Michael Rosen joining us on Mumsnet on Friday 7th May from 12 - 1pm

[RachelMumsnet]

We're delighted that former Children's Laureate, Michael Rosen will be joining us for a live chat on Friday at midday. It's a topical webchat as Michael is supporting the SATS boycott and has set up the campaign, Authors Against SATS. Please post advance questions to Michael on this thread and join us here for the live chat on Friday.

[Boco]

Hi Michael
We're v. big fans in our house too!

I have dds in year 3 and reception. I'm glad to see reception has really changed since my oldest daughter was there and there is much more free playing and reading stories and following their own imaginations - but year 3 is so packed with targets and boxes to tick - all written in such incomprehensible language and cellotaped to every table and exercise book. I do worry that my daughter is being really turned off by the stress and pressure to achieve these levels and targets which she doesn't even really understand. As a parent how can you manage this?

[MichaelRosen]

Hello Nowit, I think at the heart of literacy should be the best writing anyone has ever done for children. When I say 'best' that's writing right the way across kinds or genres of writing: comics, poems, stories, novels, plays, funny stuff, serious stuff, legends, folk tales, film scripts, TV scripts, graphic novels etc etc. Classrooms should be bookloving places. Instead, classrooms are far too often filled with the dullest examples of writing ('texts') that have ever been invented: worksheets, extracts, sentences with gaps in, instructions, rules and so on. If this interests you, do look at www.justreadcampaign.co.uk where a group of people engaged in trying to excite children in books have created a petition about putting books back at the heart of the curriculum

[GoldenSnitch]

My DS is 3 and has just started on his school career. We've been library members since he was a few weeks old and have books all over the house that we read frequently as well as a regular bedtime story, even singing phonic letters on the fridge to play with - is there anything else we can do to help prepare him for learning to read both in a school environment and at home?

[cyteen]

Hi Michael,

I think you used to know my MIL - she speaks very highly of you

[Tikkabillajive]

Hi Michael

Another family here who thinks you are fantastic! I grew up on your books (when I was about eight my sister and I got up and recited Down Behind the Dustbin with you ) and it was a complete joy to bring my daughter to see you at the Bath Kids Lit Fest last September. She is STILL repeating the chocolate cake story and I wondered if there was any chance of you recording a video of it to put on your website/YouTube? As hard as I try, I cannot quite replicate your klaxon noise of excitement when you see the cake in the fridge!

Thank you so much for all your terrific books and the inspirational work you do to encourage young readers.

[MichaelRosen]

Hi Boco, what we can do as parents, is to take our children to interesting places and have loving open-ended conversations with them about where we're going, what we see, hear and think and then coming home and talking about the day. Nearly always, interesting places have written material of some kind that links with those places: it might be leaflets, or a book you buy in the bookshop, or a link you find online and the really important thing to do is help your children find the links between fun things to do and written material that you find or help them source.

[MichaelRosen]

hi cyteen, hello MIL (uh?)

[IfYoureHappyAndYouKnowIt]

Teenage boys......Hi Michael, my boys have always been avid readers and I've always helped them them a lot by finding good books that have sparked their interest.

As they become young men (one is now just an adult!) I'm finding it more difficult. I know they should seek their own books (and they do like to read!) but they don't like to look for them themselves.

How can I best help them? And how do I find the best books to suit them as they become almost adults - the teenage shelf is starting to look a bit young but some of the adult ones are really not suitable.

[hellybelly125]

My eldest is just 5 and loves reading and writing, and is very good at it, reading books designed to be read at the top end of the next year up, but I am concerned that she is only so good at it because of the amount of work (play) we do at home surrounding it all, and not because of the way school is encouraging her. Because they don't set (I hate that term but you know what I mean) the not so bright children get much more time given to them to read to the teacher and the other helpers, and they are the ones encouraged to go to the school library more where my little one can go if she wants to.
Without setting how would you make it fairer for the brighter children at school to be given the same opportunities as the not so bright ones?

[MichaelRosen]

Hello witchwithallthetrimmings the bear is whatever, whoever, however you make him/her...that's the fun of books, isn't it? I see that you've read your Roland Barthes, Umberto Eco etc, so I'm sure you'll be happy to interpret away till dawn!

