I'm turning to a series that we've not featured before here on Ladybird Tuesday for this week's entry. Series 622, Books for Toddlers is a set of seven books which was created because Ladybird realised just how popular their Early Learning books were for both children and parents. I'm yet to find an original copy of the first book in the series, The Ladybird a-b-c, and from what I've read it may be hard to find one. It's one of their most popular books though and has been reprinted and reissued many times. The rest of the series is six books (imaginatively titled Book 1 ... read more
Amelie and Nanette Sparkly Shoes and Picnic Parties – Sophie Tilley
One thing that I really like about reviewing children's books on here with Little Miss C is that we've now been doing it for long enough that I'm starting to see second, or even third, books by the same author and therefore starting to get a feel for them and their work. It almost seems strange that up until only three years ago my only experience of children's books was what I remembered from my own childhood, and even then it's something of a hazy memory, especially when it comes to picture books. We were recently sent a copy of Sparkly Shoes and Picnic ... read more
Knitting help required!
I'm going to try and use my blog here today for purely selfish reasons - to see if anyone can please help me with my current knitting project! Now, once a week I normally go to a lovely knitting group, with a talented bunch of women who I'm sure could help me. The only thing is that I couldn't make it last week as I was too busy trying to get a broken washing machine fixed (which still isn't fixed incidently - in a week in which both kids came home from school / nursery covered in mud of course!) and as it's half term this week I can't really try and juggle both kids ... read more
Post-it Note Pumpkin
Please note that the Post It Note Pumpkin has moved to Penny Blogs. You can find it here. Happy Halloween! ... read more
Mine! – Sarah Hammon and Laura Hughes
When our review copy of Mine! arrived and I read the accompanying press release I found myself tutting a bit. Not a nice habit, but I was a bit concerned about the statement "Mine! is a hilariously true book about how little girls play." I'm sorry to say that in my usual way I was a bit frustrated to see what I initially saw as early gender stereotyping. As Little Miss C and I sat down to read the book together though I actually found myself reading something which almost accurately described a playdate that LMC has had just a couple of days earlier! Kitty is playing ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Bedtime Rhymes
We're embracing the 1970s on this week's Ladybird Tuesday. Bedtime Rhymes was published in 1977 and even the illustrations in the inside cover and really take you back to the era of flares and platform shoes. The book is a collection of rhymes and poems, some of which have a bedtime or night theme to them, and others which just don't at all! Rather than the standard nursery rhymes you instead get a mix of well known poems from the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson and others where I've not heard of either the poem or poet before. One of my favourite poems of all time is also ... read more
Making Red Ted Art’s Halloween Jam Jar Lanterns
It may not happen as often as I'd like it to, but the days on which I'm organised enough to do some proper crafting with Little Miss C are days that I do just love. Nothing beats her excitement in seeing something being created in front of her eyes, and when it actually looks like the picture in the book or on my laptop then she's jumping up and down fit to burst. There are so many great blogs featuring kids' craft projects, but the one I go back to time and time again is Red Ted Art. I've blogged before about the book version of Red Ted Art and this is what I turned ... read more
Octupus’s Garden – Ringo Starr and Ben Cort
When I first heard that there was going to be a children's book version of the Beatles song Octopus's Garden I was a little bit sceptical as to quite how it was going to work. I mean, we all know the song, but just how would a child relate to the lyrics in printed form? It was back in 1968 when Ringo Starr first composed Octopus's Garden after the captain of Peter Sellers' yacht told him about how octopuses trawl the sea bed looking for shiny stones and other objects that they then put in front of their caves, like a front garden. The idea is rather cute ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Tales of King Arthur
A bit of a change on Ladybird Tuesday this week as rather than focus on a single book, I'm actually featuring a couple of books from series 740 (Classics) which are both from the Tales of King Arthur sub-series. I recently came across The Deeds of the Nameless Knight and The Knight of the Golden Falcon and other stories in a charity shop and to be honest I'd not seen these books at all before and wasn't really sure how they fit in with the Ladybird series. Written by Desmond Dunkerley, who was also responsible for other books in series 740 about Robin Hood, the King Arthur ... read more
September Tassimo Challenge – and grab yourself a machine for just £45
As part of the Tassimo blogger network I get sent a monthly blogger challenge and September's was one quite close to my heart. Kenco teamed up with Macmillan Cancer Support on the 27th September to stage the World's Largest Coffee morning and Tassimo challenged their bloggers to put on a Tassimo coffee party. They even sent us a lovely box of goodies to help us. If you're wondering about the tea spoons and sprinkles then they also sent us a link to a brilliantly simple set of instructions for making chocolate spoons. Now, I don't know if it's just a ... read more