Notification: Week 52 of Project 365

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It's coming to the end of this year's 365 project and I've been left with a conundrum; the year end is actually next Tuesday (31st December). My OCD can't handle the 52 weeks of the linky finishing this weekend and then the next week being #1 again, but with three days of the old year in the round-up.

Also, I've got my in-laws visiting all weekend and I'm going to be chockablock!

I know I'm not going to be the only one busy over the course of the next five days, and so (after a chat with Jenny from Mummy Mishaps about it), I've decided that I'll open #52 of Project 365 linky on the morning of Tuesday 31st December 2013 (at 10 o'clock) until midnight of Wednesday 1st January 2014. My round-up will contain ten days of photos: Sunday 22nd – Tuesday 31st December 2013.

I hope you will join me then to link up your final photographs of the daily project?

The Gift Of Christmas: Food Banks

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As the first day of the school holidays, today is a special day. It's a day of the promise of two weeks together, making and playing, visiting all our old haunts together and enjoying each other's company. Today started early with a visit to the doctor (an appointment I've been waiting for for over a month, and still I got the time wrong!), followed by a breakfast pastry and then a trip to Aldi. Just like every other person in Cardiff.

However, unlike the rest of the shoppers there we weren't stocking up on last minute cheese purchases or yet another bag of crisps, we were buying food for our town's food bank.

Donating was something that I've been intending to do for some time, however news that one of my school's families had been made homeless on Friday made me even more determined. The thought of children I've taught and a family I've known for eight years not having food on Christmas Day breaks my heart. I decided to talk about it with The Boy in the car before we went in and gently explained why we were shopping for other people. He was most aggrieved that a bank could take away someone's house from them and thought it wasn't kind; he completely has a point and maybe those in charge should discuss their practices with children before coldly making decisions based on money.

As soon as we got into the store, he reached for the cereal, then turned to the coffee and tea. We'd talked about how the food needed to be in tins or packets, and actually it's very difficult to shop keeping only that in mind. However £35.oo buys an awful lot of tins and packets of pasta and we had three large reusable shopping bags crammed full.

We've just come home from taking it to the church, and The Boy was fascinated with the process. The warden was keen to explain how the food was stored, and distributed in pre-sorted shopping bags dependent upon if they were single, couples or families. It is humbling to see the mostly empty shelves and the bags already made up for families, shocking to think of the amount of people that will be going without a basic diet this Christmas while we are enjoying the excesses of the season.

We spent £35.00 which is more than I intended to but to be honest it's not that big a dent in the budget at this time of year; one less unnecessary present, no Starbucks this week, and a few chunks of cheese less to end up going off because no-one really likes Wensleydale.

If you're thinking of donating to a food bank, these items are a good starting point:

  • Rice and dried pasta
  • Pasta sauces
  • Baked beans
  • Tinned spaghetti
  • Tinned vegetables (including potatoes)
  • Tinned fruit
  • Coffee and tea bags
  • Sugar
  • Dried milk
  • Gravy or stock cubes
  • Cereal
  • Jam or marmalade
  • Biscuits
  • Apple/orange juice
  • Squash
  • Toilet roll, nappies and sanitary towels.

Most of us in this country are only one step away from the breadline, it only takes a lost job to destroy lives. When you're buying last minute treats this week, can you spare a few tins to donate to your local food bank this Christmas?

The Trussell Trust are a nationwide network of food banks, however there are also many independent food banks running in churches and community centres. Our local one is an independent and I find it comforting to know that our donation is going to people I may know in the community.

Sunday 22nd December 2013

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Sunday 22nd December 2013

We paid our £2.50 to see Father Christmas and queued up outside the room, then went into the inner sanctum with three other children. The Boy patiently waited his turn and then he was up. He took a small step back in awe and disbelief, then ran into the big man's arms where he was engulfed in a huge bearhug. I'll admit that I welled up with the emotion of it. This is his belief at it's peak; that was the man who will come down and deliver his presents, and he got to meet him, to hug him.

Thanks Santa.

