Well, apparently we weren’t the only people thinking this, because some parents felt the same and went out and developed the Read Write Phonics app, which does pretty much everything I wanted from such an app.

Read Write Phonics app: review

The Read Write Phonics app is split into three sections: Read, Write and Phonics.

Read

The Read section is split into five groups: explosive, nosey, friction, short vowel and long vowel. Apart from the short and long vowel sections, I didn’t know what the others meant, but apparently they are based on how the consonants sound. In the Read section a sound appears (and is spoken) and then it shrinks down and fits into a word and a picture illustrating that word appears (and the word is spoken).

Write

The Write section is split into four groups of letters, in alphabetical order. It provides practise of forming the letters in writing. There is a letter outline with dots within it. First the app shows the child how to write the letter, and then they can try it themselves. They can get zero to three stars according to how well they do. Personally, I found the marking very stringent, because I couldn’t get three stars myself and then RoRo wasn’t getting any stars when she first tried it. However, she persevered and was really proud when she did get stars (I don’t think she managed three stars, but she did get two), so in fact it might well be of the right stringency (and perhaps I should do some handwriting practice myself!).

Phonics

The Phonics section is split into ‘small words’ and ‘big words’. A word appears and is read out. You can then tap each letter or grapheme (letter combination, such as ck in duck) to hear each sound read out, or swipe across the word, to hear it blended, like a child does when they’re learning to read using phonics (d-u-ck). (I didn’t find these two things intuitive, and was a bit surprised that there was no way to blend the sounds, until I watched the demonstration video – see below.)

The font

The font is brilliant. I was very impressed with its clarity and am unsurprised to find out (when checking on the website) that it is Sassoon Primary, which is a common font used in primary level books. Many apps I’ve seen don’t really think deeply about the font used and how clear it needs to be for children – even to the point where they’re using fonts that don’t use an open a, which is recognised as something children need.

The artwork

I was also very impressed with the artwork and it’s far superior to the vast majority of children’s apps I’ve experienced. It’s very clear, simple, colourful and lively – exactly what you need for children.

Overall impressions

As it’s only available on Android, I haven’t been able to test it fully with the girls, but my mum has been using it on her tablet with LaLa.

LaLa has enjoyed playing with it, though it doesn’t keep her attention for as long as other apps, such as pairs and counting apps. I think, if I had it here, I’d be able to tie it in with the phonics we’ve already done, so she could practise the sounds she already knows. And I think it probably does require considerable adult supervision and intervention at a younger age (LaLa is only two and a half, though, so younger than the age at which the app is aimed).

RoRo only tried out the Write section, but did enjoy that. Again, if I had it here, I think she’d have a go at the other sections, but is probably beyond the stage where it would be especially useful, as she’s already reading at a much higher level and only very occasionally blends (unfamiliar) words, now. I do think it would have been really useful to have last year, though, and hope I’ll be able to use it (somehow – perhaps I can kidnap my mum’s tablet?) with LaLa over the next couple of years.

To that end, my only real gripe with the Read Write Phonics app is that it’s not available on Windows Phone. (It is going to be available on iOS later in the year, but there are no plans at the moment to make it available on Windows Phone.)

Here’s a picture of RoRo using the Write section of the Read Write Phonics app.

Here’s a video introduction to the Read Write Phonics app, which shows very clearly what it can do.

And for a huge amount of information about the Read Write Phonics app and how it works, you can visit the Read Write Phonics website and they also have a Facebook page which you can like to find out more and get news about the app.

The Read Write Phonics app is available on the Android store for £1.49 (an iPhone version is due to be released later in the year).

Disclaimer: I received my copy of the Read Write Phonics app for free to install on my mum’s tablet for the purposes of this review. I may also be entered into a competition to win some vouchers, but have not received payment for this review and it is my honest opinion.

An article on the BBC this morning talks about a survey conducted by the NAHT (National Association of Head Teachers) into how parents feel about their children’s school (there is also a PDF of the survey results available on the site).While the survey covered a lot of things, the BBC article concentrates on parents’ feelings of involvement with their children’s school, and the results that showed parents felt more involved with the school than their parents had been and the vast majority felt welcome in the school.

