Ladybird Tuesday - Stamp Collecting

I think that most people collected stamps as children, I know that I dallied with the hobby although I didn't get very far, I do still have my album though! The Ladybird book Stamp Collecting is from Series 633 - Hobbies. I do love this series although I don't own many from it, I did look at Tricks and Magic a few weeks ago. Stamp Collecting was published in 1969 and is one of the earliest books in the series.

The book begins with an interesting history on the history of stamps, and some fascinating facts. For example, because England was the first country in the world to use stamps, there was no need to put the name of the issuing country on it. The omission of the name of the country has remained a feature of the stamps of Great Britain ever since (or at least until this book was published, that information may be out of date now!).

The book continues by introducing early postage stamps from both Great Britain and the other countries that began to use their own stamps, beginning with Brazil and parts of Switzerland. As more and more countries started to produce stamps, they became more interesting and became illustrations of things like historical events, famous people and industrial or agricultural products. The book takes a look at stamps which fall into different categories, for example ships, animals, music and paintings. It's a nice introduction to collecting stamps based around particular themes. 

I'm guessing that stamp collecting is still a popular hobby today, although perhaps not as popular as it once was. I'm pretty sure that most schools don't have a stamp club today like they did in 1969, although I expect you could find one around locally. I really liked this book, it inspired me to get my old album out again!

If you love Ladybird books, do pop over and visit Ladybird Tuesday, where Being Mrs C is assembling a really comprehensive catalogue of Ladybird books and reviews.

Below you can find links to all my Ladybird Tuesday book posts.

Snow White and Rose Red
Hansel and Gretel
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
The Three Little Pigs
The Old Woman and her Pig
Little Red Riding Hood
The Ugly Duckling
The Railway Children
A Little Princess
A First book of Aesop's Fables

A Ladybird Book about Knitting
More Things to Make - For Special Occasions
Easy to Make Puppets
Learning to Sew
Stamp Collecting
Tricks and Magic

Prehistoric Animals and Fossils
Dinosaurs
Stone Age Man in Britain
Great Civilisations - Crete
Charles Dickens
Nelson
Lives of the Great Composers Book 1
Lives of the Great Composers Book 2
The Story of Music

Plants and How They Grow
The Ladybird Book of the Night Sky
Sea and Air Mammals
The Farm

The Story of Nuclear Power
The Motor Car
How it Works - The Computer
How it Works - The Rocket
The Story of Ships
The Postman and the Postal Service
People at Work - The Nurse

Understanding Numbers
Talkabout Clothes
Going to School
Teaching Reading

Stories of Special Days and Customs
Christmas Customs

Girls and Boys - A Ladybird Book of Childhood

Review - Hafoty Farm Cottages in Snowdonia

We've recently returned from a lovely summer holiday in Wales. We stayed for the week at Hafoty Farm Cottages near Caernarfon in Snowdonia, and we stayed in Ysbugor cottage.

I must admit that the main reason we booked this holiday was down to price. Ram found the cottages flagged up on a bargain forum that he frequents, and we thought that their prices represented excellent value for the end of August in the school holidays - we paid £440 for a week in a six bed cottage. We could have paid just £325 for a four bed cottage, but as our children are such poor sleepers I'm afraid that we opted to pay the extra so that they could have separate bedrooms!

There are six cottages, and although close together and all occupied when we stayed, we heard nothing from any of the other visitors (I hope that they would say the same about us!) and it was quiet and peaceful. Each cottage has its own parking space at the front and private patio at the back, with views across Caernarfon and the coast. There is a communal laundry room (£3 per load) and drying room. The cottages also have excellent fibre speed wi-fi!

Ysgubor cottage is arranged over two floors. On the ground floor is the entrance hall, bathroom and two twin bedrooms. On the first floor is the kitchen, dining and living area and the double bedroom with en-suite. The cottage was lovely and clean, with everything that we needed. The cottages were easy to find and in a great location for nearby attractions and access to Caernarfon.

These are my photos of the cottage, but you can find much better ones on the Hafoty Facebook page, where there is an album for each cottage.

This is the view from the top windows at the back of the cottage. Beautiful! We also saw some lovely sunsets as the sun came down over the sea.

We visited lots of places in the local area, but we also explored close by with a short walk down the Slate Trail which runs along the back of the cottages. We didn't get that far, but it was interesting to see the old station platform at Rhostryfan just down the road.

We found plenty to do in the local area. Below are links to detailed posts that I have written about places to visit nearby that we enjoyed as a family:

Caernarfon Castle
Greenwood Forest Park
Sygun Copper Mine, Llanberis Lake Railway and the National Slate Museum
Llechwedd Slate Caverns

My husband and son also enjoyed the Electric Mountain tour while I spent the morning in the soft play there with my daughter who was too young for the tour. We really liked Abersoch with a big sandy beach, and we took a fairly short, pushchair friendly walk to Aber Falls which are beautiful.

