Duck Pond Market

Ready for market!! Today we will be at Duck Pond Market in Richmond's Heron Square selling Tara's Music Magic, balloon modelling, glitter tattooing and generally having loads of fun!!


- Please excuse
any misspelling this was posted using BlogPress on my iPhone

Location:Richmond

Movie review

Yesterday it was the first day of the summer holidays and it was pouring with rain so I went to see Ice Age 4 with two 4 year olds, one 6 year old and one 9 year old.

Armed with popcorn, flavoured water and pick n' mix the only sound I heard, other than munching, was laughter. They LOVED it and so did I. Although I did not love that Odeon have stopped doing small popcorn and now only offer medium and large sizes. I insisted that they split the medium between two cups which they were very happy to do. Portion size is a hot topic at the moment so probably best for another day!

The main feature was brilliant but it was almost worth going just for the wonderful four-and-a-half-minute animated short film 'The Simpsons: The Longest Daycare' which sees Maggie Simpson being dropped off at daycare and start on a butterfly saving adventure. The children I was with really don't get on with the 3D glasses which was a shame as it would have been amazing to see this in 3D which is for what it was intended.

The main feature like the 3 before it was really well done with very clever dialogue and a great story line tugging at all the heartstrings. The poor squirrel still hungry for nuts and still never quite getting it right causes a continental drift causing our heroes Manny, Diego and Sid being separated from Manny's family. It has pirates so the boy loved it and the girls loved Sid's crazy granny who pays a visit. It was packed full of great lines and the time flew by as we were glued to our seats longing to find out what happens next.

Great for a rainy day, thoroughly recommended.

Snuggles in Scotland trailer

Check out our trailer for 'Snuggles in Scotland'

Buy your copy on Amazon now and £1 from every copy will go to our supported charity Nordoff Robbins.

We'd also LOVE to know what you think so if you have a copy please post a review, thanks!

We took the play dough pledge

This was an inspirational idea from three UK blogs Sun Hats & Wellie Boots, Naturestore and The Imagination Tree who all last week were encouraging their readers to take the play dough pledge and try something new with play dough, be it by making their own or by trying a new play dough activity. Every day of last week they shared recipes and new play dough ideas and we couldn't resist joining in!


We used Sun Hats & Wellie Boot's no cook recipe and it couldn't have been easier as we had all the ingredients already in the cupboard. They cost pennies and were all natural ingredients.  The recipe also included some great ideas to add colour to your play dough by making your own natural fruit and vegetable dyes.


What surprised us the most was how quick and easy it was and it was such a great texture it was irresistible to play with. 


Inspired by Sun Hats and Wellie Boots we did self portraits. We thought about everything that we would need to make a face and were very clever and found a mirror so that we could have a proper look at our own faces. We then found a bucket and went into the garden to find things that would make good noses and eyes etc. We also raided the kitchen cupboard as we thought that pasta shells would make great ears and hair. Once our bucket was full we went to work. 


This is what we created: 

Tara's self portrait. A spitting image don't you think? especially the crazy hair! 

Snuggles our panda friend. He used a colouring pen to colour in his eyes, ears and nose

Snuggle's friend, The 4 year old

Because we were having so much fun we decided to make some more play dough this time adding some green colouring to it. The four year old made this amazing tropical island

then decided it should be part of the UK (still inspired by the Queen's Jubilee) so drew a Union Jack onto a piece of paper, used tape to attach it to a stick and stuck it into the sand. 

He also made a secret garden:

No snails were harmed during the making of the secret garden, they had already left their shells! 

We really did have the best fun and could have played with it for hours. A word of warning though, naughty dogs like to steal it off the counter and eat it, it doesn't stay down long!! 

If you click on Sun Hats & Wellie Boots: 100+ Ways to to Play with Play Dough you'll find a whole load of really great creations that people have made and emailed in. 

We hope that you have been inspired to play with play dough and recommend that whilst you do you have Tara's Music Magic Summer Fun CD playing in the background! 

Nordoff Robbins

We are very pleased to be supporting the charity Nordoff Robbins

Nordoff Robbins is a specialist music charity, dedicated to transforming the lives of vulnerable children and adults across the UK.

Nordoff Robbins provides over 50,000 music therapy sessions each year to people struggling with a range of challenges including autism and other learning difficulties, dementia, mental health problems, stroke, brain injury and depression. Some of their clients have a life-threatening or terminal illness, such as cancer.

