Category Archives: Early Learning

Binky Bear Posts his letter to Father Christmas

Three Ways of Writing to Santa

By | November 22, 2016 | Categories: British Heritage, Early Learning, Making Things
What better way to start the build up to Christmas than writing to Santa. Here are three ideas.

1. Make Santa a picture

For really young ones, all you need is a piece of card, a large envelope and some bright toy catalogues as well as glue and glitter of course and children can tear their favourite pictures from the catalogue (or kids’ magazines).   Everyone can join in with writing to Santa or it may be just two of you at the kitchen table.  Either way the letter will be a visual feast for Santa!  You may end up doing the writing but that’s fine as the fun bit is choosing and tearing out the pictures.
Writing a letter to Father Christmas

Writing a letter to Father Christmas

2. Write a Binky Bear Letter to Father Christmas

There are loads of freebies on line but the best one (of course) is the Binky Bear Letter to Father Christmas.  If your kids prefer colouring in, try this download which we gave out last year to all our Muddy Paws Club members.  All the children have to do is fill in the blank list at the top of the page and then colour in Binky and the rest of the picture. You can download your Binky Bear Letter to Father Christmas here: binky_bear_activity_colour_sheet_dec. december-colouring-sheet

3. Write a letter via The Royal Mail and Santa writes back!

The third way is to write a good old letter and you can send this letter to Santa via the Royal Mail and get a letter back.  In fact you can send any of these pictures and letters to Father Christmas via the Royal Mail and providing you send it to Santa's correct address you are very likely to get a reply. The Royal Mail ask that you send your letters by first or second class post to arrive by their deadline on Friday December 9th.  They don’t guarantee a reply but it is likely and it will be personally addressed.  Send your letters to: Santa/Father Christmas, Santa's Grotto, Reindeerland, XM4 5HQ
Binky Bear and the red post box in Alresford

Binky Posts his Letter to Father Christmas.

For blind or partially sighted children

And the magic does not end there, blind or partially sighted children can write to Santa too and get a reply in braille, audio or large print.  The deadline for this is December 1st and send letters to: RNIB, Midgate House, Midgate, Peterborough, PE1 1TN. The closing date for letters is Thursday 1 December 2016.  You can find out more here. http://www.rnib.org.uk/information-everyday-living/family-friends-and-carers/resources-parents-blind-or-partially-sighted/letter-santa

Receive a letter from Santa

The NSPCC can arrange for Santa to send out personalised letters if you make a donation of just £5 (suggested).  So you don’t actually write to Santa but if you set this up for your kids they can each get a lovely personalised letter from Santa himself and the NSPCC benfits from your money. All you have to do is choose a template to suit the age of your child, add in a few details about what your child likes to do, (there is a drop down menu to help you: dancing, playing football etc) what their achievement has been this year (behaving for your teachers, tidying your room, etc) and you can name a close friend or relative they are close to and those clever people at the NSPCC will write a lovely personalised letter to your child from Santa himself or if you prefer from Father Christmas or Siôn Corn if you want the letter written in Welsh.
Little Elf

Getting Your Own Letter From Father Christmas Is Very Special

The deadline is December 16 and https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-you-can-do/make-a-donation/letter-from-santa" target="_blank">here is the link you need. th. So time to get out the glitter and glue? And if Binky Bear appears on a little person's Christmas List then all you need to do is click here and find out all about the World of Binky Bear.

Kids In The Kitchen

By | September 1, 2016 | Categories: Early Learning, Making Things
With the Great British Bakeoff in full swing how about getting the kids in the kitchen and inspiring the next generation of bakers? Butterfly cakes for garden treats, bobbing boats to take to the beach. Making them with the children and grand-children - what better way to spend an afternoon as the holidays draw to a close or as younger brothers and sisters are left at home when the older ones go to school.Continue reading this article...

