*** Congratulations to the winner of the giveaway – Mary Preston! *** Our house has been blessed with rather compact bedrooms. So when we tried to put a desk into my eldest daughter’s room, it just wasn’t going to work. I spent weeks looking at different loft bed options, and heard lots of feedback from the Mummy Smiles Facebook community. The pros...

Last week, I was so excited to have the chance to go and listen to the famous Australian children’s author, Mem Fox. She presented a session at the Queensland State Library about Reading aloud to children. I have been a huge fan of Mem Fox for as long as I can remember. Long before I started having children, I was buying children’s books for my future...

We have a new member of our household! Meet Jingle! Jingle is the cutest little Husky Pup that you have ever seen – the kids were instantly in love with him! Cuteness or what??? But that’s not all!! Jingle is a whole lot more than just a furry face! Jingle is part of the new range of Interactive Story Buddies from Hallmark. Just released in time for...

I am so excited to share with you a very special present that Lucy received for her birthday. You will know that I am a HUGE fan of reading, and even more so, reading TO children. I have so many happy memories of falling asleep, while listening to my Mum read one of the many books that we worked our way through each night. I have a bit of a “thing” about...

It’s no secret that we love books in this house. As an avid reader, I remember some of my favourite memories of childhood were the adventures that I found in books. The Faraway Tree, Naughty Amelia Jane, The Famous Five, The Chronicles of Narnia – all cherished favourites which had me going back for more. Part of me still truly believes that the Faraway...

With such a fine day yesterday, we decided to head straight back out to Wivenhoe dam for another sausage sizzle by the water. Yes, that’s right – we did the same thing last weekend! And after seeing rabbits, kangaroos, magpies and pelicans on our last visit, we couldn’t believe our luck when we spied this little fella up one of the trees just close...

Now that Maddy is well and truly into the homework season, I am always looking at ways to make learning fresh and exciting, and always fun. I wanted to share this wonderful idea that provides a visual representation of how much the children know, and makes it easy to review their words regularly. Maddy has a special book in which her sight words for the week are...