—

OneDad3Girls

365 #51

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10 days left! Make the next ten days a complete whirlwind of family time, snap the magic moments for they will be the ones you treasure the most. This time is the hardest to remember to post, but it's the most worthwhile of the whole project, so… keep snapping!

The 365 linky only works because of people linking to it and then contributing their thoughts to others' posts via comments. I can't emphasise this enough, it's the whole point of the linky!

Join in by entering the URL of your favourite photograph of the week (either a 52 or a 365 photo) and show some comment love to everyone else in the community. We've got a Facebook group, and now I've created a collaborative Pinterest board (if you'd like to collaborate, let me know and I'll add you).

  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 a few other entries I know they'd appreciate it!
365



Days 349 – 355 of Project 365

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Days 349-355 of Project 365

349. MONSTER BINGO (… is the phrase that needs to be shouted out by the winner of the latest Orchard Toys game we're reviewing. I love the exuberance on his face here.)

350. Daddy Does Craft (This is not something which happens often in our house, in fact he groaned when I asked him to do this activity, "Homework; yes. Reading; yes. Craft; NO!" However, it was a super easy activity from Toucan Box with idiotproof, foolproof, comprehensive instructions.)

351. Intent (Watching his video message from Father Christmas via the Portable North Pole app, he was enchanted with the whole thing. Every time Father Christmas said his name, he nodded eagerly and smiled.)

352.  Dear Miss… (Making his Christmas cards for his teachers, the effort was immense but he made a super job of it.)

353. Bedtime Reading (New pyjamas and books sent from Marks and Spencer for a bedtime reading project. I love seeing him in old-fashioned pyjamas, he looks so cute!)

354. Hungry (For a few months now we've visited our local nature reserve once a week to feed the swans, our confidence has grown as has their hunger. Yesterday they were starving, and with it a little bit nasty. For the first time, I felt nervous feeding them in the slipway area; one of them hissed at The Boy and flapped his wings, another pecked my hand. We walked up to the boardwalk as they can't manage it and it forces them into the water to have the bread; more controlled you see! Within thirty seconds of us being at the board walk, the 40+ swans had worked out what was going on and swum around to feed on our stale offerings.)

355.  Best Buddies (We ventured to Tredegar House near Newport today to see Father Christmas in his grotto. Normally we go to Cardiff Castle but it was completely sold out weeks in advance, so we decided to try here in their first year as a National Trust property. The Boy was over the moon to see the Big Man himself, and the room was dressed so beautifully! He walked in cautiously, took one look at him and ran at him to give him the biggest, most heartfelt cuddle I've ever seen which was received warmly. Unfortunately the photo is too blurred to share as a 365, but it was a wonderful sight to see. And all for only £2.50.)

—

TheBoyandMe's 365 Linky

10 Top Tips For Beautiful Photographs This Christmas (Infographic)

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Last week we were initiated into a rite of passage for every parent of school-age children; it was The Boy's first Christmas concert.

I honestly didn't hold up much hope for him participating with any part as he had completely frozen during the Harvest festival, able only to stand on stage and try very hard not to cry. It broke my heart watching him trying to be brave, and so I was very nervous for him performing as one of thirty seven stars in the infant school's nativity last week. It transpires that I was far more nervous than him as he took every song and action in his stride. Nothing phased him!

As is usual with these types of performances, there were two showings during the week; we went to the first one and my mum was due to go to the second one two days later. Unfortunately, The Boy was struck with a horrendous cough which made him sound like a seal barking and he couldn't manage the second stint. My poor mum missed her beloved, youngest grandchild performing in his first concert!

Luckily though, help was on hand in the form of the video recording we'd made on our trusty Sony video camera during the first performance. Despite the unintentional enthusiastic efforts of the tallest child in the entire world at preventing us from seeing The Boy singing, we managed to get quite a few shots of him singing his little heart out, performing all the actions and pulling his star headband down over his eyes pretending someone had turned the lights out. That's normal, isn't it?

Nonetheless, my mum didn't miss his performance, she just has to see it virtually. Thank goodness for modern technology capturing the important moments in life. My 365 photo project is all about ensuring that those magic, everyday moments are remembered, and a good camera is the essential tool for snapping that moment.

