August has been a month of big milestones for our household! BookBairn started school nursery (I think it's the equivalent of pre-sc...

Little Loves - August

Friday, August 31, 2018 BookBairn 4 Comments


August has been a month of big milestones for our household! BookBairn started school nursery (I think it's the equivalent of pre-school in the US) and has settled in really well. I told you all about how we had been planning and preparing for nursery in a recent blog post but it seems to have paid off. She is loving it! She goes in happily everyday with a huge smile on her face and I think the daily routine is really suiting her. She has a best friend that she talks non-stop about and she is really settled. I'm so pleased because she doesn't always handle transitions well and I was anxious about how it would go but apparently I needn't have worried too much. The biggest milestone is that The Wee Page Turner is now walking. He has refused to hold our hands or be supported in his journey to taking his first steps prefering to cruise along furniture or use his push walker toy so when he took his first steps all by himself I couldn't have been prouder. Our fiercly independent little boy is now even more independent and enjoys getting into everything! For us grown ups, we have been kept busy with bathroom renovations that became more complicated due to a longstanding leak and living in a house that was built over 250 years ago but our builders have been great and we are almost there. I feel like juggling all these things have meant that I had to step back from blogging for a while to keep my house and life in order but hopefully I should find a little more time next month. That's the plan anyway! Here's an update of all the things we have been loving this month. Without further ado, our little loves...


I have mentioned before how much BookBairn loves the Go Jetters in a past little loves blog post and because of this mini fandom she has also got quite a good knowledge of world landmarks. She loves spotting them in other books, and on TV shows and sometimes compares things in our little town with world landmarks (the church tower is like Big Ben according to her). So I picked up a little landmark matching game from Aldi and we can now recognise even more. So in a little bit of book serendipity, we were delighted when Wonders of the World by Isabel Otter and Margaux Carpentier landed on our doormat! This is one that BookBairn has really loved exploring, even though the facts are aimed at slightly older children. She enjoys lifting the flaps, turning the wheels, the pop-up elements as well as pointing to and naming her favourite landmarks. Such a brilliant interactive tour of some of her favourite sights on Earth. And the colour palette is genius!


The Wee Page Turner is still obsessed with The Queen's Hat by Steve Antony but as I mentioned that before, I thought I would mention the other series of books that occasionally get a look-in and that's the Tales from Acorn Wood books by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. He loves lifting the flaps and the rhyming story captures his attention just long enough for him to enjoy two or three bedtime stories! These are such great starter stories for children who need a little something to keep their fingers busy whilst the story unfolds. The rhyming prose is expertly done by Julia Donaldson, as always and the illustrations are bright clear and fun by Axel Scheffler, as always! They make great baby gifts and with several to choose from you can't go wrong!


I have read a lot of kid lit and middle grade books this month as I had so many stacking up on my shelves that I hadn't read so I thought back-to-school time would be a great time to read them. So I started reading them on 15th August when BookBairn started nursery (and out local schools went back) and will be reading them for a whole month! And what fun I've had! These books are so creative, intelligent and pacey so they make great reads. I have particularly enjoyed the Beetle Boy series by MG Leonard and am in awe of whole all the elements were so expertly woven together. But my favourite of the month has to be A Place Called Perfect by Helena Duggan. I love the way she crafted the story cleverly playing on concepts such as rose-tinted glasses and a Stepford Wife scenario as well as creating main characters who were fascinating to read about. The way she played with the ideas of perfectionism whilst creating characters who were obviously flawed was a very clever commentary of humanity. This is one of the most clever books I've read and I think it's even more ingenious because it's aimed at young readers.

For more of our favourite reads you might want to check out our Favourites Shelf blog post.


We haven't watched a whole lot this month really as our new nursery routine means that we have been cutting back on screen time. We tend to watch TV whilst having breakfast in the morning (meaning that I can safely run around the house getting some things done whilst the kids are entertained) and then sometimes watch an episode of something before nap or quiet time. BookBairn usually plays on her iPad for a little while after she gets up from her quiet time whilst her little brother still naps. Once or twice a week the kids have a "telly tea" where they get to watch a film or something whilst they have their dinner in the living room (this requires a mess free dinner so not on bolognese night!). They both have a few episodes of TV after bathtime and before bed. I feel like we have been cutting back but it still sounds like an awful lot when I type it out here. I'd be interested to hear how you manage screen time at home!


This month the weather has certainly changed and whilst at the start of the month we were in shorts, t-shirts and summer dresses we are now back to long-sleeves and light-weight jumpers. Looking back on photos from the month apparently we have been wearing lots of stripes! I clearly have a thing for stripes at the moment!!








One of the things we have been playing this month is 'penguin hunters'. A local hospice charity has been fundraising by creating giant penguins and placing them all around Dundee (and slightly further afield) which isn't too far for us so we bought a copy of the sticker book and downloaded the app and have been searching for penguins all around! BookBairh has really delighted in this and we still have lots more to find (so far we have checked off 36/80) before they march to auction at the end of September. We also discovered a really cool park in the process that had lots of fun play equipment for all ages and we will definitely be back to visit even after the penguins are gone.



I wanted to try and do more meaningful activities with BookBairn after she comes home from nursery whilst The Wee Page Turner is napping to give her some quality one-to-one time and the most exciting so far has been making magic potions. Inspired by many of the brilliant accounts I follow on Instagram, we picked up some vinegar, food colouring and bicarbonate of soda to create chemical reactions that would mystify and amaze! BookBairn loved this and spent lots of time playing with them - even becoming confident enough to set up her own ingredients. Next time I'm going to add sequins to the mix! If you haven't tried this it's great fun!


One of the events that I went to at the Edinburgh Books Festival was 'Picture Books: Introducing Art' which focused on a discussion about the impact of picture books, and their illustrations, in developing children's visual literacy and ability to appreciate art. It was really interesting! And something I want to talk about in a separate blog post but I was fascinated by the idea that we should try to choose books with a variety of illustrative approaches so that children would have a rich diet of images to fill gaps in their visual knowledge and to help them develop their personal taste! It's certainly been food for thought for me.


I couldn't talk about August without mentioning the Edinburgh Book Festival. We have visited several times this month for various events and to meet various authors and illustrators! I just love getting the chance to interact with all those book geniuses and to show them how much we appreciate their work. I also love to get books signed for the kids, which I have written about in a blog post coming up next week!


It's certainly been an exciting month for us!
I hope September is a bit quieter but somehow I doubt it will be!
Hope you've had a lovely month.
Mummy and the bairns xx



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4 comments:

  1. My elest had A Place Called Perfect and really enjoyed it.
    Loving those Penguins! We have the Bee Trial in Manchester that I was hoping to do over the summer but didn't get round to it. Will have to go one Saturday instead.
    Thanks for linking up with Little Loves, have a great September! x

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  2. Read
    “Days Without End” by Sebastian Barry which was an interesting book set during the American Civil War.

    Watched
    my team lose to Daddy BookBairn’s team in the first league game of the season. 😢

    Wore
    A sweater for the first time in a long time. In fact I had to put on an additional layer playing golf one day recently.

    Played
    ....with play dough, stacking cups, balls, cars, princess houses, duplo and lots of other toys on papa’s play day visits.

    Made
    a good job of tidying my front garden.

    Heard
    that BookBairn had changed her name to BookBelle.

    and Lastly
    it was great to see the Wee Page Turner walking.

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  3. You have done a lot of playing! And hahah to the name change!

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  4. It sounds like you've had a lovely month. We used to live in Fife and I do miss being able to go to all the Edinburgh Festivals in August. #LittleLoves

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