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Families Birmingham Magazine

FREE magazine for parents/carers of 0-12s in Birmingham, Solihull & Sutton Coldfield Check out our website www.familiesbirmingham.co.uk

More than 25,000 magazines are distributed each issue direct to parents at nurseries and via school bookbags, They are also available to pick up at selected venues with a high footfall of families, for example children’s play areas, leisure centres and some libraries and GP surgeries. Areas covered include Quinton, Edgbaston, Harborne, Moseley, Kings Heath, Selly Oak, Bournville, Kings Norton, Nor

thfield, Longbridge, Wythall, Sheldon, Yardley, Shirley, Solihull, Knowle, Bentley Heath, Hockley Heath, Tidbury Green, Chelmsley Wood, Sutton Coldfield Four Oaks, Mere Green, Walmley, Great Barr, Erdington and Handsworth.

21/08/2025

It seems like the kids eat more outdoors and mealtimes are way more fun.

🌮🍓🌳🍦🌱

So, lets make the most of the sunshine...🌞🌻🕶👋

Families Magazine has 5⃣ family friendly picnic themes to inspire you.

4. A Garden Games Picnic at Home

Location: Your own garden or a safe shared green space.

Food ideas: Cheese and pineapple sticks, sausage rolls, homemade cupcakes, fruit juice ice lollies.

Activity: Sack race, egg-and-spoon race, water balloon toss.

For more ideas go to Families UK

🍉

20/08/2025

🌞🌻🕶👋 Let's make the most of the Summer!

Aesthetic Picnics aren't just for Gen Z.

Families Magazine has 5⃣ picnic themes that are fun for children. 🌮🍓

Here's number 3: A Woodland Adventure Picnic 🌲🌳🎋🐞

Location: National Trust woodland areas (e.g., Sherwood Forest, Ashridge Estate).

Food ideas: Pitta bread pockets, trail mix, apple slices with dip, reusable pots of jelly.

Activity: Mini scavenger hunt for leaves, pinecones, and feathers; bug spotting with magnifying glasses.

🍉

19/08/2025

Feels like the Summer is flying by!! 🌞🌻🕶👋🕶🌻

Want to make the most of the rest of it?

Families Magazine has 5⃣ ways to make eating outdoors extra fun.🍦🌮🍓

Here's number 2:

Seaside Sandwich & Sandcastle Day 😎☀️🐚🍥⛱

Location: Family-friendly beaches like Bournemouth, Scarborough, or Whitby.

Food ideas: Pre-wrapped sandwiches, reusable tubs of crisps, flapjacks, chilled water bottles.

Activity: Sandcastle competition, pebble painting, rockpool exploration.

🏰

18/08/2025

Hunting around for some low key ways to keep the kids happy for the last weeks of the Summer?

Families Magazine has five summer picnic ideas for children that mix fun, food, and activities:

🌞🌻🌳🌳🧸🧸 This first one is perfect for the littlest.

1. Teddy Bears’ Picnic in the Park

Location: Local green space with plenty of shade

Food ideas: Mini sandwiches (cheese, cucumber, ham), fairy cakes, fruit skewers, juice cartons.

Activity: Everyone brings a teddy bear, sings songs, and has a “bear hunt” nature walk.

🐻 🐻 🐻

14/08/2025

🍼👼🏻✏️

At around six to nine months, symmetric tonic reflex (STNR) emerges to help the baby get on their hands and knees to crawl. Babies need to co-ordinate how they support and move their head with how they organise their upper and lower limbs to move and look at their surroundings.

At this time, the baby also develops the skills needed to use both eyes together (binocular vision) so that they can focus them when moving. Which makes the STNR reflex essential not just for crawling, but also for developing the eyes to deal with near and distance vision and how to focus on moving objects.

The eyes need to converge towards the nose to track a ball that is coming towards them. Eyes diverge when the ball is thrown away from the body. Each eye needs to move in a well-coordinated yet partnered team effort, known as binocular vision. Binocular vision and convergence are needed to work well in children for reading and writing.

If the STNR reflex is not properly developed as a child, it means they will continue to struggle with hand-eye co-ordination later in life.

Usha Patel is a Neurocognitive Therapist at Raviv Practice London.

For more information about your child's important development milestones, pick up the latest issue of Families Magazine.

13/08/2025

😎🌻🌞🌅
What a joy to actually talk to each other and do things together that don’t involve texting and messaging, tapping and swiping!

Liat Hughes Joshi, a parenting expert and author of How to Unplug Your Child (published with ) has passed along some of her top tips to Families Magazine.

Here are some unplugged go-to activities for you to connect as a family this summer.

A breezy day (wind speeds of five to twenty five mph) is optimal.

Find an exposed hill or a breezy beach, run along and let your kite soar.

If you don’t own a kite, it’s possible to make one with sticks or straws, plastic bags and string, although don’t bank on it lasting the duration. If you can find a kite-flying event even better – they can be quite a spectacle.

❤️😊

12/08/2025

FROM CRAWL TO BALL

How do the eyes adapt to catch a moving target?

At around six to nine months, symmetric tonic reflex (STNR) emerges and is integrated by nine to eleven months. The purpose of this reflex is to help the baby get on their hands and knees to crawl. To get it right, babies need to co-ordinate how they support and move their head with how they organise their upper and lower limbs to move and look at their surroundings.

