Christmas Fun with Casio

December 21, 2021December 22, 2021 JayneLeave a comment

As you’ll know, if you saw any of my posts on here or on social media, we’ve recently partnered with Casio to review their LK-S250 Home Learning Kit, which comes with an electric keyboard and everything else that BB needs to start learning to play. The kit also gives you access to online lessons which are designed to get even the most basic of beginners playing their instrument, which is a fantastic resource to have access to.

Casio LK-S250 Home Learning Kit

LK-250 Home Learning Kit

Touch sensitive, lighted keys
Power adapter
Adjustable height keyboard stand
Headphones for silent practice
FREE online lessons worth £49.99

While I’m not exactly fluent on any instrument myself, I do know quite a few of the basics, having grown up in quite a musical family, so I’ve been assisting BB with her learning as much as I can. She’s an incredibly capable little girl, but she lacks a bit of confidence in her own abilities at times, so sometimes she just wants someone with her while she navigates the lessons, which is totally understandable.

Unfiortunately, about three weeks ago I slammed my finger in the car door (as in, the door FULLY closed and I had to open it again to release my poor mangled finger 😱) and broke it. It was my left hand (I’m right handed) which was slightly better but as it was my index finger, it’s really limited how much I’ve been able to do. Fortunately, the splint is mostly off now and I can get back to helping BB with her lessons a bit more, but it was a painful couple of weeks.

My poor broken finger (ignore the tatty nail polish, please!)

Now that the girls are homeschooled, we try to keep as much creative stuff flowing as we can so that their lessons aren’t all strictly academic, so music and art lessons have become a regular thing. Sausage has her own keyboard already, so between the Gigajam lessons and some YouTube tutorials, the girls have been jamming together.

Last week, we decided that all of their homeschool lessons would be fun stuff, just like they’d be doing if they were in a mainstream school, and one of the things we decided to do was get them to learn some Christmas songs so that they could perform a mini concert for us, to get us all in the festive spirit. They learned to play Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, The Christmas Song and Jingle Bells, all in the space of two days and they’ve been practising them regularly, ever since.

Learning with the LK-S250 Home Learning Kit

We’re planning to have the carol concert on Christmas Eve and I’ve also got a surprise lined up for them – I’ve bought a chocolate fountain and we’re going to have a little buffet of things to dip in the melted chocolate to enjoy together after the concert. I’m really excited as I love nothing more than surprising them. When we collected Maureen from my breeder friend, we told them we were collecting a parcel and they had no idea we were getting a puppy until they were standing in a living room full of 10 week old dogs!

Anyway, I digress…

I’ll be recording the concert, for posterity, and also for the ‘gram so make sure to keep an eye on our social media if you want to see the girls performing their songs. In the meantime, I hope you all have a very merry, stress-free, COVID-free festive period and thanks again to Casio for working with us on this collaboration.

There’s still time to get your hands on a Casio LK-S250 Home Learning Kit, if you order within the next 24 hours! It’s got everything you need to start learning the keyboard and it’s only £249, which is truly an absolute bargain.

Family · Home · Kids

Moving With Kids: 5 Tips To Make It Easier And Less Stressful

December 17, 2021 Jayne1 Comment

Moving With Kids: 5 Tips To Make It Easier And Less Stressful Moving can be quite challenging and having your kids with you during this time can make the transition all the more difficult. Children feel safe at a home where they grew up in. They also feel comfortable with the neighborhood, school, and friends they already know. While moving can bring about a lot of excitement to kids, it can also bring out anxiety.

While it’s impossible to eliminate all the challenges you’ll have to face when moving with your children, there are tips that can assist you in making it easier and less stressful.

1. Inform Your Kids About The Move Early On

It’s essential that you inform them about the move in advance. You can have a family meeting to announce it. Whether moving is already kind of a regular occurrence or not for your family, it is still a big deal for everyone—especially your kids. It’s guaranteed that you’ll get some reactions from everyone, but you can offer them pizza or any other food to help them stay calm during the announcement.