If you are holidaying in the area then I'd definitely recommend Hafoty Farm Cottages!

Harry moves into Year One

In the blink of an eye, Harry's reception year was over, and this year he started in Year One.

It's a bit of a change for Harry because the classes have all been mixed up. His school goes from three Reception classes to two Year One classes, with one mixed class taking the oldest children in the year. He only has six or seven children from his old class in the new class, and we had no input, it was all decided by the school. Luckily he will be with some of his good friends, and they will still be mixing at play times. The change doesn't seem to be bothering him at all.

Like all little ones at school he is now entitled to a free school lunch, and even though he is a pretty fussy eater we are going to give it a go. It's the only thing that he seemed to be worried about so I've tried not to make a big thing of it - if the worst comes to the worst he won't eat it and I'll make him a snack when he gets home. He'll still get a cooked dinner in the evening with the family. I'm hoping that it might encourage him to try a few different things.

He also returns to school as a glasses wearer - over the summer I took him for an eye test and he is ever so slightly short-sighted. I've sent him in with his new Lego glasses (NHS glasses have really come on since I was little!) and instructions to wear them when using the white board.

Harry was definitely ready to go back to school and I'll be glad to have the routine back. I thought it would be nice for him to start contributing to the blog a little bit, so I asked him to tell me how he felt about going into Year One.

This is what he said:

"(There will be...) less play time and more learning time. I am excited about starting Year One because I like learning and I want to be a scientist when I grow up. I'm a bit nervous of having a new teacher. I'm going to make some new friends."

Llechwedd Slate Caverns, Snowdonia

The final attraction that we visited on our holiday in Snowdonia was the Llechwedd Slate Caverns in the heart of Snowdonia.

We were lucky because we only had to wait for a few minutes at the ticket desk and then managed to get straight onto the next tour. The tours run every 15 minutes, but you might need to wait for the next tour with spaces. Although you can book tickets online in advance to save waiting at the ticket desk, you can't choose a specific tour. So if you are visiting when it's likely to be busy (for example in the school holidays on a rainy day!) then it's worth arriving early as I can see that you might end up with a wait!

We donned the obligatory hard hats and boarded the train down into the mine for the Victorian Mine Tour.

The train into the mine is the steepest cable railway in Britain. Harry was a bit apprehensive as it's quite a small train and as you go down the lighting is quite dim, but it's not a long journey and he was fine. 

At the bottom, the guide gives you a brief introduction to the mine, and then you move through a series of caverns with a short stop at each for an audio and visual presentation that focuses on the mine as it was worked in Victorian times. This part of the tour tells the story of Sion Dolgarregddu, a twelve year old boy who has just begun working in the mine digging slate with his father.

Although a focus of the tour is the hardships faced by the miners, some of the caverns are breathtakingly beautiful. There is a lovely walk alongside an underground lake which was like something from a fairytale, and at many stops lights and music are used to highlight the impressive caverns cut from the rocks. I tried to take some photographs but I'm afraid they don't really show off how lovely the caverns looked.

The tour guide also demonstrated to us the tools that the Victorian miners used. It really was shockingly difficult, slow and dangerous work, and for minimal pay.

The temperature in the mine remains constant throughout the year, and I was interested to see some racks which are used for storing cheddar cheese underground to mature for three months. The cheese is on sale in Sainsbury's, so I'll be looking out for it now!

The tour lasted about an hour, and after the tour we were treated to a slate splitting demonstration above ground in the workshop. Harry was very lucky, and was chosen to help the demonstrator. He was so interested, and absolutely thrilled to be able to take home the piece of slate that he had helped to split! You can buy a piece of slate from the mine to take home for £1, as well as all sorts of slate souvenirs like coasters, wine racks, or personalised nameplates for your home.

There are 61 steps to descend on the tour and 70 steps to ascend. They are well lit and wide, and we didn't have any problems. Inside the mine it is quite cold and damp, so make sure to dress warmly. There are points on the tour where the lights are dimmed and very briefly turned out, and a few narrow tunnels to walk through, but the caverns underground are fairly spacious. 

We were provided with complimentary tickets to the Llechwedd Slate Caverns in exchange for this review. An adult ticket to the Victorian Mine Tour is currently £14.95, and a child ticket is £9.95. Children under 3 are free and there is a 10% discount if you book four or more tickets including at least one adult ticket.

The summer holidays are over, and they were brilliant

They have gone so quickly! I thought that I'd find it a struggle having both children at home, but although it hasn't always been easy, we've had a really fun summer. I was a little daunted at the prospect of six weeks with no school, but I've not struggled to keep us busy. It probably helped that we had a lovely week away in Snowdonia at the very end of the holidays, with just a couple of days to recover before Harry was back to school. I won't pretend that I didn't miss my two mornings a week that I usually have to myself though!

