Play and Learn with Wallace - Everyday Maths Book Review

Maths is a subject that I understood well at school. I took a statistics GCSE in Year 10 and got a B and managed to get an A* in maths the following year. I say all of this but everything appears to have changed since I was at school and even the most basic teaching methods seem more complicated to me so I'm not sure that I am entirely surprised that maths is a subject that all my children have had to really work at.

DK Workbooks With Carol Vorderman Review

With 6 weeks of Summer holidays came a much welcome break from school however along with this came the worry that my kids would perhaps become a bit rusty with the skills they'd learnt that year. especially Gracie with it being her first year. So when I was offered the chance to review the new DK Workbooks with Carol Vorderman, I was more than happy to accept.

There are 4 books in the series which are as follows :

- 10 Minutes A Day Spelling Fun (ages 5-7) (DK, £5.99) 

- 10 Minutes A Day Vocabulary (ages 7-11) (DK, £5.99) 

- Made Easy Spelling Punctuation and Grammar (ages 5-7) (DK, £3.99)

- 10 Minutes A Day Maths (ages 5-7) (DK, £5.99)

We not only received three out of the four books, we were also surprised with pencils, rubber and notebook too. 

LeapFrog Interactive World Map Review

I blog about LeapFrog books and products quite often and each time I find myself more impressed with what they have to offer. One of my most recent reviews was for their LeapReader, with so many books compatible with it, it's become a great reading companion to my children. Well last week we were lucky enough to receive LeapFrog's Interactive World Map.

Colours by Alain Gree Book Review

Colours, they are all around us and are a very important part of our day to day lives. We start seeing them when we are born and we start to learn about them from a very young age but sometimes it can be a struggle, which is what I am finding with my youngest daughter. I'm finding it difficult to know how to make her recognise and understand them all.

A book that has come in handy is Colours by Alain Gree. Priced at £9.99, this book isn't just for younger children and infact it can even be useful for adults too.

Learning Maths the Maths Factor Way

For myself, as a child, maths was one of the easiest subjects. I got an A* in my GCSEs and even took on an extra GCSE in statistics in year 10 earning myself a B. My children on the other hand seem to take after their dad, it isn't that they aren't any good with maths, it's just that they need that extra push to understand it all. This is where the Maths Factor aims to help.

The Maths Factor is an online educational service originally set up by Carol Vorderman (who has now partnered with Pearson Education), and created to help children aged 4-11 learn maths as well as increasing their confidence with the subject along the way.

I was recently given the chance to trial the site with my children and I have to say even before I begin my review that I was thoroughly impressed.

Accounts are quick and easy to set up (see end of post for pricing and bank holiday offer), you pick which school year your child is in so that the tutorials are tailored to what they are learning currently, you can however go back in the course if you feel the level is too hard for them.

Puzzle Club Review

As my kids get older I find it increasingly hard to get them interested in learning. They would much rather be sat watching a film on Netflix or playing away on their tablets. One of the latest magazines to hit the market, Puzzle Club, aims to solve this problem by making learning fun.

Joining Parragon's #summerwithgoldstars

Just because it is the Summer holidays doesn't mean that your kids have to stop learning.

Infact keeping their education going over the holidays can prove to be just as entertaining as playing with their toys and games.

This year Parragon launched their Summer With Gold Stars challenge in a bid to help parents keep their little ones engaged and learning over the long holiday period.

Parragon's Gold Stars range of workbooks are packed full of fun, clearly illustrated learning activities.

With Gracie starting school in September, we were sent the Ready For School Big WorkBook.

Who's The Teacher?

Do you ever wonder who's the teacher in your childs life? I've always been keen to help my children learn. I bought books for them to read even before they were even born, the toys that they play with not only allow them to have fun but they also encourage them to learn different skills from counting and sorting to role play and dealing with certain emotions.

However when my children started school I thought I would become what I would call a back seat teacher, still helping them along their learning journey but becoming someone that reinforced what their school teachers were teaching them rather than being the main source of where their knowledge comes from.

My 6 year old daughter Freya and her class mates were let down big time last year by their teacher when they were in reception. Unfortunately they weren't taught all of their phonics and other basic skills and some were left not really being able to read properly when they started year one in September.

My Geometric Universe App Review

I previously reviewed a set of apps from the lovely people at Chocolapps. Recently they very kindly allowed me to review one of their newest apps, 'My Geometric Universe'. This app allows your child to draw many different shapes in both 2D and 3D.

