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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Primary education

Reading books order after The Storm ORT?

150 replies

Iamnotminterested · 01/04/2013 19:38

Just that. Floppy has found the key and friend wants to know which books come next; I can't remember (or have I erased them from my memory?)

OP posts:

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simpson · 03/04/2013 22:56

And the children who don't get put to bed but are expected to put themselves to bed when they are tired (I know a lot of people who expect their young children to do this). Or that they don't have their own bed in the first place (my eyes have been well and truly opened).

One small child in a reception class I help in constantly talks about the violent computer games they play (18) and their parents wonder why they are called in because he is beating up other children...

LandS - I know plenty of parents who don't learn English (for whatever reason).

simpson · 03/04/2013 22:57

Mrz - to me a child who has zero or little support at home (or a chaotic life) should be applauded more for doing well at school than the high flyers ( who usually do have a supportive background).

mrz · 03/04/2013 22:58

i remember one little boy telling me he wanted to go back to the homeless hostel when he grew up because he had a bed and sausages for breakfast

learnandsay · 03/04/2013 22:59

Leave! Go to a nice place where there is plenty of fresh air and the children all skip happily in the sunshine and get put to bed by doting mothers (who can read.)

simpson · 03/04/2013 23:04

Mrz - that is so sad. One child I know has just been taken into care finally after ages of waiting (I guess SW were trying to resolve things) and this child has many behavioural issues. You wonder how they will ever get over their issues

LandS - in an ideal world that would happen. One of my DD's best friends has been playing outside on the street unsupervised since she was walking (under a year old).

God, it makes the area I live in sound awful! It's not that bad!!

simpson · 03/04/2013 23:06

But having said that I hope teachers do take things with a pinch of salt as DS (in yr1 at the time) wrote in class "when my mummy leaves me in the house on my own I like to play with my cars"

Obviously I have never left him alone, he must have meant downstairs alone or something...

learnandsay · 03/04/2013 23:10

I live in a leafy area and as you know I'm all pushy parenty even though I believe that the category shouldn't exist. I'm twisted up every day about the issue of fostering/adopting. But I'm worried that the "I can do good for this kid" rather than I actually want this kid is the problem.

simpson · 03/04/2013 23:32

I would love to foster but (a) my house is probably not big enough and (b) I don't think DS is emotionally able to cope with it (he is v sensitive and would get very attached I think).

simpson · 03/04/2013 23:33

(c) I am an LP and probably biting off more than I can chew

learnandsay · 03/04/2013 23:41

I'm probably more interested in adopting than fostering (because that can be a discipline in itself) I've got the resources. But my problem is that I'm so filled with ideas of wrong and right that SS are going to think I've just stepped off planet Mars. Their first question will be: Why do you want another child?
And my answer will be: Well, I don't really, but I live in a leafy area.

simpson · 03/04/2013 23:54

Not the answer they will be expecting!!

learnandsay · 04/04/2013 00:00

I'm doing a Kylie with the adopting thing. I can't get it out of my head but I can't make any sense of it either. And posts like Ferguson's make the issue worse. How come doing good is so complicated?

mrz · 04/04/2013 07:28

Many children in the system just need stability and unconditional love ... I'm afraid it's a sad fact that many are badly damaged

Periwinkle007 · 04/04/2013 08:34

yes my eyes were well and truly opened when my mum went back to teaching and me from my private girls school suddenly realised just HOW hard so many kids have it. She taught in one of the most deprived areas in the south of England (one of the reasons they scrimped to send me private) and I was 10 when she went back to work. 10 year olds having to get their 3 or 4 younger siblings up and ready for school because mummy was unconscious from drinking, unable to find any food for their breakfast, kids who had no idea what shampoo was until they were taken into care, kids who genuinely had no idea what it was like to be loved. The ones whose families didn't speak English were almost no problem because at least they loved their children and they tried, even in some cases finding a neighbour to help listen to the children read.

We may live in a developed country where people should have no problem with access to food and medicine etc but there are an enormous number of children who have no access to love and there lies something I can't get my head around, are the children in very poor countries who have nothing but are always smiling almost better off because their family love them more than anything.

