To cringe at this guardian article about children and books

[MyopiaUtopia]

Surely I can't be the only person to think this is one of the most humblebraggy self-congratulatory and smug articles ever?!

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/01/how-to-raise-a-little-bookworm-in-the-age-of-smartphones-and-tablets

Instagram?

I read obsessively as a child. It was an escape from a pretty horrible home life

Me too @HellonHeels I spent a lot of time wishing I lived in the Magic Faraway Tree

Of course she hasn’t mentioned Vitalite who is grade 8 on the piano or I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Butter who amazed his teachers by knowing his tables by 5.

I think the article is a tad cringey. But the reality is that kids don’t read as much and many many many parents don’t read to their kids. Maybe not the MN crowd but from my baby group plus NCT group (my son is the same age as Flora) he’s the only one who reads anything beyond what is sent home from school and one of only two who is regularly read to regularly.
My parents were both University lecturers and I am a reader and my sibling isn’t although she has returned to reading in her 40s.
But in general it’s not a terrible idea to share tips on how to encourage reading. And if people have any tips I would be more than happy to hear them, and implement them for DS2.

With DS1 I found that what helped was when he could read a bit giving him lots of easier books and curling up with him and letting him read to me and making a big deal of it. It gave him real pride. He would tell his childminder the next day ‘I read to Mummy and she was the baby and I was the Mummy reader!’

And the second thing was letting him read whatever shite he wanted to (including those awful Rainbow Fairy books). He went through a ‘sports book’ phase instead of reading fiction. This is a boy who runs like a giraffe on steroids. And he would only read football stuff, not well written. I told my inner snob to shut up and let him read.

And I always have a few books in my bag. So whenever we are queuing or waiting and there is whining I produce a book. Whether they read it or not is another matter but I try to make books rather than screens the default.

It will be interesting to see what works on DS2.

I loved reading encouraged by my mum who loved reading everything and anything and took me to the library in my pram ( long walk and we didn't have a car ) on a council estate in east London. My mum loved her library : access to free books was lacking in her day in the 1920 and 30s ! It was a lovely building too.
I did the ' book reading challenge' at 9 and 10 during the six weeks holidays too. Nobody wrote articles about me.
Mind you , we didn't go out to eat at all so I couldn't show off my reading skills at any table! One son hated it but he reads now in his 20s and the other one passed with As in English and English lit by ' looking up the plots on line'! I did despair at that I must admit. ( worked though)
I love seeing children reading but I'm not wide eyed at at. It is nice to see.
Some journalists do need to get a grip as they say !

The article is cringe but the advice is good.

The thing that’s irritating about the article is she’s taking credit for her daughter being a bookworm ( look what I’ve done) when in fact she was probably always headed that direction.

I grew up as a “book worm” and I still am. My sister had the same upbringing, the same availability and encouragement to read but she had never been an avid reader. So much of it is down to personality.

Exactly the same for me. My mum is a bookworm. My sister and I had a bedtime story every night until we were old enough to read for ourselves. We got taken once a week to the library to choose books. This was long before the days of screens or even video recorders, so by default we didn't watch much television because children's programmes were only on for a couple of hours a day.

Me - bookworm as soon as I learned to read, and still am. My sister - no interest whatsoever in reading for pleasure until she was well into her twenties, and still not what I would call a 'bookworm' - prefers the television.

I am sure upbringing plays a part, but personality is a bigger factor in my opinion.

Guacamole she is 7 now. Apparently she gets it from my DM who was reading Dickens at 6, or so I am told.

Personally, I'm an average reader. And DS, bless him, would rather stick pins on his eyes at the minute.

I think it's random whether our dc are bookworms or not. You can provide the materials and support but you can't force a child to love reading.

,I also like how she stresses the importance of reading to your child, making it enjoyable for you both.
Actually the best advice is to set an example of them seeing you reading for pleasure.
When ds was at secondary his teachers used to say to me he must read so much, but he rarely read books, got most of his information from online.

I had lots of books, read to the DC but at 4 my ds's school nursery report said:

"Stork will sometimes sit and listen to a familiar story."

You can lead a horse to water...

Surely it doesn't merit a whole article, it's pretty simple. Step 1. Have a kid. Step 2. Give your kid good books. The rest follows naturally for most kids.