The concept is really good. The app allows your child to use different tools to draw including pencil, ruler, compass and set square. This gets them used to what they will have to do at school if they aren't using these already.

The app itself is again available in 11 different languages : English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese, Turkish and Russian.

Overall there are 6 2D shapes to create and more than 30 3D shapes to create. With each shape that you successfully draw more objects are unlocked and once fully complete, there are 3 different universes to place these objects in, The Kid's Room, Ancient Egypt and The Middle Ages.

As well as drawing shapes, there is also the opportunity to cut them out and and watch the 3D shapes being created. You can see in the above picture that one of the objects that my daughter unlocked was a doll and you are free to place this object wherever you want in the scene above. All you need to do is press your finger on the picture of the doll and move her around.

As I said the concept is great. Your kids get to learn about shapes, when you click the question mark on the side it tells you a little bit about the shape, for example for the square above it tells you that it has four equal sides.

The instructions to draw the shapes are very clear and easy to follow however actually drawing the shapes proved a little tricky sometimes. When 'drawing' the line, it sometimes took a few attempts for it to actually draw the full line. The other difficulty came when trying to turn the tools around to draw the lines that were going up the page, my daughter and I were both trying but on many occasions the set square for example didn't respond to being twisted around.

Overall I would recommend looking at the app from Chocolapps. Although not quite as simple as it could be, it definitely teaches the kids alot, you just need a bit of patience with it at times.

xxxx

Disclaimer : I was sent a code to download the app however all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Twinkl Review

I have always been keen to teach my children as many things as I can, whether that be lesson in life or helping them learn academic things like letters, numbers etc. However sometimes I struggle at just how to go about doing these sorts of things because I don't want to get it wrong. Recently I was very kindly offered the chance to sign up for a membership on Twinkl and review their site.

If you haven't heard of them before, Twinkl is a site that launched in 2010, providing primary resources for learning for both parents and teachers. Now offering resources for early years, key stage 1, key stage 2 and for SEN.

Signing up is free but there is the option to pay for their premium services, you can pay £2.08 a month for their gold service or £3.33 for their platinum service.

I myself am reviewing the Twinkl platinum service. For your money you get access to the whole of their resources range, over 101,000 resources!!! You get exclusive offers from their selected partners, twinkl rewards and bookmarks and much needed support.

One of the best things on their site that I found is the Twinkl forum. This is a meeting place where you can discuss all things educational and provide support and advice to one another. I myself am quite lucky that my children rarely have any problems at school but I can see this forum prooving invaluble to some!!!

And if that wasn't great enough, Twinkl offer reward points, the more you use the site and contribute, the more points you get and the top contributors every month receive some fab prizes!!

I have been able to find many things for 7 and 5 year old daughter's to do but my main focus with using Twinkl is for my 3 year old Gracie. I recently applied for her to start primary school next September, so the focus at playschool is getting her to start recognising her letters properly and helping her to write her own name. Having a look through all of the resources on twinkl I found some printable fan letters, even better, they were in lowercase writing!!

Once printed out, I cut the fans out with Gracie's help.

Now it is slow progress with Gracie, she is still at an age where she would rather be playing than learning and who could blame her but we are getting there. The first thing we have done with the fans is find the letters for her name because her name is something that she recognises, she now knows the letters i, e and c.

I'm definitely looking forward to picking out more resources and helping my children with their learning journeys.

Twinkl are very helpful and if you follow them on Facebook, they are always offering even more great advice and showing and recommending new resources to use. I honestly couldn't recommend them enough.

Disclaimer : I was upgraded to twinkls premium service free of charge however all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Love to Read

My girls all take after me when it comes to reading, we all love a good book. I think this may have something to do with the fact that they have always had books surrounding them.

I remember buying my eldest daughter her first set of books before she was even born.

This week Freya moved up another level in her reading at school, proud mummy moment. She has been waiting a while to be moved up because even though she found stage 4 really easy, she had to read all the books at that level before she could be moved up.

So today was the first book of stage 5 and guess what, she loved it, already looking forward to moving up to stage 6!!

Do your children like to read? What is their favourite book to read at the moment??

xxxx

Learning and Improving

Freya is now in Year one at school and that means the work load has started to increase, this includes regular reading and the introduction of spelling tests.

