Because it isn’t just the playing with it that captivates her. The story does it too. It’s irresistible, a story of friendship in the most unlikely places, of loss and of redemption, if that doesn’t sound too grand for a picture book aimed at two, three or four year olds. And much as she enjoys the playing, the page she returns to time after time is the one where the friends find each other and share a big hug.

And to be honest, you can’t go far wrong with that. At the moment, the penguin is our bedtime companion, and I’m quite happy with that.

Disclosure we were fortunate to be supplied this free for review.

For my smartphone that is letting me quietly blog next to the restless baby, shop I don’t have to sneak away and risk disturbing her.

For the camping reading light that dp bought for my birthday so I can lie here and read when I’m done blogging.

For the nightlight that will keep her company when I do wander off to get a drink.

Oh yes, technology is good.

I want to host a carnival of differences. I’d like your posts and stories about disability, mental health, life with (or indeed without) benefits. Your personal stories about your problems, triumphs, highs and lows to share with my readers.

I’d very much like if we could make this a shared carnival – by which I mean that I’d like to send out the formatted links for you all to add to the end of your posts, so that ppl can hop through it all from wherever they find it, giving us all much more chance to publicise it. The only caveat I’d give is that this is a family friendly blog, so I don’t swear on it, and if your post contains strong language I’d like to be able to mention that in the link.

Is this something that anyone would be up for joining in with? I’d like to publish Thurs 16th so I’d need posts by next Tues 14th.

Please, this is our chance to win hearts and minds, and show what effect the wrb is likely to have on individuals, families and children. I have readers who don’t know what Disability Living allowance is, or why it matters, and I’d like to shine a light on that, but from a personal point of view. If you’re up for the challenge, please take a moment and drop me a line with a post. You can contact me through the comment form below or via my contact form. I’m also on twitter (often!) as liveotherwise, and can accept posts via tweets.

I picked up a conversation about this book on twitter last week and was intrigued by the title. And then very grateful to be sent a copy for review. I was still so intrigued that I read it over the weekend, and had a few twitter conversations about it along the way.

It’s written in an observational or anecdotal style, but peppered with references to scholarly articles and research. The author is an American living in Paris with her British husband, and along the way, studying the differences between the parenting that she sees around her, and the parenting that she inherited and sees in her Anglophone friends and relatives.

There are many thought provoking differences. Some of them leapt out at me – particularly the idea that French babies sleep through the night from around 2 months old. I’ve never had a child sleep through from anything like that young, and the prospect of another couple of years of broken nights stretching ahead of me is depressing me horribly. So how is this achieved and is it anything I can emulate?

It appears that the process is one of leaving the baby to self soothe from around 2 months. French parents, it would seem, observe their children and their rhythms, and are aware that babies disturb every couple of hours, but if they are left to it, will soothe themselves back to sleep without assistance.

This however, contradicts everything I know about how you maintain a good breastfeeding relationship – as I understand it those middle of the night feeds are very important for building supply. Which leads to a second point – apparently breastfeeding isn’t big in Paris. I can’t find stats for this online, but it’s stated in the book that French women just aren’t hung up on it – they see formula as just as good in the developed world as breastmilk, and can’t quite see why someone would beat themselves up over it.

I’d like to look into this further. There are things about French parenting that sound like a fantastic idea – not least the suggestion that French children eat proper food pretty much from scratch. I can see how this is achieved – Smallest has a far wider range of acceptable foods simply by having been fed pretty much whatever we were eating, and from sitting up at the table with us from early on. I’ve never seen her throwing food either – she managed to knock her bowl off the table a couple of nights ago and it’s the first time I can recall her doing so pretty much ever.

All in all, I found this an absolutely fascinating recounting of our nearest neighbours and how they parent – with some tips that I’ll be considering further, but I’d also like to research some of the counterpoints further. I’d love a sleeping baby, but not if it jeopardises breastfeeding. As far as I’m concerned, that’s always been my parenting line in the sand.

