25/10/201525/10/2015 by jo

Project 365 – Week 43

Sunday 18th October. I was sent some Snazaroo Face Paints via Mumsnet to try out some Halloween faces. While I’m sure the face painting brigade won’t be calling on my services any time soon, H loved her vampire face. I thought I did okay, but I need to work on getting the white paint thicker.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Oct 18, 2015 at 2:38am PDT

Monday 19th October. Good sisters (me) buy Seagull Droppings chocolate from Seasalt for presents (for my sister).

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Oct 19, 2015 at 10:52am PDT

Tuesday 20th October. My sister in law no longer lives in China, she’s in Viet Nam. However, my mother in law did get around to posting some things for us she picked up when she visited. Pee Pee Boy now has a friend.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Oct 20, 2015 at 9:17am PDT

Wednesday 21st October. My serious skater child. The top she’s wearing is an age 4-5 – possibly the first and last time she’ll wear it. She wanted to wear it with just tights, and I had to persuade her otherwise. While she has lovely long legs, it was just that bit too short… looks cool with denim shorts though!

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Oct 21, 2015 at 8:37am PDT

Thursday 22nd October. Caught on my train journey into work on Thursday morning, over Mitcham.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Oct 21, 2015 at 11:39pm PDT

Friday 23rd October. We had an inset day! I had booked us a hotel in Warwick a while back, so got a good £30 deal, so we decided to drive up to Warwick Castle, in the hope there might not be too many other Inset Days, plus the Halloween activities weren’t due to start until the following day. The gamble paid off – we got to Warwick Castle at 11am and left just before 5pm and it was really quiet. We did almost everything – though missed a few presentations around the grounds. H’s topic at school has been about castles this last term, and we still have another castle trip planned this half term too. With our Merlin Passes it was free to get in, the food came to around £15 (all you can eat buffet), and our hotel had a food deal on in the evening too.

Saturday 24th October. We had a Shakespeare Day. Stratford Upon Avon was just up the road, no more than ten miles at most. While H is still young, she’s had a fabulous book of Shakespeare which breaks all the stories down into cartoons, which she reads from time to time (current favourite Romeo and Juliet). We bought a Five Houses Pass to visit as many of the properties as we could, and managed three. Fortunately Vouchercloud had a deal where you could get a ticket free to the same value of one you’re buying, so H got hers for nothing. This saved us around £50 and meant we got to Shakespeare’s Birthplace, Anne Hathaway’s Cottage and Mary Arden’s Farm. All of them were wonderful, and we all learned a lot. I’ve been in the past but didn’t remember a lot about it – so it was good to revisit.

21/10/201524/06/2018 by jo

The Insatiable, Inflatable Candylion.

I’ve been a huge Super Furry Animals fan for many years now. Lead singer Gruff Rhys has also released several solo albums, including his second, ‘Candylion’. This album is the inspiration and music for a new play in Cardiff this Christmas – The Insatiable, Inflatable Candylion.

The Insatiable, Inflatable Candylion has words and music by Gruff Rhys – and is at Cardiff’s SWALEC Stadium this Christmas. Here’s the press release :

A festive treat from the creative minds behind the genre-bending Praxis Makes Perfect: this December, Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys, writer Tim Price and director Wils Wilson will team up to create National Theatre Wales’ The Insatiable, Inflatable Candylion, a playful theatre gig inspired by Gruff’s 2007 seminal album Candylion and featuring an array of colourful characters and sing-along live music.

Gruff Rhys The Insatiable Inflatable Candylion

This Christmas, take a trip to Pixel Valley, a magical world filled with positive vibes, colourful, mixed up characters and badminton.

Come on an adventure with Polar Pear, Sledgehog, Cheffyl and the larger than life insatiable, inflatable Candylion… what will become of life in the valley when negative vibes take over the town?

Gruff Rhys joins an ensemble of actor/musicians including Sweet Baboo, Remy Beasley, Lisa Jên Brown, Matthew Bulgo, Dyfan Dwyfor, Natasha Lewis, Dyfrig Morris, Kliph Scurlock and Emma Daman Thomas.

The Insatiable Inflatable Candylion

They will perform a mixture of new songs written by Gruff and old favourites from the Candylion album, in an immersive production that blurs the line between a theatre show and live music gig.

Expect a mix of new songs and old favourites in a theatre gig for all ages.

