Reviews

Review: SodaStream Machine.

October 23, 2014 by Merry Leave a Comment

If there was one thing that I remember bringing utter glee into a trip to a friend’s house when I was a kid, it was getting to use the SodaStream machine that seemed to be an integral part of the kitchen of all of the places I might spend a day. Something about the deliciously naughty sound it made as it carbonated the drink, combined with the undeniable thrill of an unending supply of different flavours of sparkly drink – a luxury that didn’t tend to be on offer at my house – made it just feel like the height of naughty decadence.

It was obviously therefore completely impossible to turn down the chance to review a new SodaStream machine, especially as it came in sparkly bright yellow. I had a feeling my girls were going to be hugely entertained by the idea of a trumping drinks machine and I have a soft spot for the company, which was originally housed in the unit I drive past every day to get to work. I also sold the house of the man who invented the method of carbonating water in this way, something that just always pleases me. (I liked him a lot, reminded me of my grandad).

As predicted, the kids fell on the machine with delight. I admit I was slightly disappointed that it had a plastic BPA-free carbonating bottle, not a glass bottle like the olden days (although I see now you can get them with glass) and quite surprised by how tall it was; it is a sizable chunk of machine although this is because it accommodates a 1 Litre bottle. The starter cylinder was really easy to fit though (and makes 15L of drink after which there is a clever network of shops to swap them over with or a click and return online service) and the rounded and wipeable design does keep it nice and clean. The girls tried out the starter pack of flavours and were variably impressed by them (energy drink a bit weird, others really rather nice!) and then fell on the Del Monte fruit juice drinks we had also been sent to try out.

One thing about our family is that we don’t have spare mney to spend on fizzy drinks; there are way too many of us for it to be cost effective and I do kind of ‘mind’ spending a lot of money on a lot of plastic bottles; it feels – and it is – wasteful. So a SodaStream does allow the opportunity to have a bit of fizz easily and cheaply without too much of an additional waste impact. We do have juice drinks here (sugar free, yes, I know, I know) but mostly they drink water. Lemonade is a big treat. Having the opportunity to indulge in the silliness of trumping yourself a drink and being able to indulge in Orange, Carribean and Tropical flavours definitely did pull their string. We were trying it out at the end of the summer but I suspect over Xmas and through summer next year, it will be very popular. Certainly the Del Monte flavours were yummy and the range in general is pretty huge. (The man from Del Monte, he say yeah!)

I like that it is an option for a treat with less waste and I like that they aim to have 2/3 less sugar than a shop bought fizzy drink. My kids loved it and the only downside for me was the size, which in a small kitchen with limited cupboard and worktop space is a bit of a problem. It has a small footprint, it just feels ‘big’, if you follow me. That wouldn’t stop me recommending it, but it is a consideration.

Del Monte produced a hydration tip sheet as part of the release of their SodaStream drink flavours, which is included below.

Disclosure: we were sent this item for review. Thoughts are our own.

Review: The Gruffalo: Games App for iOS

October 12, 2014 by Merry 41 Comments

It’s hard to believe The Gruffalo is 15 years old, though in fact he came into our house rather later than for most and has only really been a hit with Bene, who shuns almost every other author for Julia Donaldson books. Josie however was a big fan of several of her books as were the older girls at various times. Tiddler, speaking in a Liverpudlian accent, is known by heart by everyone in the house!

We were offered the chance to look at The Gruffalo: Games on the iPad and it perfectly filled up an afternoon for Josie, who was home ill. Three in a Row, pitting mouse against Gruffalo, Snap, featuring the animals from the story and some other images and Nut Catch where the Mouse has to avoid the spikes and catch the nuts (you guessed that, right?) were all big hits with her, despite being nearly 10. Bene has since had a go and, despite being not yet 3, hasn’t struggled with it at all. (Really, the ability of little people to use technology is incredible I think).

What they thought: Josie said the sounds and artwork on it were really fabulous and she enjoyed it, rating it 8/10 even though she is quite old now and saying if she was younger, she would definitely have given it 10/10. It’s a hit with Bene.

What I loved: true to the images and feel of the book, simple for young users but still engaging for the older one, good for learning simple skills needed for next stage games and not a game that forces the constant cancelling of in app purchases.

Conclusion: At £2.99 it isn’t a cheap app but I do think it has wide appeal and real longevity too. The characters appeal instantly because they are known and love and the game play doesn’t involve shrieking or frustration, which is all good in my book. I like it enough that I plan to buy the Room on a Broom one too, also from Magic Light Pictures. The games are available on iOS and work happily on both our 7 & 8 installations.

“All was quiet in the Raymond House. Josie tried the app and the app was good!”

WIN!!!!!! A 15^th anniversary edition of The Gruffalo book, DVD, plush toy, puzzle, stationery and the app – worth £50.00.

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Disclosure: We received a free download of the app for this review.

