It's my belief that wherever possible, and with sensible limits, children should be taught how to use things safely rather than just kept away from them until they're 'older' or have lost interest. Whenever children see adults hammering and making things with wood they are fascinated, and this toy allows them to explore that and learn for themselves.


Inside the box are 27 wooden shapes in lovely colours (around half with printed detail), a very light little hammer, a cork board and a bag of little tacks approx 1cm long and with a semi blunt tip.


When my brother was 4 I remember him coming home regularly from nursery school with bits of wood with bent nails hammered into them and telling me about the rocket or train he'd made. Nowadays it just wouldn't be possible, which is a real shame because my boys are having a huge amount of fun playing with this, and I really do think when their Dad and I start putting together a new interior for our Campervan, they will be there to 'help'.


The Tack Zap (try saying that 3 times in quick succession!) or Nagelspiel Im Einsatz (which is easier to say even to a non-German speaker, surely) is designed for children aged 3+ and is currently retails for an incredibly reasonable £13.60


It is excellent for hand/eye co-ordination, fine motor skills and concentration. It teaches colours, requires problem-solving skills and definitely sparks the imagination.There are several examples of builds you can make in the leaflet from the box, but you can make a bazillion more with the 27 shapes supplied.


We've had no injuries and I've only found very few nails dropped on the floor. They understand they're using a 'grown up' toy, and are treating it with the respect it deserves. I think this is another way in which this toy is teaching my children a lot.


We absolutely love this toy.

It's a real hit and great fun for the children, the teenagers have all been caught with it too!  It is so many different things rolled into one, a jigsaw puzzle, an imagination trigger, a storyboard and a 'big boys tool kit' etc. The price is excellent and I'd heartily recommend it for any child. I'd certainly buy it as a present and encourage any responsible adult to consider getting one for their children. A very well deserved 5/5

My children have always spent lots of time outdoors because we camp a fair bit. The older children were lucky because they used to camp every other weekend. Because they are teenagers now and busy making their own independent lives we can't get away as much as we'd like, but we can still get out in the garden and play.


When I saw the #KidsGrowWild Challenge I thought it was a brilliant thing to be a part of. I have a vegetable plot in our garden which keeps our slugs well fed all Summer and my children love helping to plant and water, and pick anything which looks remotely ripe! We're lucky because we have a big garden, but it is sadly lacking in beautiful colours because it's mainly easy to care for shrubs.


We applied to take part and a few days later a big box arrived with very exciting contents - a fantastic gardening bag full of children's gardening equipment.

The boys loved the gardening gloves, and the chance to use proper gardening tools like Mummy does!
 

Before I could stop them they'd decided where they thought some seeds should be planted and started digging!


I did point out that it might not be wise, and possibly we should start a little further away from where the lawn mower would be next time boy no.1 cuts the grass!


Inside the bag were 3 packets of flower seeds - Sunflowers, Pansies and a flower mix. They can all be sown directly into the ground, but our slugs are really hungry and there are bazillions of them, so we decided it might give the baby plants a better chance if we started some seeds in trays.


The trays I use are trays from inside Lego Christmas Avent Calendars - which makes them free and recycled, but at £25 each also possibly the most decadent seed trays ever! I made a small hole in the bottom of each section to let out excess water and filled it with compost.


They were both very impressed with how tiny the seeds were and got to work putting one or two in each section of the seed tray. I'm not sure a little fork or trowel was actually essential for this part of the job..


There was a bit of a fight over who got to water the seeds once they were planted, so we came to a compromise....


We decided to sow the mixed seeds directly into the ground among the shrubs, so that hopefully we can add a bit of colour later in the Summer. The seeds were very interesting shapes, textures and colours and the boys liked trying to guess what the flowers from each type will look like.


We prepared the ground and added a bit of compost to give the baby seeds a better chance.


Because of our slug problem I've been saving egg shells to put around plants. Slugs don't like to climb over egg shells because they're sharp, so hopefully it will help deter them from eating so many of our seedlings.


Adding the egg shell was possibly one of the boys favourite jobs - I don't know how successful it will be, only time will tell us that, but fingers crossed.



Once we'd finished there was just the job of giving the seeds a little drink, standing back and admiring our hard work.


In a few weeks time we'll be able to update you with how well we're doing, and hopefully our green shrubbery will have a bit more colour for all of the insects and more nectar for the visiting bees.

Do you cook one-pot meals for the family? Which healthy easy meals do you cook? Maybe you have a family favourite, or a recipe handed down through the generations? Are one-pot meals still suitable when it's as Summery and warm as it has been these last few days?

On Monday 10th June from 10.30am until 11.30am I will be co-hosting a Twitter discussion about easy cooking for busy Mums, and we'll be giving away a selection of Pyrex Summer Dining Essentials to four lucky participants.


We want to know what makes a successful and convenient meal when you don't have all day to prepare, and hopefully share a few recipes and tips.

