As a child Meccano was always one of those toys that I wanted to play with, but I never seemed to be allowed to do so. We had a small kit at home and I have vague memories of my Gran having some in her sideboard cupboard, but then I have no recollection of it ever coming out for us to play with. Instead we just seemed to always play Pick Up Sticks with her at her dining table whenever we visited. My Dad always used to speak fondly of building Meccano structures and machines when he was a lad and seeing as he went on to be a mechanical engineer I guess that makes sense. I also have fond ... read more
My Mermaid Lagoon – Marina’s Lagoon
Little Miss C is still very much of the age where she loves making small worlds and role playing with them. Often I will find shoe boxes, or other things stolen from the cardboard recycling, full of soil, sand or small pieces of paper to represent some sort of a landscape and then tiny crafted things to represent houses and other household things. Fairies, mermaids, horses and unicorns seem to feature prominently in them at the moment and so being asked to review My Mermaid Lagoon from Interplay was perfect timing. Mermaid Lagoon gives you everything you need to create a magical world ... read more
Review: Craft Time Mosaics
A recent house move combined with some grotty weather means I've been looking out for some small craft projects to keep the kids entertained on wet days at home. It was therefore perfect timing when I was sent a couple of Craft Time Mosaic kits to review. Little Miss C always loves anything crafty, and Master C's fine motor skills have been coming on in leaps and bounds recently, meaning that he too is actually now enjoying sitting down and completing something like this. We were sent two small kits to review - the kitten and the dragon. With the glittery mosaic stickers LMC wanted to ... read more
Ravensburger Bugs in the Kitchen #GoGadgetFree for National Unplugging Day
This Sunday (27 June 2017) sees us celebrating National Unplugging Day. A day on which parents are pledging to #GoGadgetFree and spend from sun-up to sun-down without technology. It's like a return to a previous time; a time when children weren't glued to screens all day long and played together either using their own imagination or playing a board game together. As part of National Unplugging Day we were asked to review Ravensburger's fantastic game Bugs In The Kitchen. Now I first saw this game when I visited the Toy Fair in London back in January. At the time I was blown away by how ... read more
Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Mystery Puzzle
Back before Christmas I was one of those parents desperately trying to get my hands on a Hatchimal without having to remortgage the house to do so. Unfortunately Father Christmas didn't come up trumps on this one and Little Miss C hasn't let me forget it. That's why, for her recent birthday, I made sure that I bought her a pack of Hatchimals CollEGGtibles which she loved. She was beyond thrilled when a few days later I produced a brand new Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Mystery Puzzle for her to help me review. The way these Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Mystery Puzzles work is that you get a 48 ... read more
The Minions return to Specsavers
I know it won't have escaped your attention that the Minions are back soon with Despicable Me 3, and the kids and I are so excited about going to see the new film when it comes out at the end of June. Specsavers are celebrating the release with adding four new frames to its exclusive Minions range. Master C and I were invited along to the Specsavers store in St Albans to see the range when it launched on 31 May, and to choose some glasses for him from the range. The frames in the range are priced at £64 each and are free for under 16s with an NHS optical voucher. The Despicable Me 3 ... read more
Animating with StikBot #StikBot
Things were different when I was a kid... I know that is such a cliche, but as I come to write a review of StikBot Zanimation Studio it's a phrase that keeps going over and over in my head. When I was a child animation was those little flick books that you drew and Morph on the telly. That's as sophisticated as it got. And the though of ever managing to do something yourself that was anywhere near as good as Morph was just unimaginable. Fast forward twenty plus years and my kids now have StikBot to take their animations to a whole new level. Now I've been aware of StikBot for a while, ... read more
Discovery Kids Digital Walkie Talkies
With a year's family camping experience under our belt now we've learnt quite a bit about what sorts of things we should take with us on camping trips. Everything from a dust pan and brush to washing pegs. We've also learnt a fair bit about camping with children and in particular how the kids want to go and explore as much of the campsite as possible, yet it can at times be a bit hard to keep tabs on where they are, especially if on a large campsite. What we had spotted was lots of children having walkie talkies, either to talk to each other, or for their parents to be able to summon them back ... read more
How to buy toys cheaply with The Amazing Mystery Box
As a parent I'm always looking at thrifty ways to live life and provide for my kids. The truth is that family life is expensive and there always seem to be things that need buying. One area where I try really hard to save money though is when it comes to gifts - both for my own kids and for others - and hence I'm always after ways to buy toys cheaply. I'm often trying to pick up things that I know my kids wants for birthday and Christmas in advance when I see them in a sale or promotion, and I also have a "present cupboard" where I pop things that I pick up over the year that can then be used ... read more
Ravensburger Despicable Me 3 Jigsaw Puzzles
I'm pretty sure I'm not the only parent that is quite excited about the the new Despicable Me 3 film coming out this summer. The trailer seems to have been playing in the cinema for ages now, but you know the release must be approaching soon when you start seeing all the film merchandise in the shops. Little Miss C and Master C have been busy this last couple of weeks helping me review these Ravensuburger Despicable Me 3 Jigsaw puzzles. Like many Ravensburger puzzles this Despicable Me 3 one contains four separate puzzles: one with 12 pieces, one with 16, one with 20 and one with 24 pieces. ... read more