We've really enjoyed being Bandai STEM Ambassadors over the last 6 months, and the final tasks they've sent have been perfect for the Summer holidays. We've been sent National Geographic Gemstone and Shark Tooth Dig Kits and Ultimate Play Sand - a miniature sand pit with 2kg of colourful sand that never dries out and comes complete with 4 mini sand moulds...


The Bandai National Geographic STEM Kits are complete kits for children aged around 8+, and they contain everything you need, including tools. Each kit contains a Learning Guide, which is a short booklet full of images and information about the items you'll discover in the kit. They're brilliant, concise and always teach me something new.


The Dig Kits come complete with a double ended excavation tool, small brush, magnifying glass, instructions and a learning guide.


Dig Kits are packaged in a cardboard box, with a cardboard tray insert which can be used as a work surface. They keep all of the mess fairly well contained and can be recycled after use. Your fossils and gems are hidden in a decorative plaster block.


The Gemstone Dig Kit contains 3 real gemstones - Tiger's Eye, Quartz and Amethyst - and they're very pretty. They're also nicely varied, so children can tell instantly which is which. Once excavated you can clean them off by rinsing under water (put the plug in first), and then they catch the light really well. Or, as in our case, you can proudly show off just how carefully you exposed them!


The Shark Tooth Dig Kit contains 3 real fossilised shark teeth - Crow Shark, Otodus Shark and Sand Tiger. There's a fascination in our house with exceedingly long-lived animal species, so it's particularly interesting to us that although our Sand Tiger Shark tooth might be 100,000,000,000 years old (one hundred million), Sand Tiger Sharks still exist today.


My boys are 9 1/2 and almost 11, so I've been really pleasantly surprised at the amount of use the Ultimate Play Sand has received. This is a really neat little sandbox kit which works very well to keep everything tidy and safe.


The tray in the Ultimate Play Sand kit is plastic, but it is also your miniature sandbox, so it's definitely not single-use. Also included are 2lbs of play sand which never dries out, never makes dust and leaves your hands clean, plus 6 clever little sand 'castle' moulds.


These aren't just any old sandcastle, the moulds are actually 6 historical buildings, something my older boys really latched on to. All week ancient civilisations have been battling it out in my living room...


The sand is kinetic sand. Brightly coloured and fascinating to watch trickle out of your hand, it only sticks to the other sand. Very easy to scoop or sweep up and shouldn't ruin your carpet. It's actually quite mesmerising and incredibly relaxing to play with - whatever your age...










No entries are mandatory, but each action performed earns you extra entries into the random draw. The giveaway will end at midnight Sunday 29th September, full terms and conditions are at the bottom of the Gleam form. For a link to help if Gleam is new to you, or to see my other UK giveaways, see my Giveaways Page...

National Geographic Gemstone Dig Kit Giveaway (age 8+)

This month Bandai have sent us three of the Mini Dig Kits from National Geographic for review. Smaller than the standard Dig Kits, each contains one genuine specimen which your child can dig out using the tool included.


The Mini Dig Kits are hard plastic-wrapped, so not very eco-friendly. With scissors they're much more easily opened, but can have sharp edges, so watch your fingers. Inside is your specimen and a digging tool, as well as a leaflet with information.


I may not be so keen on the packaging, but I love the contents and so do children. Dig Kits offer a surprise reward - you don't know what you'll end up with exactly, and no two end results are the same.

Ordsall Hall's Summer Outdoor Theatre programme launched last Friday night with Macbeth and we were invited along to review. Last year when we went for the outdoor theatre it was 30 degrees at 9pm and we were melting - it wasn't quite the same this year, and I was reliably informed it would move inside if there was rain, but in the end we did very well with a dry, sunny evening.


Ordsall Hall is a beautiful Tudor building set into gorgeous grounds, and it really is an oasis of calm in amongst all of the modern buildings, homes and businesses. The current Great Hall was built in 1512, so it would have been sparkly new when Shakespeare was alive. The perfect location for Macbeth.


Gates opened at 6pm, which allowed us plenty of time to familiarise ourselves, find a suitable spot and get comfy. You are free to bring your own chairs, and if it's wet you really will want to, as sitting on the grass or a picnic blanket will be cold and/or damp unless the weather is glorious, especially at night.

The gardens are gorgeous - the Gardener does an amazing job and I'm sure she is rightly proud.

Podric Moon And The Corsican Tyrant is the first Young Adult fantasy book release from respected screenwriter and director Barney Broom. The book's main focus is young Podric, who is a computer games champion with ambition to be a jet pilot like his father, and his relationship with eccentric local games developer Archie.


Podric Moon is suitable for older teenage and young adult readers. There are some mature themes including mild sexual references and scenes, and a trigger warning as two of the female characters are assaulted.

The book opens with the death on duty of Podric's father, an RAF Pilot. Podric decides not to return to his boarding school in Ireland and the whole family move away from their RAF housing into a small rural UK village. It is there that Podric meets Archie, a games developer who has had major success in the past, but is struggling to spark interest in his games now.

Together Podric and Archie work on a new and far more immersive version of VR, called Ultimate Alternative Reality (UAR) and they use Archie's game based on the Napoleonic Wars as their world. The realism is hard to ignore and life in Napoleon's time isn't quite as romantic and fun as it first appears, although it definitely has it's moments.

Probably the most famous shipwreck tale of all time, the story of the Titanic is fascinating to adults and children alike. The Story Of Titanic For Children by Joe Fullman is an excellent factual book which my 9 year old has poured over since it arrived.


This is a beautiful book and it's full of gorgeous illustrations and photographs. It is honest, but doesn't glorify or overplay any of the tragedies which happened when the Titanic sank. It is full of fascinating details and facts, as well as personal accounts and even sketches drawn by survivors.

Yesterday I went over to The Arndale Centre in Manchester - not to shop, but instead to have my brain waves read by some of the latest technology. It's not the sort of thing that usually happens to me on any given Tuesday, but it was fascinating and I highly recommend it.


Explore, the Small Group Adventure Holiday company, had set up their unique #explorethemoment experiment – the first of its kind ever to take place in the UK - to give some holiday inspiration to members of the public. I felt I had only one place in the world on my bucket list, so inspiration could only be a good thing..

I love the fact that my 6 and 7 year old boys want to read all kinds of different books, and now that they are becoming competent independent readers a whole world is open to them. "You Wouldn't Want To Be...." is a series of books detailing the kinds of historical jobs that you probably wouldn't have wanted, mixing humour and history and really giving an insight into the lives of people in the past.


You Wouldn't Want To Be a Shakespearean Actor is written by Jacqueline Morley and illustrated really fittingly by David Antram. It shows us the less-than-glamorous side of treading the boards back in the 16th Century.  For starters actors nowadays might complain about costumes, but they have it easy..

We love the What On Earth? Timeline Wallbook Of British History that we reviewed yesterday, so I'm delighted to be able to tell you that What On Earth? have kindly offered a copy of this brilliant large format hardback children's book as a giveaway prize.


The Timeline Wallbook charts the history of Britain from when the British Isles were first created right up until the present day and Tim Peake's trip into space. It covers everything from popular culture and historic battles to royal houses and castles, and my boys have found far more that they recognise or have heard about than they ever expected.

I love looking at new books with my children, and sometimes a different sort of book comes along that really makes us pay attention. The What On Earth? Wallbook Of British History is definitely very different - and very impressive.


From outside the hardback cover the Wallbook Timeline Of British History looks like a regular large format book, but open it out and inside is a pocket magnifier, a 2 metre long pullout wallbook, and an 18 page copy of The Chronicle - a brilliant mock up of an imaginary newspaper.