Should You Exhibit?

Exhibitions aimed at attracting sales – at trade fairs, for example – are usually organized by the marketing department. Exhibitions aimed at persuading, educating, promoting an image, or raising your profile are the domain of PR staff. Buying a stand at an exhibition, staffing it, and producing attractive display boards can be expensive but provides an excellent opportunity to reach your target audience face-to-face and to engage them in discussions about your work.

Choosing a Showcase

The key to successful exhibiting is to select the right venue: one that will attract your target audience. If you plan to display at a major exhibition, ask the organizers for detailed audience profiles to help you decide whether this is a suitable showcase for you. Ask who else will be exhibiting there. Find out about the organizers promotional strategy (advertising, editorial, leaflets, and so on) for publicizing the event. Be sure that it will attract a big enough turnout of the right kind of people.

Visit a venue in advance to check the location of your Hand. Make sure that your stand occupies a bright, central position, where it will attract the maximum number of visitors.

Staffing Your Stand

While informative display boards in your chosen location will promote your message well enough, staffed stands are a more effective (albeit more costly) way of communicating. Select staffs who are outgoing, happy to talk to people, and at the right level for the occasion. For example, a stand at a conference for chief executive officers should be staffed by high-ranking individuals who can talk comfortably and knowledgeably with CEOs. Brief staff thoroughly so that they know what message they are promoting, and can answer any likely questions. Organize a staffing rota to cover rest breaks so that your stand is staffed at all times.

Attracting People to Your Stand

Staffing a stand can sometimes be a dispiriting matter. People may wander past, but it can be difficult to get them to come over and lake a look. Consider how you will attract visitors to your stand. Perhaps you could organize a prize draw, provide free refreshments, or offer a free consultation. What can you place on your stand to act as a people magnet? Interactive computers, demonstrations, talks and participative workshops can all be used to entice visitors in. Design your stand carefully to ensure that it is accessible, with no barriers to entry, and that it looks attractive, colorful, and appealing. Friendly and approachable staff can also make a big difference to attendance at your stand.

Steps

1)      Find something to keep them busy. For example bring a book for them to read or paper to write or draw on or a coloring book or a portable gaming console. However, do not opt for this if anyone of them gets motion-sickness. You can also bring random toys that the kids will enjoy playing with inside the car.

2)      Turn up the radio. Everybody in the car can sing along with the songs on the radio. Or you can bring your own CDs with songs that the children like or audio books that the kids could listen to. Music is also a very good means to influence children’s mood, if they are getting too rowdy and unruly then put on some mellow music to calm them down.

3)      Play a car game. Here are samples:

• Progressive storytelling – one person starts the story and another person will continue the story, the game is rotational so everybody gets their turn
• License plate spotting game
• Guess which animal game
• Find-a-Car game

4)      Give story-telling a try. Use well-known tales or create your own story. The kids can even have their turn telling their very own made-up story.

5)      Make use of a portable movie player or installed entertainment system in the vehicle, if you have those. Movies are a great way to keep boredom at bay. But remember that looking at a screen for hours is not healthy for their young eyes and might even have other negative side effects. If you allow screens inside the car then make certain you in between the kids do other activities like books and puzzles. Do not do this if any of the children gets travel-sick.

6)      For older children, a laptop computer may work well, although a power inverter could be needed for drives that last longer than the battery life of the computer. This is also not recommended if any of the children gets car-sick.

7)      Bring something to eat. Food is a very good distraction for kid. Milkshakes are a good choice since they take longer to drink. Finger foods are also great car snacks. Keep food in a cooler or lunch box or bag that can be reached by the oldest child so that you will not need to turn around to give out the goodies while you are driving. Do not opt for this if any of the children has previously suffered from motion sickness.

Warnings

• Make sure that the radio’s volume does not distract the driver. Also, do not bring toys that make loud noises so that you can maintain your focus on your driving.

A horse show is a perfect opportunity to test your riding ability against other riders. All types of horses are welcome and there are classes to suit everyone. Competitors are required to wear the correct clothing, including cream jodhpurs, black riding boots, riding jacket and a riding hat that meets the current safety standards. It is also expected that you make a good effort to turn out your horse as well as you can, including plaiting its mane and tail if appropriate for your class. If the show is within hacking distance, then it may be convenient for you to ride there; otherwise, competitors normally transport their horses to events in horseboxes or trailers. On arrival, park alongside the other horseboxes, leaving plenty of space around the vehicle so that you can unload and prepare your horse for the event.

Before the day of the show, study the schedule carefully and decide which classes you would like to enter. Some classes are straightforward showing where the horse and rider are judged on their style and presentation; other classes are purely show-jumping, starting with small novice classes at the start of the day and then increasing the height of the jumps for each class up to advanced level. There may be more than one show ring for the day, so make sure that your choices do not overrun each other and you do not have to rush from one class to the next. You will need to pay to enter your classes before they begin, so find the secretary’s tent right away and they will write down which classes you have entered. The secretary will give you a number to wear that you should tie neatly around your waist or around the top of your arm. You should make sure to wear this number at all times in the show ring.

Gymkhanas are normally run in conjunction with a much bigger show and are an ideal opportunity for young children to enjoy their ponies at a show without having too much pressure put on their abilities. Popular classes include:

• The bending race, in which ponies bend between a series of poles.
• Chase Me Charlie, where ponies jump over a fence that is raised higher each time.
• Handy pony class, where pony and rider complete a series of obstacles such as opening and closing a gate and placing bean bags inside a small bucket on the floor.

The competition

In a competition environment, you must complete the course, which could be between 1 and 5 miles (1.5-8 km) long, within a given time limit. You will earn penalties if you ride the course too fast or too slow. Horses thoroughly enjoy riding across country in this manner but they must not be encouraged to gallop into fences. The real aim is to establish a strong rhythm for the duration of the course and yet have the ability to speed up or slow down according to the terrain.

Creating the right canter

To achieve the right canter, both you and your horse must trust each other and be extremely fit and strong. You must have plenty of core body strength, including well-muscled legs, in order to sit up and balance on your horse’s back in jumping position for much of the ride. Cantering in the usual manner of sitting on the saddle would eventually tire the horse and possibly bruise its back.

Building confidence

Confidence should be built by tackling familiar obstacles, such as low walls, hedges and shallow water combinations, before jumping a combination of two, three or more fences together to create that rhythm. Eventually you will have the confidence to jump quite a number of fences at once and to take them at a greater speed.

Walk the course

On the competition day, plan for enough time to walk the whole course before you ride. Pay close attention to the layout of each fence, especially where there are combinations. As well as memorizing the whole course, this will allow you to make quick decisions in the approach to fences to ensure you both clear them safely.

Sonoma Valley and Napa Wines

For people who have already tasted many wines, you’ll be surprised to know that there are still great wine flavors that you’re missing. These excellent wines are produced by California’s Sonoma Valley and Napa Regions and are specially picked to showcase the best products of said vineyards. After the tour you will emerge as a newly reformed wine lover. Your knowledge about wine and how it is processed will be broadened, making the experience truly worth your time.

Self-Guided Tours

You can also choose to visit the vineyards on your own since the drive is short anyway. Just make sure you have a designated driver with you because you will not be able to resist tasting wines the whole day. During the drive you can enjoy beautiful sceneries along the way and explore more of San Francisco, making your wine tasting adventure more exciting.

SUV Tours

Another tour option is the SUV tour that these vineyards offer. It costs a little more than the usual bus tour because with SUV tours, you will get personalized attention. Also, many smaller wineries will be able to accommodate you. If you are interested in SUV tours, make sure you make a reservation a week before; unlike bus tours, SUV tours cannot accept last minute reservations.

Wine Tasting Tips

To enhance your wine tasting experience, here are a few tips:

1. Avoid wearing perfume or any other cosmetics with strong scents. You won’t taste the real flavor because the scents will compete with the fragrance and the taste of the wine.
2. If possible, ask your group not to bring scented cosmetics such as perfumes, lotions, aftershaves and the like.
3. The way you hold the glass wine can also affect the taste. You should hold the glass by its stem so you don’t warm the wine.
4. Eat something bland like saltine crackers or French bread in between wine tasting so as to cleanse your palate.

After the tour, you will feel a whole lot different about wines. The tour will give you plenty of information about wines: the kinds, the regions where wines are produced best, the different tastes of wines, etc. You will also learn what makes a certain winery unique when compared to other wineries, as well as suggestions about how to serve the wine and which foods taste better when paired with wines. And lastly, if you buy wine from them, you will be taught how to properly store it.

The experts at wineries will be delighted and the novices will learn to love wine during such a tour. The next time you attend a party and wine is served, you will actually know how to taste it and you just might leave a good impression on the other guests.

The child who feels appreciated for finding a new way to do, express, make, or view something is a child who feels confident in exploring the unknown. He or she is a child willing to take creative risks and who thus feels greater self-esteem. Such a child believes, “Mom and Dad like what I am able to create.”

Many parents assume that creativity is only evident in certain children—that it’s a talent or skill. Creativity is more like intelligence, every child has a dose of it! Just look at the use of language. Your child is going to come up with millions of brand new, never-before-spo­ken sentences during the course of growing up. No other person will ever string words together in the ex­act way that your child does. That’s creativity!

Look at the way your child makes choices about clothes. That’s your child’s “style” under development. Nobody else will make those choices in exactly the same way. That’s creativity!

Give your child a blank easel and fingerpaint, and you’ll see your child create a pattern that no other child in the room creates. Give your child a pencil and ask him to draw a picture, and you’ll discover a picture that no other child in history has created.

Encourage your toddler to make up a dance. Let him or her delight in the way the body can move. Invite your teen to redecorate his or her room. Let your child know that it’s OK to make up songs.

When faced with a choice between giving your young child a coloring book or a blank pad of paper, go for the blank pad because it requires more creativity.

When faced with the choice between taking your teenage daughter to the store for designer clothing, or giving your child sewing lessons and encouraging her to put together her own “look,” opt for the sewing les­sons.

You may set limits, of course, on the extent to which you will let your child experiment with his or her per­son or property. You have the parental prerogative of saying no to pink hair or crayon drawings on the wall of your living room. The point is to encourage creativity

• that is within limits.

Your child will always face limits. Let him or her know that adulthood isn’t a limit-free state. Ex­press to your child, however, that true creativity flourishes within limits.

• that turns chaos into beauty.

One mother says to her son, “I can hardly wait to see what a fine display of order you are going to create out of this jungle presently known as Your Room.”

• that finds new uses for the ordinary. Invite your child to make the centerpiece for your holiday table using anything found in the craft drawer or in the backyard.

From time to time, give items to your child and ask, “Can you think of anything else these could be used for before we throw them away?” One mother I know did that and found her daughter covering old laundry deter­gent boxes with contact paper to create containers for her magazines.

Give your child the freedom to try new spices on ordinary dishes. Try out new recipes with your child and new ways of presenting foods (in new containers, with unusual table decorations, in tins and on trays of the child’s design).

The child who discovers his or her own creative abili­ties is a child who discovers his or her potential. And that is a child who values his or her uniqueness!

The memorization of a poem, quotation, or phrase helps your child focus on words and the ways in which language is structured and used. The child who hears language—through such activities as being read to by loving adults—is a child who will grow up with a greater love for and facility with language. The same holds true for a child who speaks words in an order that he or she might not otherwise put them. The child’s awareness of how words might be used is enhanced. He or she learns new words and has a greater aware­ness of how words can be put together into phrases. And often, the child comes to the conclusion that using language can be fun.

The material memorized can often be recalled almost by “instinct” during times when it is needed or seems appropriate. Even if your child doesn’t utter the phrases, the memorized words will often float through his or her mind, reinforcing the concepts conveyed by the words. This is especially true for proverbs and songs that have been taught as capsules of important truths.

The recitation of a memorized piece is an “accomplish­ment” for a child. Recitation is an example of a child’s ability to learn; it says to others, “I memorized this. I know it. Nobody can rob me of it.”

What should you have your child memorize?

Have your child memorize things that are important or meaningful to you. What your child memorizes then become a bond of shared information between the two of you. The content of that bond may be Scriptures, proverbs, your favorite poems, or rhymes you learned as a child. You may select something simply for the beauty of the words or because of the impact the words had when you first understood their message. When appropriate, tell your child why the piece or song is meaningful to you.

Have your child memorize prose, poems, or songs that convey a message that you want your child to incorporate into the fabric of his or her character. The piece memo­rized may be part of a patriotic speech, a passage from a famous sermon, a chapter from one of the Gospels, a poem about right and wrong.

Have your child memorize some things that are simply fun to say or sing. Share with your child the fact that words can be fun; songs can be silly. Some words are simply meant to help us feel good and to bring a smile to our faces. Give your child something “happy” to remember when feeling sad.

Make certain that your children have certain facts memorized at an early age. Make sure your child knows his or her full name, street address and city, phone number, parent’s names, parents’ employers, the name of his or her school and teachers. You might want to quiz your child on a fairly regular basis until you are certain that your child can respond quickly and automat­ically with key information.

Use repetition to teach your child to memorize. Break down long pieces into smaller units that can be memorized and then strung together.

Once a child has successfully memorized a piece, help the child keep that piece memorized and in the “active file” through repetition every few weeks or months.

Give your child a verbal heritage, a language inheri­tance, and the confidence that comes from “saying a piece.” Give your child the self-esteem boost that comes from realizing that he or she is being trusted with an important family or cultural tradition!

Children need to have assurance that they will be cared for should their parents die. Children may be ex­posed at an early age to death and to separation from parents. They wonder, and often wonder aloud, “What will happen to me if you aren’t here?” Be sure you can give your child a concrete answer. Part of your respon­sibility as a loving parent is to make sure your child does have a place to go and someone who will care for him or her in the event that you become incapacitated or die.

On an everyday level, encourage your child to have a good relationship with grandparents, aunts, and uncles. This is a real challenge in homes broken apart by di­vorce; recognize that no matter how much pain you have felt, your child still needs to have a relationship with your spouse and his or her family members. To rob your child of half of his or her extended family is to rob your child of many invaluable memories and experi­ences. Children won’t understand why they have been cut off from a loving grandfather or grandmother just because daddy or mommy went away. You will only be deepening a child’s sense of loss by forcing a separation from your former spouse’s relatives.

One of the hallmarks of a significant other for your child will be the fact that this person wants to spend time with your child and wants to be a part of his or her life. Look for those adults who truly enjoy being with your child, and with whom your child enjoys spending time. Foster those relationships by

• allowing your child to spend time with this person.
• encouraging your child to talk over problems with this person.
• helping your child to choose gifts for this person, and to show gratitude for gifts received from him or her.
• regarding this person as an extended part of your family in your conversations and activities.

Encourage your child to invite his or her significant others to school plays, soccer games, youth choir con­certs, and other events. Invite the person to participate in family outings.

Don’t be hurt, and don’t let your child’s feelings be hurt, if your child’s “older friend” can’t accept all such invitations. “Maybe next time” is a good response to teach children in such situations.

Let your child know the limitations of authority and responsibility that a significant other has over him. (Talk that over with the significant other, too!)

Do have periodic conversations with your child’s godparents, aunts and uncles, or grandparents about your child. Let them know a little of what your child is experiencing and with what he or she is struggling. Let them know your child’s accomplishments and disappointments. Let them know about his or her activities and interests. This will give these significant others clues as to how to talk to your child, what to listen for, and what to buy for Christmas presents!

Children who have at least one or two other adults to whom they can turn for advice, friendship, understand­ing, and hugs have confidence that they are valued be­yond the immediate family. They know they are not alone, even when parents are unavailable. Give your child that kind of boost to his or her esteem and confi­dence level!

Asking questions takes courage, positive self-esteem, and self-confidence. Stated another way, the greater your child’s self-esteem and confidence levels, the more likely your child will ask questions.

Most children start out asking questions. “Why?” seems to be the all-time favorite question of children. Unfortunately, this question is often asked as a chal­lenge to authority, not truly as a quest for information. Parents know that. The sad result is that many parents lose patience with their “why babies” and squelch the entire questioning process in the course of exerting their authority.

