It was a hot and sunny day in Cambridgeshire......oh wait, this is Britain so it was hot and sunny but then the heavens opened (cue a mad dash to get the washing in, rescue teddy and various battery powered toys that were in the garden). Little one was having a nap, biggest one was starting to be a bit of a pain and wandering the house trying to disturb Daddy.....who was supposed be working! I then remembered that we had the newly launched Bing magazine to read and review and knew this would alleviate some boredom. As the weather was absolutely shocking I took the opportunity to spend some time with Alfie reading the Bing magazine.
For those who are not sure who Bing is.....Bing is a pre-school bunny who is finding his way in the world with the help of some friends. Bing continues to be a very successful children's program in Cbeebies.
Bing is a magazine in conjunction with Cbeebies and is aimed at pre-school children aged 2 - 5 years. It features a wonderful amount of colourful images, stories, activities and colouring. We are a big fan of magazines in the Beautiful Things household, as long as there is someone sitting with Alfie and keeping him engaged it's a decent time filler.
Alfie loved the free gift included in this months edition. The garden set consisted of a watering can, spade, fork, shears and a rather cute squishy frog soaker. Elarna also loved playing with them and they are a fairly reasonable sized even for her.
We loved reading the stories, especially the frog story where we could use the squishy frog as the character of the story. Most of all, and in any magazine Alfie loves the stickers. These are probably the part that keeps him occupied for quite a while. He loves to start off with his favourite stickers and then identify the page numbers that they go on. He is pretty good with his numbers but sometimes gets a little sticker happy and I have to guide him back to the correct pages but it's alot of fun 'stickering', in Alfie's words.
I really enjoy reading magazines with Alfie, there is a fab range of things in them from reading, colouring and things to make and not only do I feel it's good for bonding with him but they are a decent educational resource too. Despite the first picture (which I just had to include as it's totes hilarious) he was very much excited to be reading and helping to review it.
Since the garden and greenhouse is in full bloom at the moment, when it hasn't been raining Alfie had a great time helping Daddy using the gardening set and pretending to water the flowers and veggies. Sometimes free gifts in magazines can be a bit naff or repetitive but this one got a thumbs up all round.
For this review we were asked to produce a little video. Now I apologise in advance for the shocking quality but it's all I could deliver as I was on a limited time frame with Alfie! As you can hear on the video he was more than happy with the magazine and liked it alot. You can but Bing magazine on a monthly basis for £3.99 from most reputable retailers.
* Please note we were very kindly sent a cope of the magazine for review purposes, all thoughts and opions are my own.