Jen Walshaw | Mum In The Madhouse

Win a Bathtime Fun Hamper at #kidsbathtime Twitter Party on June 4th at 1pm

h&a is the company behind some of the UK’s most love character bathing products and they aim to make bathing more manageable and fun for you and your little ones with family favourites like Disney Princess and Thomas & Friends!
I am going to be looking at ways to make bath time more manageable, fun and relaxing for both you and your children. I am really looking forward to hearing all your tips and ideas for making the most out of bathtime.

Make sure you are following @babybudgeting @Mum_TheMadhouse and @Tots100 on Twitter
Join in the conversation on Tuesday 4 June 2013 between 1 and 2pm (GMT) using the hashtag #kidsbathtime
Five tweeters with the best suggestions and tips from the event will each win a fabulous H&A bathtime hamper worth £25! (terms and conditions apply)

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Family Holidays in Alcudia

Family Holidays in Alcudia

Going away with the kids can be a challenging ordeal sometimes. It’s hard to make a holiday work for everyone – the youngsters want to be active all the time, while we adults might want to share a romantic moment or two. Picking where to go can be half the battle, but I think if you pick the right spot with a good mix of family fun, you’re going to have a really great time.
A bit of a tourist hotspot in northern Majorca, Alcudia holidays this summer are definitely something to think about if you’re travelling with children. For one thing the landscape is gorgeous, with a perfect blend of beaches and stunning mountain ranges. This means that there are loads of different outdoor activities to do while you’re there. Alcanada beach is great for younger children as the water isn’t too deep – you can actually walk or swim out to Alcanada Island from here as the water is only 1.5 metres deep! This is a great adventure for the kids; you can pretend to be pirates or explorers heading out to find hidden treasure.
Another great spot that we enjoyed was the Hidropark, a waterpark just outside Alcudia. The prices are extremely reasonable and you can definitely while away at least one day here – our boys were desperate to go back almost as soon as we left! There are lots of different things to do besides the slides and pools, including mini golf, bouncy castles and floating boats. There’s also paintball on offer, but obviously that might not be suitable for the kids, depending on their ages.
There’s also the chance to take a boat trip around the coast, which is a nice way to relax if you’ve had a hectic week. You can take a glass-bottomed catamaran around the bay and see the fascinating underwater world right beneath your feet. If you think you might be interested, I’d suggest booking ahead – there’s nothing worse than waiting in a queue when you’ve got your little monsters champing at the bit to get on board!
Image by Duncan Rawlinson used under creative commons licence

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10 ways to encourage children to save

11 Comments / parenting / By Jen Walshaw

I have recently blogged about 8 ways to encourage children to be frugal over at A Thrifty Mum, which has got me on the whole money management with children bandwagon. I find that using practical examples really helps the boys understand money and finances, but one of the things that I find really hard is how to encourage the boys to save for savings sake. After a chat on The Mad House facebook page I realised that I was possibly asking too much from them to save for savings sake. However, I did get some great ideas of ways to encourage your children to save rather than splurge.

