Throwing a kid’s birthday party can be stressful. Your kid will want to have the best day and impress all their friends, which puts great pressure on you – not to mention the pressure you might feel from other parents. When a kid turns 5, they start to feel a lot more independent, and may have a bigger idea of what they want, which can be tricky. However, throwing a kid’s party can be easy if you set some rules and stick to them. So, how can you throw a great party for a five-year-old?
Tenable is a fun family board game, based on the popular ITV game show Tenable, where players have the opportunity to win up to 125,000 pounds. The show is hosted by Warwick Davis and has been running on ITV for three years, since 2016. Now with the Tenable board game, you can re-live the action and try out your own knowledge at home to see which of your family members will be the champion, and who will be ‘terrible at tenable’!
We were sent the Tenable board game to review, via the Asmodee Blogger Board Game Club and have enjoyed playing it together with the kids. The Tenable game is recommended as age 10+ but we found when playing as a family group that younger children are able to take part quite easily, you may just need to be selective on some of the topics to give them a better chance if some of the topics are beyond their knowledge base.
I’ve always enjoyed doing fun educational activities with my little ones at home, to help them develop their skills and just as a nice way to spend some calm and quiet quality time together. My Little Learner has a great range of products that make it easy to spend a few minutes doing this with your child, whether that may be helping them to learn to write their name, match their colours, or develop their vocabulary with picture flashcards.
I was sent a few products to try out with my two year old N, and she has had lots of fun exploring these at home.
Name Writing and Matching Mats
With the name writing mat, these are all personalised so of course you order your child’s name but you can choose whether to have first name and last name, or first name only. You can also choose what to have on the back of the mat as they are double sided, and you can choose what design you would like around the edge of the mat.
For N we went for a princess design around the edge, as that fits in with her interests so makes the mat more appealing. The writing mats are all wipe clean, whether you choose a name writing mat, or other mats such as shape writing, pen control with lines to follow (like wavy, zig zags and so on) or an ABC or number writing mat. This makes it easy for your child to practise over and over again without any pressure, as it can be wiped off and re done as many times as they would like. It also saves on paper!
Have you heard of 44 Cats? It’s a fun TV show for young children on Nick Jr, and it has also just been released onto the POP TV Channel on Freeview, so that even more children can watch.
The series concentrates of four cats, named Lampo, Milady, Meatball and Pilo who play together in their band called the Buffycats. Along with lots of catchy music, the show has good morals for little ones as each episode has an underlying message of friendship, diversity and helping others. Each episode of 44 Cats is under 15 minutes long – an ideal length for younger viewers like my 2 year old, N.
Looking for good quality ideas for Christmas presents, and want to select something with developmental benefits that your child will get a lot out of all year round? The Good Toy Guide is a great resource, and now they have brought out this years 2019 Christmas Good Toy Guide.
The guide is brought to you by the independent experts at Fundamentally Children, and aims to help you find the perfect toy for your child. The Christmas Good Toy Guide includes over 50 #GoodToys, all tested by children and endorsed by experts, so you know it’s a review you can trust.
The guide is available as a paper catalogue, or online via the website, and we have been having a little browse…
In addition to the paper catalogue seen above, you can also check out this years Christmas Good Toy Guide online at their website www.christmasgoodtoyguide.com, which is really user friendly and easy to browse the age categories you can see below. If you want to think outside of the box this year, you could also check out their suggestions of alternative gifts which has some brilliant ideas.
Gold coast is a city on the coast of Australian state Queensland located at around 66 kilometers southeast of the Brisbane state capital. It is a leading business, events, and Tourism City in Australia, and it is commonly known for its white-sand beaches that stretch 57 Kilometers of the coastal line. It is also known for its beautiful parks, gold coast hinterlands top restaurants and luxurious hotels.
Weaning is one of the most exciting stages in every baby’s development, where they can start to play a bigger part of the family as they get stuck in at mealtimes, and learn the useful skills and movements that come with eating and feeding yourself.
While lots of us might have been used to the old spoon-as-a-helicopter routine when we were growing up, baby-led weaning has been taking the lead in recent years, giving your babies a chance to play and discover food themselves.
Those first steps at getting to grips with meal-time can seem a little daunting, but by paying attention to a few key things, you can make weaning fun and stress-free activity.
Laser hair removal is one of the most effective hair removal techniques if one is looking at a long term solution. It has been gaining acceptance steadily as technology has also improved over the last few decades. It is one of the few good options of removing hair almost permanently. It might appear to be expensive when you compare it to more conventional methods like shaving or waxing. However, if you add up the cost those methods are going to incur in the long run you would realize that laser is the cheaper option. A session of laser hair removal in London would not cost you much higher eventually it depends on the area one intends to cover.
The Live Action remakes that Disney have been making in recent years have been a huge hit in our house, and The Lion King was no different. Now this fantastic family film is out to watch at home, in digital or blu-ray / dvd so I’m sure we will be watching it again and again! If you did not see it in the cinema, then it’s definitely worth picking up a copy so that you don’t miss out.
In The Lion King, pioneering filmmaking techniques bring treasured characters to life in a whole new way. Simba idolizes his father, King Mufasa, and takes to heart his own royal destiny. But not everyone in the kingdom celebrates the new cub’s arrival. Scar, Mufasa’s brother — and former heir to the throne — has plans of his own. The battle for Pride Rock is ravaged with betrayal, tragedy and drama, ultimately resulting in Simba’s exile. With help from a curious pair of newfound friends, Simba will have to figure out how to grow up and take back what is rightfully his. The all-star cast includes Donald Glover as Simba, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter as Nala, James Earl Jones as Mufasa, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar, Seth Rogen as Pumbaa and Billy Eichner as Timon.
To celebrate the home release of The Lion King, we have some fun activity sheets to share with you. My daughter and I had lots of fun colouring and doing these activities together before watching the movie (use the link at the bottom of this post to download the files)
The Lion King Colouring Pages
Enjoy colouring lots of scenes and characters from the movie The Lion King!
Over October half term, we spent a couple of days in Stratford-upon-Avon, staying at the Hallmark Hotel Stratford-upon-Avon The Welcombe who had invited us to come along and try out their hotel (Ad). This was our first time in Stratford-upon-Avon, and being so close to London it made an ideal city to visit for a short break.
We found plenty in the area to keep our family entertained, and with The Welcombe having a selection of seven self catering apartments within their hotel this made it an ideal place to stay in comfort with our gang of kids. We had the space to spread out in our apartment, but also the convenience of the facilities within the hotel (the swimming pool being the highlight for the kids.) The Welcombe is a Grade II* listed 19th century neo-Jacobean mansion, so there is plenty of history and style for the adults to appreciate too!
Things to do in Stratford-upon-Avon
The Hallmark Welcombe Hotel is a short stroll or drive to the centre of Stratford-upon-Avon, where you can find lots to see and do. Of course, Stratford-upon-Avon is home to William Shakespeare and this is a huge draw for tourists. When you visit the town centre, you can’t miss all of the landmarks such as Shakespeare’s birthplace, family homes, school and theatre.