Make Your Own Stickman Family

We are the biggest fans of Julia Donaldson! We read Room on the Broom all year long and we love the animation!! If you haven't seen it yet - I couldn't recommend it enough! Whenever its on my 4 year old is fixated on the television and takes everything in! It's not just Room on the Broom that's a wonderful tale by Julia - Zog, Snail and the Whale, What the Ladybird Heard and of course STICKMAN to name a few!!

Again we recently discovered this animation as it popped up on our Amazon Prime screen! We actually watched the animation before we read the book!! It's one of our favourites and is already a well read book!! It was my preschooler who suggested we make our own stickman family and I thought it was a fantastic idea! On went our wellies and although it was really rainy and miserable outside it was actually so much fun!!

It was a must to go and get the wellies dirty and off we went to find the muddiest, squelchiest puddle! Is it bad that I was kinda hoping my daughter would fall in the mud?! There is nothing better than a child getting all mucky and loving it!! She didn't fall bless her - but she did get a pebble in her welly which really unimpressed her.

As you can see it got pretty messy!! It gave the perfect opportunity to chant 'we're going on a bear hunt'. We also grabbed twigs and branches and pretended to be the horrible beasts from Room on the Broom coming out of the swomp!!  

Along the way we collected sticks while the twins snoozed away under their raincovers. It was honestly medicine to the mind after a stressful week. I love family time that helps you connect with one another! We brought the twigs home. I gave them a wash and we left them several days to dry out. We had quite a collection which I soon discovered was good as I needed different sticks in a variety of sizes to create the Stickman Family.

I actually set about putting them together while my daughter was at school. I had to use superglue to stick them together so I didn't really want her around as I knew she would want to get stuck in. Obviously superglue is definitely just for adults. 

I had some near misses and had to be very careful. I actually had a good laugh to myself because I was standing in the window for the light and my next door neighbour came back and saw me gluing sticks together! HA! I wonder what he thought and whether he mentioned it over their tea that night!

It took me around an hour to get 5 twig people together. I had to glue on the arms, legs, noses and the googly eyes! I added a couple of leaves to the Daddy twig using tissue paper and once they had dried I placed them on the table next to the book for my daughter to discover when she arrived home. 

She was ecstatic and insisted we take them along to the beach with us like in the story. 

So that's exactly what we did!! She only wanted to take the Daddy stick to the beach. She carried him along the sand and built sandcastles next to him! 

He has actually become part of the family and has enjoyed accompanying us while we're out and about! Although my daughter is on the look out for 'the family tree' so he can go back to live with Sticklady Love. 

She wants to take him along to a few more places that he visits throughout the book! I have a little challenge on my hands! So I will be back to add the adventures of Daddy Stickman with you!

March is National Reading Month here in the UK. We have teamed up with a fabulous set of bloggers and childcare settings to show how you can use children's books to inspire playtime. When a child has a love for a story - using props, activities and crafts to help bring the story alive for them ignites their imagination further - this is where learning happens naturally. 

This approach isn't just for early years too. Although their curriculum encourages going along with the child's interest it is also a must to continue doing this past these years. Children need to play. Lots of research has gone into just how valuable reading for children actually is. Creating fun set ups and activities linked to their favourite stories really does kill two birds. Give it a go - the children will really appreciate it!

Over the course of March we will be bringing your way a collection of must have childrens books. Each day a new book will be added to the collection!! 

What are your favourite stories? Which books would you like to see covered in this series?

You can keep up to date with this by the link below:

Children's Books to inspire Play - National Reading Month