I managed to get her back to sleep by cuddling her, but that meant she was lying on my arm, so I couldn’t get comfortable again, so even though I spent another hour in bed, it wasn’t good for me. So I hobbled miserably around the house all morning, and vacillated over a nap or a shower but got interrupted by the toddler while heading for bed, so in the end I did neither, got dressed and went into town.

Against all expectations, the walk in the bracing (ok, somewhat below freezing) wind seemed to sort my hip out and I got back in time to do yet more washing up and washing and then make popcorn for Family Film Night.

So we watched a film and then we had tea, and now I’m trying to chivvy the children into bed.

Just a normal Saturday really.

Shame? I don’t get it. I view getting something with a yellow sticker on as an achievement. So I’ve been watching the 2lb christmas cakes with a best before date of Jan 31st like a hawk, and when their original yellow stickers of half price were halved again, I had two of them. Come on, fruitcake that is going to go off within a month? I think not. This stuff lasts forever, not that it’s going to get a chance in this house. We’re half way through the first one already – I knew I should have had more than two. I assume as they are past best before date the supermarket will have chucked them all out now Waste of good food, but that isn’t what this rant is about.

Is it really shameful to try to get something on the cheap? Like many other families at the moment, we’re watching our pennies. So apart from the things which I *have* to buy, my first port of call in any supermarket visit is the reduced section. So we had rice pudding made with gold top milk on Tuesday night – the milk was reduced to 64p for a litre, which made just about enough wonderfully creamy rice pudding to satisfy my entire family and tasted way better than the best tinned brand, which would have cost way more.

Was that a triumph or should I be hanging my head and not mentioning it? Is it because it’s food – I regularly see ppl recount sale triumphs for other items.

Whatever it’s about I don’t get it – anyone care to explain?

We were sent both these books for review from Barrington Stoke. Their website says “Struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers deserve the best books available” and that is what they are aiming to produce. Both these books are written in relatively simple direct language, but with good strong story lines and characters – I hoped they would work for Small, who tends to like ideas above his chronological age, but gets turned off by overly wordy books, even though his vocabulary and ability are well up there. I think basically his tolerance level for waffling is low

I read both books first and was impressed. They don’t read like easy books, if that makes any sense, they aren’t talking down to ppl. I particularly enjoyed My name is O, although I thought Pale was an interesting concept, and proposed some intriguing moral questions. And I expected Small to feel much the same.

Turned out I was totally wrong – he felt that O was utterly implausible and really enjoyed Pale. Having said that, a 50% hit rate where he is concerned is pretty good going – he is what could be called a tough audience

So, what did I like about the books?

The premise of My name is O is good. The characterisation is excellent and I thought plausible (opinion of my 8 year old notwithstanding) and it carries along nicely. Aimed at a reluctant reader the story should draw them in without the book being too long and offputting, which I think is the strength of the story. And it isn’t so short that you feel shortchanged either. All in all, it requires a lot of discipline to put across this kind of material in this format, and I think the author, Sam Enthoven has done it well. And I’d have thought that the story would have reasonably universal appeal, not being so male oriented as to be offputting for girls.

Pale is more challenging in some ways. The concept is a morally difficult one – would you rescue someone from death if it meant that they would be ostracised and hated? Even though you’d get to keep them. I’d expected this to be above Small’s level in some ways, but he preferred it, and we had some interesting discussions afterwards, so it definitely worked as a thought provoking novel. Again it’s strongly written but doesn’t feel contrived or shoehorned in, and I’d be very happy to look for other books for Small from this publisher and author.

Disclosure – books were sent free for purposes of review, and links above are affiliate.

For the Thursday evening I chose Blossom maternity jeans (supplied free for review) teamed with a slightly dressy nursing top from Mama Feels Good that works very well as maternity garb.