Here is one of my family's favourite recipes to get you started. I use this meal when I am busy and don't have the time to stand over the cooker nursing a meal (which realistically is most days!). This should easily feed 4 for 2 meals and is infinitely adaptable and almost foolproof - even my teenagers can be trusted to throw it together!

Nice and Simple One-pot Chilli

2 large onions ~ sliced or diced
2 bell peppers ~ chopped
2 chilli peppers ~ finely chopped. You may wish to leave these out if cooking for young children.
4 cloves of garlic ~ crushed
500g Mince (Soya or meat. If using meat please ensure you brown it in the pan before adding the rest of the ingredients).

2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons chilli powder
a pinch of cloves
a pinch of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon paprika
salt and pepper to taste
whatever spice takes your fancy
2 tins tomatoes or equivalent fresh tomatoes, or passata (tomato puree)

And a selection from the following -

Mushrooms
Adzuki beans (go brilliantly with Soya mince)
Kidney beans
Borlotti beans
Canelloni beans
Haricot beans
Canned baked beans
Tinned or frozen sweetcorn
Courgette
Cooked sausage (sliced)
Cooked bacon

Method

Brown the mince with the onions, peppers and garlic (or just until the onions start to soften in the case of veggie mince), add the spices and cook for a further 3 minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients and cook either on the hob or in the oven or slow cooker until the juices are brown and the chilli flavours have all come together. I tend to leave mine for an hour or two on a the lowest simmer or in the oven at around 170 degrees/Gas Mark 3. If it's drying out too much then add water, but this is unlikely because of the veg and beans.

Always taste your meal when cooking, you can add extra spice or just about anything else, but removing it is far more tricky!

Serve half of your Chilli with rice, pasta or even potatoes or chips!


With the second half keep it safe in the fridge or freezer and use it to make a simple lasagne. Layer it with lasagne sheets and slices of courgette, cover the top with a white sauce (make your own or buy a packet mix, or even a jar for convenience), and grate cheese over the top. Because I don't eat cooked cheese (and white sauce can be bland) I make a sauce using a tin of creamed mushrooms mixed with the same quantity of water, and because I'm a kind Mummy I grate cheese over everyone else's portions (or get a slave or assistant to do it)


 Et voila. 2 meals cooked from scratch with healthy ingredients and minimal effort, and minimal washing up!

Pyrex is a trademark of Corning Inc, used by permission

I've noticed a disturbing trend in my photo albums recently, and it's reaching epic proportions. My Wetherspoons meal post was full of photobombs and I used them because, frankly, I wasn't left with much material otherwise....including this lovely photo of me....sheesh....


The SEA LIFE Centre post was miraculously photobomb free, despite the very first photo of the day being this one....


 A simple picture of the 'Chorizo on a Stick' at Tatton Park Foodies took 7 attempts, here are only 2 of the out-takes....
 


Of course occasionally the photobombers don't win....cue faceplant x 2...


And sometimes they REALLY do. Award for best photobomb of the month goes to the youngest member of our family. Heaven help us when he reaches 13....

Rocket Game is an excellent game made by Orchard Toys.

As with all Orchard Toys games and puzzles this is designed and manufactured in the UK from strong 100% recycled board. It has really bright colours, modern pictures and chunky pieces that don't bend or come apart during even quite boisterous play. Orchard Toys are built to be played with, and built to last.

Orchard Toys ~ Rocket Game
 

The gameplay for Rocket game seems quite tricky, but it plays very simply and intuitively. The player has a launch pad for their rocket, and has to build a flight path using double sided cards which are decided by the use of a spinner, e.g. spin a spaceman and choose a spaceman card from the table. On the reverse of each card is a vapour trail which may have anything from 0-3 loops.


If you pick out a card with a rocket on the reverse then you look at the colour, and if it matches your launch pad then you place it at the top of your vapour trail. With subsequent turns you try to turn over a rocket belonging to another player to end their vapour trail.


When everyone has ended their trail with their matching rocket then the game is over and the player with the most loops on their vapour trail is the winner, regardless of how many cards or turns it takes to achieve this.




Rocket Game retails at £7.50. It is suitable for 2 - 6 players and the suggested age range is 4-7. It promotes comprehension and understanding of the world, develops language skills and encourages conversation.It teaches turn-taking and links with the National Curriculum Maths Key Stage 1, developing counting and matching skills.
 

We really love this game, it's a real hit and clearly our young boys favourite Orchard Toys game so far. The rocket theme is fantastic and the aliens and planets are brilliant. It is an incredibly quick game and that means the time and investment put in, compared to the chance of winning, gives really positive game play with constant reward throughout. I cannot count how many times we have played this over the last 3 days and everyone enjoys it.

We give it a rare and very much deserved 5/5.

This is my 100th post, which seems stunning because I feel like I can remember every single one as if I wrote it yesterday, but I'd never for a second have assumed I'd have written so many!

I started blogging years ago, but it was just for me, it wasn't even really for my friends. It was cathartic and somewhere I could let it all out and rant and talk rubbish at 2am and if anyone was listening I didn't really mind.

