Children In need 2013

 Friday the 15th of November and its that time of the year again, time to raise as much money as possible for great causes around the United Kingdom for BBC Children in need!

Children In Need support 2600 projects around the UK by sponsoring them with the money we raise from money raising events BBC Children in need is a corporate charity.

Every penny you raise or donate will go towards helping disadvantaged children and young people right here in the UK.

Tonight will see entertaining TV with funny sketches, famous faces doing things that they wouldn't normally do all to raise money for a worthy charity

We will be doing our bit we will be buying some cakes from the cake sale Liam is going to school in his PJ's and he is really excited! So what are you doing for children in need? I would love to here of any crazy ways you are going to be raising money?!

But don't worry I know not everyone is doing something crazy, However you don't have to miss out you can still donate from the comfort of you own home online or by phone

To find out more ways to get involved and how you can donate (its not to late!!) Click HERE

Educating your child about money iChild finances #Review

We all have an idea in our mind about about what we would like our children to know about money most parents will want children to save to stay out of debt and of course we would all like them to be wealthy.

Have you ever thought about how you are going to teach your children the basic knowledge about money? for example what the separate coins look like?  How you add up the coins? how many coins to add together to make up a different coin? Its all important things children need to know, how many parents think that children will learn all they need to know at school? What ever you can teach them from home as a parent from as early an age as possible, is going to set the stepping stones for the rest of there lives, giving them essential skills and knowledge and your children will be grateful for this when they grow up.

Introducing to you F&C Superstar Savings education programme 

This Programme was designed to help children to learn about finances whilst making education fun. The three packs are divided into age appropriate groups, the under fives, 5-7 and 7-11.

iChild is an online learning program. All the activity's and resources are printable online and there really are a lot of activity's, they are great fun, the actiites work though all the basics from being able to name the different coins in British currency, being able to add them together and some exercises to show just how much items can cost costs.

iChild has been designed with childminders, parents, teachers or well anyone that wants to teach children about the values of money and how to save. There is a huge amount or resources available also the F&C Saving Superstar programme ties in with the national curriculum which is fantastic to know, not only that the packs have special occasion resources to tie in with the programme, with themes like Halloween and religious festivals such as Eid and Christmas. its all fantastic fun education for children.

There are ten activity's to complete in each age group although with both the boys being under five we only tried this pack as its age appropriate for them. With each activity's there is a reward chart to praise your child and  keep them engaged with the activity at the end of the activity's there is a downloadable and printable certificate.

The activity's included in the pack are:

• Looking at money 
• looking at the value of money and what could they buy?
• counting up small sums
• there is a super reward chart
• gold stars 
• A savings superstar certificate

 

The activities are quite easy however, more than one activity in a day I think would be to much obviously this is depending on each individual child of course, but for my Liam it was to much, I loved and Liam loved cutting out the coins and matching up the coins on the relevant activities He loved the reward stars as well.

On the website their are lots of free resources available alongside this there is the option for an upgradable gold membership which costs £79 per year, I think the price is quite reasonable if you are going to use the site a lot, also with the membership comes discounts and offers on things like Legoland Windsor, Chessington World of Adventure and similar day trips and outings. 

Plus if you become a gold member you have access to printable material such as flash cards and posters which can all be personalised. 

Over all I thought the Saving superstar pack was a very educational and helpful pack which really will help to teach your child the values and importance of money, it is simple to use, I am not to sure about the fact you have to print it all off I think it would be far better if you could order workbooks and then just print off the extra parts as they come along as it could prove quite costly. 

In terms of learning Liam is really enjoying the money part especially working out what he would like to buy with it and it seems to be working, with him being just three it is taking us a while to get through each activity as he doesn't always understand it first time but as a parent I know Rome wasn't built in a day and I would rather he knew each learning activity properly.

To find out more about the F&C Saving Superstar Activities for children why not take a look at there website.

I have received a free upgrade to a gold membership for the purpose of this review however all opinions expressed are honest and my own. 

What is the most important thing you would teach your children about money? #thinkmoney

I don't ever remember my parents sitting me down and talking to me about money, I don't know how old I was when I realised my parents were not wealthy my dad was the spender my mum always telling myself and my siblings to put money away for a rainy day, She would always emphasise that she didn't want us to end up like her and my dad scrimping, in jobs that earnt minimum wage with no room for a career. However they did teach me that having love and a family could be far richer in life than having the latest gadget or a holiday abroad, Don't get me wrong we never went with out they did there best to try to buy us everything we wanted at Christmas and Birthdays we had a UK holiday every year and days out throughout, they would always find a way. By finding a way I mean going into debt not all the time but some of the time although it was never spoken of, out loud, I guess as a child or young adult you watch and learn.

As I approached my older teens early twenty's I realised I Could be a "Grown up" I could have a loan, Over draft, credit card, store card It was like I had won the lottery getting things for free and not paying for them. Large credible company's practically throwing there money at me to be spent, and before I knew it I was up to my eyeballs in debt the shoes that cost £100 or bag that cost £50 didn't look so appealing anymore, so what did I do? I spent the next few, well more than a few years of my life paying the money back, putting my life on hold. You see money did not make me happy in fact it made me pretty miserable for a long time. I do not blame my parents for my stupidity or the companies for lending out money as used carefully and in emergencies borrowing can be quite useful, I blame myself I was greedy I have learnt a life lesson the hard way.

I have been thinking long and hard about this, What can I teach my boys about money? I don't want them to make the same mistakes I have, but I want them to understand the value and power of money.
I have put together a few points of what I believe to be the most important things that I could teach them.

• Money is a highly important part of life, do whatever you love in life but if you haven't got enough to cover the basics your love wont seem like love anymore as constant money worries will help you to lose sight of this.
• Make sure you own your money don't let it own you while it is very important to steer away from debt where ever possible its no good turning into scrooge, life with out friends or family and social events will be a pretty lonely one.
• Save a little for a rainy day you never know when something is going to come up or whats around the corner
• don't be afraid to ask for advice about money its alright to have questions and its alright to ask for money in a job interview etc as they are paying for a skill
• Do not over complicate things, money is easy to understand if you manage it in the correct way.
• Money can not buy you everything, money will buy you a house but not a home, it can buy you a bed but not sleep and it can buy you education but it wont buy you wisdom, be sensible.
• Keep track of what you are spending you will be amazed at what you have spent your money on once its listed, small expenditure can soon add up into a larger amount you didn't want to spend.
• Money wont make you happy some of the richest people in the world are the loneliest 
• Money is just a means to an end remember to live your life, have fun, be happy, but be sensible when you need to be. When you're taking your final breaths in this world, you wont be thinking about how much money you have in the bank, you will hopefully be thinking of the fantastic memories you have made and the love from those around you which will make you the richest person in the world

Right now my boys are three and one they are both more interested in there wooden trains and plastic cars than money but one day they will be old enough to understand.
I hope when they are old enough I can show them this article. I hope they will learn something from it or perhaps like me they will make mistakes. As a mum I will always be there to support them, guide them and to try to steer them in the right direction. that is all I can do, I can not live there lives for them but I can try to teach them from my own views. 
What lessons would you teach your children about money? I would love to here more views on this interesting topic.

This is my entry into a competition hosted by Think Money  they have set bloggers a challenge to teach children ways to have a healthy and safe relationship with money hopefully my boys will read this article when they get older and learn something from it. to read the terms and conditions or to enter yourself click Here good luck to everyone who has entered.

Dare to dream? how would you #Spend20K Britmums challenge

Everyone has dreams of what they would do if they won a large amount of money, So Britmums have set a challenge to share with people what we would spend £20,000 on, If of course you were lucky enough to win that sort of money. Now can you imagine going to the bank and seeing twenty thousand pounds sitting there? I cant imagine myself ever being that lucky, but if I were lucky enough to win,

"You have got to be in it to win it" 

I have been thinking long and hard about what I would spend it on.....

I do have a few small debts and boring as it seems I would definitely pay them off first it would be a big weight off my mind and a clear conscious before i started to get to the exciting things.



My first spend would be to learn to drive now I have heard a lot of people say the amount of lessons you need is down to your age (how true this is I don't know!) plus a few extra, so my age is thirty I am thinking I would need around 35 lessons, having viewed a few driving schools in the local area lessons can vary from twenty one pounds to twenty seven pounds, using that as a rough guideline and adding in the cost of the theory test and practical test (providing i passed first time) it would all in all total around £1000 pounds.
Once I had done this of course I would want to buy a car. Around ten thousand pounds of that would get me a lovely car, the car I would choose would be this fiesta.

Its just beautiful isn't it! Now I am not super savvy with cars but I have seen this when I have been out and about, I simply love it. Having the freedom of having a car would change our lives for the better, first and foremost just to be able to just go shopping with out doing it all online or nipping over to friends houses that are currently two bus journeys away.
Career wise for me it would also open a whole lot of new doors for me as i would love to work in the community with palliative care patients but without a car this is simply not an option.


I would also give to my local hospice which is LOROS (the Leicestershire and Rutland Organisation for the Relief of Suffering) five hundred pounds and although five hundred pounds doesn't seem an awful lot of money the hospice is a charity and rely on local donations and fund raising events to keep it open, so every donation is a valued one.
This is a a cause that lies very close to my heart as before I qualified as a nurse i worked in an oncology unit as a health care assistant and a lot of the patients that were looked after on the unit were refereed to LOROS for different reasons, some to live there end of life days, for pain management or purely for respite. It is a simply wonderful place and like in any health care environment everyone works really hard and does a fantastic job.

The last of my money would go on my living room at the moment my living room is a mass of emptiness and if you were to look at the room on its own with out the rest of the house you wouldn't be able to differentiate between it being a living room or a play room so let me show you  why....

The curtains and the settees are tired and worn

There is definitely to much empty space 

There is no storage for the boys toys and books 

 Some of the walls have there own drawn on art courtesy of Liam

and i have grown tired of the burgundy colour, tired of looking at blank walls and tired of it just being boring. So here is what I would do first, I would take the carpet up, having young children and carpets don't seem to be practical, As i don't have a dining room it doesn't seem to matter how much mat you put under the high chair they still get there dinner all over the floor! so id pick a nice dark wood flooring some thing like this.

After this i would need a colour scheme id without doubt pick teal probably something like this

 

I'd also absolutely love a grand fireplace 

                                            

Then there is toy storage I'd get both the boys one each of these toy boxes there so cute as well as being practical, keeping all there toys tidy and in one place.

The list for what I would like my living room is quite a long one, also I would like a beautiful rug, some shelves and some lovely big canvases on the walls.
One day hopefully my dream will come true but until then its save save save! But isn't it nice to have dreams.

What would you buy if you had twenty thousand pounds to spend?

This post is an entry for BritMums #Spend20K Challenge sponsored by The National Lottery, with more ways to win more money on the new Lotto game. Find out more about new Lotto, which starts in October, here – www.national-lottery.co.uk

http://www.britmums.com/2013/08/join-the-spend20k-challenge-win-shopping-voucher/