Exploring Cyber Security with McAfee

September 7, 2014 by Merry Leave a Comment

Our recent trip to Bletchley Park included a visit to the McAfee Cyber Security Exhibition, to explore the reality of online information sharing and child safety on the internet. It’s quite an interesting (and very clever!) partnership, the codebreakers of the past combining with the code protectors of the present and future. In addition to the display and interactive material, we also attended an online safety education workshop with Nicola Halls, the in-house education officer, which most of my girls came to – one of them because I decided it would be a good idea after a recent transgression – which was quite an eye opener for me too.

The exhibition area itself was fantastic I thought and provided masses of talking points for us.

This display got us talking lots and followed on from a discussion I had with my smart phone enabled girls a while back about the danger of having personal information freely available online and location enabled. The Foursquare and Facebook combination was discussed widely a few years ago and would now apply to most apps; it is all too easy to share personal information and your location and be pinpointed quickly by someone who might abuse it. This particular display highlighted how much personal information we can casually share online in the course of public conversations that are entirely innocuous – name of your rabbit, where you were born, your mum’s interesting maiden name (that perhaps someone could pick up easily just from checking your Facebook relationships), your first car, where you went to school..

Sound familiar?

Oh yes, you just gave away every banking security question you’ll ever get asked. Pause for thought indeed 🙄 And you wonder why you have to have a banking dongle and a 16 digit entry code to your banking now!

There was another really interesting data collection display that asked us to consider who should be entitled to information about our online activities and under what circumstances; watching a variety of families navigating them and becoming increasingly unsure about seemingly simple questions got us talking – should be possibly dubious be enough to allow the police to check our records? When do we cross the line?

We didn’t have time to get all round the display but there was lots to look at; danger points, places where stranger danger comes into our home, virus protection and more. It was an excellently constructed exhibit, well worth the time.

After that we moved on to the safety workshop.

One of the girls recently made a (well intentioned) error of judgement regarding online behaviour that resulted in a total loss of gadgets and social media access for her own protection as well as for a punishment. It’s frighteningly easy for children not to realise that a foolish error online can spill over into danger at school, upset, danger walking home and even impact their right to be in their school. On this occasion it might have even involved the police, never mind making her look a royal idiot in front of her family members. This workshop which involved looking at app icons, among other things, reminded me how quickly online life moves on – I was totally unaware of the brand image of Snapchat and a number of others and it brought home to me that even feeling very online savvy, there is lots of it that is accessed by younger users that I’m unaware of and which, by the nature of the environments, has less natural adult policing occurring at user level.

I was relieved the girls were all oblivious to the dating app icons though (or very good actresses!)

Nicola reminded the children that online life is a little like a street, going to another website is like leaving your home and going down the street to a stranger’s house – different rules, different personal safety, different comfort zones. I think it is equally relevant to say all online transactions, chatting, signing in, information given out, are a little like opening a window of your own home – interesting and refreshing but a security risk. Nicola cautioned them to STOP. THINK. CONNECT. when engaging online.

Statistics from McAfee and Anti-Bullying Alliance research (Nov 2013):

o Half (45%) of parents are concerned about their child being bullied online

o Two-fifths (38%) of parents think that their child may have been bullied online

o A third (33%) of parents think their child may be a cyber-bully themselves

o Over half (53%) of children often go online without any parental supervision

o Nearly one in five (16%) of children have experienced mean or cruel behaviour online

You can read more about our day at Bletchley Park on Patch of Puddles.

Disclosure: we were invited by McAfee to spend the day with them.

Britax Baby Car Seats : Thoughts on a 15 Year Love Affair

September 9, 2013 by Merry 2 Comments

One of the nice bits of blogging in recent years is undoubtedly the opportunity to work with brands – and one of the responsibilities is to try and work with brands that mean something to you. I’ve learned that along the way, no doubt and had some great fun doing so. Some brands, mostly ones that now feature in my sidebar, are brands I do have fun with but which I also believe in; places I’ve holidays, products I really do use.

Of all of those, Britax is the one I have the greatest history with. A Britax car seat accompanied every one of my girls home from hospital and it is the only brand of 5 point car seat I have ever bought. I say the girls, because the boys would have had the same brand but instinct stopped me buying a carseat for Freddie (I borrowed one which was of course never used) and a friend brought one to the hospital for Bene after fear stopped me from buying one in advance for him.

As soon as he was heavy enough for one, I went out and bought Bene a Britax carseat. It was the only one I could afford at the time from their range, which limited my choice to some extent, but I trust the brand, trust the design and made my decision based on that.

Here they are, Fran and Maddy in the car seat I did admittedly choose at least partly for the fabric 😉 Brand awareness was so much less strong back then but I did know about Kiddicare, who at the time were a small shop just tucked into a street in the north of Peterborough and I trusted them. They told me to get a Britax, so I did.

We got a new one for Amelie.

And despite Amelie and her lack of sleep/eczema/asthma/sheer Amelieness nearly putting Max off having more kids, Josie got to use it too 😆

Josie comes home. Honestly, it was 2004. Will you look at that brand placement in the photo 😉

There is lots of choice on the market today; forwards facing, backwards facing, 5 point and (and can I just say they terrify me and I wouldn’t even consider one) seats which don’t have straps but wedge the baby in with a sort of thick impact bar instead. For me, I stick with what I know; I’m comfortable with a five point harness, partly because I’ve always used them and it seems right (although not necessarily scientific!) to keep to the same for all of them. There is some variation in research and it seems to come down to the wedge seats having some benefit in a front/rear collision (slightly less whiplash risk) but being less safe if the car rolls than a five point harness, with at least one test showing a baby could come out of the seat altogether. There is a good review at MotherGeek who makes the point that both designs have been approved for safety by the powers that be and has photos of her child in both types.

