u/infantile-eloquence

My husband and I have two children, 3F and 1F. We have been married for nearly 11 years, he has been a homeowner since we met 16 years ago and we bought a house together in 2017 (where we currently live). I now understand that it is common for people to take out life insurance when they get a mortgage, but for whatever reason, we didn't. I have life assurance and critical illness cover on both myself and my husband through a work benefits scheme, but obviously if I don't stay there, it's gone and we need to get cover sorted ASAP.

I had a quick look but I am overwhelmed by the options. Raising a young family, money is pretty tight, so we need basics for now, but I don't know where to start. Does anyone have tips on choosing cover, or what to prioritise when choosing cover against the monthly payments?

*if you are eligible.

My daughter is starting reception in September and I just registered her for after-school club for two days a week. I asked a few questions including how are we invoiced, and the reply mentioned payments from the government portal for tax-free childcare (which we currently use for nursery/preschool).

It won't make much difference but every little helps - I checked with my friend who's son is just about to finish reception and she had no idea, so just sharing in case it's news to anyone else. I wondered if it's because the provider for my daughters school is actually the adjoining preschool, but when my friend enquired with her sons school, which just provide their own wraparound services, they said she could use it too.

My daughter got a Yoto for her 2nd birthday and we all love it. She turns 4 in a few weeks and starting school in September so looked the phonics sets but they don't have great real-life reviews, so wondering what you would recommend instead.

She loves Numberblocks so hoping to move that into possibly some early maths too if there are any recs for that. Tried to find some Numberblocks cards/audio for MYO but it seems the multiplication is limited or missing some so not worth the money per card, and she can already count, up to 44 if you ask her 😂

Thanks!

I know taking kids out of school is discussed a lot, but I am wondering about taking my August-born daughter out for a family holiday for a week the end of September into early October.

I know legally that she is not 5 years old so it's not breaking any laws, I also fully expect the school not to be happy about this, but we intend to be upfront about it (and apologetic but I don't think it counts for much) as I think dishonesty makes it worse.

I am sure she will start to work on phonics and writing by this time, but that most of it will be play and getting used to it, I am just concerned it's not long after she starts but my husband thinks a week won't make any difference. Has anyone here done the same and experienced a negative effect?

She is bright so I'm not really concerned about her not picking up later on what she has missed, and my MIL is a recently-retired primary school teacher so equipped to properly teach her anything she has missed in the right way.

I have a 3yo and we usually do two of the Donaldson/Scheffler books, or two Mr Men / Little Miss, or others to equate a similar time reading. Is this about right? It fits with our bedtime routine and we read books in the day around work / preschool/ everything else.

I want to record a version of the song You Mean The Whole Wide World To Me by Cristina Perri. It is a dedication/ gift for my daughters' first birthday but the song is short at just less than 2 minutes, so I wanted to add a verse to it (only 3 lines).

There is a studio near me that offer the song-recording experience for fun, and I had a great experience doing one for my eldest daughter's first birthday, but having enquired with them they can't get a copy of the backing track for this song, and using a karaoke version from YouTube would not allow for inserting additional bars to add a verse.

Does anyone know where they / I could obtain this? Or a way around it? Thank you