Booktime for your School or Library!

Earlier this year I won a Twitter competition and got to nominate a school to have a book parcel delivered to for them to put into their School Library. I of course choose Top Enders school and when the parcel arrived at the school, I got my name in the newsletter and everything! Now is a chance for you to have some similar fame at a school of your choice.

This autumn, 680,000 copies of Eric Carle’s story book “ 'Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,' Said the Sloth" will be given to children starting reception in England courtesy of the charity Booktrust who have the programme Booktime (in partnership with Pearson and the Department for Education).

Now here comes the bit with the possible fame for you; To celebrate, Booktime are offering primary schools and libraries in England the chance to enter a prize draw to receive an exclusive artist’s proof from the book signed by Eric Carle. Anyone (that's you) can nominate a primary school and a public library in England (full terms and conditions will be on their website once the competition opens). From today until the 31st October 2010. All you have to do is visit the Booktime site at http://www.booktime.org.uk/ and find the school or library you want to nominate.

If your school or Library is chosen and really generous you might get a wing named after you or I am sure that like Top Ender's school it might be something a little less expensive...

By the way, the Booktime website also has games and resources inspired by all the books that have been given away in the past, and they are on twitter too!

Leap Frog Tag and Tag Junior - a review and a competition

Leap Frog were very kind and sent Top Ender a Tag Reading system and Baby Boy a Tag Junior Reading system to review and generally have a good play with after CyberMummy. As soon as the parcel arrived, Baby Boy and Top Ender had pulled out the packages and I only just managed to get a couple of photos before the packaging was in the recycling and they were both sitting cross legged on the floor working out what they needed to do to play with the new gadgets.

Top Ender loves the Tag Reading system. She already had it as a gift from Granny before she started school, but the new Tinkerbell book was a BIG hit! The Tag Reader is styled like a pen and it is used similar to a pointer, where you need to point the end at the text or picture and then it will "read" the page out loud. Baby Boy also loves his Tag Junior, and he thinks that it looks like EVE from WALL-E! The Tag Junior is held more like a bingo pen/stamp and again is run over the page and text and it also "reads" the page out loud.

The Tag Junior is recommended for ages two to four and there are several hard paged books that go with the system and the Tag system that Top Ender had is designed for ages four to eight and has several hardback books with paper pages and more are being added to the range all the time.

Each book contains a different learning skill, in "The Backyardigans Opposites" it is about opposites (you had worked that our already though right?)  and in "If I was" its about different animals. Top Ender's books are more story based, but again do have an educational angle with new words being added to her vocabulary and also helps to understand more about structure of sentences and there are other activities in the books too.

Once a week we connect the Tags to the PC (its Mac compatible too) and we are able to see what Baby Boy and Top Ender have been up to and to further enhance the learning that they have been doing there are printables to download too. It has been great as Top Ender loves to read on her own, but I still like to know what it is that she has been reading! It has realy helped Baby Boy to get used to using books himself and getting ready for reading and seeing what detail there is on the page. Baby Boy will often sit on the floor with the Tag and read a few pages by himself, before asking for Daddy, Top Ender or I to read along with him, and he has no problems at all using the Tag although his favourite function does seem to be the on/off switch!

I think that they are both great products and the cheapest price I could find the Tag Junior for was £23.99 and the Tag was found at £12.49 and both make a great Christmas Gift! The other benefit of giving this as a gift, is that on the recipients next birthday, (or Easter, or Halloween, or Valentines Day or just any day you want to say I love you) you can buy a book to go with the system from the ever increasing range!

Now as I said Top Ender already has a Tag Reading System and so I have checked with Leap Frog and they have agreed that I can have a competition to give away the spare Tag Reading System! So the following things need to be done in order to enter;

Firstly make sure you are following this blog (I am sure you are) either via email or Google Friend Connect or on our Facebook page or via Networked Blogs as I like to see that you all love me...

Then read my blog post from yesterday about Helping your Children learn to read and learn to love to read (and if you want to leave me a comment on that post with other suggestions then that's fine by me!) then answer the following question in the box below and leave a comment here so I know you have entered and can make sure your answer appears in my summary!

Chocolate Weetabix - A Give Away!

Telling the truth is important, it does sometimes require a certain tact, but if you tell the truth then I have found good things happen. When I reviewed the Chocolate Weetabix, I was honest and told you that I didn't like them, because they were made with dark chocolate. Now it turns out that this was a good thing, for you dark chocolate lovers at least, as I have been sent three boxes to give away, so that you can give them a try too!

All you have to do to be in a chance of winning one of the three is to answer this following question, the answer of which can be found in my original blog post about Chocolate Weetabix.

What kind of milk do I sometimes eat Original Weetabix with?

Please leave your answer in the comments on this post and the first three names out of a hat when this giveaway closes on the 12th August 2010 at 12 Noon, will be contacted for details of where to send the Weetabix to. If you don't respond to my email before the end of the 15th August then I will pick another name from the hat... oh and please only enter once!

The Winner of the Merlin Annual Pass

Last Wednesday I posted a photo and invited you to take a guess of where the photo was taken in order to be entered in to a draw for a Merlin Annual Pass. Well everyone who entered with a correct guess had their name put into a hat, there were over 200 names!

I am pleased to announce that Marg Farmer, who entered at A Place of my Own won the pass, but congratulations to everyone who got it right here too. In case you were wondering the photo that we had her at A Mothers Ramblings was taken at Chessington. And just to prove it here is the photo before the computer wizards cropped it and made it all blurry!