(You’re going to have to cope without pictures of me I’m afraid, I completely forgot to take any!) The jeans I have are grey and ever so soft, and a cut above the usual maternity jeans I’ve got. They make me feel dressed up and smart, though I do confess that at this stage of pregnancy they are beginning to struggle to stay in place if I do anything like walking any distance. By over 7 months though, it probably is time to be thinking of over the bump bands. I like them enough that I soldier on through this – or just wear them when I’m not going to be all that active

On Friday I pushed the boat out and wore a dress! Again, it’s a dual purpose maternity/ nursing dress, this time from Jojomamanbebe Mine is a burgundy, which doesn’t seem to be listed on the site, unless it’s actually grape. I bought it for the ThreeUK mum blogger event last year and it’s stood me in good stead, travels well, and I’ll get more wear out of it later this year when I’m nursing again.

So there you go, two days in a row when I got all dressed up. Enjoy – it doesn’t happen very often!

I do like teen fiction. But not stereotyped teen fiction. So I was a tiny bit nervous about this as it fits into the current vogue for dystopian fiction and I was afraid it might turn out to be a bit samey.

Fortunately my fears were unfounded. Dystopian it might be, but Sara Grant’s first novel is well written, and follows in a proud tradition. It brought to mind both Nineteen Eighty-four and The Handmaid’s Tale, though wasn’t quite as depressing as either.

In fact, by the time I reached the end of the story, my only real complaint was that the cover, and the title are a little misleading. Beautiful, catchy and all the rest, but not desperately relevant to the story. And having seen a lot of teen fiction covers recently, the trend for heroines in ball dresses means that this won’t stand out, which is rather a shame.

So, what’s it about? Neva lives under the Protectosphere, a forcefield that keeps her limited world safe from the dangers outside. At the age of 16 she is suddenly adult and life changes – but she isn’t sure that she trusts the authorities, the party line, or indeed her parents any more. So where to go from here? Neva and her friends decide they have to make a difference. How much of a difference to their futures they can’t begin to imagine.

Plot without spoilers, how’s that? There’s a little romance or at least some tension, but as the main characters are 16, it would be very odd if there weren’t some hormones floating around. It doesn’t distort or feel out of place. A little violence, but again, completely in keeping with the plot. It’s written first person current tense, which is not a style I’m particularly fond of usually, but Sara Grant draws you in effortlessly and it works well.

I’m not sure I’d be too happy handing this to Big to read right now – but she is only just 12. Some of the later happenings are disconcerting and unpleasant – it depends on how your (pre)teen deals with that sort of thing. There are echoes of slave escapes and references that brought to mind communist work camps and one scene unpleasantly reminiscent of descriptions of holocaust camps (I assume on purpose!) – it’s definitely a thought provoking novel.

All in all, I highly recommend it and I will certainly be watching for this author’s next works with interest.

Disclosure: received free from publisher Orion in return for review. All views my own.

I could go into a long and impassioned blogpost about how I perceive the rights and wrongs of this, blind you with arithmetic as the government is doing, but I think what is needed is quick bullet points and even quicker action.

What’s on the line:
They’ve time limited financial support for ppl with cancer. That’s something that could happen to any of us. And the new proposals imply that you wouldn’t be able to apply for some benefits until 6 months after your illness begins. Macmillan responded on this a year ago, as far as I can tell the government didn’t listen. So you could be having chemo and receive no support after being assessed fit for work. Sound OK?

The same time limiting applies to ppl with mental health issues. The government allowed a year. Lords pushed it up to two, but government are threatening to reduce it back again. This is another thing that can happen in any family. Will you support Mind?

That benefits cap. The government hasn’t compared like with like – the average salary that they’ve quoted could attract some of the very benefits that they are trying to cap. And as for saying that removing child benefit from the cap would push the benefits received up to 50,000 – well, you’d need 34 children to achieve that. Good luck with that, you world record breakers, you! And the cap is addressing a problem that doesn’t really exist – it isn’t the ppl on benefits that receive a huge slice of that money, it’s landlords charging exorbitant rents. Sound fair to you? Read around on it.

Disability living allowance. The budget is being cut by 20% on an in work benefit that currently has a fraud rate of 0.5%. So at the moment we deem those ppl disabled enough to require assistance – somehow they are becoming less disabled? I doubt it. It needs more careful consideration, and the government is just steam rollering these changes through. It could be any of us tomorrow – all it takes is an accident.

