As a teacher I am often asked for advice. I am a mum too and so over the years I have learned a great deal about children and young people. I always say that children are just smaller versions of us and to be honest I have learned a lot from children with their common sense and honesty.

Therefore my first words of wisdom (as I call them and my pupils will laugh when they see that) is listen to what your child is saying. They have opinions and we should listen.
Why should they like eggs? Do you? Why is broccoli so important when it makes your tummy turn upside down? There are other things you can eat which are just as good.

I once heard a psycologist say that if your three year old will only eat Smartie sandwiches so what. I thought about that for a moment or two and decided… they’ll soon get fed up of them because who ever heard of a grown up eating them anyway. If that is all they will eat for the moment then that is fine…at least they are eating something and bread and butter is very nutritious and chocolate is too…my daughter ate them for a day or so and we made fun of brushing our teeth afterwards (because of the sugar) to the song Round and Round the Mulberry Bush and when we sang …this is the way we brush our teeth…we brushed our teeth and the words got muddled up with the toothpaste and we ended up in a bit of a mess but no matter it was brilliant fun and made us laugh…the novelty of Smartie sandwiches soon wore off because they really were not that tasty after all and I did not say, ‘no you can’t have them’ which took a bit of the naughtiness out of them too. It turns out half the fun of Smartie sandwiches is you make grown ups cross and you get their attention…which is what little children need and really like. Sometimes to get our attention they have to use other tactics because grown ups are always so busy. It got me thinking and realising the importance of taking time to listen and share ideas and thoughts with young children. It is often really surprising when you hear their words of wisdom and you may learn something new too.