Ladybird Books - A Gurgle Girls Review

Gurgle and Ladybird sent me and my fellow Gurgle Girls a customised bag of books. Top Ender and Baby Boy were delighted as books in our house are a big part of our life (and living room) as we love to read. There wasn't just books inside the bag however (which was really useful when we went Sweet shopping the other day), there was also a little camera, a ladybird cuddly toy, a DVD, a cookie cutter and a sticker. I think that is all that was in there, but when the wrapping was ripped off Top Ender and Baby Boy divided the goodies amongst themselves and ran off to read before I was aware of what was going on so I am not too sure!

Ladybird had customised the bag by sending out books that were suitable for Top Ender and Baby Boy by age range. Top Ender is a confident reader thanks to her school and home efforts and sat down with the two Read it Yourself books and was well, reading away to herself. I got her to read them to me at Bedtime on Sunday and I really enjoyed the stories! "The Elves and the Shoemaker" and "Sly Fox and Red Hen" are classic stories, but are written in a more simple way that allows young readers more ease with reading them.

The third book that Top Ender got was from "Puddle the naughtiest puppy" series and was the book "Magic Carpet Ride". Top Ender has a couple from this series already, as they were popular in Party bags in the last school year. They are large print, easy to read stories about a puppy (called Puddle!) and his adventures and they make great practice for reading and even better bedtime stories. Top Ender isn't actually keen on dogs, so I am hoping that by reading a few stories about a naughty, but lovable puppy she might get over this aversion.

Baby Boy got two books one which was a "Ladybird Big Noisy Book" and is called "Emergency!". As you can guess this book makes noises and is loved by Baby Boy. He loved it so much that he hid it in a special place and I couldn't find it for a couple of days even though he was reading it during the day. It was hidden under the cushions on the sofa! Baby Boy loves pretending to read the book and pressing the right buttons as indicated in the text to get the noise that enhances the story. Daddy and Baby Boy read this book on Sunday night at bed time and they really loved it judging from the giggles!

The other book that Baby Boy got was "Peek-a-Zoo!" a rhyming flap book and it is really sweet, he has been reading this book with me and making the noises that the hidden animals make and the obligatory "Peek-a-Zoo" phrase when ever he lifts the flap! Both books are quite sturdy, although Baby Boy has ripped the back cover of the "Emergency!" book as he could see a gap between the spine and the back page. A bit of sticky tape sorted this right out though!

The last part of the bag was a Spot DVD and Spot shaped cookie cutter! I don't really remember having any Spot the dog books when I was younger (I am a whole year older than Spot), but I do remember children that I babysat having them and loving the stories. I remember when it was turned into a cartoon as I think someone brought my sister and I a video to share of Spots adventures.

Baby Boy and I waited until we had Top Ender at school before we sat down to watch the DVD with new episodes of Spot and I baked some quick mixed spice biscuits (they were going to be gingerbread but I didn't have any ginger!). Baby Boy loved the DVD and the biscuits and we had an enjoyable afternoon snuggling on the sofa!

Take a look at the other Gurgle Girls and what they got in their bags and if you are really lucky I might even share my gingerbread mixed spice biscuits recipe with you!

Booktime for your School or Library!

Earlier this year I won a Twitter competition and got to nominate a school to have a book parcel delivered to for them to put into their School Library. I of course choose Top Enders school and when the parcel arrived at the school, I got my name in the newsletter and everything! Now is a chance for you to have some similar fame at a school of your choice.

This autumn, 680,000 copies of Eric Carle’s story book “ 'Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,' Said the Sloth" will be given to children starting reception in England courtesy of the charity Booktrust who have the programme Booktime (in partnership with Pearson and the Department for Education).

Now here comes the bit with the possible fame for you; To celebrate, Booktime are offering primary schools and libraries in England the chance to enter a prize draw to receive an exclusive artist’s proof from the book signed by Eric Carle. Anyone (that's you) can nominate a primary school and a public library in England (full terms and conditions will be on their website once the competition opens). From today until the 31st October 2010. All you have to do is visit the Booktime site at http://www.booktime.org.uk/ and find the school or library you want to nominate.

If your school or Library is chosen and really generous you might get a wing named after you or I am sure that like Top Ender's school it might be something a little less expensive...

By the way, the Booktime website also has games and resources inspired by all the books that have been given away in the past, and they are on twitter too!

Leap Frog Tag and Tag Junior - a review and a competition

Leap Frog were very kind and sent Top Ender a Tag Reading system and Baby Boy a Tag Junior Reading system to review and generally have a good play with after CyberMummy. As soon as the parcel arrived, Baby Boy and Top Ender had pulled out the packages and I only just managed to get a couple of photos before the packaging was in the recycling and they were both sitting cross legged on the floor working out what they needed to do to play with the new gadgets.

Top Ender loves the Tag Reading system. She already had it as a gift from Granny before she started school, but the new Tinkerbell book was a BIG hit! The Tag Reader is styled like a pen and it is used similar to a pointer, where you need to point the end at the text or picture and then it will "read" the page out loud. Baby Boy also loves his Tag Junior, and he thinks that it looks like EVE from WALL-E! The Tag Junior is held more like a bingo pen/stamp and again is run over the page and text and it also "reads" the page out loud.

The Tag Junior is recommended for ages two to four and there are several hard paged books that go with the system and the Tag system that Top Ender had is designed for ages four to eight and has several hardback books with paper pages and more are being added to the range all the time.

