Calum Childs Blog - Just stating the facts.

Introducing Ballyhoo, a block-ready minimalist WordPress theme

8th November 2021

Ballyhoo, a free block-ready minimalist WordPress theme, has been released onto the WordPress theme directory today. I have been working on the Ballyhoo theme in various forms since 2018, so it is a relief to finally have it on the WordPress theme directory. For those who don’t know what a WordPress theme is, it is […]

Here we go again – the COP26 Glasgow climate conference

3rd November 2021

Here we go again. The COP26 climate conference starts this November in Glasgow, where the world’s politicians will, once again, pretend to care about the world’s climate for a few days, sign an agreement for commitments due far into the future, before heading back to their own countries on their private jets to boast how […]

Aircraft Buyer – Exceeding Aviation Expectations

15th September 2021

Today, the largest website I have worked on so far is being launched. Aircraft Buyer is a website that allows people to buy and sell aircraft and aviation services. I have been working on this website since June 2021. This website has been built for a friend’s new online business, so I’m not going to […]

Fake News Checker

12th August 2021

I have just launched a website called Fake News Checker, which can check news articles to see whether they are likely to be fake news. This website was produced for my A-Level Computer Science coursework planned and developed from June 2020 until April 2021. I wanted to release it for everyone to use, but I […]

New Mr Red Blob Video: The Playdate

26th July 2021

A new Mr Red Blob video has been released today on YouTube. Ellie invites the other three toddlers over for a play date. But when it’s time for the other toddlers to go, Ellie does everything she can to prevent Mr Red Blob from making them leave the house… (For those that are interested, this […]

All those manifestos (2021 Local Elections)

18th April 2021

Local elections are taking place this year across the UK. Cities are electing mayors, countries are electing parliaments (except for England) and councils are electing councillors. This is the first election to happen since 2019 and all the stuff that has happened since then. So, here’s all the lovely manifestos I have managed to collect […]

Introducing Calum Childs Shop

10th April 2021

Over the past few years, I have been taking photos and sharing them with everyone on Facebook, Instagram and my portfolio site. Today, I am announcing the launch of my new online shop, Calum Childs Shop. It currently sells prints and canvases of many of my photos that I have taken over the past few […]

Mr Red Blob Book Trailers

15th February 2021

World Book Day is on the 4th March, and to celebrate, I have made three book trailers, which will be released over the course of March. I have made a book trailer before for World Book Day about Silence is Goldfish by Annabel Pitcher but the books I have made trailers about this year are […]

Bring Home the Revolution Book Review

25th January 2021

Bring Home the Revolution is a book by Jonathan Freedland about how Britain can become more like the United States. And, no, he doesn’t think we should all have guns or people be able to hunt animals. He writes in the Guardian, but he isn’t as left-wing as some of the Guardian’s other columnists. The […]

We need to make wearing masks mandatory in our homes

12th January 2021

Over the past few days, there has been lots of debate on whether restrictions should be tightened further. Some of the ideas that are being thrown around by scientists and politicians include making it mandatory to wear a mask outside, arresting people for not staying two metres apart in a supermarket and limiting the number […]

New YouTube video: A Christmas Special

18th December 2020

A new Mr Red Blob video has been released today. It is a Christmas special, and the story is this: Mr Red Blob is trying to get home to his family on Christmas Eve, but his boss wants him to do something first… Will he get home in time for dinner? If you can’t watch […]

Discworld Series Book Review

17th November 2020

Everything starts somewhere, although many physicists disagree. The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett is strange, funny and, in some ways, educational. There are 41 books in the Discworld series (just a disclaimer: I haven’t read them all!) Unlike many other series, each book can be read on it’s own, in any particular order. Here are […]

New YouTube video: The Monster

9th October 2020

I have been spending the past several months making a lot of Mr Red Blob videos (as well as other things, such as updating the Homework Help For Kids designs and apps.) This is the first video I made, which is about what happens when Mr Red Blob and his family go on a walk […]

Here’s how we can save BBC Four

15th May 2020

If the rumours going around the Internet are true, the BBC is planning to shut off BBC Four at the end of this year to save money. BBC Four was always going to be a victim of any upcoming cuts because it doesn’t fit into the BBC’s future vision of trying to attract young people […]