Dates: 16 December 2015 – 2 January 2016
Venue: SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff, CF11 9XR

Performance Schedule

16.12.2015	: 7pm
17.12.2015	: 7pm
18.12.2015	: 9pm
19.12.2015	: 2pm & 7pm
21.12.2015	: 2pm & 7pm
22.12.2015	: 2pm (Audio Description)
23.12.2015	: 2pm & 7pm
24.12.2015	: 2pm
26.12.2015	: 5pm
28.12.2015	: 2pm
29.12.2015	: 2pm \| 7pm
30.12.2015	: 2pm (Relaxed Performance)
31.12.2015	: 2pm
01.01.2016	: 9pm
02.01.2016	: 2pm & 7pm

Box Office: http://www.nationaltheatrewales.org/insatiable-inflatable-candylion
By phone: 029 2037 1689

Ticket Prices:

£17.50 / £15 conc
Children (ages 4–16): £12.50
Family Ticket (four people, to include at least one child): £50
Groups of 10+: £15 per person, organiser goes free
Schools (teacher goes free for every 10 pupils): £8.50
(£1 booking fee per ticket applies when booking via telephone)

Recommended for ages 4+

and just in case you really aren’t aware of the wonderful ‘Candylion’ album, you can stream it via YouTube

20/10/201520/10/2015 by jo

Pamela Butchart Joins Blue Peter Book Awards 2016 Panel

A school teacher, Pamela Butchart who won last year’s Blue Peter Best Story Award will join a brilliant panel of judges for the Blue Peter Book Awards 2016.

Pamela Butchart, who teaches philosophy at secondary school, and last year won Blue Peter Best Story with her book ‘The Spy Who Loved School Dinners’ (H’s favourite from the shortlisted books), will join television and radio presenter Angellica Bell, National Literacy Trust’s programme manager Jim Sells and Blue Peter editor Ewan Vinnicombe.

The enormously popular Blue Peter Book Awards, which are managed by the reading charity Book Trust, celebrate the best authors, the most creative illustrators and the greatest reads for children.

Former winner Pamela Butchart, who spent much of her wedding day last year at a book signing, said: ‘I’m thrilled to have been asked to judge this year’s Blue Peter Book Awards. It really is an awesome honour – thank you. It was a dream come true to win the award in 2015 (I rarely take my badge off!) I can’t wait to help find this year’s winning books.
‘As a teacher, author and lover of children’s books I’ll be on the lookout for fantastic books that encourage reading for pleasure.’

Blue Peter editor, Ewan Vinnicombe said: ‘This year we’ve got a fantastic panel to judge our Book Awards and I’m looking forward to seeing which titles they shortlist, in what looks like an impressive year for children’s literature.’

The Blue Peter Awards 2016 will celebrate children’s books published in the last year in two categories: Best Story and Best Book with Facts. There will be three shortlisted books for each award chosen by the panel of judges and announced on Blue Peter on 3 December 2015.

At least 200 children from ten schools across the UK will then read the shortlisted books and vote for their favourites in each category. The two winning books will be announced on the Blue Peter programme scheduled for World Book Day on 3 March 2016.

The judges for this year’s awards are:

• Angellica Bell – TV presenter, mum and blogger
• Ewan Vinnicombe – (non-voting chair) Editor, Blue Peter
• Jim Sells – National Literacy Trust Programme Manager
• Pamela Butchart – winner of the Blue Peter Story Book 2015

The Blue Peter Book Awards have been celebrating children’s literature since 2000. The reading charity Book Trust has managed the Blue Peter Book Awards since 2008. The 2015 winners were Pamela Butchart who won Best Story with ‘The Spy Who Loved School Dinners’, illustrations by Thomas Flintham; and Andy Seed, a former primary teacher and deputy head for 17 years, who won Best Book with Facts with ‘The Silly Book of Side-Splitting Stuff’, illustrated by Scott Garrett.

Keep up-to-date with the Awards at www.booktrust.org.uk/bluepeter and on Twitter by following @Booktrust and #BPBA

17/10/201517/10/2015 by jo

Project 365 – Week 42

Sunday 11th October. We borrowed next door’s carpet cleaner and gave our front room some much needed attention. It needed it. Look at all that space, which of course would be taken over with “stuff” again once it dried. It worried a few FB friends, wondering what was going on.

Monday 12th October. And so starts our theme for this week. My sister sent some birthday money for H a bit late, and after chatting with Shaun about it, we thought we should get her some roller skates as she had wanted some for a while. At the moment she’s just indoors while we wait for her knee and elbow pads to arrive, but she’s taken to it really quickly. So this was pre-Rainbows.

