Christmas Poems

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Advent is here and we will be counting down the days by reading a Christmas book each day.  Today we started with this selection of Christmas Poems.

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Christmas Poems, selected by Gaby Morgan, illustrated by Axel Scheffler, Macmillan, £10.99

The book contains a varied selection of Christmas carols, and classic and new poems, chosen by Gaby Morgan (who also selected the War Poems we have recently reviewed.)  It is illustrated in full colour by Axel Scheffler.

We have read and enjoyed several of the poems over the last few weeks, and I am sure we will keep coming back to this book throughout Advent.  This was one that all the children liked:

In a Forest Clearing

Pine tree in the forest

Standing tall.

Water dripping from needles

Like crystal baubles –

Exploding on forest floor

Like fairy lights.

Waiting.

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After we read the poem, I asked the children to draw a picture, copy out the poem or write one of their own.  Rabbit drew a Christmas tree, then some reindeer which she cut out, and she also made a paper plate snowman.  Owl wrote out the poem and illustrated it.  Monkey wrote some Christmas words and illustrated them, then he decided to write a poem of his own:

Christmas Eve

Waiting for Christmas

To celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Stockings hanging, Santa coming

Decorations on the tree.

Asleep on my bed

Waiting for dawn

In my dreams.

We received a copy of this book to review.

Leaf Printing

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Rabbit and I have been planning to do some leaf printing all through the Autumn, but somehow we have never got round to it.  So yesterday morning, when we had some time together while all the boys were out, we decided it wasn’t too late for one more Autumn craft session, before moving on to Christmas crafts.

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Rabbit really enjoyed organising everything exactly the way she wanted, and having all my attention, though she didn’t really need my help.

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She loved experimenting with the colours, mixing red and yellow to make orange, and adding glitter glue to brown paint to make it sparkly.

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When she had finished printing with the leaves, Rabbit painted a picture of a shark in the sea, and then we went to collect Tiddler from Pre-school.  After lunch, we carried on painting, and both the children had fun mixing all the colours together and getting their hands messy.  We had a lovely time, and I think the activity could have easily carried on all day, but we had to tidy up because it was time to go and visit Father Christmas at the Garden Centre.

After painting in the garden most days in the summer, we haven’t had the paints out much this Autumn.  I’m glad we finally got round to it, and the children had such a good time, so I’m going to make sure we don’t leave it so long again.  Winter paintings next week!

Livie and Luca

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This is another small business we love.  Livie and Luca – the place to buy adorable, comfortable, high quality shoes for children.  They do sell ladies’ shoes too, though my budget hasn’t stretched that far yet!

Early in the summer, I bought these beautiful shoes for Rabbit and Tiddler.

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Both the children love their smart shoes.  They are easy to wear, comfy and practical, as well as looking wonderful for special occasions.

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The first time they wore them, we were going to Toddler Group.  They were very proud of their new shoes!

Next up in the small-businesses-we-love series, where did Tiddler get that T-shirt?!

 

Outdoor Cooking

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Last Saturday I had this bright idea that we might make a fire in the garden with the children and cook something on it.  I suggested heating up milk for hot chocolate, but that was too simple for Paul…

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He taught the children how to build a fire.  It was great watching them have so much fun with daddy, and learn a really useful skill too.

lighting the fire

With close supervision, Owl lit the fire.

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Then the cooking began.  Somehow, the idea of hot chocolate was lost in Paul’s more elaborate plan to make prawn curry for supper.  He chopped the onions and started frying them, while Monkey and Rabbit practised using a tin opener to open tins of tomatoes.  The children took turns to add the ingredients (I should probably get Paul to blog the recipe!) and stir them.

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We also cooked some rice, and it was all ready pretty quickly.  The resulting meal was delicious, even if it did look a little more rustic than the version Paul had cooked the weekend before!

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The children did get their hot chocolate in the end.  Daddy cooked it for them while we were indoors watching Strictly.  He also cooked stewed apple and custard out there.  He doesn’t do anything by halves!

We had a great time cooking outdoors, and we’ll certainly be doing it again.  Though I did decline the children’s request to cook the roast out there on Sunday 🙂

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

Poems from the First World War

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Owl has recently been interested in learning about the First and Second World Wars, and has done a lot of factual reading about them.  I wanted to introduce him to some war poetry, so I was very pleased to be able to review Macmillan’s new collection of Poems from the First World War.

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Poems from the First World War, selected by Gaby Morgan, Published by Macmillan in association with Imperial War Museums, hardback, £10.99

This is a powerful collection of poems written by people who have experienced the war first hand: soldiers, nurses, mothers, sweethearts and the families and friends left far behind the front lines.

