The first thing that struck me when this cd arrived was the beautiful packaging. The Land of Sometimes moves away from standard cd casing, instead presenting it as a book with captivating illustrations. Each song has an illustrated page in the storybook encouraging the children to follow the story. I had high hopes that the songs would also reflect the magical quality of the artwork.
The Land of Sometimes is an audio storybook and the characters are brought to life by original music. The story follows Alfie and Elise in their journey through the seasons. They meet a number of colourful characters, and each one is brought to life with a song. The narration is simple and clear and the quality of singing and musical production superb. I’d love to sing on the follow up if there is one. My 3 year old is a big musical theatre fan and she loved the songs dancing around her bedroom and attempting to sing along.
I generally find children’s song cd’s a bit irritating. I have been playing The Land of Sometimes in the background while I write this post and it is surprisingly relaxing. The songs are well written and very catchy and move away from the simplicity of some children’s songs by introducing them to a number of musical genre including reggae, folk and jazz.
Put this one in your car and I’m sure you will be singing along in no time.
The Land of Sometimes website is also worth a visit. Children can find out more about the characters and places in the story, colour in some of the beautiful illustrations and download lyrics for the songs.
A beautiful gift for any child with a fondness for stories or music and something that can be treasured for a long time.
The Land of Sometimes is released on February 6th at a retail price of £9.90 from Amazon.
One lucky reader can win a copy of The Land of Sometimes.
Simply post a comment telling me why you would like to win.
A Bonus entry is available if you follow my Facebook page using the link on the right hand side.
Winners will be drawn at random on 6th February.
Congratulations to the winner Sue Willshee
Terms and Conditions
This competition is only open to residents of the UK and Republic of Ireland
Only one entry per person
Winners will be notified by email and will be posted on this site.
My 3 year old wears glasses. She has been getting on really well with them and feels quite special and unique. She wears them because she has a turn and is long sighted. The ophthalmologist thinks that her glasses will correct the turn, but there is a chance that she will have to have an eye patch.
When we were told she would have to wear glasses, I searched for picture books about children wearing glasses. I bought the Charlie and Lola book ‘I Really Absolutely Must Have Glasses’. This didn’t really fit the bill because although it is about going for an eye test and really wanting glasses, Lola doesn’t actually need glasses.
I gave up looking for a while until by a stroke of fate I came across The Pirate of Kindergarten in a list of top 10 books for Special Educational Needs. This hit the nail right on the head . The story is about a little girl who is clumsy and sees in double vision unless she closes one eye. After attending an eye test they tell her that most children don’t see in this way and give her glasses and a cool eye patch . She becomes the Pirate of Kindergarten.
My 3 year old is incredibly clumsy and often falls over and crashes into things. I asked her if she ever saw 2 of things like the girl and she replied ‘sometimes’. I don’t know whether she sees in this way, but the book gave me a valuable insight into what the world might be like through her eyes.
This is a lovely book for a child who wears glasses and for a nursery, pre-school or childminder who is looking to increase their inclusive books. The illustrations are beautiful, the subject matter is handled sensitively and is told in a simple and sympathetic manner that young children can understand.
This post is a personal recommendation, no payment or product was received for writing this review.
This Christmas we decided to take a break from our traditional way of doing things. We visited Butlins Minehead Resort courtesy of the Butlins Mums Ambassador Programme. We usually spend Christmas at home, but I can thoroughly recommend a Christmas Butlins break for taking the hassle out of Christmas and spending quality time with your family. We did many things on the break that are not unique to Christmas, these will feature in a later post. This is our diary of the special things that are available on a Christmas Butlins break.
23rd December
We checked in at our Gold apartment and were immediately greeted by some lovely added touches. The dining table was laid with a Christmas cloth, wine glasses, crackers and a bottle of bubbly and when the children checked out their bedrooms they found a lovely little gift each on their bed.
