Leapfrog Learn and Groove Music Mat Review

I've fancied getting the girls a music mat for some time but I'd been worried about the cacophany of noise but thanks to the new Leapfrog Learn and Groove Music Mat, there is some order, some fun and some learning applied to this musical mat.

The Leapfrog Learn and Groove Music Mat is ideal for children from around 2 years to 5 years old who are just learning about counting up to ten as well as spotting and naming colours and animals.

The music mat is a great way of encouraging movement as well as a fun way of kick-starting your preschooler into thinking about numbers and sounds. I like watching Holly walking through the living room, noticing the music mat and then switching it on as a bit of an impulse to have a play, a dance and a bit of fun.

The music mat has three modes - one is simply an exploratory mode, each circle on the mat makes a different noise with a different musical instrument and when you stand on it, the instrument makes a short noise to explain the character or number on display. String the noises together by stepping or hopping from one circle to the other to make a little percussion ditty!

In music mode, each creature on the play mat sings a little song as you dance around the mat and songs and phrases about the numbers help you to pick the different animals and sounds out. Holly enjoys this mode most.

I quite like play mode because this one really gets your children thinking. The console asks you a question such as "Find the tiger" or "Jump to number 2" and your child has to step on the correct colour, number or animal to make a noise.

We like the fact that the Leapfrog Music Mat folds up to a quarter of its normal size for when you want to store it. This means I can keep it in the corner of the living room so that it is there for whenever Holly fancies playing with it. The Learn and Groove Music Mat costs around £24.99. I'd recommend it for children from about 2 years old who are very confident on their feet and are excited to get learning their numbers.

Leapfrog Scout's Goodnight Light Review

It is four years since I wrote a review of a Leapfrog bedtime lullaby toy; we've used our Twinkle Twinkle Little Scout almost every single evening for over four years now - we even take it on holiday. I've searched high and low for an equivalent to send to my sister as a gift and finally Leapfrog have brought out a new bedtime toy for preschoolers - the brand new Scout's Goodnight Light from Leapfrog. I'm very excited.

Scout's Goodnight Light is part toy, part bedtime lullaby player. It comes in the shape of a space rocket featuring Leapfrog's Scout and Violet puppies. The toy acts as a night light that projects coloured numbers or brightly coloured planets and space shapes onto a darkened wall or ceiling. It plays music, games ideas and lots of short fun phrases that encourage learning about numbers, colours and space.  The Goodnight Light comes with a handle so it is easy for you to carry around the house or for little hands to carry when they want to project images in the dark.

We use the Goodnight Light from Leapfrog for playing lullabies to the girls when we want them to settle down for the night. The music features lots of Leapfrog classics that you may recognise if you have a cuddly Scout friend of your own as well as a mix of lullaby classics. The music isn't as gentle or soothing as I'd like (in fact I'd say it was a bit loud even in the quietest mode) but the music really does help the girls settle. You can elect for the music to also be accompanied by soothing lights - either solar system or brightly coloured numbers; these change colour and brightness as the timer counts down. You can choose 10 or 20 minutes of music and we find 20 minutes is about right for our girls at present.

Holly really enjoys Scout's Goodnight Light; it is the last thing she hears at night and when she wakes up, the first thing she does is hide in her wardrobe and play with it; pressing the button to listen to music and see the mesmerising lights; she really is taken by it.

As well as music, the Goodnight Light will play environmental noise (we used to find this good when the girls were tiny babies)  and solar noise (effectively white noise) which is ideal for newborns. I think it's a fabulous bit of kit which is perfect as a bedtime lullaby player from birth, right through to preschoolers like Holly.

Scout's Goodnight Light costs around £9.99 from the Leapfrog Store.

Netflix #StreamTeam - Music Memories

This month, as part of the Netflix Stream Team, we were asked to explore the wonderful world of music on Netflix.  Now, I'm not entirely sure that my taste in music was really what Netflix had intended this blog post to be about (the hints they sent me were all romantic musicals, not ambient electronic dance epics) so I really did need to dig into the Netflix depths to find musical documentaries, animations and movies that were suitable for our family to share together.

I find it fairly easy to view and get inspiration for very popular, mainstream content on Netflix but I rarely get offered the more obscure stuff by default in the "you might also like..." sections of the Apply TV device, or on my iPad.  I tried just searching for the word "music" and was surprised at some of the content I found.

