Treasure Island Toys Review

Treasure Island Toys (www.treasureislandtoys.co.uk) has been a popular online store for many parents in the UK since 2008, but as of November 2011 the site became an entirely different sort of online experience.

Treasure Island has created what they like to call a ‘Fun and Party Search Engine’ and is unique in the fact that not only can parents buy toys, furniture and birthday presents from the website, they can now arrange parties and days out for the kids, by finding children’s entertainers, party venues, kids attractions, evening classes, workshops and much, much more - all in one place!

 By entering a postcode or place name, parents can find a whole range of child friendly activities and more which are in their local area.  They then have the ability to refine their search by using hundreds of different keywords ranging from Ballet, Balloon Modelling and Paintball, right through to Peddle Boats, African Drumming, Theatres and everything inbetween.
The website uses the latest technologies to make it super quick and utilises great features like ‘Favourites’ lists, videos of entertainers, date ranges for events, reviews, social networking (Facebook/Twitter/Google+) integration and much more.

The website is also what is known as a ‘wiki’ site, meaning that anyone can add a listing to the website for FREE, quickly and easily by themselves.  So if you are an entertainer or are a parent that knows of any great kids’ attractions and local events in your local area, you have the ability to add them in seconds and let other parents benefit from your knowledge.
With thousands of listings already on the website, and more being added each day, we are confident that Treasure Island is the place for parents to go when in need for some great ideas to keep the kids entertained.

For parties see www.treasureislandtoys.co.uk/parties.aspx
For fun days out see www.treasureislandtoys.co.uk/fun.aspx

I had a bit of a look for our area, which is usually a challenge - most "what's on" type wesbites don't manage to turn anything up around here.  I was really impressed to see that it has about ten results for the area.  There's a few missing, but that's something that will grow in time as people use the wiki function to add their own favourites, and sadly one (my favourite) that closed down a few months ago, but honestly, I was impressed.  I was fully expecting to say "Oh, it's great if you live in London, but there's nothing for the rest of the country", so I shall happily admit I was wrong on that count.

Adding a listing (I did that as well) is fairly easy, though it took me a little while to figure it all out. That said, it's not 8 am yet, and I don't have enough coffee in me.  It's a great resource, and brilliant to be able to find everything in one place, but it's only going to be as good as the listings added to it and maintained accurately, which is always my concern with listing sites.

My Red House

MyRed House is a recently launched website from RedHouse, the children's book publisher.  It's an interactive website, designed to provide an online home for parents who want to encourage a love of reading in their children.

That sounded like my kind of thing, to say I'm a book lover is an understatement, books take up an awful lot of my house (and time), and I really want to encourage Squeaky to enjoy books in the same way.  I try to mix up the books that we read together, so there's new books, modern classics, and older stories that stand the test of time (or sometimes don't!)  Variety is the spice of life, so they say, and it keeps me amused to move from Peppa Pig to Hans Christian Andersen!

MyRed House is a little bit of everything.  There's live interviews with children's authors, including big names such as Jacqueline Wilson who is joining them on 7th February, and the opportunity for children and parents to send in their questions to the authors.  The interviews are streamed live, and available to watch on demand if you miss them on the day.  There's a blog, a what's on guide for book events in your area, a forum to share your own questions, thoughts & experiences, and the chance to ask the Red House team for suggestions of books for you & your children, whatever their interests or reading levels.

My favourite section though, is Learn, a whole online resource of advice & information for every stage of your child's reading journey, with activities, advice, recipes (yes, recipes) and book suggestions for both parents and children. There's even suggestions relating to specific life events that children may be going through at that age (potty training & fussy eaters are both very relevant in this house!)

The site is still fairly new, so elements such as the forum are quite sparse at the moment, and the number of events local to you varies depending on where you live - you're fine in the South-East, but as is often the case it's a bit quiet over in Wales, Northern Ireland and the South West.  That said, again, as the site grows events will come up.  Keep checking!

MyRed House is a site that will continue to grow, but an interactive resource is only as good as the users who interact with it.  I posted recently about parents turning to the internet for advice rather than more traditional sources such as family & reference books, My Red House is a link between old and new. Sometimes a book is more rewarding, but it can't have the answer to everything, which is where the interactive element comes in.