My Top 2019 Finds

For the past 2 years I have written a Top 5 finds of the Year post and everyone seems to really like reading those posts so I thought I would continue. This is NOT a sponsored post, some of the items were given to us for review posts, which I wrote, but the fact that they find themselves in this list is purely based on how much we have ended up using them. This is our personal list of 5 items that we have used and loved over the past 12 months.

The Biggest Book Winner of the Year has to be the Warrior Cat Series. Wow, what a find, both my kids have spent hours totally absorbed by the stories and they have gone on to create their own versions (I know a fictional story is a true gem which my kids start writing their own versions of the stories). We managed to borrow most of the books from our local library so if you do have a library card I would recommend reserving the first one and seeing if it grabs your kid’s attention (I do recommend trying to read the books in order as the stories do build on one another).

The Second set of books which my son has become slightly obsessed with are the animal diaries – they are an older publication so I have bought most of them from 2nd hand sites and managed to borrow a few from the library. The books are the diary of an animal (written by that animal) and are a fun look at its life, how to grows, its food, enemies, habitat and much more (lots of facts included in a fun way). They have all been really well written and have prompted my son to create his own animal diaries. (For more on these books I have written 2 posts – animal diaries and Frog diary).

Then a board game that we have played a lot over this year is the On the Map game by Oaka Books. Now I must admit mine are not the biggest board game players but this one has been a hit with all of us and they seem to enjoy the challenge of replaying the game and seeing how much more they can remember each time.

Then something a bit different. Over the summer I signed both kids up for Art Awards (my youngest is doing the Explore Award and my oldest is doing the Bronze Award). We have never done them before so I was not sure what we were getting into but it has been brilliant. We have always enjoyed art activities but by signing up for the art awards we ended up attending more art exhibitions, doing extra art activities (like the Jan Brett tutorials), looking at objects like the Sutton Hoo finds from an art perspective and just reading more than we would normally. It has been fun and challenging and my daughter is already talking about signing up for the next award. I highly recommend giving these a try, it does take time and commitment to do everything but it really is worthwhile – to read more about the Art Awards have a look here – Art Award.

And finally my fifth new find has to do with my daughter moving into her secondary years and me not always being sure which resources to use. My daughter’s favourite subject is History so I really wanted to find the right resources for her, something that would challenge her, help her to build her skills for future exams but keep her interest alive. And I must admit I have bought a few books, and all of them have been read and reread by my daughter but her top one has been the Invasion, Plague and Murder book by Oxford University Press. So much so she actually asked for the second book as a Christmas present.