All of the people helped by Nordoff Robbins music therapy have one uniting factor - music dramatically improves their quality of life.

Every time you purchase our DVD 'Snuggles in Scotland' and our CDs 'Summer Fun' and 'Winter Fun' £1 from each product will go to Nordoff Robbins. Every time you download a song from Amazon MP3 or itunes 20p will go to Nordoff Robbins. 

To find out more about the work that they do visit their website www.nordoff-robbins.org.uk

To make a one off donation click here

You can also follow them on Twitter @NordoffRobbins1 and like their Facebook page NordoffRobbins.MusicTransformingLives

Nordoff Robbins is a Registered Charity No. 280960

Make your own Rock Robot!

Last week a friend of Snuggles', the 4 year old, made a Robot.

To make one at home you'll need the following, or similar:

• 3 small cereal boxes
• 3 toothpaste boxes 
• 1 cling film roll, cut in half
• tape
• decorating materials - they used felt, foam and stickers for clothes and pipe cleaners for hair
• children's glue
• some wool
• some brown paper

Using brown tape to secure them in place they used 2 of the toothpaste boxes as legs, 1 of the cereal boxes as the head and one as the body.

To make the arms they got a grown up to make two holes, one each side of the body cereal box, to fit the cling film roll that had been cut in half. They secured them into the holes by using tape.   It looked like this: 

They then clothed the robot by cutting and glueing bits of felt and foam and sticking them, using glue, onto the arms, body and legs. To make the hair they stuck pip cleaners into the top of the cereal box head. They used all sorts of pretty colours such as gold, silver and blue. They then put stickers on to make him look really great and made sure that he had lovely twinkling eyes, a nose and a big smile.

They then decided as he looked like such a rock robot that they should make him a guitar.

To do this they wrapped the remaining cereal box and the remaining toothpaste box in brown paper and stuck them together using the tape.

To make guitar strings they cut 3 lengths of wool the same length as the guitar and attached them using tape. They got a grown up to cut two rectangles of brown paper which they glued on top of each end of string to hide the tape.

To make the guitar strap they cut a long piece of wool, folded it in half and taped one end onto the edge of the kitchen table. They then twisted the wool again and again until it made a lovely cord. They attached each end of the cord to each end of the guitar using tape. To complete they hung the guitar around the robot's neck and he was ready to rock!

The final thing to do was to give him a name, the 4 year old and Snuggles decided on 'Vin the Rock Robot'!

Do you think you could have a go at making your own 'rock robot'? perhaps yours could be a drummer or a singer and then we could start a band!!

We would LOVE to see photos of your completed robots so please email them to tarasmusicmagic@gmail.com 

We will choose a handful of our favourites and if we can form a band the winning band members will win FREE copies of Tara's Music Magic 'Summer Fun' CD and 'Snuggles in Scotland' DVD

The Queens Diamond Jubilee

How are you celebrating the Queens Diamond Jubilee this weekend?

Some of Snuggle's friends were REALLY lucky and got to see the Queen when she visited Richmond Park as part of her Jubilee tour. She looked very splendid in a white suit and a beautiful hat. There was a wonderful play area with a carousel, a helter skelter and hook a duck! Sadly the weather was very unpredictable with sunshine, rain and hail because there was so much more to explore but having been hailed on twice it was time for hot chocolate!



On the way home Snuggles was reminded of one of his favourite books 'The Queen's Knickers' by Nicolas Allan in which the author explores the idea that the Queen has matching knickers to match her outfits and her hats such as her relaxing knickers with corgis on or her wooly balmoral knickers.

Tara's Music Magic headquarters is very near to Balmoral so we like the idea of having wooly knickers to keep us warm through the winter! It is a charming book with wonderful illustrations and humour, a must read if you haven't done so already.

We have found a great resource on the tes website which includes 'How to make Knickers Bunting',  'Ten Royal Facts about the Queen' and 'The Queen's Knickers' wordsearch. Hours of fun!

The Queen also inspired them to make a beautiful carriage for her to travel in as her Range Rover seemed a bit boring! They created a seat for Prince Philip and William and Kate too. This is what they created:

We'd love to hear how you are celebrating the Diamond Jubilee or if you are making 'Knickers bunting' we'd love to see a photo. Email us tarasmusicmagic@gmail.com

Happy Diamond Jubilee your majesty. Best wishes and thank you for giving us 60 years!

