Healthy Hair for Kids: Locks in Goodness Review and Giveaway

(Gifted)

Locks in Goodness is a brand new natural hair care range aimed at children. All the products are free from impurities, natural in origin and completely safe to use on delicate, young hair. The ingredients used are minimally processed, meaning that they stay as close as possible to the natural plant.

"Every dollop is bursting with goodness." 

What I admire about this company is their dedication to the environment. The packaging is 100% recyclable and biodegradable, with the plastic-free tubes made from natural sugar cane, helping to protect the planet.

A big selling point for me is the "No Nasties" tagline. My son has very sensitive skin so we have to be careful what products we use. Harmful impurities and harsh chemicals which are found in most processed products can irritate his skin, so we were really excited to give these products a go!

Locks in Goodness Hair Gel and Hair Smoothie

Hair Gel

My son was keen to try the Hair Gel out! We applied a generous amount to damp, towel dried hair (even though it was almost bedtime... might as well go to sleep in style!) and spiked it up. The product doesn't feel sticky or synthetic, and is ultra light and easy to apply.

Wonderful Woodland Fun with Well Natured - Explore. Learn. Outdoors

(Review - Gifted)

If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise! Hidden away, just off the beaten track in the beautiful grounds of Rudyard Lake (in the Staffordshire Moorlands), you'll find a miniature woodland wonderland waiting to be explored!

Well Natured - Explore. Learn. Outdoors is run by Nicola, who has a background in education and working with children. She has recently taken the brave step to put her lifelong passion and dreams into action and create a magical, outdoor, multisensory learning experience for young adventurers.

I asked Nicola what her motivation was for starting up her woodland stay and play sessions (suitable for early walkers up to 4 years of age) -

"I have always had a love of the great outdoors, having had lots of exposure as a child on long country walks and bird watching with my parents and nana. Something I continued to do once I had a family and in schools setting up nature clubs. It was whilst completing my degree I discovered forest schools and the benefits of outdoor learning. Since then, I have continued to read more research and discover the benefits to children’s well being. More than ever now children spend much more time using technology and children’s access to outdoors is decreasing because of this. I feel that children are so much happier and creative when the walls are removed!"

We had the pleasure of joining Nicola on one of her exciting sessions this week, to try out all of the activities she had on offer - and we were not disappointed! I'll let the photos tell the story of our afternoon...

Our Favourite Places to Visit in North Staffs: Westport Lake

In this series, we will be telling you all about our favourite places to visit in our local area, North Staffordshire. We are lucky enough to live right on the edge of the Staffordshire Moorlands and the beautiful Peak District, so we are spoilt for choice when it comes to the great outdoors! We're also a stone's throw away from the hustle and bustle of busy towns and of course Stoke-on-Trent city centre, not to mention the M6. So with the best of both worlds on our doorstep, we have plenty of places to visit!

The first place featured in our series is Westport Lake. It's the perfect nearby place to go to get outdoors for a few hours.

WESTPORT LAKE

Where is it?

Westport Lake is located in the heart of Stoke-on-Trent, near Middleport and Tunstall. It's Stoke-on-Trent's largest expanse of water and was created along side the Trent and Mersey Canal. Just off the A500, it's easily accessible by car. Once you're there, you can't really tell you're in the middle of a built up area on the border of the city!

Summer Holiday Diaries: Week 4 - Wellies, Wildlife and Walking

Well that's another week of  summer holidays done and dusted! Now if time could just slow down a little...! We are trying our best to have a "summer on a shoestring!" I'm saving money where ever I can by making full use of all the free events in and around Stoke-on-Trent this summer, with picnics becoming our new best friend!

So here's what we got up to in week 4 of the summer holidays, and how we tried to keep spending to a minimum. 

Monday 13th August

Today was a much needed day at home. The weather wasn't fab either so we didn't venture out at all. The highlight of R's day though was realising it had rained so she could don her wellies and go and jump in puddles in the back garden. Poor kid - she was so excited, but only found this measly puddle to splash about in! You don't have to spend money or even leave the house to make memories!

#MySundayPhoto: Week 8

Every picture tells a story! So here is my favourite photo from our week.

"Lemurs"

#MySundayPhoto: Week 6

Every picture tells a story! So here are my favourite photos from our week.

"Butterfly Hunting"

This week, I couldn't just pick one photo! We went for a lovely little walk through Ford Green Hall yesterday. This kids loved going off the beaten track a bit, chasing butterflies though the long grass, and searching for them amongst the bright purple flowers! I managed to snap a rare photo of us three, and everyone is looking at the camera too! The third photo is of the kids chatting to the geese! 

I'm linking up this post with these fabulous blogs:

Our Month in Photos: June Round-Up!

