Frugal Family Fun

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Going on holiday is often the event that we all look forward to the most in our calendar. It is where we can spend time relaxing with friends, family or other half and switching off from work. It is our time to rejuvenate and do the things that we want to do when we want to do it. Whether you like to spend your holidays having a much-needed lie-in before flopping down on a sun lounger on the beach, or if you prefer to get up and see the sunrise, taking a hike across mountains, it is up to you. You can learn new cultures and recipes, indulging in things such as Italian meringue buttercream, fresh street food in Thailand, or tapas in Spain. The only issue with heading away on holiday is that it can end up being costly. You will need money to spend on everything from your accommodation to your transport, your food and drink while you are there and your activities. If you are looking to save some money on your next holiday, we have put together a few top tips below.

Check out any last-minute bargains

Some of the best hotels can slash their prices by a lot when it comes to last-minute offers. This is why it’s a good idea to keep an eye on flights and accommodation through price comparison sites and wait until the last minute to book. You can find some places that have discounts of almost 50% of what you might have paid originally.

Book cheaper accommodation

The accommodation choice you opt for can also really affect your budget. Opting for a five-star, all-inclusive hotel is going to undoubtedly be more expensive than a hostel or campsite. Think about what you want from your break and where you are going. If accommodation is something that matters a lot for you, then try to save money in other areas.

Arrange your own transportation

Taxis can be costly so try to arrange your own transportation when you can. You could hire out a car to get your between places, or why not opt for walking or public transport? The bus can often be a very cheap way of navigating around somewhere new.

Opt for self-catering 

Food can be one of the biggest costs when you are on holiday, so why not opt for somewhere self-catered instead? This way you can budget for a food shop and make your own meals – something that is much cheaper than eating out all the time. You can use fresh local ingredients and make some incredible dishes that you might not be able to at home.

These are just a few top tips that can save money on your next holiday. Going away on a budget doesn’t mean that you end up missing out and you can in fact have the time of your life. What are some top tips you like to follow when heading abroad? Let us know in the comments below!

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The desire for a vacation has arguably never been greater. Following 18 months of very restrictive lives, your next adventure is certain to feel all the more special. Nonetheless, you need to find the right type of trip. Camping is the answer.

Camping trips have been popular for families and adult-only vacations for many years. However, their appeal is at an all-time high. Here’s why.

1. Reduced health risks

First and foremost, you deserve to enjoy the vacation. Unfortunately, the threat of Covid will continue to play on your mind, even if you’ve been vaccinated. Camping reduces the threats.

By taking a camping trip, you will probably travel by car. This allows you to escape busy airports, for example. Meanwhile, the relaxed settings of a campsite or National Park will allow your family to keep its distance from large crowds.

In truth, you will still need to carry sanitizer gels. Nonetheless, the precautions needed for a camping adventure are far less extensive. This allows you to focus solely on enjoyment.

2. It encourages physical activity

We have all spent far too much time indoors looking at the same four walls. Your first vacation for two years is the perfect opportunity to break free from the mundane routines. 

Trekking and camping trips will see you burn off plenty of energy. From preparing a fire to exploring the local area by foot or bicycle, the high activity levels are great for your body. Not least because you will be surrounded by fresh air too.

Staying physically active will help you build up an appetite. So, you’ll be ready to tuck into those delicious treats from classic meals to Smores over a fire.

3. It’s emotionally relaxing

These difficult times that we are living in have seen stress levels soar. The chance to take a step back from high-pressure situations is rewarding. It’s an issue that cannot go unnoticed.

Moreover, you will be away from digital screens. Instead, you will focus on your EcoGear FX equipment as well as items like fishing rods and hiking bikes. Even if you plan to use modern tech for geocaching activities, it’s vastly different to sitting in front of the TV.

Vacations are meant to help you freshen your mind. However, heading to the city or a hotel stay won’t quite provide the level that you crave. Thankfully, camping will.

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4. It’s affordable

Financial worries have been a common source of strain since the pandemic. In short, many families either won’t have the funds for a vacation or won’t feel comfortable spending thousands.

Camping trips allow you to feel like you’ve entered a whole new world even if you only travel 50 miles down the road. So you won’t need to work too hard to save money. Pitches are cheap to hire while. Even hiring an RV for a few days is surprisingly affordable.

Aside from giving you value for money, it removes a source of guilt. You’ll additionally have more money available for gifts and souvenirs.

