As part of our “get Mini to go to bed and stay in bed and go to sleep action plan“, we have been working on providing him with the best bedroom we can for him right now.  We last changed Mini’s room and decorated it when he was two and we moved the boys from cot-beds in to childrens beds and he will be six in June, so it was high time to review his needs and wants.

As far as furniture goes we are all happy with his current wardrobe and bed and really there isn’t much more room for him to fit anything else in, other than the fact that both the boys want childrens desks, which we have agreed too finding for them.

One of Mini’s biggest wants was the ability to read his books in bed and for us to be able to read him bedtime stories in his room rather than downstairs.  Now I should say at this point that Mini has a cabin style bed, so this is not as easy as it sounds, especially on a tight budget. So what have we done?  Well we have placed a small shelf by his bed and placed a desk lamp on it, so that we can angle the light and this enables both of us to be able to read without straining our eyes and we have also added a little nose thing, which holds his glasses too. We have also agreed to update his room to have a London theme and we are going to be doing this without redecorating (so stay tuned for a post on this in the coming weeks)

 Disclosure: Sponsored Post

If you had asked me BC (before children) what my favorite holiday was, it would be a lot different to my favorite holiday now we have children, so when the Tots100 was asking bloggers to post about their favorite holiday in order to win a summer holiday from Thomson Al Fresco. I decided to tell you a tale of two holidays.

South Africa 2003

Hemley on Thames 2009

This post is an entry to the Tots100/Al Fresco Holidays competition.

As part of the Verbaudet bloggers team we get to review a children’s clothes every quarter and this time it was Mini’s turn.  Verbadet have a great range of stylish boys clothes,  and Mini spent quite a while online looking for what the ideal clothes for him.  Unlike Maxi, who is happy to wear anything as long as it doesn’t have a tag to rub, Mini is a choosy customer!

Eventually he decided upon Ruby shirt and trousers outfit , which has passed the “noise with muck on” challenge.  Mini can get out of the bath and be filthy 5 minutes later, so his clothes has to withstand this, along with many many more challenges.  My only negative comment on this outfit is the sizing, I bought a six to seven for Mini, who is five and a half and he will not get much wear out of it size wise, other than that it is great.  It has watched well without getting out of shape, all stains have come off and it has gone though the dryer too.

I love that Verbaudet has some clothes that you will not see on the high street.  They are a great price, his outfit was £23, but is currently reduced to £11.50.

So you even know what it means?  Well, have you ever left the house and had to return as you were worried that you had left the iron on or some other appliance?    New Research by British Gas found that 30 million Britons suffer from ‘appliance anxiety’ and can worry for up to 80 minutes each week about leaving appliances – such as boilers, irons and hair strengtheners – switched on when they’ve left the house.

Now I am going to admit that I have been known to do this occasionally with the iron, in fact I have ruined a pretty new iron by leaving it on all day.  But the average hosehold wastes £150 a year by leaving the boiler on and annually £740 million a year is lost due to applications being left on standby.

British Gas has introduced the Smart Meter in order to try and reduce the energy and money wasted by people leaving appliances on.    The next generation smart meter from British Gas has a traffic light system that indicates when appliances are switched on.

So a quick check of the smart meter as you’re running out of the door in the morning is all it takes to see if everything is switched off, giving you back time spent worrying on the journey into work and saving you money to spend elsewhere.

So British Gas have offered an auto shut off iron for one of my readers to win (worth over £80).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My boys are character clothing mad.  I have to say I am not, but I do not mind giving in now and again, so when Argos asked it the boys would like to review their clothing range I said yes please and let the boys lose with their favorite book (yes Mini even sleeps with the Argos catalogue).  The boys chose a jog pants and top set each, Mini a Harry Potter set for £15.99 and Maxi a Mario Jogging set , whic was £15.99 too.

