Reward charts from Miggins & B – Review

Posted on February 2, 2016 by Fiona Martin

Reward charts are something I’ve used at various times over the last few years with my young children but finding one that works, keeps the child interested and is durable for multiple uses is often hard to find. Miggins & B have come up a set of reward charts that are fun, durable and a little bit different to other ones that I’ve seen and tried.

We received the “Blast Off” themed reward chart to try out with 5yr old Mister B. One of the biggest things I’m trying to tackle with him at the moment is tidying up! He forever leaves a trail of toys across the floor, particularly little bitty ones that he has several boxes for, so I thought I’d start using the chart to encourage him to tidy up.

The chart arrived rolled up, and being made of a lightweight pvc, this unrolled immediately and was flat, ready to hang on the back of one of our doors. Accompanying the chart is a sheet of adhesive backed vinyl stickers that stick well to the chart but are also easily removable, enabling the chart to be used again and again. The chart is A2 in size and easily wipeable making it a durable piece.

Here is Mister B with his first sticker, a little green alien. What I like about this chart is that the child can choose whereabouts they wish to put the stickers and it allows them to make up their own adventure. Here Mister B has put the alien on top of the red planet.

Not only that but there is a grey space at the bottom of the chart where you can stick all the stickers and when the child gets one, they just take it from the bottom and place it higher up. This way the stickers can’t be lost and it keeps everything in one place.

The chart comes with a total of 20 stickers with one being larger than the rest, in this case it is the rocket booster which can be the final sticker that the child earns each time. Mister B loved this concept and has made his own unique story each time he’s gone through the chart and is always eager to make the rocket blast off into space.

Here is his first adventure, apparently all the spaceman and aliens had got stuck on the planets and had to make a chain back down to the rocket!

The ultimate challenge was to get the rocket booster which meant that the chart was complete and Mister B would then get the chocolate coin that awaited him.

Look how proud he is of finally achieving his goal and I can honestly say we have had a much more tidier and helpful little boy around the house this past week – a big success!

Miggins & B have a variety of charts available to suit different children such as football, dinosaurs, flowers, fairies and horses. If you are looking to encourage better behaviours in your child then do pop over and check them out as a better behaved child makes for a happier household!

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

Christmas 4000 Sticker Activity Book – Review

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Fiona Martin

Christmas 4000 Sticker Activity Book from Parragon is the perfect way to keep kids occupied over the festive season. With a jam packed book bursting with pages to keep little ones entertained and an exceptional array of stickers in the middle, every child will be keen to dig in and explore what there is to do.

The multitude of pages really does cover every kind of activity, from colouring to dot to dot, mazes, spot the difference, various drawing activities as well as loads of pictures for you to stick your stickers!

If your kids love stickers, then they certainly won’t be disappointed. There are many pages in all different sizes and shapes, but importantly they are brightly filled with festive images to create wonderful pictures with. I love the little gingerbread men skiing as well as a full set of stickers to recreate a nativity scene, including Mary, Joseph, shepherds, kings and of course baby Jesus. My little boy was particularly fond of these as he has recently perfomed his first nativity at school, so was excited to show me the scene on paper with these stickers.

This book is action packed and has hours of activities in it, well worth getting to fill any spare time over the next few weeks!

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

Busy Busy Things That Go 2000 Stickers Book – Review

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Fiona Martin

Busy Busy Things That Go 2000 Stickers by Parragon Books is an activity book to keep little ones occupied. Filled with eight pages of stickers and lots of background pages, you can create many scenes using the prompts provided or your imagination as my 4 yr old loved to!

This book is packed full of colour pages for to put the stickers on with lots of transport style scenes to get you going. In the centre are eight pages of stickers with all sorts of people, vehicles and accessories on to add to the scene pages.

What I really liked about the scene pages, is that they are full of prompts as to what sort of stickers to add to the page. There are also questions, asking children to find certain things or draw in an additional item and also a few puzzle pages. Mister B really enjoyed looking for the stickers he needed for each page. I sat with him and asked him any questions that were on each page and he enjoyed spotting things as well. He loves the transport theme of the book.

Due to the size and numerous pages in this book, it can be revisited many times to complete it all. It really is a fun sticker book for pre schoolers and ideal for both at home or to take on holiday with you. I always like to have something to hand to occupy the children should we have a rainy day or have some spare time, and this book would be just the thing for my 4 yr old.