Parents need to differentiate between the true ques­tion and the challenge to authority. Be generous in giv­ing your timing, attention, and care to those questions that are truly aimed at getting information.

How do you encourage the right kinds of questions? Ask those kinds of questions!

Ask your child questions as you consult maps to­gether—even if it’s only the map of stores in the mall. “Which way do you suppose is the shortest way to that store?” Ask your child questions as you ride bikes to­gether. “How many miles do you think we have gone?”

One of my favorite approaches to asking questions of older children and teens is to ask them to pretend to be an inventor, builder, or creator. For example: “Look at that new house, Cory. What kinds of questions do you suppose the builder had to ask before he could build that house?”

Children’s questions tend to force a parent to be spe­cific, concrete, or to admit they don’t know everything. Those are painful moments for many parents. “Why are there so many stars?” is a tough question. Do your best, but admit it when you don’t know the answer to a question.

The more your child asks questions and gets good answers, the more your child will feel confident in ask­ing questions. That confidence could save your child’s life someday: “What’s the fastest way to the hospital?” It could help your child make a major scientific discov­ery someday. “What happens when we add this ele­ment to that mixture?”

Teach your child to ask questions. That says to your child, “I want you to know. I value you enough to want you to be an intelligent, inquisitive, exploring adult. I value your right to know, and I value your desire to know.”

1. Why should anyone buy this product or service from me?

2. If it’s such a good opportunity why is someone not already doing it?

These two things – a real need among buyers and the firm’s ability to meet it better than anyone else – will probably go a long way to determining the success or failure of the venture. Here, it is not enough to think solely in terms of the customers. Intermediaries, agents, distributors, wholesalers and retailers can have a major impact on this.

Asking the questions is not enough. They must be posed in the right quarters. This calls for some decisions on precisely who the product or service is catering for. No firm and virtually no product or offering appeals to everyone. Their appeal is selec­tive. In fact, it is the ability of smaller firms to be adaptable and flexible enough to cater for the complex and varied needs of their customers that is often their greatest strength.

Once the decisions about who the customers are going to be are made, the detailed specification of the product, service or other offering can be made. The person considering starting up probably has the broad outline of what he wants to do mapped out. He will be seeking to blend this with his increasing know­ledge of the target market. His firm’s future will be determined in the market place; in judging its prospects or seeking ways to reduce his risks the market provides the most important clues.

Decisions should be made in the light of real knowledge, not °n the basis of hopes or wishful thinking. Prospective custom­ers are often willing to invest surprisingly large amounts of time and effort in helping the new firm. The man who has done his homework on the market, perhaps using government or other publications in the commercial department of his nearest cen­tral library, will generally discover a real desire to assist him with up-to-date or more detailed information among buyers, whether government, large or small firms or the man in the street.

These groups will ultimately determine the success of his venture. They should be approached, talked to, involved for as °ng as possible before big risks are taken and large expendi­tures made. This direct access by the top man to customers will gradually become one of the firm’s greatest assets. In some in­stances, entrepreneurs hold back because of fears about their ideas being stolen or copied. Although this does happen, the overall standards of business ethics in the UK are very high. These dangers are normally far less than those resulting from not having early access to prospects.

The target customers can only say what they might do under certain circumstances. The onus lies on the firm to meet their needs. These go far beyond the physical product itself. The buyer wants a specific item at a particular price with a certain level of service. One customer might want a more robust prod­uct and be willing to pay more for it. Or may be less concerned about immediate delivery of the equipment than the provision of a rapid maintenance and repair service. Another might be buying the same basic equipment but want a totally different mix. The notion that it is the combination of product, prices, distribution and service levels, advertising and sales promotion that determines the satisfaction of different types of customers is being recognised increasingly by successful entrepreneurs.

Sometimes the right mix will come intuitively; on other oc­casions arriving at it will involve hard work, difficult decisions and errors. For the engineer or the craftsman the problems involved in taking this approach can be severe. These and others are so involved in their product that they lose sight of the rest of the forces affecting success. Gaining some direct sales experi­ence and accepting that a great deal of time must be spent on the road are important steps for this type of entrepreneur.

Talk of customers can create the impression that selling and marketing involve a single set of direct contacts. Often the situ­ation is far more complex than that. The farmer or mine owner sells to the processor, such as British Steel. Their output passes in turn to manufacturers such as Metal Box whose customers, like Heinz, will eventually sell to retailers or wholesalers before the product reaches the consumer. All those involved in this chain depend to some extent on the others.

The new firm may have a product with real customer appeal, but if it runs contrary to the intermediary’s interest or if the cus­tomer’s market is hostile or simplv depressed, the venture’s prospects are bleak.

At the same time, these depressed circumstances may create their own opportunities. Established suppliers may be less able to cope with shorter production runs, low levels of customer stockholding, etc than the new firm. In general, the companies already in a market start with real advantages: better contacts information besides their capital and equipment invest­ment. It is the gaps that they have left in the market that can provide the most lucrative opportunities.

In some industries, such as rubber processing, industrial brushes, components and many others, long production runs have become the norm. This opens up opportunities for the firm geared to short runs and special products. The circum­stances creating the gaps should be closely studied. A hole may exist in the market because no one wants to be there because it is so unprofitable. A site for a shop may be available simply be­cause others have failed on that site. Specific engineered units may not be produced because the trouble involved and the wastage rates destroy profits.

Equally, the opportunity may exist because no one else has noticed or has been capable of satisfying it. Once into a market competition is likely to emerge. Holding on to a market is as important as winning it initially and probably far more difficult. It calls for some kind of plan defining how the market will be developed over time. The twin themes of meeting customer needs better while keeping ahead of the competition are at the centre of this.

This may call for the introduction of new services linked to the existing product. A hotelier might introduce a babysitting facility for guests. A component manufacturer may start factor­ing certain lines. It may involve new products. In New Technology Based Firms (NTBFs) this is to some extent critical to their very existence. In some new firms the commitment to opening up new markets provides the spur to growth.

It is the scope for this type of development which provides the spur to individuals to take the enormous steps involved in setting up their own firms. Failure by new firms is often at least ln part attributable to neglect of the marketing and selling di­mension to their activities. They should look to answer these basic questions:

• Who are my potential customers?
• How many of them are there and what is their potential demand?
• Can I reach all of them with my existing or planned re­sources?
• Who are the major intermediaries between me and the end users?
• Will they stock my offering?
• Will they give it support and display space and hold suffi­cient stocks for it to be viable?
• Who are the competitors?
• What are their competitive offerings?l   If there are no competitors, what is the reason?
• What am I offering that is in the customer’s eyes sufficient inducement to buy?
• What is the mix of product, price, distribution and advertis­ing that I am offering to my customers and what is its appeal to them?

Shoulder kneading

To release shoulder tension, place one hand over the top of the opposite shoulder. Knead and squeeze the shoulder muscles with your fingers and the heel of your hand. Work in toward the angle of the neck, and then out toward your arm.

Kneading the neck

After kneading the shoulder, continue the movement more gently up the neck. Keeping your fingers to the back of your neck, squeeze gently between the heel of your hand and the balls of your fingers. Work up the neck to the skull and back several times, your fingers to the side of the spine.

Pulling across the forehead

Place your hands so that the tips of your fingers meet together right in the centre of your forehead. Then, slowly draw your hands apart until your fingers reach your hairline. Keep the stroke really soft and as you draw your fingers across, feel all the tension dissolving.

Circling the jaw To find the right place to circle, open and close your jaw, and place your fingertips where you feel the muscles working. With your jaw relaxed and open make large, slow circles over the muscles, using the tips and balls of your fingers. This movement is wonderful for releasing facial tension.

Abdomen circling

Sitting in a relaxed position, place your hands flat against the centre of your abdomen, fingers pointing downward. Draw your hands slowly upward, separating them as you circle outward. Bring them together at the bottom of the circle, and draw them upward again. This is great for relaxing the abdomen.

Kneading the side

Place your hands at the side of your abdomen and grasp a roll of flesh with one hand. Begin a kneading movement by pushing away from you with your thumb and rolling your fingers back toward you. Knead up and down the side of your body, using alternate hands. This not only tones up the muscles, but helps relax the lower back.

Pushing across the chest

Placing your fingertips on your chest, just to the side of the breastbone, push the fingers firmly out toward the arm. Work in strips, from just under the collarbone to just above the breasts. This releases tightness in the upper chest.

Heel circling the chest

Although it looks a little awkward, this is an extremely effective way of working the pectoral muscles. Bring the heels of your hands to the sides of your chest, just beneath the level of the armpits. Press your heels firmly into the muscles and circle.

Circling the chest

Use the balls of your fingers to make very small, firm circles across the top of your chest, using the same guidelines as before. It feels better if you keep the circling going outward and feels particularly good between the ribs.

Opening the foot

Sitting so that you can comfortably reach your foot, place your fingertips together under the sole, the base of your thumbs together over the top. Slowly draw each thumb toward the side of the foot, applying slight pressure as you do so. This really gives the feeling of opening up the foot.

Rotating the ankle

Making sure that the leg is being supported, place your hand firmly over the sole of your foot. Slowly rotate your ankle in both directions, making the circles as large as you can. This is great for loosening up the ankle joint and keeping it flexible, and will liven up the calf at the same time.

Pressing the knee

With your leg relaxed, use the balls of your thumbs to press right around the kneecap. You can press quite firmly, making tiny circles on the spot. This is really good for releasing any stiffness around the knee and the movements can also be felt in the calf and thigh.

Rocking the calf

Place your hands either side of your calf, where the muscles are at their widest point. Rock your hands quickly and firmly from side to side, so that the muscles move with your hands. This is an excellent movement for loosening the calf, releasing tension and invigorating the entire lower leg.

Pummelling the back

A great way to liven up your back. Lean over and with your fists, pummel up and down your back as far as you can reach. This feels good on either side of the spine. Make sure your knees are bent and keep your wrists relaxed so the movements are sharp and fast.

Lower back circle

Lie on your back on a flat, firm surface. (This one does not work on anything that is soft.) Bring your knees to your chest and slowly circle your lower back against the floor. To ease the muscles in the lower back, make large and small circles in both directions, without lifting your hips off the floor.

Pummelling the hips and thighs

Lying on your side, support yourself with one arm and bring your upper leg forward with the knee bent. With your other fist, pummel up and down your thigh, hip and buttock, again keeping the movements short and lively. Then change sides. This really helps stimulate circulation.

Pushing down the lower back

Rest your hands on your hips, thumbs facing the front. With your fingertips, feel for the dimples either side of the broad end of your sacrum (the bony triangle at the base of the spine) and push firmly downward along the line of the joint, without changing the position of your thumbs.

The forehead

Resting your fingers at the side of the head, place one thumb over the other in the centre of the forehead. Beginning just above the eyebrows, press lightly with the thumbs and then release. Keep pressing up the forehead, each time starting a little further up, and continue to the hairline, then repeat.

The palms

Support the hand from underneath with your fingers and place your thumbs over the top. Press down with the length of one thumb, release and repeat the movement with the other. Press alternately with the thumbs quite firmly over the palm, with most of the pressure coming from the pads.

The soles

Support the foot with your fingers and place your thumbs over the sole. Press down with the length of one thumb, release, then press with the other, covering as much of the sole as you can. Include the heel, but be very gentle over the instep. Firm pressure avoids any accidental tickling.

Steps

1) Make sure that you are seated properly. If you are not at the dining table and instead you are having soup while seated on the sofa or anywhere else, make certain to use a substitute for a stable table (use a tray or something similar) to prevent the soup from burning you or from dripping soup around and creating a mess.

2) Your lap should be protected by placing either a napkin or serviette in case you spill the soup.

3) Any bread roll or type of bread should be broken up on the side plate near you and should be eaten occasionally with your soup.

4) The dish should be pulled closest to you so as to prevent spillage.

5) Use an appropriate spoon. The best spoon to use when eating soup is the soup spoon. If the soup spoon is not available make use of a spoon smaller than the serving spoon but larger than regular teaspoon.

6) Know how to use the spoon properly. Make sure the spoon is only about three-quarters full because if the spoon is overfilled, once you lift the spoon, the soup might spill. And when you scoop the soup, draw the spoon away from you to help keep the soup from dripping from the spoon. Also, lift your spoon slowly and carefully.

7) Eat soup with care, slowly and methodically. Sip from the side of the spoon but do not slurp. Do not clank the spoon against your teeth.

As you finish the soup, the bowl should be tilted away from your direction and continue to scoop away from you.

9) At the end, rest your spoon in the bowl and gently push your bowl away.

Tips

• Slurping soup does not only sound awful, it is also considered disrespectful too so do not do it.
• Avoid breaking pieces of the bread and distributing this on your soup. Though it is a good way to get some of an extremely hot soup, this actually should only be practiced when you are around your family and should not be done when you are at a dinner get-together or when you are dining out at a restaurant.
• Practice etiquette accordingly, based on the company you’re with and the place you’re having your meal. For example, Japanese tradition requires people to eat soup in a loud manner to let the chef know that a soup consumer found the soup to be delicious.

Warning

• If the soup is too hot, first, blow on it a little. However, do this discreetly and carefully.

The Enterprise Initiative is being promoted vigorously by the Department of Trade and Industry – or the Department of Enterprise as the Secretary of State for the Department prefers to call it. Full details of the Initiative can be obtained free by ringing 0800 500 200 and asking for the Enterprise Initiative booklet (the phone call costs nothing either). During 1988-89 more than £50 million will be available for six Enterprise Initiative consultancies – marketing, design, quality, manufacturing systems, business planning, and financial and information systems. This will support 1000 consultancies every month for independent businesses with fewer than 500 employees. By 1991 total spending will be more than £250 million. There are 10 key elements to the Enterprise Initiative. These are:

Marketing - with consultancy advice on all aspects of a com­pany’s business, including exports;

Design – with specialist design aid for new and better products and services to corporate image;

Quality - with expert advice on quality management systems;

Manufacturing systems – to help firms apply modern tech­nology and methods in the right way;

Business planning – where consultants will help businesses de­velop management skills and plan properly to make it easier to raise funds;

Financial and information systems – experts will help to im­prove or institute proper budgeting, financial control and in­formation systems;

Regional assistance and advice - which covers selective assist­ance for investment projects, a higher level of grant for the consultancy schemes and investment and innovation grants for small firms;

Exports - advice to improve planning, research and making contacts in export markets;

Research and technology - help for firms to solve technical problems, to undertake collaborative research and generate links with researchers in universities and colleges;

Business and education - assisting the business world to work more closely with the education system.

Full information can also be obtained from regional offices of the Department of Trade and Industry. Help in deciding what is best for your company can be obtained from the Department of Employment’s Small Firms Counselling Service and also from the enterprise agencies which now exist in many towns throughout the country.

Quite apart from the DTI’s Enterprise Initiative there are a number of organisations which provide help to independent urns in a variety of ways.

Two organisations which have sprung from the nationalised bodies of British Steel and British Coal – namely BSC (Industry) and British Coal Enterprise – can also be very helpful in advising on the financial assistance available.

BSC (Industry) also has its own small workshop units as well as being able to help with the low interest loans available through the European Coal and Steel Community. In the last resort it also has its own loan facility.

British Coal Enterprise’s main activity is in providing funds in the form of loans to individuals, partnerships, or companies who want to start, locate or expand in the coalfields. Their loans are for up to five years and in amounts of up to a quarter of the total required or £5000 per job created. They too have small workshops.

Funds for both start-up and development are available from several public bodies set up around the country to promote economic growth, such as the Development Agencies in Scotland and Wales, which both have small business divisions.

They channel aid to smaller firms through loans, grants, and equity participation as well as advance factories and advice in many skills, such as financial management.

In Northern Ireland the organisation responsible for dealing with companies employing up to 50 people is the Local Enter­prise Development Unit. The LEDU provides a financial pack­age of grants, loans, and loan guarantees to manufacturing and service firms.

The agency has a wide variety of financial aids for different purposes, such as capital grants of 30 to 50 per cent for new-plant, machinery and equipment, or enterprise grants of up to £5000 for individuals with limited capital who want to go into business for the first time, or management salary grants to pay up to 80 per cent of the cost of employing specialist management.

