Children’s Corner   If you venture into the woods this time of the year, you’ll find the forest floor scattered with pine cones. So, bring a big bag with you to collect them for making some pine cone-based crafts this month. Don’t worry if your pine cones haven’t fully opened, as you can open them…

Wild Lights at Dublin Zoo Dublin Zoo is launching an after-dark event tomorrow (November 3) which will run until January 7, 2018. Wild Lights is a trail around illuminated animal sculptures including a pride of lions, orangutans, tigers, giraffes and monkeys. Other highlights include a 16-metre high porcelain elephant tower and a 30-metre long Chinese dragon. Visitors…

Splashtastic events for little swimmers The first-ever National Baby Swimming Week organised by Water Babies will run from next Monday, October 31. The goal is to encouraging mums and dads across Ireland to take their little ones to their nearest swimming pool or swimming class for some fun family time, while gaining a host of…

My eldest son was unimpressed when, as a small boy, I insisted that he gave up his seat on the bus. He argued strongly about how unfair it was that children were viewed as second class citizens and how adults should be well able to stand on their strong legs. Safety wasn’t such a priority…

Autumn brings a kind of pleasant melancholy. The warmth of summer recedes and the cold nights draw in. The trees, so recently full, lush and green, are now shedding crisp brown leaves for the children to wade through on their way to school, searching for conkers. Bright berries appear in the hedges and scatterings of…

I went to the gym this morning. Actually, I went twice, not because I am wildly enthusiastic about it but because I forgot my pass key first time and couldn’t get in. On the way home to pick it up the temptation not to bother, to curl up on the couch with a cup of…

October is here which means that Halloween is coming and the goose is getting fat! And it’s time to dig out your stack of black card to get making spooky decorations. Everyone has their own favourite Halloween symbol; whether it’s a pumpkin, a bat, a black cat, or a wicked witch with vibrant green skin.…

  Our seven-year-old has been busy writing computer programmes. He has become fascinated with a piece of software that enables kids to control a digital cat with simple instructions, such as: walk five steps; say “meow”; turn 90 degrees, and so on. It’s good to see him understand so naturally the basic logic that underpins…

The summer holidays are gone too soon. Our freshly scrubbed children, in their brand-new oversized school jumpers, have been packed off back to school, proud to be elevated a year higher in the pecking order. Gone are the languorous days of summer, where time flows easy. The kids are happy to be back to school.…

Most of us love sharing pictures on social media whether it’s a family party, a child’s first day at school, a First Communion or some other memorable occasion. I love photography and, since I was a little girl, I was fascinated by the idea of capturing moments in time that you could look back on…