(Not pictured on a Butlins bed)
We then headed to the Yacht Club for dinner. The children were given Christmas cookies on arrival while we were allocated our table (guests keep the same table for the duration of their break). The dining experience was a real highlight of the break. Not only did I not have to cook but the quality, quantity and choice of food was excellent. Food and drink were on a self-serve basis and the children enjoyed coming to make their own choice of food and using the machines to get drinks. The meals ranged from 3 -5 courses and included a bottle wine . Our meet and greet host Mark also deserves a special mention for his exuberance and energy and for going out of his way to make sure we were happy. The children loved his illuminated tickling stick.
Christmas Eve
Butlins had a special visit from 2 of Santa’s reindeer and we visited them in the morning.
The girls and I spent the afternoon in the Skyline Pavilion. We watched the puppet show and danced with Angelina Ballerina but the highlight was Bjorn the Polar Bear. This amazing animatronic polar bear was so responsive and lifelike that the children were captivated.
One girl was chosen to be the first to interact with Bjorn and when she called his name he turned and walked towards her. All the children had a chance to hold their hand out for Bjorn to move towards them to be stroked and as a finale he rose onto his hind legs when the audience clapped and made a noise like a seal.
The snow globe looked like great fun with its simulated snowstorm, character photo shoots were scheduled here during the day. Unfortunately, by the time we considered going in (on Tuesday) it had lost some of its juice and the snow wasn’t falling and blowing properly so we decided to give it a miss. Next time I’ll make sure we get in early.
During the afternoon the housekeeping staff visited with a bag each containing a carrot for the reindeer and a mince pie for Father Christmas.
The girls filled out their letters to Santa included in the welcome pack. We intended to post them on our way to Father Christmas but by this point the post box had closed and we were too late. I believe had we been on time the girls would have received a personalised letter from Father Christmas.
We had a pre-booked time slot to visit Father Christmas in his Enchanted Forest. The children loved being met by the Gingerbread Man and a fairy as we entered the Forest and each had a good quality gift from Father Christmas (this incurred no extra charge).
On the way to dinner we caught the end of the firework display and my 3 year old who is afraid of fireworks was very brave.
After dinner we headed to Reds for a few drinks, and to catch the Take That tribute band. This was followed by an Adele tribute and Beatles tribute, but these were a little late for our kids.
When back in the apartment the girls hung their stockings on the tree ( we took a small table top Christmas tree with us) and put out the carrots and mince pies along with Santa’s magic key (Butlins apartments don’t have chimneys).
All of the Butlins staff went out of their way to help during our stay, this included the security man who helped carry presents to our chalet at 4am. As a minor suggestion if you are considering a Christmas break at Butlins, leave some of the presents at home. The time and space it took to load, unload and unwrap all the presents was a little overwhelming!
Christmas Day
The girls woke up very excited that Father Christmas had visited Butlins. Remarkably, we managed to get the girls to breakfast before opening any presents. On opening the door they found this note from the man himself.
The morning was taken up opening presents and we headed for Christmas dinner during the mid afternoon. Today the little table in the entrance was laden with chocolates, fruit and nuts and a glass of Bucks Fizz for the grown ups. Our places were adorned with crackers, chocolates, a box of party poppers, rocket balloons and streamers, a bottle of fizz (yay!) and a little wrapped present for the baby. We unwrapped it to find a Billy Bear bowl – very useful as I had been feeding her snacks from a china bowl in the apartment up until this point.
The meet and greet staff soon arrived with children’s crackers and Billy Bear cups for each of the children. A traditional 5 course Christmas Dinner left us all suitably satisfied, before heading back to the apartment for my Christmas Dr Who fix.
In addition to regular Christmas television, the Butlins television channel showed the Redcoats favourite Christmas movies, this helped to keep the children amused.
Boxing Day
Today was our pre-booked time slot for the pantomime Aladdin. This was great fun and the girls really enjoyed it. It wasn’t too long and included plenty of catchy songs.
We spent the afternoon at the funfair before coming into the warm for coffee and hot chocolate while the girls enjoyed softplay.
For the evening entertainment we made our way to Reds for a Robbie Williams and Girls Aloud tribute and a bit of a boogie. The girls had made friends with some of the children we met at the restaurant and stayed up late dancing and playing with them.