Just in case anyone wasn't sure, it's Christmas time; possibly the biggest, single event of the entire year for saving those magic moments. It's a time to both freeze a laugh or a precious cuddle in a single photograph, and also to record the hustle and bustle, the squeals of the ridiculous present, the joy of perfectly cooked food being placed on the table. A precious cuddle, a stolen kiss under the mistletoe, a day of happiness.

Cameras are so intuitive that they can be used in a non-intrusive manner to complement our busy lives. Below are some amazing tips for capturing Christmas, quite a few of them I'm going to ensure we use: setting up a tripod with a video camera for the present opening, using the continuous capture setting, photographing food and the table setting. All of these things make a Christmas special and build happy memories.

Top 10 tips to take beautiful Christmas photographs - Infographic
Courtesy of Sony

Sponsored Post

A Message From Santa: Portable North Pole (Review)

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Last Christmas I logged onto Portable North Pole, a video message service enabling Father Christmas to send personalised videos to children. The process was simple and I was able to input a few photographs with details about the event, and these were incorporated into the video to make it truly personal.

This year I was offered a review code for the video and I eagerly accepted as I knew how much he would like it. I sat down to start inputting the information and was met with a few hurdles along the way. First of all (despite being told the contrary) the code I was given was for the basic video, and I paid for the upgrade to the full version as I knew it would make the experience more exciting for him.

The process should be relatively simple; select 'nice' or 'naughty', boy or girl, input name (and check the pronounciation), date of birth, country of residence, etc. So far so good. There then follows a series of options about a target the child may have been asked to meet that year, and there were quite a good range. The next step is to choose what toy the child would like and this is the first problem, under the broad category of 'toys and games' there is the choice of: a certain toy (not customisable), Barbie doll, board game, construction game, doll, figurine, Lego, plush toy, or puzzle.

No car. The Boy wants a car.

It's a fairly innocuous choice of present, but it's not on the list. Therefore his video has the words, 'Wish list: a toy' on it, which I think it fairly poor to be perfectly honest. He's old enough to read those words now and he'll see that Father Christmas has no idea what his present request is, which is odd because one of the photographs I submitted was of him writing a letter to the big man asking for a car…

The next step is the first stage of spending additional money. An extra £2.49 will unlock the 'all the premium options' (additional scene selection, 3 additional pictures, twice as much video (almost 6 minutes), unlimited online views during the Christmas holidays, plus a bonus video from Santa for Christmas Eve). I paid it because I wanted to make his video even more special, but it's the first step of many of being confronted with the option to spend more money.

On the next screen is where the child's photo and one other is entered (if the premium package has been paid for then up to five can be entered). However once you enter the initial two photographs, then the options for what the photos can depict is significantly reduced to only five or so. If I'd known that I'd be having to choose a photo of a pet (we don't have one) or an object (really?) then I wouldn't have paid the £2.49 upgrade.

If you haven't upgraded, then you're prompted again before the confirmation screen with additional parental information. The video is then ready to play, again a range of additional costs appear; for example you can download the video for £4.49 because the website version is only available during the Christmas period (don't forget!).

£4.49.

On top of the £2.49 already paid.

Don't get me wrong, I think the video is a wonderful thing and Father Christmas is so genuine and warm in it that I know The Boy is going to find it magical.

pnp

However, if I purchase the downloadable version on top of the premium cost then I will have spent £6.98 on a six minute video for him. And I've got one child. If I had more than one, it's going to start getting costly pretty quickly. Added to this, the iPad app with a range of games and access to the video is £2.49. There is also an iPhone app, which is the one that I accidentally downloaded onto the iPad.

So far we're looking at:

  • £2.49 for the premium video (a more customisable video)
  • £4.49 for the downloadable version
  • £2.49 for the iPad or iPhone app.

Is it just me that thinks this is wrong? There is something so intrinsically wrong about charging so very much for a simple message from Father Christmas for your child.

But of course parents do it because they feel they have to in order to feed the magic of the season.

I chose to pay for this product, however I wanted to write an honest review to show parents what to expect when visiting the site.

