Getting Piggy With It! #PigsByKids

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Remember the Natwest Piggies from when we were children?

When a child's bank account was first opened they were given Woody (the baby and incidentally I still have him in the attic!) and for every £25 in the account the children would receive another member of the family. They were designed to encourage children to save, and were much sought after.

Natwest are relaunching the Piggies to encourage children to start saving from a young age. The #PigsByKids competition enables children (13 and younger) to have the chance to make history by designing the new NatWest pig. Entering is simple and requires registering, choosing a pig, designing a pig and creating a story, and then submitting a picture of him or her through the site.

Natwest kindly sent us some craft materials to have a go at making our own piggy bank.

pigsbykids

We started doing one together but my son is a little… independent and decided to make his own instead! What do you think? (And yes I know the saving hole is on the side!)

I think he'd be a great new pig on the shelves of children all over the nation, don't you?

PLEASE NOTE:

  • The competition is open to children up to 13 years old;
  • The winning design wil become the new Natwest pig;
  • Closing date for entries if 12pm on 11th November 2012;
  • Terms & Conditions apply (see website for details)

This is an advertising promotion for Natwest.

We were sent a box of craft goodies to help us make our own piggy bank and advertise the competition.

'Dark Shadows' DVD (Review)

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I'm a sucker for a Johnny Depp film, especially it's a Tim Burton film. By and large, they are (combined with Helena Bonham Carter) a pretty talented trio who can virtually guarantee a film's success. Therefore I'd been hankering after watching Dark Shadows for a while, and when I was sent it to review I was extremely chuffed.

Dark Shadows follows the tale of Barnabus Collins (Depp) who was a Liverpool-born, aristocratic young batchelor in America in the 18th century. His wealthy family had founded Collinstown and they lived in a spectaculorly gothic mansion full of secret tunnels, grandeur and adoring servants. Angelique (one such maid) fell deeply in love with Barnabus following a fling and when he rejected her for his true love, the little witch set about destroying his life, family and fortune, casting a spell causing his beloved's death and him to become a vampire. Once the local town's people heard he was a vampire, he was captured and entombed for just under two centuries deep beneath the ground.

Cut forward to 1972 and the mansion is a shadow of its former self with his remaining descendants trying hard to maintain some form of status quo against the poverty they live in, enforced by Angelique's business which has taken over Barnabus' beloved town. Until one day, when the foundations for a restaurant of the golden arches is being dug, and the workmen discover a box with a blood-thirsty vampire inside. What happens next in the film is a case of vengeance and determination as Barnabus tries to salvage his family's name against the twists and turns of every truly dark Burton film.

There are some surprise appearances in this film, and big names with it. Eva Green, Johnny Lee Miller and Michelle Pfeiffer are main characters throughout, alongside Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter. Eva Green makes for a truly wicked and dastardly witch to Johnny Depp's vampire, Helena Bonham-Carter is… a bit mediocre if I'm honest; I don't really see what her character adds to the film at all. I liked the relationship between Barnabus and his female descendant, Michelle Pfeiffer, and she does a pretty good job in the film. Johnny Depp is good in the film (when is he not?) but he doesn't quite cut it as a blood-sucker for me, I'm too used to him being mischievious or slightly whacky and seeing him as a comedic killer in this vampire comedy just seemed a bit strange. Especially when his appearance in Sweeney Todd actually gave me nightmares.

Dark Shadows is a good film. It's not one of the terrific trio's best, but it's certainly watchable and enjoyable; I will watch it again and I will chuckle and gasp in all the right places because the combined cast and storyline is amusing.

I was sent this DVD for the purpose of this review, my opinion is honest and unbiased.

Country Kids: In The Country Park

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Near us we have a country park that started life as a quarry. During the 1980s it was flooded and turned into a country park and lakes, and is a popular place to visit on a weekend for a stroll around the main lake, a play in the park and a trek through the wooded area.

The recent rainfall meant that the lake was at least a foot higher than it should have been, the surrounding boardwalk was flooded. However, we took some stale bread and fed the ducks while shoo-ing away gulls with the umbrella (like Sean Connery in Indiana Jones). We took The Boy's bike for him to practise, although daddy had forgotten to raise his seat so he struggled a little. That mixed in with ruts in the path meant that he toppled over a few times, even with stabilisers on, but he got back on and continued pedalling away: good lad!

