Okido and Messy goes to Okido – Review

Posted on December 3, 2016 by Fiona Martin

Okido is not something I’d heard of before, but after mentioning it to my children they jumped in the air all excited telling me about this wonderful programme and the main character Messy. He visits the land of Okido to discover the answer to fun and interesting things.

wp_20161112_12_27_58_pro My little boy loves Okido it seems and was super excited with this Messy t-shirt. It’s a fun bright blue design with big white eyes and mouth that really stand out. It’s simple but effective and one of his favourite t-shirts at the moment.

okido-3 The magazines are brilliant, completely different to other children’s magazines out there. They come on matt, easy to write/colour on paper and have a quirky, stylish tone to them. Each one is themed, so for example the couple we tried out were themed on Emotions and Water. The theme is subtlety woven through the magazine, but each page makes reference to it and the child is learning without even thinking about it. There are a lot of things to do, read, learn about and to be honest my 6yr old was hooked and sat there working his way through the magazine with a little assistance when he needed to ask what he had to do.

okido-2 The activities are varied and interesting and can be simple puzzles or activities that make you think. Some such as The Cycle of Water, I talked through with my little boy but he absolutely loved learning about it and was talking about the pictures as we went through it.

Each magazine also comes with a cut and make activity in the centre, and the water one had a paper boat to make. My little boy is very proud of the boat he made! okido-4 I absolutely love these magazines and think they are brilliant for learning and fun. They are excellent value for money and hold my child’s attention throughout – he loves them, therefore I would definitely recommend them. Who’d of thought Messy goes to Okido could be such fun?

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest review.

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Magazine.co.uk subscriptions – great gift ideas!

Posted on September 2, 2015 by Fiona Martin

Magazine.co.uk is the UK’s leading magazine subscription website and it’s easy to see why. They have a huge range of magazines available full of celebrity gossip, health, fitness, cooking, lifestyle, kids interests and much more. There really is something for everyone as I found out when browsing the website.

I’ve been lucky to try out a few annual subscriptions for me and my family and you can catch up with my posts on the magazine.co.uk blog.

For me I love a bit of celebrity gossip and OK! magazine is just the thing that I can pick up and down inbetween dealing with the children. I’m also a fan of Red magazine, with real life stories, fashion and beauty, something I can enjoy when I’m on my own and can relax and read.

With an imminent house move I also love to read home magazines such as House Beautiful, Period Living and Ideal Home, in fact you are spoilt for choice with the selection of interior magazines.

There are some fun looking magazines for children, I know Miss M would love Animals & You and Mister B would enjoy Adventure Time or Batman.

Not forgetting the husband, I’m sure he’d love a subscription to something like Top Gear or Men’s Fitness.

What I like about magazine.co.uk is that you can get a whole year’s subscription to a magazine for cheaper than buying the magazines individually and also they get delivered direct to your door!

Why not check out the great selection today and take out a subscription – they make great gift ideas especially for birthday or Christmas, but also why not treat yourself?

Check out Magazine.co.uk

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Alphablocks Reading Programme – Review

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Fiona Martin

The Alphablocks Reading Programme consists of 15 magazines along with lots of extras such as flash cards, gold stars, Alphablock phonics tiles, stickers, games and more. It is aimed at young children aged around 4yrs old who are just beginning their journey into the world of phonics and learning to read.

The Alphablocks Reading Programme comes in 3 parts, each delivered to your door in in sets containing 5 magazines along with lots of extras. For a price of £39.99 plus p+p, I think this is very reasonable having seen what is included.

When we opened the first set, Mister B’s eye’s lit up at the array of goodies inside. He couldn’t wait to start looking at the magazines and doing the activities. He loves the Alphablocks from the television series and several DVD’s that we have so was immediately familiar with what he saw and due to the recent phonics lessons he’s been having at school, he was eager to pick out letters and sounds he knew and tell me them.

Mister B has just turned 4 but still at pre school until next September. Being one of the oldest in his class and quite able, he joins the foundation class for phonics lessons each morning, so the Alphablocks Reading Programme is a great way for me to build upon what he has learnt and encourage him to learn to read.

The magazines are packed full of fun phonics activities that completely captured Mister B’s attention, he was eager to work through them and found it fun. I was so thrilled when he blended some letters to create his first word. I then found some of the letter tiles really useful to make various three letter words that he could sound out and say.

The activities in the magazines are really varied to help maintain interest, from tracing letters, using stickers, colouring, to fun games and things to cut out. I really think they are perfect for us and are great to sit and do on the days we are at home together. We only do a few pages at a time to give Mister B time for all his new knowledge to sink in, but as long as he is enjoying it then I happy to sit and encourage him at home.

Alphablocks have really thought about this reading programme and it really seems to hit the mark with little ones. My children have always loved magazines so to incorporate the learning into a magazine style format has really worked. I do think the extras help as well, the learning tiles are great, and Mister B always has to use the Alphablocks pencil in his magazines!

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the reading programme in order to write the review.

DC Super Friends Magazine

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Fiona Martin

My children love magazines and are always lured by the toys on the front cover so when we received the brand new DC Super Friends magazine their eyes lit up eager to see what was inside. DC Super Friends is all about the world’s superheroes such as Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash and many more along side their baddies. The magazine is primarily aimed at young boys between 2-5 years old and every issue comes with a free toy.

The first issue comes with two communicators with switching screens which you can turn over to show different characters. Mister B was immediately drawn to these and couldn’t wait to pretend talking into them and spent the rest of the day carrying it around.

The DC Super Friends magazine is full of activities including a story, colouring in, observational puzzles, spot the difference, code puzzles and much more. There is also a making section to create a Batman mask and Batmobile by cutting and sticking onto card – great for little ones that love to make – I know my children do.

I think this magazine contains a great variety of activities for little ones to do, inspiring their imagination and lots of quick fire questions and observations to keep them alert and thinking about things. Mister B was fascinated by all the super heroes, Batman being his favourite the moment. He loved spotting Batman’s logo as we went though the magazine and asked me what others were that he didn’t already know. He also liked the page discussing colours and he went through each superheroes outfit telling me what the colours were.

Overall I think this is a lovely magazine for young boys, although at the younger age they will require supervision to complete this, but for me it is a nice activity for me to sit down and help Mister B with.

There’s also a couple of competitions included which you can get involved in to win superhero prizes so if you fancy trying a copy with your children when the DC Super Friends magazine goes on sale in the UK on the 19^th September 2013 which you can find in supermarkets and newsagents.

Good discounts are available for subscribers, details of which can be found at www.titanmagazines.com/superfriends and within the magazine itself.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.