Reading with your grandchildren ...do you value it?

Sorry I got off the subject, my grandson is too young for reading yet but I will encourage him same way I encouraged my kids. Reading is so important for finding out so much. It is also calming is such a busy world.

I like reading and got a Kindle for Christmas. It is very easy on the eyes and you can make the 'print' larger if you need to. Books are a bit cheaper too and not printing books is ecofriendly.

gg have you seen this web site? www.lovereading4kids.co.uk ?

It gives plenty of ideas for all age groups.

My eldest GD lends me books and we have fun discussing them. The latest is Lemony Snicket's Bad Beginnings. I think it is unsavoury particularly for a 7 year old but she loves them! The previous one was Roald Dahl's The Witches so I suppose there is a sort of theme going.

My 3 year old GD loves curling up on my knee after lunch for stories and sometimes takes a story book and makes up the story from the pictures. Great fun.

My 5 year old GS prefers nonfiction like his grandad.

As an ex-teacher I really do value reading and talking about books and on visiting the GCs schools always try to see what's available in the library.

I do wish my mum hadn't given my Ladybirds away or the Enid Blytons. I'm gradually getting some back from charity shops and car boots though. My local bookshop is very good about keeping up with the latest trends too which is helpful.

pm sent - I used to teach in the local comprehensive, and our intake went from the sublime to the ridiculous (in no particular order) - children from the lecturers/staff at the Uni, those from the local estates, many Bengali children from very poor backgrounds - the whole range. Loved it, but tough at times.

I must have missed that post granjura. Where did you live and at which school/s did you teach? Did you manage to avoid the accent?

I should point out that the two friends in my previous post were different people!!

I would be furious too Kitty. I used to teach in Loughborough and Ladies Birds books was a landmark there (and you might have seen in previous posts that we lived in Leicester for 3o+ years.

Reading to the grand-children is so precious- as well as telling them stories. Our grand-son (6) always begs 'Granny tell me stories about when you were little'. Agghh.

I gave all our Ladybirds to a friend who was a childminder. She sold them on eBay! Along with the train set and cot/child's bed.

Ladybird books were printed near here so a favourite topic for our children was to do 'Ladybird Books' for a project, go for a visit and get loads of free stuff! In fact, the railway station used to proclaim itself 'The Home of Ladybird Books' with a big ladybird on the sign! My friend did a lots of the illustrations for the later ones.

Our children's Ladybird books are having a second life and are just as much loved by the grandchildren as they were by their parents, and we love reading them again. Some of them (eg "The Princess & the Pea") seem really dated now, but it doesn't seem to matter. Topsy and Tim go down well too.

When I was little, during the war, the local air raid siren had a practice on Saturday afternoons. I know my dad read to me at other times, but I most associate those afternoons with Beatrix Potter. It was so comforting when that horrid wailing started, to know I was safe with dad, and having familiar stories read to me.

My parents never read to us but I learnt to read really easily and loved to read. We have read to all our children as part of the bedtime wind down but also at other times too. Four of ours read (2 teach English) but the youngest was diagnosed as dyslexic so has a problem! Had she not been I am sure she would have got over the problems she was having and enjoyed reading. The label gave her a bit of a mental block.

Our two eldest grandchildren love books and the 5 year old is making really good progress at school. Our younger granddaughter, aged 13 months, is read to by her father at bedtime but I can't persuade him to read her picture books rather than fairy tales, consequently (I think) she becomes bored. I keep producing our old Shirley Hughes books in the hope he takes the hint but he never does.

I think it is important to listen to your child read even when they are teenagers from time to time- just a paragraph or so of whatever they happen to be reading at the time as they do come across new words still and sometimes find they do not know the meaning or pronunciation - and you also get a fair idea of whether or not they are comprehending what they are reading. I also encouraged mine to come to me or their father if they came across a new word they failed to understand or did not know how to pronounce. Dictionary usage is also very important and may be knowledge of using a thesaurus.

I don't ever remember seeing my parents reading a book and they certainly never read to me but I read all the time and did to my own children I used to go into class and read with them when they were small , they are also avid book/kindle readers and both my daughters and I have read to the grandchildren.. I often read with the youngest one who is 7 still, and hopefully in the next couple of years my first great grand will benefit from my reading to them... that makes me feel old..

I don't remember my parents ever reading to me.DH and I both read a lot. We read with both of ours when they were little. It was part of the bedtime routine (read other times too). They are still both keen readers.

