In The Book REVIEW & Giveaway

AD – This is a collaborative post 

As the weeks of lockdown continue, many parents, particularly those who’s children aren’t going back to school any time soon, are getting to the point where our motivation for home schooling is starting to wane. Potentially peaking with our efforts a little too soon, the novelty of our perfectly planned schedules for educational activities and learning at home has started to wear off and we’re all feeling a little bit tired.

After over 11 weeks at home and with my work getting busier by the day, I have been trying to find ways of entertaining the girls with fun activities or tasks where the learning element is a little more subtle (and therefore met with far less resistance!)

We were recently contacted by a company called In the Book, the home of personalised books for children and adults alike. Each story can be made to be just as unique as your child, enabling them to spot their names on the cover, within the text or even hidden amongst the illustrations! With a huge variety of books to choose from including traditional classics, Disney and Marvel, there really is a personalised book for everyone!

Sticking with an educational theme, In the Book have a wide range of educational activity books including puzzles and colouring to keep them busy and occupied during lockdown. Not only are these books a huge help for working parents, attempting to work from home whilst juggling childcare, they are also a great way to send a special gift to children you aren’t able to see at the moment, adding a little message to the person you are missing the most.

We were sent a couple of books from the In the Book Activity selection and the girls couldn’t wait to check them out!

Where’s the Magical Unicorn Poop?

When looking through the range of personalised activity books at In the Book, this one caught my eye straight away and I knew it would be right up Erin’s street!

I am yet to meet a child that isn’t unicorn obsessed at the moment and Erin is no exception! She is also a big fan of the Where’s Wally concept, and this Where’s the Magical Unicorn Poop? book combines the two! The book comes personalised on the front and Erin was really pleased to see her name in big letters at the base of the cover.

Inside the front cover, we were given the option to personalise the book with a message of our choice. Now more than ever with lots of lockdown birthdays taking place, I thought this was a really nice touch, and a great way to mark the occasion in a way the child will remember for years to come. In this particular book, you can also add a photograph of your child on the back cover for that extra personal touch.

Erin spent ages reading this book, searching the pages for the different items hidden within each scene. Not only is there lots of specific unicorn and glittery ‘poops’ to find throughout the detailed illustrations, but also Erin’s own name was hidden among the pictures too. This was pretty special, and some were fairly tricky to find!

Neve enjoyed coming over to help Erin try and track down the more tricky finds within the book, and it was lovely to see that the book could be shared and enjoyed by them both.

With text to read on each page and requiring some real concentration and observational skills galore, this book was a real hit with them both.

Arty the Mouse Tracing Activity Book  

For Neve, we’ve found home schooling a little bit trickier to manage. With the girls being different ages it has been hard to find ‘lessons’ that are age appropriate for them both, and not yet being in full time education, we haven’t had as much educational support as we’ve had from Erin’s school. The areas I did want to try and concentrate on however were supporting some basic number and letter recognition, mark making and teaching her to write her own name independently.

In the Books’ Arty Mouse Tracing Activity Book is a great gift option for preschoolers, and this personalised edition incorporates not only mark making and pencil control, but also the introduction of their name on the cover and incorporated throughout the tracing activities!

With really beautiful illustrations throughout and lots of appealing designs to work through, Neve REALLY enjoyed this book, especially the elements where she recognised N for Neve! As much as it pained me to allow her to write in a hard back book (maybe the soft back of this one would be my preference for that reason!), it was lovely watching how well she could move the pen across the guiding dots and dashes on the page.

Neve was super proud of herself for writing her own name and I was really chuffed to see her accuracy getting better and better as the book went on! Look at that happy little face!

Overall, we LOVE the personalised activity book selection from In the Book. With lots of great activity books to choose from, these are an ideal choice for a special yet educational gift during this extended period at home.

You can check out the full range of personalised activity books HERE, with prices starting at £12.99.

Want to win a personalised activity book?

Thanks to the team at In the Book, we have a personalised activity book of your choice to giveaway to one lucky reader! Enter using the gleam app below!

In the Book Personalised Activity Book Giveaway

UK entries only, our standard giveaway terms and conditions apply! Giveaway opens 4th June 2020 and closes on 28th June 2020. GOOD LUCK!