Little Miss C and I review a huge number of children's books together and it's a job we very much enjoy. Finding a book that stands out though can be tough, but The Polar Pack has managed just that - literally! As well as being a beautifully illustrated book about polar animals, The Polar Pack also has an envelope at the back containing push out card pieces that you can use to make all the animals featured in the book. You just need a bit of glue to hold them together and then you have your own set of polar animals. As well as turning the book into a craft activity it really ... read more
Featured Post: Mr C daydreams about a new car
There was a time, before children, when Mr C and I had a bit of a gadget thing going on. New bits of technology would come into our home regularly, after crazy amounts of online research by Mr C to make sure he understood exactly what it did and how it did them. When we needed a new car he just considered it like buying a new gadget, albeit a big one. These days our crazy gadget buying days are somewhat behind us, but Mr C still likes to daydream and many a time I find him doing some online fantasy car shopping. Here he has a bit to say about electric cars which are now a real option for many ... read more
Featured Post: Manchester – beyond the cobbles
When I was a lass growing up in Yorkshire the first thing that sprang to mind when anyone mentioned Manchester was Coronation Street. Eastenders was never a big thing up north you see. We watched Emmerdale, as it was from Yorkshire, and Coronation Street so we could keep track of what was going on on t'other side of the Pennines. We were always wary of them over there - after all, look at any map and it's clear to see that there's only one "right" side of the Pennines. So in my mind Manchester was this large city of small cobbled streets, local boozers like the Rovers Return and people with ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Scouts
My Ladybird collecting obsession is now at the stage where I have to carry round in my handbag two little notebooks containing a list of all the Ladybird titles in my collection, arranged by series. Otherwise it seems I can no longer remember which ones I have or which ones I just dream of having. Against each series I also have a tally number so that I know just how many there are out there in the series. Ladybird were a bit strange in that they had several series where there was only one or two titles, yet other series that had many more. One series that is exactly the right size is ... read more
Imaginative play with Fafu
Before having children I had a dream about how I wanted to bring them up. Inspired greatly by SouleMama I dreamed of long days with them playing outside in all weathers, ignoring anything with an electronic screen in favour of spending hours and hours lost in games of their own imaginations. The reality is a little bit different, but I do still try to take things back to the simpler way of doing things and to encourage Little Miss C in particular to just let her imagination lead her play whenever it can. I'm always on the look out for products and brands that work in this way - ... read more
Featured Post: Making the most of now #PowerOfSoft
I can't pretend it isn't happening any more. Little Miss C's pre-school days are well and truly over. She's been in Reception now for over a week and, although they're not up to doing full days yet, there's no doubt that she's very ready for it. Rather than having a pre-schooler and a baby at home I have a school girl and a nearly pre-schooler. Master C will turn two in a couple of weeks time. How on earth did that happen so fast? In my head I still think of myself as a new parent, yet actually we've had over four years experience at this parenting lark now. With two children I find that ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Robin Hood Outlawed
Oh my - there are some varied Ladybird books joining my collection right now. I have to admit that there are some that I am more fond of than others, but it's still fascinating to see how my collection is growing, and what is available when in local charity shops. This week on Ladybird Tuesday I'm looking at Robin Hood Outlawed. Now, these Robin Hood books were part of series 740, called Classics, and were a sub-series of 4 titles which came under the Robin Hood Adventures banner. Whilst this book has a copyright date in it of 1978, I think this is actually a later version, possibly ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 19 – Speech and Language Therapy
I did warn you that our summer got a bit more boring once we were back from Cornwall and day 19 was a fine example of that. Mr C returned to work after a week off and I headed out with the kids to a local drop in Speech and Language Therapy session. Today was the day that I needed to tackle one of the first of the contradictions that came out on the first day of the summer, when I met with Master C's nursery to discuss the problems we're having. They felt that there may be a need for him to have some speech and language therapy, something which really surprised me. Master C's language is, I ... read more
Review: Ben and Holly Magical Playground Playsets
Little Miss C loves watching Ben and Holly on TV and since buying a magazine with free Ben and Holly toys on a while back has regularly been acting out Ben and Holly stories. When I received an email about the new Ben and Holly Magical Playground Playsets that were being released I just knew that she'd love to help me review them. There are three Magical Playground Playsets, a slide, a roundabout and a swing, and we were sent the roundabout and swing ones to review. Each playset comes with a Holly figure, which appears to be fine, but LMC's first questions was "Where's Ben?" When I ... read more
Blackberry Muffins
Blackberries seemed to come really early here this year - back before the schools broke up for summer - so I've actually been sitting on this recipe for a while. One day after school the kids and I went foraging on the local heath and came home with a large bag full of blackberries. Neither of the kids are huge fans of crumble which is what I like to make most with blackberries - combining them with apples from our apple tree - so I went in search of a cake recipe or similar and actually failed to find anything that wasn't too complicated. I pulled together the following from several ... read more