Today brought a new first; showing The Boy how to climb a tree! (As Coombe Mill has pointed out, it was one of the things to do before 11 and ¾!)

I must confess though that I am properly chilled to the bone now, time for me to invest in some thicker trousers (or even long johns?!) for our outdoor play, I think.

—

coombe mill

366 #44

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Less that 60 days left now! Don't anyone think about stopping now, you've done five-sixths of it!

You know the drill, join in with your favourite photograph of the week and show some comment love to everyone else in the community.

  1. Choose your favourite photo from the past week and link it up below.
  2. Please add the badge to your linked-up post so that other people know how to find all the other fabulous entries.
  3. If you can spare five minutes to comment on just a few other entries I know they'd appreciate it!
ShowOff ShowCase



Oreo Cookie Cupcakes

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There are quite a few recipes out there that involve putting a whole Oreo cookie into each cake case, mine doesn't and I think allows for the taste and texture to vary while eating each cake.

There are two specific things that I've added to this standard cake recipe to make it taste delicious; vanilla bean paste and vanilla yoghurt.

Ingredients:

  • 4oz butter
  • 4oz caster sugar
  • 4oz self-raising flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tbsp fat free vanilla yoghurt
  • 1tbsp vanilla bean paste
  • 10 Oreo cookies, chopped roughly
  • icing sugar, soft butter, vanilla bean paste and white chocolate for the buttercream.

Oreo recipes

Method:

  1. Cream the butter and sugar.
  2. Mix in the eggs, adding a little flour if it starts to curdle. Add the remainder of the flour.
  3. Whisk in the yoghurt and vanilla bean paste.
  4. With a spatula or wooden spoon, slowly stir in the chopped Oreo cookies so that they don't break up any smaller.
  5. Spoon into cake cases (this made twelve) and cook on 180 for 15-20 minutes.
  6. Leave on a wire rack to cool.
  7. To make buttercream you'll need double the amount of icing sugar as butter. I also added half a bar of white chocolate and two teaspoons of vanilla bean paste. Add more icing sugar if needed, to stiffen the mixture.

Oreo recipes

I was sent the Nielsen-Massey vanilla bean paste to test. So much easier to use than vanilla beans and more authentic than essence. I thoroughly recommend it. The recipe is my own and unbiased.

Linking up to Foodie Foto Friday

Sponsored Video: Playing And Learning Through Technology

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This may be a sponsored post, but the content is relevant and worth not being dismissed.

Last week I wrote about the role of technology in our children's lives, and the responses that I had to this was fascinating. Most people who commented agreed that our children, those little beings that are barely out of nappies and only just making themselves truly comprehensible, are far more familiar with technology than we were, or even their older siblings were. A few commenters were concerned about children having a balance of play experiences, but that wasn't the point I was trying to make. I wanted to highlight that actually I feel not allowing children to explore and use technology as a tool will hinder them in their future schooling and careers. However, I'm biased because I'm an ICT co-ordinator who is passionate about the use of technology and allowing children to become more independent in their learning.

Education nowadays is completely different to anything most adults (without a child in the school system) can imagine. Schools nowadays, especially in Wales, are all about child-led learning and a teacher's job is to facilitate the child's ability to find out what they want to, and guide them into enquiring about their world if they're not sure how. Gone are the days of 'chalk and talk', but eleven years ago when I started teaching that was standard practise and it makes me shudder to think of children filling pages in their books because 'that's how they learn'. It's not; most children learn experientally.

In last week's RE lesson we used the school's newly purchased tablets. I placed a QR code on each table, with a tablet next to it. The children came in from assembly and were asked to sit at the tables straight away, click on an app and scan the code. It took them straight to a video about an influential Christian which they watched completely engrossed in the message. I drew the children together and we discussed the key points which I listed on the tablet connected to the interactive whiteboard. The children were then split into groups and set the task of researching another influential figure. Twenty minutes later they presented their findings to each other.

Having taught the same lesson two years ago, I can honestly say that those children learnt far more in last week's lesson because they were able to steer their own learning and answer their own questions.

Technology is a valueable tool for learning. Schools across the developed world are realising the importance of it to build the next generation of inquiring minds and independent learners.

This post has been sponsored by Samsung, but all thoughts are my own.

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