Silent Sunday

Silent Sunday

Review – Olive The Ostrich

We don’t watch a lot of TV in our house but when it’s on, my son usually prefers old favourites to something new. Given the choice, he tends to pick one of his DVD’s over whatever happens to be on the TV. So when we were asked if we would like to review a brand new show I was happy to give it a go but unsure of what my son would make of it.

Those of you with Nick Jr. may have already seen their newest animated show which launched on 5th September. If you haven’t seen it yet, let me introduce Olive the Ostrich.

Olive is an ostrich with a huge heart and a big imagination. When she buries her head in the sand she goes on fantastical adventures, popping up somewhere new in every episode. She is friendly, enthusiastic and loves to solve problems wherever she goes.

As you can see, Olive the Ostrich has a very different look to most children’s shows. This is because, brilliantly, each episode features characters, props and backgrounds created by children aged 6 to 9 years. Selected schools from across the UK hosted workshops to inspire creativity and develop storytelling skills. Pupils learnt about the film making process and created artwork which was used in the finished episodes.

So, what did the little one think of it? I announced (perhaps a little over dramatically) that I had a brand new DVD for him to watch, one that nobody else had ever seen and the man from the TV had sent it to him specially to find out what he thinks before he puts it on TV for all the other children to watch. Son looked at me suspiciously before nodding his approval, so I put the disc in quickly before he changed his mind.

Each episode, narrated by Rolf Harris, is just five minutes long. The same as the attention span of a wriggly two year old. There was a smile… a little chuckle… and the first show was over. Son pointed at the screen and said, “watch ‘nother one now please”. So we watched the next one. I asked what he thought of it and he gave it a thumbs up and a “bee-ant”. That’s ‘brilliant’ for those of you who don’t do toddler-speak. The next day I asked what he wanted to watch and he opted for “the new one” and watched both episodes before moving on to something else. I’d say that was a hit in our house.

Olive the Ostrich is shown on Nick Jr. (Sky 615, Virgin 715 and TalkTalk 318) every weekday at 8.15am and 6.30pm. You can also see Olive on the Nick Jr. website and colour pictures in using their online art studio.

All opinions are honest and our own. We were given a DVD with two episodes of Olive the Ostrich, a poster and some stickers free of charge for this review.

Silent Sunday

I don’t normally break the rules with Silent Sunday, but have to add a few words to this one. It’s not actually anything to do with the picture though, so not too naughty, eh?

Massive thanks to Mocha Beanie Mummy for hosting the Silent Sunday linky and helping make my photography a little better. Sad to see the end of it, but so pleased that lots of people will carry on posting and using #SilentSunday on twitter.

Enjoy your Sundays, Jay, you deserve to. x

Goodbye Summer

So it appears that Summer has come to a rather abrupt end, even though there only seemed to be about three days of it anyway. I thought the weather was supposed to be brilliant the first week of September, that’s how I remember it from when I was a kid. Rubbish at the end of the holiday then glorious sunshine while I was stuck in a classroom, daydreaming into a clear blue sky and wishing the holidays lasted just one more week.

I had loads of plans for this summer but, as best-laid plans often do, they went a bit awry. Illness and the weather were probably the main reasons (or excuses) as to why I didn’t do all the things I had planned. Add to that the fact that whoever keeps the world ticking over appears to have over-wound it and time is now going far too fast, what chance did I have fitting it all in?

As I look back over my list, I feel like I’ve failed. Places I didn’t visit, events I didn’t attend; I have a summer of things crossed out and I don’t like it. This year was supposed to be blooming brilliant but I’m letting other people get the better of me again and it’s dragging me down. I dwell on the bad things until they cast such big shadows that I can’t see the good things anymore.

Yes, there were lots of things we didn’t get around to doing but, thinking about it, we still had some fantastic days out and made the most of the good days. It’s just difficult trying to remember that when I spend so much time worrying about everything else.

But we did have a good summer, and I have the photo’s to prove it 🙂