At the beginning of the summer holidays I put together a summer list of things that I wanted to do. Well, we didn't do nearly everything that I wanted to but that's fine, it was a long list and there is plenty of inspiration there for us over the next few months, or even for next summer!

I only managed one themed day in the end. Our Roman Day was a big success, but we just seemed to be so busy with things on most days. We also didn't have as many barbecues as we did last summer, although that was down to the weather, which was also the reason that Harry and I only managed one night in the tent. I really wanted Mia to join us in the tent overnight, but although she loved the idea of getting ready for bed in the tent, when it came to actually going to sleep she bailed out and ended up back in her own bed!

We seem to have been very busy with some fantastic days out. We used our Tesco points to visit Paradise Park, Woburn Safari Park and Hever Castle. We were invited to spend the day at Butlins, we had a fab time at Lollibop, and I even spent a day by myself crafting in London.

It has definitely been a summer of crafting, and in particular crafting with Hama beads mainly thanks to a fantastic craft package from Craft Merrily. I've already shared the Hama bead elephants that are currently marching across my mantlepiece, and we've all been spending a lot of time arranging Hama beads on pegboards. We've also been loom banding away, although I've still not got the hang of using an actual loom. I also came up with some summer crafts for the Twinkl blog - I think that my favourites were the cardboard box aquarium and the mermaid garden.

We completed the summer reading challenge at the library, and Harry worked on his Parragon Gold Stars workbook as well as doing lots of extra reading and writing practice. Harry took a photo for each letter of the alphabet, and we made a museum and a shop.

I'm a little sad to be waving Harry back off to school again (not to mention having to get us all up and ready in the mornings and the dreaded school run). I also know that it's not going to be long until we get the application form for Mia to start school, and I'm counting down my time as a stay at home Mum to a pre-schooler.

But there is also lots to look forward to over the next few weeks. I'm so excited about the MAD Blog Awards finals in London, I'm so thrilled to be a finalist and it looks like it will be an amazing party. We still have Tesco vouchers left over for some more days out, and in a couple of months time we are going away on a brilliant holiday.

How was your summer? Did you manage to do everything that you had planned?

Ladybird Tuesday - The Motor Car

How it Works...The Motor Car is another book in Series 654, the How It Works series. My copy was published in 1982 but this book was originally published in 1965 so mine must be an updated version. You can take a look inside the original version here - The Motor Car.

I recently looked at How it Works...The Computer, and this book is an equal match in terms of complexity. I'm really not sure that the books in this series are aimed at children, they really do go into an astonishingly high level of detail! In fact I found out that this book was used by Thames Valley Police driving school as a general guide and is still asked for today by driving schools.

How it Works - The Motor Car throws you straight in to a description of the motor car with a complicated, labelled diagram of an engine. Each individual part of the engine is then examined in further detail with more diagrams and description. Perhaps I should have read this book before I started learning to drive, as I had very little idea of how a car actually works.

I learned a lot from reading through this book. Some of the sections are rather difficult to follow, and you do need to concentrate. You also need to read it through from start to finish, you can't just dip in and out as all the information is closely related!

Although the book is quite old now, I'm guessing that a lot of the basics are still relevant today. Some things have moved on a lot though - a page on safety at the end of the book shows a car with no air bags throughout, and a back seat without seatbelts or head rests. The main safety features pointed out are those which are intended to prevent an accident in the first place, like good handling and visibility. 

The book was also published well before computers were used in cars, which I think nowadays are probably even more important than the mechanical elements of the car. There is some speculation about future advances in the world of motor cars, for example a micro processor which selects the gears of the car automatically to save fuel, but generally the author of the book doesn't seem to foresee much change in the future of motoring.

If you love Ladybird books, do pop over and visit Ladybird Tuesday, where Being Mrs C is assembling a really comprehensive catalogue of Ladybird books and reviews.

Below you can find links to all my Ladybird Tuesday book posts.