The sample (only 1010 ‘valid’ responses) was conducted over a wide geographical range, however, there’s no indication of socio-economic range or ethnic range (or anything else). My feeling is that it’s fairly likely that the respondents were likely to be those who were already involved in their schools: parents who do not involve themselves in their school are unlikely to fill in questionnaires (or agree to answer questions); those parents who don’t speak English are unlikely to respond to the survey, unless it were provided in multiple languages. If the results are truly indicative of the feeling of parents around the country, then that would be fantastic, but I have a feeling that it’s unlikely.

In schools like ours, a small community school with a predominantly white, middle-class intake, parental involvement is fairly good, but even then I know there are parents who feel unwelcome or uncomfortable. There are parents who work full-time and aren’t able to do many pick-ups or drop-offs and certainly can’t get to PTA meetings, which are held in the middle of the day. In RoRo’s first year I was very uninvolved with school and did feel a little unwelcome. I think, for the most part, I’ve got past that by making an effort myself to get involved, getting over my own issues with institutions somewhat: I’ve been running an after-school Spanish club this year; I’ve made an effort to attend PTA meetings when I can, even though they’re during my working hours (we try to only work in school hours, though do sometimes have to work in evenings as well); and I feel more comfortable talking to other parents now, than I did at first. But I think this involvement has been mostly down to me (and others’ similar involvement) pushing myself forward, rather than something everyone would automatically feel inclined to do. Whether that’s down to the school or not, I’m not sure. I think they do a lot to encourage parental involvement, and not everyone is going to be interested in getting involved, or able to do so.

I would certainly say we have very good parental involvement compared to other schools. I’ve heard of inner-city schools where parental involvement is close to zero, where the majority of parents don’t speak English and yet notices are all in English, where there are no extra-curricular clubs or activities, and no PTA. I’ve also heard of some fantastic inner-city schools, where the staff make a phenomenal effort to include all parents, putting out notices in all the languages represented, holding meetings at varying times to ensure everyone has the opportunity to come and providing a wide range of extra-curricular activities. Just because a school is in an ‘inner-city area’, doesn’t mean it’s automatically going to be bad at parental involvement, of course.

I just find it hard to believe that the positive results of this survey are truly indicative of parents’ feelings throughout the country. Surely 93% of parents can’t feel welcomed in their children’s schools?

So, what about you? How involved are you with your children’s school? Do you think all the parents in the school are as involved? Do you think all the parents feel welcomed and comfortable at school? What barriers are there to parental involvement (e.g. meetings held in school hours, rather than evenings; communication sent out in English only)? And do you think parental involvement matters?

Have you done any interviews with your children like this? Do you have any posts about what kids say about parents? Leave a link below in the comments as I’d love to read/listen/watch.

Blog: WAHM-BAM! (Work At Home Mum: Books and Mess!)

Name: Tasha Goddard

Twitter ID: @TashaGoddard

Height: 5ft 4

Hair: Dark brown with a bit more than a hint of red, at the moment

Five things you should know about me

1 I love to draw.

2 I am lucky enough to work from home with my husband Chris, running my publishing services business, which means we both get to do school and nursery drop-offs and pick-ups.

3 I’m a third-generation vegetarian and love to try out new ways to cook (or serve) vegetables.

4 I grew up as a cat person, but was converted to a dog person, the second we brought Wesley home.

5 I have a bit of a thing about trees.

(And read my blog if you want to know more.)

To join in write your own Cybher Meet and Greet

Hope to see you there.

Rainy day activities for kids

Bake

Biscuits are a great thing to bake, because there’s lots that can be done with rolling out dough and cutting out different shapes, before you even get to the baking.

And then you can decorate them with lashings of icing and chocolate and sweets.

And, of course, you probably want to eat some of the icing, too. (Actually, RoRo and LaLa frequently seem to eat only the icing and leave the biscuits!)