New Homework Help For Kids web design

18th April 2020

After months of work, the new Homework Help For Kids website and app design has finally been launched. This is the first time both the website and the app (Android version) have had the same design. This was the hardest website design that I’ve done so far. Homework Help For Kids is the website that […]

Here’s how the Oscars can become more diverse

11th February 2020

In the past few years, many people have been saying that the Oscars aren’t diverse enough. That was mostly true at this year’s awards: there was only one non-white actor nominated for this year’s Best Actor award. And the Best Director award contains no women – many have asked why Greta Gerwig wasn’t nominated for […]

Why the television licence fee must not be abolished

28th January 2020

Now that we are almost certain to be leaving the EU by the end of this year, politicians will now turn their attention to other domestic issues that haven’t been addressed. One issue that has been raised, mainly because of the news that those over 75 not on pension benefits will have to pay their […]

All those manifestos (2019 Election)

15th December 2019

Now that the election is over, the manifestos that the political parties have made for this election will probably be removed from the parties’ websites over the next few weeks. So I’ve uploaded (nearly) all of them onto my server and put the links to them below. Do whatever you like with them. Conservative Manifesto […]

We will be leaving the European Union on 31st January 2020.

13th December 2019

As I am writing this, at 5.09am, the Conservatives have just passed the 326-seat mark needed to form a majority government. This means that, assuming they pass the deal in Parliament, which they now certainly will, we will be leaving the EU on 31st January 2020. Labour has lost many of their seats in their […]

2019 Election Prediction: There will be another hung Parliament.

12th December 2019

I think that today’s election will result in another hung Parliament. It seems that the Conservatives won’t have another minority government with the DUP due to the Irish border issue, so if they don’t achieve a majority in Parliament, then Labour will probably team up with either the Liberal Democrats (if they are 10 – […]

New Mr Red Blob website design

2nd December 2019

At the beginning of 2017, I launched a website for my YouTube channel, The Adventures of Mr Red Blob. I had copied a design from W3Schools. Whilst it looked good, I still felt that it lacked the personality that I wanted for the website. A few months later, I redid the website using Bootstrap (a […]

The campaigning has begun and all sides are now showing their true selves

19th November 2019

And… we’re off! The third general election in 5 years has well and truly begun. All sides have started firing their slogans and promises onto our television screens, doorsteps and Facebook feeds. But it seems that there is more at stake for all sides in this election than any other in recent history. Obviously, there’s […]

Who should you vote for in this General Election?

31st October 2019

A general election has been recently called by Parliament and it is definitely going to be dominated by one thing: Brexit. In two hours, I have created a tool that you can use to figure out which political party you may want to vote for, based on your views on Brexit. Try it out! No […]

Outside Book Review

16th April 2019

Outside by Sarah Ann Juckes is about a girl called Ele who has been locked into a tower all of her life. She has never seen the outside world, let alone been in it. In the tower, she has herself, the Others and Him. The Others have been in the tower with her for as […]

Why no Brexit would be a catastrophe

26th March 2019

As of Friday 22nd March, one petition has gained 3.4 million signatures. It was for revoking Article 50 and remaining in the EU. A day later, there was a large “People’s Vote” protest in London, which hundreds of thousands attended. Staying in the EU or doing a second referendum would be a catastrophe for democracy. […]

New photography portfolio

22nd December 2018

Since I finished my mock exams, I have been working on a new portfolio for all of my photography. And it is now ready to view here. Some of you may be wondering, “Why is he making a new photography portfolio? He already has one.” Well, you’re about to find out! Better design My brand-new […]

Why a no-deal would bring more certainty than May’s deal

25th November 2018

Theresa May went to Brussels and negotiated a deal which would leave us in most parts of the single market and the customs union until at least 2022. And it’s up to the EU as to when we can leave the customs union & single market. This is the exact opposite of the “strong and […]

How Women Got The Vote eBook

23rd October 2018

For a few months now, I have been working on an eBook about how women got the vote in the UK. Now it is finally ready, and it is available to download below: Download the free eBook

I’m taking a break

16th October 2018

I’m currently doing my exams at the moment, and the work is piling up. The GCSEs are also getting harder, which is why I need to focus on my revision. Because of this, I’m going to stop writing blog posts for a while. I may get the time to do the odd post once in […]

What’s happened to social media?

