Mumsnet bedtime stories

On a rare night out last week I was invited to attend the launch for Mumsnet Book of Bedtime Stories. It was one of the few times I've been into town after dark and there was wine and everything !

The book is the result of a competition that invited Mumsnet and Gransnet members to submit bedtime stories to be chosen for this compilation. I did consider sending in a story, but it's devilish difficult to actually write a story for kids ! Michael Rosen whittled down the twenty shortlisted stories to the ten that appear in the book and it must have been very hard to choose. I don't envy him the decision, but what a fun job to do.

The authors were all at the launch and I got most (if not all) of them to sign a book for my boy. I also chatted to some of the illustrators about the fact that the stories look absolutely beautiful and they are all so different. There is a nice range of styles and age ranges in this book so it will last for a while and would make a wonderful gift to give a child, a parent or grandparent or anyone who loves picture books.

I'm going to give a copy to Mother-in-law so that my boy has one for when he stays with her. It's like having ten picture books in one - a space saver too !! I'd suggest it would also work to take on holiday so you don't have to carry lots of books to keep your little ones entertained. I can see this book becoming a firm favourite in our house and I'm delighted I got to talk to some of the people who created it. It's inspired me to give writing a children's story a go, but I've got a long way to go before I'm as good as these guys ! 

Thank you to Hannah from Mumsnet for inviting me to the book launch :o)

The 10 winning stories (in author alphabetical order) are:

• Polly the Jumping Cow by Jools Abrams-Humphries 
• Bedtime at the Lighthouse by Philip Bell
• Time for Bed by Michelle Eckhaus
• The Night Thief and the Moon by Katherine Latham
• A Parcel for Theo by Claire McCauley
• Princess Imogen's Independent Day by Christine O'Neill
• The Dancing Bear by Suzy Robinson
• The Sheriff of Rusty Nail by Sophie Wills
• Celeste Who Sang to the Stars by Kate Wilson
• Allie to the Rescue by Helen Yendall

If you are looking for a special and beautiful present for a child (or a grandparent) Click here to buy the book from Amazon

Disclosure: This is a personal review of the book - I was not paid to attend, but I did get a free book.

And the gold medal for saying new words goes to...

Ok, so we're all feeling the post-Olympic love right now and it's all about celebration and it's ok to be competitive. In the spirit of pride and achievement I'm sharing while acknowledging that no-one likes a show off.

I was wildly impressed at hearing my son sing nursery rhymes - in tune - without any assistance on the long drive back from my parents sitting in traffic. He also surprised me and Hubbie by counting to ten (with some help) and as I prompted him he kept smiling shyly at me as if to say "alright then I do know how to do this really." I don't want to make him 'perform' for us, but I do love it when he does something entirely new and clever - which seems to be every day at the moment.

We have done our bit in talking to him all the time, but not everything we've done has the desired effect. Despite our vain attempts to try and influence him to sound a bit posher than we do he has developed an accent entirely of his own making. He says 'boat' and 'coach' like he's from the West Country (well his grandparents live in Hampshire, but they don't talk like that either !)

It's that balance between being a pushy parent and being wildly proud when he does something that we are wowed by. At almost two he uses new words every day and copies everything so his vocabulary is pretty vast. Words my son uses now include:

Nani (my Mum) and Nana (my Dad). He's said Grandma and Grandpa for a while now - probably because the let him get a word in edgeways. Unlike my family who bombard him with praise, cuddles and kisses the minute they see him.

Of course he knows the names of all the characters on Cbeebies - he also now says 'Bye bye' to them when the progammes finish.

When my Mum and brother were babysitting him the other night he said 'night night' as they put him to bed.

He says 'nursewy' without being traumatised by it, which is a good sign I think.

His favourite programme is 'whyme wocket' and he can identify the rhyming words (eg. mouse and house which I heard him saying while I was washing up the other day) - that just blows my mind !

Phil - the neighbour who can't pronounce my son's name gets called while his wife Jill is put out as she thought he was saying her name when she heard him calling out in our garden.

Snow - a new word this. For obvious reasons it's not been so relevant lately, but he has the basics of a conversation with any English person as he knows 'waining' and (s)'now.' If I can teach him 'parky' and 'a bit muggy' we're there.

'copter - which covers helicopters and the plane that Aunt Mabel flies in the kids programme 'Come Outside'

I'm touched by him saying 'sowwy,' although I realise at this stage he is merely parroting me rather than making a heartfelt apology for throwing his spoon across the room

Most impressive of all though is the word he's only said twice. Once at Naniji's house when he was busy emptying a toy box onto the floor and we weren't entirely sure we had heard it right. The second time in the car on the way home - accompanied by a prescient teenage eye roll. He said his own name. This may not sound like much, but my son has a pretty tricky name for a toddler to say. He said it very clearly and with some pride. Hubbie then proceeded to push him to say all his other names. He has four of them - I know pretentious, moi ?

Now that's a competitive Dad for you !

My childhood love of Michael Rosen is rekindled...

Like 18,882 other people I follow Michael Rosen on Twitter. You know him, the poet who wrote for children and performed on television and radio when you were little. The man who told us it was cool to read books and that we were not nerds at all.

Well, he has serious concerns about what is happening to education at the moment - and who can blame him - so I sent him an email this evening outlining a few of my thoughts. Imagine how flabbergasted I was when he replied less than half an hour later asking if he could include my comments on his blog !

He's put them on his blog and now I'm putting them on my blog (which is a curious form of cannibalism surely ?) Anyway, what a lovely man and still the most important advocate for children and reading this country has.

http://michaelrosenblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/letter-from-parent-of-2-year-old.html

If you want to follow him: http://michaelrosenblog.blogspot.com and http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk