Celebrate 25 Years Of Elmer The Elephant (Free Downloads)

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When I trained tot be a nursery nurse (before teaching) we were frequently set assignments throughout the year to create anthologies of activities based upon favourite storybook characters. Each 'box of tricks' was supposed to contain a variety of activities that children could dive into and complete themselves with minimal reliance upon the adult, and encourage maximum creativity by developing a love of the story across a range of different learning experiences.

Elmer The Elephant was my absolute favourite box to assemble because of the language and craft opportunities throughout.

Anderson Press are celebrating 25 years of the loveable patchwork elephant this Summer, and have sent me a range of their celebratory products to enjoy. However, they've also sent me a pack of activity sheets to share with you as well.

Elmer the Elephant

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Walker Books' Picture Book Party

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The second half of the Summer holidays has been plagued with dreadful weather which has really hampered our play efforts. Gone were all the wonderful plans I had for picnics on the beach as it was just too cold or rainy for such an activity. Of course we still went outside to play, but not as much as we'd hoped.

As a result, when we were sent a selection of books from Walker Books in order to hold a Picture Book Party, we decided an indoor picnic was the way to go.

Picture Book Party

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'Tidy Books' Book Storage (Review & Giveaway)

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I'm pretty sure that our home is like many other young families' homes all over Britain in that the vast majority of the children's toys and books are stored in a large, cuboid, storage system from a well-known Scandinavian company. It's efficient, cheap and it works.

Only it doesn't.

It doesn't work for books.

Granted they fit, and you can actually get a lot of them in the sections, but the problem that I've discovered is that The Boy forgets that they're there. For the vast majority of the time he does not remember about his fifty or so books in the dining room storage unit because he can't see them.

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'Dear Zoo' (Review)

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A few months ago, the wonderful children's modern classic 'Dear Zoo' by Rod Campbell celebrated its 30th anniversary. I am of the age group that would have only just missed this enchanting book when it was first published, however it very firmly sits in my Listography of Top 5 Children's Books and I defy any parent of a toddler to resist it. As it has sold over five million copies in the past thirty years, I'm pretty sure not many parents do resist it!

There are a number of different variants of the classic book in the 'Dear Zoo' range, including an Animal Shapes 'buggy' book, a Little Library, a pop-up version, a Noisy Book and even an iPad app, but I want to share two new additions:

Dear Zoo Touch and Feel

This is a brilliant version of the book for the younger child who is still discovering the world through touch. With a range of different textures throughout, the materials definitely help to make it more of a sensory book to explore. (RRP £7.99)

The Dear Zoo Activity Book

This activity book (priced at £3.99) has a huge range of activities which I feel are best suited to children aged four years and over. The activities encourage fine motor skill development through dot-dot and follow the line, and for the younger reader there are sticker activities. However quite a lot of the activities involve some degree of reading or writing which children younger than four are almost certainly not capable of. For someone who has treasured the book then this won't daunt them.

I was sent these products for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

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