In England’s rural areas, the Council for Small Industries in Rural Areas – which has been merged with its parent body, the renamed Rural Development Commission – gives counselling and technical advice. It has funds of its own to finance projects but in general it prefers to assist a business to obtain its own funds from other sources.

One of these is the arrangement it has made with a number of the clearing banks under which it filters projects, thereby re­ducing the costs to the banks, and helping them to qualify for better rates of interest.

Another popular scheme with which it is involved is the pre vision of grants in certain areas for converting redundant buildings in country areas into workplaces. The Rural Development Comission is also in a position to help firms which want to develop rural transport operations following deregulation with financial support.

Rural areas of Scotland are served by the Highlands and Islands Development Board which has a wide range of loans, interest relief grants, removal grants, and grants for building and other purposes.

In rural Wales the organisation concerned is Mid Wales De­velopment, which has its own development grant in addition to being able to arrange financial packages and other assistance to create jobs in manufacturing and certain service industries.

Advance factories, grants for the conversion of rural prem­ises, and a full range of advisory services are provided by both HIDB and Mid Wales Development.

Worm life cycle

Worm eggs can lie dormant in pasture for months until being eaten by the horse while grazing. The larvae then survive in the gut wall before hatching and living inside the body as parasites. Once they have matured, the worms lay eggs in the intestines, which are then passed out of the horse’s system in the dung. They remain in the pasture until being eaten by a horse, and the cycle starts again.

Reducing the worm burden

Effective worm control requires a program involving all horses living together, particularly where they are grazed together. It is a futile exercise to worm one animal sod then turn it back out to pasture with other untreated horses as re-infection will take place immediately. All horses should be given the same worming product and care should be taken that the correct dose is given for each horse’s weight, height and age. Over- or underdosing a horse encourages resistance in the worm population and lessens the impact of the drug, so administering the right quantity is important.

Good pasture management is also essential for controlling the worm burden. It is good practice to remove all droppings from the field on a regular basis to help break the worm life cycle. Grazing the pasture with cows or sheep can also be useful as they eat the eggs while grazing but are not suitable hosts for horse worms.

Signs of worm infestation Classic signs of worm infestation in horses ‘”elude a rough and dull coat, a “pot belly” where the horse’s ribs can be seen clearly while the stomach appears extremely tight and swollen, stunted growth and weight loss. Worms are not just restricted to the stomach of the horse but can live in many areas of the body, including the lungs, symptoms of which are coughing, nasal discharge and a raised temperature. Therefore, to be at their optimum peak health and performance, it is vital that all horses are regularly wormed.

By three or four years old, 85 per cent of children are dry through the night, except for the occasional accident. At the age of five, around 10 per cent will still be wetting the bed. By age fifteen, only a few – about 2 per cent – will still bed-wet. The cause may be lack of bladder control or it can be related to stress and anxiety. A six-year-old who may have been dry throughout the night may suddenly start again after the arrival of a new baby in the household. An older child may have problems at school which are causing unconscious distress.

What you can do

Whatever the reason for bedwetting, time, patience and understanding are needed rather than admonishment. Don’t make an issue of it with young children when changing the sheets. Older children may prefer to do this themselves to save embarrassment. Using waterproof sheets will help pro­tect the mattress.

Buzzers have proved successful in many cases. At the start of urinating, the buzzer goes off, waking the child, who can then go to the loo.

Treatment

Chiropractic

A chiropractor would first check for congenital and hereditary problems before treatment. They may then work on the lower back and pelvis to stimulate the nervous supply to the urinary system, which may help to alleviate symptoms. One study found that chiropractic helped 25 per cent of those treated for bedwetting by 50 per cent or more.

Osteopathy

An osteopath may check for irritation of the blad­der or interference with its nerve supply which can be caused by bone misalignment. By correcting any relevant spinal and pelvic bone misalignment, the bedwetting may be cured. Hypnotherapy Studies have found hypnotherapy effective in the treatment of bedwetting. One survey of boys aged eight-thirteen years old found six weekly sessions were significantly effective in reducing symptoms. Different approaches may be used, depending on the training of the therapist. Bedwetting often begins at a time of stress, for instance parents’ marital break-up. But rather than getting the child to remember this difficult time and remembering the cause, they will try to help the child disassociate bedtime with wetting the bed, so that the child can see night time as a time for sleeping rather than wetting.

Traditional Chinese medicine

A Chinese doctor may identify bedwetting as the disruption of fluid circulating in the kid­ney, spleen and lungs. Herbs which act as toners and astrin­gents may be given, but the doctor will also try to identify the possible underlying cause of insecurity in the child. There have been many positive studies into the use of acupuncture (also used in Chinese medicine) and bedwetting. One survey showed that seven out of ten children treated were cured of the problem after a course of acupuncture and a further two had improved conditions.

Caution

If there seems to be no underlying causes for the incontinence consult a doctor, as a bladder infection or abnormality might be the problem.

Other therapies that may be beneficial: Bach Flower Remedies, homoeopathy.

BITES/STINGS (insects)

Insect bites and stings are rarely a real problem unless they become infected, your child has an allergic reaction or they occur abroad where a disease such as malaria is present. However, they can be very sore and itchy, and in the case of an allergic reaction, cause the area to swell up.

What you can do

If still embedded, carefully remove the sting. Don’t use tweezers as this will squeeze the sting, releasing more venom.

If you know your child is allergic to bee, wasp or hornet stings, antihistamine or alternative remedies should be available at all times during the summer. Immediate action is also needed if the child is stung in the mouth or throat, as these may swell and hinder breathing. If this happens, and the child is old enough, give them ice cubes to suck and get medical help.

Treatment

Aromatherapy

Eucalyptus oil – about four or five drops diluted in a cup of water and dabbed on exposed areas – acts as a natural insect repellent. The antiseptic qualities of Tea-Tree oil gently rubbed on to the sting will help soothe it.

Traditional Chinese medicine

TCM and Western methods of treatment are often similar. A practitioner may administer crushed Marigold leaves to reduce the effect of the sting. TCM believes wasp stings are alkaline, so can be neutralized by a mild acid, such as lemon juice or vinegar. Bee stings are acidic, so an alkaline remedy such as bicarbonate of soda, may be effective. Tea-Tree and Lavender can also help to soothe.

Homoeopathy

A homoeopath may recommend Apis for pain and swelling, Cantharis, for the hot, burning sensation and Ledum if the child is feeling particularly sensitive and to pre­vent infection.

Herbal medicine

A herbalist may recommend a variety of remedies to help soothe the bite or sting. An Aloe Vera gel, which has cooling properties, may help. Or a dab of Lavender oil applied to the area will help the healing process. Chamomile cream will help to soothe.

Caution

For severe allergic reactions, resulting in anaphylactic shock where breathing becomes difficult, the throat swells and the child may collapse, immediate medical attention is needed and a shot of adrenaline may be given. Emergency self-injec­tion kits are available for those known to be at risk.

Choosing a Printer

Whenever you use a supplier, make sure that you shop around – not only for the best price, but also for the most appropriate provider for your needs. Most large printing firms employ sales representatives who will be happy to visit you. Find out what equipment and machinery the print firm uses and what it is capable of. Ensure that the representative brings samples. Check that the quality is good. Are colours true? Are documents folded neatly? Are pages stapled, or ware stitched, with precision? Are pages cut square? Usually a rep can arrange for you to visit and to see the printshop in action. This is a good opportunity to introduce yourself to the processes and the jargon, and to ask questions.

Budgeting for Print points to remember

Many factors affect print prices. Internal factors – such as how busy the printer is, or how much they want your business – will have an influence. Then there is the specification or “spec”. Certain processes will add to the cost. Full-color printing costs more than two-color printing. The number of pages, the number of copies, and the type f paper used will also affect cost. Special effects and finishes, such as metallic inks, die-cutting, varnishing, laminating, and embossing will inflate the bill. There will be a charge for scanning and for the provision of cromalins.

Using Digital Printing

Traditional printing performed on a printing press is ideal for runs of at least 500: the larger the run. The lower the unit cost. However, for short runs – especially short full-color runs – digital printing is more cost effective. With a press, the main cost is in setting up the machine, making small runs uneconomical. Digital printing has no set-up costs, so the unit cost for one copy is little different to the unit cost for 1,000. Many printshops offer both forms of printing. Ask which is best for your needs.

Undertaking Your Own Print-Buying

If you do not have time to arrange your own printing, or if print-buying is a new area and you would prefer to gain some experience first, you can ask a graphic designer to organize it for you. In the long term, however, it is cheaper to do your own print-buying. It is standard practice for designers to mark up the cost of printing, usually by about 15 or 20 per cent, as a kind of handling fee.

Organizing a Photocall

A photoeall is an event that you organize in order to try to attract press photographers. TV cameras may be invited too, if the event merits it. Produce photocall notice and send it to the picture desk at your target publications about one week before the event. If a paper regards your photo opportunity a: worth considering, it will include it in its picture diary Bear in mind, however, that this is no guarantee of attendance, particularly if a more newsworthy event occurs in the intervening period.

Issuing Your Own Photographs

Local newspapers, trade publications, and some consumer magazines will consider using high quality photographs that are supplied to them. To ensure that your photographs are of an acceptable quality and composition, make sure that you use a professional freelance press photographer who thoroughly understands the needs of the print media. Where appropriate, issue photographs with news releases. Alternatively, state in your news release that photos are available for downloading from your Web site. Ensure that any photos you issue are clearly captioned on the back. State who or what is shown on the photograph, listing people left to right. Never write directly on the back of the photograph, as this may damage it. Always write your caption on a sticky label and then attach it.

Getting the best from a photcall

Greet photographers when they arrive at a photcall, explain the purpose of the event, and tell them who or what is available to be photographed. If you have a news release explaining the story, give a copy to the photographer.

The manager of the smaller firm has greater access to his cus­tomers and shorter lines of communication. These give him major advantages over the large corporation executive. He is seldom cut off from customer comments, attitudes and needs. Despite this, his intelligence gathering capability is often not used to the full. This reflects a lack of recognition of the poten­tial value of information and a failure to plan its role in the firm.

The marketing-oriented firm works hard to ensure that the gathering, organisation and use of information from the market place is geared to effective management decisions. The retailer hearing an assistant say, ‘You’re the sixth person today to ask for that but we don’t stock it as there’s no demand’, and the engineering firm convinced that it is their level of after-sales service that sells their product but ‘we still offer the lowest prices in the area’ already have some of the data to improve their market position.

Collecting this information and organising it to answer ques­tions, solve problems and meet customer needs is the sphere of marketing research. The array of sources ranges from the firm’s own records and staff to government, private and commercial agencies and ultimately to specially commissioned studies. In fact, many managers starting off on the information gathering effort find the sheer volume of data the greatest deterrent to its use. This is why a clear brief which identifies the questions, problems and issues is vital. To specify the data needed and plan its uses effectively, the variables affecting these issues need to be identified. It calls for careful thought before the search starts. But the firm which recognises that there is a problem is halfway to solving it.

The prime source of data for the manager of a small firm is inhouse information. This includes sales records, dispatch fig­ures, stock details, details of inquiries and orders, and the ma­terial that can be gathered by salesmen, delivery staff and top management. It appears very easy to collect this information, but it is often so badly organised that the value is lost. Hard thought about what facts are required is necessary. Simplifi­cation of the material can provide massive advances in access. This can be as simple as rounding figures to tens, hundreds or even thousands while ensuring that simplification does not lead to distortion. Specific problems can be examined by deeper analysis of company records.

Oceania Motors had always emphasised high service levels and good quality in its new and used car sales. The high costs were paid for by high levels of repeat purchase of replacement vehicles by customers. A progressive deterioration in turnover forced a rethink about the overall approach. Before changing policies, the managing director checked his assumptions about levels of repeat purchase from company sales records. He was shocked to find that, during the 1970s, they had fallen from over 60 per cent of sales to less than 20 per cent. Further data analysis led to other important findings.

The most important of these was the picture from govern­ment sources of the changing population profile of the area. It emerged that their home town had changed from being largely self-sufficient in jobs to being increasingly dependent on a major city and several new towns. The middle management groups -on which their business has been built increasingly worked for large city-based firms. A research report by their trade organisation pointed out the rapidly growing proportion of managers obtaining company cars. Rival car firms, based [r\ the city, were winning this business. This information was only part of the store collected and disseminated by the government Any executive who has felt, when filling in government forms ‘how useful it would be to know about my competitors’ is most of the way to recognising the value of government information because it is all published somewhere, albeit in a form geared to government requirements while protecting confidence.

This information is supplemented and made more relevant to specific industries by material published by such bodies as trade associations, industry research associations and commer­cial services. Much of this information can be purchased if firms are not members of their trade associations. Recently, industry research associations have become more marketing oriented. A number of commercial publications now exist pro­viding detailed marketing intelligence.

Much information is available through central, university and polytechnic libraries. They often employ specialist staff to assist inquirers. One Manchester-based electrical equipment manufacturer regularly uses the information gleaned from various publications in the Manchester Central and Manchester Busi­ness School Libraries to direct his activities. Some libraries, such as the City Business Library and those of certain chambers of commerce, have outstanding reputations for helping the practical businessman.

Sometimes the need may emerge for a more structured and scientific approach to information gathering. This is the sphere of market research. British firms are fortunate in having access to large numbers of highly skilled and reputable research agencies. These offer systematic and formalised investigations of both general topics and specialised areas. There are costs in­volved but these should be related to the value of the infor­mation and the potential pay-offs. A number of firms have found that, within their limitations, business studies students at colleges and universities have been able to assist with research.

We are now seeing an information and communication revol­ution. Smaller firms are well-placed to take advantage of the opportunities offered to those able to respond quickly, positively and flexibly to market conditions. However, this depends on their willingness to look outside, and build up and use a pic­ture of the market place.

• Set a daily routine with clearly understood (and written down) times for starting homework, break-times and finishing time.
• Use a timer or an alarm clock to announce these times (so that it is not the mother doing it!). Keep the time short and achievable, gradually lengthening it as the child is able. If the child is working on the computer, alarms can be set on the computer to announce stretch breaks.
• Have a snack and an exercise break before starting homework.
• Always do ‘work’ in the same ‘work place’ and do not allow play activity in that location. If the child needs a break they should leave the ‘work place’. Some children may need several ‘work places’ for different types of work, such as reading and writing.

• Allow the child to write while lying on the floor -some children with ADHD prefer writing with their whole body supported by the floor.
• Provide a tray with all the necessary supplies (pens, calculator, scissors, stapler, paper, and so on) that can be moved to whichever ‘work place’ is being used. This saves time looking for stuff and getting distracted.
• Help them to get started – many children need direct supervision to get the first sentence/problem completed and can then work with less supervision.
• Be available for help. Most children do better doing homework in a place where there is obvious supervision in range – maybe an open door with a parent passing by regularly or doing homework on the dining room table where the parent is in view.
• Record the time taken to achieve an assignment – this will help the child to learn to pace himself and to provide a level of understanding between parent and teacher on homework completion. With good communication between parent and teacher, homework assignments may be based on time rather than quantity.
• Make sure that the internet is disconnected when homework is to be done. If the internet is required for the assignment, make sure that ‘instant messaging’ and any games are not available.
• Consider allowing the child to wear headphones to block out auditory distractions – some will do better with music playing, others will do better with headphones and no music.
• Homework done on a computer should be backed up on a disk, flash-drive or the internet and printed out so that if it gets lost it can be duplicated.
• Having the child sit next to a non-ADHD sibling or friend while doing his homework will help to build expectations.
• When each assignment is complete, ensure that it is placed immediately in the child’s bag or backpack in an agreed location.

If the parent or child becomes too stressed over the homework then a well-supervised homework club at school could be the answer. It may be easier for a pupil to do homework at school because they see school as being somewhere where they are used to having more structure than at home.

