May 2013 – Chicken and Frog Bookshop

Half term update

Posted on May 29, 2013May 29, 2013 by chickenandfrog

Hello all. It’s been a frantic couple of days at Chicken and Frog. Happy frantic though, so I thought I’d take a moment to share some photographs. The first lot are from our Crazy Cooking sessions, where we made rocky road, chocolate lollies, marshmallow biscuits and fresh fruit smoothies. Many apologies to the parents who collected their sugar-filled children!

Next we used the brilliant Klutz book Gotcha Gadgets.

We created sneaky codes, disguised ourselves, made ID cards, solved a mystery and that was all before we had even opened our copies of Gotcha Gadgets!

And…yes, and! Today there was the Lego challenge. I’d like to give a big thank-you to the wonderful Andrea at Nickel Books, from whom I stole the idea. You can’t go wrong with Lego in my opinion. We also provided lots of Duplo for our younger guests,

I was really impressed with the great teamwork this afternoon, especially from a lovely group of boys who hadn’t met each other before today. Inspiring.

Bring on the drama workshop, our Teddy Bears’ Picnic and Russell’s drawing class to round the week off.

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Posted on May 22, 2013May 22, 2013 by chickenandfrog

Our little fella came home yesterday pleased as punch. He was clutching a large envelope containing a gold certificate, with a copy of a short story he had written at school. The story had been chosen to be published in an edition of Young Writers, along with quite a few others from his class. Oh, did I forget to mention that there was an order form also enclosed? I’ll get onto that.

We are no strangers to this process, as daughter number 2 bounded home with something similar a couple of years ago. The situation is a little muddied because, on the one had, you feel very proud at the achievement, but at the same time, horrified by the astronomical cost. It can’t be denied that £15.99 for a paperback is a bit steep. And then of course the cynic in me kicked in, whispering into my ear that this is no more than a money making ploy, taking advantage of doting/naive parents.

Hhmm…what to do? Master Frog is hopping around excitedly because his name will be in print, but in my heart I suspect that the ‘competition’ is perhaps not following the rules of fair play. There’s been local grumblings on Facebook from disgruntled parents and I completely understand their point of view, although I have mixed feelings on the matter. At the end of the day, this competition encourages children to write for a purpose and that can’t be a bad thing can it?

We have been set a challenge by some of the parents and it is this:

‘would it not be possible to arrange a writing competition for all the schools in Brentwood and print a book that is available for parents to buy in aid of a local charity or good cause?’

It is potentially a huge project, but we don’t like an easy life, so we if we can get the backing from all relevant parties, we’ll take it on.

This is what we will need before we can embark on the project:

willing schools, who will guarantee their participation
a local, reliable printing service
a small amount of funding for publicity and printing costs

If you would like to get involved, or know someone who would, let us know! Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could produce a book every year which celebrates children’s writing?

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Karen McCombie

Posted on May 18, 2013May 18, 2013 by chickenandfrog

Wowser, what a busy day we’ve had today. Aside from the Family Learning Project, Bring Daddy to Story-time and Creative Writing Club (which is our normal Saturday), we were lucky enough to welcome Karen McCombie into Chicken and Frog. Karen signed books and talked about life as a writer. This would have been enough, but then she very kindly joined our Creative Writing Club and jolly well inspired them!

Top tips for avoiding DULL writing, coupled with a mammoth Q & A session resulted in a group of highly enthused young writers (plus me – not quite so young, but certainly inspired).

We’d like to say a very clucky and hoppy thank-you to Karen and her lovely daughter Millie, for taking a mosey on down to sunny Brentwood. Cluck, ribbit!

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El Club Espanol!

Posted on May 9, 2013May 9, 2013 by chickenandfrog

We’re going all European (I know technically we are, but…). During the summer holidays, Romina will be running a weekly Spanish club for your little ones.

If you want more info or would like to book in, please contact Romina on 07912615118 or gramec88@hotmail.com

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Who’s Queen?

Posted on May 8, 2013 by chickenandfrog

Warning: This post contains some ranting.

Last night I sat down to watch Mary, Queen of Shops on the old goggle box. I’ve seen the show before, but never as a small business owner, so I was interested to see what words of wisdom could be gleaned from it.

I was almost drawn in by terms such as ‘anchor’ when referring to the re-branding of the Eastend’s Roman Road, finding myself nodding emphatically,agreeing that the issues could be rectified. However, it soon became apparent that in order to create this ‘new’ experience some traders would loose their livelihoods. I’m not naïve, I do realise that many of the stallholders needed to move with the times in order to survive, but that’s not the same as actually moving. On top of that, the system of joining a waiting list to secure a plot on the market was whipped away.

The reality, carefully hidden underneath a retro shabby-chic carpet, is that the picture is skewed. New businesses do not simply spring up over night. They take years of planning and, if you’re sensible, saving, redrafting and then a little bit more planning. Shops were given a face lift for the t.v. Lovely, but how much would that cost in real life?

Here’s an example for you. Now that the sun has finally arrived, we need an awning to shade our window. Our poor books are getting changed on an hourly basis to stop them curling up like old sandwiches! No problem we thought, there was an awning there before, so we’ll just get a new one. Ideally we would like to restore the original, but it looks like the fixings have been painted over a few too many times.

The Highways Agency want a fee of £795, because and I quote ‘it will overhang the pavement, so you will need their permission’. Really? Of course it will overhang the pavement, otherwise it would be a curtain! Plus an additional ‘planning permission’ fee to the Council, which makes the seemingly straightforward solution an impossibility. If this is how new businesses are being supported by local and national Government, we are not amused.

Rant over.

We have been set a challenge by some of the parents and it is this:

‘would it not be possible to arrange a writing competition for all the schools in Brentwood and print a book that is available for parents to buy in aid of a local charity or good cause?’

It is potentially a huge project, but we don’t like an easy life, so we if we can get the backing from all relevant parties, we’ll take it on.

This is what we will need before we can embark on the project:

willing schools, who will guarantee their participation

a local, reliable printing service

a small amount of funding for publicity and printing costs

If you would like to get involved, or know someone who would, let us know! Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could produce a book every year which celebrates children’s writing?

Warning: This post contains some ranting.