Having the meeting sooner than later is a good thing to do. Why? Because it can assist you in explaining to your children why are you moving and other details about the move. Taking the time to inform and talk to your kids about the move can help address the anxieties, frustrations, and concerns they have about the move. It can also help you reassure your children that everything is going to be alright.

2. Hire A Moving Company

If you want the move to be smooth and easy, you should consider hiring a moving company. Things can get very messy on moving day and it’s going to be more challenging for you if you have kids. But if you hire a moving company that can help you out, you’ll find it very convenient.

If you need to dispose of waste and old furniture before moving out, you can hire waste removal companies that can collect all kinds of rubbish for you. This even includes large appliances, toxic wastes, and yard wastes that must be removed before moving. You can visit https://www.dirtcheaprubbishremoval.com.au/ to see what a waste removal service can do for you.

3. Get Your Kids Involved

Involving all your children in the moving process is very beneficial. It can empower them and help prevent making them feel like they’re helpless. As you create a moving-to-do-list, make sure that you have tasks for your kids that they can easily handle. Even a small moving task such as packing their toys can make a big difference from their perspective.

Kids love to help out. Rather than telling them that they are too young to help on moving day, your children will love to hear that you have prepared some tasks for them! If your kids are old enough, you can have them help you pack, arrange toys, or pickup boxes.

You might want to give each of your child separate tasks such as packing up and cleaning the rooms, packing boxes, or takingcare of their younger siblings. These things will help keep them engaged and involved with the whole process.

4. Visit The New Place You’re Moving To

If you can, you should visit the new place you’re moving to along with your kids before the big day. A visit like this can give them an idea of the new place and make it familiar instead of being a mystery for them.

Before you make a visit, be sure to grab a copy of the local newspaper to find out about any kid-friendly activities that may be happening during your scheduled visit. Taking a look at the local kid’s playground or recreational center can help reassure your kids about the new place. They will start thinking that the new neighborhood is not so bad after all.

5. Have A Positive Mindset

On moving day, your mood could also affect your kids. So, if you’re cheerful and excited, they’ll also feel the same way. But if you’re too stressed and frustrated because things are not going according to plan, expect your kids to feel the same way too.

Final Thoughts

If you’re relocating with kids, the tips above can help you make the whole process easier and less stressful not just for them, but yours as well. Taking the time to prepare your children and hiring a moving company to help you out can make a lot of difference when you’re moving with kids.

Education · Kids

5 Unusual Extra Curricilar Activities for Kids

December 1, 2021 JayneLeave a comment

Now that the girls are being homeschooled, we’re acutely aware of making sure they have a rich variety of extra curricular activities lined up so that they’re able to socialise with other kids AND learn the creative things that might not be covered by day-to-day schooling. However, anyone who knows my kids knows that they’re not your average “football and ballet” kind of kids and they need something a little out of the ordinary to focus their creativity on.

With that in mind, i thought I’d share with you some of the more unusual extra curricular activites we’ve stumbled upon while doing our research:

Musical Theatre

Lots of kids have singing lessons or drama lessons, but there’s a professional music school in Telford which actually offers Musical Theatre lessons, which incorporates acting, singing, dancing and stagecraft all in one! Sausage went to a musical theatre class when she was little and really enjoyed it, so it’s definitely something we’d consider again.

Parkour Clubs

When BB was about six months old, I was working on my laptop while she played on the ground next to me. All of a sudden, I saw her getting higher and higher and realised she was actually climbing up my clothes airer like a ladder! Since that day, she’s been mad about climbing, throwing herself off of things and generally behaving like a nutter, so when I recently found a class that teaches parkour to kids, I knew it’s something BB would love.

Quidditch Clubs

Any Harry Potter fan will recognize this game that, in the books and movies, requires players to compete on flying broomsticks. In 2005, some college students figured out how to adapt the game for earthbound Muggles. Now hundreds of colleges and high schools have their own Quidditch teams. There are even Kidditch teams for young players! BB is mad about Harry Potter so I can imagine her seriously digging this.