9th October 2018

You may, or may not, have heard of the news that 50 million Facebook accounts were breached a few days ago. But, Facebook was caught posts linking to a legitimate Guardian article about the breach as “spam”. (If you click on the “i” on the bottom right of the article link, a pop-up will explain […]

New YouTube video: The Martians Get Revenge (Part 2)

7th October 2018

If you don’t see anything, click the button below: Watch video on YouTube

Artificial intelligence: How far can it go?

2nd October 2018

AI is coming faster than we think. Go onto any social network and login to your account and on the “News Feed”, what you see is there because artificial intelligence thought you would like it. Jobs may soon be entirely taken over by artificial intelligence – especially ones which involve repetitive work. But, how far […]

Is Christmas coming too early?

25th September 2018

It’s September, and when we’re out and about, I’m already seeing Christmas cards. Advertisements for Christmas dinner bookings, Christmas events. And as the weeks pass by, I’m seeing this more and more often. From late October, I turn on the radio and hear Christmas songs. Christmas decorations are being sold in shops around early October. […]

Should we change our national anthem?

18th September 2018

In my opinion, Britain needs a new national anthem. Why is that, you may ask? Well, I think it needs changing because the National Anthem is about just one person: the Queen. And she doesn’t need saving from anything: the UK Government give her millions of pounds a year. Another reason I think that we […]

Our wildlife is under threat

11th September 2018

Thanks to humans, across the globe, our wildlife is under threat. Animals are being chained up, tortured and forced to do things that they don’t want to do – all just for our amusement. And that’s just one of the things we’re doing to them. We’re destroying their habitats just so we can grow palm […]

Electric cars: Are they worth it?

4th September 2018

Electric cars are being praised as being a very environmentally-friendly alternative to petrol. But are they better than petrol and diesel cars or are they just as bad? Let’s start with the environmental benefit: Cleaner air Electric cars don’t directly pump out pollution into the air, which is good for those living in cities and […]

Should people become vegetarian?

28th August 2018

I’m not a vegetarian myself – and I’m certainly not going to become one. But I’ve been doing some research, and there are many very interesting pros and cons to becoming a vegetarian. We shall start with the pros: Pros Less animals are killed. When you become a vegetarian, you don’t eat meat so as […]

Disney: please stop making live-action versions of fairy-tales

21st August 2018

A bit of film this week. We all know Disney as a film studio which makes films about fairy-tales and other family-friendly films. But recently, the company has started to make some of it’s most iconic films, The Jungle Book (I can understand why they did this as the animals were all animated very realistically), […]

2 inspiring people

14th August 2018

When you turn on the news sometimes, you can see humanity at its worst. Terrorist attacks, crime and climate change are all great examples of how humans can do terrible things without a single thought to those affected. But this blog post is different. Instead, it is going to tell you all about the inspiring […]

What should we do about climate change?

7th August 2018

Climate change is the result of what humans have done to this planet. And now we should be the ones to stop it. But, how can we solve a large problem that will affect all of us? Those currently in power shouldn’t leave it to the next generation to sort it out – after all, […]

Why the National Trust is important to me

31st July 2018

It’s really hot at Britain at the moment. Temperatures are getting as high as 30 C — and even higher. There are quite a lot of people who have been driven outside by the long spell of really lovely weather. And this has been evident when we go to our local National Trust places, which, […]

Women in sports

24th July 2018

The (Men’s) World Cup recently ended – one where we could have got to the finals and potentially won had we scored a few more goals. But, you won’t have to wait until 2022 to sing “It’s coming home” again. The FIFA Women’s World Cup will be held next year (2019) in France. Now, women’s […]

What would you do if you were prime minister (of the UK?)