Give children a goal to save towards, something that really sparks their interest and motivates them. Create a chart to help them tick off the pounds/pennies until they reach their target – Ramblings of a suburban mummy
Teach children the different denominations of money and what they add up to. This helps her understand what spending each coin means – Verily, Victoria Vocalises….
Work out how much they need to save each week to buy a special something before a certain date, and then they can see that they have some money left, but they also get buy their big item. It’s just small scale practice for when they’re adults wanting a car, house or holiday – The Brick Castle
Pay “interest” on what he’s saved that month. So if they save all month he can get something bigger – Snaffles Mummy
Make it visually – Using a glass jar or even a money box that counts the money (like Cass from the Frugal Family) makes saving money much more tangible for younger children. Or even have a savings chart with stars and stickers.
Set regular savings goals – Incentivise saving by offering added rewards at regular agree set points. This is why the Pigs from Natwest really worked back in the 80’s
Pay interest – pay your child monthly interest on savings they have. not only does this encourage them to keep it saved for longer, but it teaches them about money management
Set a goal – Are they saving for a specific item? if so make them a chart. Encourage them to find inventive ways to earn money to help them achieve their purchase faster
Insist that a percentage of their pocket money goes into a long term savings account.
Discuss the reasons that people save. By setting an example you are giving them the best lesson ever. My boys are both very maths oriented and we discussed how a Sippdeal SIPP pension works and why it is important to be able to look after yourself when you no longer have the ability to earn money.
We also set aside so much money each month for fun family activities, showing that you do not need immediate gratification and that by planning, saving and managing our money we can all have fun.
Open a bank account with them and actively use it. Make sure it is a book account, so they have to go in to a branch to pay in and take out their money. This way they have to plan spending within banks timescales and again learn that spending is not about instant gratification.
Save smaller denominations to demonstrate how every penny counts. The boys both have a large vodka bottle that they fill with pennies and once a year they exchange it for holiday spending money. It really adds up and Mini is always on the lookout for peoples dropped coins when we are out and about.
Teach your children that buying an experience (ie a trip to a theme park) brings much more happiness than a products (such as an ice cream). Saving for the experience may take longer or be harder, but it makes memories and makes the experiences so much better
Whilst chatting to people about saving and teaching children about money I came across some really great blog posts about it and they are too good not to share, Perle Noire wrote a super post on how she teaches her family about saving, Cat from Yellow days, uses money as a maths tool and makes learning really fun, Becky from Baby Budgeting and Family Budgeting is really worth following for her fab money saving tips too.

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Chewits Chewie Gum Guide to half-term and Win a Chewie Gum Hamper

128 Comments / competition / By Jen Walshaw

They have also been kind enough to offer my readers the chance to win a Chewits hamper worth £25 bursting with Chewit goodies.

The prize will include:

Chewie Gum Box which consists of 12 packs of Gum

Chew Tin – Consists of eight stick packs in a silver encased tin

Chewits Mug and Key Ring

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Chatham Marine Wake Pro Deck Ankle Boot Review

Featured and Guest / By Jen Walshaw

Now we do not have a boat, but MadDad has been wearing these for the last few weeks and said that they are extremely light and conformable. They are perfect for the warmer weather as they have side ventilation in the leather and look smart with trousers or even shorts.

The blurb:

The professional quality performance deck boot everyone has been waiting for. Wake G2 is a technical boat boot with 5 eyelets, premium leathers, mesh panel inserts and a butted raw edge apron seam with rolled mesh padded collars. Full interior leather and cotton linings for your comfort, a strobal construction and a full length perforated padded sock make this one of the most comfortable ankle boots on the market. On top of all of that, this shoe comes with a 2 year manufacturers guarantee.

A boot that comes with a two year guarantee well that is new to me and we are really impressed with the quality of these boots. They might be designed for the sailor, but they are also perfect for walking and playing with the boys too.

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Connect with your children at mealtimes

4 Comments / family / By Jen Walshaw

However, I really encourage chatting and communication. When the boys were younger we had a news style roundup from each of us, where we “reported” our news and events from the day, which included what was had for dinner, what we have done, places we have been and also anything we needed to remember. MadDad and I did this as well as the boys. I would ask open ended questions about their day and encourage them to remember as much about it as they could. Food can always be warmed up.

Other ways to encourage conversation at the dinner table include:

Use story cubes
Ask questions such as What was the best part of your day?
My boys love hearing about when they were younger or other family members, so have conversations about how you chose their name or how you and your partner met.
Try finding foods all of a certain colour or starting with a certain letter.
My boys study a different topic each half term and we find out what it is and use that. For example recently the boys have been learning about Australia and Africa and we have been discussing our visit to South Africa and Captain James Cook who was from our area. The school provides us with the topic list each term and we make sure we research it, so we have something to discuss with them.
Why not let your children interview you and you them.

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Try Something New With Your Family During National Family Week