And while you have icing and decorations, why not make some fairy cakes to decorate, too?

Build with lego

You can’t go wrong with a bit of lego building. And it’s OK to join in, too, you know. Even if all you want to do is sort the lego into colours and brick types (or is that just me?).

Do some craft

Make cards, do junk modelling, do some of those crafting kits you’ve had languishing at the bottom of the drawer since the last birthday…

Build dens

Den-building is one of the best rainy-day activities. I loved doing it when I was a kid, and the girls love it now. Do watch out what you attach the blankets to, though – we had a tendency to peg ours to the shelves until one of them fell down. Oops.

Learn something

Take the opportunity to do a bit of phonics or some maths. You don’t have to use activity books, you can incorporate it into your other activities.

Play with your tea set

Why not get out the tea sets and have a tea party with your toys or family?

Splash in puddles

You don’t have to stay indoors, just because it’s rainy. Put on your macs and wellies and go and splash in some puddles. Run and jump and dance and sing – “Singing in the rain” is ideal, of course, but there’s also “Here comes the rain again…”, “It’s raining, it’s pouring”, “Rain, rain, go away…” and probably a whole bunch more.

Have a bath

And if you come back all cold, why not jump in a warm bath and have a good warm splash in there?

Indulge in some extravagant hot chocolate

Another way to warm up after you’ve been out in the rain – top with squirty cream and decorate with smarties and other sweets. And, yes, you can have some too – the calories don’t count when it’s raining, you know.

Wash up

If there’s plenty of time, why not let them do the washing up? You might have to redo it afterwards, but they’ll enjoy it and it’s a useful skill to develop, even very early.

Watch a movie

While we might default to just sticking the TV on when it’s raining outside, having a movie session with popcorn and treats and duvets can be really special.

Snuggle up and tell stories

Get your teddies and snuggle under the duvets and tell each other stories – fairy tales, adventures or ghost stories?

Read a book

My favourite rainy day activities has probably always been to cuddle up with a book and the girls love this too, whether it’s being read stories or reading them (or flicking through them) on their own.

Do your hair

Get the hair bands and clips out and do your hair. Fancy plaits or silly pony tails? Whatever takes your fancy!

Do some drawing

Draw on the blackboard, on paper, on card, with pens, pencils, crayons, chalks. You could even get the paints out, though I have to admit avoiding this one, as we usually end up with painty fingerprints all over the floor, walls, clothes, dog…

Get the face paints out

Get the face paints out and make yourselves into leopards, or monsters, or princesses, or butterflies… Or just cover yourself in as much face paint as you can!

Pretend it’s sunny!

Put on some sunglasses and summer clothes – or even swimming costumes – whack the heating on for a bit and pretend you’re at the beach.

Look for a rainbow

And, if you see a glimmer of sunshine, go out and try to catch a rainbow, however tiny!

What do you like to do when it rains? Are you running out of ideas after the really wet April we just had?

Chris and I both started reading at three years old and were fluent independent readers before starting school. I think we both kind of assumed that our children would be, too, and it’s been a little surprising that RoRo has learnt to read at school. She’s had a fair bit of help from us and we have certainly not been remiss in sharing our love of books with her. Bedtime stories have been part of her life almost from day one and we’ve read to her at other times, too. We are regular visitors to the library – and the girls usually have their tickets full. We both read a lot and always have a book (or three or four, in Chris’s case) on the go, carrying them round the house with us and out and about when there’s any likelihood of having to sit and wait anywhere.

I made a half-hearted attempt to do phonics with RoRo when she was three, but I really didn’t understand it and she wasn’t noticeably receptive at that point. She’s always been much more keen on being read to, than reading herself. We’ve tried to entice her with the possibilities open to her once she learns to read – if she wants one more chapter, she’ll be able to have one, she won’t be tied to what we want to read, she’ll be able to do the accents herself in her head, she’ll have so many books and worlds that she’ll be able to discover – but she’s only shown the odd glimmer of interest in this end result.