17th July 2018

Sadly, I’m too young to become Prime Minister. But since this country has been descended into chaos by a bunch of people who’s mental age is 10 years, I’ve decided to put what I would do (about this country’s major problems) if I was prime minister. And trust me, this country would be a lot […]

My Trip To Hampton Court Palace

10th July 2018

On Friday 29th June, I went to Hampton Court Palace with my grandad. It took two hours to get there by train (we changed once.) Eventually, when we got there, there was a nice breeze. This was quite a relief as it was very hot that day! It was my second time going to Hampton […]

Should we go back to the old GCSE?

3rd July 2018

A few years ago, the education secretary (at the time) Michael Gove said that the old GCSEs were just too easy (to be fair, I have never seen an old GCSE paper, so I can’t really say whether that’s true.) And so he changed everything, including the grading system. Now, like most of Michael Gove’s […]

Why I don’t want a smartphone

26th June 2018

Many people ask me the question, “What phone do you have?” and are shocked to find out that I don’t have a smartphone, before usually asking why I don’t have one. And this is my answer. Everywhere you look, the majority of people are on their smartphones, not paying attention to the world around them. […]

Is radio old-fashioned?

19th June 2018

Do you still listen to radio? I do, but I don’t listen to Heart, Magic or any of the radio stations that play music. (Unless you count Classic FM.) One of my favourite radio stations is LBC, where they discuss current affairs and politics. I only listen to Nigel Farage’s programme, but there are many […]

Should schools reward students for 100% attendance?

14th June 2018

As a student, my school rewards those who have never missed a day of school, in that term or academic year. Now, many people are against this because the majority who don’t get 100% attendance don’t get it because they may have been ill once or twice (or maybe they happen to be ill quite […]

RHS Wisley

10th June 2018

I went to RHS Wisley today and it is fantastic! All the plants were out in full bloom and it is very beautiful today. There were so many types of plants and there was even a large greenhouse filled with plants from deserts and tropical rain-forests. Here is a few of the photos I took:

The Manifesto on How to Be Interesting Book Review

9th June 2018

The Manifesto on How To Be Interesting by Holly Bourne is about a very unpopular girl who starts changing her personality so she can get more writing material (she wants to be an author.) And how it all turns out is very interesting. What I thought about it I thought that the book was very […]

How I made my website

9th June 2018

A few people have asked me now how I made my website since I launched it a few months ago. Well, I haven’t really known how to answer that question. Until now. A whole lot of code Now, I have used code to create all of my portfolio pages. I learnt HTML (used to specify […]

Should formal exams be held in the winter?

24th May 2018

Most of us have been or will start doing their formal exams, whether that be GCSEs, A-Levels or just the normal exam you get round about the end of every academic year. But do you think that formal exams such as GCSEs and A-Levels should take place in the winter? I think they should. Why […]

Save the Internet

12th May 2018

The Internet as we know it is under threat. Net neutrality rules are going to be scrapped in the USA on the 11th June unless Congress vote against it. But exactly what is net neutrality and how does it affect you? What is net neutrality? Net neutrality means that ISPs (Internet Service Providers) can’t block, […]

Social media is a great tool, but some things need to be changed.

23rd April 2018

Say you live in the USA and you have a friend that lives in Australia. Your family can’t afford to go to Australia – and AirMail is too expensive. But social media can solve this problem as you can chat online as if you were talking face-to-face. But this great tool is also destroying lives. […]

It’s going to get cooler? That’s what spring should be like…

22nd April 2018

When the weatherman said that it was going to get cooler next week, I thought, “That’s what spring should be like in the UK.” Heatwaves during spring (and there are many more examples of this) are called freak weather (weather that doesn’t usually happen at this time of year)

Spring is here (at last!)

19th April 2018

Hello and welcome to my first proper post on this blog. I still have some of my chocolate left from Easter, and my Lindt bunny partly melted in the sun (once I found out about this, I instantly ate the rest of it!) Anyway, that ties into this week’s post perfectly, because this week is […]

My sister’s YouTube channel has launched

9th April 2018

Go and watch the video: calumchilds.com/toysaremagic.

Create a poppy in Illustrator

18th March 2018

Here’s a video to show you how to create a poppy in Illustrator: