Review: Big Alphabet Puzzle from Orchard Toys

A month or so ago I found out that I’d been selected to be an Orchard Toys Toy Tester (check out the lovely badge in my sidebar). I was so excited about this as we’ve been very keen on Orchard Toys puzzles and games since the small boy was nought but a tot. My local toy shop Giddy Goat Toys stock a brilliant range of them, so he’s grown from doing the chunky 2 piece puzzles to conquering huge 40 piece jigsaws from Orchard Toys. We were sent the brand new Big Alphabet Puzzle to try out.

Big Alphabet Puzzle

The Big Alphabet Puzzle predictably has 26 pieces, each with a letter from the alphabet on and a colourful picture. The puzzle is printed on good thick board so it’s hard to damage and scuff them, the pieces are also a good size to be easily picked up and placed by little hands.

Big Alphabet Puzzle

The Big Alphabet Puzzle also comes with a matching poster which we’ve stuck on his wall. The Big Alphabet Puzzle is suitable for ages 3-6 and is made in the UK. We already have the giant alphabet puzzle, so I was pleased to see that they were very different from each other.

Big Alphabet Puzzle

The small boy (aged 4) was very excited to get his hands on a new puzzle, so much so that every picture I tried to take of him doing it was really blurred. We sat down and did it together. He took the lead and I just helped him when he needed me.

The Big Alphabet Puzzle helps to improve hand eye co-ordination, encourages observational skills and helps to improve his literacy. As we did the puzzle we talked about words that began with each letter, not just the word pictured, and we tried to remember what the next letter in the alphabet was.

Big Alphabet Puzzle

Since we received the puzzle he’s gone back and tackled it by himself, and with our help most days. He enjoys the challenge of a jigsaw puzzle and he likes doing them with us, especially talking about the pictures and what he’s doing. I know he’ll enjoy doing this puzzle for a long while yet.

He’s just moving to reception at school, so this kind of puzzle is perfect for cementing his learning and helping to extend and develop his existing skills and knowledge. It’s everything I would expect from a company like Orchard Toys – interesting, engaging and well made.

The Big Alphabet Puzzle from Orchard Toys is widely available online and in good toy shops.

Note: We are Orchard Toys Toy Testers and we were sent this product free of charge for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

Milestones: His first day of school

Today was one of those milestone days in my son’s life. Today he trotted off to join his Reception class and start his school days properly. Last year he was lucky enough to get a place in the school nursery, but there was no guarantee of an actual school place, so he’s already been going to the school part time for a year now. He knows some of the ropes, most of the staff and has been settled and happy there, which is all a parent could ask for.

Despite the fact he was already fairly established within the school, there were a few “first day of school” anxieties, mainly from me and his dad. He was just looking forward to seeing all of his friends again and being with his new teacher who he’d met a few times last term.

We’d had a busy summer and we’d spent lots of quality time together and cemented a new kind of friendship between us. I’ve seen him through other people’s eyes and realised what a kind, funny and well-mannered little lad he is. It’s so easy to get bogged down in petty squabbles about where he’d thrown his underpants and forget about all the really good things about him.

This morning arrived too soon. Collectively the three of us tumbled down the stairs towards the front door, perpetually running slightly late, frantically pulling on shoes and coats. Checking and double checking the contents of our bags. Cartwheeling out of the door and galloping off to the school gates. Late, always late.

But today we paused, because it was our son’s first day at school. First proper day at school. We took the obligatory photo of him in his new, clean uniform stood in front of the house, we didn’t expect him to smile, we didn’t really expect him to pose. But what we got tells us everything we needed to know about his feelings about his first day at school. I think he’s happy, don’t you?

first day of school

first day of school

And if you’re wondering how he got on, he emerged at home time with a huge smile on his face and can’t wait to go back tomorrow. Long may that continue!

Buckle up! The small boy tries out velcro Easybelts

The small boy is four and a half (he’s very keen on that half all of a sudden) and he’s very much like his dad. He’s starting to dress like him and when we go shopping points out things his dad would wear so he can wear them too. It’s all very sweet and part of growing up. This summer he’s fully embraced the belt – his dad is never without his belt, so the boy wanted something similar. His little fingers aren’t ready for a proper grown up belt, so we got him an easy to use velcro Easybelt.

velcro easybelts

We chose this lovely blue belt, it’s in the school colours so he can wear it for school if he wants, but it also looks brilliant with his normal casual trousers.

