Review - Weekend Box

We were recently lucky enough to be sent a Weekend Box to try out. Weekend boxes are fortnightly boxes aimed at children aged 3-8 that are delivered straight to your door containing creative, green and healthy activities.

The main reason that I was attracted to them was that I thought that it would overcome my indecisiveness - often I spend far too long trying to plan what to do with the girls - should we bake or play with playdough or paint or do some loose parts play, do a jigsaw or make a den, I get so tangled up in indeciseness I waste precious time and it really annoys me. 

So the Weekend Box seemed like a perfect solution as it promised to contain educational and explorative activities all decided for me already thereby making my life a whole lot easier.

It arrived with a thump on the doormat on Thursday. Thursday seems to be our happy post day. With a Graze box and a Weekend box excitement levels in the house reached an all time high. But I managed to calm myself down and put the box in a drawer ready for the weekend.

Inside were four brightly coloured paper packages each with accompanying instructions.

something to cook

something to make

something to explore

something green

Our box certainly smelled very interesting! Poppet could tell straightaway that something 'spicy!' was inside one of the packages.

Something to make

I brought the box out at the weekend and Poppet wasted no time getting stuck in, choosing the blue package first which contained everything we needed to make a 'Rocking Spring Bird' (we had to provide our own scissors and paintbrush but all the other crafty bits were included).

Poppet loves this type of activity - cutting things up, painting and glueing - and she was very proud of her little bird. We had enough bits left over (well we had to raid our craft supplies for one extra goggly eye) to make a second little bird for Little.

Rocking Spring Birds!

Poppet wanted to get started on the next activity straight away; we chose the 'something to explore' package. This contained a little sound worksheet for us to fill out and then we had to watch a youtube video to learn how to make a robot voice box from straws and a balloon. Well we certainly had family bonding time attempting to do this but even though we spent ages we were unable to make a reed out of our straws. And we went through many straws trying!   

Something to explore

Something green

The next day we tried our next activity, the Pot O' Gold game - it was very simple but Poppet was enthralled and especially loved the gold coins that came with it. She enjoyed being told about rainbows, and how at the end of them there is a leprechaun with a pot of gold but kept wanting more precise directions to this pot of gold - "But where mum?" 

We sang the 'I Can Sing a Rainbow' song while creating our pipecleaner rainbow over our pot of gold, starting out enthusiastically and ending by mumbling random colours. I really need to learn the words properly. The game was just flipping the coins into the pot of gold. Poppet was taken with it, even though she couldn't manage it unless she dropped the coin directly in, this didn't dampen her enjoyment. She took it upon herself to teach the game to Little when she awoke from her nap. And Little repayed the favour by peeling the eyes off the rocking spring birds much to the distress of Poppet.

Our Pot O' Gold

A few days later we attempted our 'something to cook' as we had to make a trip out to buy some supplies for it. Unfortunately this ended up as a bit of a disaster for us! I'm not sure what we did wrong really but our 'green pancakes' did not turn out like pancakes and were inedible, but Poppet had fun cracking the egg and adding the spices. I'm going to blame our cooking mishap on my scales.

Something to cook

One of Poppet's favourite parts of the box was the stickers that came with it to stick onto each instruction sheet when the activity had been completed. That was a really nice touch as what kid doesn't love a sticker.

We had great fun trying out all the activities in our Weekend Box even though we failed at half of them! We are going on a caravan holiday soon and I think that a Weekend Box would be perfect to take along to fill any quiet moments and it doesn't take up too much space.

I have a unique promo code for any of my readers if you would like to try out your very own Weekend Box!  It will get you your first box for free including delivery. The unique promo code is LISA152 and can be redeemed at www.weekendboxclub.com

Disclaimer: We were sent our Weekend Box for free, all opinions are our own.

Poppet: 3yrs 2mos
Little: 17 mos

Book Review: Quiet - The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

                                    

I did not expect to enjoy this book. I was envisaging a laborious read. I knew I would have to finish it - I can never leave a book unfinished - but I thought I would do so grudgingly, dragging my heels and skimming the whole way through.  I pigeon-holed it on reading the title as a self-help book, and I have not got an entirely positive view of self-help books ever since my mum sent me a copy of 'Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway' while I was living in student halls. That really marked me out as normal. Thanks Mum.

But actually it does not belong in the self-help category at all. It is a thought-provoking and life-altering read. No longer do I think that I am a bit weird. Now I know I am introverted and weird.

Why is it that introversion is viewed so negatively? Why are we made to feel like we should aspire to being extroverted? Why do I feel guilty that I may have passed on my introversion to my daughter?

This book makes you reevaluate introversion as an equally valuable and valid personality trait. It describes many notable introverts who have contributed to society - Rosa Parks and J K Rowling to name two. The world needs introverts.

The basic premise of Susan Cain's theory is that 'society misunderstands and undervalues the traits and capabilities of introverted people leading to a colossal waste of talent, energy and happiness'. This is because the Western culture prizes extroverts, believing it is better to be gregarious, assertive and outgoing while introversion is viewed as inferior, sometimes even pathological.

Introversion is not necessarily the same as shyness although the two often go hand in hand - an introverted person simply prefers lower levels of stimulation. Dinner with a friend as opposed to a party, one on one chats instead of a group debate, reading a book over skiing. Pretty wild. An introvert can have good social skills and enjoy parties, but after a time they become overstimulated and wish they were at home in their pyjamas. Oh my goodness when I read this bells went off for me, I am always wishing I was at home in my pyjamas! Even on my wedding day I had pyjamas on and cup of tea in hand by 10pm (it was a long day, especially for an introvert).

Consider then that while introverts perform best in quiet, low-stimuation environments, our workspaces and education settings are biased to favour extroverts - the fashion is for open plan offices and schools, school desks arranged in pods, group thinking, group projects and so on. Everything is geared up to support extroverts.  The book calls for a change, highlighting the need to build in 'restorative niches' into the introvert day to recharge after being in a stimulating environment. This could mean creating little low stimulation nooks in classrooms where children can go to be alone for a bit, reading or listening to headphones. Offices should allow people to be alone as well as to socialise, so open plan areas for the extroverts but also corners where introverts can retreat to. 

I found this book challenging to read but I enjoyed the challenge - it's quite scientific - filled with research and studies to back up the argument, so I had to read it in short bursts. But I really looked forward to my next instalment of it and bored my husband to death talking about it in between. What I read would stay with me throughout the following day and you can't help thinking about it. It's going to take a 2nd, 4rd and 4th sitting before I can assimilate it all.

I really enjoyed this book and I think any introvert would benefit from reading it, but it would also be good for extroverts to read to understand better their introvert friends and family. I would also recommend Susan Cain's TED talk which sums up the book very succinctly.

Disclaimer - I was sent my copy of the book for free for the purposes of this review, all opinions are my own.