5. You can teach valuable skills

If you’re a parent, taking the kids on a camping trip can be immensely rewarding too. Not least because it is a chance to teach valuable skills in a practical environment,

For example, you can teach your son or daughter how to cook over a fire. Or use a compass for navigation purposes. When supported by new skills, such as how to catch a fish, this will be one of the most productive trips you’ve ever enjoyed.

Once again, thanks to a lack of distractions, kids will engage with the tasks too. As such, they should gain far more from them. 

6. There’s a sense of achievement

Camping trips will often be combined with physical challenges or activities. Once again, something as simple as catching their first fish can fill kids with pride. 

However, the activities don’t end there. Whether it’s climbing a mountain or completing a water rafting course doesn’t matter. You will notice the impact that it has on your mindset. Those positive outcomes can influence future endeavors.

While you can see this benefit in some other vacations with ideas like parachute jumps, camping does more than most.

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7. You’ll get great photos

Creating magical memories should be the priority for any vacation. However, the added bonus of capturing those moments forever should not be ignored.

A Canon DSLR camera will serve you well. Capturing the horizons, as well as action shots from the activities should bring stunning results. Or you could pick up a polaroid for those family shots. The options are endless as camping provides the perfect subject matter.

Thanks to modern camera tech, you don’t have to be an expert to get great photographs either. So, even youngsters can create shots that you’ll treasure forever.

8. There’s minimal planning

Our lives lost a sense of spontaneity in these testing times. Camping trips are an ideal outlet to let your hair down and enjoy an adventure without weeks of planning.

Depending on where you go, the site will have all the items that you need. This includes food, entertainment, and equipment. Meanwhile, once you’ve purchased goods, you’ll be able to take future camping trips whenever you feel like it.

Given the stress of organizing other life matters, the chance to enjoy a simple vacation should be embraced. Even knowing that you have it as an option can deliver rewards.

9. It’s different

While many vacation types are virtually the same but in different settings, camping is distinct. In fact, even the contrasts between tent camping and RV camping are huge.

Variety is the spice of life, and we all need to try new things. Whether you love nature, sporting activities, or finding ways to entertain yourself doesn’t matter. A camping trip will offer you the chance to enjoy the time of your life.

With this in mind, everyone should try to enjoy camping at least once. Given the current situation, there is simply no time like the present.

10. It’s fun for parents

Finally, you should not feel any guilt about seeking a vacation that’s fun for you as well as the kids. For that reason, camping is king.

Being stuck at home can be frustrating, especially young kids. While at-home, online education has been a tremendous blessing in terms of academic advancement during the past year of the COVID-19 Pandemic, no education is complete without arts and humanities education. And I should know. As one of my own degrees is in Art History. The hours and days spent exploring art museums, living history museums, and children’s museums are amongst my favorite memories of my youth. Particularly my teens years studying in France and visiting museums like the Louvre, Rijksmuseum, and Bayou.

Luckily, children around the world will be able to browse these hallowed halls in the digital era. As many museums have put their collections online or created virtual tours. Google Arts & Culture, and its namesake app, has digitized the collections of numerous museums, from the Van Gogh Museum to New York’s MOMA. As well as foundations, including The Mona Lisa Foundation, the premier patron of fine art museums in Zurich, Switzerland, known for its patronage of children-centric collections including the Isleworth Mona Lisa.

While tastes are different, and art appreciation is subjective to culture and experience, and not every gallery or space will appeal to every child, there is still plenty to enjoy. So whether you need a trip to the aquarium or scope our King Tut and the gang, here are some virtual museum tours your kids will enjoy.

The Louvre

The Louvre may be closed, but many of its greatest treasures can be seen online. The landmark’s virtual tour takes you to some of its galleries, including into the basement ruins of the building’s original moat, which dates back to 1190 and the Egyptian antiquities from Napoleon Bonaparte from the pharaonic period. As well as the museums crowned jewels, including the Mona Lisa.

The British Museum

Ever wanted to see the Rosetta Stone or a real-life mummy? The British Museum has you covered. Their virtual tour is interactive, with artifacts searchable by era, region or type, and you can discover all sorts of interesting objects, including a bank check from Barclays and an ancient Egyptian papyrus poem.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

New York’s Met Museum’s MetKids is an online-only experience features a time machine, where you can search by time period, idea or location to uncover objects and artwork from the museum’s various rooms. There’s also a “Big Ideas” search tool allows kids to look into topics like inventions, fashion and battles. Including dozens of videos and interactive maps of the museum that allows you to check out various exhibitions around the building.

