It’s 7.15pm on a weeknight. Mr Ueckerman is out at a dinner. The boys and I have eaten and I’m cleaning up. I ask Mr 6 to help Mr almost-4 to put on his pyjamas and read him a book, though not entirely sure how that will pan out. He happily agrees; he loves being […]
Competition Win
As an unpublished author, one of the best ways for me to receive feedback on my work is by entering competitions for aspiring authors. This year I have faired pretty well in competitions and was delighted to win first place in the Secret Door Competition for my first junior fiction novel, “Atticus Jones’ Wand”. I […]
Building your children’s library: 6 places to buy books
Young children love hearing their favourite stories over and over (and over) again. However, as they grow older and want to hear longer books, they prefer novelty. Which means more books. The library is a great help and we visit the library every week, but it’s also nice to have a selection of books at […]
Books around the house: normalising reading
When I was ten years old, we lived with my grandfather for seven months. He lived in an old stone house surrounded by lush farmland in Cornwall, in the south of England. The house had once been a butter factory and in his younger days my grandfather ran a nursery – he had a shop room, greenhouses […]
Sparking the joy of reading
My eldest son is nearly six (how on earth did that happen?) and he recently brought home a reader from school called Rough and Smooth. He has been trending towards non-fiction readers for a while now, so it’s hardly surprising. However, he refused to read this book to me beyond the first page, and in all honesty […]
Why Dance is Great For Boys
As a lover of dance and a dance teacher, it’s natural for me to want to put my children into dance classes. However, people become a bit skeptical about this now that I have two boys. It’s just not a popular choice among little boys. Granted, we have tried out a couple of dance schools […]
Make reading time fun!
I knew before my children were born that I would read to them every night – hey, I’m a bookworm! But when my eldest was born, I wasn’t sure when to start. I was caught up in the whirl of having a newborn. Then when he was three months old I decided to read Beatrix […]
Parenting a child with Sensory Processing Disorder
When my eldest son, now five, was born, I had very few expectations when it came to baby sleep, behaviour and developmental milestones. He was a very alert baby, so much so that he hardly slept. At three months, he began rolling and then quickly went on to the task of figuring out how to […]