Growing pains

Your Kids will love you for these handy guides

TALKING TIME

Give your kids’ speech and language skills a head-start with the Talking Time DVD, created by leading speech-language pathology professors Dr Joan Kosta and Dr Nancy Polow. Using animal puppets, this programme is created for babies six to 36 months of age and comes with tips on how parents and caregivers can continue providing a stimulating learning environment. It’s learning made fun! Find out more on www.talkingtime.net or call +61 1300 367 819 for stockists. RRP AU$29.99.

THE BONDI LIFESAVER

Your children are safe on Bondi Beach because of these remarkable men and women. As the Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club celebrates its centenary in 2007, this book by Dr Sean Brawley, a leading sports historian and Senior Lecturer in History at the University of New South Wales, chronicles how lifesaving began as a movement in Bondi, became a vocation and is now such a part of Australian life it’s become a national icon. Published by ABC Books. ISBN 9-780733-317637. RRP AU$49.95.

FROMMER’S 500 PLACES TO TAKE YOUR KIDS BEFORE THEY GROW UP

If you think this book is crammed full of every Disney spin-off theme park there is, you’re wrong. Instead, it profiles how you can get the most out of travelling with your children by highlighting aspects even they will be interested in – and you’ll probably have just as much fun visiting these places as they do. There’s stalking the Loch Ness Monster, going batty at Count Dracula’s Castle, and for hot thrills, the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park - the only active volcano in a US national park where the lava still flows and you can feel the heat through your shoes. Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. ISBN 0-7645-9588-1. RRP US$19.99 (AU$25.48).

BALI & LOMBOK, 11th EDITION

Head to Bali for a fantastic family break - the Balinese love children and kids find it an exciting yet accessible place. Lonely Planet’s updated guide has new Outdoors and Food & Drink sections. While surfing is still huge, diving is surging ahead in popularity while for the rest of us who are less inclined towards meeting marine life, we can float down various raging rivers with Class II and Class III rapids. Make the most of it – there’s life beyond Kuta! Published by Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd. ISBN 978-1-74059-913-9. RRP AU$36.95.

THE ORGANIC COOK’S BIBLE

It’s time to buy into the organic lifestyle – especially for those wanting to feed their children right. Jeff Cox’s 546-page tome shows you how to work with the best ingredients, and keep you and your family in good health. Covering every type of produce and with over 250 recipes, Cox’s bible also comes with anecdotes that make us wish vegetable-laden trucks from the farms would trundle past our door every week. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey. ISBN 0-471-44578-9. RRP US$39.95 (AU$50.92)