Tuesday 13th October. After school.

Wednesday 14th October. After the Very Tiring School trip. But she wasn’t too tired to skate.

Thursday 15th October. Still skating…

Friday 16th October. A break. We had the dentist after school followed by a haircut in Carshalton Village – H has her school photo on Monday. Seeing as I cut her hair last time, it needed someone who knows how to do it. We stopped at our local Costa before haircut time, and had a much-needed treat. Extra bonus, the abscess I thought I had isn’t one. I had an x-ray done, and asked the dentist what those two suspicious looking black holes were on the image. My nostrils, apparently. He may have laughed at me.

Saturday 17th October. I was sent some Snazaroo face paints via Mumsnet, so this is a pumpkin skater.

15/10/2015 by jo

belVita Soft Bakes

If you happen to work with me, you may think I’ve taken out shares in belVita, as I’m always well stocked up on their breakfast biscuits. The latest addition to their range is the belVita Soft Bakes – I was sent a box of each to try.

belVita Soft Bakes are now available in this country, in three varieties; chocolate, red berries and golden grain. So what’s different about these?

My breakfast involves a portion of pineapple and an apple, and I almost always follow this with a pack of belVita Honey and Nuts biscuits – the regular ones where you get four small biscuits – these keep me full until it’s time for my mid-morning snack.

I was given the chance to try the belVita Soft Bakes, and was immediately surprised at how it was just the one biscuit. Having said that, it kept me just as full as the regular smaller biscuits, so I was curious how they compared dietary-wise.

One belVita Soft Bakes biscuit comes in per 100g as much less than the thinner biscuits – 380 calories vs 455. I found that I only needed one biscuit to stay full until lunch, which is good – I tend to snack easily, especially if I have something to hand. I need to stay full so I don’t want to reach into my work drawers.

Flavour-wise I liked the Red Berries the best – really soft and squishy with cranberries. The Golden Grain biscuits were plain, but still good. There is also a chocolate chips variety which I wasn’t sent which I’ll be looking out for in the shops! With each pack of biscuits in individually wrapped portions, so I’m not tempted to have more than one each day.

belVita Soft Bakes are made with five wholegrains and are rich in cereals. They offer a great source of fibre, containing vitamins B6, magnesium and iron. I like them as they have slow release carbohydrates which help keep me full.

belVita Soft Bakes have been touring around the UK – Shaun picked up some free samples at Victoria Station, and I’m holding out hope for a visit at Clapham Junction too!

belVita Breakfast Soft Bakes Red Berries and Golden Grain are available in Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons & Tesco at the recommended retail price is £2.79. belVita Breakfast Soft Bakes Choc Chip are available exclusively at Tesco until January 2016.

I was sent the belVita Soft Bakes for the purpose of review – all opinions are my own.

14/10/2015 by jo

Star Wars Reads Day 2015

Have you heard of Star Wars Reads Day? It’s to encourage children to read, and of course, it involves Star Wars. We were invited to take part this year, and so organised a treat for H and her Star Wars loving pals after school!

Star Wars Reads Day happens once a year, with events happening all over. Our local library had an event in the lead up to the big day too. We were sent a selection of books from Disney to celebrate it ourselves – and celebrate we did! Attending were the Star Wars Kid, Clone Trooper Commander Cody, Darth Maul and of course Darth Vader (pictured above, l-r). The afternoon started with a spot of lightsaber practice.

What do you need for a good Star Wars Reads Day? Well we were sent a fine selection of books – which almost didn’t get out of my workplace in one piece. There are some fantastic books for learning – as one workmate said “I wish maths had been like this in my day” – they’re all published by Scholastic Press and are available from Amazon and all good bookstores. As well as this we were sent some activity packs, door hangers, bookmarks, badges and cards to collect (looks like H has a new hobby to spend her pocket money on!)

I liked the Writing Skills book – H is doing really well with her reading, and I felt this would help enhance her writing – and it’s only £5.99 at Amazon too.

Star Wars Reads Day has a fab workbook – as all too soon budding Jedi’s (and Sith’s) need a bit of a rest after playing with their lightsabers. You can download it here – and our kids got working through them, doing a spot of colouring in Yoda. See, it may be a reads day, but you’re still reading the instructions to find out what to do. There’s a maze, wordsearch, colouring – plenty to do!

No Star Wars fan’s special Star Wars Reads Day is complete without the chance to build a TIE fighter – and that involved team work, each child working on an individual part, before us adults stepped in to help at the very end. Pretty impressive too!

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Oct 10, 2015 at 4:35am PDT

Luckily we were sent this excellent Star Wars Starfighter Workshop book – you can build a TIE Fighter and an X-Wing, and there are plenty of activities inside. All the kids wanted to make the model, and it was a good bit of teamwork putting it together. As well as Star Wars, there’s Star Wars Rebels – and we were sent a jigsaw puzzle which Darth Vader got on with straight away! In fact, we all popped by to help her, they were nice big pieces, suitable for age 3 and up, with enough going on that it wasn’t too tricky. You can’t beat working on expression with a joke book – and the Star Wars Joke Book doesn’t disappoint. My favourite one – How does a Jedi make a call? On his Yodafone (I may have told this several times). H enjoys joke books and bagged this one straight away – to then tell us them all in a day, pretty much! She’s telling Commander Cody a few in this picture. However, Commander Cody is way too busy checking out everything he needs to know about Star Wars. He knows a LOT. Now he knows even more, thanks to Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know. This book would make a fantastic present for a big Star Wars fan – especially with Christmas coming! Commander Cody loves reading! There was just enough time for Commander Cody and Darth Maul to take on the Star Wars kid – think she needs to work on her lightsaber technique… Finally, to end a hectic day, the Star Wars kid decided she really needed to swot up on the Star Wars story – luckily there was Star Wars In 100 Scenes which she settled down to read.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Oct 10, 2015 at 11:16am PDT

We were sent a selection of books, trading cards, activities, and many other Star Wars things for the purpose of having a Star Wars Reads Day. All product images are affiliate links. All clothes the Jedi/Sith/Kid’s own.

12/10/201501/01/2019 by jo

The Dyson V6 and How I Learned About Good Vacuum Cleaners

The Dyson v6 seems to be one of those cordless vacuum cleaners people swear by. Yesterday I visited their showroom to try one out.

The Dyson v6 is Dyson’s cordless vacuum cleaner – and I was invited to an event at the Dyson Showrooms, to watch a demonstration of how good it is. Now, this may not seem exciting to a lot of people, but it was for me. We’ve had a Dyson DC04 for over twelve years now, we bought it as a wedding present, and on getting it home, started using it straight away. We were impressed – our hallway carpet had a clean white stripe down it, as years of dust were whisked away from our lives. Embarrassing how dusty our flat was, but happy as it wasn’t any more!

So what makes a good vacuum cleaner? In my world, having perennial rhinitis (a year-round dust allergy, so I have to keep everywhere as dust-free as possible) means a good dust busting cleaner is needed. Our bedroom has laminate floors, however this attracts a lot of dust, and our house is a dusty one. We end up using wet floor cleaners in our room as our current vacuum cleaner (Dyson DC04) is a bit too big for our room and the little corners.

On arriving at the showrooms I grabbed a seat and found myself with various Dyson parts, including this interesting looking cleaner head. I had a good look at it, it felt heavy. That’s because the Dyson v6 has its motor in the head – something which makes perfect sense when explained. After all, when you’re using a cleaner the last thing you want is to be lugging the heavy bit around while keeping the light bit in front of you – it doesn’t make sense. This piece of Dyson technology was in front of me, and we couldn’t work out what it was from. A robot vacuum maybe?

We were called over for a demonstration by a Dyson engineer who explained lots about the Dyson v6. At home, we have a mixture of laminate and carpet floors, and some things are awful to get out – my biggest problem is glitter from the carpet, although dust within the gaps in the laminate is also a pain. This is where the v6 comes in – as it has an extender which appears to be in lots of colours depending on the model you have so you don’t bend down, but get the full benefit of the powerful engine. It’s kind of useful when you feel a bit Star Wars and want to pretend it’s a lightsaber. Fortunately another lovely blogger also wanted to… (photo credit – Helen at Kiddycharts)

A photo posted by Helen Neale ~ Kids / Travel (@kiddycharts) on Oct 10, 2015 at 9:55am PDT

Practical stuff: the Dyson v6 takes 3.5 hours to charge, and you’re likely to get 20 minutes of vacuum time. It has a capacity of 0.4 metres.

The Dyson v6 also has a Max Mode option – up to six minutes of extra vacuum power for more difficult tasks. I had a race with another blogger on a multi surfaces area, and found that it has a good overall pickup rate, but that for edges you need to go back over it, which is fine, as that’s the same as with any other vaccum. But yes, going into the Dyson Showroom and racing with another blogger to clean things up. My mum would be proud!

Dyson say “Other cordless vacuum manufacturers compromise on either weight or suction, because they have to choose between motors that are either bulky or weak.”

We got to clean up many different kinds of things from the floor – cereals, rice, coffee and the aforementioned most hated of mine, glitter! The Dyson v6 did the trick every time, and with the Max Mode for additional suction, I was sold. It cleared the lot! Here’s a little video of me doing a spot of hoovering – this is coffee.

The best thing about the Dyson v6 was how you can use it on most surfaces and change the attachments easily. There’s also a handy docking station where you can charge the machine, as well as store all the attachments. Otherwise you can just plug it in to charge.

Things we learnt – the Dyson engineers print off 3D plastic models for their new designs so that they can try them out and make any modifications before it goes into production.

As for emptying the contents, there’s a button you press (which isn’t easy, so you can’t do it by mistake) – making sure you have it over the bin of course – and it’s a simple straightforward disposal.

Then there’s the filters. They can be washed, left to dry and used forever. This is why I love Dyson, because the only thing we’ve ever had to buy since owning one was a new filter (because I keep forgetting to wash it from time to time – it’s a cotton one). If you look on the picture below, the v6 filter is the blue circular shape on the top of the machine – the extra filter is the one pointed out.

The machine itself fits together easily and logically. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t bother reading instructions unless I absolutely have to, and didn’t have any problem with the Dyson v6.

We were also shown the impressive Dyson v6 Absolute, which has an extra filter to help people with allergies (like me!) – the air it filters out is cleaner than the air we breathe. If I had the money to buy one I’d definitely consider this with my allergies, and H is a sneezy child too. All the Dyson v6 have twice the amount of suction of any other handheld vacuums out there. We tried so many different surfaces and I’m impressed. The fact you don’t need to change heads for different surfaces and it still works is a good thing, especially with a bad back like mine!

What sells the Dyson v6 for me is that I can use it as an upright cleaner or a handheld. While it will never replace our old Dyson, I’m impressed with how easily it picks up everything. The extra tools make it a very adaptable vacuum cleaner.

I was invited to the Dyson Showrooms to view the vacuums, all opinions are my own. If you want to find other posts from bloggers at the event, search for the hashtag #NoCordsAttached – thank you to Joe Bloggs Network and Currys for the invite. You can buy the Dyson v6 at Currys via this link.

10/10/201501/01/2019 by jo

Project 365 – Week 41

Sunday 4th October. We had our Harvest Festival for Rainbows, so popped along to that. W had a quick stop in the park afterwards, where happy child enjoyed the swings.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Oct 4, 2015 at 4:09am PDT

Monday 5th October. The latest Anorak Magazine arrived – and now it’s just finding the time to read it.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Oct 5, 2015 at 9:51am PDT

Tuesday 6th October. So at church on Sunday it came to light H has never heard the Lord’s Prayer. She doesn’t go to a religious school so there’s no reason why she should – but it did get me thinking, as the majority of her Rainbows friends do know it, as they do attend a religious school. When my mum gave me a load of my old books, one of them was Lucie Attwell’s Little Book of Prayers – and I dug it out for H. So now she can learn it, and I don’t feel quite so bad for not being religious enough. Or something.

Wednesday 7th October. Had a fabulous delivery at work today from Disney – a box full of Star Wars goodies and books for Star Wars Reads Day on the 10th October. A damn fine delivery too – as some of the blokes at work said “I wish maths was as interesting as this when I was at school” – they’re not wrong!

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Oct 7, 2015 at 6:22am PDT

Thursday 8th October. When your pals all have Star Wars costumes but you don’t, there’s only one thing you can be at a Star Wars event – a Star Wars kid. These leggings from Next help – a LOT.

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Oct 8, 2015 at 11:38am PDT

Friday 9th October. Having a Star Wars fun night with H’s friends in preparation for Saturday. We love this pic of her pal M “reading” his book!

