Nine to Three Thirty

Family Life With a School Age Child

Ginni’s Competition #Ad

ginnis nut box

Since setting up in London back in 1980, Ginni’s started small, but has grown to become the place to go for a wide selection of quality nuts, snacks and sweets in a wide range of delicious and exciting flavours.

Over the years we’ve all become more aware that nuts and seeds having so many natural health benefits.  I like to keep some in as a quick and healthy snack. They make great on-the-go snacks and are handy for pakced lunches or just for snacking at home.  As well as seeds and nuts, Ginni’s also offer popcorn, sweets, dried fruits and pork scratchings, so they have delicious snacking pretty much covered.

Ginni’s has set up the ‘Ginni’s in a Box’ service to deliver full-sized packets direct to customers’ doors once each month.  It’s a hassle-free way of getting a monthly treat and making sure you always have your favourite snacks close at hand.  The service starts at just £5 per month and includes a large variety of products, plus it’s cheaper than buying the snacks separately.

If you’d like to try them yourself, you could enter my new competition.  You will have the chance to win one of the following tasty selection boxes:

  • wellness box
  • nuts box
  • sweets box
  • snacks box
  • beer time box

Pop over to Ginni’s and decide which one you’d like to win as you’ll need to let me know when you enter.

Enter via the Gleam widget below.

Competition Terms and Conditions

1. No bulk, third-party or automated entries.

2. Entrants must be aged 18 years or older and resident in the UK.

3. The winner or winners will be chosen by a random draw.

4. Promoter is responsible for fulfilling the prize and full contact details of the winner will be passed onto the promoter to enable prize fulfillment.

5. The winner’s name may be published on this site.

6. Competition closes on 30th June 2019.
Ginni’s Snacks

Win a Baylis & Harding Black Pepper & Ginseng Set

father's day gift setI always enjoy featuring new Baylis & Harding products. They have some lovely additions to their range ready in time for Father’s Day on the 16th of June. One set I was sent to look at was the Fuzzy Duck Ginger and Lime Beard Grooming Kit. This has an RRP of £12, but at the moment it’s only £9.89 on Amazon.  I love the fresh and invigorating fragrance, plus the ginger and lime scents work well together and have a bit of zing.

It’s excellent value for the price as inside there’s a comb, beard wax, beard shampoo and a facial wash. Many more men are sporting beards this year, so I know there will be plenty of Dads who would appreciate this gift on Father’s Day.

Baylis & Harding products really look the part as gifts and often give the impression that you have spent more than you have. Another gift set I was sent to try was the Black Pepper & Ginseng Travel Essentials Gift Set (RRP £12, but available for a bit less on Amazon). You don’t need to beard for this one. The set includes Hair & Body Wash, Shower Gel, Aftershave Balm and Face Wash. All in handy sizes for travel and the black and gold packaging looks very classy. The black pepper and ginseng is a classic masculine smell that most men are going to enjoy wearing.

If you you’d like to win a Black Pepper & Ginseng Travel Essentials Gift Set, I have one to give away.  Enter via the Gleam widget below.

Competition Terms and Conditions

1. No bulk, third-party or automated entries.

2. Entrants must be aged 18 years or older and resident in the UK.

3. The winner or winners will be chosen by a random draw.

4. Promoter is responsible for fulfilling the prize and full contact details of the winner will be passed onto the promoter to enable prize fulfillment.

5. The winner’s name may be published on this site.

6. Competition closes on 23rd June 2019.

Baylis & Harding Black Pepper & Ginseng Set

The Friendship Maze Review and Competition #Ad

friendship maze

I think as a parent one of the most difficult things to do is helping your child navigate social situations.  It’s particularly tricky because you are rarely there when it things start to kick off and even if you are, you probably missed the start of the exchange.  To make matters worse you are dealing with so many variables because you don’t know enough about the other child will react or what their values are. Telling the difference between mean social behaviour and bullying can be a minefield, plus it can be impossible to know whether you have got it right or not. It’s a real minefield, so it’s useful to get some help.

I have been reading The Friendship Maze by Tanith Carey as I got sent a copy to review.  It’s an easy read and lends itself to either reading cover to cover or dipping in and out of it.  It covers a wide age range from nursery right through into secondary school. It offers practical, research-based strategies to help families guide their children through the maze of social relationships.  Sections covered include:

  • Helping your child deal with classroom and social media politics
  • Inoculate your child against the effects of peer-group pressure, cliques and exclusion
  • Learn what’s really going on in your child’s social circle
  • Bully-proof your child throughout school
  • Work out when to step in and out of your child’s conflicts
  • Help your child make friends if they are stuck on the sidelines

To be honest I think with H I’ve had relatively few problems to deal with social situations compared to many.  I know though that we have a lot more to come.  Currently H only uses Whatsapp in terms of social media.  He hasn’t dabbled with Instagram or Facebook.  I’m hoping it will stay that way, but I’m aware that Whatsapp could get nasty if group chats get out of hand for instance.  We started using it to share pictures and news as a family, but he’s now in groups with his friends.  I was interested to see that helping your children navigate social media was one of the sections in the book because this is something that I wanted some strategies to deal with, even though I probably understand more about social media than many parents because of the nature of my job.

If you’d like to win a copy of this useful book, enter via the Gleam widget below.

Competition Terms and Conditions

1. No bulk, third-party or automated entries.

2. Entrants must be aged 18 years or older and resident in the UK.

3. The winner or winners will be chosen by a random draw.

4. Promoter is responsible for fulfilling the prize and full contact details of the winner will be passed onto the promoter to enable prize fulfillment.

5. The winner’s name may be published on this site.

6. Competition closes on 23rd June 2019.
The Friendship Maze Book

Half Acre Field Competition

half acre fieldAll H’s life we’ve been visiting my friend who lives on a farm, in fact we were there just this week for the day.  Luckily she has a son, who is close enough in age to get on well with H, and we have had some lovely days together there.  When H was little he used to love playing with tractors and farm animal toys, especially when we’d just been to the farm for a visit.  The only problem we had is that we didn’t have setting for his farm and he’d create one out of whatever we had to hand.  It was much better when we visited the real farm as they’d kitted their son out with a large toy farm as well as all the animals and machinery.

That’s why I was very taken with the Half Acre Field.  It’s a realistic model field, with hedging and gate, made from durable materials.  It comes with a collection of little farm animals, but your child is free to use their own.  The whole idea is to encourage children to play creatively, and engage with small world play. I know that H would have had hours of fun with this using it as the basis for his own imaginary farm.
I have a Half Acre Field available to give away to a lucky reader.  Enter via the Gleam widget below.

Competition Terms and Conditions

1. No bulk, third-party or automated entries.

2. Entrants must be aged 18 years or older and resident in the UK.

3. The winner or winners will be chosen by a random draw.

4. Promoter is responsible for fulfilling the prize and full contact details of the winner will be passed onto the promoter to enable prize fulfillment.

5. The winner’s name may be published on this site.

6. Competition closes on 30th June 2019.
Half Acre Field Toy