Our summer holiday in comic form (I think I will go back to taking photos for our next holiday)

We stopped for tea & cake after our regular visit to the library, we will need the energy to explore all the new books we’ve chosen.

Looking forward to reviewing more books in 2014

Grumpy badger

Out of our current stack of festive books from the library, Grumpy Badger’s Christmas has been the biggest hit.

Amongst a forest full of happy animals getting ready for Christmas is a grumpy badger who just wants to get on with hibernating. Interruptions to his sleep from his forest friends make him grumpier & grumpier but he soon realises the error of his ways

The fun of the story is getting to be grumpy & shout out ‘Piffle’ (Freya however prefers to shout out piffle with a great big grin on her face). The majority of christmas stories we’ve been reading are very upbeat & bursting with the joys of Christmas so it’s nice to have a little bit of a contrast. There’s also someone in the household who’s not yet full of the joys if Christmas & also likes his sleep….

With the evenings growing colder Freya dug out the Hugless Douglas slippers & I got out a couple of the books, “Don’t Worry, Hugless Douglas” & “We Love You, Hugless Douglas”. These two books have now become regular bedtime stories, cosy & toasty warm just like the slippers.

Douglas is a lovable character with gentle heartwarming stories & beautiful illustrations, they are perfect for bedtime.

Freya is able to follow both stories easily. In “Don’t Worry, Hugless Douglas” when Douglas has to confess to his dad about a mishap with the hat it’s a good opportunity to chat about what dad’s reaction will be.

In “We Love You, Hugless Douglas” Freya is ready to spot when the Douglas is feeling sad & then when happy again when with his friends.

In both books the endpapers are great fun as we spot the different types hats & things we love. It also provides me with the perfect excuse to steal a hug

Books on the list
My Zoo by Ellen Giggenbach
Awesome Robots by Viviane Schwarz
Walk This World by Lotta Nieminen
The Octonauts Explore the Great Big Ocean by Meomi
Me and You by Anthony Browne
Goldilocks By Allan Ahlberg and Illustrated by Jessica Ahlberg
Goldilocks and Just the One Bear by Leigh Hodgkinson
Illusionology Emily Hawkins, illustrated by various artists
The Ha Ha Bonk Book by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
How to Hide a Lion by Helen Stephens
The Storm Whale by Benji Davies
Operation Bunny by Sally Gardner with Illustrations by David Roberts
Oliver and the Seawigs, by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre
The Grunts. Author by Philip Ardagh; Illustrated by Axel Scheffler
The Tale of Jack Frost by David Melling
Princess Penelope and the Runaway Kitten by Alison Murray
Ernest and Celestine by Vincent Gabrielle Vincent
Bubble and Squeak written by Janes Mayhew and illustrated by Clara Vulliamy

Here are some of our favourite counting books. We started introducing numbers to both kids from a very early age with this Elmer board book.

The size, shape & colours of the book were appealing when they were babies & as they got older imitating laughing crocodiles & dreaming lions as we counted up to 10 was all part of the fun.

When Bryn was around 2 we borrowed ‘Engines, Engines’ from the library & it was a constant bedtime read for months. A rhyming tale of 2 children exploring India with an increasing number of colourful engines.

It was such a hit we had to get our own copy. We would happily sit counting all 10 engines at the back of the book with both children. My favourite spread is ‘engine engine number 10’ which has a train full of different animals, all of which we has to name.

Another counting book we all enjoyed was Winnie the Pooh & 10 Busy Bees which was our first introduction to the “bear with very little brain”.

The little relief bees fascinated the children & the rhyming story made it fun to read aloud. Unlike the first two this counts backwards, which at first I thought would be confusing once they started learning numbers. I now understand how it’s useful to be familiar with a sequence of numbers, both forwards & backward as well as recognising patterns.

As well as books we also enjoy counting rhymes especially “1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive” which I sang to both children from the day they were born.