Things to like and dislike ...

First the 'like' ...

Some 15 odd years ago, when holidaying in the Lake District, we bought a book called 'Rocky Rambler'. The idea of the book was to put navigation in the hands of the young walker and it showed the terrain and the key points from a child's perspective. Using the book children would lead adults around adventurous walks. (A new website is about to be launched based on the book ... exciting!)

Reported in the Times yesterday a continuation of the highly successful idea 'We are what we do' ... this time its 'Teach your Granny to text'.


This idea has a similar theme ... what happens if you ask children and then follow up what they say. Could children really have a guiding part in making the world they are going to live in better?


The whole idea is just wonderful and is the result of a project that could be fabulously extended particularly as the book to go with the idea will be published on October 2nd and will be given to every school in England by the Dcsf(sorry rest of the UK ... you miss out again ... but it will be on sale ... the first print run of 100,000 has already been pre-sold ... possibly to the Dcsf?)

There are some wonderful ideas in the book as well as 'teaching granny to text': 'Walk you dad' is an awesome concept and there is an excellent message to be found in 'Stand up and be counted'.

What with this following in the wake of the 'Real Meals' initiative for Y7 it looks like someone somewhere is giving something some thought ! Hope its joined up!

...and now the dislike ...

News from Manchester (with little detail yet) tells me that Mr Brown will: continue the fightback with the promise of free nursery places for every two-year-old. But I understand that it will take 10 years to implement this and that, at current rates, it will cost £1 billion/year. I have no information as to whether this is a UK or an 'English' thing ... I suspect the latter. I am just concerned that the institutionalisation seems to get younger and younger. And, if it is going to take 10 years to put in place isn't that at least two elections? This, of course come on the back of the information that many child minders are giving up because of the increased interference and bureaucracy conjured up by the implementation of the EYFS agenda. It all might be a difficult circle to square.

Lookybook

My trawls today directed me towards Angela Maier's Blog and her report of a web site Lookybook. This site appears to have been around for a while now and I missed it first time round!!

This is what the site says about itself:

Picture books are for looking at. Lookybook allows you to look at picture books in their entirety—from cover to cover, at your own pace. We know that nothing will replace the magic of reading a book with your child at bedtime, but we aim to replace the overwhelming and frustrating process of finding the right books for parents and their kids.

Our mission is to create a comfortable place where a curious and devoted audience can search, view, talk about, and buy from a diverse and rapidly expanding collection of picture books. We intend to create the greatest opportunity for authors, illustrators and publishers to reach interested consumers and dramatically extend the life of their books.

Lookybook currently features over 300 titles and is growing daily.

On the site you can look at the book, embed it in a blog or web page or go to a shop and buy it.

I think this is a brilliant idea.