But, I think, as with so many developmental steps (talking, crawling, walking, jumping…), she needed to be ready in herself. Some people will jump in at three, others will not really get into it until they’re seven or so. Not that I’d advocate doing nothing to teach or encourage reading until a child suddenly develops an interest. I don’t think I was wrong in attempting to teach her phonics at an early age (though I was definitely wrong in the methods I used), I don’t think we were wrong in helping her with her school books and getting other books to encourage her when she was losing enthusiasm with the school books. I don’t think we were wrong in practising her phonics with her throughout Reception. And I most certainly don’t think we were wrong in filling her life with books from her first days. But I do think we were (I was – I may well be putting words in Chris’s mouth here) wrong to expect her to read at a very early age just because we did.

This weekend, though, she searched through all her Magic Tree House books (that I’ve read to her once), found the first one and read it. To herself. She sat on the stairs reading it (out loud, though sometimes under her breath) and wouldn’t come down to dinner until she’d finished the bit she was reading. She sat in the armchair and read before and after dinner. She got into bed and read while I was getting LaLa ready for bed and reading to her, then came through to our room and read some more, before she was interrupted to be read to – one chapter of The Silver Chair from me and one chapter of Archer’s Goon from Chris – and then she finished the book in bed before going to sleep. She came downstairs this morning carrying the second book and proceeded to read half the first chapter – some bits to LaLa and some bits on her own.

I’m sure there are some of you out there who understand my total and utter glee at this step: moving on to enthusiastic independent reading. I had butterflies, I was so excited. All the books out there to discover and get lost in. Magical worlds to explore. Fascinating facts to delve into. Mysteries to solve. Beautiful passages and poems to bury herself in. How wonderful to have all that ahead of her.

And I really don’t care when it happens, as long as it does happen. I believe that she’s pretty much at the stage she’s expected to be at this point in her school career (in the final term of Year One) – perhaps a little ahead, though I’m not positive. Which is great. It would have been great if she’d done it before school. It would have been great if she’d done it in Reception. And it would have been great if she’d done it in Year 2. What is without a doubt great is that she’s got the reading bug and hopefully will never lose it.

What do you think? Do you think there’s an ideal age or stage when children are most receptive to learning to read? Do you think it’s wrong to try to start them earlier? Do you remember when you started to read independently? Did you feel a similar excitement when your children reached that point? Oh, and, can you recommend some other good chapter books for her to get her teeth into, once she’s got through (or got fed up with) the Magic Tree House series?

The other day, we were walking into town with one of RoRo’s friends, on our way to take her and her friend to Dramarama (one of the few after-school activities that RoRo has decided to keep on for the moment – that’s another post in itself, actually). LaLa was running slightly ahead and RoRo’s friend called out ‘No! Stranger danger! Stop!’ I responded with ‘It’s fine. She’s fine,’ because she was. She was running a little ahead, but she knew where she was going and she knew where to stop – there are plenty of situations where she’s not allowed to run ahead, but these are all to do with staying safe from traffic.

This automatic idea that anyone you don’t know is a danger shocked me. I did consider talking to RoRo’s friend about it, but thought I probably shouldn’t try to contradict her own parents’ instructions and potentially confuse her, though it is, of course, possible that this was a misinterpretation of her parents’ instructions. But RoRo agreed with her and said ‘Yes. We talked about that at playgroup,’ and it brought back my concerns about the whole stranger danger issue – something I was worrying about for RoRo, about three years ago (do read it – there are lots of interesting comments, as well as the post itself).

Both RoRo and LaLa started off very friendly. They would say ‘Hello’ to anyone and everyone. Gradually this got a bit less, probably because so few people actually responded to them. Other children would look at them with confusion, particularly when RoRo and LaLa were quite young, perhaps because they were shocked at such a young child being able to speak, I’m not sure. What worries me, though, is that they weren’t responding because they were trying to parse the stranger danger message – I must not talk to strangers. This child is a stranger. But she’s just a child. She must be OK? But she’s a stranger. Do not talk to strangers. … … And I suppose some adults don’t respond because they have switched themselves off to children and don’t feel the need to listen to them. (Really? How awful is that?) More worrying is the possibility that they don’t respond because they’re worried that someone will accuse them of acting inappropriately or something.