27th December
Time to check out and say goodbye. I can highly recommend a Christmas break at Butlins. It was great to focus on the children at Christmas rather than visiting and entertaining. I would love to do it again with a large family gathering …. I wonder if I can persuade my family to book for next year?
This Christmas break was in Gold Standard accommodation with the Premium Dining package (Dinner, Bed and Breakfast) at Minehead Resort.
At the time of visiting my children were aged 7,3 and 1.
The Happy Feet 2 game is a family game aimed at children from 3 years old. As I haven’t personally played this game I asked my 7 year old if she would like to review it. Here are her thoughts.
The object of this game is a mixture of things,for instance collecting penguins and when you have done that you have to do a few things to get to the exit.On some levels you don’t have to collect penguins, you have to do things like races.
I think this is a really good game and is very good for education,because it can help small children recognise where and what the buttons/controls mean. I have enjoyed going through the levels (so far I have got to stage 11)some levels can be very hard but others are quite easy .
I like doing the challenges,especially on levels 5 and 13 where all you have to do is do what you would do in a challenge,on some levels you have a timer .In challenges you have to press a different button when a red ball hits the button.
On some levels you have to race another penguin/character,these levels are the hardest for me.
By E McClary.Age 7
Clear as mud? Clearly she has enjoyed playing it and is progressing nicely through the levels.
Personally I think this game is a missed opportunity. When I heard that we were getting a Happy Feet 2 game to review I expected it to be a Kinect game with lots of funky dance moves. I’m really not sure why a game about a dancing penguin would not involve real dancing when the technology is out there to support it. As it stands I think it would be a fun game on a hand held console but am a little disappointed that there isn’t more to it for the bigger consoles.
A preview copy of the game was received for the purpose of this review. No payment was received.
My 7 Year old is steadily working her way through the Harry Potter books, so this game has arrived at an opportune moment. Lego Harry Potter 5-7 years covers the last 3 books of the series and as my daughter is currently reading the 6th book she was able to explain some of the characters to me (I only ever read to book 4). We have a Star Wars Lego game for the Nintendo DS which is a firm favourite so my expectations for this game were high.
My daughter played it alone and with a friend. They took it in turns to complete and solve different problems, helping each other out along the way. You can play the game with 2 controllers each player taking the part of a different character. This feature works really well and stimulates lots of discussion. It also makes me realise how much better children are at these things than me.
It is a very long time since I spent any time playing video games. This weekend I had a cold and decided to sit for 3 hours and play Harrry Potter 5-7 Years snuggled up in my quilt. It was compelling and addictive and suitably challenging to keep me engaged. I could have used my daughters help at some points as I wandered aimlessly in the dark trying to find a tap. We discovered the following day that she had turned the brightness down and it wasn’t supposed to be a night-time game at all! I managed to complete the first level and played a little of the next level with my daughter the next day. I am suitably hooked.
The animations that tell the story in between each level are compelling and new characters appear as the game unfolds. Each character has a special skill such as rebuilding blue Lego structures or using an invisibility cloak.
What was my 7 year olds opinion?
It is excellent because some characters can do some things which other characters can’t do and you can perform different spells just by pressing the spell-wheel button.
She has even drawn an image of how the controls work for the XBox 360 version.
The game lived up to my high expectations, my daughter is coming home from school and asking if she can switch it on and I am looking forward to playing it with her and on my own. Good credit all round.
This review is based on the XBox 360 game, it isalso available on other consoles.
A preview copy of the game was received for the purpose of the review. No payment was received for writing this review.
Colin and Jacqui Hawkins’ books with thier comical pictures and witty text are a great way to teach early readers about onset and rhyme.
Onset and rhyme is the ability to put together an initial letter sound with its rhyme to make a simple word.
The rhyme ‘og’ could be added to the onset ‘l’ to make log or ‘d’ to make dog and so on.
