Wild Science for girls

Back in March we reviewed the Wild Science Rocketball kit, which we loved, and now we have been sent the Wild Science face mask kit to take a look at.

Just like the Rocketball kit the Face mask kits aim is to encourage children to have an interest in science by making the experiments fun and easy to understand.

The FaceMask kit is brilliant for tween girls who love to get creative and enjoy pampering, this kit contains everything you need in order to make several face masks, all the ingredients are the same as what top brands use and the instruction booklet gives you clear easy to follow instructions and incorporates some great advice about looking after your skin and why and how it changes.

The attitude in the booklet is great very upbeat and reinforces the fact that its not about being beautiful but more about learning and having fun. There is plenty of ingredients to mix up several face masks, also included in the kit is a workstation for storing all the ingredients, rubber gloves and even 'use by' labels for you to use to remind you when you made your face masks, perfume and colour dye to customise them too.

Chloe loved mixing up her own masks and applying them to me and her friends, and the perfume made them smell lovely and they really did work leaving your skin feeling soft and clean.

We have had this kit out several times and there is still some left for more clensing treaments, priced at £12.99 I think this is a really good value for money kit.

So if you are looking for a perfect gift for someone this Christmas then be sure to look at the Wild Science range, there are loads of kits to choose from so you're sure to find one to spark the imagination of your budding scientist! To see the fab range look at the Wild science website

Reasons to be Cheerful

I have been abit slack with my blogging for a while, only really doing reviews and the much debated sponsored posts, and although there's all sort of things I want to blog about I just never really get them down, and I find myself sitting staring into the new post box blankly.

So to give me abit of a boost, I'm joining in the lovely Michelle, Mummy from the hearts, reasons to be cheerful linky, I often read through the posts and always mean to join in, so here I am joining in!

This week has been cold, rainy and hectic, there has been some personal family problems and it is all too easy to fall into a gloomy place, but you know there are lots of simply things to remember to keep us smiling so here we go.

1) I joined my eldest two at school for a dine with us meal on Wednesday, it was great to see them in the middle of the day and they were so pleased I'd come along, sitting eating with them at school chatting over the school table really made me smile!

2) My eldest came home with a respect award, for hard work in maths, always makes me so very happy to hear that he is doing his best at school, I know how much he struggles and I know his grades may not ever be top of the class but as long as his attitude and effort stay on par then I will always be extremely proud of him.

3) My youngest has been going to school with no fuss and coming home happy, he seems to have settled into year 1 well, a fairly big change from the easy going foundation stage and I'm proud of his ability to adapt to his new class.

4) The food shopping has been done for the week, there is food in the cupboards and I have a home made lasagna ready to be cooked for tea tonight!

What are your reasons to be cheerful? Why not pop over to Mummy from the hearts blog and see what has been making others smile!

Cravendales EpicStraws!

We love milk in this house, we drink loads of it, the children ask for it rather than pop, so when we were emailed from Britmums asking if we would like to be sent some Epic Straws from Cravendale to have a look at we were all mega excited, after all there isn't a more fun way to drink than through a straw is there, and what is more fun than an EPIC straw?!

We were sent two packs to have a look at and asked to build our most epic straw with them!

The packs have several plastic pieces to help you build up a rather fun and funky straw, there are instructions included to help you design your straw, but you can of course use the pipe sections to make your own weird and wonderful creations.

We initially followed the instructions and built the straws, then we got creative and added the two packs together to make the biggest most epic straws of them all incorporating the odd building block for additional support!

With a check that all bits were air tight the children were thrilled that they could put their master piece into action watching as the milk flowed through the loops and up and down the pipes.

They have kept the children happily entertained on several rainy afternoons, each time they are pulled out the creations change. The straws come in a great handy pouch to aid with cleaning and storage too, so these really are just great fun!

If you want to get your hands on some Epic Straws then look out for the Cravendale packs available now until December 16th, with the special codes on, then head on over to www.epicstraws.co.uk to find out how to claim your own!

Silent Sunday

Sponsored Video : Clean like a Mother

This post is sponsored by method.

