Diary of a First Child once upon a time meant the diary of a having a first child. Fourteen years have passed, and when I look back over these pages, I realise that it isn’t actually about my children much anymore, but is – and has for a long time – been a trek through my own life, my interests, my work. What started as a place to organise my thoughts without boring my childless friends to death about all things baby, has continued to be a place I organise my thoughts – first around attachment parenting, then around home education, then simply about keeping a roof over our heads, to my work in Outdoor Education and now my journey into therapeutic practice.  The themes of my life have changed since we started this page in 2009, but one thing has stayed the same: This is a space where I organise my thoughts.

I’ve left the information below because it’s our origins, though much of it isn’t current any more.

If you want to get in touch, please do. Otherwise, thanks for reading my musings and following the walk through whatever my brain finds important today.

—————————————————————————————————————

We are Luschka, mama to two girls, known on the blog as Ameli (b.2009) and Aviya (b.2012). We live on the Isle of Wight, and are a home schooling/home educating family. We read a lot, and play a lot. We love to travel, love days out, and love being arty and crafty. The girls love collectibles and You Tube, and Mama dreams of a kitchen big enough for both a table and a dusishwasher.

How did we get here? 

What began initially as a travel blog in 2008 evolved almost by accident into a blow-by-blow diary of my first pregnancy. During one of those blows – a particularly nasty bout of hyperemesis gravidarum that saw me hospitalised for three days – I began to read up on pregnancy and parenting online.

All of a sudden I found my head starting to spin with ideas like home birth, attachment parenting, baby-led weaning and gentle discipline as I soaked up information and knowledge I never even knew existed just months before.

I felt I needed an outlet for everything I was learning, and so Diary of a First Child was born. Over the course of it’s existence, it’s fair to say the site has evolved into more than just an account of my own journey as a parent, but I try to make sure everything I write about – from reviews to recipes – is true to the natural and conscious parenting principles I have come to embrace.I make no secret of the fact that I am still learning myself, and certainly don’t claim to know everything.

Disclaimer

It’s important to note that I am NOT a health care professional, nor particularly qualified in the areas of child care – beyond my own experience – but that everything here is based on experience, research and opinion. Nothing written here should be taken as medical advice.

Get in touch…

PR enquiries: I am happy to review products and cover events, especially but not exclusively, those aimed at enhancing natural parenting and living. For more information, GET IN TOUCH. I receive on average between 50 and 90 emails a week with pitches, review offers and event invitations. I cannot respond to everything personally. If I do not respond, please forgive the apparent rudeness. If I am interested it may still take more than a week for me to get in touch, since I check email late at night, mainly. 

I do not send copy to be checked before posting live unless you want to pay for an advertorial at market rates.   I do not generally accept guest posts, although where relevant to me or my site, I may accept sponsored links.

I love attending events, but with a few exceptions – movies, concerts, entertainment and products I am personally very interested in – I require a £90 transport fee to cover train fare and underground tickets from the Isle of Wight. As I do not receive payment for these types of blog posts, I cannot afford to visit London for every event I am invited to. I entirely understand that there isn’t always budget, but hope you will understand if I cannot attend. Feel free to invite me anyway!

Please be aware that we aim to be WHO compliant, and therefore will not review bottles, infant or toddler formula, pacifiers or other equipment deemed by the WHO to be potentially harmful to a breastfeeding relationship. We do however, support Medela UK.

We do not support any advertising for Nestle, or companies owned or part owned by them, including but not limited to L’Oreal and The Body Shop.

I look forward to hearing from you, and thank you for visiting my blog.

Luschka

*Please note that cookies are enabled for this site.

 

11 Comments

About / Get In Touch

  1. Good Morning Luschka,

    I hope all is well.

    With the summer holidays fast approaching, I wanted to make you aware of Here & Now, the swipe design, geo-based app that allows parents/carers to make the most of their time with the kids by offering the most comprehensive (usual and unusual) list of family activities in the UK.

    Today Here & Now are announcing their new searchable website and android app, making it easily accessible to all. With 78% of parents feel guilty for not spending as much time as they would like with their children and 45% saying they find it difficult thinking of ways to keep their children entertained (Parent Zone); Here & Now provides a quick and simple way to organise your family outings and just in time for the school holidays!

    If this sounds of interest to you and you would like further information or images please do not hesitate to contact me.

    Have a lovely day.

