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Ivy’s Guest Book: Sally Webb, Owner, Milk At The Museum

Milk At The MuseumTell us a little bit about yourself and your family

I am Sally and I have a 3 year old daughter Ivy and a 1 year old son Tom.  I previously worked at the Imperial War Museum for 10 years. My current job is a tour guide at the Churchill War Rooms and I have started up a blog called Milk at the Museum.

I started Milk at the Museum because when I had children I could not afford the childcare costs to allow me to go back to work.  I had been on Instagram a while and it suddenly dawned on me its potential in getting information out there.  I noticed that there was not one place you could go to, to find out all the family friendly activities going on in Museums and that’s where it all began.  Museums are a huge passion of mine and I have really enjoyed the Milk at the Museum journey so far.

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Ivy’s Guest Book: Kelly Smith, Owner, Crafty Little Kel

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family

Crafty Little KelI’m Kelly and I’m mum to two little boys, Conor (7) and Iwan (5). I am a trained secondary teacher but gave up a stressful head of department job last year in favour of doing supply work around my pyrography and glass engraving business; something which had always been a hobby of mine and which I always dreamed of turning into a small business. I can honestly say I have never looked back as my children are growing up so fast and this is allowing me more precious time to spend with them whilst working around them from home.

What are your sons’ favourite books?

Conor is now 7 and so is reading confidently on his own. He is currently really in to the Goosebumps books. Until recently he lacked confidence in reading but discovering the Goosebumps series made a big difference to him – I think it’s a refreshing change to Biff, Chip and flipping Kipper! Iwan’s firm favourite at the moment is a book called “Nuddy Ned” by Kes Gray and Gary Parsons. It’s about a little boy who, after his bath, whilst his parents are sorting out his bed, decides that it would be far more fun to streak naked through the town. The book is written in rhyme and has lift the flaps on each page. Iwan shrieks with laughter throughout the whole story!

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Ivy’s Guest Book: Emma Fulton, Owner, Emma Fulton Coaching

Emma FultonTell us a little bit about yourself and your family

I am Emma Fulton and I am a career coach living in South East London. I support women with children to make sense of their careers after they’ve become parents so that they can find work they love or love what they do again. I have 3 boys who are 9, 2 and 1.

What are your children’s favourite books?

I have read a bedtime story to my eldest since he was tiny, including reading all 4,224 pages of the 7 Harry Potter books to him. I feel really lucky that he still lets me read to him now. It’s been such a bonding experience for us.

The standout favourite by a mile from his toddler years was “Aliens Love Underpants” by Claire Freedman.  I would read it to him every night.  It’s a rip-roaring adventure where the naughty aliens land on earth and make mischief with all manner of different pants until they manage to create something that will sling them back into space.  Daft but fun.

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Ivy’s Guest Book: Gemma Hall, Owner, LittleGemGem

LittleGemGemTell us a little bit about yourself

My name is Gemma and I live in a small village in County Durham with my Husband and two children. I have a 2-year-old son and an 8-month-old daughter. I’m a full-time mum and also run a handmade party decoration business from home, so life is crazy busy!

What is your son’s favourite book?

Pirates in the Supermarket by Timothy Knapman. My son loves this book! It’s a story about rogue pirates who run amok in a supermarket causing chaos and mess.  It has definitely made shopping more fun as he now thinks that’s where pirates live and insists on looking for them when we go shopping together.

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Ivy’s Guest Book: Phebi King, Owner, Bosses ‘N’ Mums

Phebi KingTell us a little bit about yourself and your family

Hello, my name is Phebi a millennial mum to 2 wonderful children – a 4-year-old girl and 3-year-old boy – and wife to my hands-on hubby. London is my home and I absolutely love London. I previously worked as a Public Health Professional supporting mums and their families. I run my own business helping mums as a Confidence Coach. I help mums to build confidence to achieve goals whilst balancing family life.

What are your children’s favourite books?

To be honest I don’t think they have one favourite book. However, my son loves ‘Well Done Little Croc’ by Tony Maddox. I think it’s the way I read the book to him and he loves to learn the meaning behind the book. Whereas my daughter is very much into reading books about Disney’s princesses at the moment (she has outgrown Peppa Pig).

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Does Your Child Love Dinosaurs? Enter Our Competition!

Enter NowWhat is it with little ones and dinosaurs? Ivy is in the grips of dino fever so we thought we would run a little dinosaur-themed competition for you.

Our prize bundle contains 5 picture books, a cuddly dinosaur, a colouring book and some crayons and it’s worth over £40!

We have 2 prize bundles – one for Facebook followers and one for Instagram followers.

