The Most Popular Mobile Game Types

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By far and away, the most popular apps that people download are games. Whether you are an avid gamer or just an occasional player, there is bound to be something for you with such a wide selection out there. Here, we are going to be breaking down the most common different types that are available on the market.

Action

Action is a fairly broad category that encapsulates classic first-person shooters, arcade games or fighting games. But the one thing that all of these things have in common is that they require fast reflexes. Of course, there is an element of strategy as well, but unless you have those razor-sharp reactions, you are unlikely to be able to succeed when you are playing these types of games.

Adventure

Action and adventure are two categories that tend to be grouped together, but there is generally a difference between the two. Adventure games tend to be much more concerned with puzzle solving, though they also have elements of reflex testing as well. They are a little slower-paced, but they can be just as engrossing as their fast-moving counterparts.

Card and Casino

Now, you can have a casino in the palm of your hand from wherever you are in the world, allowing you to play a host of popular games such as blackjack, roulette and poker. You usually have options whether to play for money or just for fun, and many of them are linked to sports betting services, so it is worth checking out the laws against sports betting if you are planning on using any of these services. There is no doubt that card and casino games are some of the most popular out there.

RPGs

Role playing games (RPGs) tend to be more complex, and involve you steadily building up your abilities and taking your character on a journey. As smartphones become steadily more advanced, many more now have the capability of supporting these types of games, though it is likely that you will need an up-to-date model to get a full experience.

Sports

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Sports games are pretty self-explanatory, and you can find different versions of all your favourite activities. The mobile versions of these games tend to be less complicated and merely focus on a single aspect of the experience. But there is no doubt that they can still be very entertaining for all sports enthusiasts.

Strategy

If you are into the more cerebral aspects of games, and you pride yourself on building strategies that work, these are the type of games for you. Many classic board games such as chess and checkers also fall into this category. But you could also be playing a big-scale army game in which you direct your troops to achieve your objectives.

Most mobile games fall into these categories, so it is worth trying all of the different options and variations out until you find the one or ones that are perfect for you.

Making Room: Building A Nursery

When you’re expecting a new baby in a home that doesn’t have enough bedrooms, you need to get creative. Not everyone has the luxury of a larger house, but the idea of selling the home you’ve worked so hard to decorate can be a step too far. The decisions that come with having a baby feel endless most of the time, but finding a space to fit the baby? That’s a decision that is also a necessity!

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Designing your nursery space isn’t just about finding the right color scheme and giving your baby a beautiful set of cot bedding to sleep on. It’s about deciding whether to utilize a small closet space, like the ideas you find here, or whether you want to add to your home with the help of Siding & Windows Group and tack on a bedroom extension. Regardless of how you choose to do it, you don’t have too much time to make the big decision before your tiny baby comes screaming into the world. The real question is how you plan to design your nursery scheme! Knocking through a wall and building one onto the side of the house and your bedroom is a great way to start afresh and is a practical solution when you don’t want to sell your home. We’ve put together some tips below, so you can have the most beautiful nursery set up right on time.

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Practicality. When you build your extension to your bedroom, make sure you add a lot of light. You need to ensure that the heating is adequate, you also need to apply the right blinds and curtains for night time and you need to ensure that the nursery isn’t too far from your own bed. Be practical with your design here so that when the baby is older, you can shut or slide the door over and keep it private.

Consistency. If you have a traditionally built home, you need to make sure that the décor in the nursery and the layout is in-keeping with the house. You want to be able to sell it one day and an ultra-modern nursery attached to an old-style home really won’t match!

Simplicity. The décor of the actual nursery is going to be individual to your taste, but you need to think about making it a child-friendly space rather than one that is complicated by design. Stay neutral with your colour scheme and jazz it up with accessories instead to make the nursery the place you want to spend time in.

Beauty. A nursery should be a beautiful and part of that beauty comes in the colour scheme you decide to use. Colours should be tranquil, nurturing and not too busy for the baby in the room. Lots of solid colours and soothing tones creates an environment that is peaceful.

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Your nursery addition should match the rest of the house, and it should be a space that you want to spend time in. Make it beautiful and take your time planning it.

Buy or Build: What's The Best Option For Your New Home?

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Buying or building a house, which is the best option for you? If you’re thinking about moving into a new home, then you might be at this crossroads. Well, I’ve got a few arguments in favor of both sides for you to take a look at down below. 

Buy

Buying a house is easily the most obvious choice out of the two. The main reason is that it’s just more convenient for most people. You haven’t got to organize everything from architects to builders, and so on, there’s less work on your behalf. 

Furthermore, it can take a couple of months to find a house, buy it, and move in. When you build, it could take up to a year, maybe longer. Some complications can occur, bad weather might prevent building from taking place on some days; a lot can go wrong. But, if you’re lucky, you could end up with a new house in a few weeks when you buy. 

Also, buying a house gives you the chance to improve on an existing property. You can make a few changes here and there, meaning you increase the market value. As a consequence, you can sell the house for way more than you bought it. 

Build

I think most families don’t even consider this as an option, which is a little strange seeing as it does have many benefits. However, there is one obvious issue that probably explains why so few build rather than buy; planning permission. Some people might not get the planning permission they need to build their new house, and they may not even have a location to build it, to begin with!