    All the best,

    Nadia

  2. Hi,

    This is Teemu Kapu Toys. We have been developing award winning kids digital toys for years, believing in fun play and clever apps that spark the imagination. Our main motivation has been to encourage creativity in children and find ways to preserve the true nature of play, even in digital age. Besides those ideas, our small team has also always found inspiration from nature. I´m now contacting you to tell about our latest digital toy that combines those things we love: play, creativity and nature. The app is called Kapu Fishing and I’m inquiring your interest to try it out, and maybe even review or write about it (we can provide you free promotional codes for testing, just hit me up and I’ll send them to you!)

    Kapu Fishing is a mobile app available for iOS and Android devices. It invites you to join Mr. Fox and teaches how catch the biggest whoppers in the lake, cruise with your motorboat, build lures, tickle and feed the fox friend and much much more 🙂 In the app, fishing is made easy but as you get more familiar with the rod, the game will also offer challenges and joy of success. Game mechanic relies on easy controls and fluid action. It doesn’t penalize the mistakes and it always encourages to try one more round. With cartoonish laid-back physics and funny, colorful fish, every game feel fresh and always a little bit different.

    Besides fishing, you can explore the nature and try to find the best fishing spots by motorboating around the beautiful lake scenery with islands, summer cottages, lighthouses and so on. On the other hand, our Lure Building mini-game adds a creative aspect to the game. You can customize your own bait by dragging & dropping different hooks, eyes and decoration to the lure, as well as painting it with vivid colors! These customized baits can be used for fishing, attracting different fish, depending on which colors and decorations are in it.

    Kapu Fishing Features:

    – Fishing, building lures and exploring the lake

    – Feeding and tickling your virtual pet friend, mr. Fox.

    – Lovable Kapu characters & original artwork

    – Exclusively composed music played with real instruments

    – No in-app sales or third party advertising

    – No time limits, no rules, always fun

    Kapu Fishing is perfect for children 2-5+ years old.

    Kapu Fishing is available worldwide on the App Store for $1.99: https://itunes.apple.com/app/kapu-fishing/id934880282

    *if you are interested to review the app, we can provide you a promotional code.

    Kapu Fishing is available worldwide on the Google Play store for $1.99: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kaputoys.fishingAndroid

    Kapu Fishing download link for screenshots and app icon: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bxi8goqw82j1dj2/AADIifhri3MSBrHM0O4-B–Ma?dl=0

    About Kapu Toys

    What makes Kapu Toys different from other kids media, is our design process. It starts from physical toys such as wooden blocks or finger painting, from which we try to find the core fun and bring that to mobile devices. Then we take children on a journey of quaint nostalgic illustration and fun play, supporting them in taking their first digital steps in a safe environment by avoiding rising difficulty levels, time limits and high scores. We make sure with our apps, there’s no wrong way to play; everything the kids do will make them work. Kapu Toys are dedicated to bring generations together with a style and characters everyone loves – the original artwork is inspired by the 1950’s children’s books and the works of the legendary illustrators such as Mr. Alain Grée.

    Our Other Releases

    – Kapu Bloom Tunes – a digital toy creating music and paintings for kids aged 0-3+.

    – Kapu Forest – a colorful and fun digital toy for kids aged 1-4+.


    – Kapu Tickle Toy Camera – a surprising camera app for kids aged 0-3+.

    – Kapu Blocks – a highly creative build-it-up-and-tear-it-down app for kids aged 3-6+.

    If you find Kapu Fishing interesting and you would like to review and write about it, we are happy to provide you a promotional code and tell you more about the app.

    Best Regards,

    Teemu Riikonen

    http://www.kaputoys.com
    http://www.facebook.com/kaputoys
    http://www.youtube.com/kaputoys
    http://www.twitter.com/kaputoys

  3. Hi,

    I am keen to know if you offer advertising on your website? I have a client who is looking for text links, banners and sponsored posts to promote a website that fits in well with your site – diaryofafirstchild.com. Please get in touch if you’re interested.

    Many Thanks
    Thomas

  4. Hello,

    My name is Kamry McRae and I am the Marketing Intern for Cloud b, a company that encourages good sleep for parents and children through the use of plush multi-functional toys such as the “Twilight Turtle” or the “Sleep Sheep”. We were wondering if you would possibly be interested in blogging about our product as you seem like a very credible UK Toy blogger. Thank you for your time and consideration.

    Kind Regards,
    Kamry McRae

  5. Hello Diary of a First Child,

    I hope you don’t mind us getting in touch. I really enjoyed reading your blog because you write about so many different things about bring up children. Your blog about breastfeeding really looks deeply into the issue of whether a mother can and whether you should be a donor. I thought you might be the perfect candidate to tell you all about what we do at Box of Frogs Media.