It includes poems written by Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, Vera Brittain, Eleanor Farjeon, Edward Thomas, Laurence Binyon, John McCrae, Siegfried Sassoon and many more.

The book has been published in association with Imperial War Museums, to mark the centenary of the First World War.  The Imperial War Museum was founded in 1917 to collect and display material relating to the First World War, which was still being fought.

Owl has been reading the book independently, but we have also looked at some of the poems together and discussed them.  The language in many of them is quite challenging, of course, but he is at a stage with his reading where he can now approach any text, as long as the content is appropriate, so a whole world of literature is opening up to him.  I’m excited about sharing it with him, and after years of feeling I only had time to read children’s books (as much as I love them!), it will be good to have a reason to read and study a wider variety of texts.

I asked him to pick a poem to copy out, but he was having difficulty choosing so I suggested “Since They Have Died” by May Wedderburn Cannan.  The language is not too difficult, and Owl was able to understand the ideas behind the poem.  If men have died to give us the chance to be content, we need to live in a way that makes others happy, and love our world which has been made safe for us.  The soldiers who now lie sleeping may be smiling to think that they have brought laughter to the world again.

 

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This is Owl’s copy of the poem, with his illustration.  (I think Tiddler has been “decorating” it with a crayon unfortunately!)

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I’m really looking forward to reading some more of the poems with Owl.  In particular, I’m keen to show him the Wilfred Owen poems I studied for A-level.  I think this is a collection we will keep dipping into, and as he gets older there will be more poems which are accessible to him.  For now, at nine years old, he can already understand a good number of them, and I’m pleased that he is interested.  So far he has talked to Grandpa about the wars, and played with his toy soldiers, as well as reading lots of factual books.  Now reading war poetry has added some depth to his understanding of the subject.

The next book we will be reviewing for Macmillan is an anthology of Christmas Poems, also selected by Gaby Morgan.

We received a copy of this book to review.

Britmums Christmas Do

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On Monday I had a day out in that London ON MY OWN!  I arrived at London Bridge a little after 9 o’clock, and walked over to Southwark Cathedral.  I enjoyed a pot of tea and a pastry in the peace and quiet of the Cathedral refectory, which was exactly what I needed after a sleepless night and a rush hour train journey.  After strolling through Borough market as it was setting up, I set off to look for the Britmums Christmas Event venue on Borough High Street.

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I arrived for the event twenty minutes early, but I wasn’t the only one.  I was pleased to see two familiar faces, Liska and Rachel – and Liska’s lovely little boy Aaron who proudly showed me his Disney Cars dressing up outfit as we were going up in the lift.  He was very sweet, and as far as I could see he spent the rest of the morning working his charm on everyone else too!

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After a little wait, it was time to get a cup of coffee and go through to the main conference room.  There was a magnificent display of Christmas treats, provided by Morrisons who were sponsoring the event.  As it was a roomful of bloggers, at first no-one touched the food, because everyone was taking photographs, but there was soon plenty of tasting going on too!

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Neil Nugent, executive chef and head of product development at Morrisons was there to give us his top tips for preparing Christmas dinner.

  • Get the turkey out of the fridge three hours before cooking to bring it up to room temperature.
  • Hold it by the legs and shake it – yes, really – to open it up, so the hot air can circulate while it’s cooking.
  • Put seasoned butter under the skin, starting from the neck end, to keep the turkey moist.
  • Don’t cover your turkey with foil – it creates steam, which will make it overcooked and dry.
  • Let it rest for a couple of hours after cooking, so that the juices will settle and it will be more tender.
  • Use Maris Piper potatoes for roasting, and don’t boil them first – just simmer them gently for ten minutes, so they don’t end up mushy.
  • You can prepare the vegetables two or three days in advance and keep them in the fridge.
  • If you want to have mashed potato with your Christmas dinner, you can make that in advance too.

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After that there was time to talk, while eating a delicious lunch and drinking wine also provided by Morrisons.  I had a great morning and met so many interesting people.  I enjoyed getting to know Swazi and Lynda, and discussing Home Education with them, among other things.  Another highlight was a very helpful chat about branding and SEO with the lovely Maggy.

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After the event, I spent a bit more time in London, including popping back to the cathedral and the market, before getting the train home.  The children were at my friend’s house, so I went round there and they were reasonably pleased to see me, though a little disappointed that I was not daddy with fish and chips.  When daddy arrived a little later, we ate supper with our friends and then it was time to leave.  The children were more impressed when we got back home and I showed them the Morrisons Christmas treats we’d been given as we left the event.  We have now eaten them and they were all delicious!