I had a proud mummy moment when she came home yesterday and told me that she had finally been moved up to stage 4 with her reading, we have been reading stage 4 and 5 at home for a while now so she was desparate to be moved up.

Today she had her first spelling test, these are the words that she has been learning for the past week :

Freya did tell me when she got the words that she didn't need to learn them because they were easy and she already knew them, I however informed her that she still needed to practice.

She did well and managed to get seven out of seven :)

xxxx

My Wondercube Review

Having had four kids, we have had a fair few toys in this house, the trouble is that the younger ones tend to get all the old toys and nothing new for themselves and even when we want to buy new, we struggle with ideas for something different to purchase.

When I was asked to review the My Wondercube, I was rather excited for Gracie and Layla as this was something new for them that they could enjoy together.

My Wondercube is an innovative educational toy that was actually created after the creators watched their daughter pulling wet wipes out of their packet.

These cubes are suitable from birth onwards and come in a range of materials : organic cotton jersey, organic fairtrade woven cotton and lovely crafted wooden. All made by manufacturers who use ethical and environmentally friendly production and they are all carry the CE marking.

We were sent the Little Wonder Jersey which is made from the organic cotton jersey.

The cube is extremely soft and wonderfully colourful. It comes complete with five pieces which fill the cube, all presented in an eco friendly box. 

The pieces that are included feature the "Wonder characters" : munchy, max, mimi and min. These pieces are all just as soft as the cube and each one does something different, squeeking, crunching, rattling. There is a little velcro part on each one so that you can stick each piece together. 

Being machine washable, you don't need to worry about sticky fingers getting over it or little mouths munching away on it. All of the filling pieces are machine washable too.

Priced at £17.99 for this version, I think it is money well spent. The toy is fun and your child is learning as they play. There is something new to do each time, learning colours, sounds, putting things in a row, pulling things out and putting things away, the list is endless. It is a toy that will help with your little ones developing their fine motor skills, 

The best bit is that you can buy additional add on fillings to go in the Wondercube, from letters and numbers to shapes, emotions and animals. The add on filling prices range from as little as £0.99 up to £19.99. This is turn will help them learn their alphabet and form words and learn to count and maybe even start doing basic sums.

It is a toy that is durable and made to last. It will be played with for years as your child grows as there are always more things to learn and is one that is perfect to pass on to younger siblings etc too. It can be adapted for whoever is playing with it. A great addition to any toy box.

xxxx

Disclaimer : This toy was sent to me free of charge for reviewing purposes however all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Chocolapps Review

I am always on the look out for new apps that the kids can play on the iPad but specifically ones where they can learn as they play.

Chocolapps are a company that produce and publish interactive children's apps and they have been doing so for over three years now.

Aimed at children aged between three and twelve years old, their catalog includes over 30 different applications that are then broken down into three categories :

The Kid-eBooks - which includes tales like The Little Mermaid, Pinocchio and Robin Hood.

The Kid-eLearns - children can learn about educational subjects such as the human body, space and much much more.

The Kid-eGames - this includes things like puzzles and hide & seek.

All of the applications are available in seven different languages : English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Portuguese, making them suitable to a big audience.

I was sent codes to download four different applications, two eBooks, an eLearn app and an eGame app.

The two books we downloaded were : The Little Mermaid and Cinderella, these choices went down well with my girls because they are huge princess fans!! The stories are read clearly and the words are highlighted as they read, this makes it a lot easier for your children to follow the story. What I loved the most was that there was an option to click on words when the story was paused and you are given a dictionary definition of what they mean, this was great for me as I sometimes struggle to know exactly how to word things when I am asked what the meaning of something is. There is also an option for younger children which is "show me" and instead of getting a worded explaination, you get a picture to show you what something is. This makes the app appropriate for all age groups, a nice learning tool no matter how old they are.

The eLearn app that I downloaded was, The Little Market. This game is aimed at learning mathematical skills. You have to pick items of fruit and veg from the market stalls and pop them in your basket, it then shows you how much your total spend comes to and you have to work out what change needs to be given to pay. This was good for my 5 year old as she is just learning this sort of thing and it was like a refresher for my 7 year old. Not as suitable for younger children however my three year old did enjoy putting the items in the basket.

The eGame app that I downloaded was, Hide and Seek. Simple yet effective, it was a game that all three of my children sat and done together. This game made them sit down and concentrate, you can easily zoom in to make it simpler to find certain objects and each level you complete then unlocks a new level, giving them a liitle more of an incentive to do it.

