Get Reading with your Children
Happy World Book day folks. I love reading, my kids love books, how could I pass up a chance to write a few words about books today.
World book day is designed to encourage children to read. This is especially important nowadays when many homes are being overtaken by screens big and small and the written word seems to be going out of fashion. Not so in our house where you would always have run the risk of tripping over books, but now there’s a whole bunch of children’s books around the place also. I have to say I love it. I visited our local library today and yesterday during the day and the place was very busy with people but mostly with children. Today there was toddler story time and groups from 2 different local schools up in the library. At least 70 children up there at once. It’s lovely to see. For world book day the vision is that each child would receive a book. Every school going child receives a €1.50 voucher for a book which can be redeemed at many bookshops. Here are some of our current favourites:
Toddler books
My 2 year old loves:
Toddle Waddle I wrote a review of this last year on World Book Day. You’d think he’d be tiring of it by now, but it’s still the old reliable favourite for well over a year. Toddle. Waddle. Flip Flop. Hurry Scurry. We love this repetitive book and we still wave goodnight to everyone at the end.
Peppa Pig Nursery Rhymes and Songs. Unfortunately the CD is missing so we have to sing them. It is a good mix of Peppa makey-uppy songs and old fashioned nursery rhymes. It is actually kind of fun singing and saying nursery rhymes together before bedtime. The 5 year old joined in tonight lots of fun.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. A long time favourite in this house, we have it both in English and as Gaeilge, both boys love it. I recently decorated the 2 year old’s room with wall stickers from the book, and my 5 year old redecorated because I obviously didn’t do it right. The book has had a surge in popularity again since the stickers arrived.
5 Years Up
My 5 year old was an early reader, he loves to read. My Mom tried to read him a story the other night and he said “Well actually Nana I read myself now”. Oh dear. Anyway his current favourites are:
The Horrid Henry series by Francesca Simon – when he received 15 of these for Christmas, I thought it would be a while before he was able for them but he loved them and has read them all.
Santa brought Usbourne See Inside How Things Work which is a wonderful pop up book with flaps to show you the inner workings of many different things from toilets to microwaves. A must for any curious little man.
National Geographic Kids Infopedia 2014 – he spends literally hours picking out snippets of this, asking me when he finds a hard word but mostly reading snippets by himself. It is split into different areas of interest – geography, science, animals etc. There are lots of interesting pictures so this is great for children of all ages.
Get reading with your children, bring your kids to the library or the bookshop and have special one on one reading time with them, it’s something you’ll never regret doing. It will improve their literacy and understanding and help them when they are in school. It is also a unique chance for quality time with your child, and helps them feel secure before bedtime. I will update with photos of the books tomorrow, I had to wait until the boys were in bed to write the post and I forgot to bring down the books!