Sunny Holiday

"The sun is shining we're all smiling
Let's go out and play
Let's go for a swim,
Dip your toe in
Enjoy your holiday

Lets drink lemonade
Snooze in the shade
Eat lots of nice ice cream
Let's go for a swim
Dip your toe in
If its cold let out a scream

Get in a boat
Don't need a coat
Cause it is sunny and bright
Let's go for a swim
Dip your toes in
Before it turns to night

The sun is shining we're all smiling 

Let's go out and play 

Let's go for a swim,  

Dip your toe in 

Enjoy your holiday"

Download 'Sunny Holiday' now on Amazon MP3 

Enjoy the sunshine!! 

Pancakes

We had American breakfast pancakes this year for pancake day and they were delicious!!

We got the recipe off the BBC recipes website - Fluffy American Pancakes 
and instead of maple syrup and butter we had blueberries, raspberries, dried figs, yoghurt and honey.

We think that they were so delicious you could eat them any time of year not just on pancake day!

Great Reviews

Sorry for the absence of blog recently we have been got by the flu!

I truly don't think that I have ever had proper flu before as I have never felt so rotten but we are on the mend hurrah!

Whilst we have been convalescing some brilliant bloggers and their wee ones have been reviewing 'Snuggles in Scotland' and they seemed to have really enjoyed it which is great! 

They have said lovely things such as:


“...won’t drive you mad as a parent after you’ve sat through numerous re-runs!” MADHOUSE FAMILY REVIEW 


“both encourages and motivates little ones to get up and dance and move about" A BOY WITH ASPERGER'S


“This DVD is ideal for Children to learn to be creative and explore different types of music” MUM OF THREE BOYS


"It’s great! The combination of a panda character mixed with well known children’s songs along with some they don’t know!” 4 MUNCHKINS PLUS MUMMY 


our favourite comment so far - 


“Although Bronte will remain a die-hard Metallica fan, I do think this DVD will get watched again and again" SMILERNPB


The links to the reviews can also be found on our website. 


A HUGE thank you to the bloggers who have taken the time to write about 'Snuggles in Scotland' 

What do you do to leave the house?

Did you see Micheal McIntyre's Christmas comedy roadshow?

He is so brilliant at observational comedy and I don't think there is a parent out there who can't relate to the sketch he did on leaving the house when you have small children. If you haven't seen it you must and if you have watch it again, it is still funny the 2nd, 3rd, 4th time!

Yesterday Clare told us that one time upon arriving at school, proud as punch that they'd arrived on time, she looked down at Isla's feet only to discover that she had her slippers on!!

It got us thinking what stories have you got of leaving the house?!

Do you have any fail safe ways of getting your children in the car or do you bluff like Mr McIntyre "if you don't come down the stairs we'll leave without you! we're leaving, we're leaving, goodbye, goodbye, bye, bye, bye"

We'd love to hear your stories so send us an email. The best story will be published on our blog and the winner will get one of each of our CDs 'Winter Fun' & 'Summer Fun'.  Hopefully a good bribing tool to get them out of the house and into the car for a sing a long!

A winner will be chosen 1st March so please email us your stories by 28th February. 

Robbie Burns

Today is the day that Scotland celebrates the life and poems of its national poet - Robert Burns

 

He was born in Scotland, 25th January 1759, and was best known for his poetry and lyric writing. His most famous lyric ‘Auld Lang Syne’ is often sung worldwide on New Year’s Eve.

He was the son of a farmer and had 6 younger brothers and sisters. With little money for school his father taught them all how to read and write. At 15 Robert wrote his first poem ‘O, Once I Lov’d A Bonnie Lass’. 


His work was often inspired by love! 

In 1784, after the death of his father, Robert and his brother took over the farm but struggled financially. In 1786 he had decided to immigrate to Jamaica were he could work as a bookkeeper for £30 a year. As he was penniless it was suggested to him that he publish his poems in order to pay for the passage.

By July that year he had TWO volumes of his works published and was soon known across the country. His success was immediate so plans of immigrating were dismissed and instead he choose Edinburgh as his home where he was received as an equal of the aristocracy and other literary heroes. Later that year a new edition of his poems were published bringing him £400!

He wrote many a lyric to preserve Scottish Folk music and many more of his works were published. He was very political and inspired many people until he died in 1796 aged 37. You will find statues of him all over the world from Aberdeen, Scotland to Vancouver, Canada and his works still inspire poets and musicians to this day.

