The great thing about models is that there are so many types that you can get that it is hard not to appreciate the industry. The range also goes out to the people who have different levels of experience when it comes to model building, people that cannot even build a Lego model are catered for too. Models can be put together as a team rather than just sat there by yourself, many families do this.

One of the best memories I have is getting together with my family and building one of the firstRC helicopters Of course at the time these helicopters were not bought as they are today and the instructions were not that great and of course it took weeks to put it together. The day of testing had finally got here and I was allowed to fly the thing first, I crashed it by accident. Once we had repaired it we tried once more. The last time we had flown this thing had taught us a lesson and this time we managed to keep it airborne.

You really can get anything fromAirfix kits to all of the really made models that many people do not get to see.

So make sure that you sit down as a family and actually build a model, even if it is just a quick one your child will always remember it.

The Rubber Duck

This one is the classic and is a must have for the bath, even the Queen has one you know. The first time the rubber duck was actually seen was way back in the 1800s but they were not popular until Jim Henson came along and introduced us to Ernie’s rubber duck, remember Sesame Street anyone. The rubber duck is certainly going to be a boring toy for the older children but it is a great first bath toy for the younger ones and you can get ones that squirt water now.

Foam Letters

These are something that are a bit of fun and also great for teaching children their first few words while they are at it. These work as they are able to stick to the tiles in the bathroom, do not worry the only thing that sticks them is water. There are all kinds of crazy things that I did not have when I was a child that are now out to do with this product, roads have been introduced that stick on the tiles, great stuff really.

Crazy Bath Soap

This was also used when I was a child and it is basically shaving foam but more foamy and less irritating. One of the best things about this product is that the kids will be messing around with it when in fact they are cleaning themselves because the product is of course made from soap, a great idea for those kids that do not like a wash!

So there you have it, make sure you first have a decent bathroom design to put all of these coolbathroom accessories in. You can even gettoilet seats for kids so they don’t fall in!

One of the main points to focus in on is the fact that I do not think I have ever come across a computer engineer that looks and talks like Barbie. Lets be honest here, Barbie is a very stereotypical blonde type, is she really going to be able to know Java and things like that. This is not to say that a blonde woman could not do the job, not at all. It is also very insulting to the women that already work in the business.

Surely every girl that gets this doll is going to think that the women that actually do work in the industry are going to look and talk like this. A parents comment is as followed “This is insulting, Barbie already creates unrealistic expectations of what a girl should be”. The last time I checked geeks were not into the superficiality of Barbie so how is it that this geeky doll received so many votes? In my own personal opinion I do think that this is a good idea at all, when was the last time you saw a woman in the IT business wearing very poor pink designer glasses.

On the other hand I can see why having a Barbie like this will make children think that being a “Geek” is actually not a bad thing at all. Could there perhaps be a bit less bullying becuase of this.

All in all I think that this doll has just outraged the women working in the industry more than anything, who wants to see Barbie in another pair of cheap glasses anyway? Barbie should stick to her Prada glasses and stop getting in on the industries that do not want her. Go ride your horse and drive in your lovely pink sports car, stay out of the IT industry!

Building of Outdoor Play Apparatus

As parents we are constantly reminded that it is our responsibility to get our offspring to be active, to get exercise and not to lie around eating fast food while playing computer games. Many parents will probably agree that persuading their children to ignore their televisions and computer games can be impossible.

Last year I invested a significant amount of hard earned cash in a few pieces of outdoor play equipment, chosen by my two youngsters. They always enjoy a visit to our local park where they can race around, swing on the swings, slide on the slides and climb the climbing frames. Unfortunately our nearest park is about 3 miles away so these visits are not as frequent as they or I would like. So I bit the bullet and shelled out quite a bit of money on a wooden swing slide playset and climbing frame which I put together whilst my wife was conveniently at the health spa.

Now I would like to report that my generosity has paid off and my children are now fit and active and can’t get enough of their new equipment.But nothing could be further from the truth. Since I installed the equipment myself (which presented many headaches, took a lot of hammering and quite a bit of bad language) they have only played on it three times. Admittedly I didn’t get the equipment until the Autumn of 2009 and since then the weather has been appalling.

At least that is the reason they give when I try to convince them that they’d enjoy a little outdoor play. It’s too cold, they often say. Or, ‘the swings are too wet to sit on’ is another excuse that I hear. Ill be needing one of those spa treatments at this rate!

I’m hoping that, as we move into spring and the weather improves, they will naturally want to get out into the garden and get some much needed exercise on their new outdoor toys. I’m dreading another miserable, wet summer as this will result in my fat children just getting fatter instead of working off those excess pounds with a little outdoor adventure. Nobody ever said that being a parent was easy. Although the odd massage does go down well when it all gets a bit stressful

The first thing I thought was how boring, why couldn’t she have gone for somewhere more exotic than Wales.To be fair though, she has uncovered a few interesting facts along the way.

I have already discovered that the name of Wales actually comes from the Cymraeg word of Gwalia, which when translated means “Homeland”.

Wales is a relatively small country compared to some and apart from it’s border to England is completely surrounded by sea. To the south is the Bristol Channel, with St. George’s Channel to the west and finally the Irish Sea to the north.

There are been many superb actors who were born in Wales, amongst these are the brilliant Mr Richard Burton, Sir Anthony Hopkins and the gorgeous Catherine Zeta Jones.

Of course Catherine has escaped Wales for the delights of the USA, but she often pops back and stays at Hotels in Wales. She has also been known for her Self Catering Wales escapades when she visits her family.

