felt I could reach out and touch things! But the seats moving was a bit unrelaxing!(Bear in mind I don’t like theme park rides so possibly not the right person to ask!) You could also hear the fans quite loudly in certain points where the film went quiet. My kids and husband LOVED it though. 
As for the film, it was AMAZING! I love love loved it. I loved the songs, the answering of questions, the new characters, the strong females. Brilliant!
Missed the after end credits scene though, so make sure you stay until the very end if you haven’t been yet! 😊 ⛄️ Have you seen it? Tell me what you thought! And have you seen a 4Dx film? 
#breweryquarter #cheltenham #cineworld #frozen2 #4dx
Instagram post 2185087374990553502_184009684 About last night! Or yesterday really! I am so so so happy with our @mavenconnex blogger event went yesterday. 4 months in the planning, and our first full day.

We took over the gorgeous orangery and one of the conference rooms at the breathtaking @deveretortworthcourt and @florismartuk sent three of their lovely independent florists @forgetmenots4364 @fiorellaflowers and @stone_roses_florist to make Christmas wreaths with everyone and also to give a talk about buying from your local florist to support small businesses AND get the best deal for your money.

We also had the most incredible talks. Lovely @emmaand3 my fabulous co-organiser shared some of her wealth of blogging knowledge, @sales_academy_adam @ouralteredlife and @spencersarc.mummy gave inspiring motivational talks, Serena from Made 4 U Podcasts talked everyone through the equipment she uses, the supremely talented @amytreasureblog sparked the most amazing creativity with her hands on flatlay workshops and @oliviarnorthcote gave everyone some excellent styling tips, even pulling out one of @mamalifelondon tees to demo an outfit, not realising she was in the audience! I also need to mention the fact we ate and drank delicious food all day. What made it truly lovely though, was the way everyone was so friendly and chatty with each other, it really did make for a happy day and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the way it went! 
Everyone went home with their wreaths and a goody bag stuffed with fab items from @taylors @jimmysicedcoffee @oxouk @arladairyuk @daelmans_stroopwafels @bumboo_uk @yessnacks @vitstix @deenoapp with @getrocketbook for the speakers.

Also our chosen charity @inkinddirect gave a presentation telling everyone about their wonderful work.

Phew! Hope I got everyone. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone involved who helped to make it such a wonderful day. 💗 And to Emma, who has been a pleasure to work with every step of the way!

Photos: @littlelilypadco
Instagram post 2180423902965183886_184009684 If you had told me 5 years ago that one day I would have a successful blog that I’m proud of and would be running amazing events I’d never have believed you. 
Just coming out of the fog of PND with my confidence at rock bottom and yet here we are! This year Emma and I have had two incredible events already with two more to come.
Sunday (24th) is our all day extravaganza featuring talks on podcasting, monetising your blog and how to take your business to the next level, inspiring speakers like Charlie from @ouralteredlife social media workshops, photography flatlay workshops, a tips, tricks and trends styling session with an incredible stylist and wreath making from @florismartuk with a goody bag and your wreath to take home. (Swipe to see it all!)
Sometimes it blows my mind that I’ve helped to put this together. Me! Someone so shy I couldn’t even speak in shops when I was younger and made my Mum order for me in cafes.
I’m so proud of myself. And the absolute icing on the cake was being asked to give a talk on blogging at my daughter’s school. I felt so validated, sometimes it doesn’t feel like a ‘proper’ job, especially when you fill in forms and there’s no check box!
There’s also food and drink all day on Sunday and the hotel is gorgeous. I’m SO excited. There are a couple of tickets left if you wanted to join us still. I’ll pop the link in my bio.
We also have a ‘freelancer/small biz Christmas works do’ happening at @nrsocial_chelt next Thursday (28th) evening so come and join us there too if you too don’t have enough on your staff to warrant going out!
Of all the options they gave me on careers day at school, this wasn’t one of them. Just goes to show you really can create your own job in this day and age!

#pinklinker
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Is it just me who feels the cold so much more now I’m older? 🥶I used to be really warm blooded and my mum would always shudder at me wearing a tee and no jumper but now my hands and feet are always icy and I’m constantly telling the kids to ‘put a jumper on, you’re making me feel cold’! Just like my mum did to me! 😂
The weather seems to have changed dramatically in the last few weeks but I’ve been living in my @tog24official coat and it’s brilliant! Smart enough for town and practical enough for my country dog walks with the lovely @hendrix_our_labrador (isn’t he big now?) it’s fantastically waterproof and has a toasty inner layer for warmth. And it all zips apart to form 2 separate coats. Best of all, I have one adult and one child’s to give away! On the blog now.

