Learning what makes a healthy, balanced plate – a printable activity sheet (ambassador post)

20 February, 2013 By 6 Comments

Learning what makes a healthy, balanced plate – a printable activity sheet

My favourite vegetable is carrot sticks…with houmous – JD, 5

If your children are starting to learn about what makes a balanced diet, now is the perfect time to introduce them to the Department of Heath’s ‘Eatwell Plate’, which sets out some basic rules about the proportions of different foods we should have on our plates.

It’s a simple way to make sure the whole family gets the nutrition they need, while keeping things like sugary, fatty treats to a sensible minimum.

Healthy plate printables

I’ve created an activity to help learn more about healthy meals. Just click on the image below to download this printable healthy eating plate, along with printable foods for each category.

Learning what makes a healthy, balanced plate – a printable activity sheet

How to use your healthy plate activity sheets

  1. Download the PDF file to your computer
  2. Print the sheets – there are 6 pages in all
  3. Colour in the foods on each sheet
  4. Cut out each of the food wedges
  5. Use them to build as many healthy plates as you like, mixing and matching to create varied, healthy meals

You can even use the sheets to make wall displays. It’s a simple way to start learning about food and is a great kickstarter for further discussion about health and nutrition.

Please note: These printables have all been created by me, based on the ‘Eatwell plate’ proportions, though the sheets themselves are not officially endorsed by the Department of Health.

Learn more about family wellbeing

As you may know, I’m working with Actimel this year as an Ambassador for the Family Wellbeing Index – a great resource designed to support your family’s wellbeing in relation to food, play, learning and more.

As the EAT Ambassador, I’ve been working to create more tips just like these, which will soon be available online for you to look through. I’ll post the link as soon as they’re live, but in the meantime, do please check out the Family Wellbeing Index website for lots more great tips.

Disclosure: I am a sponsored ambassador for the Actimel Family Wellbeing Index.

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Growing our own herbs with Seed Pantry

2 November, 2012 By 5 Comments

The compost is growing! – JD, 5

We love our house. Really love it, especially since we started on the finishing touches such as switching up the lampshades and applying wall stickers for the kids. It really feels like home.

However, the garden is pretty small, so there’s not really any room for a green house or vegetable patch. Nevertheless, we love growing, so we were really pleased when Seed Pantry got in touch, offering to send us a starter kit and help us get a herb garden going on our window sill.

The Herb Seeds Starter Pack (£24.99) is generously filled. It contains:

  • Herb Pantry seed pack, including:
    • Step by step instructions
    • 500 Sweet Genovese Basil seeds
    • 350 French Flat Leaf Parsley seeds
    • 100 Coriander Leisure seeds
    • 250 Chives seeds
  • Tools:
    • 50 wooden markers for labelling your pots
    • 1 coir seed tray for adding compost & sowing seeds or storing small seedling pots
    • 1 dibblet made from FSC sustainable oak for making holes to plant in or for easing seedlings out
    • 1 Seed Pantry pencil for making notes
  • 6 coir compost disks for starting seeds like basil
  • Pots:
    • 6 mini pot for starting seedlings like parsley
    • 3 8cm coir pots for starting your chives in
    • 4 9cm rice husk pots for starting some coriander in
    • 2 1 litre rice husk pots for growing parsley in a pot
    • 1 6-cell mini propagator for starting basil in
  • Help and advice:
    • 1 growing advice booklet for getting your seeds started, with room for notes
    • A season of online tips and advice
    • Expert advice available at the Seed Pantry forum

The only extra things you’ll need are:

  • A window sill, balcony, roof terrace or veg patch
  • 4 pots or 2 window boxes
  • 1 or 2 bags of peat free compost (if growing in pots)

We hadn’t realised we’d need to buy anything extra to get started, but luckily the kit contains everything we needed to start the basil, so JD had a great time expanding the compost discs in warm water, sewing the seeds and putting them in the propagator to grow. We are now commencing *drum roll* SEED WATCH.

All in all it’s a lovely product, great for helping children learn about where food comes from and while it might work out cheaper to buy the products individually from a superstore, I think it’s worth paying a premium for the convenience, quality and support you get with the Seed Pantry starter kit. It would make a great Christmas gift and I can’t wait to be able to put fresh herbs into our cooking.

Disclosure: we were sent a Seed Pantry starter kit free of charge for review. No payment was received for this post. All posts are 100% honest.

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Are puzzle games a career investment?

19 September, 2012 By 2 Comments

The brain is much like a muscle – ‘use it or lose it’ – and in the case of puzzling, the more you do it, the more you create a positive mental domino effect – Behavioural psychologist Donna Dawson

No, I haven’t gone mad. I’ve been reading a survey which states that Brits who regularly play puzzles, crosswords and brain teasers not only earn more but hold down more senior positions at work.

Could this be true? Adult puzzle brand Wasgij reckon so. In fact, if the study they commissioned is to be believed, then the average income of Brits who do puzzles is £32,073 while non-puzzlers take home 7% less with an average salary of £29,923.

