All Mum Said

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Learning Can Be Fun! + GIVEAWAY

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Do you remember back in the day when toys were made to last? When so many of the awesome playthings were made from wood? I LOVE WOODEN TOYS and always wanted to get some for my boys when they little but just couldn’t find any and if I did they were ridiculously expensive or poor quality. So unfortunately they missed out. That is of course until a wonderful blog buddy of mine opened her very own store that is full of – you guessed it – WOODEN TOYS!! That’s not the best bit though – they are extremely affordable. Woohoo!! There is a stigma for kids that learning is boring, dull and takes them away from actually playing which we all know isn’t always the case. The range at School of Mum is absolutely brilliant and combines fun with learning. The toys are educational yet exciting!! Catered to suit children of all ages these magnificent products are great quality and will provide hours, weeks and more than likely years of fun, learning and entertainment.

The variety of products don’t stop at classic wooden toys though; there really is something for every child. You will find items suited to babies, toddlers, school age with a wide range of clothing, personalised items, puzzles, teddies, clocks, memory and my all time favourite – wooden blocks – IT’S ALL THERE!! We have recently had an order arrive from the wonderful School of Mum and my kids couldn’t get into the bag fast enough. As you will see below some of the products can be fun so much fun for children that they don’t even realise they are learning. The memory game is made from wooden tiles with a letter of the alphabet and an Australian animal that begins with the same letter. Not only are they strengthening the memory part of the brain but they are also learning letters and animals.  

Australian Alphabet Memory Game
$19.99

The clock puzzle is great for both my boys as we use it to help learn the time for my 6 year old and my 4 year old uses it to identify the numbers along with the concentration of working out the correct order of the numbers. There is a boy and girl version of this particular product.

Clock Puzzle
$3.50

For the babies in way of toys there are the Rattle and Roll Doves which are gorgeous, simple and easy to use. As bub moves or pulls it along the dove effortlessly rolls and rattles causing a great deal of excitement. This also comes in pink or blue.

Rattle n Roll Dove
$9.99

With the Bird Smackeroo there are hours of fun to had and most importantly it is great for building on hand /eye co-ordination. As you can see from the short video below it is very easy to use and great enjoyment for the kids.

My all time favourite product is the Educational Wooden Blocks, this might be because they take me back to my own childhood but at the bargain price of  $15 how can I say no? There is no much that can be done with these little babies; building, stacking, learning, the possibilities are endless.

Educational Wooden Blocks
$15

Now I’m sure by now you have worked out that I am very fond of this little shop and as a way of sharing some wonderful educational (and fun) products the extremely generous School of Mum has decided to offer a $50 voucher to one very lucky lucky Mad Mummas reader!! Just in time to get some great items for Christmas.

To enter all you have to do is follow the instructions on the rafflecopter below. Winner is decided based on skill and chance plays no part. Australian residents only! Sorry everyone else. **The mandatory instructions MUST be completed or your entry will be void!**

a Rafflecopter giveaway

GOOD LUCK!!

Hit Nitz 4 6 Review + GIVEAWAY

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For the past couple of weeks my boys have been using a daily control head lice spray from Hit Nitz 4 6. For some reason they seem to attract these itchy little critters so when I was emailed to give the Hit Nitz 4 6 products a try I jumped at the chance especially after learning that a recent study comparing a range of different head lice products has resulted in Hit Nitz 4 6 coming out on top as the leader of infestation prevention. I was also blissfully unaware that 20-40% of Australian Primary School children are infected with head lice at any one time! With this in mind I have been holding off writing this review until they got nits again so they could use the ‘Once Off’ head lice lotion and I could give a true assessment on it but they haven’t gotten them again. This could be pure luck or it could be because they have been getting their hair sprayed with the ‘Daily Control’ head lice spray as mentioned above.

 So here is what I do know – since using the spray my kids have not come home with nits. The daily control spray should be used every day (as the name suggests) and consists of 100% natural products which is great as it gets used so close to faces. You get a lot of use out of the 250ml spray bottle and it’s very easy and convenient to use. Simply spray the hair and go about your day as normal.

Since I haven’t been able to use the head lice lotion I can tell you some information about it. It smells pleasant and as it contains natural ingredients doesn’t have that toxic aroma. No combing is required – simply put it on dry hair and wash off after 4 hours or put it in before bed and rinse off in the morning. These come in 250ml bottles as well but you only get a couple of uses out of the bottle. If you have short hair like my boys (just long enough to spike it up) you will get 2 treatments but if you have long hair you will need a new bottle each time.

Out of the 2 products the daily spray is my favourite for the simple fact it lasts a lot longer, it’s quick and the nits have not come back since using it. You can buy these online or in stores. They retail for: ‘Once Off’ Head Lice Lotion – $19.95 and the ‘Daily Control’ Head Lice Spray – $22.95. The more you buy the cheaper they are. Overall I am I very happy with the Hit Nitz 4 6 Head Lice Solutions and would recommend anyone with school kids to give this a try!

Now onto the giveaway! I have 2x sets of Hit Nitz 4 6 products to giveaway to 2 lucky readers. (1 set each)

To enter all you have to do is follow the instructions on the rafflecopter below.

Winner is decided based on skill and chance plays no part.

Australian residents only! Sorry everyone else.

**The mandatory instructions MUST be completed or your entry will be void!**

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Back To School With That! Dairy Snack + Giveaway

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Back to school is the hot topic at the moment and it doesn’t matter whether it is your first child, last child, grade 1 or grade 7; lunch and snacks are a very important aspect of their day.