If I had any confidence in my parenting skills and hadn't had such bad PND I would have loved to foster but I am not strong enough to do it. I wish I was.

simpson · 04/04/2013 17:43

Periwinkle - I have just ordered those books from the book people

Periwinkle007 · 04/04/2013 19:26

hope they are good then! mine were posted out this afternoon so will probably get them tomorrow - along with a load of other goodies. I do love my book people parcels. DD today announced that she was not reading any picture books any more she just wanted to read chapter books and has read 2 of the Usborne First readers this afternoon. Now she is lining up what to read tomorrow, can't decide between the magic toyshop and a Julia Donaldson compilation.

simpson · 04/04/2013 19:35

DD has never really read picture books (the school try to help by sending home Mog the Cat type books) but I think they are filed in her mind under books I read to her

I ordered the mermaid books too. As she loves the easier Rainbow Fairy ones (and FS).

But miracle of miracles, the read a few pages of a non fiction book today (about Polar bears).

Periwinkle007 · 04/04/2013 20:12

polar bears eh, well why not I suppose. Is she interested in any natural science type stuff? my 2 love weather, volcanoes, planets and things which helps with the non fiction fascination.

the mermaid books were a good bargain I think.

thats not a bad thing if she thinks chapter books are what she should read, it is the next step so that makes it easier for her to move on to them. The picture type ones my daughter likes are good old Winnie the Witch, Katie Morag, The Large Family, James Mayhew's Katie in the art gallery ones, The Lighthouse Keeper ones, Charlie and Tess (can't remember the author) and a load of other quite random ones my mum has had put away for years. The draw of the usborne story ones is the ribbon bookmark and the style of the pictures. She loves drawing so anything with good illustrations is popular with her.

simpson · 04/04/2013 20:21

She has never really read any nature books (which is why I got the ones you suggested).

She has been learning about planets/space at school which seems to fascinate her.

She has also been telling me all about Noah's Ark (I assumed that she had been learning it at school but her teacher said no - but then said she had watched her and DD had been taking herself to the reading corner and re-reading the same book every day on Noah's Ark ).

She loves Frog and Toad books and Mercy Watson books (chapter books about a pig).

Periwinkle007 · 04/04/2013 21:07

ooh I will look up Mercy Watson books then. thanks.

The Usborne planets one in their beginners range is good. I have a geology degree so my two are used to volcano stuff (pictures from our travels etc) and physical geography because it is one of my main interests.

simpson · 04/04/2013 23:33

DD loved all the little books on nature, planets, animals etc she got from McDonald's.

Mercy Watson books are fab, I think there are 5 or 6 of them.

She still loves Topsy and Tim books and reads them to herself all the time but will only read the old style smaller ones as they look like chapter books!!!

She also likes the Happy Families books (mr Creep the Crook etc) and Michael morpurgo (Snakes and Ladders and another one called Conker about a dog).

simpson · 04/04/2013 23:34

I have an usborne book about space actually (charity shop) I must show it to her....

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Periwinkle007 · 05/04/2013 08:42

oh kids are picky aren't they!

I just looked at our non fiction ones, they are a mix of the Usborne beginners ones, kingfisher learners (think thats what they are called) and we have a few of Sainsburys own reading scheme ones, nice photos in those. I really like the usborne ones myself I must admit, at least they are interesting to listen to and the pictures are good. I think most children like them so hopefully your daughter might.

Have you tried her with a couple of the fireflies ones on the Oxford Owl Website? My daughter was fascinated by the True Stories one about Alex Brychta who does the Biff chip and kipper drawings. He fled from Czeckoslovakia as a child when Russia invaded. She found it really interesting. She also liked Things that Sting and one about Sport Then and Now. Whilst Biff and co drive me nuts I really like the fireflies ones, they manage to introduce tables, timelines, pie charts etc as well as contents and index pages. These were all stage 7 or 8 but are actually reading bands of 9 and 10. There is one about making a book at Stage 10 which my daughter wants to read online too.

We don't have any Topsy and Tim ones. My mum was sure she had kept them all from us being little but when they moved house a couple of years ago we never found them in the loft with all the others so she was really disappointed as at some point they must have gone out accidentally. I did find Little Grey Rabbit though which brought back memories, I used to love little grey rabbit. Alison Uttley was the author I think.

We haven't tried Happy Families either. She is about to tackle a Magic Toyshop one by Jessie Little. looks quite a nice little book so fingers crossed she will enjoy it.

simpson · 05/04/2013 11:10

The problem with reading non fiction online is DD has a thing about the glossary and will keep flicking to the back (not so easy on a tablet)

Am going to the library later so I might see what they have.

Periwinkle007 · 05/04/2013 14:01

have a look in TKMaxx for one of the kids encyclopaedias if she likes the glossary. We got 2 great ones in there for £3.99 each. one is a question and answer book and the other an encyclopaedia and they are nice for just looking things up and reading little bits.

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