RoRo has got back to talking to more people again and will often tell people working on tills in shops all about what she’s going to do or has been doing. She does seem to pick the strangers she’ll talk to – happily talking to shop staff and to other parents and less likely to just run up to someone on their own and start talking. But she’s perfectly content to strike up a conversation while waiting for a bus, or on a train. And I like this. I want them to be friendly. I don’t want them to hide away if someone says ‘Hello’. I don’t want them to spend their childhoods running around in fear of largely imaginary bogeymen.

Yes, there are nasty people out there. There always have been. Not talking to anyone except your immediate family is not the answer. What’s wrong with the messages we grew up with? Don’t take sweets from strangers. Don’t get into cars with strangers. That’s all they need.

What do you think? Do you tell your children not to talk to strangers? Do you worry that this could make them unfriendly and isolated?

I spend the vast majority of my time feeling like I don’t do well enough. At anything.

Probably the only aspect of my life where I don’t feel this too often is work – I run a successful business with Chris (and with help from Sasha and dedicated freelancers), I always give 100% (or more) to every job, frequently putting in more time, thought and dedication than our very reasonable prices might seem to warrant (sorry, no, this isn’t a sales pitch, though if you do happen to work in educational or academic publishing – or, indeed publishing of any kind – feel free to take a look at TAG Publishing Services). If I make a mistake or for some reason don’t manage to give 100%, I tie myself in knots worrying about it and attempting to make sure that the same problem could not recur.

So, in work, I tend to feel confident and satisfied, though at the moment I’m trying to update my skills in a few areas, which is making me a little less confident – once I’ve mastered them, though, I’ll be back on top.

But in all other areas of life I feel I deliver far less than 100%. My parenting is probably the one I worry about most. I constantly compare myself against others. In my immediate environs, the first person I get to compare myself against is Chris, and somehow he seems to have settled into his role as a parent and the vast majority of the time comes across as knowing what he’s doing – and getting results (by results, I mean things like getting children to go to sleep without spending hours dealing with screams or ‘I want some water’; getting children dressed and out the door on time in the morning without screaming or shouting; managing to say ‘No’ to children without feeling like (or seeming to feel like) an evil monster, not automatically going for the TV babysitter in order to get some housework done, and so on and so on…).

Slightly further afield and there are parents on the school run who always talk calmly to children and seem to never shout or scream, whose children seem to be permanently calm and well-behaved and happy (I’ve talked about my envy of parental tone of voice before, in fact). And then, after that there are the bloggers who seem to be parenting in the way (or some of the ways) I imagine I should be or would like to be – people like Luschka of Diary of a First Child and Adele of Circus Queen and Laura of Dichotomy of, among many others.

It’s not really that I want to be them exactly, more that I want to be able to be as comfortable in my parenting as they seem to be (and, yes, I’m very aware that I may be seeing things very differently to how they actually are). The main thing I’d like is calm. Calm acceptance that parenting can be frustrating for example, but that it’s not our children’s fault that they get exceptionally upset about the teeniest thing. That kind of thing.

And then there are other aspects of my life where I feel inadequate:

Doing my share of the housework. There are a bunch of things that Chris does better – quick tidies, spotting things that need wiping or picking up, gardening, keeping on top of the dishes… – in fact, probably the only one that I’m any good at is the washing and even then we end up with four or five boxes of clean clothes waiting to be put away for days.

Being a thoughtful partner and wife. I’m not very good at being openly affectionate, for example, or setting aside one-on-one time (I will sit at my desk faffing around with WordPress themes – did you notice the new layout? – or Technorati claims for hours rather than stepping away and listening/talking to Chris, for example).