Take Action:
If any of these issues spur you on to take action, there are a couple of quick and easy things you can do.

You can sign @patspetition it needs 100,000 signatures for them to take notice. That’s not a lot, and it’s at 27000 already. But can we reach the target in a day? That’s more of a challenge, but I believe it’s doable. Ppl signed to get Hester to give up his bonus, didn’t they?

Email your MP to support the Lords Amendments. You can use Write to them or the form on Suey2y‘s blog.

Tweet in support of #spartacusreport and @patspetition Raise awareness, spread the word.

Want more information before you decide what to do? There’s a huge number of blogposts out there about all this. Some are here on LoveAllBlogs. You could google #spartacusreport and see what else you turn up – there’s huge amounts of material, personal stories out there on blogs.

Please, please, don’t let this moment pass. Please take action.

Hm. It’s difficult to see how much there is in there as it’s not in bin liners. But I’d estimate that’s around three small liners/ carrier bags full. The shameful part is that probably a quarter of it is tetrapaks, which can be recycled locally, I just haven’t managed to sort out how we’re going to store them before we recycle them.

*blush*

I’ve got another photo on the phone of the target area in the kitchen, but I forgot to bring the cable to get it off. So I’ll add that one later. Basically what I need is a three bin system – one for rubbish, one for recycling that gets collected and one for things we’ve got to recycle ourselves. So that’s tomorrow’s task, along with having a long hard think about our shopping habits -the challenge that Karen has set for week 2. My difficulty there is budget. At the moment, shopping is done in a number of shops and everything is aimed at getting the best price. I *could* shop at our local greengrocer and get no plastic wrapping around our fruit and veg, but that would cost a lot more than the £2 for 14 apples that I got at Iceland the other day.

Perhaps the other alternative is to see if there’s any way of recycling those plastic bags…

I’ve done a lot of craft through the years with Big. We’ve done first hama, midi hama, knitting, sewing, used bead looms and knitting looms, tried out origami and paper making (messy and the results really aren’t that good). She can crochet, and use a sewing machine – she’s basically very proficient.

With Small it isn’t so straightforward. He’s done a few rows of knitting, spread over several years, and some hama beading a while back, he quite likes Fimo, but that’s his lot. A few weeks back at our regular history etc meetup he was offered sewing and you’d have thought we’d offered him poison. He certainly didn’t do any of the hand embroidery that Big is slowly getting in to – turns out her cross stitch Christmas present really was appreciated, phew.

So what do you do with boys? I’m stumped. It’s not that I haven’t offered him the opportunities I’ve offered Big – I have. He just isn’t interested in this kind of crafty stuff. Is it because it’s seen as traditionally more female? I don’t think so. I tried to win him over with stories of fishermen knitting their Aran sweaters, although when I researched this, I discovered that most of it seems to be a myth

I explained that many of the men around him are perfectly capable with a needle and thread, and had the able assistance of two other boys demonstrating this – he still wasn’t impressed. I’m not sure what to do – the type of dexterity required for many of the crafts eludes him, which could be part of the problem, but at the same time, it would be excellent if I could get him doing them, as he could do with building up the strength in his wrists and hands anyway.

All suggestions greatfully accepted. Am I just approaching it the wrong way with him? Is there a fabulous craft out there that will win over his heart?

I read the forbes article on the #twitterblackout, and thought, yes, censorship is bad, must help send a message to twitter. So I blogged a quick mention, tweeted a couple of times, and then shut myself down. Twitching.

This morning, I couldn’t resist a peek, though I didn’t tweet. I did see a couple of ppl share a new perspective, thinking that the new policy is actually good for activists as it’s completely transparent and hidden tweets are only hidden within the originating country.