For example, I spent a happy few hours watching obscure documentaries about Dutch house music (with subtitles) one Friday night!  I also discovered a couple of "live" festival documentaries.  But I didn't think that any of these would be right for bringing the family together.  Lara is really into air guitar at present and likes to try and reproduce the actions from dances both at home and at school so I really really wanted this month's Stream Team to involve them (even though I was encouraged to spend a night on my own indulgences).

I racked my brains for a musical movie that had made a big impression on me in the past, and which I could share with the girls.  Got it.  The Blues Brothers.

Granted, the language is a bit colourful for a 2 year old and a 5 year old but my goodness, did they love it.  What's not to love about memorable tunes, fancy dances and silly car chases.   A bit of slapstick, a lot of fun.

I loved being able to share a classic movie with my girls.  Being able to share a family moment.  A whole afternoon of us all enjoying the same fun on the television (rather than a whole afternoon of kids stuff!).

The Blues Brothers is a movie which features lots of classic tunes which get you dancing.  I challenge you to sit still on your sofa watching The Blues Brothers.  Simply Not Possible!

If you are looking for more musical inspiration, here a few ideas from Netflix.  Of course, now I shall return to my world of Dora the Explorer and the Bubble Guppies.

  

  

Magic Belles - Magic Music for Little Girls

My daughters first discovered the little musical fairies - the Magic Belles - when the fairies released their first iOS app.  It became such a firm favourite that Holly would rush into my room each morning and ask to "play".  The Magic Belles have just released a number of jingly merry tunes available for download and my girls were some of the first to test them for their magical, twinkly danciness and their general jingliness.

The Magic Belles are a set of 6 fairies, each with their own character.  You can find out more about each of them at www.magicbelles.com where there are fun activities too; quite often I find inspiration for cookery activities on the Flutterbud club website where Cupcake Belle has been cooking up sweet treats that my girls can reproduce at home!

The new Magic Music EP features six songs that feature some of the different bells - There is the Bake it, shake it song for Cupcake Belle, the Twinkle Twinkle song for Star Belle and the Rainbow Song for Rainbow Belle.  Lara loved the fact that the music was clearly linked to the characters she already knew.

The music is aimed at little girls aged 3-7 years old.  I've definitely noticed a gap in the market here - little girls love to dance and sing but once they go to school they don't really want to be dancing to nursery rhymes  or TV show theme tunes any more.  Lara hears a lot of pop music at after school club but doesn't really understand who or what she is listening to and to be honest, I don't think she is quite ready for 1D yet so, to find a set of tracks which appeal to this age range is wonderful.

Both of my girls seem very taken with the music - this has a lot to do with the feeling that this is "their" music; normally when we listen to music it is Mummy and Daddy's music!  All of the tracks are very upbeat and have positive, fun lyrics (something you definitely don't get in chart pop music) so perfect for little people and I think they will be brilliant for Lara's forthcoming birthday party.

The Magic Music tracks by the Magic Belles are all very jingly and twinkly - not something I'd really want to listen to in the car but they are more thank welcome to bop to it at home!  To give you a taste of the Magic Belles music, take a look at this video of the Twinkle Twinkle track.

Magic Music by the Magic Belles is available to download (tracks can be downloaded individually) from iTunes, Google Play, Amazon and Spotify.

KaZoo Children's Headphones Review

This review was first published on FamilyTech.co.uk

KaZoo headphones are designed for children from age 3 upwards.  The sound level of the headphones is limited to a maximum of 85 decibels which is widely recommended as the maximum for children.

 

Both Lara and Holly were instantly fascinated by these fun froggy headphones (KaZoo also make a bold penguin design).  The soft padded ear cups mean that they are happy wearing them... in fact, I've worn them for quite a while too because they are FAR more comfortable than my own pair of headphones.  They don't suit me quite as well as they do my children!

 

The headphones have a good level of adjustment which means that they can be used for very young children right through to adults.

 

KaZoo seem to have got the usability and appeal right for children.  In the past, my oldest daughter has struggled to get cables plugged in and out of her kiddy tablet but the KaZoo headphones have a large coloured plug (ours is in the shape of a fly) which allows a good level of grip when small hands are trying to concentrate to get the plug into their device.