Featured and Guest / By Jen Walshaw

Try Something New With Your Family During National Family Week
Do you spend enough time with your family? As our schedules get busier and budgets get tighter, enjoying real quality time with our loved ones seems to have become something of a luxury, never mind using that time to do something really memorable. However, there’s a great reason this May to clear your diary – National Family Week, which encourages families to get together by highlighting the importance of family time, and organising hundreds of family-friendly events across the UK.
Taking place between the 27th May and 2nd June, there’s bound to be a fantastic National Family Week event in your local area, but there’s no reason why you can’t just hold your own! National Family Week is also a fantastic time to try something new with your family to make the week really special, and create some memories that will last a lifetime. Here are four great ideas to get you started.
Try a New Restaurant
If there’s an exciting-looking restaurant that’s opened up in your area, National Family Week is the ideal time to give it a whirl, and enjoy some tasty grub with your family – now that’s a good excuse to leave the office early! Alternatively, if money is short, try cooking a dinner together and getting the kids involved. They’ll get to learn a new skill or two, and you’ll all have a wonderful time.
Have a Craft-ernoon
There are few things more fun than getting your hands dirty, so this National Family Week, set aside an afternoon for the whole family to get stuck into some crafts. If your children are very young, help them to make cress heads or painted pasta jewellery, or for older children, you could all collaborate on a larger project such as making a scrapbook, creating teacup candles, or even using decoupage to decorate an item of furniture. As well as enjoying some crucial bonding time, you’ll all have a keepsake to remember the day by.
Send a Smile
Do you remember when you were young, and everyone had a pen pal? In the age of email and texting, writing letters has fallen by the wayside, so get your family together to put pen to paper during National Family Week, and send a note to those faraway family members. You could invest in a beautiful letter-writing set or just pick up some funny cards from the greetings card specialist Hallmark but don’t forget to include some rib-tickling stories and a photo or two.
Get Sporty
Don’t let the summer pass you and your family by! Grab a Frisbee or football and get outside in the fresh air during National Family Week, or even better, why not organise a ‘Sports Day’ for your family and friends? You can hold an egg and spoon race, a bean-bag throwing contest, and of course the obligatory sack race, and ensure an unforgettable afternoon of fun that you’ll want to hold again and again.

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Tips for visiting Thorpe Park from Cass at Frugal Family

3 Comments / days out / By Jen Walshaw

We are booked to spend the weekend at Thorpe Park this weekend and Cass at Frugal Family visited with her family a couple of weeks ago, so I asked her to let me know what I needed and her tips. She was also kind enough to pop them in a blog post to share with you too!

The frugals at Thorpe Park

When I heard that Jen and the boys were off to Thorpe park this weekend, I was so pleased for them as we had a lovely weekend there a few weeks ago.

We planned our trip carefully as we wanted to get the most out of the weekend and I had loads to tell Jen about what she needed to do when she got there. Being a typical blogger, Jen told me to write her a post about what she should be planning for so here you go….

Before you go, make sure you’re getting the best deal possible as there’s lots of offers out there at the minute – Friij, Coke and using your Tesco vouchers are the main ones that I know of at the minute.

Getting there is really easy which is always a bonus when travelling with children! I know that Jen is driving down from the North East but we went by train which meant we arrived at Staines train station. There’s a bus that runs about regularly between the train station and Thorpe Park which costs £3.50 per adult return or £2.50 per child return. If you’d prefer though, you can get a taxi which is £2.50 each way (minimum of four passengers).

When you get to the park and you’re through the gates there’s a brilliant locker room downstairs in the dome where you can store your belongings in a large locker for £1.00. I had an empty carrier in my handbag so I literally took out everything that wasn’t essential for the day, popped it in the carrier and left it in the locker. There’s nothing worse than wandering around with a heavy bag!

If you’ve bought the fast track passes (which are excellent) make sure you know the time slots that you need to be at each of the rides and plan your visit around that because some of them are quite far away from each other.

One thing to be aware of are the height restrictions in place at Thorpe park as the minimum height restriction for the larger rides is 1.4m – very sensible decision to me looking at the scare factor of the rides but very unfair in the eyes of an eight year old who is just under the height and had to watch as his dad and sister went on some of the rides without him. I think the height restriction is higher here than in some parks we’ve been to but the rides are in a different class to the ones we’ve seen before. There’s plenty for all ages to go on though so don’t worry if your children are under that height – it really is just the larger rides they won’t be able to go on.

We saved a fortune buying two refillable drinks for £6 which we shared between us and carried round all day getting them filled from time to time. We also took a picnic to eat which would have been great as there were lots of places we could have sat except we ate it on the train on the way!

Oh, another thing. You get very, very wet on the water rides so it’s worth having a few pound coins so you can use the dryer things that they have near each ride. I would usually say that things like this are a waste of money but they were great and stopped any whinges about being wet.

