Parents' blog
What do Bookstart parents have to say? Find out more and add your comments.
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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? -
Christmas wish list
Posted Wednesday December 9th 2009
by Sarah Bourn
With Christmas just around the corner, our Children’s Books site has put together a list of great Christmas-themed children’s books. And if you need more inspiration or extra stocking-fillers for the under-5s, here are eight more festive stories – you can read the full reviews of all these books by clicking on their titles. And if you have any festive favourites not mentioned here, share them by leaving a comment!
Shine
By Karen Langley
Published by Frances Lincoln
Jimmy is playing the star in the school Christmas play, and practices 'shining' every day. His excitement and anxiety in the build-up to his appearance are contrasted with his busy dad's duties as the town electrician. Will dad's last minute call-out to fix the Christmas lights prevent him from seeing the play?
Interest level: 3-7
What's Cooking, Jamela?
By Niki Daly
Published by Frances Lincoln
Mama buys a chicken to fatten up for the Christmas meal. But Jamela calls the chicken Christmas, feeds her and grows fonder of her as she gets fatter. Can she save Christmas from the pot?
Interest level: 4-8
On Angel Wings
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All the world’s a stage
Posted Tuesday November 24th 2009
by Sarah Bourn
Rather than spending years of hard graft and huge sums of money going to stage school, aspiring actors could get the same result by reading stories to children for a few months. The sheer range of silly voices, funny accents, comedy character role-playing and physical theatre required to keep a little one entertained is immense. And it means that by the time your child goes to school, you could probably single-handedly put on a West End adaptation of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and get five-star reviews all round.
My own demanding critic, ten-month-old Angus, insists on an extremely high level of dedication to each book-reading performance. If he doesn’t feel I’m giving it my best effort, he voices his displeasure by shrieking loudly, crawling off or sometimes just blowing raspberries – I bet Sir Ian McKellen never has to put up with that sort of audience.
On the plus side, this has definitely developed my repertoire of convincing animal noises. Our latest favourite is Hairy Maclary’s Caterwaul Caper by Lynley Dodd, which requires imitation of no less than six different types of bark – Hercules Morse (‘WOOF’), Bottomley Potts (RO-RO-RO-RO-RO), Muffin McLay (‘RUFF-RUFF’), Bitzer Maloney (‘BOW-WOW-WOW-WOW’), Schnitzel von Krumm (YIP-YIP’)…
