Lego: Hobbit and Lord of the Rings

My son enjoyed recreating events from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films so I bought him a few of the smaller Lego sets so that he could recreate them. Unlike me he doesn't enjoy building Lego so I have always had the fun of building them all! When we moved into this house the Lego was all jiggled about and things had come apart. Yesterday as part of getting his room a bit more respectable I decided to re-build as many of his sets as I could. The Tolkien themed ones were mostly in one container that made it easer to re-assemble (not got all the instructions so had to use Google). Now these are old sets the prices are much higher but I have added my affiliate links if you are a fan:

I can't remember the last time Shelob actually had all her body parts attached:

The hook makes it possible to set her up for a proper attack:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Week 48 ( #R2BC )

 

 

Thanks again Michelle for hosting this linky. It's great to stop and think positive.

1) Thinking of others

I am so glad that my children are learning to think about and do things for people less fortunate than themselves. My daughter raised £35 for Macmillan cancer by painting nails and running a game at our church fete this weekend. Even her brother let her paint his nails! We have also had a good clear out of their old clothes for their schools Bags2School fundraiser. Great to get rid of unwanted clothes to help both their school and people in need in Eastern Europe.

2) Proper Winter

The weather has really turned wintry this week. Temperatures are barely above freezing and we have had plenty of frost like on my shed roof:

 

Yes my washing froze on the line but at least it was dry enough to try and hang it out! Just glad I have a nice toastie electric blanket though and I'm not looking forward to the heating bill!

3) Mummy treat

I realised I am child free the weekend the Hobbit comes out so I have booked myself a seat to see the 3D version all on my own! I'm a big Tolkein fan and its been a long wait to get to see one of my favourite childhood books turned into a film:

 

Keeping kids reading

Regular visitors to my blog will know that I'm a book worm and passionate about reading. I have always hoped that my children will follow in my footsteps. They have grown up in homes full of books and were introduced at an early age to the library.

 

It is incredibly rare for my children to go to bed without me (or a grandparent) reading to them. In fact one of the worst punishments I can dish out is to not read to them as they get very upset. The choice of reading material has worked it's way from picture books and is now starting to become chapter books. We all like the suspense of waiting for the next night to see what happens next! Sometimes these are books new to all of us but also I am revisiting favourites from my own childhood with stories such as The Magicians Nephew and The Hobbit.

 

The children both enjoy reading to me too. This year my son at nearly 6 has really got into reading and has moved on a few levels already. He is so keen to read his new book each night that he reads it to me in the car on the way home! Partly this fuelled by a competitive streak as he wants to be at a higher level than his friends in class. He also enjoys picking out words in his bedtime stories or reading them from other sources. I really hope that he carries on being this enthusiastic.

 

My daughter is really turning out to be a chip off the old block when it comes to reading. She loves to read way after lights out in bed every night. The level of her reading has suddenly leapt up. At 8 she is devouring books by Roald Dahl and tonight I started her off on her first Discworld novel Wee Free Men. She is a pretty confident and competent reader though the vocabulary can stretch her a bit especially when reading aloud. Today she said she would rather read than play on her DS which is a good thing.

 

Long may both my children love reading and being read too. It will be such a shame when they are too old for a bedtime story. Though I guess we will all end up curled in our favourite chairs with our noses in our own books!

 

How have you encouraged your children to read and what tips could you offer to those with more reluctant readers?