Despite this growth and the opportunities here, many atti­tudes to services are marked by a peculiar ambivalence. The impression is sometimes given that service companies are not as important nor as acceptable as manufacturers. Government support schemes frequently ignore services. Interest in the special needs of the service sector is negligible. This can be seen in the way the marketing of services is neglected and ill understood.

People are far more important in service marketing than in manufacturing. Individually they play a far more important role in designing and determining the nature of the offering it­self. This is partly because services are generally designed around the needs of a specific customer, often on the spot, by the supplier. The travel agent will help the customer to choose his holiday on the basis of his understanding of the buyer’s needs, comments and financial resources. He will need to con­sider all these factors.

The difficulties of the service firm are made even greater in this situation by the intangible nature of their offering. The holi­day is not a fixed commodity capable of being measured and judged on objective grounds. The motor trade suffers particularly from this. There can be an enormous gulf of understanding be­tween the supplier, the garage and the customer on as basic a level as the meeting of the ’service’ to the car being repaired. Faults or breakdowns totally unrelated to the original problem occurring some time after repair are put down to poor garage service.

Overcoming these problems is critical to ensuring good, repeat business. It is essential to recognise the importance of handling customers carefully, of probing to establish their real opposed to their stated requirements and of explaining dif­ferences of understanding. Here the manager should recognise that the extent of access to staff is generally far greater in services than in manufacture. In many garages the mechanic is spoken to by clients as often as the receptionist.

The degree of contact with customers is a significant difference between most service firms and manufacturers. A small tobacconist has far more frequent direct personal contact with individual smokers than the giant Imperial Group. This can lead to negative, even hostile, attitudes towards the public or specific sectors. In some recent research among 12 to 16 year old children the scale of hostility they felt retailers had towards them was remarkable. A service firm cannot afford the luxury of these sentiments if he wants repeat custom. His actions determine his offering. There is not the compensation of other aspects of the product.

At the same time sectors of service industry do fail fully to capitalise on their opportunities. A classic example of this is the tendency of retail salesmen to spend all their time selling the product and virtually no time selling their own firm. The top manager should make it clear to his staff that their job is to pro­mote their own company at least as much as their supplier.

This involvement of people creates massive problems of standardisation, and partly explains the high failure rate among rapidly growing service firms. Once the owner’s direct control is lost, quality can slump. Before this occurs, the basic appeal and offering has to be identified and isolated. The manager is responsible for closely monitoring and responding to customer needs. Within this framework routes to standardisation can be sought. Individuality and flexibility have a role, but within the framework of objectives and controls set out by managers. Franchising has emerged as one of the best ways of maintaining quality in growth oriented services.

The perishable character of most services places a special onus on management accurately to forecast and sustain an even level of demand. Hotel rooms left vacant and unoccupied tables in restaurants are complete waste. Despite that, many small service companies make little systematic effort to estimate forthcoming demand. Even less effort is put into differential prices and advertising, modifying the offering to even out peaks and troughs in demand.

The close direct personal contact between the small service firm and its client provides an invaluable opportunity for sys­tematic information gathering. This might simply involve giving customers a reply paid questionnaire card or getting all those involved in customer contact to review and explore customer action. A determination to use the firm’s intimacy with the cus­tomer characterises the market oriented service firm.

The adoption of this approach will do much to influence the service firm’s prosperity. The opportunities exist in services. We can reasonably expect the growth of the last 20 years to continue. Three things will dominate the development of services: the use of marketing, people and productivity. The last of these is particularly important. Seeking out innovative ways of resolving productivity problems in established services and using this to open them up to new markets has been the foundation of growth from Butlins to McDonalds. Ultimately, however, the small firm with its closeness of personal control has enormous advan­tages in an area whose marketing is so dependent on people.

Go to any home center and you’ll find a huge number of products that you can use to give your bathroom a low-cost makeover. In one weekend you can literally change the way everything looks. Let’s start with a gallon of paint and some primer. If you have $50 and a few hours, you can make a huge cosmetic difference in the room. First, wash the walls, then prime them and next coat them with paint containing an eggshell satin finish for easier cleaning. Now comes the hardware. Shop for a new faucet. A good-quality, single-lever faucet, made with solid brass construction inside, will cost from $50 to $100. Installing this is actually a do-it-yourself job, which should spare you the plumber’s fee. A new showerhead might run anywhere from $60 to $100, and is just as easy to install. I like the new spa-style of shower-head, which is about 6 inches in diameter and has a curve in it that actually raises the height of the showerhead. While you’re pushing the shopping cart, pick up a new shower curtain and new shower rings, which will probably run you another $50. If you want, you can also add new towel bars, towel rings, and toilet-paper holder, for probably $50. That’s it; you’ve just remade the bathroom for $350 or under. Although this wouldn’t change the underlying structure of a bathroom, it would spice things up. And it’s the perfect cost-effective approach if you live in an apartment or rental home.

Now, if you’re in the $1,000 range, you’ll do everything I just mentioned as well as some other more intensive projects. For starters, you can add a new integrated sink and countertop for the vanity, which will probably cost about $100. A new toilet will most likely be in order, for another $150, and you may even be able to put down some simple 4-by-4-inch ceramic tiles on the floor. This would probably cost another $200. You would be able to add a new medicine cabinet for another $100, and would probably have enough left over to spring for a new light fixture. You could install some of these things yourself, but even with help from a plumber and an electrician, or even a tile setter, the labor costs would not exceed a few hundred dollars. The result would be that every surface would have a fresh new look.

Beyond this, you can accomplish a rather extensive renovation for under $5,000, and literally transform every surface in the bathroom. To do this, you would include everything I mentioned in the $1,000 renovation. Then you would tackle the final surfaces that I did not mention: the bathtub or shower stall. For about $100, you could buy new faucets to freshen things up. But, more important, you can actually have a high-quality acrylic surround set in place over an existing tub or shower. I will go into this process in more detail, but the result is a tub and shower that look like new for the bargain cost of about $2,500. While you’re at it, you’ll want to add a new exhaust fan to help clear away moisture, and you may want a shower door rather than a shower curtain. You can also replace the entire vanity cabinet rather than just the countertop. This would totally revamp an existing bathroom without the expense and angst of a gut rehab.

Let’s prepare now for the ultimate bathroom. Although this falls into the ‘”over $5,000″ category, in reality there is no limit to how much this can cost, whether it is $10,000, $15,000, or even $50,000 and more. By definition, projects of this scope involve a gut renovation. In addition, they also frequently involve moving the plumbing and electrical fixtures to new locations, rather than leaving them where they were in the old bathroom. An architect or experienced contractor is crucial to the success of a project this big, because there are too many possibilities for costly mistakes. Also, if you’re going to start moving the plumbing and electrical wiring around, you will need an expert to be involved in order to get whatever building permits you may need, as well as to secure approvals from co-op or condo boards if the renovations involve an apartment. Most cities and towns require you to submit something called a riser diagram for the plumbing, which details where the waste and vent lines will go, something I will describe in greater detail as follow. As a dividend for the municipality, this also gives them a chance to raise your tax assessment based on the new bathroom, but there is little you can do about this. A new bathroom will increase the value of your home, both for better and for worse.

Once the basic plumbing, wiring, and structural renovations are made, the new bathroom is ready to go. With an empty space, you’ll be free to choose any type of tub, shower, tiles, sinks, and vanity cabinets. Add to this the lighting, ventilation, and painting, and the minimum cost, from my experience, will be somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000. It’s at this point that many homeowners become scared, and even ponder the wisdom of returning to the outhouse. In most cases, the bathroom is just as expensive as the kitchen, even though it is so much smaller. That is because the work of so many different trades is represented, even if served up in tinier portions. The good news is that if you renovate a bathroom and do it well, it will probably last a generation, with some occasional cosmetic fine-tuning along the way.

Preventing the Problem

Provide a mistake-friendly environment.

By sending your child a no-big-deal message when he makes a mistake, you help him learn that no one’s perfect. This lesson will serve him well as he gets experience bouncing back from a problem. Say, “I’m sorry you spilled your milk. Let’s see how we can clean it up. Everyone has accidents.”

Teach decision-making skills.

Your child wants to feel as if he’s the master of his fate, so allow him to make simple decisions. Choosing between two cereals, two pairs of socks, and two games to play, for example, gives him a sense of control over his world.

Respect your child’s individuality.

You may have made friends with change long ago, but your child might have a more difficult time because his temperament might be different. Understand that each child has a unique temperament, even within the same family. Avoid saying, “Don’t be like that!” when your child’s inflexible feathers are ruffled. Instead, say, “I know it’s hard for you to change babysitters. But you can handle it. It’ll be okay.”

Remind children that they belong.

We all want to feel that we fit in with a particular group. So frequently tell your child that he’s a valued member of your family, and encourage his participation by asking him to help out around the house. Say, “Thanks for picking up your toys and putting them away. You’re helping our home look nice and neat.”

What to Do

Build resilience.

Resilient children look at change as a challenge to be overcome. On the other hand, inflexible children resist change as much as possible. Telling your child he gets to do something rather than has to do it will transform his feelings of fear and loss of control into feelings of excitement. Help him build this framework for change by saying, for example, “You get to have a new babysitter tonight. She’s going to be lots of fun. Isn’t it exciting getting to know someone new?”

Teach your child how to handle change.

Children who are shown how to deal with change are more prepared to meet the challenge. For example, say, “This new shirt is very nice. Not getting to wear your old blue one is no big deal. You’ll feel so good wearing your new yellow one today.”

Set goals for accepting change.

Children feel more in control of their destiny if they have ample time to think about and prepare themselves for change. You can help your child accept change more readily by having him set goals for handling change. For example, say, “We’re going to the zoo with your class tomorrow. It’ll be fun. Let’s set a goal of having a good time at the zoo.” Then periodically remind him of the goal and have him repeat it to you. Ask him, “What’s your goal about going to the zoo?” When he says, “I’m going to the zoo to have fun ” say, “That’s right, you’re going to the zoo to have a good time.”

Teach problem solving.

When children are confronted with change and don’t know what to do, giving them limited choices helps them see their options. For example, say, “I know you don’t want to move into the big bed. Let’s think about what we can do to make it easier. Maybe you could take your teddy bear into the big bed with you, and he’ll keep you company while you’re there.”

The Cup and Bowl Caper

What Not to Do

Don’t meet resistance with anger.

Children who are upset by change need lots of support and empathy to reduce their anxiety Getting angry with your child for being inflexible only increases his sense of helplessness.

Don’t overreact to mistakes.

Getting upset when your child tracks dirt into the house tells him he isn’t loveable if he makes mistakes, which (because he’s a preschooler) he’ll probably do many times a day. Treat mistakes as no big deal. Show him how to correct his behavior by treating mistakes as teachable, not terrorizing, moments. Say, “Please get the paper towels so we can clean this up. When we work together, we can have it cleaned up in no time.

Every state now requires that infants and children be buckled up when riding in a motor vehicle. Approved car seats and seat belts have weight and age specifications to make car travel as safe as possible for your child. As children outgrow their infant car seats, they move to forward-facing seats, convertible seats, and eventually booster seats, depending on their age and weight.

The leading cause of death in children is trauma from automobile accidents. Children who are not buckled up will continue to travel forward if the car stops suddenly. They will hit anything in their path, the dashboard, the windshield, or the back of the front seat, with an impact equivalent to a one-story drop for each ten miles per hour the car is traveling. Even though the dashboard and back of the front seat are padded, the impact of a crash at fifty-five miles per hour can do considerable damage to small bodies. This trauma can be prevented by making sure children are properly restrained. Never compromise the rule about being buckled up, or you may be compromising your child’s life.

Note: The infant death rate can be reduced by almost three quarters and the injury rate for one- to four-year-olds can by lowered by fifty percent by using properly installed car seats.

Give your child room to breathe.

Make sure she has room to move her hands and legs and still be safely buckled up.

Make a rule that the car will not move unless everyone “Is buckled up”.

If you enforce this rule from the beginning, your child will become accustomed to the idea of sitting in a car seat and eventually wearing a seat belt.

Make your child proud to be safe.

Tell your child why she’s graduating to a bigger car seat or using only a seat belt, to make her proud of being strapped in. For example, say, “You’re getting to be so grown-up. Here’s your new safety seat for the car!”

Don’t complain about having to wear a seat belt.

Casually telling your spouse or friend that you hate wearing a seat belt gives your child a reason to resist her belt, too.

Conduct a training program.

Let your child know how you expect her to act in a car. Take short drives around the neighborhood with one parent or friend driving and the other praising your child for sitting nicely in her car seat. Say: “You’re sitting in your car seat so nicely today,” or, “Nice sitting,” while patting and stroking her.

What to Do

Buckle yourself up.

Make sure to wear your seat belt and point out how your child is wearing one, too, to make her feel she’s not alone in her temporary confinement. If you don’t wear a seat belt, your child will not understand why she has to.

Praise staying in the seat belt.

If you ignore your child while she’s riding nicely she may look for ways to get your attention, including trying to get out of her car seat or seat belt. Keep your child out of trouble in the car by talking to her and playing word games, as well as by praising how nicely she’s sitting.

Be consistent.

Stop the car as quickly and safely as possible every time your child gets out of her car seat or seat belt, to teach her that the rule will be enforced, Say, “The car will move again only when you’re back in your car seat [or seat belt], so you will be safe”.

Divert your child’s attention.

Try activities such as number games, word games, Peek-a-Boo, singing songs, and so on, so your child won’t try to get out of her seat because she needs something to do.

What Not to Do

Don’t attend to your child’s defiant behavior, unless she unfastens her seat belt or gets out of her car seat.

Not giving attention to your child’s crying or whining while she’s belted in helps her see that there’s no benefit in protesting the seat-belt rule. Say to yourself, “I know my child is safer in her car seat and will only fight it temporarily. Her safety is my responsibility and I am fulfilling it by enforcing the seat-belt rule.”

Note: Since your child’s need for sleep changes as he gets older, you may need to let him stay up later or shorten his nap as he grows. Children (even ones in the same family) require different amounts of sleep. Your two-year-old may not need the same amount of sleep his older brother did when he was two.

Preventing the Problem

Establish a bedtime routine.

End the day or begin a nap with a special feeling between you and your child by reciting a poem or story as a regular part of the going-to-bed routine. Make the event special so it’s something he can look forward to. Try reciting, “Night night, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite,” or have a talk about the day’s events, even if it’s a one-sided conversation.

Make exercise a daily habit.

Make sure your child gets plenty of exercise during the day, to help his body tell his mind that going to bed is a good idea.

Maintain a fairly regular nap schedule.

Don’t let your child put off napping until late afternoon or evening, and then expect him to go to sleep at eight o’clock. Put him down for naps early enough in the day to make sure he’s tired at bedtime.

Spend time together before bed.

Play with your child before bedtime arrives, to prevent him from fighting bedtime just to get your attention.

Keep bedtime consistent.

Determine how much sleep your child needs by noticing how he acts when he’s taken a nap and when he hasn’t, and when he’s gone to bed at nine o’clock versus seven o’clock. Establish a consistent sleep schedule that meets his needs, and adjust it as he gets older.

Solving the Problem

What to Do

Use a timer to manage the bedtime routine.

An hour before bedtime (or naptime), set the timer for five minutes and announce that the timer will tell your child when it’s time to start getting ready for bed. This avoids surprises and allows him to anticipate the upcoming events. When the timer rings, say, “The timer says it’s time to start getting ready for bed. Let’s take a bath and get into our pajamas.” Then reset the timer for about fifteen minutes and say, “Let’s see if we can beat the timer getting ready.” This gives you the opportunity to praise your child’s efforts at getting himself through the basic bedtime routine.

Make sure you allow enough time for him to get the job done. When the routine is finished, reset the timer for the remainder of the hour you set aside and announce, “You beat the timer. Now you get to stay up and play until the timer rings again and tells us that it’s time to get into bed. Now, let’s set the timer for brushing our teeth, getting a drink, and going potty (if he’s old enough).” The timer routine helps you and your child make a game instead of a struggle out of bedtime.

Follow the same rituals regardless of time.