The Van Gogh Museum

If you love Van Gogh, then be sure to spend an afternon with your little one’s exploring the digital collection from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Particularly impressive in this digital collection is Almond Blossom, one of Van Gogh’s best-known patenting created during his trip to Japan.

Boston’s Children’s Museum

The Boston Children’s Museum welcomes online visitors into its exhibits sharing everything from science instillations to colonial American history. Making this museum a great supplement to early American Studied and Social Studies curriculum at home.

The Smithsonian

Whether your looking to brush up on your at-home paleontology trivia or see a real-life indoor castle, a virtual tour of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. is not to be missed. With a myriad of integrative videos, activities, reading, and interactive audio and visual experiences kids of all ages will find something to enjoy at the Smithsonian online. Make sure to check out the virtual tours of both the Smithsonian Castle and the Hirshhorn Sculpture Gardens.

Also, check out the Smithsonian museum’s National Gallery of Art. Hosting thousands of items and paintings online via Google. You can explore the current exhibition Fashioning a Nation to learn about American fashions from 1740 to 1895, or search through the various periods, from baroque to modern art. Favorites include Vermeer’s Woman Holding a Balance, Cassatt’s Little Girl in a Blue Armchair and Gauguin’s Words of the Devil.

The Uffizi Gallery

Lover of Renaissance-era art? Treat yourself, and the kiddos, to the Florentine Uffizi Gallery virtual tour. can be explored on Google Arts & Culture, and there’s a lot of art to see. Most of the works are from the Renaissance, with an emphasis on paintings by Italian artists. You know, turtle-power masters like Da Vince, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello. Including Italian history and its impact on European history.

Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre

Fan of James and the Giant Peach? Then be sure to check out the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, located outside London, before having a marathon day of reading The Witches or The BFG to your kids. Search through the exhibits and learn about the picturesque countryside of Buckinghamshire, the inspiration for many of Dahl’s best-oved works.

Friends, I hope this list of virtual museum, gallery, and scientific centers will help you and your little ones continue to explore all that is wild and wonderous in this great big world. Then, one day, when the world again makes since, be sure to plan trips to see your most-favorite virtual tours spots. Now I want to ask, which tour are you most excited to see? Leave your thoughts below.

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Lifelong learning is one of the most important things out there both for an individual’s ability to succeed on just about any given path, and also for their ability to lead a fruitful and fulfilling life.

As a general rule, the learning habits that are acquired in childhood will tend to have a significant influence on how people engage with learning throughout their lives. But, of course, there are also more immediate and direct reasons why it’s a good thing to get your child actively and positively engaged with their education from an early age.

Perhaps one of the best things that anyone can do in order to help a child adopt a more positive attitude to learning, in general, is to take steps to make the learning process more fun in and of itself.

Here are a handful of different ways that you might be able to make learning more fun for your kids.

Use well put together worksheets that your kids can feel accomplished for completing

Worksheets, if done right, can be an excellent source of motivation and a sense of accomplishment for your child, compared to many other forms of learning.

With an interesting and well constructed worksheet such as those offered by Studentreasures Publishing, your child can benefit from having a clear outline of what they need to tackle at any given moment, while additionally always being able to “see the finish line” as well.

Kids will naturally tend to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment when they have completed a worksheet and can see the evidence of their progress right there in front of their eyes. It’s also straightforward to come up with ways to reward your kids for completing a set number of worksheets as well.

Help to nurture and encourage their natural interests

Every child will tend to have certain natural interests – things that they find fascinating, and they want to find out more about, without having to be told to by a teacher.

Unfortunately, these natural interests can be squashed or subverted by imposing too much structure, rigidity, and formality on the overall learning process. If your child is naturally fascinated by outer space, you should do what you can to nurture and encourage that interest by – for example – providing them with the resources to investigate more about the topic on their own time, in a way they are likely to enjoy and find natural.

Educational novels, picture books, encyclopedias, and so on, can all be very positive in this regard. And if your kids develop a set of positive associations with the learning process in one domain, there’s a good chance that this will carry over to a more general interest in learning.

Make sure they get a good grasp of the fundamentals

Perhaps one of the most important things you can do in order to ensure that your kids are able to enjoy the general learning process – and even to have fun with it – is to make sure that they get a good grasp of the fundamentals.

