book loving :: a review + giveaway!

Tiny Owlet loves books. They are her most favourite thing at the moment, along with the everyday tools she sees us using around the house. Little Owlet and Big Owlet love reading too. All sorts of books and books in different languages are a treat at the moment as they try to make sense of letters and words used in an unfamiliar way...



So, when I was asked to receive and review some books from Glottogon, I jumped at the chance. We do love receiving books in the mail...



Especially ones so beautifully wrapped...



First out of the parcel was a bundle of board books and flash cards, in English. The larger books appealed to Tiny and Little Owlet most, with titles like My Body, My Week and My Manners. Big Owlet happily read them to her sisters. Generally they enjoyed the bright, fun pictures and liked to point out things within them, answering basic comprehension questions at the back. I must say that the book about manners brought on a bunch of eye rolling and eyebrow raising from the older owlets, who are particularly suss about coercive parenting, but they enjoyed the pictures all the same, and the discussion that ensued.



The flash cards provided some fun and discussion for them too. Flash cards are fairly new concept for the owlets, as we don't generally use them at home, but they thought flicking through the pictures and passing them around was pretty fun.



The little board books appealed to Tiny Owlet who loved their size and the colours used within the pictures. The books are particularly light, having a foam core which makes them ideal to pop in my bag for entertaining Tiny while we're out... although I wonder at the environmental effects of using foam for books... I would love to see these books in another language as I think they'd be really useful to all the owlets in that form. Their simplicity and lovely pictures would work marvelously in that format.



Most exciting to us was the bundle of books written in French. We've been slowly introducing the Owlets to the French language, in daily conversation. Huz has been learning French using Rosetta Stone and I'm enjoying reviewing my snippets of knowledge... We loved seeing The Very Hungry Caterpillar there, giving new life to a firm favourite. The books aimed at Big Owlet are terrific, giving us something to nut out and work through together...



And this board book intended for Tiny Owlet is totally hilarious!



She, however is just lost in her total and utter love for books. I'm sure we'll come to know all these Glottogon books well over the coming months as they are shoved under our noses to read over, and over, and over.... I think we'll be wandering back to the Glottogon website to feed her book love over the years, and offer some awesome alternative language learning for all our Owlets. The website looks really useable and full of great titles, so I look forward to getting to know it.

If you'd like to have a chance to get to know the Glottogon range and website, we've been really lucky to have been given a $50 gift voucher code to give away to one lucky reader! Yay! All you have to do is leave a comment with this post, telling me your owlets' favourite books, in any language. I'll draw a winner next Friday afternoon. Best of luck!!

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You can find Glottogon on their website, or on Facebook or Twitter. They also have a really handy Youtube channel where you can preview all their DVDs. 


The giveaway is only available to Australian residents... Sorry overseas readers!


While I received these books to review, I was not paid to provide comments in this post. All comments are my own.

flea market finds :: last weekend's haul

We've had a couple of good weeks at garage sales and op shops... It's the perfect time of year for it, as Huz pointed out. Long enough away from Christmas, just right for spring cleaning. We've actually found ourselves at the garage sales and oppys completely by chance, just wandering by. We've scored the usual games and books for owlets, but here are a couple of extra bits that have filled our nest with lovely :)







I must say, the dresses are my faves. Little owlet looks so perfectly vintage and so completely at home in the red dress. And the pinny for Tiny is by Catimini. Nothing like finding French designer clothing at the tip shop... Why would you throw that in the bin?

You can find more flea market finds over at Her Library Adventures.

Now, because it's Friday night... and Blogtoberfest, it's time to announce the winner of last week's giveaway.... Tartankiwi! You have won the little love bird long sleeved t-shirt and a little something extra. A surprise... I'll spend some time over at yours this weekend and have a think about what you might like and get in touch. Thanks all for playing along with my weekly giveaways this month. It's been a pleasure getting to know some of you a little better. xx

day 21 :: one last thing... (a giveaway)

I couldn't go to bed without announcing the winner of last week's giveaway... And starting up a new one! It is blogtober after all!! And, I'm down a couple of posts this week, so a catch up won't hurt ;)

So. The winner... thanks to random.org (and well chosen, I must say), is Georgi! Bravo!! Georgi keeps a lovely blog of her writings and musings and favourite music... which is most of our favourite music too. So it's a good thing she's won Huz's music pack... She tells me she has lots of tiny owlets on the way in her circle, so it's a good thing she's won a baby t-shirt too! Happy Friday Georgi!

Next week, I'll be giving away the lovebird t-shirt above, plus whatever goodies I can find. Maybe a matching hat, or a vintage knitting pattern, or some buttons, or fabric, or maybe I'll make something extra? Let's wait and see... What you have to do is leave a comment here, and on another comment later in the week. Then meet me back here Friday night and I'll draw the winner. Simple. Look forward to seeing you around! xx

day 14 :: motoring along :: a giveaway

This year has flown. Can you believe that Tiny Owlet is eleven months old tomorrow? Where did that time go? This week has motored along and for all the moments where I wished that Friday would be here soon... here it is. And now I would like time to go slowly. Until Monday please. Snail's pace would be perfect, thanks...

Anyhow, here we are, Friday night again and it's giveaway time here! Last week I asked you to comment on my rather lengthy blatherings on the nature of blogs and comments. Thanks so much, everyone, for your responses. I wasn't trying to make it a love fest about me, but gosh thanks for your lovely comments. It was so lovely to find out who you all were! So many of my favourite people! Thanks also for your thoughts on how blogging and commenting works for you. I've not made it around to everyone's blogs yet. Wednesday onward is a blur for me, but I'm hoping, if time stops for a moment tonight, I'll have a chance.

Now tell me, when you read replies to your comments, do you go back to the blog to read them, or do you prefer an email reply from the blogger? I've personally always loved getting a personal response from the blogger themselves. Very exciting if it's a fave blogger! But that may just be me. And possibly Vic, who wrote about it earlier in the week. She has some tips for how to set your profile so you get those personal replies.

Ok, so cutting to the chase... Last week's giveaway winner was the lovely Tania. She has a beautiful blog. I'm going to go soak some of it up after popping the owlets to bed. She's won a little garden skirt for her own tiny owlet, who's around about the same age as my Tiny! Or, possibly she'll give it to a friend?

This week I'm offering a little long sleeved t-shirt. Beautiful organic cotton, natural colour, with the felt car applique shown above. Also thrown in will be Huz's music pack, including his 1st CD and downloadable second album. He might even sign it. And I may have a look around and find something else too... So to enter, the just leave a comment below and then come back later in the week and comment on another post. Easy! Then, before you know it, the week will have motored along and we'll be sitting here next Friday night and hopefully you'll have won something! Now wouldn't that be a lovely start to the weekend? xx