But, if you move past that, you will see some excellent positives in choosing this option. The first of which is that you get to completely design your house. You’ll work alongside some home builders and architects to come up with a plan for your ultimate dream home. Everything is built to your desires, it should mean you have a home that’s 100% your cup of tea, and you can’t fault anything. 

Building off this point, you also have a brand new house. It’s hard to find brand new homes these days, and the ones you do find are often overly expensive. Here, you get a new home that’s properly new and comes with no existing faults that need to be fixed. 

Lastly, don’t you hate it when you buy a house and then have to re-decorate it before you can properly settle in. You move, like, half your stuff in, and have to work around your boxes getting the interior design sorted, it’s a heck of a mess. But, when you build, you build your home and design it so you can move in and everything is already sorted!

Should you buy, should you build? In an ideal world, everyone could build their home from scratch. I love the idea of creating something designed specifically for you and your family. However, in a lot of cases, buying is more convenient. It’s a tough one, my advice is to look at both sides of the coin before you flip it!

Stay At Home Moms - How You Can Actually Get Your Work Done With Kids Around

You will have no doubt heard lots of success stories about mompreneurs - these are women who work for themselves from home while also looking after their kids. And on the surface, it definitely sounds amazing - after all, you can drastically cut down on your childcare costs and work from the comfort of your own home! 

Unfortunately, though, trying to work from home while also looking after the kids isn’t quite as idyllic as some mompreneurs might like to make it sound. It can actually end up quite stressful, especially those times you are working on a deadline and the kids are screaming!

Wondering how stay at home moms actually get anything done during the day? Here are some of their tips!

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Work While They Nap

If your kids are still relatively young and take daily naps, it is worth trying to do some of your hardest work during these naptimes. That way, you will be able to work in complete peace and quiet, so it’s a good idea to do some work that requires your complete concentration. Working in quick spurts like this can help you get your work done at other times when your kids don’t require your attention, such as when they are playing or doing their homework.

Automate Your Processes

One of the main things that take up a lot of a stay at home mom’s time is all the admin that comes with working for yourself. This includes admin things like arranging your tax payments and following up on unpaid invoices. Thankfully, there are ways you can speed up the time it takes to carry out these processes - you just need to use software and computer programs that can automate them for you. For instance, you can get accounting software and a check stub maker that speeds up taking care of all your finances. Once you’ve automated everything, your working time will be drastically cut!

Structure Your Day

Throughout your day, it’s important that you have blocks of time that you can dedicate to your work and some blocks that you can dedicate to your kids. The best way to think about how you should structure your work is to take a look at your calendar and add a couple of family activities through the day. This might be things like baking cookies together. That way, your kids won’t feel like they aren’t coming second to your work.

Always Ask For Help When You Need It

There will be times when working from home and looking after your kids gets too much for you. And it’s perfectly fine to reach out for help when all the stress gets too much. You might want to get in touch with a local nanny who can look after the kids for you for a couple of hours so that you can focus on all your work. If your parents or your partner’s parents are free, they might be able to take the kids out for the day so that you can get on with all your business things.

So, that’s how you do it!

What Do You Mean, "No Screen Time"?

We live in a world that is digitally led and this digital uprising has filtered down into the activities that we do on a day to day basis with our children. This has led to an increase in the number of children who now spend less time outside and more time indoors in front of a variety of technological gadgets.

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Wherever you look online, you’ll find article after scholarly article about screen time guidelines for our children that we should all be adhering to. There is a balancing act when it comes to screen time, and it has nothing to do with the internet options available in your area which often affect how much you can stream. Every parent across the world will have their own rules when it comes to the amount of exposure that their children get to television or tablets, but should we be looking at the official health guidelines instead?

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Our children are surrounded by digital media all the time. Even if we don’t leave the television running in the background all day, they’ll see billboards that used to be paper are now digital screens. They’ll see adverts for games consoles and tablets. They’ll see the marketing of tablets aimed at children that are packed full of educational apps and games. Screen time is as much a part of our everyday lives now, as coloring books and crayons used to be. Adults rely heavily on technology to get work done, and we rely on Netflix and tv show and film streaming entertainment. In 2011, only 35% of adults owned a smartphone with an interactive screen. This number has soared to 95% in 2017. The reliance we have on the internet and our screens as adults filter down to our children – so they are bound to pick it up!

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When you tell your children that it’s time to put the screens away, you could find yourself at a loss of what to do instead, and it’s so important that they know there is more to life than staring at an iPad. The screen time that our kids get tends to vary based on the activities of the day, or whether they are in school or not. There are plenty of other ways that your children can have fun without the crutch of an interactive screen to help. Check out the list below and try and implement some into each day you are with the kids:

• Get messy in the garden and plant and water flowers
• Visit a local beach and have a sandcastle building contest
• Work on writing your own comic and illustrating it
• Build a blanket fort
• Got a trampoline? Go for a jump!
• Fill water balloons and have a water fight
• Go on a nature hunt
• Cook together as a family for dinner

Filling the free time of your children without a screen to entertain doesn’t have to be hard. Simply think back to when you were a child – how did you entertain yourself?