Thursday 10 September 2015

Reading with children

Hello my dear friends.

Today I want to talk to you about reading I love to read, and I love reading with my children.  It is a very special time when we normally cuddle up in my bed together and most of the time they read to me but sometimes I read to them.

It has been widely commented on in the media recently how children are spending much more time on electronic gadgets and less time reading and specialists are linking this to children becoming less competent at spelling and grammar.

Most children are doing some form of graded reading system at school, where they will read a book and need to have a certain understanding of the book before they can move on to the next one. Which is great because any reading is good for them but I have found with my children the real learning and understanding that they have got from books is the ones they read for pleasure, that interest them and they really take in.

My eldest is not a big reader and never has been but he reads books about his favourite football team and his big passion is sport so he reads biographies of sports people. He is currently trying to learn about American Football (he loves the San Francisco 49ers) so he is reading rule books about that.

My thirteen year old is a big reader, and likes a wide variety of different books he is currently reading a series of books by Megan Rix about dogs during t he war.

Whilst, he likes to lie in his bed and read his books, he will still come and tell me what the book is about and the parts that he likes and why. He will also call his nan and tell her about them as she is a dog lover and then lend them to her. It is nice for both her and myself to have that quality time just chatting with him.

My nine year old daughter is also an avid reader and her and I will often take it in turns to read a chapter to each other, she is currently reading Sapphire Battersea by Jacqueline Wilson this is the second book in the Hetty Feather series and I would highly recommend this for girls of a similar age.

I like the way Jacqueline Wilson touches on some of life's issues in a delicate manner making a young child think about these things without worrying about them.


My eight year old like most eight year old boys is a beast quest fan and again sometimes I read to him and sometimes he reads to me. But the thing I like most about reading with both him and his younger brother is the quiet time that we have before bedtime where they both get to calm down and have a cuddle before they go off to bed and I certainly want to make the most of this time.





 My youngest is becoming a bit of a spy dogs fan, so that is what we are reading together at the moment.



Our favourite book when they were younger and I still read occasionally is we're going on a bear hunt. Love this book!



There are set things that I buy my children for Christmas each year and that's something to wear which are normally comfortable pyjamas, dressing gown and slippers, something to read, which is normally a book they are really into or a box set of books they are into and then finally something they really want.

They love that they are going to get these items every year and they normally have a pyjama day on boxing day and they lay on the sofa reading their books.

Do you love books? Do you read with your children? What are you reading at the moment?  I would love to know.

Have a lovely evening


6 comments:

  1. Tara, it is SO great that you read with your children! It definitely makes a huge difference. I used to do the same with mine when they were younger. I was reading the first Harry Potter book to my oldest (who is now 21) when it first came out here (he was 5, then). Each kid had a favorite book. I remember that my daughter's was Brown Bear, Brown Bear. My 2 oldest loved Goodnight Moon. I can't quite remember my youngest's favorite book when he was younger.

    I always loved reading and my teachers had to take my books away and force me to go play at recess. Grrr. I'd read the encyclopedia and dictionary at home because we didn't have the internet back then and my mom, never a reader, would never take us to the library. Once I became old enough, I walked there by myself and it was magical.

    All my kids were voracious readers until they were about 13 and then it pettered out. I blame the internet and the fact that not many books are written for kids that age that interested mine. My kids all loved fantasy series (anything with Dragons, magic, stuff like that) and all but my youngest loved (and still love!) Harry Potter. My youngest refuses to read Harry Potter just to be contrary. He loves history though so he reads historical novels and historical fiction. If they had a book about cats during WWII, it would be perfect for him as we are not dog people,lol.

    One reason why my kids read so much (aside from the fact that they loved it) is that I made them read at least 1 hour per day and 1 min of reading = 1 minute of video game time. My youngest is still expected to read in order to play videogames but I couldn't even tell you which book he is reading right now.... I'll have to ask him tomorrow, as a matter of fact.

    I love reading too but I don't do it often enough these days although I do visit the library every week, still, and I always have at least one book checked out. Back when I homeschooled my youngest, we would routinely have 40-50 books checked out at a time at the very least! I do miss those days. Sigh.

    I also used to give each kid 1 book for Christmas but I stopped that a couple of years back since they're older now and I'm just not up on what they read nowadays. I suspect that my college students and I know that my daughter only seem to read their textbooks. I often give them PJs for Christmas as well!

    Greg is a huge reader. He likes historical non-fiction. I'm mostly a fiction gal: spy novels, mysteries, thrillers, detective novels are my faves.

    Do you use your library system? Is it good?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Nathalie, I knew you would be a big reader to your kids too. Its great isn't it.

