Win a family ticket (2 adults and 2 children) for The London Dungeon – Tickets can also be used at York, Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Hamburg!

If you decide to visit The London Dungeon you’ll discover an entirely new, super sensory, adrenaline-charged ride will be unleashed at the London Dungeon on 28th May ? Vengeance: the UK?s first 5D laser Ride.

Taking scare to a whole new level, this technologically groundbreaking 5D ride is a full scale assault on the senses. Guests will be transported to a s?ance set in Victorian times at 50 Berkeley Square, alleged to be the most haunted house in London at the time. Here riders will come face to face with one of the most famous and feared mediums of the age, Florence Cook, who will take them on the ultimate ghost hunt in a high octane battle of skill, speed and nerve.

Completely disorientated in the dark and spinning at high speeds, riders will shoot it out with twisted, vengeful spirits, whilst facing their full destructive force. This is definitely not a ride for the faint hearted and wusses should take the ?escape door? option!

A UK first, Vengeance is only the third 5D ride in the world, it promises a unique and totally immersive experience which puts riders at the heart of the action. The ride?s five dimensions combine:

3D: Stunningly realistic high definition 3D film exclusively produced for the ride, enabling visitors to watch in terror as the strange spirits from 50 Berkeley Square appear to come to life around them!

4D: Incredible fully immersive special effects ? including high speed rotating movements and unexpected ?scare? effects built into every seat ? making up the fourth dimension

5D: A final, fifth dimension, rider interactivity, with a fast paced laser shoot-out enabling riders to fire at evil spirits using a Victorian style revolver laser gun.

Vengeance will join the scary London attractions action-packed mix of fun scares and twisted experiences. These include two other thrilling rides, gruesomely dark interactive shows featuring live actors, special effects and tongue in cheek humour ? all bringing to life history?s most horrible bits.

To Enter

1. Leave a comment confessing all about the most frightening ride you’ve ever been on (one entry)

2. Retweet this competition on twitter (for a bonus entry)

A winner will be picked at random on Tuesday 19th July 2011 at 9am

Good Luck!

Google is looking for the brightest, best young scientists from around the world to submit interesting, creative projects that are relevant to the world today. If you have a budding scientist aged 13-18 then this is a fabulous way for them to showcase their talent. They can work alone or in a small group and the top prize is an AMAZING 10 Day Trip to the Galapagos Islands, not to mention the kudos and lifetime recognition for winning a prestigious worldwide competition with Google!

The second prize is a $50,000 scholarship.

Details on how to enter are here

Sponsored Post

Christmas has come early! I have a fab christmas themed jollybox for one lovely winner.

The Jollybox company offer a range of themed playtime boxes that encourage children to use their imagination.

Each Jollybox equips parents with the tools to transport their child into an exciting, imaginary world of characters, themes and scenarios. Whether it is a dinosaur, an explorer or an airline pilot, children are encouraged to explore their imaginations through creative play, acting and drawing. Jollyboxes have been created to promote problem-solving skills, strengthen communication and encourage social interaction in children at an early age.

The range includes The Explorer Box, The Wedding Box, and The Holiday Box. Each box contains illustrated flash cards, an inspiration booklet and an activity book with puzzles, themed games, amazing facts, exciting new characters and plenty of creative ideas for budding young artists.

I have the Christmas Box to giveaway, which is bound to keep the little ones busy throughout December, or you could even keep it as a special gift for Christmas Eve or the big day itself!

Two Ways to Win

1. Join my newsletter for one entry, how easy is that?

2. Leave a comment on this post on the subject ‘One thing I hope for this christmas….’. This will count as one entry too.

You can enter either way, or do both for two entries. Newsletter subscriber will automatically be given one entre

I will choose a random winner on Thursday 8th October 2009

*This competition is open to UK residents only*

We’re hearing it all the time in the media, banning schools sports days, discouraging competition, and here Craig tells of a television programme exploring the concept of not being graded at school.

My thoughts today – when did competition become the evil enemy?

I must admit I am quite competitive, I like to compete, and, yes I like to win (my husband has likened me to Monica in the Friends episode where she plays table tennis!). If I lose I feel a strong force inside me to improve and do better. I think this is a good thing, it means that I am constantly striving to do better, whether it’s winning a promotion or winning at Monopoly (Alex I WILL win next time).

When I was younger, my brother and I would always compete, board games, obstacle courses, quizzes. It was fun, sometimes he would win, sometimes I would win. There were a few occasions where neither of us would win. We used to like drawing or painting pictures, we would spend a long time carefully colouring in, or drawing the perfect house only for our judge (mum) to announce a draw Were we satisfied? No, we felt robbed, we would beg her to choose someone, but like most parents they don’t like to choose between their kids. The moral of the story here is that kids like competition, without it they don’t know where they are, if you don’t know how good you are how will you have the motivation to improve?

As parents are we providing too much of a ‘cushy’ existence as Craig says. In my opinion yes we are. We never want to upset our kids, we are reluctant to show any disappointment in case we knock their fragile self esteems. The truth is that kids aren’t that fragile they are pretty robust and receiving a fair and honest assesment of their achievements and failures (there I said it) is what they deserve and respect.

It’s like the idea that if you never have anything bad happen how will you be appreciative or even recognise when things are good? I want Erin to know in her heart that when I praise something I mean it, and, when my reaction is a bit less enthusiastic I hope that she will strive to do better.

Of course you have to tailor your reactions to each child, a ‘B’ grade might be a real achievement for one kid, or a bit of an underachievement for another. I don’t expect perfection, each parent knows their own kids and their strengths and weaknesses and should praise accordingly.

What do you think about competition for kids? Do you encourage it?

Photo by flickr user DrMoores