These books were kindly gifted by Wonderbly and were provided in exchange for an honest review.
Do you have any Mother’s Day rituals? Or as a new mother, are you looking to forge your own traditions? The latter is me.
Growing up, Mother’s Day always involved waking early to make my mum breakfast in bed. This usually ended in my brother and I eating most of the breakfast. It was a special tradition that I’ll always look back on fondly.
Now a mother myself – to a funny, headstrong, 21-month-old daughter, Indie – I want to create our own Mother’s Day traditions. Do I want to create those same adoring memories for Indie? Yes, totally! Do I want to soak up all the attention and excuse myself from nappy duty for the day, too? Hell yeah, I do!
I was chuffed when Wonderbly said they were going to send me a couple of books for Indie, as part of their Mother’s Day campaign. Each of their books is personalised in such a beautiful way and they seem to have stories tailored to all occasions, which makes these books that extra bit special. They’re a great way of teaching them about these special occasions too. How else do you teach a one-year-old about Mother’s Day, birthdays, starting school and the like?
‘Indie Loves Mummy This Much’ is a lovely story that touches on all the typical day-to-day things you get up to together. Simple activities like having breakfast, taking a stroll through the woods and playing with their toys are all parts of your day that your son or daughter can recognise from the book in their daily routine. Indie’s name is speckled throughout the story, as well as the images, helping her to recognise her name when it’s written.
I love that this book rhymes! In fact, the only stories that Indie truly engages with are those that rhyme. Recognising rhyming words is a basic level of phonemic awareness and requires children to listen closely for sounds within words. Children learn to anticipate the rhyming word, which also does wonders for their vocabulary.
The website allows you to personalise so many aspects of their books, from soft or hard back to the colour of the book cover. You can include a personalised message and change the hair and skin colour of the child in the book. The pages are nice and thick, so not easily ripped, making them (fairly) toddler proof. (It’s amazing how such tiny people can be so destructive!) The finish and quality are echoed in the price, as these books aren’t cheap at £21.99 upwards. Nonetheless, it’s those finer details that make these books so special.
Indie will be turning two in June and so I’m saving the second book, ‘Happy Birthday to Indie’, for the week building up to her birthday. She’ll have so many new toys to play with on the actual day that I want her to have this beforehand. This also gives me the perfect opportunity to teach her what a birthday is. She’s not been able to attend a single birthday party over the last year due to the pandemic, which does sadden me, but I’m hopeful that this year will be one of many firsts.
The birthday book is actually my favourite. We opted for the pastel violet cover as it’s a little more ‘Indie’ and we chose to leave out her age (which is optional), so we could read it every year. The story spells out your child’s name with the help of a number of animal friends. It’s really interactive and encourages little ones to have a go at making the animal noises. Indie’s animal mad, so I know that this one will be a real hit!
If you’d like £10 off your first book, then please just shout and I can generate a discount code that goes straight into your inbox. Happy reading book worms!