 

I found the cable to be quite long, certainly longer than I had expected for a pair of child's headphones but I haven't yet worked out whether I feel this is a good feature, or a bad one!

 

For me, the best thing is that now I don't have to listen to the annoying music on my daughter's favourite (see repetitive) iPad app!

 

KaZoo children's headphones are available from www.currys.co.uk and www.pcworld.co.uk for £14.99 and would make an awesome Christmas gift, especially for someone who may also be receiving their own tablet or music player this year!

Daisy Baby - Lazy Daisy Jazz CD Review

Daisy Baby music is a really calming CD full of totally mellow tracks designed specifically for chilling you and your baby out during massage or valuable bonding time.  I'm not normally a particularly jazzy type of person but I'm always on the lookout for new mellow music to play in the evenings to my girls.  My one-to-one time with Holly is few and far between these days but we still occasionally like to chill out with a bit of baby massage and what better way to do it that with a slow and funky musical background?

Lazy Daisy is a really inspiring company - founded by a mum of 5, Lazy Daisy is primarily concerned with offering relaxing classes for expectant parents and new parents up and down the country (and even further afield too!).  There are lots of different birthing and birth preparation classes on offer as well as new parents advice and baby first aid.  Each of the Lazy Daisy classes is built upon the fundamental principles of relaxation and parental ability to judge your own baby's signals and your own gut instincts (the fundamental principles behind my mellow mummy approach too).  Happy mummies = happy babies.

The Daisy Baby Music CD is the coming together of Lazy Daisy and 'Jazz for Babies'.  The resultant CD is 20 tracks of really recognisable tracks (such as Que Sera Sera, You are my Sunshine and Somewhere over the Rainbow) transformed into slow, mellow jazz.  Each track blends seamlessly into the next; there is a nice mix of tempos but nothing that will wake you up... everything is designed to slow you down.  Perfect for helping to settle a baby to sleep or to get you in the mood for a warming massage.

Holly responds well to the mellow jazz, even if Mr. B. cringes a bit when I play it (some of the tracks are certainly not the kind of music he would listen to normally... jazz or no jazz) and when I answered the phone last night even the random market research tele-caller on the other end of the phone commented on how mellow the music was!!!

Lazy Daisy's CD of Daisy Baby Music costs £9.99 plus postage from the Lazy Daisy website... while you're there, check out their Daisy Birthing and Daisy Baby courses which cost between £6 and £12 per week.

Jo Jingles children's music CD and DVD review

I had heard a lot about Jo Jingles from some of my friends and family but had never heard any of the Jo Jingles songs or attended a class.  One of the things I have most missed when going back to work after maternity leave (both times) is my weekly music class with the girls and I was really excited to be able to review the Jo Jingle music CD and DVD because I knew it would give me a good opportunity to continue singing and playing with my girls at the weekends, even though we now don't have the time to go to classes together.

Jo Jingles is a music, singing and movement scheme suitable for children from 3 months old to 5 years old so both of my girls get to join in.  When we first watched the Music is Fun With Jo Jingles DVD together as a family, both Holly and Lara sat in total awe with great big smiles on their face.  The DVD has 17 different songs to sing along with, most with actions performed by classes of children; Lara and Holly both enjoyed the songs that they recognised such as "The Wheels on the Bus", "No More Monkies Jumping On The Bed" and "Wind the Bobbin Up" but there were several tracks which none of us had heard before but which I have noticed Lara singing in the car since!

The DVD isn't awfully high quality (as an ex media studies student, maybe I'm overly critical?) but the important thing is the music and the actions and these come across well.  Mr. B. seemed a bit disappointed with the 'quality' of some of the adult singing but actually I found that even some of the classics such as "Wind the Bobbin Up" were sung with enthusiasm and given a bit more pizazz than I had heard before - very jolly -and they certainly encouraged all of us girls to get up and bop around the living room.

We were also sent a copy of the Jo Jingles Favourites 5 CD which I am pretty certain will be accompanying us on our long road trip to France this summer.  Many of the 21 children's music tracks from the DVD are on the CD along with the "Say Hello", "Good Morning" and "Say Goodbye" tracks which I assume to be the way in which the Jo jingles classes start and end.  I remember when Lara was first born I searched high and low for a music CD with good quality singing of fun renditions of children's songs and never found anything I really liked but this CD is fab - just a shame it took me so long to find!  Lara's favourite song from the CD right now is "Polly put the Kettle on".