If you’re staying at the Crash Pad, make sure you book a table for tea – we forgot to and the only bookings left when we arrived at 7pm to eat were for 9pm. Luckily the coffee shop sold some rather delicious carrot cake so we weren’t that gutted that we had to wait 😉

Also, make sure you take advantage of the early entry into the park if you are staying at the Crash Pad – the staff are great and literally start the ride as soon as you get strapped in so you can take full advantage of the 20 minutes or so before the park officially opens.

The App is great too – it tells you what the current queuing times for each ride are so don’t forget to download that before you go.

I can’t think of anything else but I’m sure Jen will have lots more to tell you when she gets back.

Have fun x x

I have to say we only told the MiniMads of our trip last night and they were jumping around with excitement If you have been I would love to know your top tips and be prepared to see lots of pictures and tweets marked #ThorpeParkMums over this weekend!

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The Virtues of Laidback Parenting

1 Comment / Featured and Guest / By Jen Walshaw

The Virtues of Laidback Parenting
I grew up on the stage. From ballet lessons to freestyle to jazz to musical theatre to drama classes, I was an all-singing all-dancing child that adored dress rehearsals and the thrill of applause. Clad in character shoes, a scrapped back bun and glitter, I would waddle on the stage with a perfected plié and my proud parents, who drove me to theatre school every Saturday, would gleam at me from the stalls. It was pretty magical and undoubtedly, hugely expensive (although that didn’t cross my mind when I was a child).
So, did I become a west end super star after ten years of theatrical teachings? No. No I didn’t. Not even close. Sure, I had dreams of grandeur and I’m still a major fan of musicals and all things jazz hands, but two things got in the way.
Firstly, I’m really crap at dancing. I have no natural rhythm, agility or grace and my poor parents had to sit through hours of the Sugar Plump Fairy. Secondly, I made the conscious decision to focus on my education, no less. At the age of 12 I was offered an agent and the possibility of a bit role in Eastenders but, ever the sensible Susan, I told my parents that I wanted to wait until I’d completed my GCSEs and then my A-levels. Unsurprisingly, A-levels led to a degree (literature) and here I am, over ten years later, with the stage a fading line on the horizon of my history.
The point is, I was never pushed to perform. Sure, my parents supported my artistic endeavors both financially and emotionally, but they never made me go to auditions or forced me to accept that agents offer. Some might argue that, had they applied a little more pressure, my life would be very different and I’d agree. However, it would be different against my will and that’s no place to be. I’d likely resent them for having taken away my freedom of choice and mightn’t have harnessed the kind of independence that I so cherish now. As I’m sure is true of many children’s hobby clubs, I saw many a parent/child relationship crumble under the applied pressure of success. There was always the kid that had the beautifully handmade costume and the most dramatic make-up. Her ballet shoes were the best money could buy and she had a personalized Pineapple dance bag with a matching water flask. I, on the other hand, was in a hand-me-down leotard. To the super-kids, performing was a lot more than a hobby; it anchored their home lives and their relationships, it was their future.
As an adult, I’m totally pro liberal, laidback parenting. My folks allowed me to explore my interests without the burden to succeed. That’s what education was for. Singing and dancing was for fun and that’s an important distinction to make I think. Indeed, these days’ lots of clubs focus on the latter, providing a place where children can nourish their imaginations rather than their trophy cabinet. From surfing to horse riding, motorsports to magic, the hobbyists gamut has never be so varied. If I could go back and do my time again, a Glee club summer camp would have been my idea of heaven on earth. Sadly, Glee Club didn’t exist when I was a sprog. I had to settle for Fame, which my darling mother took me to see as a birthday treat – although the Phantom of the Opera remains my absolute favourite production of all time.
Sure, I’ll never be Christine Daaé and it’s unlikely that Steven Spielberg is going to call any time soon to star me in an onscreen adaption of Starlight Express, but I’ve gained something quite different from all my years as an infant thespian. I’ve become a confident and somewhat dramatic individual that possess the virtues of independence, golden memories and a dedicated passion for the theatre. Okay, I still haven’t mastered the step-ball-change but once a Sugar Plump Fairy, always a Sugar Plump Fairy, I figure.

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2026 Colouring Calendar!

Author name: Jen Walshaw