Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from us at Lily's Little Learners! 

Lily is dressing as a witch today for Halloween. What are your children dressing as? 

Our Halloween Bucket List

This is an activity I did with Lily 2 years ago now and I am very tempted to do something simular again this year. Here is a re visit to the activities I did a few years ago which may inspire you this halloween.

If you have heard the term bucket list, you will probably think that this post is all about the things we want to get done during halloween. But in fact this is a different kind of bucket list! This bucket list is 4 activities that you can do for halloween using a bucket. 

During halloween you can pick up some pretty cool buckets, usually the shapes of cauldrons or pumpkins, and I doubt they actually get used very much apart for the obvious thing which is number 1 on my list Trick or Treating. So I thought we would get our witch shaped thinking hat on and think of some other fun ideas. 

Here are 4 things you can do for halloween using your halloween bucket. 

1. Trick or Treating 
Of corse the first and the most obvious thing that comes to mind with using the buckets is trick or treating. Its a great way to collect all those sweet treats while getting to dress up and maybe terrorise the neighbours a little bit. But not all people can do trick or treating with there children, for example I live in a block of flats and don't know any one in the building. I wont be knocking on their doors anytime soon. So idea number 2 is a great alternative to trick or treating. 

2. Spooky Spider Hunt 
I picked up a pack of plastic spiders from the shop, you can generally get these at most stores during halloween. To make a spooky spider hunt its as simple as hiding them around the home, or maybe if you have a garden you can hide them there. You then can hide a nice treat with each spider and the spider and the treat then go into the bucket when found. You can make this spooky by waiting until it gets dark and then using a torch to hunt out the spiders. Lily really enjoyed this and we did it in the dark with a torch. I held the torch for her and had to do a lot of directing to where they were by shinning the torch on them but as soon as she saw the treat and spider she knew to put them in her bucket. 

3. Spooky Sensory Bucket 
For my next idea you will need to go and collect some bits and pieces from outside. Leaves, sticks, pieces of bark, pine cones. Anything you can find that varies in feeling. Then get some pretend cobwebs, these usually come with spiders in them. Mix up all the things you have found outside into the bucket with the cobwebs along with the spiders and then you have a spooky sensory bucket. Get your children to dare to dip there hands into the bucket to see what they can find. Its great for the young ones to feel different feelings and great for the older ones to try and collect the spiders out. You can make it even spookier by blindfolding them or putting a black cloth over the top so they can't see what they are feeling. Lily really enjoyed finding the spiders that were in the bucket.

4. Make your own potion 
This activity is great for imaginative play as well as a fun water play activity. Fill your bucket with water and then add some food colouring to the water. You can use whatever colour you want, we used green. Remember to cover up with an apron as this activity can result in getting wet! (As we found out). If you head out to some of your local stores selling halloween goodies you can find all sort that you can put into the water. I found eyeballs, bones and snakes and spiders from Morrisons. Then get a nice big spoon and your child can have loads of fun popping the ingredients into the water and stirring it all up and then spooning them back out again. Older children will really enjoy the role play part of this as they imagine themselves being a wicked witch making a potion.
Lily really enjoyed putting the items in and out of the water. 

Which of these ideas do you like the most? Do you think you will try any this halloween? 

Happy Linen Christmas Bedding Competition

Okay, for the first time this year on the blog, i'm going to say it...hear we go.... 

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!

So I have my first Christmas competition for you to enter! 

You may be thinking Christmas is ages away, but there is nothing wrong with preparing ahead and so you may be wanting to think about gifts? Or you may be wanting to think about how you are going to make your home feel Christmassy this year. 

Well I have the perfect thing for you to start to think about. Bedding! 

Happy Linen Company have a brilliant range of Christmas bedding and its the perfect thing to give as a gift or to add to your home to make it feel Christmassy.

There is a great range of choice, from adults bedding to kids designs and a range of sizes from toddler bedding to Super King Size. Not only that but the prices of the bedding is great with adult bedding starting at £16 for a set.

Last year on Lily's Little Learners I reviewed the Festive Scandi Bedding and you can see that review here.

So to help you get ready for Christmas, I have teamed up with Happy Linen to give one lucky winner some Christmas Bedding of their choice.