I'm not a naturally musical mum so it is great to have a CD or DVD to help me encourage an enjoyment of music and singing in both my girls and I'm glad that they have found Jo Jingles so fun.  Holly even now has a Jo Jingles doll sitting watching over her in the nursery!!!

Check out the Jo Jingles site to see if there are any classes near you.

Moosicology Review

Moosicology is a music learning aid for children from birth to about 7 years old; we were asked to review it with both Lara and Holly and we have been using it now for approaching two months.

Mr. B. and I love to see Lara's reading, writing and hands-on creative skills improve with every day that passes and we love to hear about the new things she has learned about the world around her but we are both quite aware that we have little to offer the girls in terms of musical development (me especially). I used to take Lara to "Music with Mummy" classes and I currently take Holly to the "Jolly Babies" equivalent but while I can see that spark of delight in their eyes when they listen to nursery rhymes and songs, I understand now that these classes are a lot more to do with the social aspect (for mum, as much as for baby), rather than learning music. For these reasons, I was really happy to come across Moosicology as a home learning aid for real music theory suitable for little ones.

Moosicology comes as a CD and a picture book guide.  Each lesson features a new aspect of music theory but it isn't so much taught, as presented.  Lara, at 3.5 years old, is totally oblivious to the fact that what she is listening to is music theory and (for me at least) it is actually quite advanced theory too.  Lesson one introduces crotchets and quavers and by lesson 8 you are up to syncopation!!!

Saturday or Sunday afternoons tend to be our music time.  When Lara asks to watch something on TV we instead recommend listening to some music.  All four of us sit in the living room and listen to the Moosicology CD while Lara sits with the colourful picture book on the sofa.  Actually, she doesn't sit for long; she normally gets up and starts bopping.  Lara likes to bop.  It is fab that Moosicology is something that we can enjoy as a family.  Holly gets to listen to the music and even at 5 months old she is taking in the fact that we are all moving and clapping to different rhythms, even if she doesn't know it yet.

I am really impressed with Moosicology.  Perhaps because music is somewhere that I felt there was a gap in what I could offer Lara myself in terms of learning and development (I'm not awfully musically minded).  I was shocked at first with how quickly the theory moved but Lara seems to have been swept along with it so I'll go with her on this one!

Perhaps the ultimate proof that Moosicology is working was last week when we were visiting potential primary schools with Lara.  We watched a Year 2 music lesson in which they were banging drums and learning about rhythms and Lara told the teacher she already knew about crotchets and quavers.  I was so proud of her!!!  I can really see Moosicology being a good resource for us to help support her through her primary learning alongside her school activities.  And it isn't just in music lessons that it could help the girls - Moosicology strongly believe that with regular music learning a child's all round learning and intelligence can be improved (they have lots of interesting science stuff to back this claim up but you know, its quite easy to see that a child who 'gets' music and relaxes and enjoys it can open their mind up to a whole lot more than just music).

Moosicology costs £67 which I think is still good value given that I should get another 7 years use out of it!

Listen with Kids

This is a sponsored post but that doesn't stop it being fun to read

In today’s visually stimulating world, it’s hard to imagine that children used to listen intently to the radio for their entertainment, writes my John Lewis guest blogger.

Before the days of cBeebies and YouTube, children had to wait patiently for the likes of Children’s Hour and Listen with Mother to be played on a crackly little brown box in the corner of the room. Thankfully, with the advent of DAB radio and cutting-edge technology on which to play it with the likes of brands like Bose and Pure, the crackle has long-since stopped. And along with crystal clear audio, things have also moved on in terms of the content of children’s radio programmes, too.

Snuggling down and listening to the spoken word together is not only a great bonding experience, experts believe it can help develop vital concentration and communication skills. In fact Sure Start campaigners were so convinced of the importance of children’s speech radio as part of their development it formed part of a debate in the House of Lords. But what are the best things to listen to with your little one? Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…

Children’s radio

Although children’s audio programmes fell out of favour and suffered setbacks such as the BBC cutting its children’s radio output, they are now making a massive comeback, according to the Guardian. Take the dedicated radio station Fun Kids which won Sony’s radio station of the year in 2010. Available in London and the South East on DAB Digital Radio from 6am to 7pm and online at funkidslive.com, it’s packed with programmes for pre-schoolers. There are games, stories and even a programme called Naptime, full of relaxing music and soothing lullabies.

