Toys and Games, Uncategorized

Angry Birds Epic Game Review

We get Wesley Williams from FamilyGamerTV to go hands on with the Angry Birds Epic role-playing game on the iPad and delve deep into the first levels of Red’s quest to recover the stolen eggs from the evil Wiz Pig! Watch as we fight off a variety of King Pig’s subjects in turn-based battles, free Chuck from their evil clutches, explore our first dungeon and craft a new weapon with all the loot we acquire along the way.

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Language & Literature

Calling All (Reluctant) Bookworms

Em is a reader. A bookworm. She always has been, and always will be. Some people love to read, but some people don’t. Which are you? Maybe you are nagged by your parents and teachers for not reading enough. Perhaps reading is a chore, part of your homework assignment that you rush through, without enjoying because it has to be done. Would you like to learn to love reading? Em has some tips for you.

I really love reading. I mean, I really love reading. I learned to read when I was 4 years old, and I’ve never really stopped since. I used to amaze adults with my reading – I read classic Greek literature (translated, obviously) when I was 9 years old.

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Home, Health & Style

How Much Sleep Do Kids Need?

Julianne Robertson investigates the world of snoozes, forty winks, cat naps and snoring. What is SLEEP, why do we need it, and how much sleep do kids need?

 

A couple of nights ago I was feeling really, really tired, so I went to bed early.  I slept soundly, without even dreaming, until about 5am, when I woke up.  It felt like I’d only been sleeping for about 5 minutes!  After that, I fell back to sleep but had lots of vivid dreams and when I woke up a couple of hours later, it felt like I’d been asleep for a long time.  After all that I still felt well-rested and was ready for the day.

All this made me wonder – what IS sleep?  Why is it that some nights we feel like we’ve had a really good nights’ sleep, while other nights we still feel tired when we wake up in the morning?  Here’s what I’ve discovered about sleep…

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Written By You

I Love You Natty – A Siblings Introduction to Down’s Syndrome

My name is Mia and I’m ten years old. 

I’m the first person in my family to write a book. It’s called I Love You Natty and is about my younger sister who has Down’s syndrome. Natty is 7 and there isn’t anything particularly ‘special’ about her, but she does have an extra chromosome in every cell of her body, which looks like a jelly bean.

 

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She needs some extra help sometimes, for example I learnt Makaton to talk with my hands with her. She used to have physio therapy and also had surgery on her heart when she was small. But we all need support sometimes don’t we?

Most of all Natty is just my little sister. I love that when she was small she would force herself to open her eyes to look at me because she recognised my voice. I love Natty and my life wouldn’t be the same without her.

I wrote this book with Mum so that other children could understand what Down’s syndrome means. I did lots of drawings and we chose lots of family photographs to go in the book too.

I hope you enjoy it. Natty does. 

 

 You can order I Love You Natty on Amazon or via your local bookstore

 

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Sports

Stories From The Stables – Sam

This is first of a series of Stories From The Stables, by Carolyn Ward.
I fell off, honest 

Learning to ride is a fabulous hobby.  It can be pricey, but you can borrow a hat and crop from most stables, and start off in trousers and strong shoes.  It is great exercise, very exciting, and teaches respect for animals, balance, and correct posture.

When I was very young I rode at Stourton Stables, a children’s riding school where the ponies were mostly grumpy and had to be separated in the fields for fear of kicking each other to pieces.

Oh, happy riding lesson days. Hours spent in icy pouring rain, in snow, in fog, and even more rarely; in lovely sunshine.  The best riding times of year for me were spring and autumn, before and after the major insect season.

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