Book Review; 1000 things to make and do

The very lovely Book People sent me this beautiful arty children's book to review. It is Usborne's 1000 things to make and do which is aimed at children aged 5 and over. 

The book is filled with creative ideas, mostly things to draw, ideas for collage, cutting, doodling and painting. I was impressed with the range of ideas to suit older children as well as little ones. All the pages are full colour and the book is ring bound so it stays open on the table.

How to draw a jungle scene in silhouette.

There are also ideas to suit both boys and girls, and plenty of seasonal pages which would be great for both home educators and primary school teachers.

Thumbprint snowmen.

I think the illustrations are great, showing a variety of colours and styles.

How to make a collaged doodle page.

I roped in my son Anthony to test one of the ideas; he chose collage robots which involved cutting out pictures from magazines and also sticking on things like safety pins.

Greenhouse feet!

And I also used one of the pages for inspiration and made this card by cutting out rough circles and sewing a button on top.

I really like this book, and can see myself using it both for myself and for the children. It would make a lovely present for a creative child and offers great value for money.

Pooh's Yummy Cookbook - tried and tested!

I'm very excited about this post because it's my first review for The Book People who sell loads of books at great prices, for little people, middle-sized people and grown up people too!

 So here is the first book they sent us - Pooh's Yummy Cookbook which is aimed at children aged 5 and over. Anthony is 7 next week so I quickly enlisted his help.

The book is nice and colourful with wipe clean pages, some Pooh stories, and 8 recipes. These recipes are all child friendly sweet treats, like cookies, pancakes and brownies. Anthony chose to make the "hunny cake."

The first instruction for this recipe was to separate 3 eggs; Anthony loves cracking eggs and did a pretty good job of this. He also weighed out all of the ingredients on his own but these are all recipes which require parental help and supervision.

Look at that speedy stirring!!

Poppy popped by to help with the mixing too.

The egg whites were whisked until white and fluffy, then folded into the yolks, sugar and honey mixture.

Ready for the oven!

Ta-dah!

We decorated it with icing and sprinkles, because all good cake has icing and sprinkles!

And then we all had a slice! Very yummy it was too, which is the most important thing about a recipe book!!

One of the nicest things about this book is that after each recipe there are pages to fill in. Anthony really liked asking everyone what they thought and writing about making the cake.

I think this feature would definitely encourage children to use these recipes.

There are also other pages to write on; about ideas for snacks, drawing pattern designs on a cake, a list of favourite foods.

Now it is a time for a confession... I actually don't like Winnie the Pooh!  I have to say though that this book is rather nice, and would make a lovely present for a child's birthday.