The perils of teaching your kids stuff

A festive Christmas puppet show? What fun! Of course we were going to go.

The puppeter was ace. Full of songs and laughs for the kids and us adults were also quite enjoying ourselves (or as much as possible at 11am on a Saturday after an unexpected amount of wine on Friday night). The story was unfolding before us - we were on a hunt for Father Christmas who, as we all know, lives in the North Pole. We had started off somewhere hot ('ancient egypt' suggested Luke) but were obviously getting closer to the prize as the temperature fell. Ah hah, here we were now, lots of ice and  obviously cold stuff. There was even a song about penguins.

"Excuse me"

I know this excuse me. It comes from my middle child and generally heralds a point of logic so brilliant that there is no adult defense.

"He's going the wrong way. Penguins live in the south pole and we want to go to the north pole."

Yup, no defense for the puppeter.. and one proud Mummy trying not to show it.

Review: Garden Games Jumbo 4 Connect

Would we like to review a Giant Connect 4? You betcha!

I knew the boys would love this, and they predictably did. Adam, at 6 1/2, is into the game and wants to play it properly. Particularly he wants to play it and tell me where to put my counter so he can win. He hasn't yet realised that his mother is a ninja at Connect 4 and she can read his every move. Maybe I ought to let him win more.

Luke, at nearly 5, hasn't really got the hang of the actual game. Instead he spends hours making pretty patterns out of the counters. But he enjoys it and is very proud of his creations. Sam prefers to wing the counters across the room but then he is only 1 so we'll forgive him just this once.

That's not the half of the way in which the boys like to play with this giant garden game. The side bits are very effective guns whilst the bottom part (which holds the counters in place) is in fairly constant use as a lance. The joy is that putting the game together is so easy that even the boys can manage it. Locating all the counters from their various hiding places is less quick, but at least the game comes with a bag to store them all in.

From a grown up point of view, this game also works well if you have an outside space to put it in. It's too big to live inside really. That said, it will store neatly, with the counters either making a pretty pattern in the game or stored neatly in the proper bag. It is well constructed and solid enough to bear the nature of an inquisitive toddler.

Overall I do like this toy and we will get much more use out of it in the summer and when the boys are a little older and both understand the concept of the Connect 4 game. Retailing at £ 99 from Garden Games it is a little dearer than I would like, but most things are. A well made toy, with ample scope for creative play* as well as learning a classic strategy game, I'd recommend.

*I'm on a mission to look at the boisterous behaviour in a positive light. Can you tell?

This is a sponsored post for which I received a Garden Games Jumbo 4 Connect Game retailing at £99 to review and keep

A new Olympic Sport

Driving along in the car, 3 boys in the back, having a discussion about the Olympics.

'Is running in the Olympics?'

 yes

'Is jumping in the Olympics?'

yes

'swimming?'

yes


'Is shouting loudly?'

errr

'lets practice, maybe we can win the shouting loudly competition'

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

(suffice to say 3 boys training for the Shouting Loudly Olympic Gold in the back of the car does not a happy mother make)

Never saw my hometown - until I stayed away too long

I've been away. On holiday. Without the kids.

It was magic. Some old friends, lots of laughing, reliving of classic stories and putting the world to rights. We climbed mountains. We drank wine. We wondered how we had managed to get to our ripe old age as surely we had only graduated last year.

We weren't away for long, but long enough for me to remember what it is that I love about home. In the day to day drudgery of trying to stay afloat I can forget what is so great. As I sat on the bus on the way home from the airport, suddenly desperate to see my boys, this song came up on my ipod. It totally summed it up for me. Never heard a melody until I needed the song.