    I don't use the library very often because it is in the centre of town and you have to pay to park. Also the kids can borrow books from any classroom at school and as many as they like from the school library as I work there. My youngest borrowed one today.

    I share books with my mum and a few friends so I nearly always have about five or six knocking around to read as they have a lot more time than me.

    I also get a lot as presents (I don't think anyone knows what else to buy me)

    I love Harry Potter they are the best books, your youngest is missing out but I can understand him making a statement bless him! My eight year olds topic this term is Harry Potter so he was reading that last night.

    I can't believe you dictionaries, you must have been super clever at school. I read Enid Blyton ha ha. I used to put my cover over my lamp at night so my mum and dad didn't know I was still reading. So dangerous!

    Have a lovely weekend xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We.are. TWINS! I read Enyd Blyton too! I loved her books so much, I had a whole bunch of them. Hmm, in French it was called "Le Club des Cinq" (the Club of the Fives? I should research the original title, sorry, I'm sure you know it, though. And I would read under the blankets with a flashlight too and get into trouble with my mom when she checked on me. LOL.

      I'm seriously bummed that my youngest refuses to read Harry Potter, he can be so stubborn. I know he would LOVE the books, it's right up his alley. But he grew up with his siblings obsessed with it and watching all the movies as well and his natural reactions is to reject anything that he perceives as being "trendy". I can't blame him, I still refuse to watch Titanic and that one with the blue people that everyone loved a few years back... I can't remember the name of it. It drives my older kids nuts that I still haven't read the last Harry Potter book and that I refuse for them to discuss it in front of me so the plot isn't spoiled. The truth is I have completely forgotten the plot of the last 3-4 books so I need to re-read all of them but there are all those other books to read and my blogs... lol. Lately I lent all our HP books to my oldest because his GF has never read them either so they're reading the books aloud to one another. This is my kid who I would bring to the midnight opening of the bookstore 30 miles away so we could stand in line for the book for hours, and he would start reading it with a flashlight in my van on the way home! Such great memories.

      I don't think I knew you worked at the school library. You probably mentioned it to me when I applied to my local library this summer (never did get an interview, I'm still pissed about that!) but if so, I had forgotten and I was about to ask you what exactly it was you did at the school. What a great environment! And you can get tons of books for your kids to read for free, as you said, so of course you don't need your city's library. That's so awesome. I want to be you :)

      OK, did you like Agatha Christie? I looooove Agatha Christie. I've read all her books many many times and could read them again, lol. And PD James too.

      Delete
    2. Yes! The famous five, did you read the secret seven too? Such good books. See that's why we both love thrillers and mysteries now.

      I know the film you mean Avatar, I know it was popular but I found it DULL!

      I cant believe you haven't read the last Harry Potter, seriously, Nathalie you need to read it. It is good and I bet you read it quickly.

      I'm not just in the library at school sometimes I am classroom based too. I do enjoy my work and I know when I first started to work there I kept thinking I cant believe I get paid for such a fun job. I don't think like that so much anymore. But I do love the kids and I love that I can sometimes make them interested in something that they might have previously thought was boring.

      Shane you didn't get a job at the library. I'm sure you would have loved it. You should keep trying their is no one better for a job like that than someone that loves books because then you are passionate about it.

      Yes I love Agatha Christie and PD James. So good. The only thing is when you start you don't want to put them down.
      Xx

      Delete
    3. "Le Clan des Sept"! Yes, yes, I remember! What fun! Do kids still read those nowadays? Gosh I loved Enyd Blyton's books!

      Our library is very tiny and I think the staffing decisions are very political so I don't have much hope, especially since I didn't even get an interview for this last one despite having all the qualifications they were looking for. I'm still grumpy about that, to tell the truth.

      Avatar was the movie I meant, thanks. Dull, eh? Glad I didn't waste my time. WDW is building a whole Avatar area at the Animal Kingdom, though, so beware in 2017, lol!

      Oh not you too... pressure to read the last Harry Potter book... but I have to re-read at least the 3 or 4 books prior to that one because I don't remember anything. And to do that, I've had to get off the internet, Tara.. lol. OK, Ok, I'll try to get to it at some point :)

      Delete
    4. No kids don't seem to read these books so much now, such a shame they are so good! I still have a box of the ones I had when I was a kid in the loft, I should get them down.

      Yeah, I read about the Avatar expansion, the men folk in my family were really pleased about it, my daughter and I were not impressed. Boring!

      Ha ha yeah Natalie the pressure is now on, you need to read it. I still can't believe that you read all the others and not that one! Xx

      Delete