The best $13.95 I've spent in a while

We are now the happy owners of the best activity book in the world - Recycling things to make and do. I bought it at around 1pm yesterday at the Botantic Gardens bookshop and it has kept us occupied for at least 3 of the 30 hours that have since elapsed! I knew it was a top purchase when the guy working at the shop told me sotto voce "this is a really good book".

The book shows you how to make things using stuff you have lying around home and in your recyling bin. I've been hoarding shiny paper, wrapping paper, ribbon, small cartons and wool of varied textures for the last 10 years, just waiting for a book like this to come along. Last night Ben and I made 3 robots from the 'Robot Collage' page. We used cardboard, shiny paper, pipe cleaners and ribbon that was wrapped around a bunch of flowers. Grandma Bo and Papa Karl came over today and were ushered into Ben's room to admire the 'bots as soon as they arrived.

Then this morning I was woken up and dragged to the kitchen table to make a 'Castle desk tidy'. It's a work in progress but I will post a picture when we've finished. We have used the bottom of a nappy box, a Sirena tuna box, 2 toilet rolls and half a Vita Weets box. I'm going to incorporate some egg cartons and Tamar Valley mini yoghurts plastic in the design too. The instructions suggest spray-painting the boxes once you've assembled them in castle formation, which I really want to do because I have red spray paint, but then again I don't think Benji could cope with the excitement of spray-painting.

Now I'm in a complete recycling zone - checking out anything and everything lying around the house and wondering what little marvel could be made out of it. I wonder whether the Reverse Garbage Truck still exists?

Recycling Things to Make and Do is by Emily Bone and Leonie Pratt and designed and illustrated by Josephine Thompson

Where's my teddy?

We have read most of the books we currently have on loan from the library and so far Where's My Teddy? is Ben's second-favourite. The Birthday Box is still leading the charge.

I selected this book because it was one of my favourites for preschool storytime. It's about Eddy who loses his teddy called Freddy in the dark woods. Eddy bravely goes into the woods to look for Freddy but his fear turns to confusion when he comes across a gigantic teddy sitting in a clearing. He's trying to work out how Freddy got so big when he hears loud crying - it's a big brown bear looking for his own teddy. And tucked under the big brown bear's arm is Freddy!

So Eddy and the big brown bear do a quick swap - they're clearly scared of each other - and then run home to their snuggly beds. I adore the illustrations on the last page which show the big brown bear in bed clutching his teddy and then Eddy in bed clutching Freddy, both with looks on their faces as if to say "That was close!".

Turning to my new Good Book For A 2yo Boy Checklist, this book rhymes, has a scary part, requires the reader to shout "HELP!" and ends with bedtime (albeit uneasily). The illustrations deserve special mention because Eddy's emotions are clearly visible as he goes into the woods, finds the gigantic teddy, swaps bears and lands in bed. There's also an illustration of the dark, empty woods at the start and the end of the story which we ponder over for a minute or two, wondering what's in there...


And just to prove how much Benji loves this book he interrupted me during the writing of this paragraph to read Where's My Teddy?. We have also been reading No More Bottles For Bunny and the enigmatic Potty Time. More about them next time.

Where's My Teddy? is by Jez Alborough

Camping (and books)

We are back from our 5-day Easter camping extravanganza and I am pleased to say we had a great time. Ben took to outdoor life like a duck to water which meant I had a great time too - even got to have a snooze in the hammock! We went to a place called the Glasshouse on the shores of Lake Tyers, about 20km past Lakes Entrance. No running water, no toilets but lots and lots of fresh clean air and sunshine.

I knew nature would keep Benji entertained, nonetheless I took some toy cars, playdough, a full pencil case, a battery-operated DVD player with 3 DVDs (including Madagascar), a colouring book and a pile of softcover books. He ended up playing with everything but the cars and I am hoping some wombat isn't choking on dried up playdough pellets aka 'cakes' as we speak.

I didn't want the books to get wrecked so they weren't allowed to leave the tent, which was in fact a camper trailer. What a godsend and a must for toddler-camping! Happily the books returned home intact - we didn't take library ones just in case.

The days were filled with Ben pottering around having the time of his life: playing on the beach, in the sand dunes, by the lake, driving the car (yes, Ian gave him a driving lesson), trotting around after his heroes Birdie and Carol and lots of hammering and tinkering with the bolts, screws and handles hanging off the camper trailer. On Sunday morning we had an Easter egg hunt which went down well as one would expect. Everything a 2 year old boy could ask for!

After his evening socialising round the campfire we trekked off to the tent for bedtime storytime with our old friends Ernie, Rosie, Hairy Maclary, Spot, etc. I was very glad he had something familiar to fall asleep with as even the pyjamas he was wearing were new ones I had bought for cold nights.

Sadly we didn't see much wildlife, which I attribute to the presence of lots of family pets. At one point we spotted someone's Jack Russell halfway up a tree - hilarious, but not if you're a bird. Oh well, at least the Easter Bunny found us!