We have been given the opportunity by Kids Blog Club to review the Kor Geomag ~ Tazoo Paco. It is a construction toy for children aged 5+ which really fires a child's imagination and boosts problem-solving and logic skills.


Geomag has been around for a while, but the Kor Geomag are brand new to the UK. Each have a large metal ball at their core and are held together magnetically, which allows for all kinds of different shapes and movements when you start to attach the 2 outer layers and assorted extra features. Although the set includes some small parts, ALL metal and magnetic parts are set into large shapes that a child cannot swallow.


The set has 26 magnetic building blocks that connect to the inner metal core, and then a whole host of extra parts that fasten onto the building blocks - 71 pieces in total. A nice clear instruction book is included to get you started and it really is incredibly simple to get the hang of how it works.







Because everything is held together by magnets you can twist and turn it and move it around without losing your creation. It's worth remembering though that it IS all held together by magnets, and it will come apart if you're too rough with it - however it's very quick to rebuild!


This toy is brilliant for expanding the imagination and encouraging children to go with the flow. It is excellent for independent play and my son wasn't frustrated by it, even when he presses too hard and accidentally dislodges half his creature. He instantly saw different ways to build and use the set, and they were easy for him to achieve, and as he gets older I can see that he'll make more complicated creatures and rather than focus mainly on entirely alien beings he'll be led to try and make different actual animals.



Kor Geomag are available in 2 ranges called Tazoo and Proteon and all sets are compatible and can be swapped around and used together. There are 2 different Tazoo Kor Geomags ~ Paco and Beto (land living green and sea living blue) and we were sent Paco. There are 5 different Proteon Kor Geomags which are a tougher range ready for battle and featuring more scope for weapons etc. All of the Proteon Kor Geomags have a distinctive 'environment' theme such as volcanic or swamp.

Kor Geomags start at around £25 and are available at independent toy stores, Harrods, Fenwicks and online at Amazon. If you want to keep up with Geomag you can do so on their Facebook page or their Website.

The Taming Of The Tights is the third book in the Misadventures of Tallulah Casey series by Louise Rennison. Following on from Withering Tights and A Midsummer Tights Dream, it's been available in hardback since before Christmas, and on January 2nd will be available in paperback format.  


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On the night of the 23rd we have a Christmas Party. We've had one ever since we all moved in together, so this actually our 7th year. This year, for the first time and very definitely hopefully not the last, we were joined by the 'Bury Blogging Massive', the group of bloggers who I am privileged to live closely enough to that we can all get together fairly regularly - although never before all in the same place at the same time!

Bury Family Life, Sims Life, RedRoseMummy, Me, Grumpyishmum, My Mummy's Pennies, Not Such A Yummy Mummy

It was all going swimmingly all day baking and preparing, but when I came to reheat sausage rolls and things at 7pm my oven didn't work! I cooked everything in the tiny top oven and this morning (feeling a little dishevelled) we were up at 7.30am with my partner dismantling the oven.



So tonight, while we have all of the children together, we had our Christmas dinner. The oven didn't let us down and thankfully we didn't have to start Googling 'how to barbeque an entire roast dinner'. I hope your Christmas dinner goes just as well....

They're far in distance, but never far. When I was pregnant and whenever we've needed them my partner's Mother has always been quick to remind me that she can be here in 4 hours. When I had my hernia operation in October 2012 they were here for a week to help with the children and the house.

2013 has been a fairly rubbishy year for us all healthwise and my partner's Mum Diana has borne the brunt of it. In July my partner's Dad had to be rushed to hospital for emergency surgery. While he was still recovering my partner developed Meningitis. Any parent knows that is one of your greatest fears and to be away from your son while they're so incredibly ill, however old they are, must have been horrific for her, especially coming so quickly after her husband being in danger.

In October and completely out of the blue, Diana had a stroke. She's recovered and is as well as before thankfully, but clearly a very worrying and hard time for her and my partner's Dad.

My partner's parents train their Shetland Ponies for riding and pulling a carriage, they teach children to ride and volunteer with youngsters with disabilities, the ponies are incredibly important to them, so I wanted to get something with a Shetland Pony on it. I instantly thought of a pendant, and after only 2 minutes looking I found exactly what I had in mind, ordered it and we were ready when they came to visit this weekend...

I don't enjoy shopping usually, but I was so incredibly lucky to win the Gingerbread House competition, and the Pumpkin Carving Challenge earlier in the year, and when I'd had a rest (and stopped crying) after my lovely day in hospital my partner and I blew all our winners vouchers on some more Christmas. It actually doesn't go so far per person when there are 9 of you, but we didn't get our Summer holiday or have any fun this Summer because of my partner's Meningitis, so we threw caution to the wind and went for it.

And today I've had deliveries all day...


And tonight I have to try and find somewhere to sleep....



In previous years we've hidden presents on top of and inside wardrobes, in the loft, under the bed, in the garage and all the usual places.

We've a VW campervan that we don't camp in much in December, and several times anything of little value has spent a week or two in the cupboards in there before Christmas and my partner has had to run down to the bottom of the garden and unload it on Christmas Eve - mainly in the snow!

