It’s not a proper Christmas if I haven’t watched Love Actually at least once. One of the central stories from the movie is the aging rock star Billy Mack desperately trying to make it to Christmas number one with his single “Christmas is all around”. This is a re-worded version of “Love is All Around”, originally recorded by The Troggs. You’ll notice that there is one extra syllable in Billy Mack’s version than the original, which sounds slightly awkward every time he sings it. In one of my favourite scenes in the movie he aknowledges this – I can’t reproduce his full speech here as it contains a few rude words, but at the end he says:
And particularly enjoy the incredible crassness of the moment when we try to squeeze an extra syllable into the fourth line.
Now, over on the Tots100 blog they’re running a competition to win a PlayStation 4 from Argos for Christmas. To enter we have to publish a blog post describing our perfect Christmas. A truly fantastic prize, which deserves a truly creative entry. And so I choose to enter via the medium of song. Please particularly enjoy my Billy Mack-style crassness where I try to squeeze an extra syllable or two into the key lines…
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The problem with the vast number of blogs, Facebook posts and tweets that I read about apps is that sometimes I forget where I heard about a particular app first, which is a shame as I always like to credit my sources. But in this case I simply can’t remember how I heard about Endless Reader (affiliate link). I somehow came across it about a week ago, and downloaded it onto the geekson’s iPad. Now I don’t try to encourage my kids to play with particular apps – I prefer to just sneak the apps onto their iPads and wait to see how long it takes for them to (a) spot them and (b) start playing. This does give me a problem when I’m trying to get them to review a specific app, but I think it gives me a better idea of what they really do and do not like.
It turns out that the geekson REALLY likes Endless Reader. I have never seen him so obsessed with an iPad app EVER! He absolutely loves it, so much that it had to be the next app for me to tell you all about…
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Just over a year ago the geekdaughter started attending ballet lessons. She’d been asking for them for a while, but I made her wait until I was sure she was really serious and it wasn’t just a fleeting interest. I was desperate for her to enjoy dancing as I did (well, still do given half the chance!), but I wanted to be sure it was her choice, not something I pushed her in to. Not knowing anything about how to select a ballet class I ended up choosing based on convenience – there is a ballet school in the village my Mum lives in, meaning I can pop to her house for coffee whilst the lesson is on 
As it is I think we’ve fallen on our feet. The geekdaughter’s ballet teacher is really lovely, the geekdaughter loves her lessons, and the quality of the ballet shone through the annual show that they put on earlier this year. But last week we got our first chance to assess how well the geekdaughter is getting on with her lessons, when she took her first ballet exam… [click to continue…]
So you’ve decided you want to buy your child a tablet for Christmas, but you’ve no idea where to start? The tablet market is very exciting these days, with many new and interesting developments happening on a near-daily basis. However as “family tablets” become bigger business, with more and more tablets entering the market aimed specifically at kids, how are we as parents supposed to choose which one is right for us? After all, a lot of these devices represent a significant investment, and you don’t want to end up with the wrong one. All tablets are not the same, so I’ve pulled together a little guide which I hope will help make your buying decision easier. In this guide I’ll describe the three main categories of tablet available, give the pros and cons of each kind and then give my overall recommendations and “best buy” list… [click to continue…]
