To say it should just be dressing up day?

[Ulysees]

World book day where I live is really just dressing up day. Hardly any are from books. The odd Harry potter here and there.

To be fair I once forgot and dressed ds1 as Dracula. He loved it. But at least it was a book! 🤣

My daughter's school has told children they can dress as a character from a book or wear comfy clothes they enjoy reading in. They are encouraged to bring in a book to read or to choose something different from the free box (books donated for the occasion).

I think that's the right kind of approach really. Aside from anything else, not all kids enjoy dressing up so making the focus on happy children reading books is definitely preferable compared with some school approaches I've heard of.

@nappyvalley2024 but so many people (not just children) will often read the book after seeing the film/TV version.
I remember reading along episode by episode with a TV adaptation of The Secret Garden when I was about 10.
I remember practically everyone at my primary attempting to read The Three Musketeers thanks to Dogtanian on the telly (I don't think anyone made it past chapter one 😂).

People need to unclench and let the kids dress up as whatever they want ffs

I think some posters would like it to be renamed "Quality/Classic Children's Literature Only Day" to make sure the riff raff take it "seriously".

There are so many children who, for a variety of different reasons, need different types of books to be encouraged into reading. If a reluctant reader finds a way in via a football album, a graphic novel, or a Disney book about a favourite character, why should they be made to feel that isn't good enough?

Both my kids have SEN and the sensory issues with dressing up are a real problem for us. DS2 was in tears over the weekend because he didn't want to dress up (extremely sensitive to different fabrics, etc) but also didn't want to be the odd one out at school by not dressing up 🙄. It's so ridiculous because he loves reading - his teacher lets him read as a reward for doing his work in class because reading is the one thing that really motivates him, but WBD isn't fun for him at all.

I think wearing pjs to school can also be problematic as some ND kids will feel very uncomfortable wearing nightwear during the daytime and there will be plenty of kids who do not own pjs at all.

On another WBD thread someone said their school were having a cosy day where the children wear comfortable clothes and I think that's the best option I've heard of.

DD2's gone in as one of the trainers from Pokemon today - her argument is:
a) I like Pokemon
b) There are lots of Pokemon books
c) I had this stuff in my wardrobe

Her choice and after years of this crap - I no longer give a shiny shit about it. My lack of fucks given incidentally has not had any detrimental impact upon either child's love of reading - I regularly have to referee arguments over book hoarding in this house or acquire multiple sets of various authors because they're such avid readers. That did not come from the annual "buy some nylon shite from Tesco" festival that WBD has become.

There are plenty of Minecraft books! My son loves them.

@FlamingoYellow you're so right.
I highly suspect my DD is autistic (we were going for assessment but the only option is private as it's unaffordable at present sadly) and her teachers are aware of this.
But since she started in school, we've had an animal safari dress up day, a Christmas dress up, a rainbow one and now this. It's honestly really tough on the children who have "safe clothes" (just like safe foods etc) - and I think schools should be more sensitive to it.
I think it's great to make learning interactive - but crikey, couldn't these theme days be like the "dress down" days of old, with themed activities at school? Our children's brains work the same whether they are in their own clothes, costumes or uniforms.

Yes agree and it annoys me 😂 why do I care 😂 but isn't it about reading? Both of mine went as characters from books they're read but I know of kids dressing up as Harry Potter for example and their mums said they don't even know anything about it

Does it though? My ds has gone as Hiccup from the How To Train Your Dragon series. His first exposure to it was when he watched the film with his grandparent over Christmas. Enjoying the film led him to ask me for the book. His current read is the fourth book (How To Cheat A Dragon Curse). He reads a chapter aloud to me, every night at bedtime.

He’s year 2. He’s only relatively recently started being able to read chapter books himself. He still doesn’t know what genres/authors etc he enjoys. Shelves and shelves of books in shops and libraries are overwhelming when he hasn’t a clue where to start. If a character in a film piques these kids interest and means that they discover a book they enjoy, surely that’s a good thing.

I do think it's a shame that in some places it's not really a celebration of books and reading, but I also recognise that some kids won't have that experience to reflect on (sad as that is).

This year DC, school have to go in pyjamas, take a book to swap and are having a day of activities - happy with that.

Lots of differing opinions.

I think I like the idea of wear what you like. Can be comfy clothes, batman outfit ,pjs. Maybe bring a favourite book in? Get someone fun to come in and read to them? Have a party.

Sorry if I came across snobby. I didn't mean to. I'm quite the opposite in RL 😉

I am a single parent who works full time at a senior job. I love reading and dressing up but I don't have time to make complicated costumes for my DD who is far less interested. We'd rather spend the spare time we do have together doing the things she is interested in. She has always gone in her own clothes with a book she enjoys. Most of the books she likes have a "normal" kid that things happen to e.g. George's Marvelous Medicine - George doesn't need a fancy costume.

This year she was really looking forward to it in Yr8!! She has crafted her own costume which is one of her hobbies and is now sick so yet again we fail at WBD!!

I sent DS2(6) in as Oliver Twist. He hasn't read the book but we did discuss the character and the story which was interesting.

My child has a huge exposure to books, she has a whole bookshelf for.

She still went as Elsa today. Frozen was based on a book, and there are also books that feature the characters anyway.

This is no time to be snobby.

Honestly if dressing up for WBD had been a thing when I was in school I’d have had so much anxiety about it I wouldn’t have enjoyed it at all- and my favourite thing to do as a child (and as an adult) was reading. I’m firmly in the camp of ‘let the children wear what they want’, and hate the snobbery some parents show around the whole thing. I’ve sent my wee man into nursery in a Thomas the tank engine jumper, I’m not sitting crafting a costume for what’s meant to be a celebration of reading! He also has very strong ideas about what are ‘nursery clothes’ and I’d have no chance getting him into a different outfit.

Does it really matter what the children dress as?

Disney/superhero characters are in books. Marvel/DC are classic comics so still reading.

I do roll my eyes a bit at all the footballers but to be fair there are loads of books about football/footballers.

If you can get your child to read comics, autobiographies, Diary of a wimpy kid it's better than not reading at all.

Our school did go in your pyjamas (which was optional) and bring a favourite book as a 'book at bedtime ' theme.

I think this is better, less pressure and less wasteful.

I do not have time to be running around charity shops to curate outfits.

I am the opposite of lazy - I am time poor and have no intention of expending effort on flipping WBD.

🙄

With great relief we got to skip the dressing up this year as DD is now in P7 and her and her friends decided they weren't taking part. 💪

👏My son has an entire shelf on his bookcase for his Minecraft book collection.

Not all kids have parents with the time/energy/money/inclination to buy/make/put together a costume. It's not fun for those kids.

Batman is a comic. My kid is Spiderman today, which is a comic book. I'm fastidious about the book character thing!

I'd just like it if all schools could do the same thing. Have two DC going to separate schools. DD school don't do anything for it at all, and DS school do it every year and make it themed (for example fairy tales one year, superheroes the next, animal stories the year after etc).

We let DS dress up as we don't want him to feel left out from his classmates, but also get a costume for DD to wear as soon as she gets home and she gets to choose a film. We get popcorn, snacks etc and make it into a little evening thing that both kids really enjoy and I've totally gone away from the point of the thread so I'll stop now 😁