April Favorites

Hi Everyone, so its the first of May which means its favorites time! For April I must admit there isn't that many things that I have been loving this month but I'm hoping May will be better. 

Photo source 

I really like wrap tops at the moment I only own one which is this navy and white stripe one from yours clothing. I picked this one up as it was on sale it is a bit low cut so I wear it with a white vest top underneath. I definitely want to buy some more wrap tops though. 

Photo source 

Another clothing item is this gorgeous Kimono from Dorthy Perkins. 

I picked this up as it will be great for the summer and for taking with me when we go to Cape Verde later in the year. I love pattern at the bottom and have worn this quite a bit already when its been a bit warmer. 

A bit of a random one but I'm liking the Natrasan First Aid Spray at the moment. 

I love a good multipurpse product and this spray can be used for: 

- wounds and bites

- acne, spots and athletes foot 

- minor burns and scalds

- hand and skin disinfectant 

- hard and soft surface sanitation

I've mainly been using it to clean out Blake's nappy bin and changing mat but I've recently used it as a hand disinfectant when I ran out of hand sanatiser.

I've mentioned Twinkl quite a lot over the last week so I wont go into too much detail. 

Twinkl is basically a fab site that has great teaching resources which teachers, childminders and parents can use to aid children's learning. 

I've only been using this for two weeks with Blake for bath time and we are really loving it.

You can read my review here. I love that its got such a gentle powdery scent and that a small amount goes a long way. Blake is loving it too because of the amount of bubbles. 

Blake loves books and the Usborne Peep Inside Dinosaurs book has been his favorite this month. He's had this book for a few months now, but this month he's really enjoyed us reading this book to him. He also loves sitting there lifting the flaps up and down and turning the pages. 

When we went to Mead Open Farm at Easter we picked a few items up in the gift shop. 

One item I've not pictured is his new bath toy which he is loving. Its a fishing net and 3 mini rubber ducks he's loved this at bath time. Another item we got from there was the above puppet I do think it is very over priced at £13.99 which Stuart brought for Blake but he does love it and we try and get loads of use out of it when playing with Blake. 

Last of all we got him this little steering wheel toy which was also from the gift shop at the farm and for £2.99 its not a bad price. Blake loves pressing the buttons which makes engine and horn noises. He's not quite got the hang of pulling the bottom bit quite yet but still he has been playing with it a lot this month.

What are your favorites from April? I'd love to know, comment below. 

Twinkl: Learning Resources

I love doing activities at home with Blake, quite a few months ago now I purchased a tuff tray so that I can do activities at home with Blake that are fun, enjoyable and some times messy. I was asked by Twinkl to review their site recently especially their birth to two years range of educational resources. 

I'd not heard of Twinkl prior to this and was excited to check out their site and see what kind of thing they did. Twinkl is a website with a huge quantity of educational resources for teachers, parents, childminders and for those that home educate their children. 

As I have a 16 month old I have been looking at the birth to two's section for fun ideas to do with Blake. I love that there is such a wide selection of activities including: 

- Busy Bags

- Playdough recipes

- Edible play recipes

- Sensory Play 

I did  a sensory based activity the other day which I found on the website using Oats, water and spices. Blake had lots of fun and you can read all about it in my next post. 

I love sensory play and occasionally we take Blake to a messy play session local to us that runs on a Saturday morning. So I was glad to see loads of ideas on Twinkl as it's given me lots of ideas for sensory play at home as well as loads of other ideas.

Twinkl is free to register and use a lot of their resources, however there are different levels of membership giving you access to extra resources. It is £29.95 for gold membership and their top membership platinum is £44.95 for a year. 

I have been given the platinum membership for 6 months, giving me full access for the whole site. I wanted to do this review sooner but I've been looking through all the resources and having fun deciding what activities I want to try with Blake. I've downloaded the whole birth to two years resource pack as I know I'm going to get so much use out of it. I've also had a look through the site to see what they do for older children and I'm impressed. Twinkl is going to be so helpful to us for years to come as their learning resources are for children up to 11 years.

One feature I'm yet to try is the create section where you can use their templates to create your own learning items which you can share on Twinkl after for others to use. Once I've given it a go I'll have to give you an update on how I've got on.