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The Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat – Review

The Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat

Written by Coral Rumble and illustrated by Charlotte Cooke

Published by Parragon, £5.99

We received this book last week as part of the Parragon book buddy scheme, and it has been an immediate hit. The older children read it themselves straight away, and then I read it to all of them together. We enjoyed the imaginative illustrations and the simply, beautifully written rhyming text.

“The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea

In a box on the living room floor,

They sailed away for a year and a day

And these are the things that they saw…”

So begins the adventure of two curious children whose cardboard box boat takes them out to sea where they meet a “wiggly, squiggly eel”, a ” cheerful seal”, a “swordfish in a fight/ With a pirate late at night” and many other characters. Eventually they arrive at a “cave on the shore/ With a green seaweed door…” before sailing home again where they fall asleep “by the light of the moon.”

It was bedtime when I read the story to the children, but it sparked off such an imaginative game that I let them stay up far too late. It was the kind of deeply involved play that you just can’t interrupt!

Two armchairs became a boat, a blue blanket the sea, and another blanket draped over chairs formed a cave. Provisions and teddies (and cuddly broccoli!) were packed, and they set sail.

After eating a picnic or two en route, they arrived at their destination and explored the cave, where they found a treasure box. They carefully loaded it into the boat and sailed back home, fending off a pirate ship on the way.

The little ones then spent some time playing with the treasure, while Monkey re-read the book, and then it really was time for bed. We all gathered together to listen to Daddy reading the original version of The Owl and the Pussy-cat, by Edward Lear, which was a lovely way to finish off what had turned out to be a rather special evening.

We were sent the book free of charge for the purpose of this review.

Poo! What IS That Smell? – Review

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We’ve been sent another great book to review by Macmillan – Poo! What is that Smell, written by Glenn Murphy and illustrated by Laura Murphy. In fact, I’ll be honest, we were sent it a little while ago. We started reading it, then lost it, then found it just as I was starting to panic and think I would have to get on and buy myself another copy. Anyway, after that false start we are loving it. The title is perfect for catching children’s attention, and the book doesn’t disappoint. It is full of really detailed Scientific information, but very readable and entertaining.

The book has a chapter on each of the five senses, and so far we have been reading the first chapter which is about Sight. I asked the children to recall one fact that they had found interesting from the chapter and draw a picture. Owl and Monkey both chose to illustrate the reason why zebras have black-and-white stripes. “It’s so they can hide among each other. A herd of stripey zebras presents a confusing optical illusion to lions and hyenas. The stripes disguise the outline of each animal in the herd, making it hard to tell where one zebra ends and another one begins, or which way they might be facing. This makes it especially difficult for their predators to select a target, let alone predict which way they might run once the chase begins.”

Don’t ask me why there are rabbits flying overhead, and animals holding up umbrellas to protect themselves from their droppings. All I can say is that the boys found it very amusing, and I hope it helps them to remember this Science fact!

Rabbit was interested in the fact that some animals can see different colours, or types of light, because they have more types of cone cells in their eyes. “Many birds, for example, can see ultraviolet (UV) light. This lets them see patterns of light on flowers, trees and grassy hillsides that are invisible to humans. Snakes, meanwhile, have extra cone cells that can detect invisible, infrared (IR) light given off by warm objects. With this special, snakey , super-vision, a pit viper can pick out the warm body of a quivering mouse in complete darkness. Good news for the snake; bad news for mousey…”

I am really enjoying reading this book to the children, and I’m learning a lot too!

We were sent the book free of charge for the purpose of this review.

DC Super Friends Magazine

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Yesterday was a busy day. The little two went to a new home education sports group with their friends from 3 Kids and a Gluestick, and then on to a birthday party. Meanwhile I took the big boys to their first French lesson at another local home education group. We met up with the others back at the party and spent some time with them, before heading home at the end of the afternoon tired but happy after a successful day. I was just calculating how quickly I could produce supper when we got home, and wondering how to occupy the children in the mean time, when we arrived back to find our new DC Super Friends magazine waiting for us. This was a perfect diversion while I got the supper ready, though I have to say that the children were so excited, and overtired, that there was a bit of a scuffle about who could look at it first!