The velcro Easybelts are so easy to use. You just put them through the belt loops on your trousers and pull the velcro end back and press against the other velcro bit. There are no fiddly buckles or anything to mess about with. He understood how it worked instantly, had no problems undoing it by himself and could take himself off to the loo quite happily and without our help.

velcro easybelts

As you can see (Manchester’s next top model) he was pretty proud of his belt, which I think looks great with those shorts. He’s also worn it with jeans and other trousers and he cuts quite a dash. The belt somehow makes him look smarter and more grown up at the same time.

Easybelts have a huge range of belts for children, with different designs and motifs for boys and girls as well as unisex options. They also make belts for adults who may struggle with the tricky fastenings of normal belts (seriously, those canvas belts with the funny buckle – I have no chance!).

The velcro Easybelts cost around £6 and are easily washed and easy to use. The small boy is a big fan!

Note: We were sent the Easybelt free of charge for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

Review: CBeebies All Stars DVD

One of the best things we’ve ever bought for the small boy was a small portable DVD player. During our annual 7 hour schlep to Cornwall it provides an excellent back of the car entertainment service, plus it means that if he fancies watching his favourite shows in our TV-less cottage he can do so.

He’s a massive CBeebies fan, and though his tastes have changed as he’s grown up, he loves to watch The Octonauts, Peter Rabbit, Mike the Knight, Chuggington and The Clangers, amongst others. So the CBeebies All Stars DVD seemed a good bet.

CBeebies All Stars DVD

He was almost beside himself when the CBeebies All Stars Bumper Collection DVD popped through our letter box. Released on 7th September, and rated U, the CBeebies All Stars DVD contains over two hours of CBeebies fun, including the Twirlywoos, Peter Rabbit, Octonauts, In The Night Garden, Mike the Knight, Chuggington, Furchester, Dipdap, Cloudbabies, The Clangers and Topsy and Tim.

The CBeebies All Stars DVD is a great DVD for any CBeebies fan, with all of their favourites in one place – and it certainly kept him entertained on our long journey!

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CBeebies All Stars DVD

 

Degustabox August 2015

We’ve been receiving the Degustabox for a few months now and each time we get a box of interesting new things to try. In the spirit of interesting and new, I thought I’d try my hand at making an unboxing video, which you can see below. It’s basically me unpacking my Degustabox August 2015 and seeing what’s in there. I’d like to say it’s more interesting than it sounds, but who am I to judge?
 

My Degustabox August 2015 contained…
+ Dr Oetker Mug cakes – Rich Chocolate, Chocolate Chip & Lemon
+ Life Tonics – Coconut Water with Mint
+ Ryvita – Cracked Black Pepper & Sesame Crispbreads
+ Bahlsen – Pick Up! Dark Chocolate & Choco Leibniz White
+ Barilla – Penna Rigate & Arrabbiata Sauce
+ Walkers Biscuits – various kinds
+ Scheckters Organic Energy Drink
+ Little Miracles Drink
+ Williamson Ginger Tea
+ FRU Snax – peach and yoghurt flavour

As well as the monthly Db Discovery – Delicious Alchemy Brownie Mix. This is an easy to make gluten-free and dairy-free chocolate brownie mix. I confess at the time of writing I’ve not yet made it as we didn’t have any eggs in the house, but it looks really simple and it’s pleasing to me that it’s gluten and dairy free, meaning when I have GF friends round I can offer them a homemade treat.

Degustabox August 2015

It seems like a really big box this month, packed full of goodies. The Bahlsen and Walkers biscuits were naturally the first things to be demolished by me and my two hungry boys. The pasta and tomato sauce from Barilla were a hit, pasta is always a popular meal though.

What I was most interested to try were the Dr Oetker Mug Cakes – these were ridiculously easy to make and you had an actual cake to eat which took less than 2 minutes to make, which is ideal for those times when you just need emergency cake. The rich chocolate cake was by far the best, and tarted up a bit with some fruit and maybe a dollop of ice cream you could easily pass it off as a posh pud.

Degustabox August 2015

If you’d like to give Degustabox a try, I have a discount code giving you £3 off your next box, just enter 8MDEO at the checkout, this code is valid until 31st October 2015. You can find out more about Degustabox on their website.

Note: I was sent a Degustabox free of charge for review purposes, all images and opinions are my own.