The iPad app created by Brightside takes this to a new level. This interactive, fun way of learning essential phonic skills could be a great way of engaging reluctant readers. The simple rhyming text is great for introducing rhyme to young children and the little caterpillars that crawl across the screen as each page is turned, making daft comments, keep children engaged.
The story is narrated with charming voices and the text changes colour as it is read so that children can follow the text. The characters then add comments and actions bringing the story to life. We loved the part where Nat the Rat eats his way out of Pat’s hat.
This isn’t just another version of an e-book as there is the added feature of recording the story in your own voice. The character reads the text then the child taps a record button and repeats the text following the highlighted words. The character then reads the key rhyming word ‘C’ (the sound) – at – Cat and the child again repeats and records. They are then prompted to play the recordings back and the story is read in the child’s voice. My 3 year old found some of the text a little difficult to remember but she loved recording the onset-rhyme and felt like she was ‘really reading’.
The importance of phonic skills in learning to read is well documented and this is a great, fun way to learn these skills.
It is quite a while since we used our Xbox 360 without the Kinect unit so I wasn’t sure how my 7 year old would react to a conventional game. However after playing Disney Universe for a few days she announced “I love this game”.
Disney Universe is a game for 1-4 players aimed at children aged 7-12. Players dress up as Disney characters and unlock further costumes as they progress.
I wasn’t sure whether a Disney game may be a little twee for the target audience. However the 6 Disney Worlds that the game moves through are suitably dark and adventurous. We have yet to progress from the Pirates of the Caribbean level, but there is plenty of action and problem solving to engage children. It certainly isn’t girly and pretty.
Each level of Disney Universe has a mission to complete, puzzles to solve and enemies to defeat. As you move around the world, arrows and hints appear to instruct your mission. Some of these my 7 year old found quite challenging but we enjoyed being able to play the game together and work co-operatively to solve the puzzles.
The game works equally well with one or multiple players, it can be played collaboratively working together to solve the mission or competitively to see who can reach the highest score and collect the most gold coins.
I am looking forward to seeing some of the other worlds like Alice in Wonderland and Monsters Inc.
There is further downloadable content with Disney Universe that we haven’t had a chance to look at yet. I think that there is plenty to keep my daughter entertained for some time to come.
Disney Universe is also available for Wii and PS3 Consoles.
For the purpose of this review I received a promotional copy of the game . No fee was paid for writing this review.
I have been so excited about the forthcoming release of this game for a number of reasons.
I am a huge Sesame Street fan and think it is the best in pre-school entertainment
I have been waiting for a game that my 3 year old can play easily on Kinect.
It is billed as a co-operative game and I would love to find a game that my children won’t argue over.
I am interested in evaluating its educational merit and whether or not it could be used in a pre-school classroom.
So when I was offered a copy to review I jumped at the chance.
The game centres around a story book ‘ Once Upon a Monster’ that Elmo and Cookie Monster jump into to embark on adventures. As each chapter unfolds they encounter monster friends both new and familiar (Grover and Oscar) and help them to solve problems through a number of fun tasks. The graphics and the story behind the game are captivating and we were all excited to see what would happen next.
The game is designed with drop in/ out co-operative play. It can be played solo or with the help of an adult or sibling, if you decide to join in half way through a small monster appears in the corner of the screen and directs you to wave. This is great for young children as they often decide to wander off in the middle of a game but it doesn’t spoil the game for the other child. The game is only suitable for 2 children which means that it probably wouldn’t be suitable for use in pre-school unless you wanted to use it as an exercise in turn taking. I would like to see it adapted for 3 children, partly because I have 3 children and it would avoid one being left out and partly so that siblings could play with a parent to help if necessary.
With Kinect games I have found that my 3 year old has struggled to keep within the sensor. There is a helpful built in feature with this game in that if the child steps outside of the sensors limits a monster pops up and points in the direction that they need to move.