Cooking Classes

There’s not much that my two love more than cooking up a storm in the kitchen and they’re both pretty decent little chefs. Sausage even had a birthday party once where her and her guests attended a cookery class at our local Waitrose and it was great fun! There are quite a few clubs around now which teach kids to cook and I know this is the sort of thing where my two would thrive.

Lego Club

While Sausage is probaby too old to enjoy a Lego club, BB is at the prime age to use her imagination for this kind of thing! We do a fair bit of Lego building at home so turning it into a learning experience where’s she’d also get to socialise with her peers sounds like something we’d seriously consider. Lego clubs are popping up all over the place so if you’re looking for one near you, I’m sure a quick search will help you to find one.

Education · Kids · Parenting · Reading

Night Zookeeper Review and Discount Code

November 7, 2021November 7, 2021 JayneLeave a comment

As you may or may not know, we’re currently homeschooling the girls on a semi-permanent basis. Sausage is now in year 9 and will be home educated through to college age, whereas BB is in year 3 and is planning to go back to school once she’s had her COVID vaccine. This means that we’ve been using as many resources as possible to keep them both engaged by learning and also on par with their peers. Recently, I discovered Night Zookeeper and we were generously offered a 12 month subscription to try it for ourselves.

It’s a subscription-based website which encourages reading and writing in a really creative way. It’s developed by experienced educators and brings together a compelling story, innovative digital technology, and effective curriculum-aligned educational content, to help your child boost their literacy skills.

The website is packed with games which help kids learn spelling, grammar and vocabulary and they’re so fun that the kids barely even realise they’re learning. I gave BB her login details and let her use the site without even telling her that it was a learning resource at first, and she was totally engrossed in minutes.

Parents Point of View

One of the things I like about Night Zookeeper is the fact that it encourages kids to use their imagination. Sausage and BB have always had a thirst for knowledge and intense curiosity for the world around them and they’ve both channelled that through art and storytelling, so the format of NZK plays right into BB’s wheelhouse.

The site is really well set up in that there’s a separate login for parents so that you can see your child’s progress and see what they’ve been up to on the site. It even gives you a word count of how much they’ve written in each of their mini stories and it’s really interesting to see that the word count has been increasing with each time BB has used it.

It can also be used on tablets, laptops and PCs, making it accessible without the need for expensive new tech. There are lessons, writing challenges and word games which are immersive and exciting, telling fun, modern stories that the kids enjoy. There’s even a blog area where kids can write and share their own blog posts!

Perhaps the MOST useful feature of Night Zookeeper is the fact that real teachers can comment on BB’s work and leave her comments and suggestions to help her to expand her writing. Having that type of feedback is so valuable, I think it’s worth the cost of subscription all by itself.

Night Zookeeper teacher feedback

How does it work?

“By providing thousands of fun and engaging lessons, challenges, and games, Night Zookeeper helps children to learn new words, use them in sentences, and then create amazing pieces of writing that are shared with children from around the world. They receive feedback from our team of tutors as well as other children that highlight where they can improve. In-game awards and competitions keep them motivated to continue to learn and progress. They’ll write about everything, from stories about magical animals to instructions on how to make the perfect hot chocolate. All genres of writing are gradually introduced including newspaper articles, persuasive writing, reports, and poetry.”

What Does BB Think of Night Zookeeper?

“It’s really good! It feels like you’re playing a game and you don’t even really realise that you’re doing school work. My favourite thing about it is creating the animals because I like to get creative. I also really like the mini games because they’re fun and feel like other games that I play on my iPad” – Burrito Baby, aged 7.

Value for Money

For what you actually get, I think the subscriptions offer really good value. There’s content on there which suits kids from ages 6 to 12, so it can be useful even beyond junior level, and I love the idea of the continuity that will offer as BB progresses. All subscriptions come with a 7 day free trial, so you can see if you like it before you buy and if you purchase a 12 month subscription, it works out at just £7.50 per month.

