Granny Franny's Big Red Bus - Kids Book Review

It's time for another Children's Book Review.

Today it is a book for young children about a granny and her grandkids going on an adventure.

We have always felt that books are very special to our family and share a love of reading but now that Fred and I have got to the "grandparent stage" we are once again looking at, buying and reading books that are suitable for young children.


So when I heard about this book and the fact that it was about a granny who liked to go on an adventure with her grandkids I was very interested to get a copy to read with our grandkids.


Disclaimer:  I did receive a free copy of this book to read and give my honest review.



So let's have a look at

Granny Franny's Big Red Bus

As with other Children's Books I have reviewed

SSHH Don't Wake The Baby! - Christmas Children's Book Review

Marie & Mr Bee - Children's Book Review

I like to get our grandchildren involved but things did not go exactly to plan this time.


We had planned to visit them and sit on the comfy couch with them snuggled in beside us and have them make the big hard decision of

 "Who do you want to read this book to you today?"

But then 3 out of that family of 5 took sick with a nasty cold and so the visit was off.

I had told them we had a new book for them!

What were we going to do - once they know we have got something new for them they are always looking forward to seeing what it is.

Now any children find it hard to wait and this gang were already disappointed that we were not coming to their house so we decided we would read the story while on facetime like we have done other times.


Grandpa is the designated reader while we are on Face Time calls and nanny does the "Guess What I'm drawing today!" and we both do the jigsaw puzzles and the hunt the bear round out house and the other games we play.
We have loads of things that can be easily enjoyed together in these posts
10 Easy Ideas for Face Time with Kids
10 Easy Games to Play on Face Time with Kids


So Grandpa got himself comfortable in the chair at the kitchen table with the iPad on the table and lifted the book.

If a book is meant for that young age group then it should be tested with children of that age.

At the time of writing this we have 3 grandchildren Matthew almost 5 years old, Ruby is 3 yrs  and Sarah will be 1 in 2 weeks time but she was with her mum and not listening and watching with us this time.

So Matthew and Ruby were ready on the iPad for Face Time and ready to watch as grandpa read to them.

Well back to testing out the book.

It is an "off for an adventure" kids book with some lovely phrases for the kids to repeat after grandpa has read a page.

one of my favourites was the

thick, icky, sticky mud

can we all say that one quickly???

Can you spot it in the pic below?

We enjoyed the rhyming parts of the story as well as the bright, bold illustrations with lots of detail  which means that the children will enjoy coming back to the book for further readings as they will not have remembered everything of the story or the pictures from this first reading.


You can see from the pictures above that this book is very bright and colourful.

But what you don't know yet is that the illustrations are funny and there is a lovely character named "Thinkerbell" on the Big Red Bus. (There is a glimpse of her in the picture below)

Grandpa is as mad as me sometimes and really got into the swing of the story - that's why the kids have a hard job deciding who reads to them.


Here is the front cover of the book.

I love the details on the bus:

• Reg GR4N  for Gran but there has to be a number on a reg plate.
• Seaside Park, Zoo Playground - destinations for the story
• Gransville - town location

Here you can see the back cover of the book

I just would have loved to have seen a picture of Sonia (the author) here but that's more from a grownup's perspective, kids probably aren't interested in this at the younger age.

Now the surprise in this book is that there are actually two adventures (practically 2 stories in one!)


So I have told you about this fun book which I believe would make a great gift for any family to read together but more especially where grannies and grandpas can enjoy it together with the grandchildren as we did.

Maybe our having to do it over facetime made it even better because it was a special treat just between us and the grandchildren.

This book is written by Sonia Beldom and is also illustrated by Sonia and all this completed during the  COVID-19 pandemic.

Proceeds from this book are going to bus-related charities due to help with the fact that all private hire vehicles were off the road for a prolonged period of time.

You may also be surprised to find out that Sonia drives heritage London Routemaster double-decker buses at weekends (in between her other normal jobs).


So Deciding thought on this book?


Yes it's a big Tick from me and Fred and the grandkids.

Disclaimer:
I was given a free copy of the book to read and write an honest review but no other compensation.  
The views expressed here are completely my own.

Marie & Mr Bee Kids Book - Book Review

It's time for another Children's Book Review.

Today it is a book for young children about a girl and a friend she makes.

We have always felt that books are very special to our family and share a love of reading but now that Fred and I have got to the "grandparent stage" we are once again looking at, buying and reading books that are suitable for young children.


So when I heard about this book and the fact that the main character is a girl in a wheelchair I was quick to get a copy but unfortunately very slow to review it.


I did buy this book and I am not being compensated in any way for this review.


So let's have a look at

Marie & Mr Bee

As with another Children's Book I reviewed

SSHH Don't Wake The Baby! - Christmas Children's Book Review

We got our grandchildren involved and here is a short taster of how we did that:

If a book is meant for that young age group then it should be tested with children of that age.

We have 3 grandchildren Matthew 4 years and , Ruby almost 3 yrs now and Sarah the baby, all of whom fall in this age group.

Unfortunately Sarah was having a nap during this part of our facetime with the kids and this time we did not have the pleasure of cuddling with the other two on the couch as we would normally do to read a story book to them - well we are in lockdown at the moment so all our time with them is spent online.

You can see how we manage this in 10 Easy Ideas for Facetime with Kids



Well back to testing out the book.