Even if bedtime has been delayed for some reason, go through the same rituals to help your child learn what’s expected of him when it comes to going to bed. Don’t point out how late he’s stayed up. Quicken the pace by helping him get pajamas on and get a drink, and set the timer for shorter intervals. But don’t omit any steps.

Maintain the same order of events.

Since preschoolers find comfort in consistency, have your child bathe, brush his teeth, and put on his pajamas in the same order every night. Ask him to name the next step in the routine, to make a game out of getting ready for bed and to help him feel as if he’s calling the shots.

Offer rewards for going to bed.

Greet your child upon waking with the good news that going to bed nicely is worthwhile. Say, “Because you got in bed so nicely, I’ll read you an extra story”

What Not to Do

Don’t let your child control bedtime.

Stick with your chosen bedtime despite your child’s resistance. Remember that you know why your child doesn’t want to go to bed, and why he should. Say to yourself, “He’s only crying because he doesn’t want to end his playtime, but I know he’ll play happier later if he sleeps now.”

Don’t threaten or spank.

Threatening or spanking your child to get him into bed can cause nightmares and fears, not to mention making you feel upset and guilty when the behavior persists. Punishing a child doesn’t teach him appropriate behavior. Instead, focus on using a timer as a neutral authority to determine when bedtime arrives.

Don’t be a historian.

Saying, for example, “Because you didn’t go to bed on time last night, you don’t get to watch TV this morning,” doesn’t teach your child how to get into bed on time. Focus on the future instead of the past.

It has been reported that preschoolers who were given guns and other violent toys to play with acted more aggressively than preschoolers who only watched a television program with violent content. But studies have shown that by the age of three, children will imitate someone on TV as readily as they will a real person. The results of the studies on the effects of viewing television violence are consistent: Children learn how to be aggressive in new ways and draw conclusions about whether being aggressive will bring them rewards.

Those children who see television characters getting what they want by using weapons are more likely to imitate those acts themselves. If parents ignore or approve of their children’s use of weapons or exhibit violent behavior themselves, they serve as role models for their children. On the other hand, parents who show their children how to solve problems nonviolently and who consistently praise their children for finding peaceful solutions to conflicts show their children how to be less aggressive. So when your preschooler makes pretend guns out of French fries, don’t panic, but don’t ignore his imaginative play either. Instead, teach the important lesson that even pretending to physically hurt people can hurt their feelings. Keep in mind that the behavior of the adults closest to a child encourages him to be kind or cruel. Watch what you do and say, and how “explosively” you act, in order to help curb your child’s appetite for violent play.

Preventing the Problems

Make caring a household rule.

When your child behaves aggressively, make a rule that tells him what is or isn’t allowed regarding pretending to use toys in violent ways. For example, say, “The rule is we treat people nicely to show them that we care. Pointing guns, even pretend ones, is against our rules because it hurts people’s feelings and makes them afraid.”

Think before speaking.

Use words and a tone of voice that you wouldn’t mind your child repeating. For example, when he breaks a rule, instead of threatening (even in jest) to “knock his head off if he doesn’t stop,” calmly say, “I’m sorry you decided not to follow the rule about pretending to use a gun. The rule is, ‘We treat each other nicely and don’t ever hurt or pretend to hurt anyone.’”

Model kindness.

You are your child’s first and most important role model. When you listen to, hug, apologize to, and respect your child, he will learn to behave in kind.

Learn to control your anger.

What causes children to “go off” is the same thing that causes adults to explode; anger over something beyond their control. Tell yourself you hope you get a raise, hope the traffic is light, hope your favorite dress still fits, and so on. But if none of these wishes comes true, don’t have a meltdown. By keeping your cool, you set a powerful example for your child of maintaining self-control when things don’t go your way.

Solving the Problem

What to Do

Teach empathy.

When your child pretends to attack another person with a toy gun or other object, consider this a teachable moment. Ask him to think about how it would feel to be shot by a pretend gun. Say, “Guns can hurt people. How would you feel if someone acted as if he were going to shoot you? I wouldn’t want to scare or hurt anyone. I hope you wouldn’t want to, either.”

Encourage cooperative play.

Children who learn to enjoy building things, sharing with others, and engaging in supervised social activities will have less opportunity to resort to violent games for entertainment. Praise your preschooler when he’s getting along with others while playing, so he knows you approve of his playing nicely. Say, “I like the way you’re getting along and being kind to each other by sharing toys.”

Restrict violent TV and video/computer games.

It’s well documented that preschoolers like to imitate what they see. Many children have been victimized by kung fu kicks being tried out by playmates. In one Canadian study, children were found to be significantly more aggressive two years after TV was first introduced to their town. Strong identification with a violent television character and believing that the television situation is realistic are both associated with greater aggressiveness.

You need to know what your child is watching and what games he’s playing. Reduce the amount of violent content your child is exposed to by making a rule about what he can watch or what games he can play as well as how long he can watch or play. Put yourself in charge of the television remote control and the computer power switch, to keep violence out of your home and out of your child’s imagination.

When your child watches TV, watch with him.

Studies have shown that when an adult watches TV with a child and comments on the action, children remember more and are more likely to imitate what they’ve seen. Because watching TV with an adult may actually intensify the positive (or negative) effect of the content on children, it’s imperative that you select only nonviolent shows for your child’s viewing and discuss the content with him. Your child should not watch with you if you’re watching violent TV.

Teach your child to make amends.

When an overly exuberant tot tries to “shoot” a sibling or playmate with a ruler, for example, take away the “weapon” and say, “Guns hurt people. The rule is that we treat each other kindly and never even pretend to hurt another person. We don’t hurt people; we love people. Please tell Sam you’re sorry for pointing a gun at him.” When your child follows your directions, say, “Thank you for being Sam’s friend. I like the way you’re showing him you care about him.”

Teach your child to compromise.

Help your child learn to be fair when resolving disputes. When you see him threatening to hit his friend for taking his toy, for example, say, “Let’s think about what else you could do when your friend takes your toy and you want it back. You could get the timer and set it like I do so your friend can play with the toy for a while and then you can play with it. That way both of you get to play with it and have fun.”

What Not to Do

Don’t hit?

No matter how tempting it is to spank a child to “smack some sense into him” or “teach him a lesson” resist the urge. Although you may be angry and scared when your child crosses the street without your permission, spanking him for doing so sends him a mixed message: It’s okay for me to hit you, but not for you to hit me or anyone else. Practice what you preach. Spanking teaches him it’s okay to hurt people to get them to do what you want. Even the occasional swat on the behind sends the hurtful message that if you’re bigger and stronger, it’s okay to hit to make a point.

Avoid overreacting.

When your child pretends to shoot his little brother with his pencil, for example, remain calm. Instead of simply forbidding the behavior, take advantage of a teachable moment by saying, “I’m sorry you broke the rule about treating people kindly. Tell me the rule and show me how you can treat your brother kindly now.

Don’t threaten.

Threatening to hit your child with a wooden spoon when he’s pretending to hit his sister with his stuffed animal only teaches him to fear your presence. To your child, a threat is an empty promise and an example of how adults don’t keep their word. Instead of threatening a violent consequence such as, “I’ll give you a spanking if I see you pretending to shoot your brother with that empty paper towel roll again,” simply say, “I’m sorry you chose to break our rule about pretending to hurt someone. Now I want you to think about how scared you’d feel if somebody pointed a gun at you.”

Sorting your washing

Before you begin your washing, look at the care label in each of your clothes, sheets, etc and sort them into piles, depending on the wash suggested by the care label. You can wash clothes from different care labels together, providing you use the lower of the two recommen­ded temperature washes, but in the long term this will affect the quality and wear of your clothing.

If washed with coloured clothes of the same fabric, whites will gradually become grey; and if mixed with non-colourfast clothes of the same fabric, colourfast fabrics will soon look dull. Sorting your washing correctly takes a minute and ensures that your clothes will be clean and will not cause the colours to run or creases to set into the fabric. Basically your piles should look like this: whites together, reds and browns together, blues and blacks and greens together, hot-wash items tog­ether, hand-wash items together, etc.

Will it run?

If an article has no label, hand-wash it at first in cool water. The next time you wash it, increase the temperature of the water slightly. If it seems to withstand this treatment, try the gentlest machine-wash programme. If you are not sure whether a fabric is colourfast or not, leave a piece of wet cotton wool on an inconspicuous part of the garment for a few minutes. If any dye comes off on the cotton wool, the garment is best hand-washed on its own, or dry-cleaned professionally.

Always wash dark red and dark blue cotton articles separately when they are new as these colours often bleed at first. If you do have an accident in the wash­ing machine and all your wash turns pale blue, remove the item that has bled and immediately put the rest of the wash through the same wash cycle again. It may help to remove the colour.

Delicate fabrics

If garments are antique, very delicate, irreplaceable or very expensive, wash them by the correct method or by hand in cool water or take them to be pro­fessionally dry-cleaned. Loose covers, net curtains and washable suits are best washed with care. If in any doubt, it is always best to go to a specialist cleaner. Embroidered textiles, tapestry, needle­work and pile fabrics, such as velvet, velveteen, chenille and delicate silk damask should all be dry-cleaned.

If the manufacturer suggests dry-cleaning a garment it is because the colours will run in water or because the fabric will shrink enormously or because trimmings, pads, etc will not wash. It may be that the manufacturer is just playing safe, but unless you are prepared to risk ruining the item by hand-washing it, have it dry-cleaned.

Loading the washing machine

Most weekly washes divide into two or three groups. When loading your wash­ing machine, do not exceed the manufacturer’s recommended weight for the machine and certainly never force clothes in until the drum is tightly packed or clothes will be badly washed and very creased. Most towels and towelling nappies are very absorbent, so reduce the load if it is all or part towels, or nappies. Also reduce the load for man-made and drip-dry non-iron fabrics according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Before washing

Before you start washing, make sure all the pockets are empty and that all holes and tears are mended, as washing will make them bigger. Close zips and hooks, open shirt buttons, as they are more difficult to open before ironing when the shirt is still damp, and put stockings and tights in a pillowcase to stop them wrapping round everything and each other.

Some woollens, even when labelled hand-wash, can be machine-washed on a low temperature. Some machines even have a wool label control especially designed for this. Wrap woollens in a towel before putting them in the wash­ing machine as this keeps them in shape. Do not dry woollens in a tumble drier unless the care label on the garment says it is safe to do so.

Pre-soaking

While the first wash is on, remove any stains from items due for the second wash. If collars and cuffs are very soiled, scrub them lightly by hand first with a bar of household soap and a nail brush before putting them in the machine with the rest of the wash; or use a stain remover. Often pre-soaking really dirty items, like tablecloths, napkins and badly soiled football shorts, in a plastic bucket filled with a warm water proprie­tary pre-wash product is the best way to begin to clean them.

Never soak silks, woollens, leather, fabrics with flame-resistant finishes, drip-dry or non-colourfast fabrics. Never put biological detergents in metal buckets, or soak metal zip fasteners in a biological detergent solution as it will cause the metal to rust. Never soak whites and coloured fabrics together in case colours run – there is nothing more frustrating than seeing a favourite white item come out of the wash tinted a delicate shade of pink or blue!

Hot wash

Boil handkerchiefs, face-flannels and baby’s nappies every few washes to keep them clean or soak them in nappy steri­lizing solution before putting them in the washing machine (nappies should be soaked before every wash). Always rinse nappies well, as any remaining soap can irritate your baby’s skin.

Drying clothes

Tumble-driers are expensive to run, waste energy and clothes do not smell as fresh afterwards. If you must use a tumble drier, use it on the cool setting. Most fabrics will crease less in a cool tumble and there is less danger of shrinkage. Woollens and other knitted fabrics should not be tumble dried at all.

Useful tips

• Most fabrics need less ironing if you give them a good shake, stretch them to remove creases and then hang them up, either indoors or outside. Hang­ing pleated skirts and other items on hangers can also reduce ironing
• Lay knitted fabrics flat on a towel to dry having first pulled them gently into shape
• Fabrics you wish to iron later, such as silks, chiffons, crepes, cottons and linens, should not be allowed to dry out completely. They could all be rolled together and left for a few hours to dry out a little and then ironed
• Nylon is discoloured by the sun, and wool and silk are weakened. Dry them indoors

The techniques

Faux marble

Marbling is done quickly with a layer of glaze being introduced and worked on and then another layer added before the first has had a chance to dry – with the result that the colours bleed into each other. Veins are drawn as thin lines in a darker colour, using a fine brush, and then smudged with a rag, feather or twigs while still wet. Unless the surface you are marbling is black, it is best to work from light to dark, using several coats of dirty-white glaze with a little black or raw umber added. Varnish the painted surface to protect it.

Faux tortoiseshell

Tortoiseshelling is probably the most difficult illusion to do well. First you paint a base coat of yellow oil-based paint thinned 3 to 1 with white spirit or turpentine. You leave this to dry before painting on top a coat of varnish, thinned 2 to 1 with white spirit or turpentine, and tinted brown. When still wet this is manipulated with a brush into broken diagonal bands. Then dots of varnish are added between the marks, and lines of darker colours (black and burnt umber oil paint) are painted on top and softened with a large, soft, dry brush. Varnish when finished.

Faux wood

The basis of wood-graining is dragging, using a glaze slightly darker than the ground coat. Wood grains are faked by drawing a comb or dry brush through wet glaze. Knots are faked by using the edge of a cork and heart wood lines are faked by pressing pieces of string into the wet glaze. Look at samples of wood to see what sort of effect you want. Bamboo can be copied as well, either realistically or so that it looks obviously fake. The most helpful tip is only to try to copy bamboo on already rounded woodwork or plaster.

Soak all items, apart from those made of wool, silk, non-colourfast or flame­proof fabrics, for a few hours before washing to loosen the dirt. Make sure the detergent or soap powder has thoroughly dissolved before putting the garments in. If you are soaking gar­ments in biological detergent use a plas­tic bucket and do not soak any clothes with metal zip fasteners.

Woollens

Wash woollens in a warm solution of soap-flakes with as much lather as pos­sible. Knead and gently squeeze the lather through the garment; do not rub. Be as quick as you can and try not to stretch the garment. Rinse in warm water using the same movements as for washing. Add a splash of vinegar to the final rinse to help remove soap. Squeeze the garment gently to remove excess water, then lay it flat on a towel, and gently pat the garment into shape. Lay another towel flat on top and then roll the sandwich up so it looks like a sausage and stamp on it to remove as much water as possible. Unroll the towels, remove the garment and place it flat on another towel to dry naturally away from a direct heat source. When nearly dry, press with a cool iron.

Blankets

Wash blankets in a bath or large basin so they will not crease. Squeeze out water before drying, but do not wring or twist. Hang the blanket lengthways on a line to dry, so that as much of the blanket as possible is supported.

Non-iron and drip-dry

Wash garments with non-iron or drip-dry finishes separately in warm water. Rinse them in warm water and put them on a hanger to dry or simply fold them to drip-dry. Do not use hot water and do not spin, wring or squeeze the fabric while it is wet or they will be pulled out of shape.

Wash acrylics as for wool.

Do not wash elastic and elasticized items in hot water or they will shrink. Do not wring or pull them when wet either or they will stretch. Remove excess moisture by spinning them in the washing machine or rolling in a towel.

A bounce stride is used for jumping two fences where the distance between the fences does not allow the horse to take a stride between them. The horse lands over the first jump and as soon as the back legs touch the ground, the front legs take off for the second jump.

Bounce strides are useful for developing the athleticism and agility of a horse but can be both mentally and physically demanding. Avoid practicing bounce strides for more than 20 minutes in one lesson.

• Place a set of four poles at equal distance apart and trot down the line.
• Change the middle two poles into cross-poles. Adjust the distance so that it allows for a bounce stride in between the two cross-poles and two full strides from the first pole and to the last pole.

Judging distances

An experienced rider will be able to judge distances and to alter their horse’s stride accordingly so that they reach a fence at the right point for takeoff.

Related distances refers to jumps that are related to each other by between three and five non-jumping strides. They can either be in a straight line or at an angle. When jumping a course, related distances allow the horse and rider to continue in a balanced style and to maintain a rhythmical canter into and away from a fence.