It is vital to cater to your childrens dietary needs and of course their likes when organising their lunches. I say likes as well because it doesn’t matter how good the food may be for them, if they don’t like it they won’t eat it. I always ensure I give Declan a variety of foods that swap and change regularly to prevent him getting bored with his lunches.

 

One day his carbohydrates might be a sandwich, the next he might have fried rice or pasta. He will have a piece of fruit that is swapped and changed daily, also a yoghurt or snack pack and a few other things to fill the lunch box. I am always on the lookout for new snacks and I was lucky enough to have recently been introduced to a new dairy snack that provides as much calcium as half a cup of milk (that is 20% of the required daily calcium of a child). It’s called That! Dairy Snack.

There are a few things about these snacks that grabbed my attention besides the calcium intake; they don’t require refrigeration which means mums don’t need to worry about them spoiling before kids get to eat them at lunch (they can be found in the long life juice isle at Woolworths), they can be frozen, they are 99% fat free and gluten free! They come in 2 delicious flavours – Wild Chocolate & Cool Bananas, which my kids absolutely love!! What I love most is that they don’t cost a fortune, they retail for $1.89ea but almost every time I go to Woolworths they are on special for only $1!

The only fault I can find is that the kids find them a little bit difficult to initially crack the seal but once they have been opened they can open and close them as they please. I however love the resealable lids as it means there is no wastage if they cannot finish it all at once.

That! Dairy Snack has a great competition running at the moment. Make sure you enter their giveaway for your chance to be pampered – it’s quick and easy to enter!! Pop over now and ‘like’ their facebook page here.

 

What snacks do your kids love in their lunch?
 Disclaimer: I received no cash payment for this post. I did however receive a box of each flavour (as seen in pics) for review purposes. As always all opinions are honest and my own. Competition has nothing to do with my blog, I just wanted to share.

It Only Takes A Few Words

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The school year is coming to a close and for some states it already has. Declan my 5 year old started Kindergarten this year (otherwise known as prep for Qld readers) and we were extremely lucky to have gotten the teacher he did. She is not only a fantastic teacher; she really knows how to interact with the children. Mrs G has always put effort into the kids who want to learn and behave themselves instead of putting all her time and energy into the disruptive kids who don’t want to listen. This was very refreshing for me to see.

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Throughout the year I have heard other parents talk about her for one reason or another and basically how little they think of her. A few of them were even boasting to one another how they made her cry by yelling at her in front of the kids. Yes, that’s right some of these parents yelled at their childs teacher in front of a bunch of 5 and 6 year olds. Now that’s great parenting right there! I just couldn’t believe these women and how proud of themselves they were. This woman, this bright intelligent woman is so kind hearted and does everything in her power to challenge her students, encourage her students and in my opinion has done nothing but go above and beyond her role as a teacher. I am devastated he will not have her as a teacher next year as we are moving in the New Year to a different area.
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Teachers need to be acknowledged for the hard work they put in, they need to be shown appreciation for everything they do for your children. Whether you see it or not they are a huge support and put in many additional hours out of the kindness of their heart. We bought Mrs G a box of chocolates for Christmas as a way to thank her but I also attached a card with a little note. While I cannot remember exactly what I wrote it was along these lines ‘Thank you for everything you have done for Declan this year we really appreciate it. You have truly gone above and beyond and I cannot thank you enough. We couldn’t have possibly asked for a better teacher. Thank you.’
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Now I didn’t think too much more of this besides it showing her that we appreciate the hard work she has put into teaching our son this year however it is amazing how much a few kind words can mean to someone. Declan gave his present to Mrs G during the day and when I went to pick my son up in the afternoon his teacher came up and hugged me and thanked me for my kind words. She told me she had had a rough afternoon yesterday as another parent had abused her and quite nastily I might add. It was so obvious how much these few kind words that I wrote in her card meant to her, those simple words that obviously are not said enough.

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Please remember that it only takes a few words to crush a persons self esteem and ruin their day and a simple thank you so much or I appreciate you to make their day great.

Use and choose your words wisely!              

Stranger Danger Encounter – Reminder!

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Sometimes in life things happen that make you think and re-evaluate what and how you teach your children. There was an incident at my sons’ school on Monday that has every parent concerned for their childs safety. This isn’t one of those helicopter parents or parents these days are way over protective type concerns this is a serious matter that everyone needs reminding of from time to time.

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So Monday started as every other week – get Declan ready for school, breakfast, make sure lunch is packed, make sure Kye is dressed and fed, etc. etc. and off to school we went. I kissed him goodbye as he hung up his bag on the hook at his classroom.

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When returning to pick him up that afternoon there was a lot of chatter and I didn’t quite understand what all the hoo-hah was about until I was informed by the principle that there was a strange man wandering around the school grounds earlier that day and appeared to be quite interested in the children. When they approached him he fled the grounds. Yes the police were called.



I have taught my children not to talk to strangers, or if one should approach them that they are to scream ‘STRANGER’ as loud as they can and run in the opposite direction towards safety. I haven’t told them however not to trust people within the school grounds. I think it is just one of those places you think your children are safe – when you step over that threshold from the unknown to the security of teachers who protect you.

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We do not live in a big city area, quite the opposite actually. There isn’t even a high school where we live – kids have to catch the bus there. There are only a couple of thousand people residing in this little country town in the Hunter Valley. I thought I would take this opportunity to remind all parents, aunts, uncles, sister and brothers to be mindful of your surroundings regardless where you are. Please remind and refresh your childrens ‘Stranger Danger’ knowledge. It could save you and them a lot of grief and heartache.

 

NO, YELL, RUN, TELL!

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