First of all, the article was cringey as hell!!

Second, she wants to pick what her kid reads a bit better! If she’s talking about the rainbow magic books series, those books offer very little value. They model poor writing, lack varied vocabulary, and the storylines are so simple and predictable throughout all of the books. They are very shallow. Horrid Henry is not much better! Not books my kids read!

Personally I love reading. My kids love reading. But she sounds as if she’s the only mum who has kids that can devour books.

Typical Guardian.

I enjoy how she quotes stats saying around 50% of children read for pleasure while simultaneously presenting Flora as such a wonder that people stop and stare on the street.

We are a family of readers. But not in public. Not so that it gets in the way of our safety or anybody else's (who lets there child walk along reading a book). Is she going to turn into an adult who when getting arrested for dangerous driving says "but officer I was only reading my book, I wasn't texting!"

There is a time and place. In a restaurant? Talk to each other. Walking down the street? Look where your going. Curled up on the sofa with a hot drink? Get your book out. In the bath? Kindle in a waterproof case (if you have to).

The fact that Flora is an only child speaks volumes to me (I am one!) Without siblings to play /argue with .OC are left to amuse themselves a lot .I loved EB as a child .The stories were exciting but I also loved the fact that Julian ,Dick and Anne were siblings and George their cousin an only child (like me)! I would read because I was surrounded by grown ups a lot of the time(had friends I played with too obviously)and was taken regularly to London Zoo/ other places from London suburbs.But reading is a kind of little world of your own .Hardly read at all now apart from papers /online and so on .Agree this woman sounds very pleased with herself ,but her DC is not alone (Recently read somewhere that more boys are reading thanks to David Walliams and the like !)

I think there’s too much pressure on parents and kids to get children reading very early on. My eldest has just turned 4 and we’ve always read to/with him but he can’t actually read yet. He is trilingual though, on account of DH and I having different mother tongues and us living in a country with another main language. I don’t really know where to start when it comes to teaching him how to read. Which language to start with? I think I’ll leave it to school and trust it will follow on naturally. If not, well then I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it!

Oh and the article was indeed cringe-worthy. Any decent advice was drowned out by the smugness, unfortunately.

Children read when they are ready - it just ‘clicks’ in most cases I think. It’s not medal-worthy to have an early reader - it doesn’t indicate anything special. Like early walkers doesn’t end up being dancers or marathon runners.

The UK teaches formal reading much earlier than a lot of countries. My son has just started primary school in Ireland. While there’s lots of prep going on, the formal stuff doesn’t start until 6. Scandinavian countries are even later.

Outcomes in all those countries outstrip the UK I believe.

I have a 13 year old bookworm. Nothing to do with my parenting, everything to do with her personality. The only thing I was really keen on was her to see me/us reading for pleasure, rather than it being a chore.

She was a very early reader, she was also a very late walker and behind milestones physically for a while - I'm convinced this is part of it.

The article is blatant twattery.

In our house, for years the bored person sitting reading in the corner of the clothes shop was me, waiting for my teen girls to choose what they wanted so I could get the magic debit card out. Urban outfitters and the Top Shop maternity section were always the best for comfy chairs.

She was a very early reader, she was also a very late walker and behind milestones physically for a while - I'm convinced this is part of it

I have a 12 year old DD who’s obsessed with reading, she was also a late walker and slightly behind physically. My DD is so in love with books and language that I’m convinced it’ll form the basis of her future career in some way. At her very first y7 parents evening her English teacher told me she wanted DD to take English A levels at 6th form.

This is all great, and I’m not complaining, but I don’t see it as any different to children who love sport, music, dance or yes, even video games. It’s lovely when they have a passion, but reading isn’t the be all and end all of things or morally superior to other interests. Sometimes on here I see posts from parents trying to get their (older) children reading books when the child doesn’t want to. I always think just leave them alone, as long as they can read it doesn’t matter.

She was a very early reader, she was also a very late walker and behind milestones physically for a while - I'm convinced this is part of it

DS1, who finally walked at 21 months, has basically taught himself to read. Is now reading level 10 ORT with ease at 4.5.
Needless to say I'm hoping similarly slow-to-walk DS2 will follow suit!