The magazine is aimed at pre-school boys aged 2-5, so it was obviously very suitable for Tiddler, but I knew that all the others would like it just as much – and they do. Rabbit loves it and lots of the activities are just right for her – girls like Superheroes too! And the older boys love anything to do with Superheroes, so they were happy as well.

The first thing they wanted to do, of course, was to play with the toys so that is what they did before supper. We have had many magazine toys over the years, some much better than others, but these “cool communicators” are just about right. Pretty simple but fun, brightly coloured and appealing, and didn’t break before they came out of the packaging (that has happened on a number of occasions with other magazines.) The superhero pictures that slide into the slots on the front can be reversed, and the children really liked this feature.

The magazine contains colouring and activity pages, a story and some things to cut out and make. While the children were eating their supper, I read the story to them, and straight afterwards Owl read the whole magazine from cover to cover. He would have liked to do some of the activities but he said he would wait and see what the others wanted to do first. I am sure they will want his help when it comes to making the batman mask and batmobile, because he is very good at making things.

It didn’t take the children long to notice that there is a competition to win a Batcave Playset and Figurines, so I am sure we will be entering that!

Rabbit spent some time working on spot the difference, code-breaking and matching activities, which she did with very little help. Next, Monkey looked at the pictures drawn by other children on the last page and drew his own picture of Superman. The children are often to be found drawing superheroes, so they are planning to send some of their pictures in to the magazine.

Finally, when they should have been going to bed, Rabbit and Tiddler spent a long time working together on the story page, sharing so nicely that they were allowed to stay up late. One activity involved drawing circles which was great practice for Tiddler, and then Rabbit took over when it came to the writing. They then managed to work on the same colouring picture and complete it without fighting – I was very impressed.

That’s all there was time for last night, but the children are planning to make the mask and batmobile later this afternoon, and will probably finish the rest of the activities too. Then they will be looking out for the next issue, and I am sure we will be getting it because it is so nice to find a magazine that appeals to all of them – I am not keen on buying four magazines at once!

DC Super Friends magazine went on sale yesterday (19th September 2013) and is available from supermarkets and newsagents or on subscription. Titan Magazines kindly sent us a free copy to review.

Rastamouse and Da Micespace Mystery

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Rastamouse and Da Micespace Mystery

By Michael De Souza and Genevieve Webster

Published 12th September 2013, Macmillan, £6.99

My first impressions of Rastamouse and Da Micespace Mystery were that it was bright and colourful and I loved the illustrations. The little ones certainly found it appealing too, and they enjoyed seeing the familiar characters from the excellent Rastamouse programmes on Cbeebies.

I read the story to all four children together and we all enjoyed it, though I have to admit that my rendering of the Jamaican patois probably left a little bit to be desired. It’s a funny story though, and cleverly written. Rastamouse and the Easy Crew receive a call from the President because his bank account has been hacked and the Mouseland millions have been stolen. Luckily Rastamouse has a plan to track down the geek-a-mouse who’s responsible – the gadget-loving Mister Flash. I liked the reference to “MiTube” as well as “Micespace”, and it made Owl laugh out loud. In fact, on first reading I think he liked it the most, as he was quickest to understand the story. With the others, I had a lot of explaining to do, with the help of the glossary and list of abbreviations at the back of the book – I needed it for “Criss” and “G2G”!

After reading the story, the three older children drew pictures inspired by the excellent illustrations, and Monkey made a Rastamouse finger puppet!

It’s a fun book, and even more so when daddy reads it out loud – his patois, though decidedly dodgy, is definitely better than mine!

This book was sent to us for review by Macmillan Children’s Books.

