In England and Wales, parents of 3- and 4-year-olds will get 30-hours free childcare a week from September 2017, if both parents are working (or the sole parent is working in a lone-parent family), and each parent earns the equivalent of 16 hours a week at the national minimum or living wage, and earns less than £100,000 a year. This is an expansion of the current scheme which already provides 15-hours childcare a week for all 3- and 4-year-olds, and the most disadvantaged 2-year-olds. As a father of 2 boys under 5 this has been an important government policy, I have been keeping an eye on it, as it will have implications in our day to day finances. For our family, these additional 15 hours will mean a saving of around £3,000 per year, which will make a massive difference. There are potential problems with scheme however, as nurseries have said that their funding has been slashed and that they will not be able to provide the childcare. It could lead to some nurseries refusing to provide the free childcare and spaces in participating nurseries being limited. Some nurseries have even suggested charging higher rates for under 2’s to subsidise the free childcare. Personally, our current nursery has increased their fees, which may be to cover the impeding shortfall they are about to receive. Let me know in the comments how you think you may be effected.
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This week's Classical Music Mondays track is Vivaldi's Spring. As the weather is warming and snowdrops and daffodils appear, it felt like a great choice. Vivaldi's Spring is part of the Four Seasons, which is a group of four violin pieces, one for every season.
L recently chose the LEGO Juniors 10737 Batman™ vs. Mr. Freeze™ set. This is first LEGO Juniors set he’s had in a while and he was excited about building LEGO Batman and Mr.Freeze.
This week's Classical Music Mondays track is Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man or Dad or Woman or Mum. I heard this track on Saturday and loved it, I also thought the title was catchy and why shouldn't the common man have a fanfare from time to time.
All kids love TV and films and our boys are no exception, so when we were offered the opportunity to review the website Character.Com we said Yes! Character.com is an online store which focuses on characters and provides children's and adult's clothes, nightwear and accessories.
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