—

Addendum:

I didn't need to download the iPad version of the app as the iPhone app worked perfectly well on the iPad. And downloading that has made paying for the upgrade worthwhile. When I installed the app I was given 5 credits which could be used in various ways. One of these ways was to download the video onto the iPad, downloading it via the laptop would have cost £4.49 however it was easily done onto the £2.49 iPad app. Bizarrely, when I started the download onto the iPad, it enabled it on the laptop without needing to pay the additional £4.49!  In addition to this, there are a few other videos (birthday and Christmas Eve messages) which can be downloaded onto the iPad app, and there are games and an advent calendar. It's also possible to spend the credits on a 'telephone call' from Santa!

The Boy has watched the video several times a day, every day since I did the message for him. In the future I will happily pay for the premium upgrade (£2.99) and the iPad app (£2.49) but forgo downloading the HD version on the laptop because I don't think it's needed when you have the others.

Orchard Toys: Monster Bingo (Review)

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One of the first games I reviewed with Orchard Toys was Red Dog, Blue Dog which is a simple bingo game for 2-5 year old children. It was a great introduction to colours and really helped to consolidate the skill of recognising and matching shapes and colours. The Boy still loves playing with it, but as he's now reaching the upper age group for it I felt that he needed another level of bingo, something that would challenge him a little more.

Orchard Toys sent me the next step up to try out with him; Monster Bingo. This is a shape and colour matching bingo game with the appealing aspect of the shapes designed as friendly monsters.

The game comprises of:

  • 4 double sided bingo boards, each with 16 spaces
  • a colour dice and a shape dice
  • 36 coloured shape cards
  • 64 slime cards

Orchard Toys Monster Bingo

There are two ways to play this game;

  1. For younger players:
    1. Each player chooses a board, the colour shape cards are placed face down on the table and the slime cards are placed within each reach of the players.
    2. Players take it in turns to turn over a colour shape card and everyone checks to see if it matches on their own board, covering it with a slime card if it does. The colour shape card it left on the table face up (to show it's already been played; we actually placed these to the side so as not to confuse matters).
    3. The winner is the first person to get four in a row, either horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
  2. For older players:
    1. Each players chooses a board, the colour shape cards are placed face up on the table so they can be seen (we actually placed them in a grid so all the same colour cards went along a column, and all the same shapes cards went along a row; it made it easier to locate them), the slime cards are left in a pile in easy reach of all players.
    2. Each player takes it in turn to roll the two dice and locate the right card (matching it to the dice) and then everyone can cover it on their board if they have it.
    3. Again the winner is the first person to get four in a row, as above.

The first style of game was more straightforward for The Boy to play, it also had the element of surprise from turning the cards over and not knowing what would be picked up. This way could be used to extend the game by each player having to wait their turn before they can place a slime card on their board, it would bring in the element of a memory game then.

The second style of game was more of a challenge for The Boy, and it lasted slightly longer as well. We all enjoyed playing this one, and it was a good learning opportunity. My husband and I were bantering about his pronounciation of the word 'diamond' and The Boy interjected to tell us it could also be called a rhombus and that it was his turn!

Of course at the end of the game, the winner must shout 'Monster Bingo' in true bingo style, with as much enthusiasm as they can muster!

Orchard Toys Monster Bingo

As usual, Orchard Toys publishes an educational guide to show the learning potential of their products. Monster Bingo is good for:

  • developing colour and shape matching skills (mathematical development);
  • encouraging social interaction;
  • developing observational skills (pre-reading development);
  • links with Early Learning Goals.

Monster Bingo is available from Orchard Toys and all good high-street toy shops for £9.50.

We were sent this product for the purpose of this review, my opinion is honest and unbiased.

365 #50

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The 365 linky only works because of people linking to it and then contributing their thoughts to others' posts via comments. I can't emphasise this enough, it's the whole point of the linky!

Join in by entering the URL of your favourite photograph of the week (either a 52 or a 365 photo) and show some comment love to everyone else in the community. We've got a Facebook group, and now I've created a collaborative Pinterest board (if you'd like to collaborate, let me know and I'll add you).

  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 a few other entries I know they'd appreciate it!
365



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