Half Term on a budget by guest blogger Gemma Johnson, Co-founder of www.babeecard.com

Half Term on a Budget

Half term is nearly here, and the kids are looking forward to lots of action packed and exciting days out. But how do you balance the budget when it is nearly the end of the month and Christmas is approaching too? In this article you can get some tips for low cost and no cost activities which will keep all the family happy.

Start by making a plan. Write down the days of the week, and make a list of things that the kids have asked to do, appointments you have to attend and ideas that you have.

Free activities include
• Dressing up.
• A walk to the park.
• Exploring the local woods.
• Visiting local attractions with no entry fee. Look in the local paper, local parenting magazine and on the local council website for ideas.
• Visiting the library: ask in advance about free half term activities.
• Getting the children to put on a play. This could be based on their own ideas or a book from the library visit.

Low cost activities
• Giving each child £1 and exploring the local charity shops to see who can get the best toy, book or game
• Baking. Offer the kids the chance to make their own sandwiches, create an indoor picnic or even bake a cake. This need cost no more than your meal would have cost anyway, or you can spend a little extra on some treats.
• You could look at special half term activities put on by local attractions as well as Hallowe’en and fireworks events.

More activities
If your children have great ides about visiting theme parks, buying new DVDs and computer games and lots of meals out, work out in your head how much you have to spend on half term activities. Look for discounts of 10-45% on days out and theme parks offered by cards like BaBeeCard. This card also offers savings on the London Dungeon, paintball and activity camps.

Booking tickets in advance can save you money too: don’t forget to ask if there are good deals for family tickets. If your kids are old enough, give them an idea of the budget for half term activities. This can help them weigh up what they really want to do. It might also cut down on requests for you to buy them things if they know that the ‘half term fun’ money is being saved for a great day out that the whole family can look forward to.

Author note:
Gemma Johnson
Co-founder of

A mothers Love for her Child

A mothers love for her son

I thought you might like to see the casting i have done of myself and my precious son Ethan, to me no words are necessary as this shows my love for him. I hope you like it!

I have just dropped off four hand lifecasts of an 18, 11 and 7 year old girls and hand and foot cast of their 2 weeks old brother, sorry no piccies but hopefully if I get recent job of cupped hands of an adult to be a garden feature – I’ll definately get some pics of that!

Enjoy !

Schoolgirl, 16, lost eight fingers in plaster of Paris accident during art lesson

What a complete nightmare story – it just shows that you should never put your hands into plaster to make a mould. Impala Impressions uses Alginate Impression material which is completely safe and produces wonderful results – for more info see the news article attached from The Daily Telegraph.

Does sleeping with your baby cause cot death – current discussion on BBC radio 2

Just listening to Jeremy Vine, subject Cot Death is caused by sleeping with your baby, putting the onus on the parents – tune in or take a look at the article quoted below.
I would value your comments on this, I personally think there is nothing wrong with sleeping with your baby, I didn’t as he is such a light sleeper he was better in his moses basket but he always come into bed every morning for a cuddle. Do you sleep with your newborn?

Parents’ Drug And Booze Link To Cot Deaths
9:24am UK, Wednesday October 14, 2009

More than half of cot deaths happen when a baby is sleeping with a parent, a study has revealed.
Researchers said this could be linked to the baby’s parent having been drinking or taking drugs.

Despite a dramatic drop in the rate of cot death in the UK since the early 1990s, experts are advising parents to avoid dangerous co-sleeping arrangements.

The study was led by a team of researchers at Bristol and Warwick universities.

They studied all unexpected infant deaths – aged from birth to two years old – in the south west of England from January 2003 to December 2006.

The parents were interviewed shortly after the death and information was collected on alcohol and drug use.

It is really important that parents should not fall asleep with their baby on a sofa as it is very, very dangerous.

Lead author of research Professor Peter Fleming

A detailed investigation of the scene and circumstances of death was also conducted by trained professionals.

Of the 80 cot deaths analysed, more than half (54%) occurred while co-sleeping compared to one-fifth (20%) co-sleeping rate among both control groups.

Much of this risk may be explained by the combination of parental alcohol or drug use prior to co-sleeping (31% compared with 3% random controls), and the high proportion of co-sleeping deaths on a sofa (17% compared with 1% random controls), say the authors.

A fifth of cot death infants were found with a pillow and a quarter were swaddled, suggesting potentially new risk factors emerging.

Lead author Professor Peter Fleming, Professor of Infant Health and Development Physiology at Bristol University, said: “It is really important that parents should not fall asleep with their baby on a sofa as it is very, very dangerous.”

Fantastic New Clay casting kit **only £8.99**

Pretty boxed basic clay casting kit - only £8.99!!!!!!

Basic Clay casting kit - example of what you can do

Impala Impressions is still in the process of getting their website up to date but thought you’d like to see this amazing value kit (only £8.99!!!)to create a clay imprint of your baby – it can be painted, varnished, used as a christmas decoration for your tree – virtually anything you want and packed in a basic but pretty box wrapped with ribbon makes a fantastic christmas present for anyone! I have painted this one pictured with very light gold and then glitter paint to add a sparkley effect. Take a look at the Impala Impressions website for some great priced baby casting kits.