Each book contains a different learning skill, in "The Backyardigans Opposites" it is about opposites (you had worked that our already though right?)  and in "If I was" its about different animals. Top Ender's books are more story based, but again do have an educational angle with new words being added to her vocabulary and also helps to understand more about structure of sentences and there are other activities in the books too.

Once a week we connect the Tags to the PC (its Mac compatible too) and we are able to see what Baby Boy and Top Ender have been up to and to further enhance the learning that they have been doing there are printables to download too. It has been great as Top Ender loves to read on her own, but I still like to know what it is that she has been reading! It has realy helped Baby Boy to get used to using books himself and getting ready for reading and seeing what detail there is on the page. Baby Boy will often sit on the floor with the Tag and read a few pages by himself, before asking for Daddy, Top Ender or I to read along with him, and he has no problems at all using the Tag although his favourite function does seem to be the on/off switch!

I think that they are both great products and the cheapest price I could find the Tag Junior for was £23.99 and the Tag was found at £12.49 and both make a great Christmas Gift! The other benefit of giving this as a gift, is that on the recipients next birthday, (or Easter, or Halloween, or Valentines Day or just any day you want to say I love you) you can buy a book to go with the system from the ever increasing range!

Now as I said Top Ender already has a Tag Reading System and so I have checked with Leap Frog and they have agreed that I can have a competition to give away the spare Tag Reading System! So the following things need to be done in order to enter;

Firstly make sure you are following this blog (I am sure you are) either via email or Google Friend Connect or on our Facebook page or via Networked Blogs as I like to see that you all love me...

Then read my blog post from yesterday about Helping your Children learn to read and learn to love to read (and if you want to leave me a comment on that post with other suggestions then that's fine by me!) then answer the following question in the box below and leave a comment here so I know you have entered and can make sure your answer appears in my summary!

A Story Before Bed

Last week Daddy went on a Business trip to Chile for a week. He has been on Business trips before, but never away overnight (since Top Ender has been born anyway) and never so far away. As is normal for Daddy he started to worry about all the things that could go wrong and that led him to want to leave something of himself behind for Baby Boy and Top Ender to have.

Eventually he found a website where using your web cam you could record a story that you can then email to your loved one to watch whilst you are away. The website that he used is called "A Story Before Bed" and Top Ender and Baby Boy loved the story that he recorded for them so much I wanted to share this website with you!

I thought the best thing I could do was record one myself so I could tell you all about it firsthand. It was so easy to do as the website walks you through what you need to do. The first screen you see is this one below, and if you want to you can watch a demo before trying the service for free.



They have a great selection of books to choose from and if you are like me you will spend ages reading through the previews and wondering which one would suit your family best. They can sort the books by length or by age suitability and there a a lot of titles of familiar stories available to record.



Then you get to dedicate who the book is to and who it is read by. As you can see I chose The 3 Little Pigs as I wanted something that Baby Boy would be familiar with and Daddy had recorded The Princess Frog which was more for Top Ender than him.



The website will then access your web cam and get you to adjust the sound levels so that all you have to do is simply read the book, clicking on the pages as you need them to turn over. When you have finished recording the book you get a chance to preview what you have recorded and a chance to re-record it if needed!



I spent the entire preview muttering to myself about how my voice sounds different when it is recorded opposed to what it sounds like when I hear it in my head. Then you can pay for your book at a cost of $4.99 which is around £3 or you have 24hours to decide if you want to keep it.

I had been so impressed with this service that I emailed the company to let them know how great they were and that I was planning to tell everyone about them that they gave me a code to give to you all so that you can record and save a book for free!

The code is valid from today until the 15th December 2009 and you just need to enter it at the checkout once you are happy with your recording!
RG9T-AW7R-CJ4F

Happy recording!

A is for Asda, M is for Morrisons and T is for a thick assistant!

Today we went for a walk round one of the local supermarkets. We tend to do this every few weeks just to get out of the house and to spend time together doing silly things. I always try to turn at least part of it into a learning experience, it might be reading, counting or learning about different types of vegetables or fruit or fish.


Today we needed to purchase some quick microwave rice for Daddy. I asked Top Ender to look for rice that started with a "P" as he likes pilau rice. Top Ender started scanning the various packages muttering "P, P, P" when an assistant stocking the shelf next to us asked if I needed help.

"Thank you, but we are okay I am teaching my daughter to read and so she is looking for the item we require to improve her reading skills."
"Oh, okay" said the shop assistant

Top Ender found the desired package and then asked what rice I wanted. I set her about looking for this item on the shelf in front of us.

"E, G, G" said Top Ender
"E, G, G" I repeated
"Boobs!" shouted Baby Boy
"Do you require help finding an item?" said the assistant who was still stocking the shelf.

I paused for a second and looked to check that it wasn't a different assistant before replying;

"No, my daughter is still learning to read"

"Oh, right." said the shop assistant.


It isn't just me is it?

Catch up

Top Ender started school this past September so technically she is now a school girl not a top ender, but I think that Top Ender sounds a whole lot cuter so we will stick with that!

Baby Boy is now able to sit up on his own and I think he is going to skip the crawling stage. At the moment he is busy trying to stand and he seems to prefer being in a semi standing position to anything else. Which is fine as it means my arm muscles are being built up!

Top Ender has been reading everything and anything in sight (pleased I made all those word cards now!) since she realised that recognising words is all that reading is about! I was really pleased with her as it means that she is reading at the same age as Daddy and I (we both read before we went to school, which if this was the 80's Top Ender wouldn't be in full time school for another half term or so!) and she has so much more confidence in herself now.