[MichaelRosen]

hi Nickelclegg - you're right, bookshops are glorious springboards for us....go, browse, find, grab (o yes, pay) and you've got a treasure in your hand for life, a portable, durable browsable treasure. Unbeatable.

[MichaelRosen]

hello squeaver, I'm reading about Edward Lear at the moment. What a sad, complicated, awful life and you don't have to look far in his poems to see that he's poured a lot of that into these 'funny' (really?) 'nonsense' (really?) poems. Yes, poems are there to be read and children will learn them if you enjoy reading them outloud, because poets know how to make language infectious. We spread poem-diseases!

[MichaelRosen]

Ifyou'rehappyandyouknowit, my experience with teens taught me that the stuff that interested them most was biography and autobiography. They seemed to want to check out what 'real' people had done with their lives. To tell the truth, these kinds of books are really another kind of fiction - they work to formulas Cinderella, Superhero etc but young readers are hooked into people from screen, sport etc and want to know how they got there. The other trick is to keep your ear to the ground and see what kinds of things are really interesting them, and then just find stuff that relates to it and leave it lying about.

[MichaelRosen]

tikkabillajive, i think there is a CD of me doing Chocolate Cake (and all the poems from the book it comes from 'Quick Let's Get Out of Here'). Last time I looked it's published by Abbey Media. Google?

[gingertoo]

Hi Michael,

Only just got back from the pre-school run so sorry I have not had time to read the whole thread.

Just wanted to say how brilliant it is that you and your fellow authors are supporting the SATs boycott. I have an 11 year old boy who loves science and IT but has not done any in class time since Easter 'because of SATs' Thankfully, I have the time to make sure that I keep his interests alive at home....

We love your books here. My pre-schooler plays 'bear hunt' in the garden and in the woods. He loves to scream at the top of his little voice when he finally finds his bear

[antoxo]

Have been reading this with interest. So true what you say about SATS. My son (yr 6) was supposed to be revising for sats this week. His school has opted to boycott and so yesterday when his school was closed for the election instead of revising, he went swimming for the first time on his own with his mates! Says it all really. Will be interesting to see what happens in the next week. Is the SATS sitch dependent on who gets in this week?

[Cat9999]

Hello Michael

What would you say to a parent who is concerned about their child's reluctance to read - the kind of child who doesn't ever seem to be ready to want to start to learn?

[MichaelRosen]

superKat, I'm constantly pleasantly surprised by people saying to me that they remember when I visited their schools. Slightly disconcerting when the person is aged about 45, but I smile through that...

[Tikkabillajive]

Found it - thank you!

[MichaelRosen]

cat9999, I would say, go to the library with your child and just browse and chat about what you find. I would spend plenty of time reading books to him/her, I would make sure that I left loads of books around in his/her way...on the floor in his/her bedroom, in amongst toys, etc. Don't put him/her under any pressure to 'learn how to read'. He/she will be getting heaps of that at school. Try and borrow or buy books that are related in some way or another to the outings, holidays and interests going on...Get tie-ins with films or plays you go to see...(They've just brought out a novelisation of the new Alice in Wonderland film, by the way)

[MichaelRosen]

I'm just about to scoot. I hope you carry on enjoying books with your children...enjoyment and sharing is the best you can offer them...remember libraries are full of FREE BOOKS! 12 PER TICKET! NO FINES FOR OVERDUE CHILDREN'S BOOKS!

best wishes
Michael
ps
I'm off to see a bloke who is going to design one of my books that went out of print so that we can do a diy print/publish job on it. It was called - and will go on being called! - Hairy Tales and Nursery Crimes.

[BessieBoots]

Thanks Michael. Inspirational chat.

[nickelclegg]

oh, i remember that book!
yeay!

[nickelclegg]

thanks Michael, i've put your bookshop comment as a quote on my website!

[sethstarkaddersmum]

we still haven't got a library.
it got flooded out in 2007 and they are taking forever to rebuild it. Meanwhile there is a van that comes round once a week but never outside school hours. Meh!