So does that mean being a parent could actually make you smarter? Have all those hours spent helping the kids with puzzles actually boosted our earning potential? Could kids be as much a financial boost as a financial drain? Probably not. But it’s a nice thought, eh?

When Jumbo Games sent us a 2-in-1 Thundercats puzzle recently, I held off reviewing it, thinking, “Hmm, how much can I say about a jigsaw other than that JD likes it and the pictures are cool?” – who’d have thought we actually spent the summer furthering our job prospects?

Disclosure: No payment was received for this post. Jumbo Games sent us a jigsaw to review and later sent us this survey. All posts are 100% honest.

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Miniland aptitude sets: toys that teach

26 August, 2012 By 1 Comment

My favourite bit of the threading is the ducks – JD, 4

Every child develops at a different pace and it’s always great to find games that let JD enjoy himself while stretching his limits, physically and mentally, as far as he wants to.

This month, DKL sent us a pair of ’aptitude sets’ for 3-6 years olds which do just that.

Threadable figures

The Threadable Figures pack (RRP £7.03) contains a set of 40 different plastic shapes (a duck, a house etc) in a range of colours, each with two holes that a choice of four coloured laces can be threaded through. With these comes a set of challenge cards, which can be copied by threading particular shapes in a particular order. The first patterns are simple (eg all the ducks) and grow increasingly complex.

JD loves this and was keen to work through the cards in order, improving his dexterity as he went. Later, he found other uses for them, making shape necklaces, playing ‘hunt the duck’ and even creating ‘story threads’, where we put the shapes on the laces in a random order, and then came up with stories that featured each of the shapes in turn. Great fun.

Magnetic Capital Letters

The Magnetic Capital Letters pack (RRP £9.99) contains a set of 62 magnetic letters. We had fun spelling out words and phrases on the fridge, and JD even took them into the sandpit for a letter treasure hunt, where we had to think of a word beginning with whichever letter we found.

The great thing about these games is that they are flexible, they make learning fun in a variety of ways and we’ll definitely be getting a lot of value from them

Disclosure: we were sent to Miniland aptitude sets for the purpose of this review. No payment was received. All posts are 100% honest.

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Books to help prepare for their first day at school

25 August, 2012 By 1 Comment

I think I will like school – JD, 4

Starting school is a big deal. Not just for the child, for the parents too! JD is our eldest, so we’re all doing this for the first time and feeling a little nervous and excited.

JD is a chatty sort, but he hadn’t spoken a great deal about the taster days he’d attended at the beginning of the summer. That is until we read a few books together that helped get him talking about what he’s looking forward to and what he’s nervous about.

Foxy

This colourful picture book tells the story of a little girl feeling nervous the night before her very first day at school. There are plenty of silly moments as she shares her worries with her magical toy fox, but the overall message is that everything will be ok. That seemed to resonate well with JD. (HarperCollins, £6.99)

Come to school too, blue kangaroo

A tale of a little girl starting at a new school, this book got JD excited about all the things he’d be doing at school. The characters go to school, they have story time, they paint, they learn. JD was very enthused and we talked at length about what he’d done on his taster days and what he hoped to do when he started in his new class. (HarperCollins, £10.99)

Bugbears: Learn to fly

Less polished than the other titles, this book is part of a series tackling various elements of growing up. While reading Learn to Fly, JD and I spoke about how the teachers helped the Bugbears to learn a new skill and how listening carefully and following instructions paid off for the heroes. Although less engaged than with the other titles, JD seemed to appreciate that element of the book. (MBR, £5.99)

Do you use books to help open up conversation about challenges and life events with your children?

Disclosure: we were sent all the above books free of charge for review. No payment was received for this post. All posts are 100% honest.

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Add an audio memory to a special artwork (review)

14 August, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It’s an Olympic runner – JD, 4

JD is forever drawing, scribbling, painting, sticking and glueing. The house is full of paper doodles and there are canvases on the wall. We try to add the date when we can, to help us remember where we were when the piece was created and that’s where the Recordable Artwork from Hallmark goes one better.

In the pack you get a set of poster paints (ready mixed), a paintbrush and a little white canvas in a black frame. A good start, but when your little one has finished their work of art, you press a little button on the back and record up to 40 seconds of precious audio as their describe their work.

Once done, you flip a switch in the battery compartment to keep it safe from being overwritten, hang it on the wall, and press the button on the front at any time to hear your recording.

JD loves his. It’s apparently an Olympic contestant celebrating their win.

So, after an evening foray into the sandpit (don’t ask), our canvas now lives on our hall wall. It would make a fabulous gift too, but I don’t want to give it up.

Priced at a very reasonable £12.99, Recordable Artwork is available in Hallmark stores and online.

Disclosure: We were sent a Recordable Artwork for the purposes of this review. No payment was received for this post. All posts are 100% honest.

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Never too young to start reading?

10 May, 2012 By 9 Comments

When Little Miss J is older, I will teach her to read – JD, 4

I think reading is important. I think it has a part to play waaaaaay before notions of letter recognition and preschool literacy come into view. What do you think?

