We're going all geeky and technical again today on Ladybird Tuesday with what was one of my first vintage Ladybird purchases: The Story of Radio, A Ladybird 'acheivements' book. The whole of series 601 was based around the "history of" various things, ranging from Railways, to Oil, to Plastics. First published 1968, the Story of Radio starts off by describing how communication over distances was done using semaphore before radio's invention. Range was obviously limited and even when telegraph and telephone cables were laid on the ocean beds these were expensive and ... read more
Weston Park Cancer Charity
In a way it's hard to believe that it's nearly 6 months since my Dad died. Six months in which Master C has grown and changed from a small baby into a little boy with a personality all of his own. A little boy that sadly my Dad will never know. Luckily he did get to find out that he had a grandson before he died, and to meet him a handful of times, but Master C was only two and a half weeks old when he died and sadly he will have no memories of his Grandpa. There's so much that I wish my Dad could have seen in these last six months. The little boy that's developing into a ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Brownie Guides
Whilst this is not one of the oldest of the Ladybird books in my collection is it one of my faviourites purely based on the subject: Brownie Guides. The uniform on the cover is exactly the one that I wore when a Brownie in the 1980s. The book was actually first published in 1978, but it seems that not much had chanegd by the time I joined. The book covers everything from how the Brownie Guides were created as a youth section of the Girl Guides and how they fitted in with the already formed Scout movement through to Brownie Guides around the world. The structure of the Guiding movement is ... read more
Two little lovebirds
Started for Valentines Day, distracted en-route, but finished in time for our wedding anniversary. That's the tale of the above bit of cross-stitch. I happened across the pattern in an email from The Making Spot and fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. There are actually four patterns in the series -these birds, squirells, elephants and penguins - and all are adorable. I'm pretty sure it took me more than the 9 hours they say to sew though - but then their estimations probably didn't account for looking after two children whilst doing so. The last stitch of ... read more
Learning letters
Just over a month ago I wrote about how Little Miss C has started to show a real interest in letters and numbers and how we're trying to encourage her and help her to learn what the individual letters are. In this last month she's come on in leaps and bounds and now recognises several letters and can also say what letters certain words start with. Whilst at nursery they use Jolly Phonics to teach children to read, but at home we're currently trying to do things much more organically - whilst also trying to keep track of what works and captures her interest and what doesn't. We ... read more
Review: Ravensburger Crime Scene Investigation Set
When I was a child I had two favourite books. One was a children's guide to being a spy and the second which was a guide to being a detective. Full of tips and techniques, these two books pretty much summed up what my career aspirations were when I was about 8 and to be honest I'd be pretty happy with either of those jobs now too. If someone had handed me this Ravensburger CSI set (part of their Science X range) then I think I would have probably exploded with excitement. As it is even as an adult it is pretty fantastic. Developed by Mark Benecke, a German crime biologist and specialist in ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: ‘How it works’ The Rocket
I'm going for a full on geek-out with this week's Ladybird Tuesday and a book that I'm pretty sure even Professor Brian Cox would approve of - 'How it works' The Rocket. The 'How it works' series (series 654 in case you're wondering) was the perfect series for any little budding engineers. It basically explained exactly how objects worked and covered everything from the household television through to Farm Machinery. There's plenty of detail, but all written in a simple style so that children could easily follow it. Now, bearing in mind that I did ... read more
I love my Mummy so much because…
This was the line that the children at Little Miss C's nursery had been asked to complete so that it could be attached to the pipe-cleaner flowers that they had made, as a personal message from them to their mums. I'm sure the staff (and some hopeful parents) had visions of things like "... because she gives me lots of cuddles" or "... because she always plays with me" or even "... because she looks after me", but you need to remember that it's pre-schoolers that they're asking to do this and as all parents know children can say and do the ... read more
Laying it out
I honestly have no idea where I found the time in the last week, but between trips to the GP, mountains of washing, never ending to do lists and general life with two children I did squeeze in time to lay out all the squares for the cot bed quilt that I am making. It was a rare few minutes with no one else above the age of one at home so twitter was my assistant and the lovely Helen from Crumbs and Pegs provided a great bit of advice on the layout based on a series of photos that I tweeted. Technology really does have its uses. I'm still really pleased with the fabrics in my ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: The Emperor’s New Clothes
This is probably one of the more recent Ladybird books in my vintage collection - in my mind it still fits in the vintage category as it's got the matt cover - but it's one that I remember very very clearly from childhood. Along with the cover picture the other thing that I remember best about this book is the music. Music? I hear you ask. Well yes, as I actually had a copy of this which came with an audio cassette version too. You see a cassette - that instantly makes it vintage doesn't it? The start and end of the story (and possibly at the end of each side too I'm not ... read more