DGS has lots of books and has been a member of the library for about a year (He's just 3) he loves to go and choose his books, it's sometimes a struggle to get him to leave. he loves to sit next to you and 'read'

I too have been a volunteer at local school, listening to readers, have done it for a few years. Iv'e worked with yr 1,2, and 3 at different times.

Reading is a great foundation, even with Google, they need to be able to read

Oh yes, Shirley Hughes books are so enjoyable. I have begun to take my 4 year old granddaughter to the local library and she loves choosing her books (she is allowed 18, but I haven't told her that - we keep it down to 10!). The library has a lovely section for children, with little stools and cushions, everything bright and welcoming and at child-height, don't my knees know it! My daughter read from an early age, but son was very slow and struggled, so I continued to read aloud to him for most of his junior years. We got through the Narnia books which inspired him to try "The Hobbit" for himself at the age of 11, and he was soon hooked on the Lord of the Rings, a love which lasts to this day. As soon as he was inspired, he had no problem reading and understanding, so it was worth sticking with it. I also used to run a reading group for little children at the library when my own children were little, and still meet the "children" now, they refer to me as the book lady!

I too am a Shirley Hughes fan - still have my Alfie and Annie Rose story book I used to read to the children at school plus a couple of single story ones. The illustrations are just beautiful.

My Dad could get lost in a book and I am much the same. It was always Dad who read to me and in turn I always read to and encouraged my sons to read. As far as I know they still do.

Now I'm reading to my grandaughter, her favourites at the moment are the Alfie books by Shirley Hughes which belonged to my sons. I also collect Shirley Hughes books because I love her illustrations and like myself she is Wirral born. Another current favourite is The Three Grumpies by Tamra Wright. Most of the books are carboot and charity shop finds.

Oh I adore reading to and with my grandchildren. Apparently I "do the voices" better than anyone else!

My 6 year old GD is an avid reader and is already tackling Roald Dahl (Twits, BFG etc.) The little ones love books which I think is so important.

I help in our local School one afternoon a week.
They are 4-5 yr.olds.
They have done very well since they began last year.
I listen to their reading,and only help when they get stuck. The letter "U" is a big prob for them. As in pUt or bUt. Letter "A" is another tricky one at times. Is it as in cAll or as pAl. I love helping ,and have been there for about five years now.
If any one has time on their hands, this is a good way to spend it. It does require Police clearance!

bez I have always taught phonics too along with all the other things that help a child to read. You would think politicians invented fonix the way they go on about them!

Some years ago I went to a meeting where an advisor from Harringey told us about an experiment carried out within the borough to try to improve the reading results within the schools. This experiment involved asking the parents or responsible adult to listen to the child read every day - they were asked to sit with the child so both of them could see the text and allow the child to read. Some of the mothers were non - English speakers - however the interesting result was that the children from these homes showed just as much improvement in their reading ability as those from English speaking homes. The conclusion was that children thrived and improved when they felt that a close relative was interested in their reading.
Why this approach was not continued is surpring but then the instigation of the National Curriculum and especially it's literacy hour has a lot to answer for in my opinion - I get so mad when I see all these new ideas coming from people like Michael Gove and they are all things which were more or less banned at one time in schools- I spent so long teaching phonics to the children and pretending I was not doing it as we had been forbidden to do so by the Head, BUT I could not see how a child could start to decode a new word when it had no tools to do so. Another thing derided for so long was formal language work whoch was absolutely loved by the children who would always ask to do ' just another page please'. Also I NEVER gave up on correcting spellings right from the word go - although with the young children I only did it on words I thought they should be able to spell.

Mamie that's lovely!

I read a lot, DH never reads. My son reads, daughter doesn't although she does read to my 6 year old grandaughter . I've always enjoyed reading to my children when they were younger and now to my grandchildren. Even the 6 month old gets excited when I show her a book

tables not tales!

mamie so lovely!

The 3 GC who are old enough (4th only 4 weeks!) love books, stories, rhymes and poems! We were only playing the gingerbread man this afternoon! Both DH & I involved in English /reading education and personally read loads! DDs also read as does one SiL but other struggles with reading and writing but is so proud when he does read to his DDs. He has to practise first.

I agree with the statement re reading for pleasure for school children. I have taught kids who learned to decode the text and learned the strategy for answering comprehension exercises but who, as they got older stopped progressing because they saw reading only as a skill and not as a step to other wonderful things! A bit like some kids who can chant times tales but don't know how to apply them to practical situations!