I had high hopes for this game as a controllorless game that my 3 year old would be able to use easily. However I encountered a few problems which meant that she couldn’t play it independently. To get inside the page of a book the monsters ask you to bring both arms together. This worked really well when my 7 year old or myself did it but it didn’t seem to work for my 3 year old or her friend, even though they were making the correct movements. The other problem is that if you go too close to the sensor (or my one year old runs in the way) a menu pops up . You need to wave on the back button to go back to the game. My girls became frustrated because the sensor found it difficult to pick up which player was trying to direct it.
So far we have played the first of 6 chapters. This centres on cheering up Marco the monster and helping him get to a birthday party. The tasks along the way include running through the woods collecting objects and avoiding obstacles, flying to the tree tops to collect fruit with Grover, choosing outfits for Seamus the monster, drumming and my personal favourite disco dancing with Grover.
The usual response from my 7 year old when playing Kinect is to moan at her younger sister for getting in the way. When she tried to join in yesterday my 7 year old complained and I told her that it was meant to be for 2 players. The mood soon changed to a lovely picture as my 3 year old watched her sister intently and copied her every move. It is certainly fulfilling some of the games aim to foster a social and emotional curriculum in our household.
There could be a few tweaks to make it easier for young children to play but the game is engaging and fun and my high expectations were not disappointed. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the other chapters have in store.
Sesame Street Once Upon a Monster is released on 14th October
My middle daughter is 3 next week and she has just become interested in games. We have found some that occupy her and her friend but I am always on the lookout for more.
Today Red Rover arrived at our door. This is a new Pre-school game by Fisher-Price that teaches colours, shapes, numbers and letters in a fun way.
My first pleasant surprise was to find that gone are the hours of removing fiddly packaging. The security tabs have been redesigned so that they are quick and easy to remove.
Red Rover the dog is sturdy and compact and wears a backpack to store all the bones that form part of the game. This will make it easy to store and to put away without losing all the pieces.
The game begins by placing all the bones face down around the floor. Each bone has a colour and a shape, number or letter on it. You then press Red Rover’s nose to choose easy level (colour only), or hard which includes all the attributes. Press Red Rover’s nose and he calls out a colour to find. The children run around the room turning over the bones until they find the correct one. Once they have found it they put it into Red Rover’s mouth and he tells them if they are correct. If it is the wrong colour he says ‘Yeuchh’ which we thought was very cute. If they find the right one they get to keep that bone and the game continues. If the correct bone is not found within a specific time the children are directed to return to Red Rover and he chooses another. The object of the game is to collect the most bones.
My kids loved it. I had to encourage my 7 year old to let her younger sister find a few bones when she got a little competitive, but they had fun together. I think I might give them a bag each next time as it was easy to forget the bones you had collected when engrossed in the fun of the game. I love that it is an active game and it kept my lively pre-schooler engrossed. I envisage a few tears as the children compete to be the first to find a bone, but they’re all valuable lessons.
There were a couple of down sides. As with many electronic toys the accent is American and American phrases such as two times rather than twice are used. I would have preferred Red Rover to have had a British accent but it didn’t distract from the fun of the game. The other point is that the letters on the bones were upper case. I always teach lower case letters first and often wonder why toy manufacturers tend to use capitals. Is it to familiarise children with the initial letter of their names?
My daughter is having a small 3rd birthday party next week and I will add this game to the list of party games. A great fun way to encourage children to learn shapes, colours, numbers and letters.
I was fortunate to attend TEDx London this weekend. This event was born from issues raised in Sir Ken Robinson’s 2010 TED talk and was designed to raise the question ‘ How can we bring on the Education Revolution?’
What can all those involved ACTUALLY DO to ensure that the old and irrelevant in education is thrown out and that we can build a new model of constant reinvention to ensure that education provides what industry requires and more importantly what young people need to flourish in today’s world.
I returned from TEDx London, my head buzzing with ideas, questions and things to explore. Many of the underlying concepts were not new but were reiterated by passionate individuals and illustrated by exciting examples from the world of education. These were some of my highlights:-
The talks were split into 3 sections
What’s Wrong / What’s Happening
What’s Right
What’s Next.
The first session began with a live feed from Sir Ken Robinson. He discussed his views on the purpose of education
Economic – Education underpins the modern economy and for a modern economy there is a need for creativity and innovation.