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

Glitterbelle Princess Books – Review

Posted on February 8, 2015 by Fiona Martin

Glitterbelle is a new princess from Parragon books who loves to sparkle. The range of Glitterbelle books includes a story book and various activity books. We received a couple of activity books for Miss M to try out and they didn’t disappoint. Beautifully designs and excellent quality have meant they have been a great hit with us.

The Glitterbelle Dazzling Dress Up book is a really lovely combination of a story along with a sticker book, in which you dress up Glitterbelle and her friends Dazzlina and Angel in different outfits on each page depending on what’s happenning in the story. There are four pages of very pretty, glittery stickers in the centre containing all the outfits they need from dresses, skirts, tops, trousers, shoes and lots of other accessories. This is a really lovely dress up book that I’d highly recommend.

Glitterbelle Me and You is a lovely padded covered book with a purple, glittery elastic strap to keep the book closed. It is in face a diary, a place to write your secrets, answer questions, list your favourite things etc. The diary has full colour pages prompting you with things to write, boxes to tick and documenting facts about you, such as pets, hobbies and best friends.

This diary is perfect for Miss M who is 7 as she loves writing little things down and this keeps her occupied independently. She keeps it by her bed and likes to fill in a few bits at bedtime. She also loved the dress up book with the stickers and again could enjoy it competently on her own, reading the story as she went so she knew which outfit stickers to use on each page.

I think these would make a lovely gift for either a young girl who could do the activity books assisted by a grown up or for a slightly older girl of around 6 or 7 years who can enjoy them independently.

I love the Glitterbelle range of books from Parragon, why not take a look and see what you think?

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

Disney Wall Vinyls Light and Clock Review

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Fiona Martin

Disney is always a hit in our house and Worlds Apart have a fabulous range of wall vinyls to decorate children’s bedrooms including clocks, night lights, doorbells, wall hooks and light switch stickers. My children were lucky to get to try out the Disney Planes Lumiglow and the Disney Princess Tick Tock clock.

Mister B has recently been asking for a light on at night and the Disney Planes Lumiglow seemed like the perfect option. A light that he could make come on by himself and give a soft glow in his bedroom, but goes off again after two minutes.

The Disney Planes light comes with 50 wall stickers to create a scene around the light. There is a large background sticker to use as the backdrop for the light and other smaller stickers to decorate as you wish. The light requires 3 AA batteries to work which are easily put in the back of the nightlight. The light also cleverly sticks to the wall using velcro sticky pads, meaning you can easily take the light off to change the batteries.

The stickers are of a good quality and stick easily and well to to the wall, although you can peel off and re stick should you need to. Mister B decided he only wanted a few plane stickers around the light and the others have been dotted across his bedroom! The light is very easy to activate requiring a simple clap, loud voice or other noise. You can also touch it lightly and it comes on.

Mister B loves his new night light and has shown every visitor to our house his special light. He loves being able to switch it on like magic and it’s been a great incentive to get him up to bed at night. It gives a really soft, gentle glow which is great as it allows him to drop off to sleep with the knowledge that it will switch itself off after two minutes!

The Disney Princess Wall Clock from Worlds Apart has been a huge hit with Miss M who is currently learning how to tell the time. It comes with 50 accessory stickers to decorate the wall, creating a pretty fairytale scene. The main sticker is a fairytale castle tower with princesses at the bottom that forms the backdrop to the clock.

The clock requires 1 AA battery and can then be stuck to the tower using velcro sticky pads for easy removal. The scene stickers include clouds, hearts, flowers, trees, butterflies and more. There are also the 12 number stickers that enable you to tell the time, these even glow in the dark which Miss M loves. The size of this clock on the wall along with all the stickers really does make this a feature on the wall rather than just a clock, brightening up any young girls room.

Miss M has this clock on the wall to the side of her bed and loves being able to look up at the time in the morning, she just about knows her half and quarter pasts, so we are now trying to learn the rest.

I think both of these vinyl wall products from Worlds Apart are lovely, being both wall decoration but also functional with the clock and the light. They look good, the children love them, and so I definitely recommend them!