All you have to do is enter on the Gleam app below.

Win Christmas Bedding

Not to worry if you didn't win, from the 27th of November you can get a discount of 25% on any Christmas bedding by entering LILY25 - Offer ends 2nd of December. 

Peppa Pig Mobile Medical Centre Review

Two of Lily's favourite things are Peppa Pig and playing doctors and nurses. So when we got the chance to review this Peppa Pig Mobile Medical Centre I just knew she would love it. 

Lily has a nice selection of Peppa toys now and it is something she plays with often. She really loves anything on wheels that she can push around so this new toy was going to be a great addition to her collection.

When the toy came Lily was delighted with it. The way the toys are displayed for Peppa is so the child can see it straight away, Lily happily admired every detail telling me what the toy was and she couldn't wait to get it open. 

The toy was super easy to open and had tied at the back which I managed to pull open with out even cutting them. I love it when a toy is easy to get out. Nothing worse than a child sat waiting for a toy and not being able to play with it.

Inside the toy there is the medical centre, a waiting room, nurse Peppa pig, the doctor, a waiting desk, a bed, a little first aid kit and teddy. 

I think the set up is great. The waiting room attaches to the medical centre making it into a roof so then it can look more like a truck and can be driven around. In the front of the truck there are 2 seats for Peppa and the doctor to sit in. The doors don't open though and you have to put them in their seats through the windows. 

It is such a great toy for imagination, pushing Peppa to an emergency and then setting up the waiting room ready for people to come and be seen. The seats in the emergency room are attached to it. You then open up the truck more so then it makes a set of stairs which leads up to the medical centre. 

There is another part that folds out and it has a wall of stickers showing a first aid kit and medicines.

I think it is great for kids that at first its just a truck but then folds out into so many different ways for them to play with. Lily managed to fold out the truck and fold it back away again all by herself, but she did struggle to get the roof on properly a few times. 

Another great thing about the toy is that the plastic used is really nice and smooth with no nasty edges for children to hurt their fingers with.

Lily was really happy with this toy, she loved putting the teddy on the table and playing doctors scenarios with it. Her favourite thing to do though is to put them in the driving seats and make them travel places. 

The set is available at Character Online and is part of the new "When I grow up" Range. 

Would your child love to play with the new Peppa Mobile Medical Centre? 

Lightstax Fire Truck Review Plus Giveaway

A few weeks ago at Blog On Toys, I got to check out the brand new Light and Sound Stax! Knowing at Lily's daddy was a big construction toy fan and that Lily loved fire engines I was super happy to try out the new Hybrid Fire truck and tell you, all my readers, all about it. 

Stax is your classic construction brick toy, but with a difference. It now has introduced light and sound to make construction even more fun. The new Hybrid series combines Light Stax and Sound Stax and regular bricks to make the sets even more imaginative. 

The clever thing about Light Stax and Sound Stax is that it is all brought together with out wires! Instead, each brick contained a powerful LED.

This toy is recommended for 6+ and so Lily's daddy got to be the one who built this for Lily.

First impressions of the toy for Lily's daddy was that he was excited that it had noise blocks and light up blocks. He really is a big kid and so getting to build a fire engine was really fun for him. Lily helped by passing him the pieces which she enjoyed to do and she was really excited and eager for it to be built so then she could play with it.

Her daddy said he was really impressed with the design of the toy, and the quality. It all stuck together really well and the instructions were clear and easy on how to build it. 

When it is all built up it looks great! Lily was really enjoying pushing it around and she was also loving that it made noise and lit up. It really does make a great loud fire engine sound. Something that kids will love but may drive parents insane. Luckily it is really easy to take the battery out of for those times you want a little peace and quiet.

The ladders on top of the fire engine are great and there is a special brick that makes the ladders raise up and down again. I did find that the ladders did keep falling off though through play. The details of the fire truck are great and it even has a little steering wheel inside. Lily has been very pleased with her fire truck.

The set comes with 189 bricks, as well as 27 Stax which includes the light Stax. It retails at £19.26 and can be bought from Amazon.

If you have a child who would love a Tax Hybrid Fire Truck, then enter below on the Gleam app for your chance to win one!

