Parents' blog
What do Bookstart parents have to say? Find out more and add your comments.
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Evelyn loves Booktouch
Posted Monday February 1st 2010
by Janis Wilson
Jane Mellors, the Hertfordshire Bookstart Development Officer, visited an opportunity group in St Albans and gifted a Booktouch pack to Evelyn (pictured). Claire, Evelyn’s mother, was delighted with the pack and commented:
'Thank you so much for the books you left for Evelyn at the Monday morning disability playgroup. She loves them. I knew she would love That’s Not My Kitten as we have a couple from that group. The pictures are big and bold and bright so she reaches out for them before she even realises there are bits to touch.
Her favourite had been the DK one. The sticky paints page and the tutu she will spend ages touching and smiling.
Spot the Dog she was least interested in. Some of the elements of the pictures are too small for her to see I think. Evelyn is not developed enough to appreciate it as much yet.'
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World's youngest library members?
Posted Friday January 29th 2010
by Sarah BournLast week the Liverpool Echo ran a story about baby Charlie Harris, who was signed up as a library member when he was just eight hours old.
Charlie, who is now just over four months old, was signed up for a library membership by his granddad Noel, who works as a janitor at Halton Lea Library in Liverpool. Noel arrived at the hospital armed with a Bookstart pack, reasoning that ‘the earlier children get comfortable around books the better’, which is something the Bookstart team wholeheartedly agrees with!
Halton Borough Council were hopeful that Charlie's achievement might be recognised as a Guinness World Record (although they've since received the world record equivalent of a Dear John letter - Guinness have rejected the feat in favour of other more eligible categories). And, as an eagle-eyed Bookstart coordinator has reminded us, the impressive eight-hour signup wasn't quite a world-beater. Back in May 2009 we blogged about baby Katie, whose exceedingly quick-off-the-mark dad signed her up to the library exactly two hours and eight minutes after her birth!
Whatever the difference in hours, there's no denying that both Charlie and Katie's parents have achieved something admirable by… -
Matthew's top read: Green Eggs and Ham
Posted Monday January 11th 2010
by Jennifer Stirrup
At the moment, my four year old son, Matthew, and I are enjoying reading 'Green Eggs and Ham'. I actively encourage him to shout out the lines that he remembers, and he always enjoys raising the volume!
For example, I get him to shout 'Sam-I-AM!' at the relevant part. If he doesn't remember it, I point at him and he remembers, giggles, and then shouts it out.
I also try to get Matthew to guess the next word. 'For example, 'I would not, could not, with a mouse, I would not, could not, with a...' (point at my son) and he usually guesses 'house'. If he gets it wrong, we just laugh; if he gets it right, I make a fuss of what a clever boy he is.
I also encourage Matthew to make up his own sentences when reading the book. For example, I ask him 'What would you like to happen next? Something beginning with p...'
'PUMPKIN!' is a possible answer from him. I know it's not the right one according to the book, but I'm trying to teach him about sounds and letters.
It is a good way to encourage his memory… -
New Year, new books
Posted Monday January 4th 2010
by Sarah Bourn
We’ve just had Angus’s first Christmas and it was really lovely. As he's only one year old, he didn’t really understand all the fuss about presents, but he definitely appreciated all the attention! He was lucky enough to get some gorgeous books from family and friends, so it’s been nice having some new stories to liven up his collection – I was getting to the point where I couldn’t face yet another read-through of The Very Hungry Caterpillar…
One of my favourites of his new books is Animal Babies!, which helps teach little ones to count to five. The various baby animals (zebra, crocodile, lion, elephant, giraffe) all have strokable skin for babies to touch and feel, and Angus loves it when I make the noises for each animal (although if anyone can tell me what a giraffe is supposed to sound like I'd appreciate it).
Another good book Angus was given is Never Use a Knife and Fork, by Neil Goddard and Nick Sharratt. It’s the sort of book I would have loved as a child, especially with lines like ‘Bung your thumbs in hard-boiled eggs/Trickle treacle down your legs’. It’s aimed at slightly older children (Angus's… -
Luke Wright on the reading journey
Posted Monday December 14th 2009
by Nikesh Shukla
Poet Luke Wright is one of BBC Radio 4's poets-in-residence as well as being one of the key spearheads of performance poetry in the UK. He has performed for years around the UK, presented programmes on Channel 4, is a spokesperson for the poem and writes brilliantly whimsical stand-up poetry shows for Edinburgh Fringe festival. On top of all this he's recently become a dad. We thought it would be nice to talk the man The Observer describes as '[T]he best young performance poet around' about his reading journey with his son, Aidan, and how exactly he will be sharing his love of words and poetry with him.
>Congratulations on your new baby. Have you been reading to him?
We read to Aidan most nights. He likes picture and pop-up books and reaches out for them. He has a couple of fabric books which he likes to bash around the place. He's very young and doesn't understand the words yet but we want him to feel comfortable with books, we want him to see books as a major part of his life.
>Do you remember your parents reading to you as a child? What was your favourite story?
