We've just had our first delivery of fluorescent, reflective lanyards which we will be launching on the website to sell shortly. The latest craze at school is for kids to have a tamagotchi on a lanyard - so we thought 'why not design a high vis version'. So it's fluorescent orange (for daytime visibility) and then for night turn it round the other way and it is reflective.

In case you don't know what a lanyard is, it's a ribbon you put round your neck. It has a clip on the end which you can attach things too, eg for work ID cards, conference name badges. Also popular for holding iPods, keys, mobile phones, etc. For sport or leisure use for whistle, stopwatch, drinks bottle, compass etc.

Ours have got safety breaks in the back so they come apart if pulled hard or caught (important for kids and cyclists).

At night the grey/silver bits are reflective and so look bright white.

There...sales plug of the day over with!!!!

The Reception class children at our local school went home with a free reflector each yesterday.
This was part of the big UK-wide scheme by the Nationwide building society to make them more visible to traffic after dark. It's a great idea (they won a big road safety award for it) and has helped get across the 'be safe be seen' message for night time.

In Scandinavian countries the children attach reflectors to a string. The other end of the string is fastened to the inside of a pocket. When they go out after dark they pull the reflector out and let it swing so it catches the light from car headlights.

These reflectors come in different colours and some of them are fluorescent yellow - this is the best colour as it shows up really well in daylight as well as after dark. If you didn't get one from your school or you lost yours you can buy the same type from us as well!!!

I've turned green....This afternoon I helped out at the after school 'Green Club'. In the warmer months it's 'Gardening Club' but now it's a bit chilly for that so they renamed it Green Club. The kids do craft activities indoors to do with the environment, recycling and getting more people to walk etc. In some of the sessions they'll be doing things like Park & Stride posters and whatever else they want to do to promote all their walk to school schemes.

The ET (local paper) did another really good feature on BrightKidz.

It was all go on the media front today as the production company for a Channel Four documentary arrived to prepare for filming tomorrow. I had 'Krypton Factor' type fun (remember that?) trying to put together a wheelchair we'd borrowed from the hospital (to enable the cameraman to film at a child's level on the Walking Bus).

Turning into a bit of a saddo Celebrity Big Brother addict; soon be time to get my fix so bye for now.

Tales from the Walking Bus #2 - Visit from our MP
Today Philip Hollobone our MP came along on our Walking Bus for the second time. It's a good idea to invite your MP along and let them know what you're up to if you've got a Walking Bus. They can tell others about your scheme which helps raise the profile. Also another excuse for a bit more coverage from the local paper - thank you to the guys and gals at the Evening Telegraph (Northants News)!! The photo of the kids wearing multi-fluorescent colour high vis waistcoats should look good in print.

My fingers nearly fell off today. I spent nearly an hour outside in the freezing cold and drizzle doing photos for our new 'special packs' for Walking Buses and class trips.

I could call it a photoshoot to make it sound glam. But what it actually meant was me out in the garden trying to cover a wet, leafstrewn plastic table with the least creased tablecloth I could find to use as a backdrop. Trying to stop the sheets of Walking Bus stickers flying away was another challenge. Bet David Bailey doesn't have those problems.

At least we've got the Walking Bus special pack on the website now (smartened up the photo first) and the Class set pack details should be published early next week.

Had a tear-around afternoon to factory and printers before parking in the local pub car park to Park & Stride and pick the kids up from school and hand out Walking Bus annual registration forms to parents.

No guilt at all about the teatime fish and chips - deserve!

Hey Wow! Someone's put a comment on my Blog! V. exciting for a new blogger like me. Thanks Corinne (must admit she's a friend of mine who I know because she runs another local Walking Bus).

Time to put the tinsel away here at Safe Kids Walking. It's been a good break but when you're not doing the daily walk to school you start to feel lethargic (yes I know.....I've been a slob, I admit it, could have done lots but TV was calling - not v good role model for the kids). At least we had good fun out in the snow the day after Boxing Day. As you can see our BrightKidz fluorescent pink fleece was tested out in the snow!

Last year when it snowed we re-named our Walking Bus the Skating Bus and someone even carried their bags on a pull-along plastic sledge. Our pushchair buggy wheels couldn't cope with the deep snow so we borrowed a 3-wheeler one for the following day. On snowy or icy days I think people must be mad to drive if they can walk - who wants to be scraping ice of the car first thing in the morning if you don't have to?

More snow forecast for the weekend....