Snow White and Rose Red
Hansel and Gretel
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
The Three Little Pigs
The Old Woman and her Pig
Little Red Riding Hood
The Ugly Duckling
The Railway Children
A Little Princess
A First book of Aesop's Fables

A Ladybird Book about Knitting
More Things to Make - For Special Occasions
Easy to Make Puppets
Learning to Sew
Stamp Collecting
Tricks and Magic

Prehistoric Animals and Fossils
Dinosaurs
Stone Age Man in Britain
Great Civilisations - Crete
Charles Dickens
Nelson
Lives of the Great Composers Book 1
Lives of the Great Composers Book 2
The Story of Music

Plants and How They Grow
The Ladybird Book of the Night Sky
Sea and Air Mammals
The Farm

The Story of Nuclear Power
The Motor Car
How it Works - The Computer
How it Works - The Rocket
The Story of Ships
The Postman and the Postal Service
People at Work - The Nurse

Understanding Numbers
Talkabout Clothes
Going to School
Teaching Reading

Stories of Special Days and Customs
Christmas Customs

Girls and Boys - A Ladybird Book of Childhood

Greenwood Forest Park, Gwynedd, Snowdonia

On our recent holiday to Snowdonia we spent a fantastic day at Greenwood Forest Park. The park is located on the edge of Snowdonia National Park and was an easy trip from our base near Caernarfon. It is set in 17 acres of woodland, and has an excellent mix of attractions and activities for the whole family.

We arrived as the park opened, and headed first for the Green Dragon Rollercoaster. It's a speedy ride, and is the world's only people powered rollercoaster. Before riding you board a lift which is carried down by the weight of the people in it and used to raise the rollercoaster carriage up to the top of the track. Then you climb up again to board the carriage, and the weight of the riders pushes the carriage along and down the track at quite a pace. Mia was just too small for the ride, but there was a sandpit close by which kept her busy while we took turns to ride with Harry.

Another human powered ride is the Jungle Boats ride. You (by which I mean the adults in the party, the younger children can sit back and enjoy!) need to move the boat along the river by yourself, either by paddling or by hauling yourself along on hanging ropes. What a great idea!

We also expended plenty of energy on the MoonKarts, where you can pedal around a short, partially uphill track. Older children can power their own kart, and younger children can be driven around by a parent.

I was really impressed with the Little Forest PlayBarn. Although at three, Mia was at the top of the age range for this area, she was still entertained here for some time while Harry was trying out the Archery. It was really nice to see that there were activities here to occupy younger toddlers and even babies, with a separate sensory area and an area with musical and animal noise buttons to press.

I drew the short straw when it came to the Barefoot Walk. I wasn't keen, but the children were desperate to do it and Ram wouldn't, so we took off our shoes, rolled up our trousers, and waded into the icy water that began the walk. Among other things we walked across paths made of stones, fossils, mud, straw and chippings, most of them freezing cold. The children enjoyed it very much, but I must admit that I was relieved to wash my feet and put my warm socks and shoes back on at the end! It was definitely good to try something different though.

A massive hit with the children was the Giant Jumper, a huge inflatable pillow for under 12s to jump about on. It took the children a while to work out how to climb up it, but once on it they didn't want to come off! It was getting busy so the operator was running timed sessions, but the queue was small enough that they could head round to the back of the queue and get in again straightaway with the next group.

Another huge hit was the Great Green Run, a 70 metre sledge run, and the longest in North Wales. You ride it in a sledge, and you really do speed along. We all loved this, although I have no pictures because we were all riding it together! The children also liked the Little Green Run, a smaller version which they could go round and round by themselves, there was never really much of a wait.

There are lots of outdoor play areas for children of all ages. We also enjoyed a wild area at the top of the park where you could have a go at Den Building, with all the materials that you need ready to build with, and plenty of dens left behind by other visitors that you could play in and rebuild to your own design. On the top of the hill at the Snowdon View Point you have a magnificient view across Snowdonia with a clear view of Snowdon. 

We also enjoyed two of the shows in the Forest Theatre - Howard the Magician and Ricardo the Pirate (each were doing two shows on the day that we visited). There was plenty of seating in the mostly covered theatre, both shows were excellent, and the children were enthralled. Harry was really inspired by the magic tricks that he saw, he told us in the car on the way home that he wants to be a magician when he grows up, and before bed we were treated to his own magic show that he had put together himself!

A ticket to Greenwood Forest Park includes the vast majority of the activities in the park, but there are a few which cost extra. We paid £1 for the children to drive tractors around for a few minutes which they loved. You could quite easily manage without paying for any of the extra activities though.

There was so much to do at the park. We were there from opening until all the attractions had closed, and we could easily have stayed for longer. If you are local it's definitely worth thinking about a season ticket! We visited on a sunny August day in the summer holidays and we did have to queue for a few minutes at some of the attractions, particularly during the early afternoon, but nothing close to the sort of queues that you would experience at a larger theme park.

For a full family day out, I think that the entrance price represents excellent value for money, especially when compared to other attractions in the area. You can easily spend a whole day here as a family and not get bored. It is worth aiming to visit on a dry day if you can, as although there are indoor play areas and activities a great deal of the park is outside. We had a brilliant day!

We received a complimentary family pass to Greenwood Forest Park in exchange for this review. Admission prices vary seasonally, in peak season a family ticket (two adults and two children) costs £42.20.