Win a Lightstax Hybrid Fire Truck

Spooky Halloween Pizza's

Spooky Halloween Pizza's

Halloween has to be one of my favourite times if the year. I am one of those people who love to decorate the house, have halloween parties, cram as many halloween films in as I can, and also do fun activities with Lily.

Thats why I decided that it would be fun to make our own spooky Halloween themed Pizza's.

How to Make Spooky Halloween Pizza's 

I came up with a few ideas for my pizza's before going out and buying my ingredients. To make the same ideas as mine, you will need Pizza bases (or make your own). Cheese, ( I bought sliced) and Olives. You will also need Tomato Puree. 

The first design I made was the Mummy. 

It is super easy to do. First spread the tomato puree onto the base. This was Lily's favourite job. You then need to cut the cheese into thin strips to make the bandages. Then place them on with some spaces between and cut up 2 olives for eyes. Mummy's don't always have to have a mouth but Lily wanted to give ours one.

The second design I made was a spider web with spiders on it.

Again spread on the Tomato Puree but this time with the cheese you need to cut it into even thinner strips to create the web pattern, then cut strips in half to go around the centre of the web. After you have placed on the cheese, you then need to cut some olives in half to create the spiders body. I put 4 olives as spiders bodies on mine. Then to create the legs you cut half an olive into 4 little slices and place them on each side of the body. 

The third design I made was some ghosts. 

Again the tomato Puree goes on. You then need to cut some little ghost shapes out of the cheese. I managed to cut 2 ghosts to place on top of our pizza's. I then chopped some shapes for the eyes, which Lily put on and then made a little ground for the ghosts to hover above out of olives. 

The pizza's then need cooking for around 10 min each. 

Results

I think that the pizza's came out great! Much better than I expected. Lily loved them and she decided she wanted the mummy pizza. I had the spider web one.

There was a few more ideas I came up with for the pizza's. One was warewolf using tuna to make the texture of the fur. Another was vampire, using olives for black hair and peppers for the mouth.

Which of the 3 pizza's above do you like the best?

Can you think of any creative Halloween Pizza ideas? 

The launch of Bohemian Rhapsody and WIN with VQ Radios

Hands up if your a big Queen fan?

I am, and I have been since as young as I can remember due to my Mum and Dad being a massive fan! In fact I imagine I was even listening to it and rocking out while in my mothers tummy. (Sorry Mum for all the kicks, your own fault haha).

One of my fondest Queen memories as a child was sat in a bar in Ibiza one Holiday and making the bar owner put the Bohemian Rhapsody video on for me. Over and over again!

So, you can imagine my excitement when I find out that there is going to be a Queen film released into the Cinema's and the title is my favourite song Bohemian Rhapsody! 

If you haven't seen the Trailer for it you can watch it now. 

The trailer gets me so excited and can't help but watch it and tap along to my most loved songs of Queen. 

Bohemian Rhapsody is an upcoming biographical film about the British rock band Queen, its focus is on lead singer Freddie Mercury's life and the film leads up to Queen's Live Aid performance at Wembley Stadium in 1985. Staring Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury and written by Anthony McCarten it is set to be an amazing film that any Queen fan will enjoy.

The film is set to be released by 20th Century Fox in Uk Cinemas on the 24th of October. 

In partnership with the Bohemian Rhapsody film VQ Radio's are giving away an amazing prize of a once in a life time Queen Experience for anyone who purchases one of their radios.

The prize includes  - 

• A private VIP tour of Queen hotspots around London, including Movie Film Sets, Recording Studios, Iconic Gig Locations and Freddie Mercury’s Home.
  
• An exclusive dining experience at Freddie Mercury’s favourite nightspot in the now named “Mercury Room” followed by a gloriously 70’s theme night out.
  
• Three nights luxury hotel accommodation.

If your interested in entering all you have to do is purchase one of VQ's amazing radio's and enter your details at this link. Enter

To get me even more excited for the release of the film. VQ and 20th Century Fox sent me an amazing bundle. 

It included amazing Queen Merchandise such as headphones, a backpack, t-shirts, shades, and a hat and one of VQ's amazing Radio's. 