I loved these apps. I feel that they help your children learn and develop whilst remaining fun. A lot of the apps are free to download so you won't get a better excuse to try them out. The only real negative for me is that at the the moment they are only available on iPads and iPhones, for me personally that is great as I have both but it would be nice to see a smartphone version bought out so that others can enjoy the apps too. 

xxxx

Disclaimer : I was sent these apps free of charge for reviewing purposes however all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Bud and Roo's Spectacular Adventures Review

My girls are all little book worms and because of this we read an awful lot of books, meaning we are always on the look out for new stories to look at.

Together Jessica Valentine (writer) and Suzy Jones Biggar (illustrator) have created their first childrens book, Boo and Roo's Spectacular Adventures (The Beach). I was beyond grateful to receive not only a first edition copy, but a signed first edition copy, one to cherish.

Inspired by their own lives, their children, their friendship and their pets Buddy, the beagle and Rosie Boo, the border collier, this lovely story takes you on a lovely little adventure that keeps your child included along the way.

I was drawn in straight away by the illustrations. These images are hand drawn and done in my opinion almost like a child has drawn them, making them easy to relate to. Children can easily see what is happening on each page and pick out different objects etc. The colours aren't too bright, a lot of primary colours are used, these are easy for younger children to recognise and point out what they can see.

The book is aimed at children between the ages of 0-5 years old. Short and simple sentences make it a great book for learner readers and there are lots opportunities for both parent and child to ask questions about what is happening throughout the story. My 5 year old sat and read it to me with no problems recognising the words in front of her.

Also because of its length, I think it is perfect as a lovely bed time story for younger children. My 3 year old snuggled on Nannie's lap and happily sat listening to Nannie tell the tale to her.

It is available in both paperbook and digital versions, you can purchase a copy from their blog or other online retailers such as Amazon. 

I personally cannot wait to see what adventures Boo and Roo get up to next and would recommend anyone with younger children going out and buying this. The only thing I would love to see is a board book version for little hands to be able to hold without ruining the book.

Disclaimer : I was sent this book free of charge for reviewing purposes however all thoughts and opinions are my own.

All I Can Do Is Watch

Seems not so long ago that Layla joined our not so little family and made it complete. I am constantly on the search for that pause button just so I can stop and enjoy her as a baby for a little while longer because it is flying by.

With each thing she learns, she seems more grown up. People that visit make the comments like, isn't she getting big, she looks so much liker her sisters' now. It is scary to think that she is more like a toddler than she is a baby these days and all I can do is sit and watch as she turns into a little girl.

The past couple of weeks has seen another lot of first. She has started to try and talk rather than just random sounds and babbling. You know when they start making sounds you sit there thinking, did she just say what I think she did, you go round telling everyone what you think you heard and when others hear they think you were making it up!! Well you can't mistake the words she is saying now, definitely proud mummy moments.

She can now say :

mama

dada

nana

bye bye

night night

hiya

pooh bear

and my favourite
is it
because we are forever asking her what things are so whenever she spots something she says is it.

She is also trying to say to say her sisters' names but I don't think others would understand her yet, Freya sounds more like aya and Elise is just sssssss, she has yet to attempt Gracie.

Won't be too long and I will be able to have some mini conversations with her.

Can you remember what your children's first words were??

xxxx

Gracie......

...... A name, it is simple, only six letters long and it belongs to my three year old daughter.

Of course she knows it is her name, she can even recognise it when she sees it on a bit of paper, in a book or on a name tag but she isn't so clued up on the alphabet and writing just yet.

However watching her older sister's all of the time, my little Gracie decided she wanted to write her own name oh and write a letter to santa but lets take this one step at a time.

Now I have always found it some what difficult teaching my children how to write because they are all right handed when it comes to holding a pen or a pencil, I am the opposite and I left handed, so it must be slightly confusing for them watching me forming letters on a piece of paper and then trying to copy what I have done.

Just look at the concentration on that face, I'm surprised her tongue didn't start sticking out part way through.

My darling three year old is different to her older sister's in the sense that she hasn't got the concentration span that they had and she hasn't got a great deal of patience, so if things don't go how she wants them to first time, nine times out of ten she gives up almost instantly.

I was therefore extremely pleased when she stuck with it for over fifteen minutes and the outcome, I think is amazing for a first effort, although I am more than a bit biased being her mummy :)

When did your children start wanting to write things??

xxxx