Being a good daughter and sister. My mum and sister get hardly any attention or time from me these days. I probably visit my mum less than once a month and these days even Eva, who lives less than five minutes’ walk away, is lucky to get one visit a month. I used to spend hours talking to them both on the phone – these days most of our communication is via Facebook or Twitter.

And, right down the bottom it seems, is being a good friend. About the only friend who gets something remotely like decent attention from me is Sasha, and that’s very likely because I email her most days about work and we might squeeze in a ‘How was your weekend?’ I haven’t spoken to Sadie in a good few months – can never get my timing right for making phone calls, it seems, but it wouldn’t take much to phone on a weekend instead of trying to fit it around children’s bedtimes and dog walks and so on. And friends I used to see a lot at breast-feeding or toddler groups get a three-minute chat in the market or the library and possibly a comment or two on Facebook.

There are so, so many things that I want to do better and give more time to, but I just don’t know how to fit it all in. I think that, actually, I want to be some implausibly superhuman woman, managing to do absolutely everything perfectly and not allowing anyone to take on any responsibilities or duties to help. I know that my work-life improved when Chris became a partner and then again when Sasha came on board to do the things I hate doing (scheduling and invoices).

So, really I need to try to come to terms with what I actually can do and accept it. And let other people do some of the other stuff. It doesn’t matter that Chris is better at some of the parenting than I am – because I’m probably better at some of it than him, and we balance each other out nicely. It doesn’t matter if he spots the dust and cobwebs and I don’t, because I do the washing and clean the bathroom sink and put the tea towels back where they go. And it doesn’t matter that I don’t see or speak to my friends every week – when I do speak to them it’s great, even if it’s been a year or more since the last time.

But I do think I should give a little bit more of my time and attention to Chris, my sister, and my mum. And everything else can carry on as normal, as I’m really not doing that badly.

Who do you want to be? Do you feel you excel in all areas or do you feel inadequate in some? Do you accept that it’s OK to not to everything yourself? Why do women need to be perfect?

[Ignore – Technorati claim: 2PX2Q4XU6F7A]

I was very lucky recently to win a competition over at Being a Mummy for a weekend at Legoland, including a night in their stunning-looking new hotel. What a brilliant prize to win, especially this year when work is a bit quieter and we have to think about what we’re spending our money on.

It took me a while to get around to booking the actual weekend. We decided we didn’t want to go in the actual Easter holidays, as it might well be very crowded there, so thought we’d pick a weekend and settled on the weekend after the holidays – this weekend.

Unfortunately, I completely forgot that I’d actually been planning to go somewhere else this weekend. I was going to go to Chip Lit Fest – the Chipping Norton Literary Festival that Emily from More Than Just a Mother dreamed up one day and has somehow, along with lots of other people, managed to turn into a reality. This looks like it’s going to be a fantastic festival, especially for aspiring writers – look at the programme, it’s jam-packed with writing forums, workshops and talks, not to mention some really great authors I’d love to have the opportunity to meet (Colin Dexter, Katie Fforde, Fiona Walker, Jill Mansell, Joanna Trollope…).

So good luck to Emily and everyone at the Chipping Norton Literary Festival. I hope it goes really well and you have another one next year, so that I can put it in my diary and not double-book.

And the other place I’d like to be this weekend is BlogCampUK, which is in Birmingham. That’s just up the road – kind of. I went to a BlogCamp in Bristol last year and it was brilliant. This is an all-day one and it’s still free. There is also going to be a panel discussion about the blogging issue de jour, no follow*. I didn’t sign up to it because I was planning to go to Chip Lit Fest. Oops.

Much as I’d love to be seeing friends and learning new things about writing or about blogging at either of those two events, I think really (warning, soppy stuff coming) I am the winner here, because I get to have a fabulous weekend having lots of fun and adventures with Chris, RoRo and LaLa. And Wesley gets to spend the weekend with Eva, which he’ll love and hopefully she’ll enjoy having a house to herself with no greasy grill pans to wash up before she can cook (by the way, Eva, I wouldn’t try to use our grill pan – it’s probably greasy) and a bath she can soak in.