Can I just also take a moment to shout out @oliviarnorthcote who has helped me to make much braver fashion choices, like these leopard print trousers! I got so many positive comments that day. I think black boots might be better though. Can’t wait to hear what she tells us during her styling session at the @mavenconnex event in less than two weeks! 🥳

Happy Monday everyone! What’s your week got in store?

#pinklinker #cheltenham
Instagram post 2171709587806260933_184009684 💗 I just wanted to say a heartfelt THANK YOU. 💗 On Tuesday I felt tired and emotional and got very teary on my stories about this (not so!) tiny person’s school anxiety. If you don’t know our journey, it’s all on the blog under the mental health tab but basically we both have anxiety and I’m always (quietly) worrying about whether I’m doing the right thing and she is worrying about everything else. 😢

After a short period of homeschooling we found a small school that she agreed to trial. She loved it and is so well cared for and looked after there and she chose to go and yet every day it’s the same battle. 🤯

Most of the time I can cope with it. Sometimes I can’t. And that was Tuesday. And you all rushed forward to message me, offering sympathy, advice, empathising, telling me you can relate. And that genuinely made me feel so much better. It took me the whole of the next day to get through all those wonderful messages and I hope I managed to reply to everyone! Luckily I had a day at the hairdresser so had time to spare. (Swipe for a better pic of my lovely hair, it was definitely needed to sit and chat to Elliot for a day.)* This community is what makes it all worthwhile. I’m thinking of setting up a Facebook group for parents of anxious children for a place to find a bit of support and tips and ideas. Let me know if you’d be interested. 
Sometimes I worry that she’ll only remember the times I get frustrated with her, I hope she remembers the love too, and realises all I’ve ever done has been for her, sometimes I feel like I get it so wrong but other days I’m not so hard on myself, it’s a fine balance! 💗 *(I paid for my hair myself in full but last time I went for a complimentary appointment for a review, the reason I chose to go back is because Elliot has created a welcoming space for everyone, especially if you don’t feel you fit the usual salon world. Plus it’s beautiful in there and he is a hair magician!) @hileyhairclub 
#mentalhealth #anxiety #motherdaughter #cheltenham
Instagram post 2169204851974693981_184009684 THREE WEEKS TO GO!!! I’m SO excited. Our next @mavenconnex event is 3 weeks today and it’s going to be fabulous with a festive feel. I don’t have enough space in this caption to add everything we have going on but in a nutshell: 🎄Wreath Making
🎙 Podcasting From a top travel journalist.
👗 Styling Session Tips and Tricks
📸 Flatlay Photography
💷 Monetising your Blog
📱 Business Coaching
🎥 Social Media masterclasses
🧁 LOADS of food. Including lunch and TWO cake breaks!
👜 Goody Bag AND your wreath!
🏰 Stunning venue

All for £55 (I know right? Bargain!) We still have some tickets left but we have to give the final numbers to the florist so tickets bought after a certain date won’t include a wreath so be quick! 
Link for full deets in the bio.
Instagram post 2168120284492833508_184009684 Ad -Paid
Before I became a Mum I did so much baking, my cakes were legendary! I remember making my bestie an intricate butterfly cake for her birthday when we were both at school and my cupcakes were detailed works of art. 🧁
Then the kids came along and my time was spent on them and my baking hobby went by the wayside, along with sewing and jewellery making. 
Now they are older, they love watching baking programs and are really keen to learn, but we are still time poor with school and homework and clubs. Luckily, thanks to @princes and their fruit fillings, we can take a step out of these apple crumble cupcakes (recipe on the blog!) by using their delicious apple filling making them super quick and easy. It's nice to be baking again, and watching the kids inherit my passion for cake! I used some of the left overs to make some super simple crumble pots too. Yum! 🍏

#princes #bakingmadeeasy #cake #gbbo #pudding #cupcake #fairycake #applecrumble
Instagram post 2164470452314131276_184009684 AD - Paid 
Fun fact! 🍒 Did you know I was almost called Cherry? 🍒 My mum lived in Holland when she was pregnant with me and there were loads of big fat black cherries around and she loved them so much she wanted to name me Cherry. My Dad vetoed it though and I became Louise! I think I’d have made a good Cherry! 
I love them too, and clearly so does this little lady! I’ve been getting my bake on with @princes and making the delicious black cherry cheesecake from their website using the yummy cherry fruit filling. So delicious that I had two offers of help to finish the left overs in the tin. 😂 #princes #bakingmadeeasy
Instagram post 2163010236422570697_184009684 🧳Press Trip🧳
Although we were getting on a plane to go home at this point, (Dave is a whole foot taller than me which makes fitting in a photo nigh on impossible!😆) look how happy we look!

