Reading Reading Reading

As a one-time school librarian and avid reader, I am naturally very keen to see my children reading. My twins will be entering Grade 1 next year and both are begining to read and write. I consider reading and writing to be the two most important skills my children will ever learn, and I want them to get it right from the start, so I won't rush them but I will try to support them as much as possible. Today (it being Day 2 of the school holidays), I set them to creating little booklets about the long weekend we spent in the Drakensberg with their grandparents. They drew pictures and I wrote out descriptive sentences which they copied below their pictures. Then they wrote thank you letters to their grandparents, which we will post this afternoon.

I have read to my children since they were born. We have always read a mix of basic 'baby' books, picture books and longer stories. My daughter is a great fan of the Milly-Molly-Mandy stories, while my son prefers tales of knights and dragons. Both enjoy The Famous Five, anything by Roald Dahl, and the wonderful picture books by Jeanette Donaldson and Axl Schaeffer. We read Harry Potter, The Wind in the Willows, the William books, and many other classics aloud. We encourage the children to sit quietly with a picture book or two for half an hour in the evenings. Even though they can't properly read these books yet, they know the stories and can make out some of the words. We occasionally go to bookshops and allow the children to choose their own book to buy, and they both use the school and public libraries regularly. Both have bookshelves in their rooms filled with their favourite picture books and a number of other books that they will only read for themselves later on. And finally, but perhaps most importantly, both their father and I read books ourselves - the more your children see you reading books, magazines and newspapers, and enjoying it, the more they will want to read for themselves.

There are many wonderful websites to help your children learn to read, answer your questions about learning to read, and recommend excellent books for children. Exclusive Books have published a lovely Children's Best Books Guide for just R6, which features a number of my favourites and has introduced me to some wonderful new titles.

Starfall is a great website with alphabet and reading games for children of all ages. My children have gone through two levels of this site so far, and I am really very impressed with it.

The Family Education website has a very informative and useful section on reading.

Reading by 9 is a wonderful initiative by the LA Times that publishes a fantastic yearly parent's guide. You can access the guide online or download the pdf version.

Your Child magazine published a great article about reading in their September 2008 issue, and they feature a really good list of Best Books for Kids on their website.