Then there’s CBeebies Radio which you can listen to online via the site’s radio player, or download via a podcast to play in your car, on your Apple iPod or MP3 player. It’s full of your child’s favourite CBeebies characters and you can play games, quizzes or listen to sing-songs.

Podcasts

If you can’t get internet radio in your car, why not download a podcast? There are loads of free downloads for children available from iTunes from favourite TV shows such as Sesame Street and channels like Nickelodeon. Apart from songs and stories, many have games that can help your little one with their spelling and numbers.

Audio books

When it comes to good old-fashioned audio books, older children are well catered for with the likes of Harry Potter and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. But there are also many preschool books available on audio, such as Goodnight Moon, Where the Wild Things Are and Julia Donaldson classics like Tiddler and the Gruffalo.

You could also try a bilingual preschool CD to get them learning their first words of French or Spanish (or Mandarin if you’re feeling really adventurous). This is a great idea if you fancy learning a new language too.

The Sunday Review - CBeebies Song Time Album

This week we aaaaaaave been mostly listening to the CBeebies Song Time album which is released tomorrow. Great fun.

I really love being able to have music that I can play to Lara rather than feeling I have to switch on the TV when she gets restless with her toys. At this age, Lara has such a short attention span that anything I come up with to entertain her lasts no more than 5 minutes so I like to have a good collection of music for her different moods.



The CBeebies Song time album is a couble-CD set with a whopping 50 tracks on it from all of your favourite shows. Pretty much every single CBeebies show I have ever seen has its theme tune, or most famous music on it.

When we play the album, Lara's face lights up. She only knows about a third of the tunes because we don't actually spend an awful lot of time in front of the TV but she knows 'Something Special', 'Waybuloo', 'Timmy Time', 'In the Night Garden' and most of the 'Zingzillas' tracks. I think she actually finds it a bit confusing to hear these songs without seeing the pictures too. She actually relaxes and joins in with the other songs that she doesn't recognise a little more and then she has a good old bop.

In true toddler style, she REFUSES to dance in front of the camera for me, but will bop away like a mad thing when the camera is turned off. AArgh, I really wanted to share her 'moooves' with you.



I am about to put one of the two CDs into the car so that I can switch them on when Lara gets restless and screechy when we're out and about. I suspect it may stay there for some time and I can just picture me singing along to 'It doesn't matter if you're Big or Small' or '3rd and Bird' at full volume and getting odd looks from other motorists!

Our absolute favourite track is the 'Yoko! Jakamoto! Toto!' theme which always results in us rolling around on the floor for some reason (I think its the way I sing it)!

This weekend I am going to have a house full of toddlers and I reckon that the CBeebies Song Time album will be just the ticket to keep them entertained.

Images courtesy of Quite Great Publicity.

The Sunday Review - Zingzillas Album

Ever since Lara was born, Zingzillas has been the soundtrack to my dinner preparations. In the days before Lara could walk, I would plonk her in her rocker to listen to the sounds of Zingzillas as I chopped vegetables or made other preparations for dinner. For the first 7 months of Lara's life, I couldn't have told you what Zingzillas looked like, but I knew every single song! This is why I think I am probably more impressed with the new Zingzillas album than Lara is!

for those who don't know, Zingzillas is a CBeebies TV program where Zak, Panzee, Tang and Drum are members of a band on a remote island. Each day they perform a 'Big Zing' where they play music of different types.

As you know, Lara loves music and the tunes from the Zingzillas album are a great excuse for her to have a bop around the living room. The great thing about Zingzillas is that the music spans all genres and cultures so you get a good mix of styles and rhythms to encourage different musical tastes in your child.

My favourite track is "Bubbly Pop" which is, pretty much as it describes and really encourages Lara to wiggle and bop. I think Lara's favourite is "Do You Digeridoo?" which is also a fast-moving track with digeridoo rumblings in the bakground. And Mr. B? I think he secretly enjoys "I've never heard a sound as absurd" which is known in the Mellow household as "The Oompah Song" which is in an alpine, euphonium, lederhosen stylee!