Summer Trails For Kids

By | July 1, 2016 | Categories: Early Learning
Want to go for a walk? No! Want to go on a trail? Yes! Here's how to make your trails for kids rock: 1. Have a purpose: a. What we did today: go out and take photos to load up on Facebook later to show Auntie Chris, Mum, Dad Grandma etc. What We Did Today and then everyone gets to say what their favourite thing was b. Plant investigator: find 10 different leaves – try these free Apps to help you identify what’s what: Tree Id and Garden Answers. Woodland Trust Tree Id App c. Go foraging: pick blackberries – from mid-August in some places – then return home to make blackberry and apple crumble. 2. Follow a trail map. Learning how to read a map is a fantastic life skill and you can start with very simple ones. a. Draw your own ‘mud map’ for a place you know well and leave some gaps for the kids to fill in things like, the names of buildings, drawing in a tree, the bridge, the shop etc. Mud Map for Summer Trails b. Complete a trail that links to a book – yes like ours! You can download our free trail maps for London, Winchester and Alresford here. From August 20th you will be able to download our very latest Binky Trail which is set in leafy Surrey, near Compton. 3. Have a few extra activities up your sleeve. a. “I spy” and also “I hear with my little ear…” b. Follow my leader, taking it in turns to lead the pack c. Stop and play hide and seek. Woodland walks are great for this d. Walk and Talk – get kids to take it in turns to talk about what they see and hear as they walk – this is great to get quiet ones chatting. 4. Finally take a picnic, a few trail treats, plenty of water and sunscreen and have a great day out!

Binky Bear Goes To Woodlands Primary

By | February 27, 2016 | Categories: Behind the Scenes, Early Learning, Making Things, Uncategorised
A rather wonderful thing has happened at Binky Bear - Woodlands Primary in Carnoustie, Scotland has opened a Binky Bear trail. We spoke with Deputy Head teacher Judith Connor to find out more.

1. Tell us about your school and your part of the UK

Our school is Woodlands Primary School which is in Carnoustie in Angus. Carnoustie is often called 'the home of golf'. We are very lucky to live in a small town on the coast with a beautiful beach. Woodlands Primary School caters for children from 5 - 11 and we also have a nursery class for 3 - 5 year olds. We are an eco school and are currently working on our 4th green flag and we are also a fairtrade school with a fairachiever award. reading-about-the-trail-at-woodlands-primaryContinue reading this article...

Competitions: Winning Or Taking Part?

By | December 12, 2015 | Categories: Early Learning, Making Things
If you have a prolific young artist in your family or an occassional artist who likes to work to one specific brief, we have an opportunity for you: enter our monthly Binky Picture Competition. As the entries for our current competition trickle in at a steady pace, ahead of 15th of the month deadline, I started to think about why we had decided to run monthly picture competitions in the first place. Our first competition was back in November and Daisy from Southampton, aged just 4 ½ was our first winner. We sent Daisy a certificate with a copy of her picture featured in it, wrapped in an envelope addressed to her, along with her prize. Her mum told us how delighted Daisy was to find her big envelope next to her cereal bowl at breakfast and that her certificate is now displayed with pride on the fridge door. Continue reading this article...

Photography For Children

By | November 18, 2015 | Categories: Early Learning
By Moira Blackwell

As you know Binky Bear books are photographic picture books and all our books are illustrated with colour photographs.

Photography is a great sharing activity and encourages children to be creative and aware of the world about them. So, here are 6 ways to get your child started.

1. Having their own camera.

This may sound obvious but start by getting them their own camera, rather than lend them your mobile phone to take an odd picture now and again. So ‘their own camera’ could be your old phone or a cheap and simple digital camera. There are quite a few to choose from and at the foot of the page* we have included a link to a review of the latest digital cameras. Prices range from about £20 up. When a child has their own camera, the resulting photographs will be THEIRS too.

Continue reading this article...
getting children hooked on books

How do you get children hooked on books?

By | October 16, 2014 | Categories: Early Learning
By Liz Nankivell People often ask us when we think our books will be suitable for children and I always reply that you can read to children from almost the moment they start to notice the world around them.  This is certainly what I did with my daughter but to make sure I'm not spouting complete rubbish I decided to do a little research and this is what I came up with. Studies do indicate that early exposure to books makes a long-term difference to children's language abilities and to their eagerness to learn how to read.  In June 2014, the US Academy of Paediatrics made a policy statement to formally recommend that parents read out loud to their children every day. http://goo.gl/sOZoLw Dr Pamela High who authored the policy statement and is Director of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, R.I., and a professor at Brown University, seeks to address two issues here: to ‘immunize against illiteracy’ and create ‘a nurturing experience that promotes social and emotional development during a critical period of early development.’  Hector Tobar picks this point up in his excellent blog post for the LA Times http://goo.gl/FhDpfW where he quotes Dr Peter Richel saying that reading to children: "…also enriches the family experience, and contributes to social/emotional development." Both issues are of great interest to us in the UK and are high on the political agenda as this September 2014 article in The Huffington Post shows http://goo.gl/7gDwQV. So here are some tips to start reading with very young children. Continue reading this article...