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Thank you Britmums and Morrisons for a wonderful morning – now it really feels like Christmas has started!

Number Playdough Mats

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We used these lovely number playdough mats from twinkl ages ago, and I have been meaning to write about them ever since.  Playdough is always popular with our children, and using mats is a very simple way to give the activity a different focus from time to time.

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We took our playdough with us when we went to stay at my mum’s house, and Rabbit and Tiddler had a lovely afternoon playing with it.  They both enjoyed making the numbers and copying the pictures on the mats.

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Rabbit made a couple of her own creations at the end too!

I’ve just been browsing on twinkl and there are lots more playdough mats to choose from.  I think we’ll be trying out these Christmas ones next.

We were given a free subscription to twinkl premium for the purpose of reviewing this and other resources.

Sir Charlie Stinky Socks

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The children were very excited earlier this week when we received a copy of Sir Charlie Stinky Socks and the Tale of the Wizard’s Whisper to review.  They have recently been enjoying Sir Charlie Stinky Socks and the Really Big Adventure at Granny’s house.  I think it is the mark of an excellent picture book if it can hold the attention of a nine year old as well as a three year old, and both the books certainly do that.

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Sir Charlie Stinky Socks and the Tale of the Wizard’s Whisper, Kristina Stephenson, paperback, £6.99, Egmont.

The story opens with the arrival of a wizard at a castle on top of a hill.  He tells the king that he is looking for a legendary knight who is well known for helping people.  It just so happens that Sir Charlie Stinky Socks is in the castle and he is looking for a new adventure.

“Listen well,” said the wizard, “here’s what I need you to do.  Take a treacherous track, to a spooky-wooky wood and look for a deep, dark cave.  Inside the cave is a little black sack, tied with a silver string.  Bring that sack back to me,” he said, “but…DO NOT look inside.”

Sir Charlie sets off with his faithful, fearless cat and his good, grey mare, meeting a frightful ogre, a scurry of scallywags and a red-eyed crone on the way.  He collects the little black sack, and returns to the castle where a surprise awaits him.

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We have read the book together several times over the last few days, and the children have drawn some pictures based on the illustrations.  Yesterday, a friend who was visiting read it to them too, and today Rabbit decided to read it herself.

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I think this conversation we had today sums up her views.

Rabbit: Mummy, who made the Sir Charlie Stinky Socks books?

Me: Kristina Stephenson

Rabbit: Well whoever did it, they’re really good!

We like this book because it is funny, and the pictures are good, especially the one where he is reading books about himself.  We also like the picture of the wizard’s whisper.

We also enjoyed looking out for alliteration (faithful, fearless cat; good grey mare; treacherous track, deep dark cave), interesting adjectives (treacherous, frightful, quaking, shaking, pilfering, dismal, fearful), words with echoes (spooky-wooky wood, twisty-wisty path) and rhyming words (treacherous track/ little black sack/ bring that sack back to me.)

It would be an excellent text to use to inspire children to write their own stories, and I think we might try that next.

Thank you, Egmont, for sending us such a brilliant book!

We were given the book free for the purpose of this review.

The Princess and the Pig

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The third book we have been sent by Macmillan from the Let’s Read series is The Princess and the Pig.  We loved Room on the Broom and What the Ladybird Heard, and this one was equally popular with the children.

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Let’s Read! The Princess and the Pig, Jonathan Emmett and Poly Bernatene, paperback, £4.99, published by Macmillan.

This is another excellent story, redesigned to be approachable to early readers.  The text is not changed, but the layout and font are child-friendly and the book is a comfortable size for small hands to hold.  I know I keep going on about how brilliant the Let’s Read series is, but I can’t tell you how excited I get when a publisher understands that great books are great books, reading them is a pleasure, and children will want to do it if you give them the chance.

The Princess and the Pig is a humorous reworking of traditional fairy tale themes, characters and language.  The story begins with a poor farmer who is returning from market with a piglet in the back of his cart.  As the farmer passes the palace, a wonderfully improbable set of circumstances occur, leaving Pigmella the piglet in the palace, and Priscilla the newborn princess in the cart.  The King and Queen think it is the work of a bad fairy, while the farmer and his wife believe a good fairy is responsible.  The princess and the pig grow up in each other’s homes until the farmer and his wife realise what has happened and decide that they must take Pigmella back to the palace.  It doesn’t end there however.  There is of course a happy ending, but it is not quite the one you might predict.

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We really enjoyed this book.  The story is funny, the subversive allusions to fairy tales are cleverly thought out and the ending is satisfying.  The illustrations are excellent, and they inspired the children to do some lovely drawings of their own.

We were sent the book free of charge for the purpose of this review.