Catherine however doesn’t just stay in Wales, she also enjoys her UK Family Holidays with her celebrity husband and her 2 children. It’s also been known for them to pop into local pubs for a spot of lunch and mingle with the likes of everybody else, how very non showbiz.

I deviate a bit and have come off the subject.This must be something that runs in our family, because my daughter has a problem with this too.

She has a very vivid imagination and unfortunately when writing essays, stories, etc she goes off at a tangent and loses the whole context of her story.

It was only last week that her English teacher had a meeting with her about her work. It’s funny in my day a vivid imagination was something to praise, not be quashed.

My next instalment on the delights of Wales will follow soon as soon as my daughter gets on with the job in hand. For now though she is happily writing a story about slaying dragons – probably due to the fact that she has just drawn a picture of the Welsh flag!!

A lot of it is to do with brand recognition there seems to be no other reason why these companies would make them so simple. Why is this always a bad hing, after all these products are not bad for kids, they help them to learn about all kinds of things.

LEGO

Lego is one of the biggest brands that is known to kids all over the world, then think of all of the fully grown adults that still use it. The thing is, the logo is such a simple one, a red background with a white text on it. Lego is something that is almost recognised by everyone in the world,., is this what has made them so popular.

Play-Doh

Play-Doh was not always for kids it actually used to be used as wallpaper remover until someone spotted children creating pretty good Christmas decorations with it, this changes how the company saw their product and changed it to what we now see. Now they sell over 95 million cans of the stuff a year and the logo, well have a guess; yes its white text over a red background. Are you seeing anything in common here?

Fisher-Price

Another company with another custom logo design and once again you will see the logo with white text and a red background.

Is the reason behind this perhaps that kids can see these colours more than anything else?

As people get older the colours seem to change and you will not see anything like this when it comes to sports logos or other business ones.

So if you are still hunting down for a Christmas present or perhaps you are thinking about the spring/summer already then perhaps you should look into something for the Garden to get the kids.

Trampoline

A trampoline is a great gift for both kids and adults and there is of course a very simple reason why this is. They are great fun! trampolines can be a great way to exercise and have fun which is why it can be a cool thing for adults. You can also get a variety of sizes like 8ft trampoline which means you can get one that is suited for your children’s ages.

If you have a toddler that has really been wanting a trampoline but you know for a fact that a great big trampoline would be pretty dangerous for a 3-4 yr old to have then never fear as there are many trampolines out there that are designed for one person and basically they work as you can put the toddler on it and they grab a single bar and jump up and down on the mini trampoline.

These are great because you can also put these indoors which means even if is raining the kids can have a bit of a bounce.

If you have a very big garden then you could of course go that one step further and get climbing frames.

So thats that really.

Safety

This should always be top of the agenda and although most of you will have spent hours trying to put up the trampoline there is always the fencing that goes on the outside of it too. A lot of people, okay Dad’s will just settle with the trampoline as it is and say that they will get onto the fencing part of it at a later date. This of course never happens which is why you have to always out it on there when you are doing the initial set up. If this does not happen then the child can easily topple over and potentially kill themselves.

I know that when I have seen people (including myself) use a trampoline they would certainly be falling off a lot without the fencing?

If you have a net then surely you do not have to stand out there and watch right? Wrong. Children will always try to go for the best tricks even if they do not know how to do them in the right way. This is really just one of the reaons that you should not be sitting inside when your kids are out on the trampoline. If they want to do all of the flips and things then make sure they get shown how to do it the right way first.

It doesn’t matter what kind of trampolines you have, just make sure the kids are being careful on them.

You could always go after something else like swing set. it doesnt matter which option you choose to take just make sure you are outside with the kids. Do not just sit back and watch, have a bit of fun and join in!

Safety

This should always be top of the agenda and although most of you will have spent hours trying to put up the trampoline there is always the fencing that goes on the outside of it too. A lot of people, okay Dad’s will just settle with the trampoline as it is and say that they will get onto the fencing part of it at a later date. This of course never happens which is why you have to always out it on there when you are doing the initial set up. If this does not happen then the child can easily topple over and potentially kill themselves.

I know that when I have seen people (including myself) use a trampoline they would certainly be falling off a lot without the fencing?

If you have a net then surely you do not have to stand out there and watch right? Wrong. Children will always try to go for the best tricks even if they do not know how to do them in the right way. This is really just one of the reaons that you should not be sitting inside when your kids are out on the trampoline. If they want to do all of the flips and things then make sure they get shown how to do it the right way first.

It doesn’t matter what kind of trampolines you have, just make sure the kids are being careful on them.

You could always go after something else like swing set. it doesnt matter which option you choose to take just make sure you are outside with the kids. Do not just sit back and watch, have a bit of fun and join in!

So what are the reasons for this?

One of the big problems is that schools are too scared to go with big projects fearing that something may happen and a parent will take action against them. There are so many people out there that would attempt to sue someone for no good reason. If a child falls over then 9 times out of 10 it is because children fall over all of the time but even when it is the schools fault it is not always them who are in need of suing.

Something else that has a lot to do with it is price, they can be very expensive ideas to put in place. This is why it can be a lot easier to host a fair or something like that so that a lot of money can be raised so that the school can improve upon many of the things that it already has in the playground. If you think about it, a play system for a school is going to cost at least £5,000 and that is without thinking of installing it and keeping it in good condiiton.

This is actually a very big problem and relying on the public to come up with all of the money is already a bit harsh considering they are supposed to be paying for all of it all in taxes anyway!

The best thing to do is make sure that there is at least something in the playground to keep the kids occupied or they will have very boring lunch hours.