Hm, I’m still not sure. And overall I decided that if I’m so addicted to twitter the idea of a day off sets me twitching (and peeking from behind the curtains) a day off is precisely what I need. So I’m still (sort of) supporting the #twitterblackout – at the very least it raises awareness of the issues, and discussion is good. I’m not ignoring you on there today – I’m testing my self control

In completely unrelated news, I seem to have been quite productive so far today. It’s not even lunchtime and I’m dressed, showered, slathered in the lovely new Palmers massage lotion for stretch marks I was given yesterday (apparently I smell nice, says Big, and I certainly feel nicely pampered ), I’ve breakfasted, done a load of washing and spread it to dry around the house, and I’m fighting again with the loan iphone trying to recover the photos and videos I took so I can send it back.

Honestly, I know that ppl love these devices – I can’t see why. I’ve tried syncing the thing and I can’t see where in itunes it hides the pics or vids, if it does pull them off at all. I’m now trying to clear them off using the Windows Scanner and Camera thingummy as recommended on apple’s site, and that isn’t working either. So far it’s been at it over 40 minutes and has managed to copy across 6 items out of 35. I have *never* had any problems getting things of any of the Nokia or Android phones I’ve reviewed or used.

As well as that, I’ve sorted out a voucher from topcashback so that I can order a couple of things from Amazon (a book for Big to review so that she can enter a reviewing competition, and a replacement relaxation CD for me to listen to in the hope I can boost my self hypnosis skills before birth). I love topcashback. They’ve put their referral fees up to £10, so if you join through my link I get £10 bonus when you’ve earned £5 (I think. Don’t know whether they’ve put that threshold up along with the referral bonus and can’t seem to find that info.) and you get an extra 5% on payout if you take it in Amazon vouchers. I use it against things like train tickets via the trainline, and spending at Baker Ross all mounts up!

And that’s about it for the day so far. Next task is to do some tidying and gather together all the books we’ve got for Our Year in Books so far (a disturbing amount. But there are 4 of us taking part.) And then I need to think about food and shopping, and maybe a lie down with my feet up at some stage. (And a book. Or three. As I seem to have a slightly ridiculous stash!)

And I want to work through my emails and draw myself up a task list – have started that a bit, and maybe take some more bits down to the charity shop, and perhaps work on several blog posts for several blogs, and I’d love to do some crafting and…

aren’t there a lot of hours in the day without twitter?

It was a fascinating experience. Great to meet with ppl I only knew online previously, good to catch up with a few ppl I had met before. But also fascinating to discover how many brands think so highly of bloggers that they’ll turn out to meet a handful of us.

Made me think carefully about what I’m doing. Expect more on that very soon…

More links to be added tomorrow, am far too tired to load up a real computer that would make adding them easy!

Oh, and don’t expect to see me on twitter tomorrow. (Unless of course I wake up and forget.) I’ll be joining the #twitterblackout against censorship. Yes, I’m twitching already… I may live blog the day instead.

But tired.  Trains will do that to you it seems.

I’m so tired of this. So tired of knowing more about the research on this than my midwife does. This is my fourth time approaching birth, though really only the third time of being this clued up. And each time I’ve had to educate another midwifery team.

It’s not difficult. It’s not rocket science. The research is available. It’s even part of the gold standard advised in this country that Hb levels aren’t the best way of judging anaemia, instead you should check Mcv (whatever that may be). I’m not anaemic. My blood has diluted nicely to support the placenta and baby, and I’m probably about ideal.

We will discount the weight gain though, as that does seem a little excessive.

I didn’t need this right now. Not that I’m sure anyone ever does.

Anyway, after you’ve read something like that, you want something completely different. So a parcel from ChocLitUk with a bar of chocolate and a book in was a very positive sign. And I have to say I loved this book. It’s unashamed chick lit, but also has a strong story line and plot as well as well drawn characters – I’m sure the main man, Devlin would turn my head in much the same way he did Kat’s

I enjoyed pretty much everything about it. I was surprised, halfway through, to discover that I was only halfway through, but the story doesn’t feel dragged out – there is plenty of material in there. I’ll avoid spoilers but there are some parts that you probably wouldn’t expect to find in your average chicklit – there’s a strong mystery storyline and some unexpected violence and gore. Not particularly graphic but more than you might expect in this genre.

