MumInResidence's Blog

Finding everyday learning opportunities to teach children about money can be tricky as your children get older. Children are typically most enthusiastic to develop their knowledge of money when they are younger, enjoying identifying a coin's value, and counting it out of course! But beyond the piggybank years, how can parents really give their child a sound financial education without boring...

We decided to head to Rosslare Strand for a couple of nights last weekend, to start the school holidays on a good foot. We had hummed and hawed about taking the car, but (after arguing about who would drive and who would try to keep the kids entertained) we decided to book the train on Iarnród Éireann instead, and we’re very glad we did! We would normally hop in the car to take the two hour...

I had quite an eventful Lidl shopping trip this week, in that I had to make two trips! I am usually a 'one big weekly shop' kind of mum but this week we had to make a mad premature dash to the cashier half-way through as my daughter desperately needed the bathroom all of a sudden! Although this sudden urge didn't come upon her until we had visited the ice-cream freezer section...I...

Having batch cooked some of my meals using Lidl purchases from the last two weeks I was able to shop very economically this week. In keeping with my batch-cooking way of life for this busy working mum, I bought an extra large tray of chicken fillets, two jars of Kanpur Garden Korma Cooking Sauce, and a trio of fresh peppers to make one of our family favourites! By bulking up the dish with the...

My second's week shopping in Lidl was even more successful than the first! I had a much better idea of where the items I needed were located within the supermarket, added to the fact that I visited on a weekday morning so it was nice and quiet and the shelves had all been restocked from the night before. I was tempted again by the fresh bakery smells and I bought a stunning pumpkin seed...

Week 1 Armed with my trusty shopping list I was very excited to start my 4-week Lidl shopping experience and put the store to its ultimate test! I have often popped into Lidl to pick up some bread, milk and other emergency essentials since its arrival in my local area of Stillorgan. However I have never attempted to do a full grocery shop there as I had this notion that I wouldn't be able to...

The trip home started with a four and a half hour drive from our hotel in Reading, located near Legoland, to the port of Holyhead in Wales. Here we would board a ferry which would take us to Dublin port in just over three hours. The driving conditions were perfect, we got up early and were on the road by 7:30am. We had everything packed from the night before and even organised breakfast...

Today, I downloaded the Q-Bot smartphone app from the Legoland website and got ahead of the crowds on the children's favourite rides from yesterday. The Atlantis Submarine was their absolute favourite and mum and dad's too! We also had time to visit the 4-D Legoland movie today as we had just focused on the rides the previous day. The highlight for the children was seeing a special live...

The Novotel hotel was just a short 35 minutes drive to Legoland. Google Maps came to our rescue again here and guided us to the theme park with precision accuracy. Today, being the Friday that the Easter holidays commenced, the English schools were still in session until the late afternoon so we had Legoland practically to ourselves! The queues for the rides and attractions were only a few short...

The early morning start did little to dampen the excited spirits of my children as we prepared for our 'first ever' trip on a ferry boat! We rose at 6:30am and were well organised with the car packed from the night before so it was a smooth transition from bed to car seat for the children who we wrapped up warm in their dressing gowns. Of course there was no traffic on the road at this...