The more you read, the more you will know...

On the way home from dance yesterday, Honey told me that she was the best teacher in our whole house. After a slight panic that I was going to be out of a job, I observed her giving Ace a phonics lesson and I have to agree that she’s pretty good! Learning to read has been such a revelation for Honey, she is chuffed to bits every time she finishes a book, reads a story in her comic or a deciphers a sign while we're out, and feeling confident with phonics has been instrumental in her reading journey.

We were asked to try out the Read with Phonics app a few weeks ago and Honey has been working to complete it at her own pace ever since. For context, Honey is now in year 1 and already has a solid grounding in phonics, so much of the app acted as revision for her, which is no bad thing at all based on the ‘use it or lose it’ school of thought!

Yesterday, Honey showed Ace how to navigate the different islands and recognised that he would need to start with the most basic sounds. The app is arranged in the same order that your child will start to learn their sounds during the EYFS, beginning with satpin and moving cohesively through the rest of the sounds, finishing with digraphs and split digraphs. Children can gain points by completing the games and activities and can level up, which Honey found really motivational and exciting.

The app is intuitive, therefore easy for children to use without lots of support and it provides a range of engaging games and activities which Honey explained to Ace and then helped him to try. At 2 1/2, we are not actively teaching Ace phonics, but he does get roped into being Honey’s pupil fairly often, so it’s lovely for him to have such a visually appealing app to navigate under her guidance.

Honey says... I think that this app is good for anyone in Reception class or older children who might find phonics a little bit tricky. I give the app 5 stars because it is very colourful and the games are fun! 

You can download the app from App Store, Google Play, Amazon or you can play online.

* Although we were lucky enough to have the in app purchases unlocked free of charge for the purposes of this review, all thoughts and opinions expressed are our own.

Honey wears... Rainbow jumper dress by Next

Tuppence a bag...

One of Honey's first words was bird and Ace loves anything that can fly, so agreeing to review Nick Baker's Window Bird Feeder distributed by Interplay UK Limited was a no brainer.

The feeder came in a compact box (simple to wrap up as a Christmas present FYI) which was easy to open and required no extra equipment to get in to. The feeder came with an instruction booklet which is broken into clear, easy to follow steps. Each step accompanied by an annotated diagram which is great if you prefer to follow visuals. 

Following the instructions, it took around 5 minutes to put the feeder together. During this time, I was able to chat to Ace about the different shapes and colours of the various components and ask him to find parts that matched my descriptions, which he loved doing.

The finished article is a good looking, neat product which wasn't at all obtrusive once added to our patio door. We added some seeds and hoped for the best, but unfortunately, our garden is a wildlife free zone most of the time and even after a week, we didn't spot any birds. 

Honey, Ace and I had a chat about why birds might not be coming to our feeder and their ideas were:

- They don't like the food.

- They don't like the garden.

- They're scared because they can see us playing inside.

After our chat, we decided to move the feeder to the playhouse window, as Honey thought that they could hide behind the curtains to peek at any feathered friends who may decide to visit. Ace wanted to try offering the birds some bread instead of seeds so he grabbed a crust and tore it into more manageable chunks. Alas, still no birds after a few days of waiting (and some optimistic trails laid out by Ace), but I guess that's the peril of having an artificial lawn and only one (barely) living plant in the garden! It's great for year round play and is incredibly low maintenance, but it's not very attractive for animals.

The instruction booklet also includes some suggestions about they types of food that can be used to attract birds, as well as ideas for positioning the feeder to try and get the best results. Our next step is to take the feeder round to my parent's house as they already have a well established bird feeding station and plenty of yummy looking (if you're a bird of course) bird food options.

Another great feature of the instruction book is the glossary of birds (complete with fact file and pictures), so you can extend the learning beyond the garden and spot different species when you're out and about too! Honey wanted to tick off some of the birds we saw in the park and in town and we also chatted about some of the birds we were unlikely to see at the moment and why that might be. 

My only very slight niggle with this product, was that each piece came in an individual plastic bag which seemed unnecessary as we just opened everything all at once and laid it all out on the floor so we could see it more clearly!

We will let you know how the feeder gets on in its new home, oh and a little bird (groan) tells us that some of the other products in the My Living World range from Interplay may suit our little garden down to the ground... Snail World was made for us as we have always, inexplicably had an abundance of snails here and Honey is just desperate to keep them as pets!

*Although we were gifted this product in order to write a review, all thoughts and opinions within this blog are my own.

Ace wears... Dinosaur top by Blade and Rose @ Cotswold Baby Co