A lot of frustration in education comes about because the fundamentals, in any particular subject, weren’t properly grasped or understood – meaning that there is a constant confusing game of “catch up” that has to be played down the line.

On the other hand, if your child understands the fundamentals and basic concepts behind anything well, then the learning process will likely be more fascinating and less stressful and confusing as a whole.

There simply won’t be the same sense of wild desperation when it comes to trying to figure out what’s going on.

Look for ways to make the learning process more active and engaged

It’s always  worth keeping in mind that, as human beings, we are meant to be active and engaged – both physically and otherwise – when it comes to navigating everyday life.

There’s good evidence that regular physical exercise actually makes us better at learning and incorporating information on the one hand, and many great writers and scientists over the ages have reported that some of their best insights have come to them when walking, or otherwise being physically active.

If the learning process for your child involves essentially sitting in a room and trying to memorise lists of facts by rote, it’s quite unlikely that they will find the process very fun.

Instead, look for ways to make the learning process more active and engaged – both physically, and also in terms of more practical exercises and experiments.

Whether you are throwing a party or updating your playlist, there are so many options for modern music and electronic music for celebrations and weddings. Music from Indie labels and even podcasts, including Benjy Grinberg, that share so many ways to find the right genre of music for your next event. Here are four great dance music styles to consider:

Techno

‘Techno’ is a music genre all of us tend to know of and hence dance beginners frequently presume it’s among the very most dominant dance music genres. Truth be told, that is not really true. Techno is a little sub-genre. It’s hardly any mainstream popularity and is challenging to break into. But this definitely does not mean you cannot appreciate it! 

Jeff Mills and Carl Craig are a couple of examples of celebrated techno artists. But, what is it that makes this type of dance so unusual? Well, if you are not really into techno, you may turn a song on and believe it sounds all the same. This is because it’s literally the same sound over and over, as it’s based on loops, but modest continuous alterations are added to be able to move the track along. It really is a love it or loathe it music genre, that is for certain, so it is probably better for your playlist than a party. But people who adore it really adore it.

Dubstep

Next up we’ve dubstep, a dance music genre that’s just existed for a comparatively limited time, but has made a gigantic impact! Some famous artists encompass the likes of Joker, Caspa, Skream, Hatcha, and Benga. However, where did this genre come from? 

Dubstep has just existed since the late 1990s, with the earliest ever track being traced back to 1998, although these usually featured as B sides of 2-step garage single releases. It was basically a reaction to the United Kingdom garage scene getting more commercial and radio-friendly. Producers, including Oris Jay and El-B, began to create experimental instrumental remixes, and dubstep was created. 

Dubstep is characterized by a great deal of bass, a tempo of 140 beats per minute, a shuffling feel as well as a syncopated beat. In the early days, dubstep was sparse and dark, nevertheless now you can locate much more rhythmic variants and colorful synths when trying to add dubstep to your dance music playlist. But do be mindful of listening to loud volumes continually. You can learn more about hearing loss online and the impact of this. 

Electro

Now on to electro… arguably one of the most confusing music genres! Why is this? Well, it has transformed over the years. It existed in one form and then transformed into another one. This is not unusual for the world of dance. 

In the late 1970s electro referred to the usage of a sample, the breakbeats, or the electronic drum patterns. Yet, now it’s far simpler to spot what electro is, and that’s mainly because it comes down to using full-bodied synths as its foreground. Lately, there has been plenty of innovation in this genre and it’s likely we’ll see this continue. Artists including Dada Life, Rxxy, and DeepSea supply a terrific place to begin. 

Nu Disco

Finally, we’ve Nu Disco, and this is basically an upgraded disco in fundamental terms. Famous artists contain the likes of Re Dupre, Sterling, Wusel, and July Child. Everybody has heard of good old disco music, exceptionally popular since the 1970s! Therefore, where did the ‘Nu’ originate from? 

It is straightforward… Nu Disco is essentially the old genre with a revamp. Changes have been made to make a disco suitable to today’s dance marketplace. Usually, nu disco has a tempo of anything between 120 and 130 beats per minute. It features vocals, horns, strings, and pianos. If you’re seeking some funky kinds of dance music downloads, nu disco is the go-to music genre. It is a fantastic choice if you’re looking to cater to all ages; it contains that old fashioned vibe but with a sprinkle of the new!