General Chat

Beverley, I loved being taken to the library, as you say all those books " just for me" .We always had books, all sorts ..they were just a part of the home ready and waitng :)

I just find it so sad, because my genuine belief is that if you can read well and enjoy it, the world is open to you...what you haven't yet learned is all there as a 'possibility ', if you can read about it ( be that books or on the internet).

Rose, morning, I bought my children up to read books from the moment they were able, and read to them, before that. Not an easy feet when having four children close together.
However, when my eldest went to the village school from when she was five, nearly forty years ago,I became aware that the teacher was not letting children read in front of the class everyday. In fact, they were getting very little reading practice in her class. Several letters from me, and personal visits by me, led nowhere. In the end, after telling her I was going to do so, I contacted our education department at Matlock, and things did change a little. But my daughter was about seven, and obviously in a different class, before things changed properly for the better, and she gained the confidence to stand up amongst her peers and read aloud.
This particular daughter did not let this bad early start put her off reading, and whilst being a mother of four sons herself, went to University and took and achieved a law degree. Obviously, alot of reading was involved as you can imagine.
All my children have always maintained their voracious reading habits, as I have myself.
Best Regards
Julia in Derbyshire

leave primary school unable to read because teachers want to entertain them rather than instruct, according to worrying research."

Do you think this is down to the lack of books in the home? while 'we' sit at the computer reading text are we forgetting that books can be read anywhere,anytime and 'should' (?) be readily available to children from infancy?

Were the reading books at your school / your child's school interesting enough to make them want to read for 'fun'?


xx