You can see from that brief video above that this book is very bright and colourful with beautiful illustrations and very clearly presented with a lot of detail which means that the children will enjoy coming back to the book for further readings as they will not have remembered all the fine details of the pictures on each page even after several readings.

Look at the concentration on those faces below as they listen to Grandpa read the story.

Here is the front cover of the book

Here you can see the back cover of the book

There is also a pancake recipe included in the book - for the children to help the grownups to make and them and then everyone can enjoy eating them.

Now that I have told you about this beautifully illustrated book which I believe would be a great book for all children especially to make them more aware of the similarities between themselves and children with disabilities because they all have imaginations. 

I want to say that I believe it would make a great gift for any family to read together.



The book actually comes in two versions although the difference is very slight.

Zooming in closer to the front cover you can see that my version is the Scripture version denoted by this symbol on the front cover.

So you can choose between one which has a Bible verse included on the last page or one which does not.

This book is written by Margaret Welwood  and illustrated by Coralie Rycroft and you can check out  Grandmasbookshelf.net  for more info on this and other books by Margaret.




You can also watch this longer video of reading Marie & Mr Bee together. 







So Deciding thought on this book?


Yes it's a big Tick from me and Fred and the grandkids.

Disclaimer:
I have NOT been offered a free product to write this blog post nor any other compensation. 

I bought this book myself. 
The views expressed here are completely my own.

Twinkl, Twinkl - How Good are you?

You have all heard of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" but today I want to talk about another
"Twinkl" which is also a star.

No I haven't spelt it wrongly.

It is Twinkl.

But what is it?  you ask.

Well before I tell you exactly what it is, what I use it for, and what a great resource you will find this to be;  I want to explain that I heard about this from my daughter-in-law and then met someone who works for this website in a Facebook blogging group we are both members of.  Due to all this I was offered a year's free subscription membership to the website in return for an honest review of the site.

So let's look at just what Twinkl really is:

Well it is a website full of educational resources made by many different people.  Some items are free to download and some require a subscription membership fee.

There is also the facility to make your own resources on their site and to offer your own resources for use there.

This is how they describe their site:

Screenshot of part of the Twinkl Homepage

My daughter-in-law is a Primary (Elementary for our US friends) School Teacher and her school has a subscription to the Twinkl website.

She uses it for  Posters,  Banners,  Games,  Worksheets  and especially loves it for Themes throughout the school year.


When I heard of it I thought of how I love to look at any types of resources with templates, worksheets, pictures etc. because they just might have something to suit some of the things I am involved in but I wasn't a Primary School teacher in fact I wasn't even a Mathematics Teacher any more.

However I have been involved in doing Kids Sunday School Curriculums in 3 different churches and I can always hope to find something to help me in that.

Then also I had just done a TESOL course and visuals would be very helpful in teaching basic English in a class we were setting up in our current church.


Although neither my daughter-in-law or myself have been involved in Homeschooling I know this would also be a great resource for all those Homeschooling parents around the world.

Now let's look at just how good Twinkl really is:

I'm going to show you some of the ways I have used resources from Twinkl for both of the things I mentioned above that I am involved in with our church.



Kids Work at Church

I'm always on the lookout for good pictures to illustrate items for the Kids Work and not just something for a Bible story.  We like to have posters to decorate the room,  attractive memory verse handouts,  attendance incentives,  nicely designed games and worksheets that the children will enjoy.

Twinkl also comes up with excellent resources that we can use.


They have PDFs to provide Flash Cards for bible Stories like the story of Easter

Printouts to make flip books

Pictures to illustrate stories that the children can colour in

          





Backgrounds for powerpoint presentations

Pictures for using as game cards

and  powerpoints of songs

Their illustrations are good, well-suited to children and very varied so you do not need to worry about everything looking the same and the children getting bored.



Teaching English as a Second Language

So far I have used some of their products for different teaching levels in almost all of my English classes and I especially like the variety of the many items like

          worksheets,
                      games,
                               posters,
                                         powerpoint presentations,  etc.



The first basic English lesson we taught was using the ipad to mirror to the TV screen and the subject was Food.

What better than the flashcards from Twinkl - they looked great on the ipad screen itself and also mirrored to the TV.

A few weeks later we tackled the topic of Colours and used Twinkle pictures in a powerpoint presentation.

A week or so later we were onto clothes for another powerpoint display

Then of course for using to teach the alphabet they have lots of cards etc. and when printing out you can make them the size to suit you for whatever project you want so you can have small cards like the size for playing a game of snap

or large cards for wall displays.

Instructions for games are also included in the PDFs you download

One of my favourite games to use is the Game of Concentration (matching game) and it is so easy to get resources for this in Twinkl

  

Another great game they offer in may different topics is Bingo

At the start pf each PDF you have a page which you do not print out but gives info on copyright so you always know how you are permitted to use the product.

Having had a long period of time to hunt through the website and see what resources I could use for specific topics I have been very pleased with the standard of the materials as well as the quantity.  I have also looked at other items that I would not need for my interests but which I know my daughter-in-law has used and would use for her school activities and I can definitely say I know why she loves this site.
                                                           
Have a look around the site  www.twinkl.co.uk  and join up for the free membership to try out some of the resources.


Disclaimer:
If you like the site and decide to take a free membership or a paid subscription membership I WILL NOT benefit in any way.