The Polar Pack Book Review

Books are brilliant because not only can you read them again and again, getting lost in the story but you can also build on them, expand and extend the tales by creating activities to explore more about what they've read. Madeleine Rogers, founder of the Hove based children's designer Mibo has written a series of books which saves you some time and effort on the creative side. Included in the set is The Polar Pack, The Jungle Crew and The Safari Set.

I was kindly sent The Polar Pack for my girls to read and enjoy.

The Mumsnet Book of Animal Stories Review

Mumsnet, Gransnet and Walker Books recently held a children's story competition for people to send in the own stories written about animals.

Out of hundreds of entries, 10 lucky people were chosen by a panel of celbrity judges which was chaired by former Children's Laureate Anthony Browne.

"Chairing the judging of the Mumsnet, Gransnet and Walkers Book children's story competition was a difficult task. The number of entries showed just how important story-telling is to so many parents, carers and grandparents."

These stories have now been compiled together into The Mumsnet Book of Animal Stories.

My girls and I were lucky enough to receive a copy of this book to read and review, we couldn't wait to get reading.

Popagami Review and Giveaway

Have any of you tried to do origami before?? I know I have, my mum used to have a book full of different origami animals and items to make, I always found things far too complicated and found myself giving up half way through attempting to make something.

So when I was asked by lovely people at Popagami to review their new combo pack, I was more than a little intrigued. For those of you that haven't heard of popagami is a twist on the priginal origami, you get given popagami sheets which can be folded and inflated to create different animal characters.

The combo pack that I received included a book - The World of Popagami, Origami Animal fun and 24 popagami sheets, 2 of each animal character.

As I always found the original origami difficult, I was expecting to find popagami hard too but I was pleasantly surprised.

I love straight away that I don't need to cut my sheets of paper into squares, each sheet is already the correct size and shape so you can get making instantly.

Inside the book there are clear step by step instructions, including a key guide to show exactly what each part of the instructions mean. And as you can see from the picture above, the book also tells you what each animal is and their names, this comes in handy later on once the pop-ettes are made. There are even little suggestions in there of what you can do with your pop-ettes once made.

My 7 and 5 year olds joined in with the fun of making the animals. I did have to help them a couple of times when folding certain parts but for the most part they did it themselves and I think with practice they will be doing it independently in no time.

I think the best part of the process is watching the animals come to life. To inflate them you simply blow through the hole at the back, easy peasy.

As you can see from the picture below, practice really does make perfect. The first picture demonstrates my first attempt, I admit, I could have done better!! As you can see by the third picture I really had mastered the art of popagami.

The only thing left do was cut the ears into shape which I left Elise doing.

Once you have made the animals, it is time to play. As I said previously, the book tells you the name of each animal and this allows your children to create their own popagami world, letting their imaginations run wild. I think it would be great if they could introduce these in school as it not only helps with coordination etc when making them but it makes for a great game to play in the playground.

The fun doesn't stop once you have used up all the sheets in your pack, oh no, you can then go on to buy supplementary pop-ette packs and you can even download and print even more characters from as little as £0.20 and the lovely people at popagami are always creating so expect some new animals popping up soon.

The combo pack is available at the brilliant price of £7.99, an inventive twist on the original origami. Although more suitable for older children and adults to make, it is an activity that can involve family and friends because you get to play with them once they are created, my 3 year old was pretending she had a new pet!! I wouldn't hesistate to recommend this to others.

Giveaway Time

Popagami have kindly allowed me to give away one of their combo packs to one of my lucky readers. All you need to do to have a chance of winning is fill out the rafflecopter form below. This giveaway is open to UK residents only and will close at 11.59pm on the 14th of September 2013.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck Everyone

xxxx

Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com

A Rare Day With Gracie

Having four children means I sometimes struggle to share my time equally between them. Things happen and I end up having to spend more time with one daughter than I do with the others. It also seems a rare occurance that I get uninterupted time with one of my lovely girls.

Yesterday was the day for Gracie's playschool trip. Parents are required to go with their children, this was a great opportunity for me to get some one on one time with my lovely little three year old.

The trip was to Wingham Wildlife Park in Kent. Gracie actually made everyone's day by a passing comment she made whilst we began her journey, we had only just started going and she said excitedly, "this is the way to the tip", Daddy Hazelden really takes her on the best trips :)

We saw lots of animals ranging from tigers, penguins, monkeys, flamingoes, owls, crocodiles and squirmy snakes.

Bless my Gracie Cakie, her favourite parts of the day were when she got to choose the ice cream that I had promised her and of course lunch time, anyone would think I starve my children!! Infact her first words when we arrived were "is it lunch time yet?".

Of course there was the obligitory posing for photos, Gracie magically turned into some different animals. I wish you could have heard her roar when she turned into the tiger.

I took so many photos yesterday but I didn't think you would want to see a whole albums worth so I just put a few more together in one picture. My favourite photo of the day has to be Gracie leaping off of a bench, nice to be so care free!!

Of course the day wouldn't be complete without a little paddy throwing. My lovely daughter decided mummy's company was indeed rubbish and would much prefer to spend the day with her favourite teacher Christina, I was really feeling the love then, the little monkey.

So have any of you been on your children's school trips this year, where did you go??

xxxx