I was watching one of the those daytime TV programmes the other day (whilst taking a well deserved break from the laptop of course) and the subject of what happens to your children when you are gone was being debated. Although death is a part and parcel of life, it's not often talked about around the coffee table. As inevitable as getting out of bed in the morning, the question remains as to why we’re always planning what we’re having for dinner tonight instead of planning for what’s happening to the things we care about the most once we’re gone.

Taking the time to write a will, clearly defining your wishes is one of the most important things you can do, especially for your children. Wills aren’t just there as written expressions of how you want the family home, or assets divided up, but they also clearly define your intentions for who will look after your children in the event of your death. Writing a will is a decision that many of us find difficult but a will provides clarity for whom you are leaving responsible for your children’s well being, defining the person, or people, who will be guiding them into the future in your absence. 

A lack of planning now can result in even more distress and anxiety for your loved ones at a time when you’ll be unable to help. So make the time to write your will today, safeguarding and protecting your children for tomorrow. 

Katie Price was a panelist on the daytime TV show I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post and much like her, I need to sort my will out to safeguard my girls futures ..... although I suspect my will may be a little less complex than hers!

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Somehow is it half term again and last year we talked about Education Quizzes and how they can help your children keep their brains active over the holidays but what about us parents too?

My mum keeps her brain active by doing countless word searches and sudoko puzzles but they are no contest for a child with a Year 7 maths problem. If I were to ask you what is the answer to 3 + 4 x 2 = ? If you do it on a calculator, the answer is 14 which may seem correct but is actually wrong! The correct answer is 11. Why? Because of BODMAS. BODMAS is just one of the things now taught in schools today that as parents, we might not be familiar with. (I wasn't and I got excellent GCSE maths grades too!)

So as parents we always try and ensure that we are keeping up with our child's educational needs (although please don't ask me about algebra), so this is why Education Quizzes came up with the Parents 999 idea. The title comes from the fact that each article has 999 words and is also meant to be an emergency resource for parents who suddenly find that they have a problem to solve in relation to their school-age children!  

So how does it help?

1. It is a quick and easy way to brush up on your own educational skills

2. It has an easy to use menu listing, so you can jump straight to the section you want.

3. All the quizzes are free to play, so you can go over them as often as you like.

4. There are a range of subjects to choose from, including cyber safety and bullying which can help parents to deal with new situations

5. Children generally think they know it all ...... this helps us as parents to stay one step ahead, or at least try!!

We have spent some time on the site and Education Quizzes asked for our honest opinions as to whether it really is a useful resource for parents. All of the statements noted above are true and for me personally the Parent Power sections relating to bullying and online safety were as important as the Subject Knowledge elements. I think it will be good for Education Quizzes to expand on these areas especially as some parents genuinely don't understand all the dangers that come with access to the internet. 

I like the fact that the articles are no more than 999 words as many parents are short on time but I did find myself reading the article and not always taking the quiz afterwards. There is a "tally" of your score and you can go back and improve it next time. This part didn't really appeal to me but I can see how those of a competitive nature might want to review their own scores.

At the moment there isn't a massive library of articles / quizzes in this section but Education Quizzes have said that they are adding a new one each week, so there will be regular new content available.

The Education Quizzes website is a fantastic resource for children and with the parenting section now, it is a great support for parents too. Despite many parenting books claiming otherwise, being a parent doesn't come with a handbook but having free online resources like this one, helps make the educational parenting journey just a little bit easier.

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I was standing at the school gates today with some of the other mums and we were chatting about the school uniform and how despite carefully looking after it since September, it is starting to look a little tired. Thankfully Easter is not too far away and we can bring out the summer uniform which is much lighter (and takes much less effort to get ready as it is non iron).

My eldest daughter cannot wait to get out of her uniform immediately after school but after being asked to look at this by 4imprint, we found that there are reasons to love school uniform. Here are our Top 5 Reasons To Love School Uniform.

1. Everyone is the same and it creates a feeling of equality. It doesn't matter who has the best trainers or clothing, in school everyone looks the same.

2. Apparently wearing school uniform helps with attendance (who knew).

3. Reduces the cost of buying clothing for school and having to replace it regularly with the latest trends.

4. Own clothes days are then extra special

5. Most uniform shops now offer "non-iron" options! (Time saving for mums and dads)

Thankfully most UK schools have a school uniform policy but when our children leave school many of them will have jobs that require certain clothes and uniform. In addition you then have celebrites that wear printed t-shirts  to support their charitable causes, so uniforms never really leave us after we leave school.

So whilst I do love my children wearing uniform, it doesn't define them as a person but a "non-iron" uniform certainly makes for a happier mum on a Sunday afternoon!

Collaborative post.

I am not usually known for my music prowess and some of my favourite artists over the years have been somewhat questionable but before Christmas we were sent an Electric Jukebox to review and I thought that it was something that would make me "cool" with the kids. 

So if you are not familiar with the Electric Jukebox, I can tell you that it is Britain's first and only music streaming service and device, backed by Robbie Williams, Alesha Dixon, Stephen Fry and Sheryl Crow (Robbie Williams *may* have been one of those questionable artists I mentioned earlier but every girl loved Robbie didn't she??). The sales spiel tells me that I can turn my TV into the ultimate music machine, it comes with 29 million songs AND takes just 2 minute set-up. So what did I think?

I have to admit that I struggled with the review, hence the reason why I am posting this in February rather than prior to Christmas, mainly due to the price tag for the Electric Jukebox being £169 upfront, with an annual fee of £52 which seems a lot for something that you can essentially already do through your phone.

One of the big marketing messages with the Electric Jukebox is that it only takes 2 minutes to set up and surprisingly, it really does only take a couple of minutes. All you need to do is plug in, find the Wi-Fi and you are all ready to go, although I think the power cable could be a bit longer because not everyone has a free socket next to the TV.

It has lots of neat little features like the easy navigation and voice control, although I think the whole thing would be dramatically improved if the voice control doubled up as a kareoke microphone. Because everyone loves kareoke. Don't they?

I feel like this review has a definite negative tilt so as I am always looking for the positive in everything, I dug deep and found the things that we did like about the Electric Jukebox.

• Optional explicit lyric filter to protect your children from inappropriate songs
• In comparison a Spotify or Apple music yearly subscription is £120 a year - Electric Jukebox is less than half this price - £52 per year for unlimited music streaming. That's £1 a week to be able to listen to all the music in the world! That's a good deal, if you compare to the cost of a CD of downloading MP3's.
• The upfront cost of £169, includes the annual music pass. The remainder of the cost is for the hardware. With Electric Jukebox, you are getting everything you need to play music.
• You do not get any adverts on Electric Jukebox. For anyone that regularly watches Youtube, you will appreciate that this is a definite plus point. 

Overall, while it is expensive and not too everyones budget, it is a solid product that is simple to use and hopefully in time, with some hardware updates you may get a kareoke version. Although I suspect that my neighbours maybe living in hope that this is not any time soon.

Disclaimer : It didn't actually make me any "cooler" with my kids either!

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