Online Help For Parents Like You and Me! (raisingkids.co.uk)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	raisingkids.co.uk
Date:	12/02/06 (168 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Extensive, sound advice, chat forums

Disadvantages: Would be nice to access experts more frequently

***Introduction***
If there’s one advantage of longevity on sites like this, it’s that you get to reminisce about old opinions you’ve become very fond of. One of my favourites (even if it was my own work) was a piece I wrote about parenting being the best but hardest job in the world. I originally wrote that back in May 2002 (Hell fire!) and as part of it, I recall referring to online forums where parents could meet up and talk about the multitude of issues that crop up with children. Since then, I’ve stumbled upon a really excellent resource for parents that I’d like to overview in case anyone fancies giving it ago. There really are people out there going through the same stuff as us, y’know.

Raisingkids.co.uk was established in February 2001 and was founded by Dr Spungin, a senior lecturer in child psychology and mother to three children. RK is a site that offers comprehensive help and support for parents through a number of different ways including advice from professionals, threaded discussion forums and regular news updates.

***Main Portal***
Joining is free although you have to register a few more details than some sites. Raisingkids.co.uk require a username and password, personal details including name/address/date of birth and gender/children’s details including respective dates of birth and an option to sign up for the weekly newsletter. Having agreed to their terms and conditions by checking the box, you’ll get the customary activation e-mail.

The home page is a colourful affair with a mix of pastel purple and yellow although a white background dominates the page. Whilst the usual template of main body flanked by material down the left and right hand sides is in operation, the features are in a boxed format which is a departure from the more common underlined links that you get with most portals. This gives the effect of less is more on the home page and gives it a less cluttered feel than some other sites. The site owners are keen to portray an informal feel through use of softer colours and simplistic language and they do manage just that.

Apart from the corporate logo along the top, there is a search option for the site together with clickable links to the toddler pages as well as an option to make the site your default page when you log on (if you did want to change your default page then just go into settings > control panel > internet options > Home Page and you can set any page up you like!).

Down the left, the options are: About RK/Join For Free/Head Lice and Baby Blog whilst on the right you can opt for either competitions or a link to the latest subjects being discussed in the forums. In the centre, more topical issues are featured including news items and hot topics like the safety of the Internet for children. At the bottom is a plethora of links in the form of bullet points which is an unusual format for a main portal.

***Performance and Metrics***
The main portal steers clear of anything exotic like Java applets and JavaScript so with mainly text as well as some clickable GIF images there is no issue with loading up. It’s always nice to see a scrolling marquee banner being used along with a timed sequence (using SWISH software or something similar, I should imagine), top right-hand corner that draws the visitor’s eyes to the toddler’s pages.

There is a “New Here” page to welcome visitors and give them an overview of how the site works. With a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), a guide to navigation and a personal profile facility, the site has been well thought through in its construction and design. Navigation is simple enough with lots of multiple options to get where you wanna go. The overall impact is low key with little in the way of the more flashy features that some sites have but this appears deliberate to support the low key approach mentioned earlier.

***My experience***
First of all, I must make clear that this site covers a very broad range of children’s issues. When I say broad, I mean everything from pre-birth too teenage and beyond so whatever your situation, you should find something that you can refer to on the site. I originally started off using the site for its competitions. In fact, I’m sure that’s how I came across it in the first place a few years ago i.e. a link from a competition site. The prizes aren’t life changing and usually consist of a children’s video/dvd or something similar but as my kids devour such things at a rate of knots then I always enter just on the off chance I might win.

Having joined up, I did start to read up on some of the articles and pop in on the forums to see what was being discussed. The site has a panel of experts that you can access via archived answers to common questions. The experts cover topics ranging from learning difficulties to nutritional issues to questions of dental hygiene. Of particular interest to me was the section on learning difficulties as we have had issues with my lad for years as he has acute dyslexia and mild dyspraxia. The resident expert in this case is Kate Nayler who works as an educational consultant. A brief, online resume tells us that after teaching in London and Hong Kong she moved to Lancashire where she spent 11 years working with children statemented for specific learning difficulties (Dyslexia), emotional and behavioural difficulties, and speech and language difficulties in primary and secondary schools. She went on to set up The Dyslexia Clinic in 2002 and subsequently developed BoosterBooks, a new approach to helping children who struggle with reading, writing and spelling. Qualified as a Chartered Educational Psychologist and a specialist literacy teacher, she currently trains parents and teachers to use a new approach to literacy learning. kate Nayler is typical of the standard of the experts on site. Pretty good, eh?

The advice given through the archived answers is excellent covering issues like what to do when your child is diagnosed with dyslexia, what to do if you child is being bullied and so on. For the record, we have gone through all the hoops to obtain a statement of educational needs ourselves for my son and it can be a daunting process so any advice and help like this can prove invaluable.

***Other Useful Features***
Whilst I’m not a great fan of celeb-dom, it is always mildly interesting to see what high profile parents are up to. Katie Price a.k.a Jordan gets featured on the main page at the moment. This is an extract from an interview she did with OK magazine about post-natal depression. Perhaps, a little more interesting is the move to get Dr Robert Winston onto the site to answer questions online via one of the forums (no offence Katie!).

There are plenty of links to help with medical conditions so if you have a reasonable grasp of the symptoms assuming the kids are ill, you should be able to find an entry to cover it from one of the numerous family GPs on site. Of course, if any doubt then don't hesitate to use the NHS Direct telephone service, your local GP or take your child straight to hospital!

The forums themselves cover a wide range of topics and are accessed by parents mainly from Britain although I noticed a few threads led by or participated in by parents from the U.S. I do find the subjects discussed interesting in the most part but refrain from contributing myself simply due to time constraints (as I seem to feature on so many other sites these days!).

***Drawbacks***
If you are desperate to have an in-depth conversation with one of the experts then this is unlikely as the site declares that they can only answer a few questions each month. By using the archived answers section or typing a keyword search, you may be able to resolve the issue but this probably won’t be as good as actually talking to someone. Ditto re the alternative offered of talking to other parents instead. That interaction will only be as good as the person you are speaking to and all the limitations of an online forum will apply if you do decide to opt for this route.

***Summary***
I’ve been using this site for a few years now and it really is a brilliant free resource. You get access to qualified, professional opinion, a chance to talk to like-minded parents and can even win the odd competition if you are lucky (unlike me). The breadth of topics covered is second to none so if your little one has head-lice, you suffer from a severe case of sibling rivalry or you are starting to experience all of the problems associated with teenagers (*ahem* my daughter is 13!) then you should find something on the site that will help. I can only give the site my heartiest recommendation and suggest you try it and see for yourself!

Thanks for reading.

Marandina

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