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

DC Super Friends Activity Books and First Readers

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Fiona Martin

DC Super Friends are very popular with my little boy, so with Bantam releasing a range of activity and first reader books I knew he’d be excited. With all his favourite characters such as Batman, Superman, Green Lantern and others, these books follow the super friends on adventures of fighting crime and saving the day!

The first readers are aimed at 5-7 year olds, so 6 year old Miss M was keen to have read. She kindly read them to her younger brother and he eagerly viewed the pictures and enjoyed the story. These are perfect for her age to read with large text that is simple but interspersed with a few trickier words that she managed well.

Crime Wave is about a baddie, Black Manta, who plans to steal the world’s largest pearl, but fortunately the DC Super Friends are there to stop him escaping with the pearl and catch the criminal in action. This is a typical super hero type of story, one that little ones love and that Mister B has listened to over and over.

Hero Havoc follows Bizarro, a wannabe super hero who tries his hardest to have the same special powers as the others, but it always results in the opposite thing happening, therefore he never quite achieves what he sets out to do. He goes off to find Superman who is being held by Lex Luthor and it’s Bizarro that manages to set him free, finally making him happy and feeling worthy of being a hero.

Both these DC Super Friends books have been enjoyed by my children, with Miss M reading them herself and Mister B listening to them. These are firm favourites that I can definitely recommend. The full colour picture pages help bring the stories to life with lots of recognisable characters that little ones will love!

There are also a couple of activity books available, a wipe clean book which is great for practising pen control, something Mister B is just getting to grips with so this book has been great for him to write, draw, match etc. using his favourite super friends to guide him. The DC Super Friends sticker book has 4 pages of stickers to use on pages within the book as well as other activities such as mazes, counting activities, find the odd one out etc. The stickers proved a big hit with Mister B as I’m sure they will with any young super hero fan.

We love the DC Super Friend’s range of books and like that they cover both fiction and activity books. We’ve really enjoyed them and found them a bit different to any other books we’ve had or seen.

Why not check out these and more in the range from Bantam books?

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

Potty Training with “George & Hollie and the Magic Carry Potties” book!!

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Fiona Martin

For the last couple of months Mister B has been proudly going on the potty before and after bathtime each night. I thought, great, this is the start of potty training and was keen to carry it on throughout the day, but unfortunately Mister B was having none of it. There was no way he wanted his trousers or pull up pulled down during the day. So I have remained a little frustrated that we have not been able to move forward with the inevitable potty training and be rid of nappies once and for all.

Then My Carry Potty sent me their new book “George & Hollie and the Magic Carry Potties” written by Amanda Jenner aimed at encouraging little ones to take the grown up step of learning to use their own special potties. So would this book be enough to encourage Mister B to pull his pants down during the day?? I only hoped so as he is so proud of going for a wee at bathtime.

I waited until a day I could be at home for the most part and sat down with Mister B – keeping his potty nearby – and read him the book. The story follow twins George and Hollie as they go to the shops to choose their potty and new pants. Back at home daddy explains what to use it for and that they will get a special sticker for their reward chart if they do a wee or a poo. The illustrations in the book are bold and bright making it attractive for little ones to look at and give them something to talk about along side you reading the story.

Also included in the book is a pull out reward chart and a double page of stickers to use – I liked the stickers and found them a bit different to the usual ‘stars’ or ‘well done’ you usually see and Mister B had good fun looking at them, telling me what they were before picking one to use.

After reading Mister B the book, I stuck the reward chart on the door and showed him the stickers. I then asked if he wanted to be like George and Hollie and have a go on his potty to which he replied “yes”. So he had a go and out came a little wee – he was so proud with a big grin on his face. He picked a train sticker, because it reminded him of Thomas, and proudly stuck it on the chart. We had a further two wee’s that afternoon which I am really pleased with.

Reading the book, which I did several times during the day really seemed to reiterate and remind Mister B that he should be going on the potty and made him think about having a go. He seems to know what to do, although can be lazy and the book helped keep the idea of using the potty in his mind. I also kept the chart on the door in the front room to remind him every time he saw it.

We have definitely seen an improvement in potty action since reading the book regularly to Mister B although haven’t quite managed a poo yet. Hopefully we are getting closer to cracking being dry in the day and then just need to work on night times. I feel it is important to keep mentioning the potty throughout the day but not in a nagging way, therefore including this book amongst his other story books keeps it fun.

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.