There's No Place like Home by Dubravka Kolanovic and published by Quarto and New Burlington is a lovely little book and perfect for children expecting a new sibling. Mum and Dad start being too busy to read William his bedtime story when William's baby brother comes along so he tries to find a new home because he thinks that they don't love him anymore. The wording is nice and big and pictures are bright and descriptive. Best of all it has a happy ending.
Activities
Find the comfiest place to read
Family portrait
Design the perfect home
Design the perfect home for someone else
Hide and seek (person or toy)
Stroll out and about
Find somewhere comfy to read a book
Animal homes research and then search and spot them
Positives of having a sibling talk
Chocolate nests
Gingerbread house
Indoor
The book is about William finding a new home and a new place to read his book so the first activity could be for your child/children to choose a book and then search around where they live for the comfiest place that they can find to read it. You could have a discussion about why they chose the place they did and what were the negatives about the other places they tried. The next activity could be to paint or draw a family portrait and those with siblings could paint or draw their siblings doing an activity that they like to do together. Older children could design the perfect home for themselves. This could include drawing, painting or cutting things out of a catalogue and they can then explain to you why they have chosen the things that they did. If they really enjoyed this activity then they could design the perfect home for someone else taking into account the other person's likes and dislikes (this can be quite a difficult skill to learn, thinking about other people's opinions). With younger children you could have a game of hide and seek. If where you live isn't big enough or suitable for people to hide then you could hide a toy to find. With very young children you can hide it where it can still be seen and then gradually make it harder by just leaving part of the toy sticking out until you can completely hide it. Don't forget to let them take turns hiding it too (they will probably show you where it is but it is all part of the fun).
Outdoor
William goes for a stroll to find somewhere different to live so you could go out for a walk somewhere local or somewhere in the countryside. Another fun activity could be to take a book out and about and choose somewhere that looks comfy to sit and read it. If you have more than one child then they could take a book each and each choose somewhere that they think is comfy to read their chosen book. They could read their books individually or you could take it in turns to read a part of the story out loud. Younger children can find different things in the pictures. You could do some research of where different animas live and then when you are out and about you could see if you can find some of the different animal homes. We have lots of trees around where we live so we often see different nests when we are out and about. This is also a perfect time to talk about the positive things involved with having a sibling and the fun things that you can do and games that you can play involving more than one person.
Cooking/Food
You could make nests using melted chocolate and shredded wheat. Just melt the chocolate, crumble the shredded wheat and then mix together. Form nest shapes in the baking cases and then put in the fridge to harden. Once hard take them out because otherwise they will hurt your teeth. You can put some little egg shaped sweets in the nests when they have hardened and they are a nice sweet treat to enjoy. You could make gingerbread houses. Closer to Christmas you can buy a kit but you can get some shape cutters or you could cut your own shapes using a ruler to ensue that they will be of similar size and will fit together. When the structures are baked the fun part of decorating comes. You can use icing, chocolate spread, melted chocolate and a range of sweets and fruits to make the houses look awesome.
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