Win copies of My Granny is a Queen, the perfect book to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee by celebrating the queens in our own families – our grannies! Ideal for children aged 2+ (May 2022)
Blog posts for: Age 4
Book of the Month: Mayor Bunny’s Chocolate Town
Win copies of Mayor Bunny’s Chocolate Town, for a great Easter read. Perfect for children aged 2+ (April 2022)
Easter Holiday Reads
Springtime reads for you and your child to enjoy this Easter holiday, with a selection of titles suitable for age 2-7!
Five easy Easter activities to do at home
Whether you want to create a traditional Easter egg hunt or enjoy some family reading time, we’ve got an egg-citing host of activities for you to choose from.
Book of the Month: The Smile
Win copies of The Smile, exploring how much difference a smile can make with children aged 2+ (March 2022)
World Book Day costume ideas
Make this year’s celebration of books and reading extra special with our no-sew World Book Day costume ideas, inlcluding Winnie the Witch and Isadora Moon.
Book of the Month: Big Words for Little People – Celebrate and Our World
Win copies of Big Words for Little People: Celebrate and Our World, for great ways to introduce new vocabulary to children aged 3+ (January 2022)
Talking about Climate Change at home
Advice and guidance on how to start talking to your child or children about climate change at home, with practical ideas and suggestions.
Book of the Month: The 12 Books of Christmas
Win copies of 12 books this Christmas in our festive give away (December 2021)
What are reading schemes and why do they matter?
Educational publishing expert Andrea Quincey explains why reading schemes are important, and what the different colours, bands and levels actually mean.
Diversifying your child’s reading
Diversifying the children’s book industry and what our children are reading is a much talked about topic. Many people want to make a difference, but with so much information available, it can be difficult to know where to start.
Book of the Month: Numicon at Home
Win a Numicon at home First Steps kit, designed to help you get your child’s early Maths learning off to the best possible start. (August 2021)
Book of the Month: I’m the Driver
Win copies of I’m a Digger Driver and I’m a Fire Engine Driver, jumping into the driver’s seat and entering a world of imaginative play (July 2021)
Book of the Month: The Pirate Mums
Win a copy of The Pirate Mums, perfect for introducing young children to the idea that families come in lots of shapes and sizes! (June 2021)
Get number confident on National Numeracy Day
Get involved with National Numeracy Day 2021 and help your child’s confidence grow, with our top tips and free maths activities.
5 top tips to keep reading at home
It’s more important than ever to keep your child reading at home this term and over the summer holidays. Camilla Macoun shares her tips.
Looking forward to the summer term: tips to help boost your child’s learning
What can we do to help our children to make progress over the term ahead? James Clements shares his tips to help boost skills and knowledge.
Building kids’ resilience and confidence
How do you help build your child’s confidence and resilience? Teacher and child psychologist Jean Gross CBE shares her tips for helping children believe in themselves, and discusses how you can encourage them to be determined and enjoy challenges.
Book of the Month: The Perfect Fit
Win a copy of The Perfect Fit, a book packed full of positive messages about individuality and inclusion for young children. (March 2021)
Top tips from parents on sharing stories at home
Sharing stories with your child is a wonderful way to take them to new worlds, to share the pleasure of reading, and positively impact their educational outcomes.
World Book Day 2021
Join in this World Book Day with video sessions from some of your children’s favourite authors and our library of free downloadable activity sheets!
8 fun ways to learn about shapes
Shapes are all around us and there are many ways you can start exploring them with your child. Get ideas on how to help familiarise your child with different shapes in all sorts of contexts.
Learning at home: lockdown tips for parents
With UK schools closed again, we’ve pulled together some of our most popular blog posts from the first lockdown to help you support your children’s learning at home.
Book of the Month: All Aboard …
To celebrate the publication of the brand-new All Aboard series, we’ve got three pairs of books to give away! (January 2020)
Fun Christmas activities for 0–4 year olds
From hand-print Christmas wreaths to games to develop shape recognition skills, discover lots of toddler-friendly crafts and activity ideas to try with your little ones this Christmas!
Christmas activities for 4–5 year olds
Practise early maths and letter recognition skills with some Christmas colouring in and get lots of car game ideas to keep everyone occupied on long journeys this Christmas.