So, whether you’re at the literary festival, BlogCamp, going away with your family or just chilling out and relaxing at home, I hope you have a lovely weekend!

* By the way, if you’re a blogger, PR person or SEO person, go and read my post about no follow on the WAHM-BAM! Features blog which I set up recently – this is where I will talk about any blogging issues I want to discuss, as I don’t usually mention them on here, and I’ll also start putting the majority of paid content there, too.

I saw a forum thread on Netmums (via their Facebook page) about letting children play outside alone. The original poster was concerned about some children (aged between 4 and 9) near her who play out on their own a lot and the older one goes to the shop on her own. The original poster was concerned mostly about the risk of abduction it seemed.

This is something I think about a bit as RoRo gets older. As a child, until I was seven, we lived in a cul-de-sac, where there were quite a lot of children. We all played out together from a young age – I’m pretty sure at least three, possibly earlier. I have fond memories of playing What’s the Time Mister Wolf and ball games against the huge wall at the very end of the cul-de-sac. We’d mostly just play out in the street, but we’d also play in each other’s gardens and when we were a bit older, I was allowed to go the park (just up a little path – no roads to cross) with some of the older children. When I was seven, we moved somewhere else in the same village. I used to walk up the (pretty quiet) street to go to the shop for my parents. And I’d go up and play near the stocks with some friends, or just go and call on my friend who lived above a shop up the road. This was all pretty normal and most other children in the village had a similar free(ish) rein. There were rules about not crossing the main road and not taking sweets from strangers.

I did have an encounter with a flasher a couple of times – once when I was with my mum, and once when I was walking up the newsagent. Neither time bothered me or scarred me – my mum steered me away from the first person and told me about such men and how there was usually nothing to be scared of – just to walk away. The second time, I told the newsagent, who chased the guy away. No problems. A friend had a car pull up and the driver offer her sweets and a lift. She knew well enough to refuse and walk quickly to the nearest house. Again, no problem.

We would almost always be out playing in groups. It’s harder to abduct someone when they are surrounded by other children. Not impossible, of course. But that’s always been the case. Why are we so much more worried about this scenario than our parents were? There seems to be an idea that the incidence of paedophiles and child abductions has increased significantly over the years, when it hasn’t – it’s just the media coverage that has increased. A number of people on the forum post, pointed out that many children are far more at risk in their own homes, as abuse by parents is far more widespread than stranger abduction.

So, when will we be letting RoRo and LaLa go out to play on their own? I really don’t know. I have fairly minimal worries about abduction, but I do worry about traffic. RoRo is getting a lot better at crossing roads safely, but she’s not there yet. I think I’d be happy for her to walk round the corner to her friend’s house (no road crossing) quite soon – maybe some time next school year. They run ahead so far when walking back from school, anyway, that doesn’t make a huge amount of difference! And it’s quite possible that I’d let her go to the post office on her own soon, too. But I think it will still be a while before I’d be happy for her to just go and play on her own in the park – it’s not a huge distance and only one small road to cross – and I’m not sure why. Maybe if she were going with a group of friends, including some older ones as I did, but that scenario seems fairly rare these days. I can’t actually imagine any of her friends being allowed to do that.

I think probably LaLa will end up going out unsupervised at a younger age than RoRo, because they’ll go together. I can certainly see a scenario where RoRo is 7 or 8 and LaLa 4 or 5 and they go to the park together.

However, if we lived somewhere different – such as on a cul-de-sac with lots of other children – I think there’s a good chance they’d already be playing outside on their own. If we had neighbours with children the same age (they’re all teenagers now), then I’m sure they’d be in and out of each other’s gardens (as I used to hear the now-teenagers when they were younger) and I wouldn’t be worrying overly about it.

I think it will always be down to making a decision based on location, family situation and responsibility of the individual child. I don’t think there is any absolute right and wrong about what age children should be allowed to play outside on their own.

What do you think? Do you let your children play outside alone? Do you have a plan for when you will? Do you think the world is more dangerous for children now then when you were child?