The sex scenes are to be expected They are well written and really rather enjoyable. The romance isn’t trite, and the characters, particularly the females are strong – ChoclitUK I think specialises in thinking women’s books, rather than formulaic Mills and Boon style romance. It’s rather pleasant to read a book in this line where the women are independent and not desperate to find themselves a bloke.

This is Evonne Wareham’s debut novel, due to be released 8th March though you can pre-order from Amazon now, and on the strength of it, I’d definitely be happy to read more of her work. Especially if it comes with chocolate

*headdesk*. There’s a freedom of information request in already to get to the bottom of this one, and the education select committee have requested questions for Mr Gove be tweeted at them with the hashtag #askGove I’ve sent one in asking for clarification, and I’ve seen others on similar themes. Do feel free to aim them at Graham Stuart though, the more the merrier.

But let’s take a detailed look at the letter.

I don�t think any specific statute has been identified as yet, but Michael Gove as Secretary of State for Education has made it clear that he intends to introduce a requirement whereby home educated children will be linked to a school and their academic achievement will contribute to the schools results. Rightly or wrongly I believe that will mean an assessment based on exam results.

Yes, well. Let’s table that one until we get an answer from Mr Gove. But we’ll keep watching. We are always watching you.

I do agree with you that children�s needs can and should be met in different ways. But it is also important that appropriate measures are in place to ensure proper safeguarding. Sadly nobody actually knows the full extent of home education, but we do know that many more than the 823 children of which we are aware, are educated outside of traditional settings. Clearly there are many very sincere families that make considered decisions in the best interests of their children and that is to be welcomed. However, I am concerned that all children are given opportunity through education. Kent County Council will have to adhere to policy as laid down by Government but I can assure you that we fundamentally believe in a mixed economy of education provision of which home education is a contributor. The issue though has to be ensuring that an individual child�s needs are appropriately met and the child is adequately safeguarded. May I remind you that for many children from not just in Kent, that they are safest when they are at school.

Aargh!

It is the parent’s responsibility to ensure suitable (not just adequate!) education. It’s very lovely to think that this Kent cc employee is so caring about all children, but it’s completely irrelevant. Unless there is evidence to the contrary, parents are supposed to be trusted. And home education is *not* a safeguarding issue. Research done by home educators during the Badman report saga clearly showed that the risk to home educated children is half that for children in school. We won’t even mention the children who suffer from bullying and abuse in school, because obviously they are still safer there. (Oh, I did mention it. Ah well.)

The emphasis on educational attainment being measured through exam success does not in my opinion properly reflect the skills and abilities of all our children. Kent has had a policy of encouraging a vocational curriculum for those where such skills are more appropriate and we will continue with that.

That’s nice. It would be even nicer if it had a policy of supporting the choices of the children concerned regardless, but I guess that would be too much to ask for.

I am not and nor is KCC anti home education, we are increasing three fold the resources that we commit to supporting home educated children, but a major part of that is that we do need to know where all these children are and then ensure that they receive an appropriate education that meets their needs and helps to prepare them for adulthood.

No, no and thrice no. This is not the council’s role, there are no legal requirements that state this, the law requires a suitable education, not an appropriate education and it’s all the parent’s responsibility. Gah. Why is this so difficult for LAs to understand?

I am quite sure that any visit to yourself would demonstrate clearly the benefits of home education. It is the one to two thousand children who are outside of traditional settings and unknown to the authorities that concern me.

I love this. I call it the divide and conquer quote. Don’t worry, it isn’t home educators like *you* that we’re worried about. It’s all the other ones.

When will LAs learn to stay within the law – it’s really quite clear. When will they accept that the education and safeguarding of children is primarily a parental responsibility? When will they stop casting these aspersions of hidden abuse against families who are going about their lawful business, just getting on with their lives?

Home education is not a safeguarding issue. I am not neglecting or abusing my children, and I’d thank a variety of council employees around the country if they’d stop assuming I am.