WORLD BOOK DAY
This great event seems to come round more quickly every year! This year however Inspirations are pulling out all the stops and taking part in the ‘Share a Million Stories’ month-long challenge. The event will see our setting challenge our children from babies right through to our school ready children to read and record as many books in a month as possible.

A Decline in Reading Books for Leisure 

Reading books for leisure has greatly declined over the years with electronic devices taking precedence which is a real shame as reading can be such a special and magical moment, particularly when sharing with our young children.  In a 2017 edition of Psychologies Today magazine it was noted that ‘reading to babies leads to stronger vocabularies and better early literacy skills four years later, just as the children are getting ready to go to school.

Why Books are so Important
Did you know that reading with small babies is important for a child’s language development and literacy skills? The rhythms and patterns of reading gives young babies the starting point in learning to speak their language and enables them to, even at their young age, copy and mimic those rhythms in their own babbled speech.  As our children grow their early exposure to books helps sustain their love and interest in books which in turn enhances their imaginations, allows them to explore the world, particularly scary emotions or aspects of life that they may in the ‘real world’ find difficult to comprehend or discuss.

Inspirations Top Tips for Reading at Home with Children

• Its always nice to snuggle down with a good book, create a warm cosy space and sit down with your little one and share the experience
• For babies and young toddlers, the words on the page don’t really matter, discuss the pictures, the colours, characters emotions and refer to similar experiences you have had with them.
• Ask older children open ended questions like, what do you think is happening? What could happen next? What would you do if…?
• Props are a great addition to a story, if you are reading a book about a teddy bear, use one of your child’s bears to play the part in the story.
• If you really want to go ‘all out’ make each character in the book have a different voice, this really brings the story alive in the imagination of children!
• It’s also good to remember that non-fiction books are equally important. If you have been for a walk and seen frogspawn in a pond, go to your local library and borrow a fact book about the life cycle of frogs.

Over the years when I’ve been introduced into a new setting and have wanted to build relationships with those young children, sitting in the book corner and picking up a book works every time! Children love to be read to so let’s start a reading revolution and see if we can encourage children of all ages to enter the magical world of books!

Nicola