Click here to enter on Facebook

Click here to enter on Instagram

Contest is open internationally and will run for 2 weeks. The winner will be selected at random at 8.30pm GMT on Wednesday, June 6th 2018

The prize includes:

* Silly Dizzy Dinosaur by Jack Tickle
* Ten Little Dinosaurs by Mike Brownlow & Simon Rickerty
* Dinosaurs Love Underpants by Clare Freedman & Ben Cort
* The Dinosaur That Pooped A Planet! by Tom Fletcher, Dougie Poynter & Garry Parsons
* If I Had A Dinosaur by Alex Barrow & Gabby Dawnay
* My First Dinosaur Colouring Book from Bloomsbury
* Set of Dinosaur Mini Crayons
* A Cuddly Dinosaur from Best Years

GOOD LUCK!

Ivy’s Guest Book: Hannah Van Buskirk, Owner, HVB Marketing

Hanna Van BuskirkTell us a little bit about yourself and your family

Hello, my name is Hannah. I’m a self confessed cappuccino  and Lotus biscuit addict, who could easily spend all day in a book shop if I wasn’t quite so distracted by my 3 and 5 year old!  I own HVB Marketing. We are a business supporting (mostly amazing mum-lead) businesses with their online marketing, which predominantly focuses on Search and Social advertising.  Having worked in the online marketing space for years, most clients will dip into other areas of marketing knowledge along the way. I live and work in the leafy Surrey suburbs.

What are your children’s favourite books?

My 3 year old daughter’s book of the moment is ‘Tiny Tantrum’’ by Caroline Crowe. It’s a story about a little girl who tantrums when she is asked to do something she doesn’t enjoy,  like cleaning her teeth or eating broccoli. A purple, hairy monster and his friends give the girl a fright but then they give her some good advice  like doing bottom wiggles, flushing your tantrum down the loo and never sharing hiccups, pants or snot. The kind of advice that makes my daughter laugh out loud! In the end, Tiny Tantrum finds herself giving the monsters some advice too. I think my daughter really connects with the tragedy of having to put your coat on, wash your hair all those things mean mums like me insist on!

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Ivy’s Guest Book: Sarah Parrott, Owner, Write Sparks

Write SparksTell us a little bit about yourself and your family

Hello! I’m Sarah- an exhausted mum of a lovely 13 month old boy. My husband and I are both South London born and bred, so we’re loving raising Joel in Forest Hill. Until I had Joel, I was a Primary Teacher and Head of English. I adored my job. However, our beautiful boy has had a difficult start, with lots of health issues.  It soon became clear that I wouldn’t be able to return to teaching in school, as he needs more care than most and we spend lots of time in various hospitals. During one of the seemingly endless night feeds, I realised there was a way that I could still teach and share my passion for Writing with children and teachers, but work around my son’s needs. Soon after, Write Sparks was born! As the owner of Write Sparks, I teach creative writing classes for children and work as a freelance Writing Consultant in schools.

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Ivy’s Guest Book: Rachel Bridge, Child Psychologist & Writer

Rachel BridgeTell us a bit about yourself and your family…

My name is Rachel.  I am a mama from down under, living on the south coast of Australia.  I have three delightful children.  Corey, our 12 year old son who doesn’t share my DNA but quickly won my heart, Addison, our three year old daughter who oozes adventure, warmth and intrigue and Kaylee, our two year old daughter whose spirit is affectionately adorable and who shows those she trusts a mischievous sense of humour.

I am also a Psychologist who is passionately working with children and their families. I am on a journey to empower children and parents on building and strengthening connections through intentional parenting.   I am a wellbeing writer who has a blog and shares fused snippets of my personal and professional journey in the hope that I may offer a sense of reassurance or support to others.  And I am also an aspiring children’s author who is currently working on placing a piece of my heart into a carefully illustrated therapeutic children’s book.

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Ivy’s Guest Book: Holly Dabbs, Founder, Foxglove Forest School

Holly DabbsTell us a little bit about yourself and your family

My name is Holly and live in South London with my husband, 11-month-old daughter and our two moody cats! I run creative workshops for children in museums, gardens and bookshops! I collect children’s picture books and finally have a child in the house who can enjoy them too although she is currently trying to eat most of them! I run Foxglove Forest School, a family forest school session for under5s in Forest Hill London. I love to use books and storytelling in my sessions.

What is your daughter’s favourite book?

At the moment my daughter loves ‘the Noisy Book’ by Soledad Bravi. Its great example of onomatopoeia and has bright, simple illustrations that she is hooked by. I am passionate about her enjoying books as much as I do! She also loves Spot books! We are lucky to live in Southwark which is part of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. It’s a free reading scheme for children under five, she sends you a new book for free each month. Thank you Dolly!

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