surestart & free books - where from & when?

[Mama5isalive]

Hi all - this is just a general question in regards to the freebooks that surestart used to give out got them with my last DD10 now i have a DS1 and although i have been to the HV but have not received any books??
am i wrong has it been stopped?

I am not sure if it's changed at all due to the Government cuts but we got books from the HV at about the 6 month check and also later, from memory about 18 months. We also got a pack when I joined the children up to the library.

I think this is the website Bookstart

At 9 months your baby should have a hearing test at which point your health visitor should give you a bookstart bag with two books in it

then at 18 months your health visitor should visit you at home and give you a book bag style folder like the school book bags but in blue or yellow

then in preschool you should get a treasure chest with two books in it
through your childcare setting

@ frawli thank you for the link,i will go and asked my hv or will pop in to my local library thank u.
@compo thanks for the input i missed out 9months?

In our area it's done via the library.

A book bag for under 1s
A school satchel type thing for under 2s
A treasure box for under 3s

Why not just go to the library and borrow some books instead? Taxes are far better spent on libraries than on Bookstart. Where I live, all the charity shops are stuffed full of the Bookstart freebies.

yes blacktype i do hear that, but with DS1 im worried of maybe him tearing it and then i will have to replace it! i want to let him understand that its his and he must look after it!

Most libraries are very understanding about young children and books, and will forgive the odd rip or spill, snd unless it happens all the time won't charge you.

Agree, inspire. I think most people try to be careful with library books, and libraries are very understanding if people do every now and then damage or lose them (we lost two, which was a bit galling - £12 for two paperbacks. Gah.)

Mama5, a further thought. How about looking in said charity shops? I've had some complete children's book bargains from 'three for a pound' buckets. Most of our children's books come from charity shops, and we must have at least 500 of them. Plus you're doing good for someone else, and can give them back when your children have outgrown them.

If you did want to get cheap books for your LO, definitely try your library, mine sells off old stock at 10p per children's book and my chldren have lots and lots of them. If I get chance I look through them to check all pages are in there, etc but even if I'm not able to check them at the time it doesn't matter if you get the odd duff one because they are so cheap.

I have noticed that this can vary from branch to branch though, my most local one has a large children's section and so when it sells off stock it is quite often children's books, whereas the next nearest that I took the children to the other day for a change had a much smaller section and was only selling off a few.

Since we live in Wales and are going for Welsh medium education libraries are also good for Welsh language books which tend to have very small discounts new compared to English language books.

Having said that in praise of cheap 2nd hand books I will also admit to making sure I got all the bookstart packs that I was able to, so lovely to have a brand new book every once in a while!