The VQ radio's I can totally recommend. The one I was sent was the Hepburn Mark11 Radio and Bluetooth Speaker. It looks amazing with its mixture of retro and modern design and with it being wrapped in premium leatherette. We got sent a black one but VQ have a huge selection of different colours to choose from. 

Not only does the VQ radio look good but with its 10W Stereo Speakers it sounds amazing. It also gives you the best coverage of Radio stations and if you are looking to put on your own music you can connect to your phone via the bluetooth and use the radio as a speaker. 

Find out more about the Hepburn Mark11 radio and see what other Radio's VQ have to offer here. 

Will you be going to see the Bohemian Rhapsody film? 

Geomag Mechanics Gravity Catch and Shoot System Giveaway

If you have a house hold of big and little kids in your family then you about to fall in love with this toy. It is all about STEM and involves lots of construction. 

Its the Geomag Mechanics Gravity Catch and Shoot System. 

Geomag are very much a STEM (Science, technology, Engineering and Maths) focused company. Which is why they have brought out a new range of toys which is all about combining gravity with construction. 

Mechanics Gravity is a completely innovative play system which will expand expands your concept of play. With it you can have fun and play with the invisible forces of gravity and magnetism, whilst building incredible moving structures. 

Geomagworld’s R&D department has managed to develop an innovative “gravity motor” This uses the weight of the Geomag spheres to kickstart the mechanisms of the Geomag Mechanics structures without using electric motors or batteries. The movement is achieved in a green and sustainable way.

The use of fundamental laws of physics, such as magnetism and gravity, makes Mechanics Gravity a particularly STEM product. It is able to stimulate and deepen your scientific knowledge from older age primary students to secondary levels.

The system is made up of magnetic rods, steel spheres and elements of different shapes such as cylinders, bearings and modular parts. When assembled correctly, you can use the force of gravity to create chain reactions for never-ending fun.

The shoot and catch version of Geomag Mechanics (as pictures above) contains 11 magnetic rods and 36 steel spheres. You can then construct this together with 196 plastic mechanical elements. When built watch the balls fly around the construction at magnificent speed and see the magnets in use to help move the balls around the structure. 

This toy is recommended for children aged 7+ and is at a retail price of £70. Get your very own Mechanics Gravity by clicking here! 

Who would like to win one? Its the perfect gift for christmas.
Enter below on the Gleam app for your chance to win!

Win a Geomag Mechanics Gravity Shoot and Catch System

Autumn Art - Hibernation

I am always trying to think of new art ideas for Lily to do. I really love when I can also put a little lesson attached to the art we are doing too.

I love Autumn and so I definetly had to do something autumn inspired, and it was when picking a few red coloured leaves from the ground that I thought of doing an idea all about hibernation. 

The first thing we needed to do was go out and pick some lovely coloured leaves. There are so many nice colours in autumn. Reds, oranges, yellows, green's. And lucky for us that their are so many big tree's near our house that are loosing their leaves already. So we got a bucket and we headed out to go and get a bucket full. 

When we got them home, I sat down with Lily and decided to tell her all about how animals start to hibernate for the winter. Lily wanted to know what hibernating was and so I told her that it was a form of sleep that animals do so then they stay nice and warm and safe when it is really really cold out. We then discussed how the animals start to collect food and leaves and things to make nests to keep them selfs warm ready to hibernate. So I thought for our Autumn picture we could start by using the leaves to make nests. 

I got Lily a A3 piece of paper and some PVA Glue. Lily is super good at art now and started to stick her leaves onto the bottom of the paper to make her nest. Sticking is one of her favourite thing to do and so she was really enjoying getting to stick down the leaves she found outside. 

We then let the picture dry and went to the computer to print out an animal which hibernates. I gave lily a few options and she decided she wanted a Hedgehog. Of corse I could of drawn a hedgehog for Lily, but my drawing skills aren't all that good and so a printed one was the next option. 

I then cut the hedgehog out and Lily then started to colour in the face of it. I didn't want her to colour it all though as I was planning to use paint for the spikes of the hedgehog. After colouring it in, we glued it down so it looked like it was sat down on the leaves.

While the glue was drying, Lily and I got red and green paint to mix together to make a brown paint. Lily loves doing the mixing part and brown has always been a favourite colour to make as she loves painting tree's. 