From birth, both our children had soft picture books that we’d look at together, and from about four months old, we started having reading time, pointing at the words as we read.

JD’s an early reader and I’m torn when it comes to the whole nature/nurture debate, but I do know both kids were able to enjoy reading from very small, so why not? And why save books only for bedtime – why not enjoy them all day long?

This week we received three Little Learners books from Parragon Publishing, each offering different experiences for children aged 0-2 years:

  • I Can Share has pull out flaps and looks at the simple things children learn to do, such as say hello and goodbye
  • Night Night shows some of the common items associated with the bedtime routine, with each one clearly labelled
  • Touch and Feel Animals features a range of farm yard critters, with textured surfaces, such as a wooly sheep’s coat or smooth duck’s beak

Little Miss J (6.5 months) seems to love them. They’re all printed on thick card so there’s no danger of paper cuts and she seems delighted that she’s allowed to grab and play with them at an age where most things are constantly being moved out reach.

She truly engages with them – she looks at the pictures, she touches the pages, she watches my finger trace the words. It’s a lovely experience.

No, I don’t think she’ll be reading on her own next week, but she’s forming an early love and appreciation for books and the written word. How great is that?

Disclosure: we were sent the three Little Learners books free of charge for review. No payment was received. All reviews are 100% honest.

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Very first play times – a review of the Playwrap from Bondie Bird

29 March, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Aaaaiieeeeeeebbbbuhh – Little Miss J, 5 months

Now that Little Miss J is five months old and becoming much more physically able, I thought it time to tell you about her current favourite toy: the Playwrap from Bondie Bird.

Suitable from birth, it’s a large cotton bib covered in seven brightly patterned soft baby toys designed to “stimulate and develop your baby’s fine motor skills through sensory play”. They are (as shown in the pics below):

  • A soft toy cow with mirror
  • Bells
  • Teething toy
  • Furry beanbag
  • Chain of plastic rings
  • Crinkly, squeaky butterfly
  • Textured tags

You fix the bib around your neck (there’s an adjustable strap) and sit the baby on your lap to play with it. I felt a little uneasy at first about turning myself into a giant toy station but it’s really nice for a bit of extra bonding time and it keeps her busy if I need to tap out a quick email or take a call.

All the toys are fixed with plastic poppers so they can be swapped round and there are a couple of extra rings for attaching any additional toys you might have, or securing the bib to furniture.

On the reverse is another large mirror for playing peekaboo, while suction cups that mean you can take the bib off and fix it to a table or window. You can also use the buckle to fix it around baby’s waist when they’re playing independently, which Little Miss J seems to love as it means her toys aren’t forever rolling away out of her developing reach.

There are a couple of loops on the back that allow you to fix the bib to a cot but personally I wouldn’t leave Little Miss J alone with it unsupervised, particularly given the the necklace / chain element (although it has passed all applicable child safety regulations).

The Playwrap retails for £29.95 but you can get a discount (currently 15%) if you visit Bondie Bird’s Facebook Page. If you have a young baby, I’d say it’s worth the investment.

Disclosure: We were given with a Playwrap to keep for review purposes. No payment was received. All reviews are 100% honest.

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Mastering phonics

5 March, 2012 By 8 Comments

Phonics

Read with Biff, Chip and Kipper – My Phonics Kit

This June will see the introduction of the Government’s new “Reading Check”, which will assess the reading progress of every Year 1 child.

I’m not sure how I feel about children being assessed on a national scale before they’ve even completed their first year of school, but I do like to support JD in his learning (don’t we all?) so I was looking forward to trying out My Phonics Kit from Oxford University Press.

My Phonics Kit

The kit is designed to support children as they move on from recognising simple phonics sounds like ‘a’ and ‘b’ to more complex sounds like the ‘ay’ in ‘say’ and the ‘y’ in ‘cry’. Apparently it’s totally in line with how children learn to read in school.

Since JD is four and not due to start school until this coming September, it’s about a year ahead of where he would be expected to be. Nevertheless, his reading and writing has come on leaps and bounds lately, so we thought we’d give it a go.

In the kit

You may know Biff, Chip and Kipper from story books in the same series. In this kit, there’s a workbook from each of them, as well as a CD-ROM and a progress chart with stickers. That’s quite a lot of material for £9.99.

The phonics texts

In each book is a series of activities around a set of sounds. The instructions are brief and the exercises themselves are a nice variation of story led tasks, matching challenges, colouring fun and tongue twisters. There are also notes for parents to help get the most out of the text.

The CD-ROM

The CD-ROM complements the texts well and allowed to JD to play and listen to the sounds. Admittedly with my support this wasn’t strictly needed, but it was useful to get him to concentrate for longer by promising some time playing on the computer.

The stickers

We used the stickers as we went along and I found that it was a nice way of recording our progress as well as giving JD a small sense of victory with each page he completed.

Overall, I found the kit friendly and useful – not something JD’s yet able to do entirely by himself, but something we both enjoyed doing. We’ll be revisiting it when his reading has come along a little more.

Disclosure: we were provided with My Phonics Kit  for review. No payment was received and all posts are 100% honest.

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