Author: chickenandfrog

Hello out there. How’s the Christmas frenzy going for you? I have to say that I think the fact that Halloween was a pretty big deal this year has had a positive impact on the festive season. It appeared to hold off the full on craziness for a month or so, which was most welcome. As I have said before, I do like Christmas – I’m not the Grinch. What I dislike is that it starts shortly after Easter!

We have embraced the season with twinkly lights, a tree and even sparkly dangly snowflakes. Ho ho ho. Ooh, yes and lots of gorgeous books which are sure to make children (and adults) smile.

Anyway, to the point of this little blog. This Saturday is ‘Small Business Saturday’. For us, everyday is small business day, however, we welcome the local and national media attention. One of the special qualities about Brentwood is the strong sense of community, built around the eclectic mix of independent businesses that our town has to offer. There’s a lot going on this Saturday, all around the town, so do come along and join in the fun.

We have a very busy day scheduled (as usual). There’s Handwriting Club, Russell’s Art Club and Creative Writing, plus a FREE Make & Take session between 12:00 and 15:00. Not enough for you? That’s ok, because we have one more treat. Author of Bradley the Bus, Inderjit Puaar, will be with us from 16:15-17:30.

Celebrate the wealth of wonderful indie shops in Brentwood. Go on, you know you want to!

Due to Mrs Chicken changing her ‘day’ job from January, we will have the following tuition availability:

Mondays 15:50-16:40 Key Stage 1 English
16:50-17:40 English or Maths*
Tuesdays  15:50-16:40 Key Stage 1 Maths
16:50-17:40 English or Maths*

*Depending on demand – you need to book and pay one week in advance to secure your place.

All sessions cost £15, with a guarantee of no more than four children in a group. Children are grouped according to age and ability, with a tailor-made programme to suit their needs.

For more info you can look here, call 01277 230068 or email tuition@chickenandfrog.co.uk

As a teacher and a mum, I have noticed that every child approaches the art of handwriting in their own unique way. Some grip the pencil as if it’s an offensive weapon, whereas others seem to possess a natural ability to use any writing implement as if it’s a natural extension of their hand.

Now, I could get into a long rhetoric about the perfect age to start ‘writing’ and how the curriculum doesn’t allow children to follow their own appropriate stages of development, but I won’t. For me, the key is to develop a child’s fine and gross motor skills as soon as they are able. This doesn’t mean putting a pencil in their hand, but it could mean this:

Cooking, playing with LEGO/Duplo, modelling clay…Spirographs…all of these activities strengthen and develop hand control. They’re good fun too!

At Handwriting Club, we do a fair amount of this on a regular basis:

Arts and crafts are a great way of learning to how to manipulate tools, without the pressure of forming the perfect letter. We also use trays of wet sand and shaving foam, before we even pick up a pencil and think about grip.

If your child is finding letter formation a bit of challenge, why not pop into Handwriting Club one Saturday morning? It’s great fun if I do say so myself.

I have wonderful memories of reading Percy Park Keeper books as a newly qualified teacher. The detailed illustrations married so beautifully with the heart-warming tales, that I happily read and re-read Nick Butterworth’s classics over and over again to an eagerly awaiting class full of children.

So when our friend Russell Newton (artist extraordinaire) said that he may be able to put us in touch with Nick and Annette, I nearly bit his hand off! (Not literally of course). A couple of months and numerous emails later, Nick and Annette arrived in Brentwood for a visit to Chicken and Frog Bookshop. They very kindly agreed to be interviewed by Scott Ross at Phoenix FM, before meeting children at the shop. If you missed their interview, you can listen to it via this link.

It has been a simply joyous day. Nick and Annette gave their time so kindly, sharing their stories and Nick’s superb drawing skills with the people who came in to say hello. In fact, we were so busy, that we sold out of Annette’s superb Jake books completely!

The Jake series is perfect for reluctant readers, as well as a lovely set of stories to share with your child or class. We will be re-stocking this week without a doubt!

We have a whole host of great pics from the day. Here’s just a small selection for you to enjoy:

If you haven’t managed to see it yet, I highly recommend watching Q Pootle 5. It’s on CBeebies every weekday morning at 7:35a.m. The original book characters are brought to life, in this animated adaptation.

All that is left to say is a very big, heart-felt thank-you to the very generous and talented Nick and Annette Butterworth. Thank-you!

The National Literacy Trust are holding a Where’s Wally? fun run which takes place on 16 March 2013 in Victoria Park. The run was a fantastic success last year – with over 1,200 Londoners signing up. The event was a big hit with families and the trust hope to attract even more this year as they are now offering races especially for the u8s.

The National Literacy Trust is a charity working across the country, including many parts of London, with children and families from disadvantaged areas to improve their literacy, life skills and opportunities. In the past three years they have given nearly 10,000 free books to children in east London alone (where the run is based). Every child was given the opportunity to choose whichever book they wanted, and they helped them to discover a love of reading. This will help them do better at school and give them better opportunities in the future. This run is the charity’s major fundraising event and will enable them to continue much of their vital work.

 The details of the run are: Where’s Wally? 5 or 10km runOne of the first runs of the year, the National Literacy Trust’s annual Where’s Wally? run takes place in Victoria Park, London on Sunday 16 March 2014. Last year saw 1,200 people walking, jogging and running 5 or 10 km. This year they want it to be even bigger!

All are welcome, including children aged eight and over (who must be accompanied by an adult). Registration is £20 which includes a FREE Where’s Wally? costume. For more information visit www.literacytrust.org.uk/whereswallyPlus races for u8s – £10 entry which includes a FREE Where’s Wally? costume.

I don’t usually have much of a social life to be honest. It’s ok, don’t be sad for me. Most of the time I can’t be bothered for one, but this week was the exception to the rule. I went out three nights in a row! Unheard of I can assure you.

On Wednesday Mr Frog and I went off to Vauxhall for a bookish event, hosted by the awesome Vintage Books. As a brief aside, there were lots of readers on the train, which made me very happy. It was a bit of a rush, but well worth it as we got to meet the very lovely Mark Haddon. We chatted about baking mostly and he kindly signed a copy of his book The Red House, for our lovely Alice.

And we got to meet the soon-to-be published Hermione Eyre. Not only does she probably have the best name in the world, she was also super cool. I am very much looking forward to reading her debut in the near future.

Then, on Thursday, I went to see Grease at the Brentwood Theatre. It was fab! It’s great to see a group of young people (gosh I sound old) working together in such a creative way. I’m not exaggerating when I say that they were inspirational. Well done to BOSSY. We are very lucky to have groups such as BOSSY in Brentwood and should make the most of them.

On Friday, we were out for a birthday party. Coo, hark at us, out and about so much. Shameful behaviour. Don’t worry, I shall make up for it by doing quite a lot of nothing social over the next few weeks!

As if that wasn’t enough excitement, this Saturday we received the first entry to this year’s creative writing competition. Hurrah!

Well done to William for his great illustrated story and also, for his cheesy grin.

p.s. A quick reminder that Nick and Annette Butterworth will be here on Saturday 16th November, 14:30-16:30, for a free event.

Hello all. I just wanted to share a few pics of our lovely day, so here they are!
Cakes courtesy of our groovy Holly,

An awesome chicken tea cosy/hat and bat frog from the glorious Miles clan,

The chicken tea cosy/hat in situ 🙂
We meant to take lots more, but were too busy selling books and the like.