Parenting and cleaning come hand in hand don't they? Because lets face it children attract dirt, they can be sat in a perfectly clean room and still given half an hour can magically make a mess.

So as a mum finding cleaning products which are powerful, yet safe is a must, and all purpose cleaners are the most used in our house, but myself and my eldest suffer from eczema and so many cleaning products irate this.

Most cleaners are full of chemicals, but there is a new cleaner which is non toxic and environmental friendly safe for almost all surfaces made with no hazardous ingredients,and comes in some lovely colourful squirt bottles! What is this great product? method.

method are aiming to put the hurt on the dirt, instead of on the planet, and aim to reduce the carbon footprint of their company and products, none of which have been tested on animals.

The Multisurface cleaner is made up of powergreen technology, which is soft on your skin, and the environment but tough on grease and grim! With a selection of fragrances to choose from including clementine, cucumber and fresh lavender this looks a lovely range.

Also from method is gel hand wash, laundry detergent, and fabric softeners too. All are eco friendly and so powerful that you only need a little squirt!

But on top of the great products they also have some pretty cool music videos too like this one:



Why not take a look at the Website and join them on facebook or twitter joining the people against dirty!

Encouraging Reluctant readers

I have mentioned several times about my childrens unlove for books and the difficulty my eldest has in learning to read and it is very rare to find any of them picking up a book for pleasure. When reading is a chore, it really is a bore and non of them have that passion for a good book.

I never push the issue because I know how much Jake struggles, I try hard to just leave things be, and as a result they all reach for the TV remote rather than the books, they ask if there is a film of the stories their friends talk about, and I sigh to myself wondering if they will ever find the love of a good book.

So when Anne contacted me a few months ago about partaking in a scheme she wanted to trial, to get reluctant readers reading, it sounded perfect!

Anne runs Hummingbird Books, which is a great website dedicated to childrens books, but unlike other book stores Hummingbird books only stock books which have been recommended by children, the good books, and along side selling books Anne has created a unique scheme to get reluctant readers reading.

The scheme involves phone sessions between Anne and a parent, carer or teacher, where Anne can share her knowledge and help find a way to inspire childrens love of books, Anne then helps you to access books through your local library, or find them to purchase should you require.

Whilst it is obvious Anne is very passionate about books and getting children to read, she is also very practical in her approach, as a parent and a primary school teacher herself, she has plenty of experience in what children like to read and the different difficulty levels of the popular children books.

Like me she feels that simply forcing a child to read is never going to get the right result, if you want a child to enjoy reading, well they have to genuinely enjoy it don't they? and they simply will not enjoy it if the books you give them are either too hard for them, or not interesting enough or both of them things, unfortunately it is the latter style books that my children seem to have come across the most, and I am sure this is where their dislike for a good book stems from.

I am an avid reader, and always have been, I can't actually remember learning to read, I could read before I started primary school, I never really read school books to my parents, yet I loved books, I would pick up books and read whatever I could get my hands on and loose myself in a good book time after time, and I do wish my children had that pleasure too, but when faced with a catalogue of books or when I step into a book store I just don't know which books to choose.

And this is where this reading scheme is invaluable! After our initial phone consultation, Anne had several suggestions to try, going back to easier books, stepping back a level and finding that spark of interest being her main aim instead of worrying about which reading level, or what stage the child is at. A really refreshing way to look at reading and a very encouraging one that matches my thoughts.

Anne suggested the Puddle Lane series of books for Chloe, a simple series of books, aimed at beginner readers, Chloe can read, but doesn't choose to for pleasure, stepping back to easier books such as the Puddle Lane series really helped, the beautifully illustrated books which were easy to read really encouraged Chloe and gave her confidence, stepping down to easier books was not a backwards step, it was a huge help, reading these books was fun... there was a glimmer of light, continuing with Annes encouragement over the following weeks, we have since found new books which Chloe has simply loved and the spark is growing every day.

