As you will all know by now. Master C is train obsessed. But it's an obsession that I regularly try to use to his advantage when it comes to teaching him things. For ages he wasn't at all interested in holding a pen or doing any sort of "mark making" as it's described in Early Years Foundation Stage documentation. Then he suddenly started wanting to draw trains, in particular drawing on carriage on each separate piece of A4 paper and then sticking them all together. This was swiftly followed by seeing track layout diagrams in some of my OH's model railway magazines and the next thing we knew ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Adventure at the castle
It's been a little while since we've visited the Ladybird Key Word Reading Scheme here on Ladybird Tuesday, but that's where we're headed today with book 10b in the series - Adventure at the castle. The early books in the Ladybird Key Words Reading Scheme are the ones that everyone seems to be familiar with. Simple sentences about Peter and Jane were how many of my generation learnt how to read. I'm guessing that many of us moved on to other books though and didn't progress on to the later titles in the series like this one. By Adventure at the castle we have left Peter and Jane ... read more
Paddington 2
Where on earth do you begin to write about Paddington 2? Never before has a film exceeded my expectations so much and there are so many things I want to tell you all about it. The key message has to be that you MUST go and see it. Even if you though the original film a bit naff (I did - I didn't even bother with the last 30 minutes on Amazon Prime as I was so bored) this is completely different. It's a million times better. Paddington 2 move you to tears of both sadness and laughter, but also completely change your opinion of Hugh Grant as an actor. Out on general release fro 10 November ... read more
Embracing autumn evenings hygge style with Hunkemoller
I love autumn evenings. I think that by the time they come around I'm ready to snuggle down and get all cosy in an evening with a spot of crochet, a good book or watching something on TV. I guess it may all link into the Danish concept of Hygge that I am rather in love with. A while back I read a book all about A Year of Living Danishly and I found learning all about the country and the way people live there utterly fascinating, but the bit that stood out for me most was this idea of hunkering down in the autumn and winter and just staying at home with family and friends. It's a concept ... read more
Making Christmas magical with a personalised letter from Santa
Christmas is a magical time of year for children and part of that magic has to be Santa. Whether you call him Santa Claus, Father Christmas, St Nic or Santa Christmas (as Master C currently does!) the same magic surrounds the man in red and there's no doubt that his visit is what most children look forward to most at Christmas. How Father Christmas "works" might be different in each family, but his arrival whilst children sleep on Christmas Eve is seen as being pure magic and it's therefore no surprise that children start writing their letters to him months in advance as they are so keen to ... read more
Boo at the Zoo – Halloween Half Term fun at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo
We've been huge fans of ZSL Whipsnade Zoo for as long as I can remember and ZSL members for years now, yet strangely we've never actually been to their Halloween event, the brilliantly named, Boo at the Zoo before. Today that changed. Much of the Boo at the Zoo fun takes place in the giant marquee in the Base Camp area of the zoo. There you can find Creepy Crafts and the Pumpkin Patch. All three kids enjoyed making bat masks as part of the free creepy crafts activities and if you buy a pumpkin from the shop area just outside the marquee you can then carve a pumpkin and take it home with ... read more
Celebrating Halloween American Style with Post Cereals
As a kid I was mesmerised by watching children eat cereal in American films. It always just looked so exciting compared to the boring cornflakes that I always used to have for breakfast. American children's breakfast bowls seemed to full of bright colours. It always looked so much more fun. Fast forward many years and I was still very excited to be contacted by Post Cereals with an offer to send me some of their American cereals, that are now available in UK supermarkets for the first time. That fascination with American cereals continues today though as my 13 year old step-daughter was ... read more
Setting up a home office space with Kit Out My Office
As a freelancer working from home one of the most important things in my old house was having a bit of office space. Somewhere where I could sit and work and then when I'd finished close up my laptop, walk away, and get on with the rest of my life. Since moving I've simply not had the space to do that, and I've noticed the detrimental effect that it's had on my work and also on my work-life balance. Working on the sofa or the kitchen table is fine, but it's far from ideal. The faff of having to pack everything away anytime that someone else needs the table or wants to sit on the sofa and ... read more
Morphy Richards Toaster and Kettle set
Role play is such a vital part of a child's development. Talk to any Early Years practitioner and they will tell you about what an important stage it is and why pre-schools, nurseries and reception classes all have role play areas and how much the children gain from playing in them. It's part of how they make sense of the world around them and understand their roles within the world. It stimulates their imagination, aids their social development and can also help children understand scenarios that they may have encountered in real life. For most children role playing home situations is ... read more
The Twelve Dogs of Christmas – Alison Ritchie and Marisa Morea
Christmas picture books are arriving on my doorstep on an almost daily basis right now, with The Twelve Dogs of Christmas one of the most recent, and I'm actually really enjoying starting to get into the Christmas spirit. Master C has already asked how many sleeps there are until Christmas and, for now, seems satisfied with my answer, so I just have to hope that the requests to put up the Christmas tree don't start just yet! The Twelve Dogs of Christmas is a lovely little tale about a puppy's excitement in the lead up to his first Christmas. The lovely rhyming text makes it the perfect sort ... read more