Book of the Month: Big Words for Little People
To celebrate the publication of the brand-new Big Words for Little People series, we’ve got three pairs of books to give away! (November 2020)
Settling in at primary school
Our top tips for helping your child get used to their busy new school routine.
Top 8 books about starting school
Starting school is a big milestone in a child’s life – not to mention a parent/carer’s too! Here are eight engaging stories and picture books about starting school to share with your child, to gently prepare them for their first day.
Learning at home during lockdown: Almost over the finish line
If, like us, finding the enthusiasm to keep going with home learning is tricky, here are a few ideas for making it over the finish line.
Boosting early maths skills with number facts
Louise Pennington shows us her top five maths games, including ‘Bunny rabbit ears’ and ‘What’s in the bag?’, to help your child practise their number facts.
Start calculating with Numicon
It can be hard making the jump from counting numbers to calculating. Sheila O’Reilly shares activities to introduce your child to addition and subtraction.
Learning at home: Reading to learn
Education expert James Clements talks about how children who are already confident readers can get the most out of their reading.
Ordering and counting with Numicon
Early Years teacher and mother Sheila O’Reilly shows us how to use Numicon shapes to help your child learn to count and order numbers.
How Numicon can help develop maths skills at home
Early Years teacher and mother Sheila O’Reilly shows us how the 1st Steps with Numicon at Home kit can support your child’s early maths development.
Five ways to improve maths home-learning
Maths expert Andrew Jeffrey shares five easy-to-implement strategies that can make a positive difference to our children’s maths learning at home.
Learning at home: What can we learn from teachers?
Education expert James Clements talks about the lessons we can learn from teachers about helping your child to learn at home.
Learning at home: Learning to read
Education expert James Clements runs through everything you need to keep your child’s reading skills developing during the school lockdown.
Author videos: Storytelling, draw-alongs, and challenges
Over the coming weeks, we are bringing you exciting new challenges, drawalongs and storytimes direct from the very best authors and illustrators. Find out more.
Learning at home: Buying yourself some time
Education expert James Clements shares his ideas for keeping the children busy – in a constructive way – when you need to be getting on with something.
Learning at home: How to prioritise sharing a book
Education expert and writer James Clements talks about the importance of reading to your child to boost their educational success in all sorts of ways.
Learning at home: What would they be learning at school?
Education expert and writer James Clements explains what your child would be learning at school, and how we can use (or not use) the curriculum at home.
Learning at home: Things to get ready for next week
Education expert and writer James Clements suggests 6 practical things you get get ready over the weekend for next week’s learning at home.
Learning at home: Organising the day
Education expert and writer James Clements offers up 4 different approaches to structuring your child’s day learning at home.
Learning at home: Making a start
Educational expert and writer James Clements gives his 3 top tips of how to get started with teaching your child at home.
How to help your child with mental arithmetic
Building confidence in maths early on will pay back many times over. Get tips for developing your child’s mental arithmetic skills.
Learning to read in Reception
Find out what sort of books to expect to come home in your child’s book bag, and get top tips on how best to support your child.
Building a strong vocabulary: How to help at home
Headteacher Tracey Smith shares her ideas for fun and easy games you can play to build your child’s vocabulary and boost their confidence with words.
Brilliant picture books: 22 beautiful books for children under 5
Wendy Cooling MBE has selected her favourite illustrated books to help you introduce your child to the wonders of stories and storytelling.
How gardening can cultivate your child’s maths skills
Science writer Isabel Thomas shares her top five tips for cultivating maths skills in the garden, no matter how big or small your green space and green fingers.
Get messy with measuring
Fiona Lazenby tells us her four top tips for learning about volume, area and capacity at home, and having messy fun in the process!
The wonder of words: How learning new words can help your child
A rich vocabulary allows a child to enjoy their reading, to express themselves and to learn about the world. James Clements offers tips on how to help your child’s vocabulary develop.
How to choose a book for ages 3–7
Children’s librarian Greta Paterson shares her 5 top tips for choosing books for 3–7 year olds.
Books to inspire young scientists
Science and engineering provide fantastic career opportunities, but science is not just for scientists – it’s a huge part of everyday life. A good grounding in science will help every child to navigate their world and make good decisions. Isabel Thomas recommends books for ages 3–11 to inspire your young scientist.
Everyday activities to practise subtraction
Subtraction is a key concept in the primary maths curriculum. Here are some easy activities you can try at home to build your child’s skills and confidence.

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