One of Australia’s favourite children’s authors, Mem Fox, has been quoted as saying, “If you can’t read aloud to your kid for 10 minutes a day, why have you got a child? Why have you got one? Wouldn’t it have been better for you to have a goldfish?” It’s pretty direct, but true. Reading to […]
Many kids can quite happily lock themselves away for hours on end devouring any book they can get their hands on. I am always secretly a little envious of parents who have kids like this, as you can see their kids are totally enthused by the whole reading experience. They are hungry for their reading […]
It’s sometimes hard to decipher fact from fiction when it comes to how kids learn to read. Even the experts often disagree about the best approaches to teaching reading. Phonics was the be-all-and-end-all many years ago, fell out of favour, and now seems to have made a resurgence. Trends in education come and go and […]
A Mum’s perspective I write this blog post scratching my head thinking the same thing at the end of every year – where did the year go? I’m certain that the time thief keeps taking a little bit each year. Or perhaps it’s because my youngest son Archie is about to finish his first year of […]
The Nancy Drew Mystery Series were classic childhood favourites of my era. But not for me. While most of my friends devoured girly mysteries I was doing other things. I can hardly remember reading as a kid. My recollection is that I was too busy catching tadpoles, riding my bike or milking cows to read. […]
A dad who I have come to know through school said he didn’t start reading until he was 30. Said he wasn’t interested before then. Now you can’t stop him. A switch was flicked. And not only does he love reading himself but he finds immense joy reading with his two young daughters. I imagine […]
When I trained to become a teacher I discovered that I loved picture books. Sounds a little crazy to fall in love with picture books as an adult, but I guess it’s never too late. Now I delight in sharing books with my sons and it’s a dream that I get to write them too!
Books are just the best.