I think the Zingzillas album would make a wonderful christmas present for any tot as with 26 tracks, it really is very good value for money and offers hours of entertainment.

Image courtesy of amazon.co.uk

Why Music Matters for Babies

Having seen the effect it has had on my own daughter, I strongly believe that getting your children involved with music at an early age is a great way of encouraging creativity and improving social and language skills. Recent research carried out by Sony Music reveals the importance parents place on singing songs and listening to music with their children. 40% of parents believe that music improves their children’s senses and 35% think it helps form a bond between them and their child. 

Lara is a musical soul, which is weird, as there is barely a musical bone in my body, or that of Mr. B. I can honestly say that music is one of Lara's favourite things. She likes to play music, to listen to music and to dance to music. I put this down to the fact that I started taking Lara to music lessons when she was just 8 weeks old!

During my maternity leave I took Lara to a weekly 'Music with Mummy' lesson. It lasted just 30 minutes and my exhausted little girl would leave beaming from ear to ear. From the point when she was just learning to exercise her grip, Lara would play with a rattle or drum while we sang along to nursery rhymes or songs and encouraged the babies to get involved. As the weeks passed, I saw Lara grow in confidence around the other children and become more actively involved in the music-making.



When I returned to work at 7 months, I had the difficult choice of which of Lara's lessons we would continue on my single day off each week. I chose the swimming lessons because I felt that I could buy some CDs and fashion some instruments of my own and continue with Lara's musical entertainment at home.

Creating your own musical instruments is a great way of bonding with your baby. Some of Lara's favourites included a tin of lentils (yes, the lid did fly off and send lentils everywhere!), a plastic pot filled with pasta and rice and, the all-time favourite - a saucepan with a wooden spoon. Lara was recently sent a few musical instruments. I have caught her on many occasions shaking her bells and her maracas to the rhythm of a song playing on TV while dancing on the spot! At 15 months old she has also already worked out that to make the recorder play a note, she has to blow through it and not just say “ooh” into it.



My quest to turn Lara into a musical maestro was somewhat scuppered when I realised that it is actually very hard to find good quality music for young children. I had imagined a CD full of nursery rhymes that I knew and loved, recorded in a quality way that would inspire Lara to join in. What I found on my first few attempts at buying a kids CD was that in general they were all recorded by a lonely bloke in his back room with an awful lot of “la, la, la-ing” when he'd forgotten the words and “oooohing” to fill in the gaps between single (or even half) verses of hundreds of different songs (some of which I had never heard of and rather think were invented on the fly).

In the Sony research, 70% of mums said they sing the same nursery rhymes over and over to their children every week and more than a third of parents (36%) admitted that they get irritated and bored of the same nursery rhymes and driven to distraction by most of the children’s music they hear.   The research revealed that over half of parents (51%) believe that there is a lack of decent children’s music that they too can enjoy.

We recently discovered the Toybox album by The Rainbow Collections (featuring the voice of Zero 7, no less!). We already owned their previous CD – Lullaby which is a beautiful collection of bedtime tracks but Toybox was EXACTLY what we were looking for. Toybox is a collection of 14 tracks from 'I'm a little teapot' to 'Humpty Dumpty' and 'Old Macdonald'. They are all songs and rhymes that are well known and they are presented in a fun, but modern way. You can sing along to them all but each of the tracks is that little bit more than your usual rendition.

One of my mummy testers, Kathryn (Mum to a 15 month old) describes the tracks on Toybox, “Each track is a bit like a story that develops. It starts off as something recognisable but it grows and builds until it becomes a little bit jazzy.”

I found the music fun and engaging and I really can imagine listening to the CD quite frequently without going bonkers! It is a refreshing change to find a baby music CD that is produced to a high quality.

When I see the joy and laughter that playing, dancing to and listening to music brings to Lara, I always smile. I love watching her practice her moves to the music and can see it helps her to develop her balance and dexterity. When she sings (which she does a lot, especially in the back of the car), it gives me a shiver of delight every time I hear her come up with a new word. All of Lara's first words have been lyrics to songs - "Row, Row, Row", "Head" (as in shoulders, knees and toes) and "Peppa Pig" (including the doo,doo bit afterwards). There is no doubt that music helps Lara develop her language and movement skills.

Note: The research mentioned above was conducted by Sony music as a survey of 1000 British parents in July 2010.