Spring is here but it often doesn’t feel like it! March can be cold and dreary but with World Book Day right upon us, and Easter to look forward to at the end of the month, it’s up to us to make a this month as springlike and sunny as we can.

 

Starting with World Book Day - this boost to literacy and reading in our schools and our children’s bedrooms has become a fast favourite and Facebook will be full of cute kids heading off to their classes in costume from The Artful Dodger to Pippi Longstocking and there will be more Harry Potters than you can shake a Quidditch stick at!

 

You can extend World Book Day at home, by cooking some of the meals mentioned in favourite books - there’s actually a Moomin cookbook, a Winnie the Pooh cookbook etc, or just providing some of the top treats in children’s literature … Willie Wonka chocolate, anyone? And if you serve up the treats in your own World Book fancy dress you’ll definitely give your children a day to remember.

 

Easter can be a funny old festival - it’s a moveable feast, for one thing, which means it’s at a different time every year, and because it contains a couple of holiday days, it’s a good idea to get your Easter entertainment plans sorted out early. Lots of families like to make a visit to a country park, petting zoo or city farm to see the baby animals, but it can be a bit of a dodgy prospect in March, when we can get snow as well as horrible cold rain. So it’s always worth having a Plan B like watching some Easter themed films at home if the weather’s horrible - our favourites include The Dog who saved Easter and that old favourite It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown. You can always indulge in some Easter fancy dress to increase the fun.

 

Grown ups can feel left out over Easter so why not plan an Easter-themed evening with some darker entertainment such as Donny Darko, the demon bunny, and some chocolate themed cocktails?