Family traditions: How they build happier people (and how to create your own!)

When you think back to your childhood, can you recall any family traditions? For some people, the answer is solid and clear: every year, without fail, the family would pack up the car and trundle off to a certain caravan spot, or to a cottage, or to visit Grandma who lived further afield. For others, it might not be as clearly marked — they might have had a few quirky Easter traditions, or maybe Father’s Day was always spent at the riverside doing a spot of fishing.

Whatever traditions you had, no doubt they have created a fair few stories and memories to cherish and share. But did you know that family traditions can bring a whole host of psychological benefits, particularly for teenagers and young adults?

Does Natural Light Affect Our Health?

Us humans need sunlight in order to thrive and be happy in life. Natural light causes our bodies to absorb Vitamin D, which us in the UK can suffer from deficiency sometimes, due to our ever changing weather. But maximising our exposure to natural light both outdoors and whilst indoors too is one of the best things we can do for our mental health.

6 Tips For Planning Your Birthday Meal

My birthday is right around the corner and I'm wanting to go out and have a meal with some of my closest friends and family. It sounds like an amazing idea, but then the details come into play and it has been leaving me with more stress than excitement.

I can really see why people enjoy surprise parties more, as then the onus isn't on you to do the planning. But should you be planning your own birthday party? The answer is, I guess, sometimes. Gone are those years where mum and dad throw a tea party at home and you have soggy sandwiches and cake, and here come the grown up party where we drink gin and eat a 3 course meal.

4 Tips For Easy Boiler Maintenance

The boiler is the most important part of your heating system, and if it goes down, you can say goodbye to heating and hot water until it is fixed. As such, it is so important that you take good care of it in order to keep your home warm year in, year out.

Boiler maintenance starts with you, and even though a heating engineer will keep your boiler in good condition, there are also many things that you should do yourself to keep it running smoothly. So I thought I'd give 4 tips for easy boiler maintenance...

How to Dress a Newborn for Sleep in the Summer: 10 Steps

The last thing you want to see happen is that your newborn is too cold, however, at the same time, you also never want to make sure that your infant is overheated. Studies have shown that there is a link between infants being overheated and SIDS. With that said, as much as you don't want your baby to be cold, you want your baby to be cool temperature-wise. That is why you want to make sure that the infant boy, and baby girl clothes you have your baby wearing is appropriate for the current season. And, you want it to be especially lightweight for the summer.

Our Bandai STEM Ambassador Adventures and Win

Over the last few months we have been working with Bandai to review their range of National Geographic STEM kits for kids. You can look back to our Bandai STEM kits reviews if want to see our past posts about this range. 

We have been lucky enough to try out some fun and educational kits which have been a great way for my children to learn through fun and trying out new things to do. I think the boys will be sad not to receive our monthly bundle of STEM kits, as this is our final month as Bandai STEM Ambassadors.

We received 3 National Geographic STEM kits this month. Ultimate Play Sand, Shark Tooth Dig Kit and a Gemstone Dig Kit. The kids were really excited to get to work with the kits and get to try out the sand too as we've read that it's so much fun.

Reasons Why It's Important To Limit Your Children's Screen Time

(Licence: Pixabay)

How many hours a day do your children spend transfixed to a screen?

Whether they are watching YouTube videos on their tablets, playing video games on the TV, or browsing Facebook on their mobile phones, chances are, screen time is taking precedence in their lives.

Now, while there is no harm in a little screen time - we are all guilty of it - there are some definite reasons as to why you might want to place a few limits on your children (and even on yourself if you spend too much time in front of a screen).

My Top 2 Summer Fashion Choices

There are so many spring/summer 2019 trends, what's been featured on the catwalk, snapped in magazines, or hitting up our feeds on Instagram. And this isn't just a case of saying what you see, I'm talking about a proper look at those key pieces that you'll want to buy, the old ones you'll be digging out again, the new styling tricks that will turn everything around.