Craft Kits: Easy Rugby World Cup Coaster Craft

The Rugby World Cup begins on 18th September; whilst for me the excitement might pass me by, for the boys in my life this is a time of odd-shaped-ball delight! Don’t get me wrong, I live next door to a rugby club and I realise there’s much to admire about this noble sport (mainly thighs); so I’m happy to get involved in a bit of pre-tournament crafting fun. To celebrate the Rugby World Cup, the boy and I sat down to make some Rugby World Cup Crafts.

We used the Rugby Coaster Kits from Baker Ross. These kits contain colourful printed foam coasters and foam stickers which you can make rugby themed coasters with. You can get them in packs of 6 or 18 coasters and they’d be a good craft to do for any rugby fan; world cup or not!

Everything you need to make the coasters is in the pack. This is helpful, as there’s nothing worse than sitting to do a craft and discovering you need something extra to complete it.

Rugby World Cup Crafts

The coasters are pre-printed so you know where to stick your stickers. If you wanted to free-style it you could just turn the coaster over to the blank side and do your own design.

We started by writing our names on our personalised coasters. This is good practice for him; he starts school this month and has been practicing writing over the summer. I decided to make a coaster for Daddy to put his beer soft drink on while he watched the Rugby World Cup.

We then set to work sticking the foam stickers on the coaster. This is great to improving his dexterity and hand strength; popping the foam stickers out of the sheet and peeling off the backing can be quite fiddly for little fingers. He enjoyed the challenge and did rather well with it all.

Tip: Whenever we do something involving peeling little bits of backing paper off I always make sure there is a bowl to put our rubbish in; it stops the kitchen being covered in tiny bits of paper and it’s much quicker to tidy up. Plus it encourages the small boy to be a bit more considerate with his mess.

Rugby World Cup Crafts

As you can see he enjoyed making his Rugby World Cup coaster. It kept us both busy and focussed on the task in hand for half an hour; and he’s rather proud of his creation.

You can find more of our craft posts here!

We were sent these crafts for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

Days Out: West Somerset Railway

If we go away anywhere in the UK we always try to find a local heritage railway. Steam trains are a real favourite for the small boy and we are very happy to indulge him. This year part of our summer holiday was spent at Burnham on Sea in Somerset, so naturally we checked out the local steam train scene and settled on the West Somerset Railway. We were not disappointed.

West Somerset Railway

We travelled by car to Bishops Lydeard, parked up and bought our tickets at the bustling station. Children under 5 travel free and a day rover ticket for an adult is £18.50, which I think is great value, especially if you want to spend the day hopping on and off exploring the various stops and stations.

West Somerset Railway is the longest heritage railway in England and runs from Bishops Lydeard to Crowcombe Heathfield, Stogumber, Williton, Doniford Halt (request stop), Watchet, Washford, Blue Anchor, Dunster and finally Minehead, and back.

West Somerset Railway

The twenty mile journey from Bishops Lydeard to Minehead takes around 90 minutes and is a lovely, restful chug through pretty Somerset scenery. From the window you can spy the Quantock Hills as well as farms, pretty villages, historic buildings and the coastline, including the pretty harbour at Watchet.

Of course the real star of the railway are the trains themselves. On the way from Bishops Lydeard to Minehead we travelled on one of their diesel trains. West Somerset Railway generally run more steam trains than diesel, but we thought we’d try them both, on our return journey we came back by steam train. It’s always quite charming to see the soft puffs of steam stream by as we speed through the countryside.

West Somerset Railway

The diesel was a handsome engine and the heritage carriages were clean, comfortable and well maintained. The railway boasts ten stations, all of them well kept, attractive and bedecked with flowers. The steam train was equally comfortable, but had the added charm of being a steam train, with all the romance that steam travel conjures up (Brief Encounter anyone?).

We got off at Minehead, not really expecting to find anything but a slightly tacky seaside town, but we moved in the opposite direction to the throng and walked towards the pretty harbour, which is nestled under North Hill. We were hungry, so stopped off at The Old Ship Aground pub on the harbour. The pub was a brilliant discovery, serving an interesting menu of local, seasonal and very delicious food. Round the corner from the pub, at the back of the harbour is the Minehead Lifeboat Station, where we sheltered from the wind and rain and had a good look at the lifeboat and learned a bit about the work of the RNLI, which the boy particularly enjoyed. We were charmed by Minehead and we will be back.