• Set out some poles with a distance of three, four or five non-jumping strides between them.
• Practice shortening your stride so that you are able to ride five strides in a four-stride distance and six strides in a five-stride distance.
• Once you have achieved this over poles, replace the poles with small cross-pole jumps.

Increasing the height

Once you are confident with cross-poles, start to introduce some higher uprights and spreads. With the change in height of the fence, the horse may jump short or long. In this case, you need to work on either lengthening or shortening your stride to reach the next fence on the right stride.

• If you land short over a jump, kick on and ask the horse to lengthen its stride.
• If you land long, gather up your reins and bring the horse back to a shorter stride.

The legs

Rub some oil onto your hands. Place the hands together over the ankle, then glide up the front of the calf, around the knee and up over the front of the thigh. Separate your hands at the top of the thigh, reach up to the hip with the outer hand and return down the outside of the leg, using a lighter pressure.

The arms

Rub some oil over your hands. Place the fingertips together over the wrist and slide up the centre of the arm, reaching right up over the shoulder. Then, separate your hands and draw them lightly down the outside of the arm returning to the wrist. Mould your hands closely to the shape of your partner’s muscles and joints.

The back

Oil your hands and position them together at the top of the back, fingertips pointing downward. Glide down over the muscles as far as you can reach, separating your hands over the lower back. Fan out to the side of the body, bringing your hands back up the sides of the ribs and around the shoulder blades to your original position. Stroke lightly off the neck or arms.

Lower back and hips

Rub some oil onto your hands. Place them together in the centre of the lower back, fingertips together. Circle upward, then spread your hands and fan outward over the hips. Slide around the hips and continue the circling motion back up over the buttocks. Return to the lower back, bringing your fingertips together once more.

The calves

Place both hands over the back of the calf, one hand on the side nearest to you, the other on the far side. Push away from you with your near hand, at the same time pulling back toward you with the other. Twist the muscles as your hands cross and continue the stroke up and down the calf.

The thighs

Place both hands on either side of your partner’s thigh, fingers pointing away from you. Push away from you with one hand, drawing back toward you with the other. Continue the movement as the hands cross, ending up again on opposite sides. Wring firmly over the thigh several times.

The arms

Place your hands on opposite sides of the upper arm. Push away with one hand while pulling back with the other. Continue the wringing movement all the way to the wrist, each movement leading into the next. Your strokes will easily cover the width of the arm and will need to be smaller at the wrist.

The back

Position your hands at either side of the lower back. Slide one hand over toward the centre of the back, while pulling the other in the opposite direction. Use a firm pressure to twist the muscles in the middle. Continue the movement until your hands have reached opposite sides. Now, wring slightly further up and continue the movement up toward the shoulders and then back again.

The buttocks

You can knead quite firmly over this soft, muscular area. Lean over your partner. Press into the muscles with your thumb and push away from you as you do so. Then, roll the muscles back toward you with your fingers. Repeat the movement with the other hand, working in a gentle rhythm.

The thighs

Place your hands over the muscles at the back of the thigh. Push away from you with your thumb, rolling the muscles back with your fingers, and continue the movement using your hands alternately. Knead over the thigh, but work only on the muscular areas, avoiding the inner thigh, knee and hip.

The shoulders

Grasp the muscles that run along the top of the shoulder. Press in with your thumb, rolling back toward you with your fingertips. Knead along the shoulder to the neck and back. Again, your movements will have to be quite tight. Squeeze and roll the muscles firmly to ease and loosen any tension.

The abdomen

Lean over your partner. Grasp a roll of flesh at the side of the abdomen, between the rib cage and hip. Press in with your thumb and roll with the fingers alternating the movement with your other hand. Keep the strokes small. Be careful not to dig in too much, or work directly over the abdomen.

The chest

Place your hands over the pectoral muscles. Press in with the thumb and roll back with the fingers. Knead the area with your hands alternately, keeping your movements precise. Do not knead over the nipples, and for a woman, avoid the breasts. Squeeze and lift the muscles for extra release.

Note

Only ever divide plants which are healthy.

After you have carried out a division, aim to move the new plants to a fresh part of the border, switching them round with different kinds of border plants. This is to prevent a build up of pests and diseases.

Most clump-forming perennials should be divided every three to five years as a matter of routine in a rejuvenation process, regardless of whether more plants are needed or not. Neglect in this respect leads to overcrowded, weak-stemmed plants with few and inferior flowers. Provided a reasonable standard of cultivation is maintained, and a few basic rules observed, healthy plants should remain in good condition indefinitely, when divided up at regular intervals.

DIVIDING CLUMP-FORMING HERBACEOUS BORDER AND ROCK PERENNIALS

Plants flowering in early spring are best dealt with in autumn. Otherwise the job can be tackled any time between mid-autumn and early spring, so long as plants are resting and the soil is neither frozen nor over wet.

Systematically working all round the clump, loosen with a garden fork, ease up and lift. Poke soil, small stones and weeds out from amongst the roots with a pointed stick. It is then very easy to pull young plants apart by hand. Just make sure each portion has some healthy roots and strong buds. Trim away any damaged roots and dead leaves before replanting the young, actively growing, outside portions of the clump. Always dispose of worn out pieces from the centre of the clump. And always work quickly so that the roots don’t dry out. Older neglected plants are more difficult to deal with, as very often their roots are well entangled. Using a spade, chop them up into reasonably sized portions, then deal with them as above and they will be easier to cope with next time they are lifted.

The majority of popular border and rock perennials are treated in this manner.

DIVIDING OFF PLANTLETS

Strawberries are increased by removing plandets. Keep up a succession of young plants by pegging down plandets into small pots of potting compost in early summer. Don’t pin down more than four plandets from any one healthy plant. Each stem/runner may carry several plandets: it is the one nearest the parent which is used. Cut off the portion of stem beyond the pegged down plantlet, along with any other surplus runners. Once the young plants are growing freely, they are severed and planted up in fresh ground.

DIVIDING UP NATURALIZED BULBS AND CORMS

Like herbaceous perennials, naturalized daffodils, narcissi, crocus and snowdrops need to be lifted and divided periodically, when they become overcrowded and flowering deteriorates.

In the case of daffodils, narcissi and crocus, gently fork up the clump after the foliage has died down. Separate the bulbs and corms and grade them for size. Put the largest to one side ready for planting in their flowering positions. The smaller ones need to be grown on for a few years, in an out-of-the-way spot, until they have made sufficient size to flower. Either replant the bulbs and corms immediately, giving the flowering-sized ones a bit of fresh ground and a bit more room, or alternatively dry them off and replant in autumn.

Snowdrops are different. Deal with them immediately they have finished flowering and are still carrying plenty of leaf. Split them up; they must be replanted without delay or suggestion of drying. Water in after planting.

Interactive Art Shops

There is a huge range of art museums around the Seattle area, along with interesting shops that showcase magnificent craftsmanship and skill. Art By Fire is a one-of-a-kind petite shop that presents various types of creative and visual artwork. It also provides courses in glass blowing, although it may not be recommended for Seattle tourists who are planning to stay for only a short time. These classes are scheduled weekly for a month, consisting of four-hour long lessons. Aside from glass blowing, Art By Fire also offers bead making courses with the lessons and class schedule being less rigorous yet equally appealing.

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Another shop called Glazed and Amazed has emerged as a top attraction for Seattle tourists due to its remarkable handmade pottery and ceramic sculptures. What’s attractive about this shop is its ability to encourage the audience to move from being spectators to becoming participants. As a visitor you can select any ceramic piece, apply paint as creatively as you please, and let the artists from Glazed and Amazed set your pieces, which you can retrieve in a few days. Make this among your very first stopovers to allow ample time for your own painted ceramic items to be ready. Children and adults alike have called it a unique experience for everyone to remember on their way home.

Museums and Galleries

The Museum of Glass is another impressive gallery just a few minutes’ drive off Seattle. Located in Tacoma, Washington, tourists can see glass being carefully sculpted and shaped in the Hot Shop Amphitheater. This type of alluring visual art evolves into performance art when you watch the glass creators produce magnificent pieces of glass. This is definitely a must-see for all art lovers and art students and will entertain even those just curious about glassmaking.

After glassmaking in Tacoma, why not head off to the Tacoma Art Museum since you’re in town anyway? Dale Chihuly, a renowned glass maker cited for his contributions to the Studio Glass movement, is featured in this museum. You can also enjoy sifting through the various other artworks on exhibit: paintings, sculptures, mixed media, jewelry, or woodblock prints.

Whether you have a keen interest in culture and the arts, are incredibly gifted in producing art, or are simply inspired by seeing and experiencing art, there’s room for you in Seattle. This entrancing city has more than its share of intriguing and impressive art pieces that mark it as a stimulating destination in the art world.

Preventing the Problem

Catch them being pleasant.

When your child is not whining, tell her how much you like being with her. Your attention teaches her the rewards of a positive attitude.

Keep her needs met.

Make sure your child eats, bathes, dresses, sleeps, and gets plenty of hugs on a regular basis, to prevent her from becoming cranky because she’s wet, hungry, overtired, or too upset to tell you her feelings without whining.

Solving the Problem

What to Do

Define whining.

Make sure your child knows exactly what you mean by whining. Then explain how you’d like her to ask for something or tell you what she wants without whining. For example, say, “When you ask nicely, I’ll give you some apple juice. Here’s how I’d like you to ask: ‘Mommy [or Daddy], may I please have some apple juice?’” If your child isn’t talking yet, show her how to indicate what she wants by using actions or gestures. Let her practice requesting things pleasantly at least five times. Make sure you fulfill her request, to prove your point that asking nicely gets results.

Create a “whining place” if necessary.

If your child’s whining continues even after you’ve taught her how to express her wants nicely, let her know that she has the right to have feelings and frustrations that only whining can relieve. Tell her that she can whine as much as she wants, but that she must do it in the winning place, an area designated for whining. Let her know that you’d rather not be around a whiner who can’t tell you what she wants, and when she’s done whining she can come out. Say, “I’m sorry you’re so upset. You can go to the whining place and come back when you’re feeling better.”

Ignore your child s whining.

Because your child’s whining is so nerve-racking, you can easily pay more attention to her when she’s whining than when she’s quiet, even though that attention is not affection. After you’ve put her in the whining chair and given her the go-ahead to get the frustration out of her system, put on headphones or do something else to help yourself ignore the whining until it’s over.

Point out non-whining times

To show your child the vivid contrast between how you react when she does and doesn’t whine, immediately praise her quieting down by saying, “You’re being so pleasant! Let’s go get a toy!” or, “I haven’t heard you whine for the longest time!” or, “Thanks for not whining!”

What Not to Do

Don’t give in to the whining.

If you give your whining child attention by getting upset or giving her what she’s whining for, you’re teaching her that whining is the way to get what she wants.

Don’t whine yourself.

Adult complaining may sound like whining to a child. If you’re doing it, your preschooler may think it’s okay for her. If you’re in a bad mood, don’t get angry with your child because you’re angry with the world. Simply tell her that you’re feeling out of sorts; don’t whine about it.

Don’t get angry with your child.

Don’t get angry with your child because she’s having an “off” day. She’ll not only mistake your outbursts for attention, she’ll feel a sense of power over you because she’s made you mad. She may continue to whine just to show you she’s the boss.

Don’t punish your child for whining.

The old retort “I’ll give you something to really whine about” only creates conflict between you and your child. It tells her that it’s never okay to whine, which makes her feel guilty for having disgruntled feelings. Allow whining with restrictions, because whining may be the only way your child can vent frustrations at the time.

Remember, this won’t last forever.

Your child may be having a bad day or going through a period when nothing seems to please her, so she may spend more time whining until she gets back in sync with her world. Tell yourself, “This too shall pass,” while you try to lift her spirits by praising her good behavior.

Preventing the Problem

Learn how many directions your child can follow at once.

Your preschooler will only be able to remember and follow a certain number of directions, depending on her developmental stage. To find out your child’s limit, give one simple direction, then two, then three. For example, for three directions say, “Please pick up the book, put it on the table, and come sit by me.” If all three are followed in the proper order, you’ll know your child can remember three directions. Identify her limit and wait until she’s older before giving her more complicated directions.

Let your preschooler do as many things by herself as possible.

Because she wants to follow the beat of her own drum and have total control over her life, your preschooler will fight for the chance to make choices. Whenever possible, give her the opportunity to develop her decision-making skills and increase her self-confidence. The more control she feels she has, the less likely she’ll be to reject taking directions from someone else.

Avoid unnecessary rules.

Analyze a rule’s importance before you etch it in stone. Your preschooler needs as much freedom as possible to develop her independence.

Solving the Problem

What to Do

Give simple, clear directions.

Be as specific as possible about what you want your child to do, to make it easier for her to follow your directions. Make suggestions but try not to criticize what she’s done. For example, say, “Please pick up your toys now and put them in the box,” rather than, “Why don’t you ever remember to pick up your toys and put them away on your own?”

Praise following directions.

Reward your child for following your directions by praising her job well done. You can also show her how to appreciate someone’s effort by saying, “Thank you for doing what I asked you to do.”

Use countdown.

Make the rule that your child must start a task by the count of five, for example, to ease her into the idea of leaving her fun for something you want her to do. Say, “Please pick up your toys now. Five-four-three-two-one.” Thank her for starting to clean up so quickly, if she does.

Praise your child’s progress-Be a cheerleader as your child takes steps toward completing your requested task. For example, say, “That’s great the way you’re getting up and starting to put those toys away.”

Use Grandma’s Rule.

Children are more likely to follow directions when they know they can do what they want to do after a task is completed. For example, say, “When you’ve picked up the books, you may turn on the television ” or, “When you’ve washed your hands, we will have lunch.”

Practice following directions.

If your child is not following your directions, find out whether she’s unable or unwilling by walking her through the task. Guide her manually and praise her progress along the way. If you discover she can do the task but simply refuses to do so, say, “I’m sorry you aren’t following directions. Now we have to practice.” Practice five times, then give her the opportunity to follow the directions on her own. If she still refuses, say, “It looks like we need more practice. When you finish practicing, then you may play with your toys.”

What Not to Do

Don’t back down if your child resists.

Say to yourself, “I know my child doesn’t want to do as I say, but I’m more experienced and know what’s best for her. I need to teach her by giving her clear directions so she can eventually do things herself”

Don’t punish your child for not following directions.

Teaching your child how to do something, instead of punishing her for not doing it, avoids damaging her self-esteem and doesn’t put attention on her failure to follow directions.

Lying signals another step toward independence, as fledglings stretch their wings and push away from parental control. So what’s a parent to do? Your job is to understand the flavor of the lie and sell your child on the benefits of telling the truth. Knowing that the truth is important to you will make being honest more important to your child.

Reinforce telling the truth.

Offer praise when you know you’re hearing the truth, whether it’s about something bad that happened or something good. This helps the under-six set begin to understand the difference between what’s true and what’s not.

Tell the truth.

When your preschooler asks for a cookie right before dinner, you might be tempted to say, “We don’t have any cookies,” instead of telling him the truth, which is, “I don’t want you to eat a cookie before dinner.” By lying to him, you’re telling him that it’s okay to lie when he wants to get out of doing something unpleasant. He knows where the cookies are, so don’t pretend he doesn’t. Say, “I know you want a cookie now, but when you’ve eaten your dinner, you can pick one out yourself.”

Learn the flavors of lying.

Lying comes in a variety of flavors. Plain old vanilla is the one we all know so well: lying to stay out of trouble. “I didn’t take the last cookie” is a good example. A more pungent flavor is lying to get out of doing something you don’t want to do. For example, your child might say, “Sure, Mommy, I brushed my teeth” when he hasn’t. And then there’s the ever popular, extra smooth lying that gets whipped up when children try to impress others with comments like, “I have three horses that I get to ride every day. So there!”

Be empathetic.

Understand the flavor of lying your child is using and respond accordingly. For example, when your child tells you that he didn’t mark his bedroom wall with crayons even though you know he did, tell him, “I understand that you don’t want to be punished, but I’m more disappointed that you chose to lie rather than tell the truth. You can always tell me the truth so we can fix the problem together” Your child will feel more comfortable facing the music and telling the truth when he knows you’ll be sensitive to his feelings.

