Starting school or pre-school can be a scary time for both children and parents. To make things easier, Noddy and his Toyland friends have teamed up with child education expert, Jacqueline Harding, to produce a list of their top tips to ensure things run smoothly: • Laugh at life together - as much as possible, as this will help your child develop a sense of humour and resilience in life. Laughter also works well for developing friendships (builds social skills) and it can make you and your child feel more positive about life (builds emotional skills). And what's more... a good laugh makes you feel physically better - pushing oxygen around the body and the brain! • 'Leave 'em wanting more' - this is a great ploy to be applied to any preparation for school, from sharing a book together to learning how to do up buttons. A 'little and often' will work wonders. • Information entering the brain through at least two senses will be stored more securely. So, for example, if you want your child to recognise his/her name before starting school - help them by seeing it, saying it and hearing it. • Establish positive habits and routines in preparation for the routine of school life. For example, your child could start to practice hanging up their coat in the same place everyday, or sitting down at the table for a drink and a piece of fruit and then doing a drawing before watching TV (great preparation for future homework habits). • As far as possible, try to make time for daily exercise in the fresh air, as this is known to improve sleep, learning capacity and, what's more... it has even been known to reduce whinging! Finally, here's a selection of last minute advice to get any young learner off to a flying start: 1. Play 'Simon Says' to help your child learn how to follow instructions. 2. Show your child 5 objects on a tray - then cover them up and secretly remove one. Play a game with your child trying to identify the missing object as this will help to improve memory skills. 3. Read story books to your child and, just before the end, ask them what they think might happen (this is great for encouraging prediction skills). 4. Show your child that you are setting a timer to tell you and them that it is time to stop a play activity - great for helping your child understand that sometimes enjoyable activities have to be interrupted (schools are run on routine!). 5. Try using 'descriptive praise' (telling your child why what they are doing is worthy of praise) - great for helping them to sort out right from wrong. 6. Set a regular bedtime so that your child has sufficient sleep - this is known to boost memory power. 7. Invite potential friends around to play who will be starting school at the same time - it's so good to see a familiar face when starting somewhere new - as we all know! 8. Look at a book or video together about starting school - this might just be the chance your child needs to think it all through and ask you questions. 9. Build those communication skills by playing a game of 'pass the story' where someone starts by making up a story and then passes it to the next person to make up and tell the next bit... and so on (two or more can play). 10. Try offering your child brain boosting foods such as those high in omega 3 which are mainly found in fish, nuts and seeds to get those brain cells firing for the big day. With almost sixty years of adventures to his name, NODDY - who made his literary debut in 1949 - can rightfully claim his place as one of the most popular and enduring children's characters of all time. Young children love to go on adventures with Noddy and his friends on TV, in books and through play. Noddy possesses a childlike gift of curiosity, innocence and energy that makes children adore him. Just like your young child, Noddy experiences a range of feelings, and through his adventures and friendships, Noddy learns about himself, the surrounding world and about other people. The Grown-Ups section is here to help you get the most from Noddy.com so that your little ones can enjoy everything Noddy has to offer. You may have noticed the Watch section is no longer available in the Noddy main navigation. It has been removed to make way for some exciting changes coming soon to Noddy.com. We would like to say a huge thank you to all of you who used the Watch section. We’re committed to constantly improving Noddy.com, so your continued support and feedback means a lot to us. Rest assured that the new site content will be following soon so stay tuned for more Noddy fun for you and your little ones.