This blog is different, it's not only public but it's also intentionally promoted. I plug my posts and write things with other people in mind, hoping that I will inform and amuse my readers and that you will find my life, or snippets of it at least, interesting enough that you'll return.

Before I had a public blog I expected to find a world full of people who were distant and a bit aloof, and that's the opposite of what I've found. I've made some absolutely fantastic friends and had some great days out and adventures already. My children's lives have been enriched and they have been able to take advantage of opportunities that they never would have without blogging. We spent a gorgeous sunny Sunday afternoon today picnicking at a nearby park with 2 other local bloggers and their families, and last Wednesday 6 of my children and I were able to preview the Manchester SEA LIFE Centre which still doesn't open for another few days.

If Al from Izziwizzi Kids had never asked me "could you put all of your toy review videos together on your blog", then I probably still wouldn't even be here, but I do feel very much that it's where I belong

I'm having a great time, I love this world and I'm delighted to be a part of it. Thank you for having me. Here's to you...

I was meant to review a tablet for under £50 for Travel Supermarket's Inspect-A-Gadget Competition, but it all went a bit wrong at first, so my review is finally here and so is my tablet!


We were given the choice of 5 different travel gadgets under £50 to review and we went for the tablet as we've never had one that the grown ups and little boys could use (previously it's only been a couple of our teenagers who had their own tablets), we thought it'd be an excellent thing. The tablet we chose has the impressively long name "7" inch Touch Screen Allwinner A13 1.0GHz CPU Android 4.0 Tablet PC 4GB HDD 512MB WiFi" which cost £40 including postage.



I ordered from Amazon, choosing purple from a huge range of available colours, delivery was really quick, and all was going swimmingly until after about 12 hours use my tablet screen suddenly turned blue and then it stopped working. Boo hoo. 


The children were gutted as they had already decided it was the best thing ever. We'd linked it to our wireless and my Google account, loaded a couple of Lego Duplo games onto it (plus the infamous Candy Crush) and the little boys had even watched a couple of BBC iPlayer programmes.


I got in touch with the seller and tried factory resets, but the problem seemed to be that the screen had failed and they were happy to replace it, but I would have to post my tablet to them at my cost before they sent a replacement.

So we sent it and we waited for 1 week....my 3  year old repeatedly asked if he could 'play with the tablet' and I'm pretty certain believes we took it off him because he was naughty in some way!

Hurrah! Today the postman brought our new tablet and everyone is delighted. It's taken about 10 minutes to get another screen protector on it, attach it to a Google account, download a Simpsons game and get everyone smiling. This tablet is much more sensitive and speedy than the previous one and the colours are much brighter, so I am happy to assume we were just unlucky and at first had a tablet that wasn't quite right from manufacture. 


We love it. If I had any inkling that I could buy a tablet so cheaply then I would definitely have bought one earlier as it stops my children asking to play games on my phone! It's going to be absolutely fantastic for when we're camping, especially when were trying to set up and pack away, as this is the time when the little ones get 'in the way' or just tend to wander off or be mischevious because they are bored.


Because we have 5 teenagers our 2 little ones have a good understanding of screens and games and want to join in, and I wouldn't be happy to let them play with something that I simply cannot afford to replace, nor is it ideal they use gadgets belonging to their bigger siblings. Although they are supervised accidents will always happen, and frankly if I'd paid £150 or more for a tablet I'd be reluctant to let any of my lot touch it!


It's small enough to fit in my handbag, but has a nice big screen with a really wide angle of vision, so 3 people can sit together watching something and all can see the picture just fine. It has a full touch screen and motion sensors so,  for example, when playing a driving game you can 'steer' by tilting the tablet and it has a headphone socket (thankfully) so that the user doesn't drown out conversations going on around them. The only real downsides are that the battery life is not great, I think around 3 hours play and it's flat, but as long a you expect that then it isn't as issue and the tablet has no means of charging from a USB, in fact the supplied mains charging cable is incredibly cheap and flimsy.


I paid £35.50 plus £4.50 postage, so exactly £40 and for that I feel this is an incredible bargain. It isn't as durable for youngsters as an Innotab, it isn't as quick as an iPad and it doesn't have the memory or battery life of a more expensive tablet, but for £40 it's fantastic.Buying from Amazon gives you a level of protection that is at least as great as from an electrical shop, and we could have even gone through Amazon for our return and not had to pay postage (but I didn't realise that at the time) and we still have a 12 month warranty and support from within the UK.


Here are the specs -

Brand	Generic
Item Weight	599 g
Product Dimensions	23.6 x 15.6 x 7.2 cm
Item model number	A 13
Color	White
Screen Size	7 inches
Processor Brand	ARM
Processor Type	ARM710a
Processor Speed	1 GHz
Processor Count	1
RAM Size	512 MB
Computer Memory Type	DDR3 SDRAM
Hard Drive Size	4 GB
Operating System	Android 4.2.2 Jellybean ~ although we were expecting 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich from the Amazon listing information, so we were pleasantly surprised.
Average Battery Life (in hours)	3 hours
Lithium Battery Weight	40 grams