Each year on 24th January people remember Robert Burns by having a ‘Burn’s supper’ of haggis, neeps and tatties, toasting the haggis and raising a glass of whisky in memory of him and his work.

This is Tara's favourite Robbie Burns poem ‘My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose’ sung by Eva Cassidy

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today (23^rd January) is the first day of the Chinese New Year. The Chinese year is 4709^. The Chinese use the Stem-Branch calendar to count the days, months and years which is why the year is different to ours.

There are 10 Stems named by the Chinese Five Elements and their Yin-Yang (male-female) eg. Yang Wood, Yin Wood etc. The 12 Branches use animal names ie Rat, Cow, Dragon and are the Chinese zodiac signs. 

The year 2012 is Male Water Dragon. 

There are many stories as to how the animals were chosen for the zodiac signs. One of them is that the rat was given the job of inviting a variety of animals to a banquet to meet the Jade Emperor, ruler of the heaven and the earth. Those animals that showed up made a place in the calendar. The cat did not make it as the rat tricked him into thinking that the banquet was the night after, thus making the cat and the rat enemies for eternity. 

I wonder why the panda didn’t make it!

The Dragon is the only mythical creature to be included in the Chinese calendar and in China is the symbol of power from heaven. It is the most auspicious animal, is the symbol of royalty and is thought to bring wealth, wisdom, courage and power. It is for this reason that many couples believe the year of the Dragon the best year to have a child. 

If you were born in a previous year of the dragon (1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000) 2012 may not be a lucky year for you, but fear not if you wear something red, given to you as a gift, you will ward off the bad luck!

‘Gung hay fat choy’ is the traditional Chinese greeting for new year meaning ‘Best wishes and congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year’

We found this funky Chinese New Year Song on YouTube. “Gung hay fat choy” to all of our readers! 

All of a Twitter

Today at our temporary London HQ we have been a hive of activity: 

We've Tweeted

We've Facebooked 

We've found Mummy's with toddlers that blog  - they're reviewing our DVD 'Snuggles in Scotland' (are you one? email us if you and your smalls would like to review us on your blog) 

We've emailed - 162 nurseries and playgroups in Wandsworth!  we don't really know why we started with Wandsworth, but, we had to start somewhere in London so it started... there! Now every nursery/playgroup in Wandsworth knows about our nursery/playgroup project. Where should we hit tomorrow?  Kew, or maybe Kensington and Chelsea, who knows.

We have navigated our day with more cups of tea than previously thought possible to be consumed and eaten more french crostini with President butter than is considered healthy.

We are sad as Old MacDonald's dog was here but has now gone back to the farm. She went with our sound engineer Matt on the bus and LOVED it! She got lots of fusses and one lovely lady suggested she model for Nicole Farhi; Matt quickly told her she was already a star!

We've had some great reviews posted up on Amazon, take a look. It is so great to read the reviews, especially when lots of them say that the adults are enjoying it too. It has cheered us up no end on this cold January day without the dog to amuse us. Amazing to hear of people listening and watching as far a field as Australia and Washington!

Amongst all this business there was a bit of silliness - we found this video. A bit mean on the poor frog we thought, but he got his vengeance!!

Nursery School/Playgroup Project

Is your nursery or playgroup wanting to raise funding for a new playground, musical equipment/toys, or just raise some money for their favourite charity?


If so we can help.........


We are running a nursery/playgroups project across the UK to help raise funding for nurseries and playgroups. We want to help and encourage children to learn through music and fun. We are also very committed to ensuring music is an intricate part of nursery children’s lives and to ensuring high quality nursery provision. 

The DVD and CDs are offered to the nursery on a sale or return basis so there is absolutely no risk to the Nursery to get involved or even better they can take orders from parents and we will deliver them straight to their door. We also provide the nurseries/plagroups with flyers that they can personalise to suit them so it couldn't be easier! 

£2 from each DVD sale and £1 from each CD sale will go directly to the nursery or playgroup. This is purely so that the nurseries can keep the monies for fundraising activities.

If you would like your nursery or playgroup to get involved please email us at tarasmusicmagic@gmail.com and we will send you all the info and tools that you need to start raising that cash! 

Old MacDonald's dog Moet is already saving her fundraising pennies in her piggy bank!