competitions, education

Chaos writes:

Well, 10yo and I were lucky enough to be able to meet the wonderful Laura Dockrill in Chiswick recently – she’s so delightful it’s tricky not to completely fall in love with her!


So, if you’ve not heard of her, you really must check her out most immediately…Her new book is about ten-year-old Darcy Burdock, who sees the extraordinary in the everyday and the wonder in the world around her. It’s charming and very funny (my boys roared with laughter at a seagull-kicking-incident, as her Dad says, it’s not Darcy’s ‘proudest moment’… say no more…).

In this first book, we are introduced to her Mum and Dad her younger siblings, Hector and Poppy, who Darcy likes dressing up in ridiculous outfits and having dance-offs with, respectively. Plus there’s her non-bleating pet lamb, Lamb-Beth and best friend, Will, to have adventures with.

Laura on writing for Children:

Roald Dahl has and always will be my largest inspiration. He is a prominent figure and inspiration for me and what I do. Flitting between poetry, short stories and novels for both adults and children he is really, very important for me and what I do. In my view, Dahl breaks boundaries, he is a storyteller in its most honest and natural form and was my first admiration for writing- he taught me how to write

It’s a great read, and we were indeed very lucky to meet Laura, and hear her read. 10yo was enchanted, and related completely to the anger-management issues (Darcy turns into an Angrosaurus who can only be calmed with Maltesers!)

We asked lovely Laura if we could give another family the opportunity to enjoy this fabulous book. So yes! We have a SIGNED copy of Darcy Burdock and a packet of (Fairtrade) Maltesers to give away!

THIS PRIZE DRAW HAS NOW CLOSED. THE LUCKY WINNER IS TIFFANY-LEE, thank you all for taking the time to enter, we’ve really enjoyed reading all of the entries! xx

How to enter

1 – Laura’s inspiration is Roald Dahl; Comment below to tell us your favourite Roald Dahl story? (ours is the Giraffe and the Pelly and me!)

2 – ‘Like’ KidsChaos on Facebook and share your favourite Roald Dahl story
and comment below to tell us you’ve done so.

3 – Follow @MoreKidsChaos on twitter with a little fun #DarcyBurdockEatsMaltesers hashtag

4 – Follow @DarcyBurdock on twitter oh, and @LauraDockrill too

5 – For an extra entry, Add KidsChaos into your circles in Google + and comment below to tell us you’ve done so.

Terms and Conditions

– Entrants must be over 18 and in the UK
– By entering this prize draw, the player assigns to KidsChaos.com all exclusive rights to reproduce and represent the copy related to this competition on any media (both online and offline)
– Entries close Midnight 28th March (the last day of School Term, how apt)
– The winners will be notified personally
– KidsChaos’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered in to and no cash alternative will be offered
– This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook or Google+

Interesting Links:

Laura will be at the Essex Book Festival on 16th March 2013

Where to buy the wonderful ‘Darcy Burdock’

Other things to do with Maltesers

 

 

cooking, education, kids

Woah… try this, take one Fairtrade banana, mush it up with a fork, add two free range eggs, mix vigorously…for this quick pancake recipe
quick pancake recipeMelt butter in a little non-stick frying pan (ooh, you know how much I ‘heart’ my little orange Le Creuset (this is not a sponsored post!)…

 

this article and the recipe, has now moved to www.incredibusy.com/the-quickest-pancake-recipe/ 

thanks for stopping by!

 I also write over on aGreenerLifeforus.com  and now incredibusy.com and have found I quite enjoy Instagram too 🙂

cooking, education, kids

Chaos writes:

You may have been following our latest ‘growing’ kitchen fun on twitter; we’ve been overwhelmed by this amazing phenomena – growing our own mushrooms on the kitchen windowsill…

This fabulous invention, the Espresso Mushroom Kitchen Garden has been the talk of our kitchen – This little ‘garden’ uses recycled coffee grounds and we grew our own oyster mushrooms in just two weeks.

Both kids have really enjoyed the experience of spraying the mushrooms with water, and rushing in from school to see how they’ve grown. 8yo even wrote a recipe (pictured) which we duly followed, when our mushrooms were ready to harvest –  fried them up, served with chopped parsley on a couple of slices of toast. De-Lish-ious….

We had been talking to Alex at Espresso Mushroom about just how much we wanted to tell the world about their mushrooms, and have joined forces with them and our friends at Cafédirect to offer you the chance to win this fab prize. We have some tasty espresso coffee from Cafédirect and an Espresso Mushroom Kitchen Garden gift voucher, so you can WIN and grow your own Pearl Oyster Mushrooms – it’s such fun!

This prize draw has now closed, thank you for all of your entries, the lucky winner is Eileen from Staffordshire. 🙂 xx

How to enter:

1 – Comment below to tell us how you’d cook your mushrooms

2- ‘Like’ KidsChaos on Facebook and tell us what you’d cook with your mushrooms!
and comment below to tell us you’ve done so.

3 – ‘LIKE’ Espresso Mushroom on Facebook and comment below to tell us you’ve done so.

4 – For an extra entry, Add KidsChaos into your circles in Google + and comment below to tell us you’ve done so.

5 – And another add Espresso Mushroom into your circles on Google + and comment below to tell us you’ve done so.

Terms and Conditions

– Entrants must be over 18 and in the UK
– By entering this competition, the player assigns to KidsChaos.com all exclusive rights to reproduce and represent the copy related to this competition on any media (both online and offline)
– Entries close Midnight on the 20th of December
– The winners will be notified personally
– KidsChaos’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered in to and no cash alternative will be offered
– This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook or Google+

education, key stage 2, kids

Chaos writes:

Living in London, we are lucky enough to have a great deal of WW2 history at our fingertips which is useful when you have kids in Key Stage 1 and 2.

Our children can totally relate to the reality, and horrors of the London Bombing circa 1940 when we showed them this photograph given to me by a friend and neighbour, in our adjacent street in South West London. Coincidentally, last week everyone was talking about a FANTASTIC new website www.bombsight.org which maps the WW2 bomb census in a most beautifully graphic way…. Our neighbour’s house pictured, was not rebuilt until 1945 – we sadly wonder what happened to the family who lived there…

You can also follow @BombSightUK on twitter