FunReads4Kids

Honestly, if your child is struggling to eat up their veggies, reading fun stories on the topic can inspire your little munchkin BUT the other thing to try is growing your own. Store bought veggies are often tasteless or bitter. If you have pots, a little bit of space in your garden, a raised garden bed, try just a few plants.

My easiest recs are: carrots, mixed lettuce, herbs

What do you grow best at home?

Thank you for having me at your conference.

I had the privilege of being invited to speak about I’d Rather Eat Chocolate, how it links into the Early Years Learning Framework, the way I incorporate early literacy skills with active learning, whole body movements, discussions around ‘sometimes foods’ and ‘healthy foods’ and have children engage with the story by making mini veggie greenhouses.

Of course I was preaching to the converted as the attendees are already passionate and educated about children and families reading together. My favourite bunch of people to hang out with for a while 😊❤️

Are you a member of your local Council Library? They are an absolute treasure trove - staffed with passionate librarians, chock-a-block full of amazing books, offering baby rhyme time, story time, holiday workshops.

What about the school library? Did you know that more and more schools are losing their fulltime qualified library staff. Can you imagine?? How does that even happen when we are in the midst of a reading crisis?

If you want to support full-time qualified teacher librarians in every school, please sign the change.org petition in my bio. Would love your support for all our beautiful children.

I love a winter garden harvest.

Who else has a little veggie patch at their home?

Do you play with finger rhymes?

Peas are one of the veggies featured in I’d Rather Eat Chocolate and spring is a great time to plant snow peas - my favourite peas. Reminds me of a finger rhyme my kids loved:

5 little peas in a pea pod pressed (fist closed)
One grew, two grew and so did the rest (raise one finger at a time)
They grew and grew and did not stop (raise hand higher)
Until one day the pod went… POP! (Clap hands together)

If your kids are little and you want to have fun with rhyme, many libraries run rhyme time for babies - the absolute best fun and free!

Do you have a favourite finger rhyme?

Kids say the darnedest things. Here are a few from my recent school visit. Which one’s your favourite?

How old were you when you wrote I’d Rather Eat Chocolate (some of the teachers almost fell off their chairs 🤭)



What book are you most famous for? (Love the assumption I’m famous 🤣)

Many of the Yr 5-6 students asked me to autograph their posters that they had been creating. One student asked me to sign his arm but I drew the line there 😂

Are you going to turn your book into a movie? (I wish… when I’m rich AND famous 🤩)

I no longer actively work as a speech pathologist and now work as a first aid and CPR trainer and assessor.

Did you know women are less likely to receive CPR or a defib when they require it?
This is mainly due to concern about having to touch the female anatomy. So I always take my female manikin to my classes - she’s not like the ‘Annie’ of old - she actually has b***s! There is a campaign on at the moment called to generate awareness about women’s rights to have CPR.

You can’t be sued if you are providing CPR or first aid with good intentions. Also, when women are suffering from a cardiac arrest, they are more likely to make weird gasping ‘agonal’ breathing sounds than men. This often results in bystanders thinking she is breathing and therefore doesn’t require CPR. Breathing may be shallow, but needs to be regular to be considered ‘breathing’- not an occasional gasp.

Another valuable statistic to understand - 77% of CPR happens at home on a relative. Wouldn’t you want to know how to perform effective CPR to keep your loved ones alive?

Is any of this information new to you? I didn’t know some of the stats and I’m a trainer! Share with everyone you know🫀

Happy Father’s Day. It’s a quiet one here for us as our boys aren’t available to catch up. So just a special dinner with dad and one son and a bigger catch up in a few weeks when more family is around.

And happy heavenly Father’s Day to my own dad. Miss you and love you forever