    We are a young start-up, independent digital company based in Brighton, East Sussex, UK. We create beautiful, interactive digital storybooks for children. Our aim is to produce products that allow children to explore, discover, get creative and ultimately love reading.

    We currently have four AppBooks on the iTunes AppStore. ‘Boj – The Collector’ and ‘Musical Mayhem’ were released to accompany the CBeebies show, ‘Boj!’ the books take an interactive lead on the first two episodes aired. The books are narrated by Jason Donovan, who plays Pops in the show.

    Birgitte Berteldatter’s Brilliant Birds and Beasts is a stunning AppBook that takes the reader into a exciting world of fantasy creatures. Read by Sandi Toksvig and created by her sister Jenifer, the book explores Birgitte’s exciting world, introducing children to a world of imaginary (or are they?) birds and beasts. At the end of the book, children have the space to create their own creatures in our creative drawing application.

    The Little Lost Note is the story of a musical note that has lost her sound. She is on a journey to found her missing instrument and her way home. There are interactions on every page as well as musical toys to play as the Little Lost Note meets a piano, a trumpet and a guitar. This was our first publication and includes Nightlight Mode. Tapping the Zzz in the top left corner of the screen dims the screen and changes to audio to be more soothing and calm. The page turns are automatic, interactions are turned off and the whole book reads through twice before shutting the device down.

    Our AppBooks are completely free from in-app purchasing, external links and are trusted by the US certification Moms Trusted program, ‘Know What’s Inside.’

    We’d love to know what you think of our interactive stories and we’re happy to send you a free code for any or all of the books for you to review. We’d be delighted to answer any questions or comments. As a small start-up company we are always interested to hear what people think of our appbooks.

    Best Wishes

    Jade and the Box of Frogs

  6. Dear Luschka,

    I hope this email finds you well, and you had/are having a great bank holiday! Love your blog – great content in your health section!

    We work with some of the leading beauty and health brands in the UK, and I wanted to get in touch today to introduce a couple of new press releases we are working with. The number of children suffering from hay fever increases by 5% every year. Have you heard of the immune support formula Unbeelievable Health Bee Prepared? We have devised a smoothie recipe as a delivery mechanism for the contents of the capsule – we know how difficult it can be to get children to swallow capsules or tablets, and to drink strange tasting concoctions! Bee Prepared also helps with allergies and keeping bugs at bay (on your travels and in nursery or the classroom!), and has helped improve the health of some people with rare conditions including a mother with bronchiectasis and a young daughter with PANDAS.

    Secondly, we are delighted to be working with Anna Victoria Rodgers on her book launch Toxic World Toxic People. It’s a book that exposes the toxins in our environment whilst offering advice on how to bring up your kids better, and cleaner!

    If you think these products are of interest, we’d love to send you press releases, Bee Prepared samples or a pdf of the book to read, please just let me know!

    Look forward to hearing from you soon.

    Best wishes,
    Rebecca

  7. Hi there,

    This is Karen and I’d like to introduce you our new advertising platform SmartyAds (http://smartyads.com) that enables owners of qualified websites sell advertising spots. We are already working with Flat Rate ad model that is easy, safe and beneficial for both Publishers and Advertisers.
    We’d love to help you fill the ad spots and monetize with us. As far as SmartyAds is a newcomer we offer the lowest commission fees. Start monetizing with us is very easy – just place your website on our platform and then cashout!
    Even if you are already working with other ad platform, don’t hesitate to place your website on SmartyAds because we’ll provide you with opportunity to widely observe your ad inventory and more chances to monetize.
    Follow this link to look thorough our website http://smartyads.com. Please let me know if you have any questions and comments by replying to this e-mail. We would love to cooperate with you.

    Kind regards,
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    Sales Manager
    SmartyAds LLP
    e-mail: Karen@smartyasd.com
    Tel: 1(646) 432-0310

  8. Hi Lushka,

    I came across diaryofafirstchild and notice you accept some PR and product/site review type posts

    We are an children’s educational site in the UK that specialises in education resources, games and books, as well as some special needs products. We also run kids craft events which you can view here (http://www.youtube.com/user/juniorscholarsedu)

    We would be interested in working with you regarding a review of our website and Kids events that we run on a regular basis. http://www.juniorscholars.co.uk/events.html

    We would be happy to make a contribution

    I look forward to your response.

    Regards,

    Rob

    social@juniorscholars.co.uk
    http://www.juniorscholars.co.uk

      1. @Luschka, Hi Lushka, That explains your disapearance, Good for you !! I was still thinking about the networking things, the things you like to do..
        Hope you and your daughter are well, and that you are having a great time with you family;
        see you when you are back to the cold… kiss kiss , Isa

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