We had such a lovely lovely time. Friendly staff, gorgeous surroundings (swipe to see how we left it), sunshine, warmth and incredible food. ☀️ Although a bout of tonsillitis for my smallest human meant that he and I were confined to the room for the last day, we still got a last swim in the sea before we went. Thank goodness for antibiotics! Couldn’t fault the hotel for helping us when he was poorly, a doctor came straight away to the room, did a swab test on the spot and wrote a prescription and we picked everything we needed up from the pharmacy opposite. 👨🏻‍⚕️ Dave got to take advantage of my massage which he said was excellent and our boat trip had to be cancelled due to weather anyway (see my last post about the waves!) so it all worked out. 🌊 
We’ve not had the easiest year and so some family time in the sunshine was bliss. 💗 Thank you so much for inviting us out! 💗

@kalyvesbeachhotel @seacretehotels #kalyvesbeachhotel #pinklinker #familytravel #greece #crete

Pink Pear Bear

Loves The Great Outdoors.....and Cake!

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Why my child will be in school on May 3rd.

May 2, 2016      pinkpearbear      17 Comments

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If you didn’t already know, there is a big school protest going on tomorrow. Primary school children across Britain will be kept at home by their parents tomorrow as part of the Let Our Kids Be Kids protest against Year 6, Year 2, doing SATS. You can read more here.

We won’t be taking part though.

The reason is this;

I whole heartedly back this campaign. I absolutely agree with all the points made about children having the right to be children. I’ve heard the stories about anxious 6 and 7 year olds in tears, desperately worried about being ‘stupid’. ‘bad at the tests’, ‘not clever’ and I think it is disgusting that our babies are being put in a position where, at an age where a lot of their European counterparts are not even at school yet, they are facing the worry about exams. The teachers are facing yet more pressure to forgo all the activities and pastimes that children should be enjoying in their early education years and are being forced to put far too much effort and energy into their children passing the tests and scoring highly so as not to bring down the school’s reputation.

I hate it. I think it is awful and totally and utterly ridiculous. However, I’m not joining in with the protest and my reasoning is purely that I don’t want my daughter to know about these tests at all. If I keep her off school, she will wonder why. She’s bright enough to know that she should be in school and will ask me a lot of questions about it.

I know that the idea is that the school will carry out these tests in such a way that the children won’t know that they are sitting tests and I can only hope that that is true, that by the time she gets to them, she’ll not be aware at all, or all the petitioning and negative press the government is receiving will have meant that they are no more.

The last thing that I want is for her to feel anxious for two years about them coming. She is a worrier and a perfectionist and would get herself in knots about it and so I’m hoping to not draw her attention to it, thereby sparing her the worry. I can’t help but feel that if I were to be talking about it in a public and open manner and by making her query things by not attending school, this is going to give her more of an idea about what is going on, then if she were just quietly answering some questions one day at school, something she probably wouldn’t even pick up on.

The fact that I’m not protesting in this way however, does not mean that I agree with them being labelled so young, or that they are now putting so much energy into learning about things that I genuinely don’t believe that they need to know at this age. In fact, some of the things my daughter knows now, I have got away for 32 years without ever needing! 😉

My mother is a prime example. She was brought up in Austria and didn’t start school until she returned to Britain at 7 and they panicked that she was not in school yet and wrote all sorts of letters to my grandparents.

She is one of the brightest people I know! She collects letters after her name as if she is trying to tick off the whole alphabet!

This article is a very interesting look at how children that begin learning reading at 7, will actually be at the same level as those that started reading at 5 but generally have much more positive attitudes towards it. I can understand that. My daughter at 5, can find reading stressful and a chore, I also find it stressful knowing that she will be ‘behind’ the others in her class if we don’t read the book as they read in group sessions. It makes me sad because she is very good at reading, also, I loved to read as a child. I feel that reading should be a pleasure, a key to whole new worlds, not a drag, multiple stages of boring, unimaginative, uninspiring books to tick off.