Look for honesty.

Look for people and events that demonstrate honesty and truth. Point these out to your preschooler to reinforce your message that being honest is important.

What to Do

Show how lying hurts.

When your child is caught in a lie, explain to him how it hurts him as well as you. “I’m sorry you chose not to tell the truth. It makes me feel sad that I can’t trust what you say. Let’s work on telling the truth so I can believe what you tell me is true.”

Explain the difference between lying and telling the truth.

Preschoolers don’t always know that what they’re saying is a lie because it might seem like the truth to them. Help your child understand the difference between reality and fantasy by saying, “I know you want your friend to like you, but telling him that you have 101 dalmatians living at your house isn’t truthful. The truth is that you’d like to have all those dogs, but you only have one dog named Molly. She’s a really nice dog, and you love

Help your child accept responsibility.

When you send your son to do a chore such as putting the toys away in his room, he might lie to get out of doing the job by telling you that he already did it. Say, “I’m so glad you did what I asked. I’ll go see what a great job you did.” If your son says, “Oh no, Mommy, not yet,” you can be reasonably sure he’s avoided his responsibility. Check it out! If you discover that he lied, say, “I’m sorry you chose to lie about doing what I asked. I know you didn’t want to put all those toys away and didn’t want me to be disappointed, but doing what I ask and telling the truth are important. Now let’s go get the job done. I’ll watch while you pick up.”

Practice telling the truth.

When your child lies to you, he’s letting you know he needs practice telling the truth. Say, “I’m sorry you didn’t tell me the truth when I asked you if you had turned off the TV. Let’s practice telling the truth. I want you to say, “‘Yes, Mommy, I’ll turn off the TV when this show is over.’ Now let’s try it.”

Play make-believe with your child

To help your child understand the difference between truth and fiction, set aside time for him to make up stories. Then contrast this make-believe time with truth time in which he’s asked to tell the truth about what happened. When your child tells you something you know isn’t true, say, “That’s an interesting make-believe story you just told me. Now tell me a true story about what really happened.”

What Not to Do

Don’t test your child’s honesty.

If you know your child has done something wrong, asking him a question to which you already know the answer forces him into a dilemma: tell the truth and get punished, or lie and maybe get away with it. Don’t make him choose.

Don’t punish.

When you catch your child telling a lie in order to stay out of trouble, don’t punish him for doing so. Instead, teach him how to accept responsibility for making a mistake and to fix the problem it caused. For exam pie, say, “I’m sorry the wall has marks on it. Now we’re going to have to learn about taking care of walls. Let’s get the cleaning stuff and start cleaning. I’ll get the cleaner while you get the paper towels. See? Telling me the truth lets us fix the problem.”

Don’t lie.

Avoid exaggerating or making up stories to impress people, avoid consequences, or get out of doing what you don’t want to do.

Don’t overreact.

Even if you’ve said a hundred times that you can’t stand a liar, going ballistic when your child lies only forces him to avoid telling the truth in order to keep you from being mad.

Don’t label your child a liar

Don’t make lying a self-fulfilling prophecy. A child who’s called a “liar” will believe that what he does is what he is. Your child isn’t what he does. You might not love his behavior, but you’ll always love him unconditionally.

Don’t take lying personally.

Little Danny isn’t telling you an exaggerated version of his morning at daycare just to make you crazy. He may actually believe that the classroom’s pet snake got out of its cage because he was so scared that it would. Listen to his story and tell him, “That’s an interesting story, sweetheart. I’m sure having the snake loose in the room would be really scary. Do you want me to talk to Miss Laura about keeping the snake safely locked up in its cage?”

Advantages of digging

a) Aerates the soil. This enables it to warm up more quickly in spring, and in turn this speeds up plant growth and the breakdown of organic matter.

b) Relieves any soil compaction and improves the percolation of rain and irrigation water.

c) Makes it easier for roots to penetrate down to lower levels. Deep-rooting plants are more able to withstand drought.

d) Creates the ideal opportunity to work in manures. Frequent digging without manuring is bad practice.

e) Enables annual weeds to be buried and the roots of difficult perennial kinds to be removed.

j) Exposes soil pests on the surface, to be eaten by birds.

When to dig

Heavy clay soils are best dug in autumn or winter. Winter rains, winds, frosts and thaws then ‘weather’ the soil to break down the clods ready for spring planting. Never dig clay soil when it is wet and sticky; and on really heavy soils it is often better to ‘dig’ with a fork.

Light sandy soils don’t have the same need for winter weathering and can be dug at almost any time of year. However, winter weed growth can be a problem on these soils, especially in mild areas. For this reason, spring digging on light soils often ensures a cleaner start.

When digging, the aim should always be to allow sufficient time for soils to settle naturally before carrying out final preparations for sowing or planting. Puffy soils make poor seed beds.

How to dig

For normal purposes, digging to the depth of a spade will suffice. Subsequently, rely on taking out deep individual planting pockets for setting out deep-rooting trees, shrubs and hedging. Similarly in the vegetable garden, take out trenches for deep rooting crops like runner beans.

Starting at one end of the plot, take out a trench the full length of the bed, the width and depth of a spade. On the matter of depth be guided by the depth of good topsoil: don’t bring up the inferior subsoil so as to end up by burying the good topsoil. Having taken out the trench, stack the soil to one side. Spread manure or garden compost into the bottom of the trench. Mark out a second trench alongside the first, again making it the width of a spade. Dig out the soil, invert and throw it forward into the first trench. For efficient working, aim to keep the sides of the trench as near to the vertical as possible and the depth of a spade. Manure the second trench and then mark out a third. Continue in like fashion until the end of the bed is reached. Fill the last trench with the soil from the first.

When autumn digging, leave the clods as they fall. The rough surface exposes a greater area to winter weathering. Break down the soil much finer when digging in spring or summer.

If the bed is grass side up, the grass should be skimmed off, inverted in the trench in place of manure or compost and then chopped up. Over the turf sprinkle a handful of general fertilizer like Growmore per m (yd) run of trench. This assists in the decomposition of the turf.

Treat annual weeds like groundsel and chickweed in the same way as the grass: skim them off into the bottom of the trench. However, be thorough in the removal and disposal of the roots of difficult weeds like buttercup, dock, ground elder, couch grass and dandelion. These must not be buried.

Double digging is advisable on all neglected soils, and on compacted soils such as you might find on new building developments. During building operations soil can become over compacted. If this is then simply soiled over with topsoil, without first relieving the compaction, plant roots will find it virtually impossible to make their way down to lower depths.

Double digging is carried out in a similar manner to single digging, but trenches are taken out somewhat wider and the manure is forked into the bottom of the trench each time, down to the depth of the fork. Note For those not used to digging, only attempt a little at a time.

That kind of behavior from your child, perhaps more than any other kind of behavior, says to the world, “I have value. I’m not afraid that by complimenting, ap­plauding, or appreciating someone else I will diminish my own worth.”

The child who knows his or her value can not be deflated is the child who can give attention to another child or share the limelight. The child who knows he or she cannot lose personal value is the one who has the inner strength and power to “bless” others.

You cannot dictate that kind of spontaneous behavior from your child. You can watch for it and applaud it when it happens, however. And, you can help prepare in your child the willingness to respond with praise and compliments for others.

Encourage your child to tell you about some of the good things that others do or say. I recently overheard Dixie talking with her son Blake. “You made a great play in scoring that goal. What do you think were the other outstanding plays of the game?”

Notice that Dixie opened her question with a compli­ment to her own son. She modeled the behavior she hoped her son would adopt.

Blake responded, “Well, Kerry made a great save when he blocked a goal attempt.”

“What did you think of that long pass that Tad made?”

“That’s what set me up! Sam stole the ball, Tad got it, shot it over to me, and wham—into the net!”

Dixie continued, “Next time we see Tad’s mother, let’s tell her you think he did a great job. We don’t need to make a big deal of it. You could say something like, ‘I’m sure glad Tad is on my team. He’s a great passer.’ That will mean a lot to Tad’s mother.”

Notice that Dixie gave Blake something specific to say. She didn’t require that he generate the compli­ment. Another good move!

When Dixie and Blake saw Tad’s mother a few days later, Blake spoke up. “I’m sure glad Tad’s on my team. He’s a great passer!”

Tad’s mother said, “Why, thank you, Blake. I’ll tell Tad. That will mean a lot coming from you, since you’re the team’s top scorer.” Blake beamed.

It won’t be long before Blake will be confident enough to say directly to Tad after a game (perhaps even in front of the entire team). “Great pass, Tad. You really set up that point.”

Avoid linking rewards or future behavior with compli­ments. Don’t promise to reward your child for compli­menting someone. In other words, don’t say, “Go up and tell Jennie what a good job she did, and then I’ll take you out for ice cream.” Don’t link compliments with manipulation. Don’t say, “Tell Daddy what a good job he did making dinner, and maybe he’ll let you go with him bowling after supper.” Let compliments stand for what they are—an act of giving praise and approval from one human being to another.

Value, don’t devalue, compliments. Many people don’t know how to receive a compliment gracefully. Don’t let your child say, “Oh, it was nothing.” Teach your child how to say, “Thank you. I’m glad you liked it.” Or, “Thank you. It makes me feel good to hear that.”

Finally, encourage your child to compliment others by being free with your own compliments of other adults. Model the behavior you want your child to copy. Be generous in applauding others, in calling attention to their successes, and in appreciating their contributions.

If you show that you value your child, he or she will learn to value himself. Teach your child that a sense of self-worth will be strengthened, not diminished, when he or she compliments and shows appreciation to oth­ers.

Preventing the Problem

Clean as you go.

Show your child how to put away her toys immediately after she’s done playing, to limit clutter as she bounces from plaything to plaything. Help her pick up the picking-up habit early in life, to encourage her to be a neater child and, later, a more organized adult.

Show her how to clean up her mess.

Provide appropriately sized boxes and cans in which your child can store her toys and other playthings. Show her how to fit her things inside the containers and where they go when they’re filled. This way she’ll know exactly what you mean when you ask her to put something away or clean something up.

Be as specific as you can.

Instead of asking your child to clean up her room, tell her exactly what you’d like her to do. For example, say, “Let’s put the pegs in the bucket and the blocks in the box.” Make it as simple as possible for your child to follow your instructions.

Provide adequate cleanup supplies.

Don’t expect your child to know what to use to clean up her mess by herself. For example, give her the right cloth to wash off the table. Make sure to praise all her cleanup efforts after you’ve given her the tools of the trade.

Confine messy activities to a safe place.

Avoid potential catastrophes by letting your child play with messy materials (fingerpaints, clay, markers, crayons, and so on) in appropriate places. Don’t expect her to know not to destroy the living-room carpet when you’ve let her fingerpaint in there.

What to Do

Use Grandma’s Rule.

If your child refuses to clean up a mess she’s made, make her fun dependent on doing the job you’ve requested. For example, say, “Yes, I know you don’t want to pick up your blocks. But when you’ve picked them up, then you may go outside to play.” Remember that a child one year old or older can help clean up in small ways. She needs to try her best at whatever level she can, slowly building up to more difficult tasks.

Work together.

Sometimes the cleanup job is too big for a young child’s muscles or hands. Join in the work to encourage sharing and cooperation, two lessons you want your child to learn as a preschooler. Seeing Mom or Dad clean up makes the activity that much more inviting.

Play Beat the-Clock,

When your child is trying to beat the timer, picking up toys is a fun game instead of an arduous task. Join in the fun by saying, “When you’ve picked up the toys before the timer rings, you can take out another toy.” When your child is successful at beating the clock, praise her accomplishment and follow through on your promise.

Praise your child’s cleanup effort.

Encourage your child to clean up after herself by using a powerful motivator – praise! Comment on the great job she’s doing putting away her crayons, for example. Say, “I’m really glad you put that red crayon in the basket. Thanks for helping clean up your room.”

What Not to Do

Don’t expect perfection

Your child hasn’t had much time to practice cleaning up after herself, so don’t expect her job to be perfect. The fact that she’s trying means she’s learning how to do it. She’ll improve over time.

Don’t punish messiness.

Your child cannot yet understand the value of neatness and doesn’t have the physical maturity to stay tidy, so punishing her for being messy will not teach her the cleanup skills she needs to learn.

Don’t expect preschoolers to dress themselves for a mess,

Your child doesn’t understand the value of nice clothing, so provide her with old clothes (and put them on inside out, if you want) before allowing her to play with messy materials.

To be clinically diagnosed as hyperactive, a child must fidget frequently, leave his seat, run or climb excessively, have problems playing quietly, be constandy on the go, or be overly talkative. He blurts out answers before the question is completed, has trouble waiting in lines or taking turns, and interrupts or intrudes on others. Because these behaviors often describe the average preschooler, it’s very difficult to attach the label of hyperactive to a little whirling dervish. Clinical tests must be done for a proper diagnosis, but even these may not be definitive for preschoolers. If you see four of the above symptoms in your child daily for at least six months, a professional trained in diagnosing hyperactivity can help you understand the difference between a “hyper” active child and a hyperactive child, and he or she can help you manage the behavior of both.

Note: Hyperactivity is considered part of a larger disorder commonly referred to as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which comes in three forms: ADHD, predominantly inattentive type; ADHD, predominantly hyperactive/impulsive type; and ADHD, predominantly combined type. All forms of ADHD are difficult to diagnose before children enter formal schooling at about age five, when they’re first required to sit and pay attention for longer periods of time, to work while remaining seated, and to memorize material that they’ll be tested on later.

Preventing the Problem

Suggest quiet activities.

If your child regularly runs instead of walks and screams instead of talks, introduce calm activities to slow his breakneck speed. For example, play a quiet game, read to him, or have a tiptoe-and-whisper time to teach him that slow and calm is a refreshing change of pace.

Watch your own activity level.

Does hyperactivity run in families? Research has shown that when a parent is diagnosed with hyperactivity, it’s highly likely that his or her child will be, too. Look at your own life: Do you ever sit down? Do you talk fast? Is your pace always rushed? If you’re a high-energy, always-on-the-go person whose “hyper” activity doesn’t get in the way of your success and happiness, then your child may simply have your inborn temperament. Since young children are such great imitators, slowing down your activity level will show your preschooler how to savor the moment.

Avoid “hyper” active TV.

When your child is in constant motion, his entertainment shouldn’t be. Wild and crazy television programs model behavior you don’t want him to emulate. Turn off the TV to turn off at least one source of noise and “hyper” activity you don’t need around the house. Instead, play quiet restful music and encourage TV with a softer tone.

Solving the Problem

What to Do

Practice slowing down.

Give your child opportunities to practice walking – not running – from point A to point B. Say, “Show me how to walk from the kitchen to the family room. I know you can do it. When you walk instead of run, you keep yourself safe.” Gradually increase the number of practice walks to a maximum of ten each practice session.

Provide a variety of activities.

Born-to-be-busy children flit like summer houseflies from one activity to another and have trouble staying in one place. Give your “hyper” active child a cafeteria of choices by saying, “You can color on your drawing table, play with clay in the kitchen, or play with your building blocks. I’ll set the timer, and you can do one activity until the timer rings. Then you can choose something else if you want.” Providing many options lets your child fulfill his need to be busy without driving you to distraction.

Exercise

Your high-energy child needs constructive outlets in which to satisfy his need to be on the go. Let him run in the park or in your yard whenever you can, or make sure his preschool or daycare provider gives him some running time. Although it may be tempting to sign him up for the neighborhood sports team that all his buddies are on, beware of starting your preschooler too early in sports that can injure his growing body or cause him to burn out before he’s ten. Young children need the freedom to rev up their newly charged engines without being corralled in an organized, competitive setting.

Teach relaxation.

When your child learns to relax his body, his motor slows down and he feels less frantic. Help him avoid constantly pushing to do more, faster, sooner by keeping your voice soft and soothing, by rubbing his back, and by talking to him about how calm and relaxed his body feels.

Seek help.

