LittleLegends.biz

The researchers who recently conducted a holiday survey for Total Greek Yoghurt have put together a list of places for a family outing this coming August Bank Holiday weekend:

A NEW DAY OUT Bewilderwood, Norfolk
ADRENALINE RUSH Dalby Forest biking trails, Yorkshire
ALFRESCO BATH The Samling, Cumbria
ANIMAL ENCOUNTER Monkey Forest, Staffordshire
BANDSTAND Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Birmingham
BEACH CAFE East Beach Café, Littlehampton
BEACH FOR KIDS Crantock, Cornwall

BOATING The Thames at Richmond
BREEZY HILLTOP Great Hetha, Northumberland
CAMP SITE Budemeadows Holiday Park, Cornwall
CLIFFTOP COTTAGE Whitby lighthouse, Yorkshire
COASTAL WALK Giant’s Causeway, County Antrim
CREAM TEA Southern Cross tearoom, Devon

DEGUSTATION Valley Farm Vineyards, Suffolk
DONKEY RIDE Maggie’s beach donkeys, Weymouth
DRIFT DOWNSTREAM River Wye
FAMILY CYCLE Loch Katrine, Trossachs
FAMILY HOTEL Fowey Hall, Cornwall
FISH AND CHIPS Ben Ledi Cafe, Callander, Stirling
FLYING International Kite Festival, Portsmouth
ICE CREAM Morelli’s, Broadstairs, Kent
LAKESIDE PICNIC Buttermere, Cumbria

MOONLIT WALK Seven Sisters, East Sussex
PICNIC CONCERT Battle Abbey, East Sussex
PUNCH AND JUDY MAN Codman’s, Llandudno
RIVERSIDE PUB The King’s Head, Northamptonshire
ROCKPOOLING Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset
SAFARI Cairngorms, Highlands
SEA BREEZE Yachting on the Solent
SEAKAYAKING Beara Peninsula, Co Cork

SEAL BOAT TRIP Searles, Hunstanton
SEASIDE PIER Southwold Pier, Suffolk
SEA-VIEW ROOM Mullion Cove Hotel, Cornwall
SECRET GARDEN Hawkstone Park Follies, Shropshire
SOLAR-POWERED STAY Mesmear, Cornwall

SOLITUDE Sandwood Bay, Sutherland
STRIP Morfa Dyffryn Beach, Snowdonia
TOPLESS DRIVE A686, Penrith to Haydon Bridge
VILLAGE CRICKET Hambledon, Hampshire
WOODIE Oakwood Theme Park, Pembrokeshire
WILD SWIM Angle Tarn, Cumbria

Annabel Karmel, the cookery guru for parents, who sells her books on feeding children home made meals by the truckload, has started a new range of ready-meals. The range is called “Make Your Own” and is being launched at Boots.

This seems to contradict her own philosophy of feeding children healthy home-made food. However, Annabel Karmel stands her ground by saying that her new range of ready-meals is there to help busy Mums who don’t have time to cook but want to give their children the best they can. But, she was recently qouted in a national newspaper as saying:

To really grow my business I need to license deals through companies

She is obviously not only a great cook but a rather savvy entrepreneur.

Whilst the ready meals may seem to go against what Annabel Karmel stands for, there is no doubt that her new range will be a godsend to busy mums everywhere.

Seeing as there are a growing number of British parent bloggers I thought it would be a good idea to start a Carnival just for us

For those of you who don’t know what a blog carnival is, it is a type of blog event, dedicated to a specific topic. The host asks readers to submit relevant articles and then publishes links to them on a regular basis.

If you want to join in, all you have to do is send in a link to your best post about life as a parent in the UK. All links must be sent to me using this form. Only one submission per blog will be accepted.

The deadline for the first Carnival is Tuesday 4th September at midnight GMT and the entries will be published on the next day.

Please help spread the word about the Carnival.

PS Please note that I will not publish anything that I consider to be spam / adult / blatant promotion of a commercial site etc

The AA, the UK’s largest motoring organisation, carried out a survey of 1,300 parents to find out the best ways of avoiding family meltdown on long car journeys. What they discovered is that after one hour and forty five minutes or approximately 93 miles parents begin to reach breaking point with their children.

