Well today I thought I’d start off with a couple of useful items that we got to help our children learn letters and simple words. Would love to hear if you also have any suggestions of things you use to add in the comments!

1. Melissa and Doug – See and Spell

This is a bit pricey (around £18!) and doesn’t come with a lid BUT my 2 year old loves it! The colours are bright and the words are simple and pictures recognisable. The boards are also double sided. It’s great for young children! We can spend a good half hour playing with it.

2. Melissa and Doug Self Correcting Alphabet Puzzle

Have to be honest, I prefer the See and Spell but this is a nice one to learn the alphabet. My biggest criticism is that the links link to easily in the wrong one. Especially with a forceful 2 year old who proudly tells me “Look it fits mummy!! It fits!”  after giving the ” A”a good bash so it fits “car”. Woe betide me if I try and help change it! 😂 Good pictures but young children will need lots of help as the links are too easy to get wrong.

3. Dr Seuss Flash Cards – Opposites

These are great for learning basic word recognition. There are little pictures on them. Good entertainment! One of the games we play is making up little sentences with the word on the flash card.

And now for the book reviews!

So thought I’d do two to keep us going over the weekend. Still animal themed for  this week.  The first one we read this morning (been sitting on the shelf for a while so thought I’d try it out) the second I read to two children I babysat for almost 20years ago and it was so entertaining it stuck in my mind. Was one of the first books I got for my eldest. Hope you enjoy the reviews!

Farmer Duck by (the very aptly named!) Martin Waddell

This is a book about a hard working duck and a lazy farmer. It’s a lovely little story about how the duck’s friends come to his rescue after being overworked by the idle farmer. There are a lot of fun “moo, cluck, quack” noises to be made and it’s beautifully illustrated.  I can’t help but read it and think of a pre-school version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm,though of     course not at all as sinister. It’s not a “Wow I will never read another book again apart from this one!” But the boys enjoyed it as a story.

And now for one I could read over and over! :

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

What a book! As I mentioned, read it years ago and always remembered it. It does what it say on the tin – tells the true story of the pigs. It’s written from the wolf’s (A.Wolf) perspective. That poor misunderstood wolf- turns out all he wanted was a cup of sugar. Just goes to show “never judge a book by its cover!” I won’t spoil it for you but it’s humorous and I can only believe that it’s historically accurate as it makes perfect sense. My only warning for parents would be that the pigs do get eaten. That said, this book is definitely one of our family favourites!