Ragged Bears

Quote of the day 👇

Happy St George's Day!! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🌹

It strikes me that a great many ills can be cured by walking through the shade of mighty trees on lanes filled with birdsong. I hope these precious places will always be there to provide quiet and calm in a loud world. 📍 Peak District, England

From Somewhere Out There Right Now by @gemboco Are you keeping cosy amidst the April showers?! If you would like to #review this picture book (within UK), do message us we have five copies to send out #bookreview #picturebooks #kidsbookswelove #aprilfeel2026

By some miracle, the truth about the climate agenda somehow made its way onto mainstream UK television. From 'Yes, Prime Minister' (2013). Amazingly, this was produced by the BBC.

Happy #worldbookday ‼️Better late than never #peace #empathythroughreading #kidsbookswelove #picturebooks #yafiction #mgnonfiction #plastic

Dr. Erica Komisar drops a stark warning every parent needs to hear about screens and kids: “No technology under age 2 — for good reason. After that, regulate it heavily.” She explains why: Screens spike dopamine in developing brains 10 times more than in adults — like giving a teen the equivalent of 10 joints from a single exposure. The prefrontal cortex (emotion regulation) isn't fully developed until ~25, so kids get hooked fast. Social media in particular exploits adolescent girls' natural hyper-vigilance: perfectionism, comparison, fear of not measuring up → chronic stress response in the amygdala. Boys aren't immune either — both sexes get trapped in a virtual reality of self-consciousness, isolation, and addiction. “They get stuck in this paradigm… in a way, trapped in a fantasy.” This clip may be a year old, but the science on dopamine sensitivity, prefrontal development, and screen addiction in kids hasn't changed — it's only gotten more relevant. Parents: Are you enforcing hard screen limits with your kids — or has it already slipped?

Prime farmland should never look like this.

The Long Walk booksforkeeps.co.uk/?p=58747

When the days feel that they can't get any colder and darker and greyer, the first snowdrops appear, pushing their brave, bright shoots out of the hard earth and into the sun. They're more than flowers, they're little spikes of hope, shining out from under the trees and along the verges to say, it's all OK, it's all going to plan, hang in there. 📍 Peak District, England © Peaklass, all real, no AI

A new report has called for Ed Miliband’s net zero ministry to be abolished, warning that Britons are paying too high a price for net zero. It has been reported that net zero will cost the UK over £4 trillion by 2050. It’s time to axe the lunacy of net zero.

This teacher-turned-cognitive scientist shared a disturbing reality that left the room stunned. “Our kids are LESS cognitively capable than we were at their age.” Every previous generation outperformed its parents since we began recording in the late 1800s. So, what happened? Screens. Dr. Jared Horvath explained: “Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to underperform us on basically every cognitive measure we have, from basic attention to memory, to literacy, to numeracy, to executive functioning, to EVEN GENERAL IQ, even though they go to more school than we did.” “So why? … The answer appears to be the tools we are using within schools to drive that learning (screens).” “If you look at the data, once countries adopt digital technology widely in schools, performance goes down significantly, to the point where kids who use computers about five hours per day in school for learning purposes will score over two-thirds of a standard deviation LESS than kids who rarely or never touch tech at school. And that’s across 80 countries.” But screens aren’t just decimating learning and making new generations less intelligent than the ones before them. They’re doing something far worse. And when you take a closer look, it isn’t pretty. 🧵

It's #InternationalHuggingDay so here's an illustration from the brilliant Gemma Wells's debut picture book, Somewhere Out There Right Now it's an inspiring journey from the environment to our inner world, with a mindfulness exercise too, the perfect sleep time read! #Wednesday

'In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.' - John Muir As we enter the sixty-fifth week of January, it's easy to stay hunkered down inside, to think that there's only grey and dark beyond the window. But if you adjust your field of view, there's still so much beauty and wonder out there, I promise. The winter trees show off their intricate lacework above your head, the skeletal shapes of old grasses and seed heads are sculptures to line your path, and the colours of last year's leaves are pale and subtle all around you. Your footsteps make barely a sound as you walk on the soft earth, and you always go home with your heart a bit lighter. 📍 Peak District, England © Peaklass, all real, no AI

Wishing all here a somewhat belated happy 2026! With a gorgeous illustration by Simona Mulazzani from My Magic, an exquisite picture book about the world from a young child's perspective #picturebooks #kidlitart #kidsbookswelove #kidsbookshelf #Wednesday

Working British farmers earn no more than the average UK household but we will be treated as multimillionaires when it comes to IHT as a result of the changes in the October 2024 budget – join our campaign.

The unethical truth of net zero. Around 40,000 child slaves in Congo work in hazardous conditions in cobalt mines, with inadequate safety equipment and for very little money. The cobalt is used in many products - including electric car batteries.