Help Dora Help with Nick Jr

It's that time of year again, Dora the Explorer needs your help to bring exploring to life in pre-schools and nurseries across the UK!  I've already seen the adverts on Nick Jr, and it looks such an exciting idea, I've got to have a word in the ear of Squeaky's nursery.  Do you know a nursery or pre-school that would like to get involved too?

Any nursery or pre-school in the UK can apply to take part, with the chance to win an amazing £20,000!  Each application receives a free pack with 6 activity session plans, following the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, and fitting with this year's themes of cooking, sports day, fairy tales, animals, seaside and music, fitting in with Dora's adventures.  Nurseries can then work through the sessions, and have until the 22nd of July to put together their application for the main award.  This can be spent on anything to help children explore and learn within their nursery - a series of trips out, a wildlife garden, play equipment, as far as your (or their) imaginations can take you.

The judging panel includes Nick Jr's Wake Up World presenter Helena Dowling, along with representatives from The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts, who are supporting the campaign, Dora Magazine, and Chad Valley, who are providing a range of equipment to the five projects chosen as finalists.  These five projects will also receive a visit from Dora herself!  One of the finalists last year was only about 10 miles from my house, but Squeaky & I sadly missed out on the chance to go & meet Dora.  I'm not sure who would have been the bigger fangirl, probably me to tell the truth!  The five finalists will have their entries shown on Nick Jr, for viewers to vote for their favourites later in the year.

If you know a nursery or pre-school that would like to get involved, or you'd like to encourage your own child's nursery to take part, you can get more information, and apply online, via the Nick Jr website http://www.nickjr.co.uk/shows/dora/helpdorahelp/.  

I wonder if I could persuade our bilingual English/Welsh Meithrin to go Trilingual? Hmmmm, even if I say por favor nicely?  (2 years of lessons & a GCSE in Spanish, and that's about as good as I can get!)

Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom, The Elf Games DVD Review

Apparently there's an Olympics happening sometime soon.  Strange how no-one's mentioned it!  Joking aside, we've got tickets to see Team GB's mens team in the football in Cardiff and I'm really excited about it.  Not sure quite how that's going to work out with Squeaky, but we shall see.

Anyway, that's not the only games taking place.  Ben & Holly have got in on the act with their very own Elf Games, and being the lucky girl that she is, Squeaky received a copy of the Elf Games DVD to review.  The DVD is out on 14 May, but we got a sneak preview.

Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom is a firm favourite in our house at the moment.  Squeaky's favourite phrases include the legendary "More Men! More Holly!"  It took me a little while to realise that "Men" actually meant Ben.  And if you ask her what a ladybird says, she replies "woof woof", thanks to the adorable Gaston.  I'm more a Nanny Plum fan myself, she's hilarious.


 We settled down with our DVD on a soggy afternoon over the bank holiday, and whisked ourselves away to the Little Kingdom, for a whole set of adventures.  Squeaky insisted on clutching (and chewing) her "wand" while she watched, and we watched the whole DVD in one sitting.  This is a surefire sign that Squeaky loves it, as her attention span is normally pretty short.  There's so much to engage her in each episode, and plenty of comedy for the adults as well, that it really does keep her attention better than anything else.

My Wand!

The DVD has ten episodes:
Elf Games
Cows
The Toy Robot
Dinner Party
Big Bad Barry
King Thistle's Birthday
The Wand Factory
Daisy and Poppy's Pet
The Elf Rocket
Picnic On The Moon

In common with many of my favourite children's DVDs, there's a random setting, so that you don't have to watch the same episodes in the same order every time.  You'll know what I mean when I say that can get a little bit grating, so I was very glad to see the "magic shuffle" option.

Aside from the elf version of the Olympics (no magic and no flying allowed!), our favourite episode was definitely Picnic On The Moon.  I won't give the story away, but Magic Jelly played a vital role, which Squeaky found absolutely hilarious.  She's a jelly fan anyway, but Magic Jelly is even more exciting!  That said, with the snooker on for the last few weeks, I was half expecting Big Bad Barry to be about Barry Hearn, fortunately for people more sane than I, it's not.

This is definitely a DVD we'll come back and watch again & again, Squeaky's demands for "More Men! More Holly!" won't have to wait for the Milkshake & Nick Jr schedules to roll round.  Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom, The Elf Games is released on 14 May, and is available to pre-order from Amazon, the official Little Kingdom Store and other retailers.

