In the UK children under 16 are all entitled to free eye care, including FREE EYE TESTS, but not everyone uses it, in fact 1 in 10 people don't take their children for a regular eye test. We are working in a paid collaboration with Optical Express to show that taking your child for an eye test is easy, quick and entirely painless - in fact my children have always seen it as something of an adventure!


In their 2019 survey, Optical Express found that children are using screens for an average of 4 hours a day, twice as much time as was reported only 2 years ago. This is leading to an increase in headaches and can also influence the development of short sightedness. Some estimates suggest that by 2050 half of the world’s population will be myopic.

We visited the Optical Express store inside intu Trafford Centre, Manchester for our free children's eye test. Booking is essential. I booked my eye test online and received a follow up call, when I was able to give more information about my son and his health.


f your child has a vision or eye health problem, the earlier you catch it, the less they will fall behind their friends. Many eye conditions can be corrected permanently or changes made so that your child has an easier life. It has a massive effect on confidence.

It's almost Summer and a great time to get children outdoors and learning about where fruit and vegetables come from and how they are grown. We're working in a paid partnership with Sudocrem to promote gardening in schools and show just what a difference it can make.


In a recent survey, 90% of children said that they would like a garden at school. The whole process of planting and raising plants includes maths, science and a host of other subjects, as well as giving your child skills for life. Enjoying and even eating the end results will give anyone a real sense of pride - plus the fresher the produce, the more vitamins and flavour it has!

This Summer Sudocrem are donating 20 Get Out and Grow Kits worth £160 to UK schools and I'm delighted to say I will be giving one of them away on this blog. The kits contain everything the school needs to make a start with their own garden, including children’s wheelbarrows, gardening gloves, mini-trowels, seeds and lessons on how to make the most of a school garden.

Last week Yard And Coop invited us over to review and as we all had a few days off, it was perfect timing. Specialists in chicken, but with a menu that looked equally interesting to me as a vegetarian, we were really looking forward to it and I'm pleased to say we absolutely were not disappointed.


The visit got off to a great start before we even got inside, because the artist Qubek / Mural Life was busy painting their outside wall. He's responsible for some awesome images around Manchester, including two of the most poignant and well-remembered after the Arena bomb. It was amazing timing that wasn't lost on my 9 year old.



Inside the Yard And Coop is huge and spaciously laid out with a range of different seating and tables to suit anyone, or any number. You could have an intimate 2 person meal here or an office party with 35 people and it would be perfect. We were offered a corner booth with a big sofa and loads of windows and gladly accepted.

My entire household love Big Potato Games. They make and distribute slightly more grown up games, with an element of adult humour and understanding that makes them ideal for teenagers and young people, or for playing together with your older children. We've been sent Dan and Phil's Truth Bombs to review. A 14+ rated game for 4-8 players which is incredibly easy to play straight out of the box and it's a massive hit here.


Inside the box you have everything you need to play: 70 double-sided Question Cards, 7 Coloured Card Mats, 160 'Target' (or Answer) Sheets, 8 Pencils, A Scorepad and the very short Rules.


The double-sided Question Cards have print repeated upside down at the opposite end - like a playing card, you can read from either side of the table. This stops everyone constantly picking them up to read them. Genius move.

I'm a bit late with my Reviews Revisited posts for April - naively I assumed my operation and recovery would go swimmingly and I didn't get them written in advance - there's a lesson there...

Here is a look back at items we've reviewed during April since the blog started in 2013. The cream of the crop, the things I've loved and the items that simply turned out to be so much better than I ever imagined. I'm not including the turkeys because who needs reminding about something that wasn't as good as expected or broke 3 weeks later...


Back in 2013 I reviewed one of my own personal dream toys. I was given a hefty discount in return for a review, but I'd have done one anyway because the Wonderworld Eco-House is still one of my favourite toys ever.


It's had many, many hours of play and aside from a couple of repairs to the water butt and windmill, it's pristine. One for my Grandchildren.

This month's review for Asmodee's Blogger Boardgame Club is the gorgeous Blue Lagoon. We were sent this family strategy game a few weeks ago, so we were able to play with one of the big kids who was home for Easter. Suitable for 2 to 4 players aged 8+, the aim of the game is to spread out and colonise as much of the board as possible and then collect the resources necessary to keep your population happy.


Inside the box are lot of different elements, including 1 board, 4x5 wooden 'villages', 32 wooden resources, 4 x 30 settlers tokens, score pad, instructions and a little drawstring cloth bag for storage of resources.


This is a gorgeous game and it feels lovely to play with. The resources are wooden shapes that are not entirely obvious at first, but that's half the fun. Left to right: Coconuts (food), Precious Stones (money), Water (H2O), Statuettes (religious icons) and Bamboo (shelter).

Wild Nature Press have two excellent book releases for children this spring and they've sent us a copy of each for review, plus I'll be giving away a copy to one of my readers. Amazing Pets & How To Keep Them is a beautiful hardback large scale book written by Stewart McPherson, and crammed with information and full colour images.

Perfect for any young nature lover, Amazing Pets lets you explore some of the more exotic and usual small creatures you can keep in your own home, sensibly and ethically, and gives you an idea of just what you'd need to look after them...


Recommended for readers aged around 8-12, Amazing Pets is split into sections, starting with 'Golden Rules'. This is a serious book for people who care about creatures and it's right that it starts with some simple rules to prevent anticipated errors which might end very badly.

Wild Nature Press have two excellent book releases for children this spring and they've sent us a copy of each for review, plus I'll be giving away a copy to one of my readers. Gorgeous large scale hardbacked books full of information and colour images, they're perfect for any youngster who wants to 'grow your own'. Spectacular Plants covers exactly what you'd imagine - the strangest, oddest, most colourful and carnivorous plants you can grow at home...


Perfect for readers aged around 8-12, even the contents page is exciting. This Royal Horticultural Society endorsed book starts with an explanation of how plants feed, grow and reproduce and then plants are split into sections:

Carnivorous Plants, Unbelievable Flowers, World's Smelliest Flowers, Funky Fruit & Veg, Sensitive Plants and then Unbelievable Spectacular Plants (including record breakers).

Dreamtex are a name you may not recognise, but I bet you've seen their excellent quality home textiles in store or even in your home. They work with licenses from some of the biggest names in TV, print, game and film, and are committed to corporate social responsibility, working with Sedex & Oeko-Tex approved factories, to ensure that international ethical standards are constantly met.


My boys have had some awesome bedding over the years, but they're getting bigger now and some of their tastes are changing. They've been sent reversible Fallout and ISA NASA bedding and I'm quite jealous. I'd happily have either of these on my own bed.


Fallout has been a big hit here for well over 10 years and most of us have played at least Fallout 3 to the end (I got the completist's favourite, the Platinum Trophy - this is one of my proudest moments). This duvet set really is excellent.

Yes it's true! One of the biggest sweet names in the UK has increased and revamped their vegetarian range just in time for National Vegetarian Week, and they've very kindly sent us a bundle to try. As the only vegetarian currently living in our house full time, I'm claiming these as mine!!


The Giant Strawbs Gone Mini are a brand new addition to the range, the flavours of the Jelly Beans have been tweaked and Funny Mix has a new recipe with real fruit juice.

It was down to me to take on the difficult job of taste testing... and I did get the view of a regular HARIBO eater as well. He's been eating HARIBO for 25 years and his informed opinion was "They taste the same as the non-vegetarian ones". So there you have it...