Shockingly, it's over two years since Multiplication made easy appeared here on Ladybird Tuesday. Back then I wrote about how maths can really divide people as a subject. Some love it and some hate it. I've always thought of myself as being firmly in the "love maths" camp. When at school it was the lesson I always looked forward to. The idea of English or Drama on the timetable filled me with dread. Give me double maths over that any day of the week. I'd like to say that I'm still on the "love maths" side of the fence, but as Little Miss C has advanced through the school system (she's ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: ‘People at Work’ The Fireman
It's been a while since I've bought any new Ladybird books. Partly because I was trying to save money, but also partly because they just weren't to be found in local charity shops at a reasonable place. I've been travelling around the country a lot more recently though, and in doing so discovering new charity shops, and more Ladybird books! The whole of Ladybird Tuesday started with me featuring a book from series 606B, People at Work, when I wrote about In a Hotel. Since then though I've gone on and actually featured quite a few of this series, and it remains one of my absolute ... read more
what2buy4kids – Toy Time Machine
Anyone who knows me will know that I love everything vintage that relates to children. Especially books and toys. I therefore love this infographic from what2buy4kids. It's fascinating to see how things have changed over the years. But, at the same time, it's great to see how some firm favourites that are still played with regularly here. Master C is especially fond of his Hornby trains and Little Miss C still plays with My Little Pony dolls on a frequent basis. Which of these vintage (or more modern) favourites do you have in your home? ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: The Public Services – Water Supply
Way, way back in the early days of Ladybird Tuesday I dipped into series 606E, The Public Services, looking at Electricity. I even commented at the times about how the whole concept of Electricity, Gas and Water being public services was vintage in itself. Years on, it's time to revisit the series again, but this time we've moved on to the Water Supply. I still smile to see this book labelled as being "A Ladybird 'Easy-Reading' Book", but then when I consider some of the slightly obscure titles that Little Miss C brings home as school reading books maybe it isn't as strange as I used to ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Trains
Oh the dalliances I'm having with Ladybird Tuesday! It comes back every now and again, before vanishing without even a goodbye. I'm sincerely hoping that this will be the start of a proper return, but bearing in mind how late in the day I'm finally getting round to writing this post this Tuesday, you never know... But enough of that and on to the book itself. Now Master C is more than a little obsessed with trains right now. In fact, I'm not even sure that "obsessed" is a strong enough word to be using. His whole day seems to revolve around either talking about trains, playing with ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: The Do-Gooder
And we're back! With the most irregular regular blog feature ever - Ladybird Tuesday. Now, keeping in with the theme of all my other recent blog posts here, I'm doing something a little bit different again this week and I'm going to be talking about another new Ladybird title. This time it's The Ladybird Book of the Do-Gooder. Just in case you haven't worked it out by now I should probably explain that this special title has been released to coincide with this year's Comic Relief, and at least £2 from the sale of the book go to Comic Relief. As with the other modern day Ladybird titles ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Learning to Crochet
I've been trying to bring Ladybird Tuesday back several times now, but each time I appear to get half way through writing a post and then everything goes a bit wrong. This time though I've chosen a title that I do feel very passionate about in the hope that it keeps me on track somewhat - Learning to Crochet! Now, anyone who follows me on Instagram or who has read my post about 2016 in Crochet will know that over the last couple of years I have become a complete crochet addict. I have two crochet blankets on the go at the moment (the Moorland CAL from Lucy at Attic24 and also my third Spice ... read more
Topsy and Tim’s sister AND brother – an update
This week has been one of those weeks where a comment left on one of my blog posts actually made me squeal with excitement. Literally. It can be so easy at times to write about something that you're really excited about or interested in and then you just get tumbleweed in response. It's a post that you think loads of people will want to say something about, but you click publish and it's met with silence. I had feared that that might be what happened with the post I published about Topsy and Tim's sister Tansy. Having seen how many people happen across this blog after searching on Google ... read more
Topsy and Tim’s Sister?
Anyone who has read this blog before, or who follows me on Instagram, will know just how much I love vintage children's books. As well as collecting Ladybird books I'm also rather fond of old Topsy and Tim books. When I was a child I recall the small soft-back format that was published by Blackie and these are the ones that I look out for in charity shops and at car boot sales, although they are very hard to come by these days. Before these smaller format ones, Blackie actually published larger versions of the same books. With so many Topsy and Tim editions over the years I've always ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: How to Make Presents
Oh dear - we've been AWOL again haven't we with Ladybird Tuesday. This new school routine has taken a bit of getting used to since September, but with half term now out of the way it's time to crack on until Christmas. And talking about Christmas - as my email inbox appears to be doing already this morning - it might be time to start thinking about presents. Ladybird have got this covered with their 1978 book handily titled How to make Presents. Now this title was part of series 633, but one of the additional titles that was brought out in the 1970s. The series was originally called ... read more