So, what can you do to avoid the stresses of holiday journeys? Well, there are several easy steps to take:

1. Check tyre pressure, oil and coolant levels BEFORE you go and top up the windscreen wash
2. Drive during children’s nap times or after their bedtime if you don’t mind driving at night
3. Take plenty of drinks and snacks (but not too many sugary ones so the kids stay calm)
4. Take some great sing along cds as well as story cds
5. Plan your route before you go
6. Keep some toys to one side to present when you are well into your journey
7. Make sure you have sun screens for the backseats
8. Finally, as you might expect having read the above, take breaks every 1 hour and 45 minutes!

If you don’t fancy stopping at a motorway cafe, you can always find a childfriendly pub that is en-route by searching our site

You have planned a trip to the Big Smoke with the kids. There are hundreds of attractions to choose from, so where do you begin? Well, you won’t go far wrong if you start with one of the favourite attractions:

* The Science Museum
* Madame Tussauds
* The London Dungeons
* The Tower of London
* The London Aquarium
* The London Eye
* The Natural History Museum
* Tate Modern
* The Museum of Childhood
* London Zoo

You can find loads of other places for kids in London, including child friendly restaurants and hotels by searching LittleLegends.

Enjoy your trip and why not submit your own reviews of the places you visited

The good news is we are now over half way through the school holidays. The bad news is the weather doesn’t look as if it is going to get any better. So, why not use Little Legends to help you find days out and softplay centres near you.

Here are some tips to help you get through the last weeks:

1. Get out of the house as much as possible.
2. Meet up with other friends with kids. Then you have company and the kids will be entertained.
3. Arrange some projects to keep the kids occupied eg making cards, baking cakes
4. Exercise, exercise, exercise! Try to exhaust them any way you can eg let them run about under a sprinkler
5. Make the most of any help you can, be it grandparents, au pairs etc

You could even do a mini project about places for kids near you. If your kids are old enough, you can let them take a photo and ask them what they think of the place. I tried this with my kids and they loved it – especially when they saw their photos up on the computer – like this review for Bantham Beach in Devon.

Finally, make sure you put the kids to bed in good time so that you have some me-time every night

During Kids Week (17th to 31st August) one child aged 5 to 16 can go free to any theatre performance listed here if they go with an adult paying full price. If you have other children you can buy up to two other tickets at half price. There is limited availability so book now!

… then why not check out the latest links to blogs written by UK parents:

Mutterings from the Mill – Four children, three woodburning stoves, three dogs, the farmer and his wife

Suffolk Writings – Mum to two writes about life in the country

Posie’s Blog – Living on a farm on an island off the west coast of Scotland, married to the happy farmer, three gorgeous children, several dogs, cats, chickens, cows, sheep and horses, holiday cottages and two happy potters who are my brothers in law

My Life Now – I didn’t choose to be a single parent. Bringing up three boys on my own wasn’t on the agenda when I married and moved from London to live in the English countryside over 20 years ago. This is my life now.

Blossom Cottage – The original scatty blonde,with a sense of humour which gets me into trouble from time to time,I love life, married twice my “current husband is a vet” (horses only) I have four children and one grandson, two dogs and some lovely family and friends

The Dulverton Diaries – Being a true and nearly honest account of the adventures of two writers, one child and one highly delinquent dog in a small Exmoor town.

The Expectant Father – This here blog, is for me to share those touching, moving, heart-string tugging and pant wettingly funny moments that I’m desperately hoping (for the sake of this blog) will occur. I suppose it’s also just to keep track of me during this pregnancy/fatherhood lark.

I have recently been in touch with Ben Palmer, a Dad of two from London. Ben lost his wife to Childbed Fever in June 2004. She died just six days after giving birth to her daughter, Emily, from a type of post-natal blood poisoning. He has set up a website called Jessica’s Trust to raise awareness about this illness.

Childbed Fever (also called Puerperal Fever or Puerperal Sepsis) is a TREATABLE illness that kills mothers. It is defined as an infection of the uterus following the birth of a child. Its symptoms are easy to recognise and it is easily treated with antibiotics if diagnosed early enough.

You can support Ben’s campaign to prevent further unnecessary maternal deaths by signing the petition on the Prime Minister’s website.

Please help spread the word in any way you can.

I have just discovered a great new blog called Breastfeeding Mums which aims to give support to other mothers who are breastfeeding. I know from experience how difficult breastfeeding can be and the site contains all sorts of useful articles. The great thing is that unlike many of the larger parenting sites, the articles have been written by Sinead, a full time mum of three. An invaluable resource from someone who has been there and done that.