Can I just say, how very discomforting that the statutory test used to approve a car seat for safety might do it as a static roll rather than while moving? What on earth is that supposed to prove?! I prefer the honesty (while allowing for the fact that they are testing an opposing brand) of the Britax video which is a moving car. I will link to it, but their site is down today!

Anyway, we drive a tall people carrier, which I have in fact almost rolled a version of once, so I’m comfortable that 5 point harness is better for us.

In terms of backwards and forwards facing, the most stressful part of having Bene in a car for me was that I couldn’t glance at him while I was driving while he was in a backwards stage 1 seat. I was terrified he would just stop breathing and if I was alone in the car with him, too much of my attention was focused on listening for him all the time. I know lots of people prefer toddlers to sit facing backwards, but it was in all our interests for Bene to be visible from the drivers seat as soon as possible and lots less stressful for the girls since I stopped having to ask them to check he was breathing all the time.

Luckily for Bene, at this point lovely Britax asked me to become an ambassador for them and offered me an updated version of the Versafix Stage 2 seat to review, something I’ve been excessively tardy about doing! The Versafix, roughly x1.3 the cost of the one I had just bought for him from an older range at £225 was the new, all singing and dancing and generally rather pretty Isofix stage 2 seat which had just arrived. We passed on our new-but-old-design to a lovely friend of mine who was expecting again.

Isofix is new to me since the last time I was buying these sorts of car seats. When Josie had one, the only option really was to buckle the seat in using the ordinary safety belt. This has always worked but it did make me nervous, not least because it wasn’t hard for another child to accidentally release it without an adult noticing. Since then there are now seats with a sort of extending foot that sits on the floor in front and holds it steady and seats that attach to Isofix bars rooted in the innards of the main car seat in new cars. Our car only needs the seat to be attached in this spot, rather than also requiring a third point which is a belt that fixes over the top and into the boot.

I love the safety aspect of this. The stage 2 seat ratchets into the car and clips fast, making it rock solid and impossible to remove unless you are daddy. (He does swear at getting it in and out a bit but he has so far remembered how eventually each time!) You can still belt it in quickly if you need to – such as when I used it for a taxi a while back – but for normal use, it feels so much safer to be clipped in.

Important but less essential, the seat tips back comfortably or sits up straight, the straps are comfy and easy to use – and he hasn’t wriggled out of them – and it’s nicely padded and a pretty colour and it buckled and adjusts easily. The only thing I have left to do is take the cover off to wash it, but I can’t seem to find a car ride free day to get that element tested out.

There is no doubt we are on the home run now when it comes to buying car seats but I can pretty much guarantee I will have Britax in my car for the grandchildren. (Did I really just say that?)

Disclosure: we received a Britax Versafix in exchange for this review. Views are our own.

Reviewing School Uniform… the blog may revolt!

August 22, 2013 by Merry 6 Comments

In a complete fall from grace as a home educating blog, I took Asda up on an offer to review school uniform. Needs must, there’s a whole lot of uniform has been required over the last few months 😉

I went ot the kind of schools that had complicated uniforms bought from fusty suppliers with oaken pigeonholes and ladders to climb up and get the gymslips. I’m woefully ignorant as to where my state educated peers bought their uniform but I can only assume that supermarkets stocking such things has been a major step forward. I was at least able to kit Josie out for summer term overnight in one food inclusive shop but winter term was looming and Josie and I were locked in a battle as to whether she would look cute in a skirt or pinafore or have trousers (her preference). To be fair, she never wears skirts at home but looks lovely in her summer dress and I was being a needy mother about it.

Luckily ASDA stepped in and offered a £20 spend in their school uniform shop.

Since I was then able to try out all the versions of uniform for free and with no guilt, I did. She got a pinafore, skirt, trousers, 2 polo tops and a pack of socks for £20 – I think that’s pretty good value.

To her own surprise, she’s fallen in love with having her knees on show after all, so my heart strings can be properly pulled as she trips off into year 4 and does her first winter term. I’m still a bit of a novice at uniform, but it looks nice, seems well made and frankly, if it doesn’t last till the summer, the odd extra £3 spend on a skirt won’t be the end of the world.

It does mean I’m back to naming things. Thankfully I can also stick names into things thanks to namelabelco who sent all the girls clothing name labels, sticky lunch box type labels and very cute foot shaped shoe labels a while back. These were more primary age design, with a cute picture and comic sans writing but SO cute that everyone wanted them in their clothes. The iron in ones were much quicker and easier than any I’ve used before and the foot ones make my heart melt. Very sweet indeed.

Hard to believe 3 of them go back a week today. I’m not ready for the summer to be over at all.

Disclosure: we were sent all these items free for review.