She also has maths homework. Admittedly, this is designed to be fun, but there is a certain pressure to get that done too. They don’t seem to take into account that we do so much at home that is less structured maybe, but by no means less important, it is just less forced, less formal, more fun!

Although she’ll go into school as normal tomorrow, I’m not going to not do anything about this. I shall be signing every petition going in the hope that many voices shouting together can be heard. I shall also work incredibly hard to make sure that my children know that they are totally brilliant humans however they do at school, some of the most brilliant minds of our time found unconventional ways of achieving their greatness and I think we should celebrate them too. We seem to have lost the ability to view people as individuals and instead, assess them based on a generic testing system that doesn’t take into account any of the other qualities that make them pretty damn fabulous and special.

There are many things that I disagree with about the English education system, (don’t get me started on the whole holidays thing, fining was a measure brought in to prevent the poor forgotten children spending their days truanting because no one was attempting to make them go, not to prevent families from making magical memories with loved ones, I’m still hoping that they have an about turn on the policy as Wales have recently.), and so many things about it that make me angry, but hopefully, by fighting away quietly in ways like this, I can make a difference without drawing the attention to it of the most important people, my tiny humans.

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Petitions you can sign if you feel strongly about this too;

Cancel the end of Key Stage 2 SATs tests for 2016 Govt Petition

Stop KS1 tests and go back to teacher judgements and levels

WE SUPPORT TEACHERS TO BOYCOTT SATS -Let The Kids Be Kids

Re the School Holidays;

Parents Want a Say Petition

Parent Want a Say Facebook Page

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Comments

  1. RachelSwirl says

    May 2, 2016 at 11:39 pm

    My son will be partaking in these tests. Not because I want him to but because he wont even know that he’s doing them. His school have had the bright idea not to tell the kids and to simply get them to do them as fun activities… I don’t really care how he scores as I see them as a waste of paper and time. I would much rather him be assessed by regular progress reports as schools already carry out.

    Reply
    • pinkpearbear says

      May 5, 2016 at 10:48 am

      It’s so tough to call. I will send my daughter in on school test days but I will work damn hard to make sure she realises that results aren’t everything and she’s just perfect as she is. Most importantly, I will try not to get sucked in to the competitive parenting that seems to go hand in hand with this sort of stuff!

      Reply
  2. stephloveshoney says

    May 3, 2016 at 9:16 pm

    This is such a sensitive issue. As a teacher, I prefer to use my own judgement backed up by ongoing evidence rather than a test score which may be wildly different to how a child usually performs. #bigpinklink

    Reply
    • Pink Pear Bear says

      May 4, 2016 at 7:02 am

      It’s so tough isn’t it. I trust the teachers in our school & think at this age, they need to be left to it more, they’re so new to school& it’s terrible if they are put off so young.

      Reply
  3. Sarah says

    May 4, 2016 at 10:14 am

    Great post Louise! My 5 year old was off school yesterday but only cos he’s poorly. I would’ve still sent him in even though I’m against these tests, like your daughter, James is bright enough to ask why he wouldn’t be at school.
    I totally agree with you – I think this country places way too much emphasis on educational attainment as measured by certain tests. As part of my psychology degree we looked at the bias of intelligence tests and how they only work for certain groups. While I’m sure these tests are drawn up with little ones in mind and are administered in a sensitive way by many teachers, testing for testings sake is ridiculous, puts kids under unnecessary pressure and probably doesn’t even reflect their real abilities. The teachers know which kids are struggling, which are excelling and have ways and means of helping these groups. Why does the government feel the need to continually have league tables and statistics??! Bl**dy government (don’t get me started on them, I could write a whole blog post about how much i dislike the Tories. Only today I found out that they’re not funding my 3year old’s final 2 weeks of nursery, leaving me to find a hundred quid). Rant over! x

    Reply
    • pinkpearbear says

      May 5, 2016 at 10:37 am

      Why are they pulling funding? That makes no sense and at such short notice too! I think that it is an absolute mess. They are obviously trying to find the areas where pupils are failing, but I think the level of testing at year 2 is quite crazy. I think they should be left to play. By all means, little spelling tests and things, but in the classroom and not under exam conditions. They are still babies! Intelligence is such a personal thing. Any amount of factors can result in a child doing poorly in a test that just aren’t taken into account.

      Reply
  4. Fran @ Whinge Whinge Wine says

    May 4, 2016 at 3:58 pm

    I don’t even have school aged children but this topic has interested me greatly. It gives me a little pang of sadness that children can’t just be children. It is bad enough that everything is tested academically and you take that with you through life – You might be an awesome musician or a talented write but if you leave school with 3 GCSEs it will desperately knock your confidence. Not everyone was built for academia, nor should they be. Imagine if we only had academics, the world as we know it would grind to a skidding halt!

