‘Talking & Teaching’ Toddlers about Nature Starts With Us.

‘’When one tugs at a single thing in nature, one finds it attached to the rest of the world.” John Muir ‘Talking & Teaching’ Toddlers about Nature starts with us. Here’s some simple ideas to help: ? Nature is what we see and feel around us. ?Nature provides us the air to breathe, the water […]
Reading for pleasure: 10 + simple ideas to inspire your child to read more.

It’s #ChildrensBookWeek so I thought I’d give you some ideas around reading for pleasure. Reading for pleasure is so important for children & it can benefit your child’s education, social and cognitive development, their wellbeing, and their mental health. Reading with children can help to create a love of reading for life & multiple studies […]
DISNEY PRINCESS, THE FEMALE LEAD AND SUE ATKINS TEAM UP TO BOOST CONFIDENCE IN GIRLS

I’m delighted to be collaborating with Lioness Captain, Leah Williamson, Disney Princess & Educational Charity, The Female Lead on the ‘Ultimate Princess Celebration: Time to Shine’ initiative. • The Female Lead welcomes Leah Williamson, teenage YouTubers – the Mbawa sisters – and Disney Princesses to its line-up of inspirational females • The inductions come as […]
TIME TO SHINE: Important Ways To Nurture Your Daughter’s Self-Esteem

I’m delighted to be the parenting advisor to the Disney Ultimate Princess Celebration: Time to Shine’ campaign in association with The Female Lead, Leah Williamson the Euro Winning Lioness Captain, and authors and Youtubers Kirsten and Aiyven Mbawa. Here’s my advice for nurturing your daughter’s self esteem and confidence. What we say and do […]
Is singing nursery rhymes included in your everyday routine?

What is it about nursery rhymes that is so helpful to kids? A recent study has revealed half of millennial parents can’t recite many popular nursery rhymes all the way through! A tenth of millennial mums and dads do not sing lullabies at all to their little ones – because they have a ‘terrible’ singing voice […]
Have You Pressed Your Family ‘Reset Button’ Due to Living Through The Pandemic?

So, families have experienced something unique. Being locked down together all day, all week & all month has created new models of family dynamics and new patterns of interaction that will become the new normal. Some families will have found the experience to be exhausting & challenging & some families will have experienced fear, poverty […]
Stranger Things: What Parents Need to Know

I’m discussing ‘Stranger Things’ on BBC Radio Suffolk this week and I will be asked: Do you have teenage children or grandchildren and do you know what they’re watching on their phones and screens on a daily basis? The drama “Stranger Things” launched in 2016, has 4 series, is seeing a resurgence and is pulling […]
The 6 P’s of Perfect Speech.

As a public speaker I often take a few minutes after a presentation to think about how it went. There are the 6 Ps of presentation skills – pace, pitch, power, pronunciation, passion and, perhaps the most powerful of all – pause. This got me pondering today about the way we speak to toddlers. 1. […]
Relieving Prom Pressure!

The concept of prom originated in the Victorian era when young people would get dressed up and “promenade” in their finest clothing in front of their friends and peers. Through the years, promenade was abbreviated to “prom” and thus, the big deal began. Young people, feel the need to be accepted by a group […]
Try This Simple Technique – A Smile Is A Curve That Puts A Lot Of Things Straight !

I was reading an article on LinkedIn by Jonathan Phelan a Wellbeing & Resilience author & speaker who was listening to a fascinating programme on Radio 4 about communication. The interviewee reflected on how she trained police negotiators. One point she made was particularly insightful. When a police negotiator starts […]
How to Talk to Children about Shootings: An Age-by-Age Guide.

We’re all looking for ways to explain something that’s impossible to explain—because we don’t understand it and talking about terrorism/ shootings is different from other frightening or unsettling news, because it’s very different from a natural disaster. Even as adults we are unprepared for random and atrocious acts of violence. Whilst we wish we […]
The Sue Atkins Weekly Parent Question.

What do I need to change in order to have no regrets?
Toddlers and Teeth

You can start brushing your baby’s teeth as soon as they start to come through. Use a baby toothbrush with a tiny smear of fluoride toothpaste. Don’t worry if you don’t manage to brush much at first. The important thing is to get your baby used to brushing their teeth as part of their daily […]
How Kids Learn to Play: The 6 Different Stages of Play Development & Why You Need To Know Them!

‘Play with me!’ You may be a parent who loves to play with your kids, or you may be a parent who dreads hearing this refrain and then you suffer pangs of guilt for the rest of the day! Play is all about having fun! Any activity organised or unstructured that your child finds […]
What age should your child stop sleeping in your bed?

Getting your child to stop sleeping in your bed can be a hard habit to break. While lots of parents love to have the kids, all jumping in and cuddling up on a Saturday morning, night after night of interrupted sleep isn’t funny for anyone. The flaying legs, the […]