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Oct 9, 2015 at 4:27pm PDT

Saturday 10th October. H’s football was on first thing, followed by me going to South Kensington to Dyson’s showroom, to see the Dyson v6 and what it was capable of. I tell you one thing it is VERY capable of – getting glitter out of the carpet. Even our 12 year old Dyson can’t do that (although it is probably due a bit of TLC what with being that old). A very enjoyable afternoon, which I spent the entire time wearing a badge which should have been given to another blogger called Jo. I’m so dozy I didn’t realise until I got home. Whoops. Early night for me then!

A photo posted by Jo Brooks (@mumfriendlyjo) on Oct 10, 2015 at 9:27am PDT

06/10/2015 by jo

Apple Pigs by Ruth Gary Orbach

For our latest book review, we were sent Apple Pigs by Ruth Gary Orbach, published in September 2015 by Pavilion Books.

Apple Pigs which is written and illustrated by Ruth Gary Orbach was originally published in 1978, and has a long-overdue reissue by the National Trust via Pavilion Books.

The story of Apple Pigs is a timeless classic, a beautifully illustrated tale of an apple tree which grows too many apples. A little girl finds a withered apple tree surrounded by rubbish. In order to help the tree grow and to not be chopped up for firewood she clears the rubbish around it. When spring arrives the tree bursts into blossom and produces many apples.

In fact, it produces MANY apples. Too many apples, more than the family needs. They cook and hide the apples but they keep growing – so they have an annual apple feast! Almost everyone I know with apple trees seem to be giving us bags of apples which is wonderful, so I can relate to this, having had some delicious apple crumble recently!

The back of the book also has a guide ‘How to Make Apple Pigs’ – with nice easy to follow instructions – and is something we’ll be having a go at. The National Trust website has some activities too over here.

Did you know that October 21st is the 25th anniversary of Apple Day? It was first initiated by the UK charity Common Ground and is celebrated with Apple Day and weekend events all over the country. Our local National Trust place (Morden Hall Park) had an apple day this weekend with local varieties to try.

Apple Pigs is a much-loved book – and a classic story told in rhyme. It is based on a true story – Ruth Orbach’s editor listened to the tale over dinner, and said it must be written down – and here it is! Warning – make sure you have plenty of apples at home while reading, as you may well end up dashing into the kitchen afterwards, finding yourself suddenly inspired by the mention of some of the apple-based desserts!

Apple Pigs is available now, with a RRP of £9.99, available from Amazon and all good bookstores.

We were sent the book for the purpose of review, all opinions are our own. Post contains affiliate link.

05/10/201526/03/2018 by jo

The FA Launches Girls Football Week 2015

Today the FA has launched Girls Football Week 2015 – running until the 11th October 2015.

Girls Football Week 2015 is an initiative to encourage schools to create more female football training sessions.

It is being delivered in partnership with Independent Schools FA, English Schools FA, Association of Colleges Sport and British Universities and Colleges Sport.

This year the programme has been extended to Primary and Secondary schools, colleges and universities as well as clubs and community groups.

Last year more than 2000 people took part in Girls Football Week over 80 groups – and this year the FA are hoping Girls Football Week 2015 will encourage over 5000 girls to take part.

The FA has some free resources to help schools set up sessions, and more information can be found here.

You can find more information here for each relevant group about Girls Football Week 2015.

Primary schools: www.TheFA.com/Skills
Secondary schools: www.TheFA.com/Schools
Colleges: www.ecfa.org.uk/development/womens-football.aspx
Universities: www.bucs.org.uk/womensfootballoffer

H plays football every weekend at Carshalton Athletic, who are now talking about setting up an Under 8’s team, which H hopes to be involved in. I’ve offered my social media services with the Women’s team, in the hope it will help spread the word (as I have no idea when they’re playing and would love to help). H loves football now – she enjoys playing and has decided she wants to be a goalkeeper these days – and seems to be getting better at saving goals too.

None of this could be possible, were it not for the way girls are accepted in football training sessions. At Carshalton Athletic girls go free which I think is a wonderful scheme and one which keeps us going back. I really hope that H gets to represent her local team as I know she’d be so proud. She gets opportunities I never had, and I love that she loves the game as much as I do.

Do you have a girl who plays football? Don’t forget the FA’s ‘We Can Play’ campaign, tag your photos with the hashtag – and help spread the word! After the wonderful Women’s World Cup this year, there’s a real momentum and I hope it continues. We won’t talk about the last England Euro qualifier which didn’t make it onto tv, mind. H’s favourites are still Casey Stoney and Fran Kirby. She loves Harry Kane just as much. It’s all good.

Mum Friendly

the things we do, the things we like