I’m a Chicken, Get Me Out of Here

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One of the things I have enjoyed the most about receiving books to review is that it has made me read to the older children more. Once they can read it is too easy to let them get on with it, while reading stories mainly to the little ones, but children of any age enjoy being read to, and I have loved doing more of it recently.

The latest book we have read together is I’m a Chicken, Get Me Out of Here by Anna Wilson. Titch is a chicken who has been sent to Wilf’s house by mistake, and she is not happy about being there, especially not when she finds she is sharing a home with Brian, an extremely fussy guinea pig. She is determined to escape into the big wild word and do something marvellous.

The book is well-written and very funny – I often had to pause while reading it as the children were laughing so much! It particularly appealed to the older boys, who are 9 and 7, and I think this is the age group it is aimed at.

Rabbit’s review

What is the story about? A chicken who wants to escape into the big wide world.

Do you like this book? Why? A bit, because I like the chicken.

Monkey’s review

What is the story about? A hen that comes in a parcel and wins a poultry show.

Do you like this book? Why? I love it because it’s funny.

Owl’s review

What is the story about? A chicken who gets sent from the chicken run to the Peasbodys’ house where she befriends a cat and a guinea pig.

Do you like this book? Why? Yes, I like the funny storyline.

Thank you Macmillan – another great hit!

The book was sent to us for free to review.

Little Mouse’s Big Book of Beasts

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We have been sent another lovely book to review by Macmillan and this one has inspired us so much that it was hard to know when to write this post as we have more ideas we would like to follow up. However, we have had the book a while so I thought we should let you know what we think of it, and what we’ve been up to so far.

Little Mouse’s Big Book of Beasts by Emily Gravett is a picture book with a difference. It is the follow up to the multi-award-winning Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears which was published in 2007.

Little Mouse has found a book about the world’s most terrifying and ferocious beasts, but they are all a bit too scary for him. So he changes the book to make it less frightening.

He gives the lion some pretty mittens to cover up his sharp claws, and removes his loud roar.

He removes part of the instructions for making an origami shark, and adds his own for making an origami mouse instead.

The rhinoceros is given a selection of dainty shoes.

The jellyfish is crossed out and replaced with a dish of jelly.

And at the end, the mouse is cleverly transformed into a monster using parts he has torn from the previous pages.

When I first shared the book with the little ones (aged three and five) I think they were a bit bemused, and I felt I had to do a lot of explaining. The older boys (aged seven and nine) liked it immediately, so I thought it might appeal more to this age group despite being a picture book. However, the younger children did enjoy it and it definitely grew on them. I liked it because it sparked off so many ideas for activities we could do together.

We talked about how it would be fun to draw our own pictures of animals with a difference and we decided to play heads, bodies and legs (like consequences but with pictures.)

Then we decided to have a go at some origami. First we made some origami planes using an excellent kit from Djeco.

Then Rabbit and I tried out the much more fiddly Safari Origami kit from 4M. We just about managed the butterflies and birds which are for beginners but quite hard. We haven’t tried the rest of the animals yet but we will!

The following day we had another go with the much easier Djeco origami animals kit.

Next, Owl wants to try following the origami instructions in the book to see if they work. Will they make a shark or a mouse or something else?!

And we are also planning to draw some animals and then change them in the way the Little Mouse has done. That should suit all the children, as the older ones love drawing and the little ones love cutting and sticking!

So what else would you do? Any more ideas gratefully received. I have a feeling that this book is going to be keeping us busy for a while!

The book was given to us free to review. The origami kits were our own but I have linked to Craft Merrily because that is where I would go to buy Djeco products.

More Twinkling

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After I posted my review of Twinkl last night, we have had such a successful day today using some more of the resources that I thought I should write a follow-up post.

This morning Monkey played the clock game, matching written times to the times shown on the clocks, and Owl did it as well this afternoon.

Owl and Monkey have also both done some character description writing. They chose to write about Lego Ninjago characters, and they enjoyed using the worksheets with suggested descriptive words to get them started.