One of the main reasons I started this blog was to have a place to keep a record of the things we got up to, the little things that made us smile. 

Whilst I started off quite well with some of my earlier posts, I realised recently that I have been slacking on the diary side of things. So to try and catch up a bit, and because Hubby is doing bedtime duties, I'm going to put together our month in photos. So, here are the best moments from June! (I know we're in July already...I'll try harder this month!)

#MySundayPhoto: Week 4

Every picture tells a story! So here's my favourite photo from our week.

"Pink"

This week, I had a surprise find in the garden... beautiful pink peonies! Neither my Hubby or I remember planting the bush last year, but it's very welcome to stay! My Nan would have loved these too, so maybe it's a little sign from her to say she's looking out for us. 

I'm linking up this post with these fabulous blogs:

German for Kids: Krabbeltiere Suche! - Minibeast Hunt!

Minibeasts and Creepy Crawlies!

Outdoor learning

This week, we took our German lesson outdoors! My son was set some half term homework to go on a minibeast hunt so I decided to use the opportunity to introduce some new topic related German vocabulary! A "Krabbeltiere Suche" was born!

I put together a tick list of common little creatures found in British gardens, and added bright colour photographs to aid learning. (You can download it for free at the end of this post.) We spent a little while saying the new German words and repeating them, and having a giggle at some of the funny translations! The kids found the literal English translation of slug really funny - die Nacktschnecke means the naked snail! 

#MySundayPhoto: Week 3

Every picture tells a story! So here's my favourite photo from our week.

"Bug Hunt in the Rain"

This week, we got totally soaked through on a bug hunt in the rain, at the beautiful Roaches Gate in the Peak District. We are so lucky to have all this on our doorstep.

I'm linking up this post with these fabulous blogs:

Easy bird feeders to make with children

The children love to feed the birds when we're out and about, so I decided to bring some of that excitement into our own garden. We chose to make some bird seed feeders to hang outside, to attract some birds into our back yard. They are really quick and easy to do, making it a simple activity for children of all ages to join in with. 

Here's how to make your own easy bird seed feeders!

Easter holidays, part 3: Just the three of us!

So with Hubby back at work for the final week of the Easter holidays, it was up to me to entertain the kids...and the dog! Again, we stayed close to home because of the pup, but we had a lot of fun and managed to catch up with friends this week too. Here's what the three of us got up to.

Monday

Stan was beyond excited to have a birthday play date with two of his school friends. He had lots of fun, after an initial wobble, and his mum kept me updated with photos and videos! It was the first time I'd left him with someone who he's never played with outside of school before so was quite new to both of us! 

I took Rosie to get the car cleaned and we snuck off to the pub next door for a girls' lunch while we waited! We had a lovely little walk around Endon village and saw where they dress the well every year too.

A (character building!) walk around Rudyard Lake, Staffordshire

A nice family walk! 

So the kids were starting to feel better after their recent illnesses, and after being pretty much snowed in for three days they were climbing the walls and in need of some fresh air! We are lucky enough to live on the doorstep of the Staffordshire Moorlands and the Peak District, so there are plenty of beautiful places to go for a family walk. With there still being quite a lot of snow around, we opted for one of the flatter locations, Rudyard Lake. The lake (which started life as a reservoir in 1797) was the first meeting place of Rudyard Kipling's parents!

All wrapped up!

The kids were excited about going on a snowy welly walk, so we all wrapped up warm with plenty of layers and extra socks! As soon as we parked up in what was now slush, I didn't think our walk was going to end well! But as good parents do, we put on a brave face and our biggest, most convincing, "You'll enjoy this!" smiles and off we went!

"This is a big tree."

Art in nature 

Over half term, Stanley's class were set a homework task. They were to go on a nature walk to find natural things to make a picture with. Easy you'd think, right? We'll...we had a lot of rain that week and most of the leaves, twigs and flowers had turned into a soggy pile of mush! So we had to get creative; we dried out some bark from the garden, rescued a few of the less crumbly/soggy leaves from our walk then raided the local garden centre floor for more healthy looking bits! Stanley took his time to arrange the items to create his picture. Cue Mum with a bucket full of PVA glue and 2 days of drying and he ended up with this!

Pencil pride!

Stanley also had to write a sentence to go with his picture. "This is a big tree" is what he came up with! We are so proud at how far he has come on with his writing during his time in Reception class. Just a few months ago he wouldn't even entertain the idea of holding a pencil, but now he is trying so hard! Well done Stanley! 

 

Finding joy in the little things: We always enjoy going out for walks in  the fresh air, but having a purpose made it even more fun. Look at that beautiful writing too, and his proud smile!