BlogCompetitions

Win 1 of 3 Winnie the Pooh prizes donated by the Disney Winnie the Pooh Storytelling Academy

Christmas is a time for family; from throwing open the doors to welcome children and grandchildren, to travelling near or far to pay a festive visit. There are opportunities for storytelling aplenty at this time of year; however research from Disney has shown that the amount of time families commit to reading stories is lapsing, with only a tiny margin (3%) of parents and grandparents reading to…
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BooksCultur-Italy Ezine

Becoming bilingual: great starter books

Icklelingo has created a series of books that are ideal starter kits for all those kids who live in multilingual environments as well as the bilingual ones. We loved 100 Words / 100 Parole (Italian – English). My 6 year old son was born in London and he speaks English at school but at home we speak Italian. He has been raised bilingual and the biggest challenge for me as a parent is to…
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Books

Great bedtime stories

Here is London Mums’ selection of favourite bedtime stories. I Don’t Want to go to Bed! To celebrate 25 years of Little Tiger Press, a special edition of the classic title, I Don’t Want to go to Bed!, is being reissued in a new paperback format for 2012. I Don’t Want To Go To Bed! written by Julie Sykes and beautifully illustrated by award-winning illustrator Tim Warnes is a very…
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BlogBooksSchooling

Vintage Classic Literature for Children

WHICH IS YOUR FAVOURITE CLASSIC NOVEL OF ALL TIMES? Mine still is Little Women. I can’t help but crying every time I read this old classic novel by Louisa May Alcott. Maybe it’s because it was the very first novel that I read as a young girl… I am very pleased that these classics have now been re-published by Vintage Classics (an imprint of The Random House Group) adding the…
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BlogBooks

Top children's book: The princess and the pig

The princess and the pig recently published by PanMacmillan is one of the best stories I have read in years. Forget about fairytales and princess’ dream worlds… this story brings us back to reality and shows how much nicer it is to live a simple life surrounded by loving parents no matter what their wealth is. Absolutely brilliant! The light-hearted story is also beautifully…
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BlogBooks

Book review: Sad tales for me

If you like books and you like dogs then this book is a match made in heaven 🙂 We never read a autodogbiography before and we loved this one! This is a very original book idea because the story is written by James Barklee, author and illustrator of this book, an ordinary small dog living an ordinary life. And because of this, the story makes you reflect on dogs’ lives. James is…
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BlogBooks

Me and My Cat

A puuurrrfect picture book! From playing games to eating dinner and reading their favourite bedtime story, this little girl and her cat do everything together. And they’re always there to help each other out – because that’s what best friends do. We loved this story as it is both funny and heart-warming and it tells the story about a very special friendship. It is the perfect…
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BlogGet CreativeParenting SkillsSchooling

Disney Research Shows that Busy Parents are struggling to find the time for Storytelling

In the 70s when I was a toddler, I grew up with Disney stories and at that time there was only Disney to entertain us. My 6 year old son now is growing up with so many new characters but personally I still prefer the Disney ones as they appeal to a universal audience and offer such great values to look forward to. A few days ago I attended the launch of the Winnie the Pooh Storytelling Academy…
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BlogGet CreativeParenting SkillsSchooling

The importance of storytelling

Here is a very interesting report on storytelling compiled by Nancy Kanter, Senior Vice President, Original Programming and General Manager at Disney Junior, Walt Disney’s television channel for pre-schoolers and their families, marking their one year anniversary. On Disney’s influence on storytelling, Lynn Whitaker of the Department of Theatre, Film & TV Studies, University of…
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