Night Zookeeper Discount Offer!

We’re delighted to also be able to share with you an exclusive link for you to use, giving you a massive 50% off of a year’s subscription! By using this link you’ll pay just £46.99 for one child for a year or a truly bargainous £57.99 for up to three children per 12 month subscription! Click on the image below to nab your half price subscription:

Conclusion

I’m really excited to see what else BB creates with Night Zookeper! We have a few different subscriptions for the girls to use during our home ed and I honestly think this is going to be the one which provides the best value for BB’s literacy. Thanks so much to the people at Night Zookeeper for giving us the opportunity to try the site.

Homeschooling · Kids · Learning · Music

Digital Piano: How to Choose the Right One

November 5, 2021 Jayne1 Comment

As you may have seen on my Instagram and Facebook stories today, we’re partnering with Casio Music UK to test out one of their learners keyboards. We’re so excited about the collaboration as I think Burrito Baby will benefit so much from music lessons. With that in mind, I wanted to share with you some information from Casio about how to make sure you’re buying the right digital piano for your kids.

With children now back in the swing of things at school, a lot of parents may be considering extra-curricular activities their children can take up to aid their learning and development outside of the classroom. Playing a musical instrument offers a whole host of benefits for young people and allows them to express themselves in their own unique way.

Digital pianos are a wonderful resource for kids of all ages and all kinds of disciplines. They make learning and performing much easier but still offer the satisfaction of playing on a beautiful expressive musical instrument. However, finding the right digital piano can be confusing and time-intensive. Casio, one of the world’s most renowned producers of premium, digital hybrid pianos, is here to help with the five questions parents should be asking when purchasing a digital piano for their child – from piano teacher, ABRSM music examiner and digital piano expert Chris Stanbury.

HOW MUCH DO I NEED TO SPEND?

A good beginner’s digital piano should cost between £300 to £400. For this, you’ll get a great quality instrument that’ll support your child’s learning for a number of years. Avoid anything cheaper than this from online sellers as these don’t tend to last and offer a poor quality sound. It’s important to invest in something that’s satisfying to play as it will maintain your child’s interest.

WHAT FEATURES SHOULD I LOOK FOR?

Digital pianos can have various features but the one thing you must check is that it has 88 weighted keys. This is something all pianos have and it is essential for developing the correct playing technique. The keys also need to be touch sensitive, which means that they are the same as a traditional piano. The harder you hit the keys, the louder it will sound, the softer you play the key, the note will have less volume. This feature is very important.

IS A DIGITAL PIANO BETTER THAN AN ACOUSTIC PIANO?

A good, acoustic (traditional) piano usually costs £1,000 or more. Pianos that are offered free on marketplace or auction sites are rarely in good condition and should be avoided. Acoustic pianos also need maintaining: the strings inside must be tuned at least twice a year at a cost of about £80 a time.

You get much more for your money with digital pianos. They take up a lot less space and don’t need tuning. Plus, you can plug in headphones for silent practice, which is perfect for busy households!

WHAT OTHER FUNCTIONS DO YOU GET WITH DIGITAL PIANOS?

A great benefit of a digital piano is that if your kids love their gadgets, they’ll really enjoy connecting a digital piano to their phone, tablet or computer. This makes learning a lot more fun as they can take part in interactive lessons and play along to backing music.

Casio provides a free music learning app with all their digital pianos, called Chordana, and there’s free lessons too from Dr Chris himself on the Casio Music UK YouTube channel; so anyone can start playing right away. All owners also have access to the Casio Music Academy too, which also includes music lessons exclusively for Casio piano users

WHAT DIGITAL PIANO WOULD YOU RECOMMEND FOR A BEGINNER?

My personal favourite is the Casio CDP-S90. It’s light, very compact and has a great sound. It’s also important to mention that it comes with a proper piano stand included (worth £88). This means the piano is at the correct playing height, which is important for developing good posture and finger skills.