We have both Journey and Quest on our shelves. They are lovely, wordless picture books, beautifully illustrated, by Aaron Becker Here are some of Big’s comments about the story: Little’s analysis is slightly different: “This story is all about animals eat some boats”. He likes the part when “The balloon goes all the way up…

Repetition. It can be frustrating when toddlers are going through this phase; but it is the way they learn best. Introducing a new concept gently, then repeating it in as many different ways and contexts as possible. Today, D was for dinosaurs. Drawing around a wooden letter created a clear outline which could be followed…

I recently asked a brilliant group of Early Years Professionals from the UK, Europe and the US for recommendations of picture books to read aloud with young children. There was a fantastic response and we had a great on-line chat about these books and more. Below is a list of the books suggested, we have…

‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’ by Giles Andrede has long been a favourite book in our house. I made a story bag for it a couple of years ago, with a focus on music, and burned a CD with tracks from cha-cha, rock and roll, a tango and a Scottish reel to match the story. Recently, though,…

If I try to sit Little down and ‘Learn Letters’, it does not go down well. He is two, and that doesn’t sound like fun! So, here are five ways we have used this week to explore the letter ‘g’, with hands-on activities. Using a peg board: I bought this peg board from Lidl for…

*This blog post contains some affiliate links to products we have used. Of all Julia Donaldson’s brilliant children’s books, The Snail and the Whale is my absolute favourite. It lends itself so well to messy play, too, so I didn’t need asking twice to set it up in the mixing tray- loving this resource- CrazyGadget…

Sometimes starting with letters can seem daunting and overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be stressful or boring- by tapping into children’s interests and hobbies you can make it fun and engaging; setting them up for a good relationship with learning in the future. All three male members of our household love fishing. Actually, the female…

Do you want to start introducing a toddler to letters but not sure how to do it in a fun way? A simple task for starting on a toddler’s letter recognition skills is by matching letters. This is a very versatile activity as it can be adapted to the child. You can reduce or increase…

Some great children’s stories are very simple with a basic story line. These are often popular with toddlers, who tend to enjoy books at face value. There are lots of children’s stories, however, which hint at a deeper level of narrative; a story behind the surface; a greater theme to be explored. Take Elmer by…

A Story Bag is a collection of objects and activities which centre around a fictional children’s story. They are used to encourage children to explore the story and enjoy the reading experience, often before they can read themselves. This idea has become heavily commercialised in recent years, with toys and props for well-known children’s stories…