Book reviews

February 24th, 2018

After I told Oscar about my favourite book from my childhood, he asked that I read it to him, and so began our nightly habit of reading books without pictures that are probably mostly (but not enitrely!) going over his head. Having said that, even Joshua picks up on plenty, despite falling asleep within minutes of me starting to read each night!

Many fascinating conversations spin out of these reading sessions.

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

It took us about 8 weeks to read the whole thing, and Oscar loved it. It’s a long book, but a fairly straightforward adventure plot. But lots of complex characters and events. His favourite bit is a big battle, where all the groups Lyra has met come together to save the children.

There are 2 more books in this trilogy, but the story and concepts get even more complex, so I’m trying to be patient before reading them!

The B.F.G.

We didn’t enjoy that one as much. It’s a very slow pace!

La Belle Sauvage

Philip Pullman started another trilogy of books in Lyra’s world, and the first was released in 2017. It’s set before Northern Lights. We loved this one, too. Lots of interesting concepts including freedom and morality.

Oscar’s favourite bit is how the Gyptians know the flood is coming, but no one else believes it… and then, of course, the flood does come.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine l’Engle

Apparently this is a popular book in America; often read in middle school. I’d not heard of it, but turns out the movie adaptation is coming out in a few weeks! It was on a list of good children’s books, so we tried it out. We enjoyed this one a lot, too. Quite different to what I expected, and I’m quite intrigued to see how the movie turns out.

There are lots more books in this series too, so I expect we’ll come back to this one at some point.

The Hithchiker’s Guide to The Galaxy

I really didn’t expect this one to go down well, but the kids enjoyed it. They liked the computers and robots with “realistic” personalities (including Marvin the utterly depressed android, and the spaceship’s computer that’s always faaar to cheerful). They were both in fits of giggles at the computer singing during a crisis.

Oscar seems interested in robots, aliens, and various types of intelligent creatures. On reflection… I guess that’s a theme running through all these books so far!

Next we’re trying out I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov. We’ll report back in a couple of weeks what we think of that one.

Wind up Robot

May 8th, 2017

I love the retro wind up robot we got at the science museum today.

Logical leaps

August 12th, 2016

Tonight, Oscar was a it worried about robbers coming in the night to take his toys. We had a chat about it, including police, and jobs and how robbers rob because they can’t get a job… It all culminated in this set of logical leaps by Oscar.

“I want to be a policeman when I’m big, to tell the robbers what to do. They rob because they can’t get a job. Maybe I can tell them what job to get. Oh, except I don’t know much about that… But they could be a policeman! … No. That won’t work. If they’re all police, then there’ll be no robbers. An then what will the police do?”

“Oh, what do the police do when there’s no robbers?”

“I don’t know. We haven’t got to that level yet, have we, Daddy”

“Hmm. Maybe you can think about it a bit more. But now it’s time to go to sleep!”

Finding glitches

April 3rd, 2016

Disneyland 2015

November 17th, 2015

We all went to Disneyland Paris for my birthday. Nan-Nan and Aunty Sarah joined us, and Oscar especially loved playing lego with Nan-Nan!

We got on lots of rides, and everyone did a great job of queuing.

We had an extra special breakfast, with Mickey Mouse, Tigger, and friends dropping in to say “Hi”, and play with Oscar’s toys. Read the rest of this entry »

Fish food!

November 17th, 2015

This is Joshua’s favourite game at the moment: he goes in the cupboard to get the fish food to feed the fish, but if it’s not time to feed them yet, then instead he takes the food out and puts it back in to the box. Repeat.

He smells like fish 🐟🐠

Macaroons on the beach

September 5th, 2015

Oscar’s escapades

September 3rd, 2015

“Yesterday, the Sun killed me. I died and then my true potential came out and I became a super hero!”

  • Oscar

The many poses of Oscar (aged 3 ½)

September 3rd, 2015

Read the rest of this entry »

Weekend with the boys

July 21st, 2015

I looked after Oscar and Joshua all day without Mummy for the first time! We had lots of fun, plenty of food, drink and naps. And almost enough nappy changes and goes on the toilet.

We watched Iron Giant (good and exciting, but unlike Big Hero 6 failed to make Oscar cry when the robot sacrifices himself.)

And we went to my old park, which was good, although a little worse for wear! Read the rest of this entry »