Neither of the boys had jogging pants, but I have to say that they both love them.  The sets are perfect for popping on when they get home from school before swimming.  They both have washed very well and even gone through the tumble dryer.    I think that they are both great value for money and they love wearing them.  They are both made of quite heavy fabric, so are warm and perfect for this time of year.   I love the fact that they can put them on themselves easily, with no buttons or anything and it makes life really easy.  They love the characters.

Mini at swimming in his jogging outfit

In addition to the jogging suits, they both for a character Rugby shirt each (currently on offer under £12 each), which is a lot smarter and looks great with jeans.  I would have never considered Argos for clothes before, but certainly will now.

Maxi enjoying a treat in his Mario Rugby Shirt

Disclosure: We were provided with free samples of the clothes.

When people say Interflora to you, is the first thing that comes to mind is flowers.  It is with me.  However, more and more Interflora are being providers of many more things than just flowers.  We were lucky enough to receive a hamper from them before Christmas which was great.

It would have been my Mum and Dad’s wedding anniversary this month and I know that my mum would have loved their anniversary gifts, yes there are flowers, but you can also choose from wine and lovely heart shaped biscuits too, which can be personalised.

We often buy my Mother in Law flowers, especially when we lived at the other end of the country to her.    However, Interflora have not just stopped at flowers, they have a lovely Heavenly scents gift box, which is filled with treats my Mother in Law would love making them the perfect gifts for her birthday.

Another thing I like is that they try to make things easy for the men, as they give them some ideas, so that they can pick an event and then be provided with a list of options.

One of the great things for me about interflora, is that no matter where you are in the country Interflora guarantees you a set standard.  You know that you can look at the flowers and that is what you will get no matter where you are in the country.

My children love London,  They are lucky to have been on many short trips to out nations capital and it really has started to show.  This term Maxi’s topic is London and The London Olympics 2012.  He has taken to this enthusiastically and came home earlier int e week and asked if he could go on the computer too look up what the Olympic rings stood for.  I asked him where he planned to look and he told me he would do a google search.  Wo my boys is 6 years old and already knows about Google and how to do a search, so I watched with awe as he took over my PC and searched and found his answer.

He then sat at the dinning table and drew the Olympic rings (he didn’t even need to check which colours went where) and wrote that the rings represented the five continents of the world coming together and then listed the continents.    This really got me thinking, the Olympics are a real opportunity for our children to explore the world and learn all about new counties and cultures, they are an exciting thing for me, so for my boys they are beyond all that I could imagine.  It also got me thinking on how to engage children in learning.  I didn’t prompt Maxi in any way shape or form.

So I am going to take this opportunity to experience the Olympics for the viewpoint of my children, who are hungry for information and learning and make the most of what is bound to be a very special year for London and the UK.

]]> http://www.muminthemadhouse.com/2012/01/17/using-current-affairs-to-engage-children/feed/ 4 http://www.muminthemadhouse.com/2012/01/17/using-current-affairs-to-engage-children/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/muminthemadhouse/nYQP/~3/JVB78NzYrPg/ http://www.muminthemadhouse.com/2012/01/15/when-your-child-just-doesnt-want-to-go-to-sleep/#comments Sun, 15 Jan 2012 13:59:29 +0000 Mum in the Madhouse http://www.muminthemadhouse.com/?p=3157

What do you do when you have a child that just refuses to go off to sleep?  I wish I knew.  Maxi has always gone to bed like a dream and when his head hits that pillow he is off in the land of Nod till six am ish.  Mini, however, is another story.  He needs his sleep and is a monster without it, as most children are, but he has this ability to fight going off to sleep.

It started when he was around 3 years old and I put a lot of it down to the fact that I had been in and out of hospital and made allowances for him and for me. But the fact is he is five and a half and still doesn’t want to go to bed on a night and will make every excuse under the sun to stay up or find a reason to get up.  My tummy is hurting, I have earache, I am hold, I am hot, I need a drink, I am hungry, I am scared and so on and so on.  The fact is that both me and MadDad had let it go on to long and we were tired.  Tired of the relentless taking him back up to bed, tired of not having our evenings together, tired of one or the other giving in and cuddling Mini either upstairs or downstairs and just plain exhausted by it all.

We have tried everything, we have books in his bedroom for him to read, no screen time after 6pm, lavender in his room, blackout blinds and a nightlight too.  It is not a matter of him just staying in his room, it is a matter of him actually going to sleep and getting  enough rest.

So inspired by my great bloggy friend Kelly, who has stood firm with Piran and changed bedtimes for the better, we decided that we needed to provide a united front and soldier on with a bedtime routine and stick to it.  Having used a relax kids CD in the past to help with Mini’s anger management issues, we downloaded an MP3 about wizards (mini is Harry Potter mad), drew a reward chart together and made some firm rules.  Mini could get his reward, a special Olympic London bus once he had filled each window with a smiling face.  It is early days yet, but I have high hopes.

How do you deal with a child that just will not go to sleep?

Earlier in the week I attended the funeral of a woman who inspired and nurtured me as a teen.  She died on Christmas Eve, just like my mum last year and it was a pretty surreal experience.  She had been ill for a short while, even so her death came as a complete shock to me, some people you think are just invincible.

I do not think that there are enough words in this world to describe the inspirational woman, who has left us all.  There was not even standing room at the funeral and when the whole of the congregation stood to sing Don Williams, You’re my best friend I could almost feel her stood smiling on insisting that we were not flat and to sign from our tummy.  I managed to hold it together right until the end when Her husband Johnnie stood as they played  Marty Robbins, My Woman, my Woman my Wife, everyone then clapped as they closed the curtains at the crematorium.

She was a special woman for many reasons to may people as she ran the local Junior Jazz Band when I was young, so there were lots of people there who I grew up with, but haven’t seen in more that 20 years.  It was really odd to not recognise these people, when everyone kept coming up to me and recognised me.  I tried to explain that having relocated in my early 20′s I really didn’t recognise a lot of them, that they had changed through the years and that only the ones I kept in contact with where the ones that I recognised.

M took me under her wing when I left home at 16 and didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, she provided me with council and guidance during some difficult teenage times and not once did she ever judge me.  She welcomed me in to her family and her home and will always hold a huge place in my heart.  Not only sis she provide me with a bed, she also provided me with the comfort and stability I needed during these times.  She was one of the first people I took MadDad to meet after we got together. I remember walking round her garden in Spring 18 years ago whilst she quizzed him as only she could get away with and I remember her face beaming at me from the aisle in the Church when we got married.

She always lead by example and never did anything by half’s and has left behind a loving family, who certainly did her proud.  Her four daughters and two sons, stood up and sang loud and proud for their mum.  So here to you, M.  Your legacy will continue for a long, long time.

Dressing up is a whole different game now to what is was when I was growing up in the 70′s.  Back then there was no such thing as a ready made dressing up outfit.  My mum went to great lengths to make sure we had ready made fancy dress outfits for the inevitable fancy dress show that we would attend when we were camping!  She would turn newspapers into paper boys and girls, cardboard boxes in to dice and domino’s and a cardboard box and a loo roll became an roll of Andrex.  She even made post boxes out of cardboard and painted them all red.    Today things are so different, often someone will pack a fancy dress theme and then all you need to do is find a ready made outfit.

I also wonder if fancy dress is just going out of fashion.  A couple of years ago there would always been loads of entrants in the club fancy dress party.  This year you would have been lucky to find 10 children dressed up and each and everyone of them (Mini included) was in a dressing up outfit.

Is this a sad sign of the times?  Did your parents make you fancy dress outfits.  When you were at University, did you scour the charity shops when an invite called for dressing up in 80′s fancy dress outfits or did you search the internet for a company you could buy one from?

I know that we are often time short these days, but now that financially times are hard, will you resort to making dressing up outfits for your children or will you buy them?   I know that looking back on my childhood, it is the outfits my mum made with love sweat and often tears that I remember fondly.  (Evil brother has all the photo’s, but I am sure he will scan one on for me, so I can add it to the this post)!