If you are still in the mood for trying your luck at winning, then don't forget to enter the competition on my blog to win a family ticket to see "The Go! Go! Go! Show" in London.

Win a Merlin Annual Pass *Sponsored Post

We are big on Family fun at a Mothers Ramblings (we are a Finalist in The Mads for Best Family Fun, don't you know!) and so when The Sun asked if I would like to be part of a challenge for someone to win a Merlin Annual Pass we said YES! Before I go any further I want to point out that this is a sponsored post as my family are being given tickets for a day out and some spending money, but as the prize is a Merlin Annual Pass I thought you would all forgive me.

A Merlin Annual Pass can be brought for the following attractions,

· Thorpe Park
· Chessington World of Adventures
· Alton Towers
· Legoland
· Warwick Castle
· Madame Tussuads
· Lego Discovery Centre

and there are lots more perks and benefits to having a pass that you can find out about at the Merlin Annual Pass website... I wish I could win an Annual Pass, but I can't enter this competition!

You could be lucky though and win one as its a really simple challenge, see the picture below? In my comments section (on my blog please, not my Facebook comments) simply answer which of the above attractions it is from and then from across the various blogs and website running this challenge the correct answers will be entered into a prize draw, so if you want to increase your chances enter at other blogs too!

 
 
The deadline for entries is Friday 30th July so get guessing quickly and if you would like more information, take a look at www.thesun.co.uk/daysout.

The Xmas Factor 2009

As I mentioned in my Let There be Lights post I did something silly at the turning on of the Towns Christmas lights. On the spur of the moment I entered The Xmas Factor, which was a little fun that was being had and included mostly children singing Christmas songs such as Jingle Bells and We Wish you a Merry Christmas.

I did say that if I could get the video I would post it for you all to watch/listen to and so I am posting this as quickly as I have been able to get it so that I don't lose my bottle and hide it away. I have tagged myself in it on Facebook, so if you are reading this as a note on Facebook, you can go hunt it down too.

And if you think I look distracted remember that I hadn't sung solo in public since 1998 and I keep waving to Baby Boy who is the baby you can hear crying.

Oh, and Top Ender is the little girl you can hear at the start who comments

"My Mum is definitely going to win the adults!"

She must be psychic!

And the winner is...

So, this morning we drew the winner of our Harumika from Bandai competition. The question that had to be answered was; How much is the Harumika from Bandai Starter Set? The answer was of course £19.99 and this is the photo story of picking the winner!

First we had to chose a suitable container for picking the names from so we found this bag Top Ender made for me

Then the entries were checked over by Top Ender in case I had put my name in a dozen times!

Then Top Ender put all the names in to the bag

And then we did the draw!

And just for extra proof

Congratulations Muddling along Mummy!

So Congratulations to Muddling along Mummy (let me know where I can send your prize!) and commiserations to everyone else.

What is Santa bringing this year?

So with back to school over and everyone back into the swing of things, it is time for me to start thinking about what Top Ender and Baby Boy would like for Christmas from the man who dresses in red and comes down the chimney.

Santa looks rather happy in this photo taken outside the TV studios last December doesn't he?

In our house Santa brings gifts that are left upstairs under the trees in our rooms and in the stockings left on our bedroom door handles. He brings things like colouring books, hairbands, one or two toys, a few sweets, new underwear, a new Christmas outfit and all the bargains that I scour everywhere throughout the year for he has his elves search for. I think he gets a good deal.

All the gifts from us and friends and family and other magical creatures (chocolate monster who brings chocolate and The Christmas fairy who brings gold packages tied up with rainbow ribbon, surely you have read The Rainbow Magic Fairy series?) are under the tree in the Living room.

Red gifts are Top Enders, Blue gifts are for Baby Boy - No tags or reading skills needed! And I know I said under the tree, but they kind of spread out down the room.

After a toy launch that we went to the other day however Top Ender is now asking Santa for Harumika from Bandai.

Looks good huh? Pink and purple packaging appeals to the child in me!

I must admit that I was a little dubious about it, as toys like this get put to one side until I am able to help Top Ender because I am worried about her cutting things (I cut my hair when I was her age, with blunt green witch scissors) and she likes me to make sure things look good before she glues them down. But we went along to see what it was all about.

I changed my mind as soon as I held the mannequin because, in my humble Mummy opinion, this is the fashion toy to get for the budding Vivienne Westwood or Stella McCartney, because no needles, thread, glue or scissors are required!

There is a slot rather like a letterbox on the back of the mannequin. This slot has a silicon flap that the fabric is pushed into (using the spatula that is in the pack) and it holds the fabric in place (Genius!) and then there are stickers, gemstones and belts that you can add on to further customise your design.

Joanne over at Parent Dish was there with her nine year old daughter (she was very polite by the way Joanne!) and this toy appealed to both of them and they were both listening intently to the instructions of how to make some celebrity styles on the mannequin.

Top Ender was in heaven and made this Miley Cyrus inspired outfit;

and this Cheryl Cole inspired mini dress;

and this which is her own design for a evening gown

So Santa if you are reading this, they are on sale in John Lewis and all good toy stores and the starter pack is only £19.99... unless of course you are the winner of our first ever competition!

That's right I have a set to give away! To be in with a chance of winning this fab prize, just answer a simple question, the answer to which can be found somewhere in this post!

And now for the important bit I shall put all entries into a big hat and Top Ender or Daddy shall draw out the winner on the 1st of October and we shall post the winners name here and email them too!

Oh and please leave a comment after this post, so that I know you have entered and if you don't already subscribe to my RSS feed or follow me then consider doing that too and whilst I am in the mood click here to vote for me!!!