Around three years ago my little sister Phoebe, who was then 9, came to stay with us for a couple of days. I remember her watching the BBC programme Horrible Histories on the computer for absolutely ages and chuckling away. (Their site has games and programme information too.) She kept asking Jonny to come and see it, wanting to share the fun and he sat with her for ages watching episode after episode. Later on that day I said to him in private how lovely he was to sit and watch it all with her and he said ‘Oh it was really good, I enjoyed it’! Seems he’d been doing Phoebe no favours by being her Horrible Histories companion at all and had actually just found it as hilarious as she did! They both LOVED the funny and sing-a-long style songs and kept talking about and singing them for ages!

Three years later and Phoebe is still a fan at 12 just as she was at 9! And now Florence is just starting to enjoy programmes like this too! We’ve seen Horrible Histories stuff at the Lollibop Festival when we’ve been and although Florence was probably a bit young for it the past couple of years, we could see how much fun and excitement it was drumming up for the older children! It’s a factual programme which taps into the minds of children making it exciting and fun by being truly HORRIBLE and gruesome – it has them in fits of giggles! Florence is 3 and as I mentioned, Phoebe is 12 now, so it appeals to a wide age span. There’s a big difference in their ages yet they both find fun and entertainment from the programme while learning historical facts that will be taken in, in different measures I’m sure. We mustn’t forget Jonny being a fan either, and he’s 35!

It’s the sort of programme which can be watched time and time again, ‘rotten’ songs can be sung a long with and characters from the past come to life in a fun way! The BBC naturally release each series on DVD as it’s something which I think most children would like to have. The fact that they actually get something educationally from such a fab concept is super don’t you think? Learning without even realising! That’s the best way, if you can engage with a child and make them interested in something then they want to learn and Horrible Histories does just that!

Series 4 has JUST been released on DVD and to celebrate we were invited to a special interactive screening of one of the episodes and a Horrible Histories fancy dress party! I decided to go as myself but the little ones got fully into it and went as ‘Rotten Romans’! (Thanks to some old pillow cases from my Mother-in-law and various leaves cut from my Mum’s garden!) And we couldn’t go to a Horrible Histories party without Phoebe so we were very happy that she came with us too!

The screening and party was held at the Tower of London – the perfect setting! As we waited outside some tourists asked if they could take the children’s pictures in their costumes. We thought this was very funny! I took some too and they looked fab with Tower Bridge in the back ground!

We had a lovely breakfast of yummy pirate food with other novel named morsels!

And were entertained by actors playing famous historical characters and lots of toys!

The toys were out on display and really good fun! We got to take some home and they’re sets which can be bought as starter packs and added to. It doesn’t matter which era they’re from, they can all join up for a battle!

We thought the compilation of series 4 songs was loads of fun and really enjoyed singing along with the comical lyrics! We all had goodie bags filled with joke sweets, whoopee cushions and the like and Florence and Phoebe had great fun later on trying to prank my Dad and Jonny! We can thoroughly recommend the DVD for the songs alone! I loved ‘Woeful WW2 German fighter pilots’!

After the party we got to spend the day at the tower which was brilliant but tiring! There are LOTS of steps in the tower!

The DVD is on sale now for £7.49. Please see www.bbcshop.com for more details.

I was not paid to write this post but I was asked along to the screening and party.