Never did I think I would be uttering the words “Olivia starts primary school this week” and yet here we are. Back in June I thought September was miles away and yet the eight weeks of summer have gone in fast forward for us.
Honest parenting moment here – Olivia has struggled over the summer; out of routine, not much structure, missing her friends, not eating great, all the things she thrived on at nursery school had gone. I’m not going to be popular here with teachers I know but eight weeks is just to long to be off I feel. She started to do lots of moaning and has become increasing lazy just out of boredom no matter how much you plan in a day. Yet when we got together with other children from her previous nursery class she had the best time and you could see once again them organising themselves to play games and talking in a manner which you only get in nursery and that structured environment.
When Amy Gunner, author of Lets Get Set For School reached out to me with a fantastic book to keep Olivias mind active I jumped at the chance to give it a go. Olivia has such a passion for books and really loves learning so this book on english preparation was a huge success and offered different sections on which to develop.
With Olivia being left-handed we have seen her struggle slightly with writing and the first chapter offered help with the alphabet. Each page is dedicated to a letter both in capital and lower case format. Without us being pushed Olivia just wanted to concentrate on her own name and those letters so we worked through those pages and she really enjoyed it, especially using her new pencils for school. The layout is very simple and the pictures on the page keep the level of interest and attention span in check. At the end we gave her a certificate that was provided once the section is complete and she has carried it around ever since showing it off. She is proud of herself and so she should be 🙂
There are 3 more sections in the book for sounding out words, learning words and rhyming words and I think as the school year progresses we will use these at home especially during the holidays to keep it all fresh in Olivias mind. I think this summer has been an eye opener so we will definitely be better prepared for more educational fun next year.
I was very fortunate to be gifted the book in return for reviewing it. All words and pictures I have provided are my own and a true review of how the book worked for us.