This is Monkey’s description of Garmadon:

Garmadon is Sensei Wu’s brother, and their father was the creator of Ninjago and the first master of Spinjitzu. Garmadon is evil and fierce and he rules an army of skeletons. In year 2012 he got four arms.

And this is Owl’s description of Snappa.

Snappa is a fangpyre snake scout. He is ugly, mean and evil, but in times of peace he is calm and friendly and tries to be a good friend. But it’s hard to be nice when you are really a mean beast. In times of war he is usually quite angry and he is not very popular among his tribe. Snappa bites first and asks questions later. He also gets mad at a drop of a snake’s scale.

(Owl would like me to point out that there are some additions and corrections in the text quoted here, because I took the photos earlier and they have continued to work on it.)

Look here for lots more lovely resources like these!

I think I should have said this on the post I wrote yesterday, but I will put it here anyway: I have been given a premium subscription to Twinkl to write this review. All opinions are my own.

Twinkl: review of an educational website

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Like most home educators, I spend a lot of time looking for educational resources on the internet, and I’m always interested in finding out about websites that others use.

I have been given a subscription to a new (newish? new to me anyway….) educational website to try out and review, and I have enjoyed exploring the resources. I have had a few technical problems, as my rather elderly laptop does not seem to be able to print anything at all from the website, and I have had to rely on Suburban Dad’s superior laptop when he is around, which is not much at the moment. Anyway, he has printed a few resources which we have tried and enjoyed, so I thought I should get on and write this instead of hoping we will have time to explore it further. I think the problems may possibly be because the files are unusually large (according to Suburban Dad) and I have passed on this helpful (?) information to them, so maybe they will be able to change the format.

Initially I found the website a little confusing to navigate, but I have got used to it and I really like the resources. The thing we have used most is very simple. I have printed some number tracks for Rabbit and she stuck them on strips of card and enjoys using them to practise counting forwards and backwards. I also use them to ask her questions like “What is one more than 5?”, “What is one less than 9?” and so on.

I have tried out some worksheets on homophones with Owl and Monkey. They are clear and simple, and the children did the first one very happily which involved filling in missing words in sentences. They struggled with the second one as they were supposed to write two sentences on two short lines for each of the words and they just couldn’t fit them in so they had to make their interesting sentences shorter which was a shame. However, one of the great features of Twinkl is that users can suggest changes to resources and also add their own. Below each one, there is a message which reads “Have you got some new ideas for this resource? Or is there a problem that you’ve spotted?” (I love this – it’s so polite!) and a button which says “Suggest a change.”

Today I was planning to use a game about telling the time but I thought I would laminate it first. My problems with technology continued as one of the pages jammed in the laminator and of course I couldn’t just go and print another one out. Sigh. Anyway, IT support (otherwise known as Suburban Dad) is on the case, and I should be able to play it with them tomorrow. We have also printed out clock fans (similar to number fans, where you ask a question and the children have to hold up the fan with the right answer) and I’ve found a lovely character description worksheet as well.

The website also has book lists for a variety of topics and users can add to those as well. I think that is a very good way of sharing ideas, and I have enjoyed browsing and looking for inspiration. The section on displays is a good place to look for ideas for Art, and I will certainly be trying some of them out.

Overall, I would say that despite my technical difficulties (which won’t affect you if you have a decent laptop) twinkl is a really useful website to add to the range of resources that is available on the net for teachers and home educators, and I would certainly recommend it.

Caterpillar Tales

Reading, Learning and Growing

Tag Archives: review

The Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat – Review

Poo! What IS That Smell? – Review

DC Super Friends Magazine

Rastamouse and Da Micespace Mystery

Rastamouse and Da Micespace Mystery

I’m a Chicken, Get Me Out of Here

Little Mouse’s Big Book of Beasts

More Twinkling

Twinkl: review of an educational website