Flat Stanley with actor Adam Sandler

In 1995, a Canadian primary school teacher created The Flat Stanley project, which was an extension of the book series and a creative way to bring a social experience to pen pal writing between school kids. And now in 2012, The Flat Stanley Project runs an amazing website that tracks Flat Stanley and other flat friends!) all over the world. Even in Australia –

You can sign up for a free account and connect with other school kids who are looking to swap and receive a Flat Stanley, and then organise the journey your Flat Stanley will go on! Your Flat Stanley can be tracked on the website or by the App and along the way you’ll get to know your new friends too You can do this via email or by traditional post – I think traditional post is a bit more fun!

I definately recommend this project for young kids to learn not only about books & characters, but how to connect and socialise with other kids in a fun, creative way. I love that there is an online and offline world for Flat Stanley and that he’s stood the test of time

To find out more about Flat Stanley and how to start your own Flat Stanley project, visit the official website
www.flatstanley.com

Image of Adam Sandler taken from Daily Independent

Stumbling upon The Very Hungry Bum has been a pleasure. Written and Illustrated by Claudia Rowe, the book is a parody of the popular book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

It’s a really fun book – my 4 year old son thought it had the weirdest book title ever, which had him hooked from the beginning. Lots of questions are asked, which is a good thing when it comes to imagination.

The adventurous story of the Very Hungry Bum takes him on a journey as he eats his way through the week. The illustrations on each page are gorgeous, but the charm is in the story itself. Both adults and children will find The Very Hungry Bum humorous and you’ll have a laugh along the way, each time you read it.

The book is suitable for primary school age kids, but I was happy to share this with my preschooler. The paperback version is printed in Australia on 100% recycled paper.

You can buy The Very Hungry Bum via the Atlas Jones & Co website for $12 (free shipping worldwide)
atlasjones.com

If you live in the area, you quickly get to know where you can go without either losing your child or losing your sanity, but if you’re looking for something different or if you’ve just moved cities – it can be tough!

Seana Smith has released the third edition of her book Sydney For Under Fives.

Find all the top spots for tots; cafes and restaurants, swimming pools, play centres, safe beaches and dozens of fantastic playgrounds, plus baby-friendly cinemas, art galleries, museums and more.

I love that this book has so many chapters – including Soft Play and Play Centres, The Joy of Playgroup (oh how I love a good playgroup!) and Stroller Walks to Stretch the Legs. There’s even an suburb index so you have a go-to guide for any suburb you’re planning to visit.

I think it would make a great present to any new mum or dad, a new neighbour with young kids or as a guide for discovering Sydney with your young kids.

The Sydney For Under Fives book is AU$25 and you can buy it online via the website.

Now with Borders closed (oh, how I loved to take the kids there and wander around all morning!), our next best book store is Dymocks. When we can’t get out to our local store, Dymocks online is the place to go. Browsing through the $10 and under children’s books section makes it easy to find a bargain! Here are my favourite 10 books that are $10 and under at Dymocks today:

World of Eric Carle: Eric Carle’s Opposites $9.95
My Very First 100 Words $7.99 – great bright pictures for the early readers
My Very First 100 Animals $7.99
Say Ahhh Finley Pig $7.99
Three Little Pigs $4.95 – can’t go wrong with a classic!
Dr Seuss On The Loose $5.00
Animals $5.99
Blue Hat, Green Hat Boardbook by Sandra Boynton – we love Sandra Boynton, such a fun series of books
Richard Scarry’s Chipmunk’s Abc $7.95
Baby Touch – Smooth $9.95

We’ve ordered books from the Dymocks website a few times in the past year and they’ve always been right on schedule. Individual books will have their own estimated shipping date, so just make sure you’re aware of when to expect your new books when you place an order

For more great children’s books, visit Dymocks online
www.dymocks.com.au

Did you know there was a Chuggington magazine? I didn’t! Having a 4 year old boy in the house, everything is trucks & trains and Chuggington is always a huge hit with him

If you don’t know much about Chuggington, it’s a train-based animated TV show aimed at preschoolers. I find the trains – Wilson, Brewster and Koko – to be pretty cute and funny, and there’s always alot of positive storylines in each series. It is different to Thomas the Tank Engine, so I recommend you pop it on if you’re looking for something new.

The Chuggington Summer Special magazine is chock full of games, colouring in pages, colour matching and there’s even 108 stickers to use within the magazine (and on each other). I love the reading section of the magazine, a mini story about Brewster – Brewster Goes Banana’s!

It’s great magazine to pop into your handbag or in the car for those long car trips these school holidays. There’s so much within the magazine that your kids will return to it time and time again to solve all the puzzles and complete all the games.

The magazine is available at all newsagents across Australia and NZ and retails for AU$5.95.

And you can catch Chuggington on ABC2!

Chuggington
www.chuggington.com.au

During both my pregnancies, I blogged all the time and took photos to mark each month that went by. But offline, I also had a diary that lived in my handbag and kept records of all appointments & each little milestone. I highly recommend keeping a diary (offline or online) because the time does fly by so quick and you’re bound to forget so much along the way.