We have a giant metal flight case as a surface for a TV and desktop PC, and one year when we had 4 children aged around 7-9 at that very inquisitive stage we filled that with the presents - which was great until we needed to move everything and get them out, and were caught taking apart the computer at 10pm by an 8 year old who wasn't feeling so well.

This year I'm not even going to pretend I can hide all this. All our hiding places are already full. We're just calling our room The Grotto and banning all children from entering or else they'll get coal for Christmas....

Luckily the little ones are not too bothered though because we managed to empty one of the giant boxes already, and as far as they're concerned the best toy there ever could be is already in the hallway for them to play with....and thankfully they haven't even wondered where it came from because they'll never believe this box had 'more cooking stuff for Mummy'....


Wherever you hide it - I hope they don't find it.....and if they do, I hope your split-second explanation is suitably ridiculous and unlikely...as mine pretty much always have been...

 

So there I was in hospital at 1.30pm, nothing to eat and only a cup of coffee and a glass of water since 11pm the night before, texting my partner and telling him I was really dehydrated and that the Surgeon was due to come and see me any minute.

And I waited. And I dehydrated. And my headache got worse. And my eyesight got blurry. And my phone started to run out of batteries so I had to switch it off.

At just after 3pm my Surgeon came to see me and for half an hour I felt a bit better. I'd got an arrow drawn on my leg and I was going to be asleep and out of pain very soon.

And I waited.

And at 4pm the Nursing shift changed and I spotted one of the Nurses glance around and shake her head at the other one.

The next hour was interminable. My prison cell room was so hot. My headache and eyesight got worse, my lips cracked and bleeding, I put my shoes on and leant my head against the window, ran the tap and put my face under it.

Then I could hear them on the phone asking for the Surgeon to come upstairs and explain to the 2 afternoon bookings himself.

Even if I'd been fully dessicated I'd have understood what that meant. It was 5.10pm.

I have to say I went to pieces at this point, my head was so painful, my blood sugar so low, and of course I'd had no painkillers either. I drank 2 glasses of water and the Nurse made me a brew.

And I didn't wait. If I'd had to walk all the way home in the dark and rain by myself I'd have done it because I needed to get out of there and I wasn't waiting for that Surgeon any longer. My partner came and met me at the hospital gate and then for the next hour I had to endure the most astonishing cramping of my life as the fluid started returning to my body.

When my Surgeon didn't return from lunch until 3pm, despite still having one of his morning patients to operate on before he started on the afternoon list, he can't have ever thought about the fact that we were waiting and uncomfortable. He can't have known that my partner had taken the day off work to drive me and look after our 3 year old. He can't have known that I have all those other children to look after. He can't have imagined the logistics involved in arranging people to pick up my 3 and 5 year olds from nursery and school for the next 2 days, or for getting my 16 year old to his college interview. He wouldn't have considered that I'd booked and paid for childcare before school for 2 days. He can't have realised I'd have so much more to do with my time than sit in hospital all day blinded and in agony from dehydration. He can't have known how scared I am about having to face Winter walking to school and back 3 times a day on icy streets when I am struggling so much, or how I wake up each night uncomfortable and can't get back to sleep. He can't have known that I can't drive because it leaves me in such pain it's not worth it, and he can't understand how hard it is to cook a meal for 7 or 8 every night when your leg hurts so much. He certainly can't have begun to understand that my partner is still recovering from his Meningitis, and he can't drive distances or stay awake every evening or help me as much as he'd like to.

He can't have known that one of my greatest wishes was sit on the floor and play with Lego with my kids on Christmas Day.

I hope he had a nice lunch.

I try and be crafty, but I'm not a natural and I have to think about it for a long time before I start as experience has taught me I'll end up wasting loads of lovely materials otherwise.

Cartridge Save have solved my problem by creating a whole host of free printables that you can make with your children ~ including loads of Christmas ideas for decorations and activities. I was asked if I wanted to try them out and they even sent me a bag of goodies to use...







There's a template to cut out, and you can fit 5 trees onto a piece of A4 sized card if you're careful.
2 trees make one 3D tree, and if you use paper or card that is only decorated on one side, you will need to put 2 pieces 'back to back' to give full colour.
 



While the glitter and decorations were drying we decided we'd make angels next. I love these because they remind me of being at infant school myself. We always made them in class. They're incredibly simple.





The card itself is made by taking A4 card and folding it in half, then taking coloured A4 paper, cutting it in half and trimming the edges slightly, so that when you stick it onto the card, you can see a white edge. We didn't trim ours enough really, and my sons choice was perhaps a bit pale for a Christmas card, I'd like to make the next one bright red or green. We decorated ours with lines and dots of glitter.






 





Before you fasten the second end of your cracker you need to fill it. These are totally personalised, so anything that fits can be used as long as it won't spoil or won't break if it falls on the floor when the cracker is pulled!I think adding some Christmas sprinkles and maybe a sweet or two makes it fun too.