Disclosure: I was provided with a preview copy of the DVD free of charge for the purposes of this review. I was not told what to write and all opinions are my own.  Links are provided for your convenience only, I am not a member of any affiliate scheme, and will not receive any payment or reward for their use.

Beaten to the punch

I'd been having a really good thought this week.  One that was going to make for a fantastic blog post, just as soon as Daddy was on a late shift & I got some uninterrupted keyboard time.  It was going to make everyone sit up and say "Woah, yeah, I hadn't thought of that, but you're right!", and make me the star of the blogging world for at least half an hour, until something else distracted everyone & I slipped back into obscurity.

And then I picked up this week's Radio Times, and found I'd been beaten to it. By the letters page, of all places!  Such are the trials of a part-time blogger's existence.  Still, the post, such as it is, went something like this...

Have you been watching CBeebies recently?  No, I mean actually watching?  Because I've noticed something.  It seems to be getting progressively more & more male-centric.  Where are our children's female role models? Where are the strong female characters?  Let's have a look at an average day's viewing, shall we?  I'm looking to identify the main or majority characters. Where they have no clear gender, I'll mark as Gender Neutral, where there are multiple lead characters and a rough balance, I'll mark as Ensemble shows.  You may want to disagree with some of them, but these are just my opinions. Schedule is Monday 16 April 2012, from Radio Times.  Hidden behind a jump, because it's one heck of a list!

Why I love my postman, or a Nick Jr Easter.

My postie is an absolute gem. He really is.  Considering the amount of parcels I'm responsible for him having to carry around on the offchance I'll be in when he rings the bell, I probably deserve my own personal postman now.  But when he handed me a big box earlier this week, I didn't realise what a great surprise was in store.

I opened the box, and found...  a hamper of Green & Black's dark chocolate (all for me! Squeaky Daddy is strictly a milk chocolate kind of guy, hooray!), and an Easter card, with a dvd giving us a sneak preview of Nick Jr's Easter offerings.  Luckily for our poor unsuspecting postman, by the time I'd opened the box, he was well out of range, or he might have got a great big chocolatey kiss!

Squeaky Daddy's been working late shifts this week, so it's been the perfect chance for Squeaky and me to have some serious Girly Time, and we cracked open the dvd (which came with a lovely set of postcards which Squeaky has been colouring in already), and settled down with some chocolate and the tv remote.

First up was Dora's Easter Adventure, which premiered on Nick Jr today (Friday 30th March), but we got to watch it a little bit early.  Join Dora & Boots on their adventures with the Hip Hop Bunny, and save the Big Easter Egg Hunt.  I won't spoil the story for you, if you haven't seen it yet, it's a full length episode full of excitement, chocolate eggs, and all your favourite Dora characters!  Squeaky hadn't really watched Dora before, though she's seen the toys and clothes, and she was fascinated, and kept holding her Dora doll up to the TV in amazement (and commenting on hats, her current obsession).  The show is repeated on Sunday morning at 11.00, and a few more times over the Easter holidays.

Next on the menu was Team Umizoomi who were on an Easter Egg Hunt, diving down rabbit holes in search of the special rainbow egg.  I'll be honest & say I've not seen Team Umizoomi before, but I'm assured it's a regular when Daddy's at home with Squeaky, and she certainly recognised Milli, Geo & Bot, and loved joining in practising her numbers, as well as spotting all the eggs.  The show is coming to Nick Jr in April.

Finally, we had two episodes of the brand new series Tickety Toc, starring twins Tommy & Tallulah Tockety, who are the boy and girl who pop out of a very special clock every hour to chime the time.  But what do they get up to when they go back inside?  We followed Tommy & Tallulah on two of their adventures, and Squeaky was absolutely transfixed.  The show launches on 23rd April, but I'm not sure she's going to wait that long, we'll be wearing holes in the dvd before then!  Squeaky is getting quite into routines, and concepts like "tea time", "bath time", "pens time" (don't ask) and Tickety Toc fits really well with that, as well as having gorgeous animation that Squeaky really took a shine to.

Thank you Nick Jr, for my very tasty treats, and for Squeaky's entertainment.  Daddy's at home over the next few evenings, if I was a softer soul, I'd buy him a treat as well, but isn't my company enough?

Disclosure: I was provided with a preview DVD & selection of Easter treats free of charge for the purpose of this review.  I was not told what to write, and all opinions are my own.  Links are provided for your convenience only, I am not a member of any affiliate scheme & will not receive reward for their use.