    Reply
    • Fran @ Whinge Whinge Wine says

      May 4, 2016 at 4:01 pm

      Or a talented writer – not an affliction I suffer from obviously! Anyway I forgot to say #bloggerclubuk 😉

      Reply
    • pinkpearbear says

      May 5, 2016 at 10:31 am

      This is such a good view, and so right. I just think that the variation of people is what makes the world turn. Not everyone is cut out for exams but it doesn’t make them any less special. If academics ran the world, oh dear! My Mum is super intelligent, scarily so, but I had to show her how to boil rice! ;D

      Reply
  5. Jasmine says

    May 4, 2016 at 6:40 pm

    There’s so much literature about the school readiness of children, the pros and cons of doing it the Scandinavian way and starting later. The thing is, what ever happens they aren’t going to please everyone.
    My point of view is that you can’t boycott tests totally, enough children shit a brick about their GCSE’s. We should be teaching children about not stressing, failing an exam is not the end of the world. And tests should be more about checking that teachers are teaching all the kids, that no one is struggling, if they are then proper support.

    Rant rant rant. Sorry!

    #Passthesauce

    Reply
    • pinkpearbear says

      May 5, 2016 at 10:28 am

      I agree completely. The teachers have been assessing through the year for years and my friend says that she would have the most brilliant children who bailed on test day because they couldn’t handle the pressure and then children that were really struggling but were great at memorising so sailed through even though they struggled with the basics. A teacher needs to get to know her pupils over time to make these judgments. With the younger ones anyway.

      Reply
  6. Charlene says

    May 4, 2016 at 8:10 pm

    I was one of the first children to take SATS when they were introduced. The teachers didn’t make a big deal about it, it was just another lesson but I remember the day. Not because of the test itself but because of the anxiety it generated in the adults around me, I remember my mother quizzing me on the content and whispering earnestly about levels with her friends. I think the whole schooling system needs an overhaul, compared to most other services it’s barely changed since Victorian times, not all children learn in the same way but if things don’t change, well the tests never end – perhaps the sooner children get used to them the better… *ducks* #passthesauce

    Reply
    • pinkpearbear says

      May 5, 2016 at 10:24 am

      I was one if the first to do SATS too, but at 11. I’m not sure when they brought them in for the younger ones but it seems a bit much to me. At 6 and 7 the focus should still be on play. Childhood is so short at the best of times. I definitely agree that testing is something they need to get used to, unfortunately it doesn’t work for every child though. There doesn’t seem to be an obvious solution.

      Reply
  7. Mrs Tubbs says

    May 4, 2016 at 9:04 pm

    I’m not sure what I’d do if the Tubblet was still in Primary. I don’t agree with the tests, but I’m not sure keeping them off school or implying that’s okay is the way to do it. But, that said, each parent needs to make their own decision

    Reply
    • pinkpearbear says

      May 5, 2016 at 10:21 am

      It’s just such a minefield isn’t it? I’m not against tests either but these just sound a massive step too far if they are causing stress for both the teachers and the children Thanks for your comment, 🙂

      Reply
  8. Petite Pudding says

    May 5, 2016 at 7:25 pm

    Its a tough call as a parent but I agree with you that if your daughter is going to know something is up and you have to explain why she isn’t in school then that just makes the test pressure worse. We were talking about this the other evening and I have to say that the grammatical terms they are teaching kids these days are things that I myself have never heard of and at 30 years old I am doing just fine not knowing them! #passthesauce

    Reply
  9. Random Musings says

    May 6, 2016 at 5:32 pm

    I think keeping kids off school for this teaches them that if you don’t like something you just refuse to take part which isn’t a good lesson at all. Looks like the government will have a lot of fine money to keep funding the new system the people are complaining about when all the parents are fined for an unauthorised absence!
    Thanks for linking up to #BloggerClubUK 🙂
    Debbie

    Reply

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Hello, I'm Louise, welcome to my blog!

Mother of two, (a son and daughter both in school), married over 10 years and nearing 20 together and owner of a very bouncy labrador called Hendrix and an elderly cat called Pablo.

We love to travel as a family and enjoy nothing more then a weekend exploring or at a festival in our camper Wilma.

Big fan of cheesy detective programs, tea, cake and early nights!

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