If your child’s “hyper” activity endangers his health, alienates others, and jeopardizes his learning, consult a trained professional to determine the cause of his above-average activity level.

What Not to Do

Don’t punish.

When your “hyper” active child accidentally collides with your most precious vase, take a deep breath and say, “I’m sorry you chose to run instead of walk. Now you have to practice walking in the house, so I’ll know you can do it. Then we’ll clean up the mess.” In this way, you reach your ultimate goals of teaching your child to walk instead of run, to respect property, and to be responsible for his actions.

Don’t ground.

Your busy child needs daily opportunities to play in the great outdoors, so grounding him to the house or his room can cause two problems: (1) His “hyper” activity will swell to explosive levels, and (2) he will only learn to be hyper in the house instead of outside.

Don’t rely on medication alone.

Relying on medication alone won’t teach your child self-control. Get a thorough evaluation from a professional experienced in assessing “hyper” active children before you decide what behavioral tools and medication are necessary for your child’s well-being.

Preventing the Problem

Provide toys that are strong enough to be investigated but not destroyed.

It’s natural for preschoolers to try to take apart and put together toys that lend themselves to this kind of activity (as well as ones that don’t). In order to stimulate the kind of creative play you want to encourage, fill your child’s play area with toys he can do something with (like stacking toys, push-button games, and so on) instead of ones that just sit there Bee stuffed animals).

Give him plenty of things to wear and tear.

Provide lots of old clothes and materials for papier-mache, dress-up, painting, or other activities, so your preschooler won’t substitute new or valuable items for his play projects.

Communicate specific rules about caring for and playing with toys.

Young children don’t innately know the value of things or how to play with everything appropriately, so teach them, for example, to use crayons on coloring books instead of newspapers and novels. Say, “Your coloring book is the only thing you can color on with crayons. Nothing else is for crayons.” With regard to other destructive behavior, say, “Books are not for tearing. If you want to tear, ask me and I’ll give you something.” Or, “This wax apple does not come apart and cannot be eaten like a real one. If you’d like to eat an apple, please ask me and I’ll give you one.”

Supervise your child’s play and be consistent.

Don’t confuse your child and make him test the legal waters over and over by letting him destroy something he shouldn’t. He won’t know what to expect and won’t understand when you destroy his fun by reprimanding him for a no-no that was formerly a yes-yes.

Remind him about caring.

Increase your chances of keeping destruction to a minimum by letting your child know when he’s taking wonderful care of his toys. This reminds him of the rule, helps him feel good about himself, and makes him proud of his possessions.

Solving the Problem

What to Do

Overcorrect the mess.

If your child is over two years old, teach him to take care of his things by having him help clean up the messes he makes. For example, if he writes on the wall, he must clean up not only the writing but all the walls in the room. This overcorrection of the problem gives your child a sense of ownership and caring. (It also teaches him how to clean walls!)

Use reprimands.

If your child is under two years old, briefly reprimand him (tell him what he did wrong, why it was wrong, and what he should have done instead) to help him understand why he’s been taken away from his fun.

Put your child in Time Out.

If you’ve given your child a reprimand and he destroys property again, repeat the reprimand and put him in Time Out.

What Not to Do

Don’t overreact.

If your child breaks something, don’t throw a tantrum yourself. Your anger communicates the idea that you care more for your things than your child. Make sure your degree of disappointment over something being destroyed isn’t out of proportion to what happened.

Don’t overly punish.

Just because your child damaged something valuable to you doesn’t give you permission to damage your child. Rather than putting him in jail, put the valuable item away until he’s old enough to understand the value.

Daily posture

The way we use our bodies when off horse affects the way we can use them when on horse. A rider who spends hours a day slouched in an office chair in front of a computer is likely to slouch in the saddle. The core stability muscles needed to hold the body tall and straight will not be developed, so when these muscles are needed to maintain a correct position in the saddle, the rider will struggle. Instead, the rider may adopt a position that they find physically easier in an attempt to be more comfortable. The following describes some of the common problems found in riding.

Leaning too far back or slouching

A rider who slouches usually leans too far back. Their legs will either lie too far forward or behind the correct position. They often hold on to the reins too tightly to help them balance and so lean heavily on the horse’s mouth. Leaning back and throwing your legs forward places the rider’s body weight “behind the vertical,” which makes it difficult for the horse to balance itself.

Leaning too far forward

A rider who leans too far forward places their body weight “in front of the vertical.” This affects the horse’s balance as it needs to move its weight forward onto its shoulders to help carry the rider. This can encourage the horse to lean on the reins and makes it easier for the horse to run off. When leaning forward, the rider’s legs are often positioned too far back, which makes communication from the leg aids less effective.

Knee off the saddle

Often because of lack of muscle development, the rider turns out at the hips. This impacts on the whole leg position as it takes the thigh away from the saddle and turns out the knee and toe. This compromises the rider’s balance and lessens the effect of the leg aids.

Gripping with the knees

In trot, a rider who is not properly aligned will usually be unbalanced by the increased movement from the horse. A common response is to grip with the knees in order to gain some stability. In fact, this makes the rider more unstable as they will be pushing their weight upward rather than allowing it to drop down. Performing rising trot then becomes much more difficult to do.

You will need to ensure that the pupil is as prepared as possible for the lesson:

• Create a routine for starting any activity – the same words, a song, a bell, a clap.
• Make sure that the pupil has all the books and supplies necessary before starting (provide duplicate sets if necessary).
• Make sure that the pupil has had a stretch break before starting an assignment.
• Provide direct supervision as the pupil starts and completes the first sentence/problem, Provide prompts to help him get going – for example, write a question that requires an answer, such as when writing a biography, ‘When was he born?’ ‘Where was he born?’
• Provide an outline rather than a blank piece of paper when starting work.
• Teach the pupil to make his own outline so that he knows exactly what to put on the empty page before he has to think ‘what to write’,
• Use software such as Kidspiration or Inspiration to provide an outline that prompts the pupil to start writing.

If you are working with teenagers, try to include the pupil as a partner in the planning and problem-solving process – i.e. going beyond simply manipulating and controlling the pupil’s behaviour. This may mean giving more support for longer than their peers. Don’t expect miracles!

Periodically, keeping a diary of daily activities for a week or so is more than helpful. Often this is a source of surprises – it not only tells you where your time goes but throws up suggestions about how it might be used more profitably. Priorities have to be selected, especially when the work load becomes over­whelming, as it does from time to time in any busy enterprise. Should you be doing this or that task yourself at all? Costing out your time may show that employing somebody else produces more profit than doing it yourself because you could use your time to earn more than they cost. Remember, employees do not have to be bought whole – part-time workers may be more effective.

Owner-managers are often tempted to hire mirror images of themselves. But that may simply duplicate present personal strengths and weaknesses. It might be smarter to find some­body who is good at the tasks which the owner-manager finds most frustrating or boring. An employee may not only be better at the job than the owner-manager – he may also be cheaper. The object is to free the owner to do things which he or she does best, including planning.

Activities such as dealing with routine telephone inquiries, bookkeeping and other paper work are important but the owner-manager can use time more effectively doing other things. What is important is to ensure that any new job is clearly defined and a good working relationship is built up with the occupant. Informal relations are attractive – ‘we are all friends here’ – and an easy atmosphere is an asset, but a lack of clarity about what people are responsible for is a recipe for trouble.

All the above is doubly important when the time for hiring specialist skills arises, usually as an enterprise grows. This in­variably means the delegation of duties which the owner-manager did previously and a more consultative approach which some owner-managers find difficult to come to terms with. The idea of a management team, which means that others will have a share in decisions, sometimes seems threatening to the owner-manager’s highly valued independence.

This is compounded by the typical specialist’s personal com­mitment pattern. For him, the firm is often just one more step on his career ladder: he has not got his life savings bound up in the enterprise and other jobs in other firms may emerge as more attractive. Equally, the loyal jack of all trades who has frequently been with the firm from its early days and who did part of the job previously, sometimes feels cheated when a new­comer takes over. All these problems can be minimised by care­ful planning. If not, they can be an organisational time bomb blowing up just when the firm is vulnerable because it is going through fundamental change.

As firms grow, relationships with the outside world become more complicated. Banks, local authorities, government depart­ments and perhaps trade unions all begin to take more of an interest. Owner-managers often resent this ‘interference’ but the outside world will not go away. The mark of a successful small enterprise is that its owner-manager recognises that posi­tive strategies are needed to adapt to the outside world rather than simply ignoring it or indulging in an energy-wasting attempt to take all comers on.

One strategy is to find a good accountant – using the resources of the outside world to cope with that same outside world. Good accountants need seeking out. Too many account­ants simply do the books every year regarding their main job as minimising the tax bill. They do not offer any useful and needed additional advice for a growing business. ‘Management accounting’, providing skilled advice and help to augment the firm’s in-house planning and controls, is increasingly being recognised as what accountants should be doing. Younger members of the profession are now being trained and are keen to do just this. They become part of the business – albeit part-time – consultants rather than fillers of tax forms.

There are now many advisory schemes aimed at the small business which provide cheap but valuable advice and other resources for the small firm. In fact, it has been said that there are now so many sources that the average small business owner is entitled to be bewildered. Some are government initiatives, such as the Small Firms Service run by the Department of Employment. Others are a mix of public and private enterprise, such as many of the 300 plus local enterprise agencies now up and running in Britain.

College courses abound, often run on a subsidised basis and at times convenient to the busy owner-manager. Small business clubs are also mushrooming, helping to counter the isolation of so many of those who have set up for themselves. The chance to meet others, to talk, learn and exchange ideas, is far from a waste of time. It can prevent the loss of perspective which arises from over-involvement in a single activity like running a busi­ness and a break from over-preoccupation with your own prob­lems.

In a small business, more so than in any other, ‘management intensity’ and overload are likely. Functions merge into one another, tasks are left uncompleted and short time perspectives dominate. Making room for planning is not a luxury but an essential, if sanity and business are to be preserved. Planning uses time to make more effective use of time and enables the owner-manager to discover how to get more out of life. Run­ning a business should be creative, rewarding and even fun, not a treadmill which deadens the soul and shortens your life.

Establishing a Web Site

A professional Web site can improve your image and enhance communication. If your organization does not already have a Web site, give some serious thought to creating one. Your public might draw unflattering conclusions from the fact that you are not represented in cyberspace. Although you can buy or download software that will help you create a site, remember that your site will form an important part of your corporate image, so it should look professional. Avoid creating a site that could be seen as amateurish. Unless you have the skills in-house, commission a professional Web site designer.

Developing an Integrated Web Site

Web site content is often seen as the domain of the marketing department, making it consumer-and sales-driven. Ensure that your organization’s Web site is also PR-driven. Create an area for the media with press releases, downloadable pictures, and background information. Many journalists look first to the Internet to find out about an organization. Make access easy (and content relevant) for analysts and investors. Help your marketing colleagues see that your Web site can be used to persuade and influence a wide audience. Ensure that your Web site design exploits the interactive nature of the Internet and enables a two-way flow of messages. Listening to your target audience is as important as talking to them.

Writing for the Internet

Reading on-screen is much harder than reading text on paper. Tests have shown that on-screen reading is, in fact, 25 percent slower. Bear this is mind when writing material for your Web site. Use short, uncomplicated sentences. One-third to one-half of a page of A4 paper can be seen on-screen at a time. Make your site more enticing by breaking up text into manageable chunks and by using plenty of bulletpoints. Surfers dislike scrolling through dense screeds of text.

Communicating with Staff

Good PR starts at home. Committed and helpful staffs create a good, image, so regard employees not just as a workforce, but as a principal target audience. Nurture staff commitment through effective employee communication involving genuine dialogue.

Keeping Staff Informed

Use PR techniques to help you achieve a genuine and meaningful relationship with staff. Employees need to know what is going on in their organization and should be kept informed at an early stage of developments that will affect them. Tell employees about new staff, promotions, job opportunities, new products and services, high-profile marketing activity, financial results, and future plans. Effective internal communication is in everyone’s interests.

Creating Real Dialogue

Recognize the benefits of sharing information and create a genuine, open, two-way communication channel between staff and management. Staffs are sometimes sceptical of internal communication because it is often used merely to deliver bad news, such as redundancies. Distrust is understandable if staff receive nothing but company propaganda. Staffs want to hear all news, good and bad, presented in a straightforward and honest way. Ensure that the information flow is two-way. All

team members can provide valuable insights. Encourage them to feed ideas to managers.

Undertaking a Communications Audit

You may be surprised at how staff regard the effectiveness or otherwise of your organization’s internal communication. Find out what your staffs think. Where are the information blockages? Are you telling staff too much or too little? Do they understand and believe the corporate messages? Demonstrate to staff that their views are important. Send out a questionnaire, phrasing questions so that you can identify where the problems are. Act on the findings. Draw up an action plan, share it with staff, then implement it.

Many people are surprised at how physical riding actually is, especially during trot and canter work. The addition of nerves can leave riders feeling even more breathless, particularly when beginning to jump fences. Learning to ride is a gradual process and, if taken at the right pace, the body adapts positively to the demands being made of it. However, there are various exercises that can be carried out that will make the experience much easier.

Cardiovascular fitness

Increasing general aerobic fitness will improve your athleticism and prevent you from tiring so quickly. Exercises such as swimming, cycling and jogging are all useful in building up stamina. Start by introducing at least one of these workouts for half an hour once a week, gradually building up to three half-hour sessions a week over time. This will greatly help to improve your fitness and make you feel much more comfortable during and after riding.

Suppleness and lower-back strength

Lower-back strength is vital. Much of the subtle control seen in advanced riders takes place in this area, so increasing core body strength is of great benefit. Classes in Pilates and yoga are excellent preparation for riding as they stretch muscles and build strength throughout the whole body without adding bulk. In addition, they encourage suppleness in the hip, knee and ankle joints, which aids stability on the horse and improves the shock absorption necessary for jumping. Because supple joints and good upper-body posture are so important, many riders study the Alexander technique. This helps them to sit correctly and dispels postural bad habits that can haunt some established riders for years.

Mental strength

Another important factor in rider fitness is the mental strength required to cope with riding large horses often in stressful situations, such as at competitions or in busy traffic. Horses are enormously sensitive creatures and respond to every tiny movement and emotional reaction produced by their rider. This can work against us when we are nervous but it is also why eventually we are able to ride without seeming to move. Learning relaxation skills and generally building up confidence around different horses will go a long way toward establishing your mental fitness and will continue to make riding a real pleasure.

This is a difficult thing to achieve and involves education. Often, such education initially appears to come from well-motivated and informed parents. However, teachers can find this sort of information from parents difficult to acknowledge or accept professionally. Thus, in-service training can be very useful if given by a professional who understands ADHD, its impact and the difficulties it creates for a child in the classroom, as well as for the teacher, so that these can be better understood and supported.

Because ADHD impacts not only on mainstream classroom teachers but also on the special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs), it is a good idea to make this a joint approach as part of the school’s overall philosophy and as part of a special educational needs policy. Even having this information percolate through to lay staff, such as dinner ladies, giving them an under­standing of how to approach children with ADHD in the unstructured lunch times can make such a difference.

Suggest that staff training be given to all members of the school about ADHD, identifying those children with ADHD and the sort of difficulties they experience. Detail any strategies that are already in place and why they are necessary for a particular child. Encourage support, rather than scepticism. Dispel myths about ADHD and emphasize that it should be recognized as a disability. It is critical that everyone is aware of the child’s needs and follows a defined nurturing, rather than punitive, school policy in their dealings with the child. Offer to be a lead teacher in disseminating information about ADHD with school staff and monitoring the school’s ethos in regard to these children.

Ask all staff to make directions and requests short, dear and direct. Make sure everyone understands that the child will need tasks and directions to be broken down into step-by-step activities. Social interactions need to be monitored and staff must be prepared to intervene before situations escalate.

Ask staff to set small and achievable tasks to give the child with ADHD focus and activity. For example, give the child prefect duties, set him fun ‘challenges’ such as running three laps around the playground, or encourage him to join a lunchtime activity or sports group to keep busy and engaged. Such activities can also help to boost self-esteem.