So if you have a reluctant reader, and you are not sure what to try, then I would definitely give Annes scheme a go! Phone sessions are charged at £15 for a 30 minute consultation, Anne recommends between 3 and 6 to get the best results. For this week only if you pop over to SavvyMummys.co.uk you will find a half price offer for this reading scheme for the next week only (until 26th September 2012) And if your child already has a love for books then be sure to check out the great selection of books available on Hummingbirdbooks.co.uk

We were offered to trial this scheme for free and thoroughly enjoyed the phone calls and advise received, we were not given any other  reward for writing this post and do think Annes advice and knowledge will be of use to other reluctant readers.

Packed Lunch or School Dinners?

Sunday Afternoon, the children are happily entertaining themselves, I have spent a lazy day snooping around the Internet and enjoying doing nothing very much, but the hours are ticking past and I really need to start thinking about what to make for tea, and then onto making sure everything is ready for school tomorrow.

Up until the start of the new school year I always sent mine for school dinners, nice and easy,needed little forward planning and they didn't complain about them, however costing £1.90 a day each , when you have 3 children it is not cheap.

So when Chloes best friend told her she would be having pack lunches this year Chloe decided she wanted them too, and what one does the other have to follow, so this year they have all opted for packed lunches, and for the past 2 weeks I have been making up sandwiches and trying to find extras to add into their lunch bag.

The general thought amongst parents is that sending a pack up is cheaper than a school dinner, but I am not so sure, so I thought I would price things up and see which comes out more affordable.

So a school Lunch costs on average £1.90 a day or £9.50 a week per child, multiple that by three and I was handing over £28.50 each week for school dinners.

So how much have I spent on Pack up? Has it been a money saving venture? Well I'm not so sure.

This week along with our food shop I brought extra pack up supplies, I think I am pretty frugal and went bargain hunting, returning home with several loafs of bread 60p each so £2.40 for 4 loafs, tins of tuna for the fillings £4. 3 tins of sweetcorn £1,  Mayonnaise £1.39, mini Cheddar snack packs £1.89 for 15, Chocolate swiss rolls £1.60p for 24 mini rolls, cucumber 80p,  carrots £1, apples £1 grapes and strawberries £3, and 2 x cereal bars packs £2 for 12

Giving me enough food for 3 pack ups consisting of Tuna and sweetcorn sandwiches, (for 3 days and the other 2 days will have whatever filling I can find - jam, the night befores chicken left over, cheese etc) pack of mini Cheddars, cereal bar or mini chocolate roll and some fruit, carrot or cucumber each day.

giving me a total of just over £20

Great so that's a saving of nearly £10

But the problem here is that all this snack food which is sat in the cupboards is already getting picked at, the fruit is not likely to last until the end of the week, and the mini Cheddars are dwindling quicker than I can keep track as for the chocolate swiss rolls, well they will be lucky if they last till Monday! The unfortunate problem is that the local shops do not have the same products for the bargains I found in the bigger stores, and had I of shopped locally and brought the same things I could easily of doubled my spend with a loaf of bread locally costing £1.35 and Tuna is nearly double too, so come Thursday morning and the supplies are limited I am most likely going to have to make a mad dash to grab some extra pack up supplies and will easily spend the £10 I had saved to see us through the week.

Am I doing something wrong? What do you do for pack up lunches? is there some way to send a sandwich box which is cheap but filling? Am I simply sending too much? (Even tho everything gets ate and they still come home hungry!)

How can I stop the goodies being ate between making the lunches, normally I simply don't buy the easy to grab snacks so they are not their to be ate,but when there in the house everyone wants them!

Should  I try to convince them to go back to school dinners? If you are spending the same on pack up then maybe having a cooked meal which is more varied is better?

Update thanks to Midlife SingleMum reminding me in the comments: Please note the daily allowances for Tuna due to Mercury is advised no more than 4 medium cans per person per week, I mix up one can tuna and 1 small can of sweetcorn with mayonnaise then spread between three sandwiches and split between three children, 3 times a week because it is my daughters favourite filling. See the Food Standards Agency for more information about safe levels of tuna. Fish is a great protein source but as with everything, variety and moderation is always the key.