Frosty Friends (Review)

by 4 Comments

Last week we went to see my brother and his family in Oxfordshire. They are über healthy and I watched my brother make a smoothie. 'Not particularly impressive,' you're thinking, right? However, I've never made one before for no other reason than I don't know how.

Only now I do and we're going through bananas and strawberries at the rate of knots!

That night when I got home from my brother's, I saw an e-mail asking me if I'd like to review a lollipop maker. They looked cool and funny so I said 'yes' and they arrived earlier this week. I mean who could resist making a lolly that looks like this:

homemade lollipops

We decided to use the smoothie recipe that we've perfected to test out these shaped rubber moulds. The eyes are actually part of the lolly stick and are a really 'cool' addition to the whole concept. Making them was incredibly simple and only took a few hours to freeze. They peeled out of the mould easily, hadn't spilled all over the feezer and tasted delicious. The best bit is that the mould is dishwasher proof!

lollipop maker

The Frosty Friends lolly mould is available for £7.98 from JustMustard.com.

I was sent this product for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

Jelly Jamm (Review)

by 1 Comment

Jelly Jamm Rocks is a new show  which started on Channel 5’s Milkshake! children's segment last week (Wednesday 15th August). Airing at 6.35am, it's aimed at 4-7 year olds and focuses on the comedy antics of the inhabitants of the musical planet Jammbo. The animated episodes explore creativity, music, fun and friendship, identifying some keep aspects of how to be kind to friends and family, and how to make others happy.

The main characters are Bello, Rita, Goomo, Mina and Ongo who have many adventures on their musical and magical planet. From organising a surprise party for the Queen to trying out a bathtub which flies to music, Bello and his friends embark on a series of adventures to discover their inner “Jelly”: the lifeforce of fun and creativity.

We've watched one of the episodes called 'Inner Space' and it was bright, colourful and well animated. It actually reminded me a little of The Magic Roundabout in the antics and movement of the characters.

Jelly Jamm airs every day on Milkshake! at 6.35am.

Viewers can discover more musical adventures at www.jellyjamm.com

Country Kids: Country Wide

by 18 Comments

This weekend has seen us go from one side of England to the other and back again. Aside from the overnighters in hotels, we've been outside all the time and it's been brilliant to take advantage of the beautiful, albeit stiflingly hot, weather.

On Friday night we drove to Reading, where we stayed overnight before heading off to the LolliBop children's festival in Regent's Park, London. It was a blisteringly hot day, and someone decided that black would be a good colour to wear. I think at one point I actually almost passed out as my vision was swimming and my head was light. However, I'm made of sterner stuff and don't do fainting. All I needed was an Oreo cookie milkshake and the sight of Messers Maker and Winters entertaining my son to perk me up. (The pint of water and paracetomal may have helped!)

LolliBop is a great festival and I've never been in Regent's Park before so it was refreshingly beautiful when surrounded by the grey buildings of London. The festival is a riot of colour, sounds and entertainment, and we thoroughly enjoyed everything there. However, we were only too happy to be back on the train heading out of the smoke later that afternoon where we picked up the car and drove to Gloucester where we did another overnighter in a different Premier Inn. This one was fantastic and tranquil, in the middle of a lovely country village with a stereotypically quaint pub attached.

This morning we packed up early and headed off to the Forest of Dean to surprise The Boy with a Thomas Days Out trip. The Boy has recently started a fascination with the little blue engine and we regularly have to sing the theme music. Today was no different once he'd found out what was going on. Seeing his little face break out with sheer delight when Thomas chugged into the station made my heart burst, he had the best time riding on a vintage steam train and meeting Sir Topham Hatt.

To finish the weekend off, we drove up to Puzzlewood near Coleford. It's a stunning small forest that we've been to before and is such a gem to explore. At the time The Boy was only 20 months old and fell asleep while we were walking around, so this time I was very eager to show off the wonders of the mysterious woods (used in Merlin and Doctor Who). He didn't disappoint as he traipsed around the moss and mud-ladened tracks, exploring steep paths, stone steps and searching for The Gruffalo at any opportunity!

And of course the weekend wouldn't be complete without a splash in the paddling pool, right before turning his hand to his first ever spot of car cleaning!

—

Review: Triqo

by 4 Comments

With our decision about The Boy's pre-school provision firmly in place, it's now at the forefront of my mind that I need to make sure his language and mathematical development is up to spec for when he starts Reception class in a year's time. Keeping him in private nursery for just a few sessions a week will ensure he is having the social development along with helping him to learn the routine of sitting down and listening, but I can't guarantee that he will receive the same input as he would in a state nursery (where I know the assessments that take place).

The Boy is good at his shapes, he knows the basics of square, rectangle, circle and triangle and has done for quite some time. Thanks to a few iPad apps he's also able to identify diamonds, semi-circles, crescents, hexagon, pentagon and surprisingly an octagon. It might seem excessive but he can recognise them easily and why not teach him the right names for a shape?

And so it was with that in mind that I was happy to receive the Triqo system for him to try out.

Triqo is a collection of fifty plastic shapes which click together. They come in either a triangle or square form which when combined can create a range of other shapes, and the ten different colours are bright and cheerful. Made of a strong and flexible plastic with a tab on each of the sides; these tabs fold and have two poppers on them which click together with one of the other shapes to build up into a three-dimensional shape.

20120821-002447.jpg

The Boy found it easy enough to click two pieces together (although quite some pressure is needed initially) but did struggle when trying to join them in anything other than a straight line. That ball of triangular pieces in the photo is my handiwork, not his.

However, we played with them for forty-five minutes this morning and he has come back to them several times throughout the day. When Mr. TBaM came in from work he rushed out to show him his cube and 'boicud'. His father looked at him blankly and he tried again, "Cuboid daddy!" So after just one session playing together he's learnt that a cube has square sides and a cuboid is made up of squares and rectangles.

Triqo are made in the Netherlands, and these Scandinavian and Germanic countries get it completely right when it comes to pre-school education. With most children not starting school until the age of six or seven years, they're focus is on learning through play. So of course aside from the educational and mathematical development opportunities, they're great fun for the imagination: houses, pyramids, space rockets, boats!

The Triqo starter pack is available for the very reasonable price of £14.99 from all good toy stores or visit Ark DIY Products.

I was sent this product for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

The Summer Of Sport Just Got Spooky (Review)

by 1 Comment

You would have to be a deep sea diver or an ostrich to not know that this Summer is a massive one for sports in the UK: Andy Murray in the Wimbledon finals started it off and it finishes in a few weeks time with the conclusion of the games which shall not be mentioned. (It's a bit like Voldemort you see, I'm frightened of the coloured rings coming and striking me down!)

The Boy has really got into the swing of things and we had another mini sporting event earlier today, courtesy of Warner Brothers who sent us a sports day package to celebrate the release of Scooby Doo'sAll Star Laff-A-Lympics.

We had great fun racing each other in the running race, and the sack race was something never encountered before as we both almost fell over. The beanbag championship was a far more sedate affair and The Boy just beat me to it!

Scooby Doo's All Star Laff-A-Lympics is a great DVD to continue the sporting enthusiasm this Summer, as Scooby-Doo and friends go to compete in the World Invitational Games. However in typical Scooby fashion a statue comes to life and threatens to spoil the fun and games until all is settled in a typically deductive manner. The reason this is labelled as All-Star is that Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble make a special appearance in it. It's a cracking DVD and great fun. The Boy doesn't particularly like spooky, but I've watched this with his older cousin who adored it.

I was sent this product for the purpose of this post. All opinions are honest and unbiased.