West Somerset Railway

We raced back to Minehead Station to catch the steam train home, we were all tired from our walk and full from our fantastic lunch. We were glad of the comfort and warmth of the carriages and both boys dozed off while I enjoyed a bit of peace and some pretty Somerset scenery.

It was a really wonderful way to spend a rainy day, with over three hours of combined train travel time, beautiful English countryside and a proper heritage railway experience, all three of us woke up the next day wanting to do it all again.

Note: We paid for our tickets in full, this is just a  personal reminder of another one of our railway adventures.

Little girl lost – another anxiety attack

I used to have a general feeling that my mood, my mental health went in cycles, often dominated by the extremes of hormones rushing through my body each month. To some extent I think that’s true. It became normal for my mood to dip, for anxiety to pulse through my veins, for wild swings of rage and despair to appear and to feel the unrelenting panic of an anxiety attack. I never really mentioned this to my GP for fear they’d put me on the pill, something I’d like to avoid at all costs thank you very much.

Sometimes I found that I just was depressed or full of anxiety. Sometimes there was a trigger; maybe a comment or action by someone towards me. Something that would just edge me closer to falling into the black hole of my mental health. Swirling. Spinning. All consuming.

Sometimes there was nothing. No rational explanation for why everything was black.

I woke up yesterday and everything was black.

What I want to do is go to bed and cry it out. What I want to do is be held tight while the darkness seeps from my body, the little girl inside me wants to stop being frightened and fearful and anxious. She wants daddy to make the demons go away and to kiss it better. But I’m 38 and I’ve been standing on my own two feet for twenty years, so my two feet need to find their way out of this.

What I want to do is go to the pub and to drown the noise with drink. I want to sit and talk through the blackness with someone who knows and to laugh a little, cry a bit and go home with a grey heart, not a black one. But I can’t do that.

What I want and what will happen are two different things. It’s the school holidays, so I go to a soft play centre, the worst place imaginable if you’ve got a head full of negative noise and a heart as heavy as lead. So I force myself to go for a walk with the boy, who runs ahead laughing and chatting his head off about fire engines and dogs, and I try and focus on that, because it makes a small dark corner of my black heart glad. I make myself engage with people, because my silence and introspection achieve nothing but more darkness.

I do what I can to force myself into normal patterns of behaviour, edging slightly further back from the edge of darkness and negativity with each positive action.

But what I need, what the little girl inside me really needs, is a cuddle from my daddy to soothe the anxiety, and for him to shoo the dark demons away.

PS. I am often reminded of the artist in The Fast Show whenever I get like this, strangely watching a clip or two on YouTube can often brighten my mood. Top tips for depressives with a sense of humour there.

Review: Blueberry Scone Jar Candle from Yankee Candle

I love scented candles. My work room at home is filled with them. If I’m going to be at my desk for a few hours invariably I’ll light one to invigorate my mood, often I’ll light them in my bedroom to help me wind down before bed, hardly a day goes by without me lighting a candle, especially now the boy is a bit older and can be trusted near naked flames.

I was sent a summer fragrance Yankee Candle to try out, I received the Blueberry Scone large jar candle (rrp £21.99). It’s a big jar which should burn for 110+ hours or more. The heavy glass lid keeps the candle fresh for when you’re ready to light it. 

blueberry scone yankee candle

The fragrance is lovely and really does smell of freshly baked blueberry scones. Warm blueberry scents with a soft undercurrent of fresh from the oven scones with a hint of vanilla, just a hint, because vanilla can be an overpowering fragrance. 

Often with scented candles they “throw” the fragrance only a short distance from the actual candle. Some scents travel better than others. I lit the Blueberry Scone Yankee Candle and it quickly filled the room with the smell of fresh blueberry scones, the smell travelled reasonably well but didn’t fill the house, which to my mind is fine, but I know others prefer a lengthier throw.

This candle has a home in my work room now and will be burnt on a regular basis. If you like a fruity, warm scented candle, then this is worth looking out for. I adore the warm spiced autumn candles full of cinnamon and apple, but this is a good summer version, smelling of kitchens and cosiness. 

Yankee Candles are widely available online and in gift shops, you may have to hunt a little for the Blueberry Scone Yankee Candle, but it’s worth hunting down and having a sniff to see if you’d like it. Fragrance is such a personal thing, these remind me of a trip to America I took when I was a teenager and I briefly became obsessed with everything blueberry.

Note: We were sent the Blueberry Scone Yankee Candle free of charge for review purposes. All images and opinions are my own.