With the head supported and balanced, they are ready to crawl. At this time, the baby also develops the skills needed to use both eyes together (binocular vision) so that they can focus them when moving. Which makes the STNR reflex essential not just for crawling, but also for developing the eyes to deal with near and distance vision and how to focus on moving objects.

The eyes need to converge towards the nose to track a ball that is coming towards them. Eyes diverge when the ball is thrown away from the body. Each eye needs to move in a well-coordinated yet partnered team effort, known as binocular vision. Binocular vision and convergence are needed to work well in children for catching and throwing.

If the STNR reflex is not properly developed as a child, it means they will continue to struggle with hand-eye co-ordination later in life.

Usha Patel is a Neurocognitive Therapist at Raviv Practice London. For more information about your child's important development milestones, pick up the latest issue of Families Magazine.

11/08/2025

🌞🌻🕶

Looking for reasons to switch off the wifi this summer?

Families Magazine has been inspired by Liat Hughes Joshi, a parenting expert and author. Her new book How to Unplug Your Child (Summersdale) is out now.

Our latest issue features a few of her ideas.

Here's number 4 on our list.

Trail about town

Write clues and riddles about the local area, culminating in a mystery destination such as a café or ice cream parlour. Two teams could battle it out to get to the final meeting point. You could draft in local shopkeepers or neighbours who you know well to have clues hidden in their shop or front gardens. This approach can also work well to liven up sightseeing on holidays or days out.
What you’ll need: The imagination to come up with the clues! An accompanying adult for each team where participants aren’t old enough to be out alone.

Head Families UK for more ways to unplug.

06/08/2025

Sand sculpting

Who says you have to stick with building castles at the beach? The trick to making sand sculptures – be they of animals, letters, cars – is to mix in a lot of water with the sand, creating a muddy consistency. Start off with more basic creations and work up.

Look online for ideas before you leave and even older cynics will be heading for the beach before you can say ‘don’t forget the sunscreen’.

What you’ll need: A trip to the beach (or a sandpit for smaller creations at home). Buckets (for water as well as sand). A variety of cups, tubs, etc, plus tools e.g. spade, knives, spoons, spatula...

05/08/2025

Garden camping ⛺

All the upsides of camping (the fresh air, the novelty) minus the communal bathrooms and forgetting to take the tent pegs.

An evening toasting marshmallows on a campfire or barbecue and telling stories by torchlight beats screens anyday (hide them and turn off your router if necessary).

What you’ll need: A garden. If you don’t have one, persuade the grandparents or some friends to host. Camping gear – buy second-hand or borrow to keep costs down.

04/08/2025

DOES BIRMINGHAM HAVE ENOUGH PLAYGROUNDS? 🧐🧐 CHECK OUT THE SURVEY RESULTS FOR THE UK>>

National Playday in the UK falls on August 6th in 2025- a campaign that highlights the importance of play in children’s lives.

It began in 1987 to alert people locally to the potential loss of children’s play services.

Research carried out by the University of Sheffield showed that with the exception of London, deprived settlements in England tend to have fewer, smaller and further-away playgrounds.

In London however, relationships were found to be the opposite, with deprived areas tending to have more playgrounds in close proximity.

Playday is coordinated by Play England, in partnership with Play Wales, Play Scotland and PlayBoard Northern Ireland.

🇬🇧

31/07/2025

Invisible ink messages

What you need: half a lemon, paper and a thin paintbrush or cotton bud.

Challenge: squeeze half a lemon into a small bowl. Use the paintbrush or cotton bud to write your message or picture with the lemon juice. Leave for around an hour to dry. Use a heat source such a hair dryer to heat the paper and reveal the message.
Make the activity more enjoyable by designing a treasure map and let the children enjoy finding it.

What kids will learn: it may seem like magic to children, but it’s simple chemistry. Lemon juice is an acid but also contains water and sugar. Its normally clear in colour so we don’t see it, but when it is heated, the sugars in the lemon have a chemical reaction and turn brown.

For more great ideas to keep them happy over the summer holidays head to Families UK

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Our Story

Hi, I’m Suzanne, editor of Families Birmingham Magazine, the number 1 resource for parents and carers in the Birmingham, Solihull and Sutton Coldfield areas. Families Birmingham is a bi-monthly local and social print magazine with a readership of 48,000. You’ll find every issue packed full of ideas for things to do and places to go in and around the West Midlands. Copies go home via school bookbags, or are picked up at nurseries. They can also be found at carefully selected venues with a high footfall of families, for example children’s softplay areas, trampoline parks, leisure centres, libraries, GP surgeries, museums, art galleries, etc. Areas covered include Quinton, Edgbaston, Harborne, Moseley, Kings Heath, Selly Oak, Bournville, Kings Norton, Northfield, Longbridge, Sheldon, Yardley, Shirley, Solihull, Knowle, Bentley Heath, Hockley Heath, Tidbury Green, Chelmsley Wood, Sutton Coldfield Four Oaks, Mere Green, Walmley, Great Barr, Erdington and Handsworth.

Check out our website www.familiesbirmingham.co.uk