Reading is good for you

My son woul8pick up a book till I introduced hom to horrible histories at the age of 11, he now reads a vast number of authors and biographies at age 25

Excuse typo, p.s my girls have always been avid readers,and my older son started on Horrible histories too,that's where I got the idea for the younger one,

I read books to my DCs and GCs from when they were babies.
Some became avid readers and a few didn't.
My 7 year old GS loves to read an I supply books for him regularly.
I remember a teacher of young children saying she could tell those who had been read to at home as they were ahead of those who hadn't.

Books in schools (can't remeber the proper name unless I look it up!) is one of my charities- has been for years.

As a former librarian and then English teacher, I heartily agree with you!

One of my sons loved being read to as a young child, but has never been the slightest bit interested in reading fiction himself, and beyond a certain age (probably about eight or nine in his case) could not be 'convinced' to read it at all out of school.

Luckily, he has always been interested in things such as history and geography, and has always been keen to read books relating to those and to any of his many hobbies.

I wonder if non-fiction is considered to have the same health and well-being benefits as fiction.

I'm a self confessed bookaholic .
My kids like reading too .

Apparently it is both fiction and non-fiction.

One of my 7 DGC has always been an avid reader. He's 14 now and is a published author. He recently won a short story prize in a national competition in his age category. He's in NZ so that maybe they are ahead of the game.

His dad was always a reader and my late DH whose vast library I am presently breaking up as I am downsizing.

I read but not to that extent. My other DGC - the younger ones anyway - enjoy reading too
DD takes them to the library which has been threatened with closure.

I remember a teacher of young children saying she could tell those who had been read to at home as they were ahead of those who hadn't.

This is the concern in many schools, including the one that I volunteer in. The number of children who come up from reception each year with very poor reading skills, who can’t ‘hit the ground running’ as it were. Their parents, in their turn, may have had very poor reading skills and gave up on books at an early age, so helping their children to read is not a priority, or they may have English as a second language.

One author I highly recommend, for both children and adults, is Gordon Korman. He wrote his first book (This Can't Be Happening at MacDonald Hall!) when he was 12. His books are hysterically funny.

I think I am probably reading as many words in a day as I ever did, but not from novels.
Today I have had to read and answer many messages on my phone, I have read a few Substack articles and now, with a cuppa and needing a break, I am using my tablet to read various Gransnet threads.

So, I am doing lots of reading but not following a story.

This is what children are doing now - reading lots from screens.

I totally appreciate following a novel is good for the imagination, for increasing vocabulary, for appreciation of grammar and sentence structure so that all helps with language development and writing skills too.

But I fully understand the distractions today that mean children read, but need instant hits of dopamine ( ?) or whatever it is that's stimulated by a phone pinging.

I was a voracious reader as a child and my children loved books too. I read to them and told them stories so their listening skills developed too.

I think it's almost negligent not to introduce books and stories to young children but sadly not all parents see the need. Mr G recently bought a book for one of his nieces, for her 6th birthday. There was no joy or appreciation of the present at all, even though her parents suggested he buy that particular book as a gift. It was opened and virtually cast aside straight away. Her parents reminded her to say thank you but she was much more interested in opening other presents. No curiosity at all.

A sign of the times?

*Ooops. His great niece.

If parents are bookish and surrounded by books it is safe bet their children and GCs will like books too but some people never read books, or want to. I visited my DD recently and she was feeling poorly so asked if I could take my GD to visit a neighbours house to play with a similar aged child. There were lots of toys in the neighbours house and the children did sit down to watch an animation of ‘Zog and the flying doctors’, so I suggested to the mum that my GD had the book of this and I could pop back with it so that her little boy could enjoy being read to, but she said he had a Toni box so didn’t need it. I suppose is very much a case of horses for courses, some parents really don’t rate books or reading, however, her little boy is doing ever so well at preschool and apparently my GD tells me he loves looking at the books.

DS has read to himself from a young age but liked to be read to as well till he was about 10. DD didn’t read as young (her first book was Katy Morag!). They are both avid readers as is DGD but DGS not so much … 😢