I spotted May Books while watching some early morning tv last week, and wanted to share them all with you today. May Books make beautiful custom notebooks and have a great range of Pregnancy Planners, Newborn Baby Journals and Wedding Planners along side their 2012 diaries, meal planners and lined or dotted notebooks.

There are so many patterns to choose from, and you can even add your own custom monogram!

May Books have strong stitch binding, Green-e Certifited Canvas Covers which are water resistant and durable and the paper they use is partially recycled. I love customised notebooks and diaries, and even more so when they are eco friendly.

May Books do ship to Australia but you need to contact them for shipping rates. Prices start from US$15.

May Books
http://www.maybooks.com

There are so many great books for kids to choose from these days, but nothing warms my heart more than sharing a book from my own childhood with my own children today. My fondest memories are of a stack of Golden Books in our makeshift library at home, so lovingly tattered and worn down to it’s last legs. Each book had our hand drawn library card system inside the front cover, and we ‘borrowed’ our favourites every day to read to each other. Those were the days….

Fast forward 20 years, and technology has come a long way. Our children today have the opportunity to read our favourite books both on paper and electronically. And while I still prefer the paper version, I’m slowly coming around to purchasing iPad App Books for my kids because I have seen how beautiful and interactive this medium can be. It’s brought a new life to old faithful books and that can never be a bad thing

Recently, I purchased 2 iPad App Books for my 4 year old – Animalia by Graeme Base and The Monster at the End of This Book by Sesame Street.

Animalia (and The Eleventh Hour) by Graeme Base was one of those books at the school library that was ALWAYS checked out. But when you did get your turn, you never wanted to give it back. The detail of the illustration is such a treat, and the iPad app for Animalia brings back those memories AND is creating new memories for my son now. Explore Animalia, Go Get Graeme and What In The World are so much fun – even the adults will be enchanted!

After reading the glowing reviews for The Monster at the End of This Book, I was expecting to get my money’s worth (around AU$5 for this iPad App) and it didn’t disappoint. Reading it along with my son for the first time and seeing his little face light up, totally worth the cost price. I was expecting just a straight book (read and turn the page) but there’s animation and interaction throughout and it definately brought out the giggles. Who would of thought you could fall in love wit a furry blue monster all over again?

While I do love hardcopy books and I’m absolutely one to budget and not impulse buy, I would still recommend to look at getting 1 or 2 special iPad book apps for kids to get them interested in reading on the iPad (rather than just playing games!). Animalia and The Monster at the End of This Book are 2 very cool iPad book apps to consider. They’ll last forever electronically and with all the new features iPad brings, you’ll get value for money.

Grug Plays Cricket by Ted Prior $4.99
Mr Grumble by Roger Hargreaves $4.95
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street by Dr Seuss $9.99
Going to Bed Boardbook by Sandra Boynton $7.95 – I love her series of kids books!
Animals – Bright Baby Bumper book $5.99

For more great books for kids and adults alike, visit Dymocks online for special online-only prices
www.dymocks.com.au

one. Skip Hop Tree Top Friends Soft Activity Book $29.95 at Urban Baby
two. My Duckling Book Was $22.95, Now $19.95 at Bambini Pronto
three. Farm Tails Book $19.95 at Lime Three Kids
four. The Very Hungry Caterpillar – children’s soft book $29.95 at Oranges and Lemons Boutique
five. Playgro – Farm Friends soft book $10.99 at The Kids Depot
six. Peek A Baby – Soft Baby Book $19.95 at Huggus and Stookles

The soft books above also have a loop so you can easily attach the book to your pram or stroller. (Buy a pack of Loopy Links to make the book more accessible).

Soft books are a perfect introduction to books for your newborn and a great way to continue and encourage reading, colour & concepts to older kids. They’re kid-friendly and introduce textures to fingertips and develop imagination to our little ones!

My love for buying books for my children continues to grow – and there’s one particular set of books that I seem to be collecting!

Pictured above, they are books by (or illustrated by) Nick Sharratt – a British author & illustrator who has illustrated around 200 books.

What I love about books is the opportunity to not only learn how to read, but how to interpret the story from the illustration. While our kids might not know how to read words, they are able to look at a picture and come up with their own (often hilarious) scenarios. Nick Sharratt’s illustrations are bold and colourful – they’re fun and compliment the fun style of the books they’re in.

Our absolute favourite at the moment is You Choose – which is about 32 pages of Nick’s illustrations. On each page, you get to choose out of a number of objects. For example, a double page of drawings featuring a never ending banquet of food — what do you choose when you’re hungry? (My 3 year old loves to choose the green icky stew for mummy!). Each turn of the page captures not only my son’s but my own imagination

The love for Nick Sharratt’s illustrations started with Pants – if you haven’t read it yet, I recommend that you grab a copy and try not to have fun with it

You can find Nick Sharratt books in most bookstores, or online at Angus & Robertson.