Cultural – Helping to understand each others cultures and relieve the problems of cultural mistrust.
Personal – Education is about individuals, it cannot be mechanistic and should encourage students to become engaged. For this reason education should be personalised.
Sir Ken Robinson’s vision for change includes
Education that is personalised
Improvements in the motivation of both students and teachers
Education that is customised to the needs of the particular community or individual school
Education is about diversity and standardisation offends diversity.
Education is about partnership with great institutions and the community.
A number of these points were a common thread throughout the talks. The importance of recognising children as individuals and encouraging, rather than stifling their talents and interests, came time and again. The need to motivate children and encourage them to think for themselves and the many possibilities that technology offers also kept reappearing.
I consider myself fortunate to work in Early Education. Active learning, teaching that stems from children’s interests and strengths and listening to the child’s voice are fairly widespread. Learning is fun in the early years and it would be unusual to find a pre-school child who grumbled that school was boring. I hope that all education can take lessons from early education at its best.
Adam Roberts an 18 year old human rights campaigner talked about critical thinking and how his mother’s encouragement to ask questions set him up for life. As young children we instinctively ask questions, but as we grow older children are often discouraged from questioning. This point was made even more strongly in Ewan McIntosh’s talk. Ewan explained the need for children to be problem finders rather than problem solvers. He showed a group of 7 and 8 year olds who were asked to put on their ownTEDx event. The children were inspired to come up with their own questions, prompted by ‘have you ever wondered?’ The children came up with wonderful philosophical questions and the excitement and animation shown by the children was truly infectious
Another common thread was the potential for embracing social media and technology in the classroom. By doing this we are bringing the real world into the classroom rather than viewing education and school as separate to other aspects of life. Dan Roberts believes strongly in education through technology and demonstrated some of the things his students at Saltash.net Community School are doing.
The What’s Right sessions showed a number of inspirational projects including:
History pin – building a history of real people and places using photographs and video footage.
A workshop from Seeper with a school for children on the autistic spectrum, showing how technology can motivate and engage children Dr Matt Whitby showing how awe-inspiring science can be, through his off the wall science experiments.
Tim Exile – a musician who has invented a machine to create spontaneous electronic music using a variety of sounds.
The Final session involved speakers who are thinking in a new way and their pleas for like-minded individuals to join them in this journey.
Dougald Hine was inspirational. He talked about change with determination and self belief, a firm believer in making things happen.
Emily Cummings the 24 year old inventor has been named Barclays woman of the year in 2009 and one of the top ten outstanding young people in the world in 2010. She explained how her passion for designing began when her grandfather taught her to make things in his workshop. Teachers recognised her talent and entered her for competitions, harnessing her enthusiasm and giving her new goals.
Sir Ken Robinson closed the day with a plea to make alternatives a part of the mainstream. A new vision for education including personalised learning, group activity, the closeness of the community and using and sharing talents. Many of the case studies from young people at the conference showed that talents were often discovered and utilised outside of school.The community then has an important role to play in educating children The closing lines resonated with me
New technologies will make change possible.
Technology alone doesn’t do much, it’s what we do with it that matters.
There were some wonderful examples of what we do with technology and creative thinking. I came away with lots of ideas and things that I wanted to share but also a feeling of uncertainty about what I can do to make a difference. I want to share inspirational ideas and inspire others to try new ways of teaching. Why? I believe that we need to be able to use the tools that children are used to at home and that will form a large part of their future rather than sweeping them under the carpet . Technology will not replace traditional play but will enhance it if we use it creatively. It gives opportunities for awe and wonder, for raising questions, self discovery and creative expression. My endeavour is to show this in practice and inspire others to do the same.
The first thing that struck me when this cd arrived was the beautiful packaging. The Land of Sometimes moves away from standard cd casing, instead presenting it as a book with captivating illustrations. Each song has an illustrated page in the storybook encouraging the children to follow the story. I had high hopes that the songs would also reflect the magical quality of the artwork.
Right from the Start 