For the spikes of the Hedgehog I thought it would look good if Lily used her handprints to make it look spiky. So she painted her hands and pressed them down all over the Hedgehogs back. I think the idea of the handprints didn't look as much as spikes as I wanted it too but it still looked great and made a really nice picture. 

Lily was really impressed with her picture and so we are going to make another one with a different animal soon.

Would your child enjoy an activity like this? 

Monthly Book Review - What we have been reading in September

Each month I write about which books we have been reading during the month. I usually introduce Lily to 3 - 4 new books each month while at the same time reading some of our favourites. We have story time each night and always read 2-3 stories, depending on how tired she is. 

You can read all the other book roundups from the last 2 years here. 

This month we didn't really have much of a theme with books. I have a pile of books we have not read so we are working our way through those. As Lily's stories are getting a little longer, we aren't reading as many per month and so this month I only have 3 new books to tell you about. 

Here is what we have been reading for the month of september. 

1. Mog the Forgetful Cat by Judith Kerr

I will admit that we haven't read Mog to many times this month. Lily wasn't to keen on having it read to her and not sure why as she loved the other Mog book we read. The only thing I can think of is that it is a very long story and so Lily's attention may have not stuck for so long. I really enjoyed this story though and have always loved Mog books. In this story of Mog, she is always forgetting things. Simple everyday things like that she had already eaten her dinner. It was Mog forgetting things that kept getting her into trouble and everyone got mad at her. Eventually Mog forgetting things really helped. One night she was sat outside feeling sad that she had forgotten things and she helped everyone wake up to find a burglar in their house. After this Mog got a nice treat and the story ended happily. You can pick up Mog books from most book stores. 

2. Lazy Ozzie by Michael Coleman

Lazy Ozzie is all about an owl that is to lazy to learn how to fly. Its mother goes out one day and says that she wants Ozzie to go out and fly to the field. But Ozzie is to lazy. So he gets his farm yard friends to help carry him to the field. The book reads the farm yard animals out as a list so its is repetitive. Which is great for learning farm animal words. Ozzie gets to the field and also gets a back to the barn in time for his mother to see him on the ground like he had flew. But she saw the whole thing and knew he hadden't flown. The story ends by her saying to him that he can easily fly back up onto his post. But we all know he can't. I really liked this story and it was a great one to read to Lily. I got this story from the Works.

3. Georgina the Giraffe by An Vrombaut 

This was a story from the Tv show 64 Zoo Lane. This one was all about Georgina the Giraffe and how she loved to show off and dance. One day she was showing off to all her friends and she ended up with a knot in her neck. Her friends decided that even though she was showing off they would try and help her. First by pulling and then eventually by taking her to someone who knew exactly how to help. He taught Georgina how to sing a song backwards which would unravel the knot. I really enjoyed this story because I thought the characters were great and I enjoyed the singing parts to it. It was a very fun story and it was mine and Lily's favourite this month. 

Which one of these stories do you like the sound of the best? 

Crate Creature Bashers Competition

You may have seen my review of the Crate Creature that I posted on my blog a few months ago. This is a toy that Lily really loves and has been enjoying playing with. 

Now their are some new create creature products out. Crate Creature Bashers!!!

These new creature bashers are mini menaces wanting to wreak havoc. But they are also cute loveable beasts that you will just want to collect. They are the perfect play buddies for children 4+ and provide endless gruesome laughter.

Waiting (impatiently) to be freed, Crate Creature Bashers are the perfect pals for fun and games once they’ve been unleashed. Each character has their own crazy personality with brightly coloured tongues and crazy eyes making them a weird and wonderful bunch.

There are 12 to collect including; Blizz, Flea, Guang, Crosseyes, Stubbs, Cappa, Pudge, SnortHog, Tenta, Sizzle, Tugger and Croak  collect them all to wreak the most havoc in the playground.

Each Basher is £9.99 and You can meet all the Crate Creatures here on the website. 

Who would love to win their very own Crate Creature Basher? They make the perfect stocking filler for your little ones stocking! For your chance to win. Enter below on the Gleam App. 

Win a Crate Creature Basher