Reading and Bonding During Lockdown

Image by 2081671 from Pixabay 

{This is a collaborative post}

Lockdown 3.0. We’ve done this before, but it doesn’t necessarily make it any easier. What many parents have found really beneficial to both you and your child is to get into a routine. If you’ve already set one up, or you’re thinking about it now, there is an addition you should definitely consider: story time. 

Reading and Schooling 

Reading is such an easy way to support your child's homeschooling, and provide them with endless hours of entertainment at the same time. The benefits of reading can also be seen throughout your child’s life. The 90% Reading Goal (Lynn Fielding, 1998) states that 77% of children reading at a second to eighth-grade level at the beginning of third-grade will graduate high school. Only 27% of children reading below this level will graduate. 

Fielding concludes that “a mum or dad, sister or brother, who reads twenty minutes a day with a child from birth can first increase their chance of high third-grade reading skills and then of high school graduation. When a child graduates high school, the child’s probable increased lifetime earnings increase by $220,000, or £170,000.” 

Such a significant impact on your child’s future cannot be ignored or understated. Taking just twenty minutes a day to read with your child will improve their literacy skills and future prospects. This will most likely inspire them to read more on their own, but reading together can be a really good time to bond. 

Simple Reasons to be Cheerful #R2BC

I just spent the most enjoyable 2 hours (yes 2 whole silent alone hours with God) in the prayer centre. I'm so thankful to live somewhere I can just take time out. Oh and by the way if anyone is suffering with feelings of rejection then this book I'm reading is amazing. Uninvited by @lysaterkeurst. Highly recommended. This is today's #1goodthing X

A photo posted by Michelle Pannell (@michelletwinmum) on Jan 5, 2017 at 3:06am PST

I sat down Tuesday night (getting ahead) and wondered what on earth I'd share as my reasons to be cheerful this week. What are the things that have made my heart sing this week? Where have I found my joy? So I grabbed out my gratitude journal and had a look at the kind of things I've been recording in there and they were all super simple. So here are a few -

1. I'm reading Uninvited by Lysa TerKeurst and it is amazing. If you've ever suffered with feeling of rejection, loneliness and a sense of not fitting in then this is for you. Have a read and know that you are loved and accepted by the one who matters.

2.  I'm also reading chick lit. I love feel-good, happily ever after kind of books. You know the sort, they are written by Jane Green, Sophie Kinsella, Marian Keyes, Phillippa Ashley, Jenny Colgan, Cathy Kelly, Debbie Johnson and many, many more fabulous story-tellers. My current read is Mince Pies and Mistletoe at the Christmas Market by Heidi Swain and I'm about six chapters in and loving it. I just adore the fact that I can pick these kind of books up for 99p on my Kobo.

Can Kobo convert me to an eReader?

I'm a bit behind the times, you can call me old fashioned but I don't mind. I have been resisting the lure of an eReader in favour of keeping my paperback books. I love the fact I can walk out of a charity shop with a bag of 5 books, all picked up for under a fiver. Second hand is my thing and it always feels like a real bargain.

What I don't love is the mountain of books that take over my house, waiting to be read. I'm very good, once a book is read it gets passed straight back to a charity shop but I do confess to have a whole big wicker hamper full of books waiting to be read. This could be a thing of the past though as I now have a Kobo Aura H20 eReader and it comes with 4gb of memory built in and the option to use a Micro SD card to boost it to 32gb, that would literally take thousands of books. 

I love a weekend curled up with a good book

I've always loved to read; as a teenager you'd find me in the lounge with the rest of the family but I'd be curled up on a chair with my book rather than watching TV. It became a joke that I'd get through a new book most days and I needed a continual supply from the library.

How life changes once you grow older and then have young children. From the woman who read 2-3 books a week, every week I became the one who could go a couple of months without reading anything much and I really missed it. So as JJ got into a routine of sleeping I got back to reading more books. I like to read a mixture of non-fiction and also chick lit, those kind of easy books that transport you away to another place and you are right there beside the main character living their reality.

Our favourite book - Officially amazing

For the last three years we have been very lucky to attend great events with Guinness World Records (GWR). All my family have attempted to break world records and sadly as yet, we have not been successful. We have had great fun trying though, JJ was so close to attaining the most hats on your head in one minute record and I almost got the most socks paired & rolled in one minute and most party poppers popped in 30 seconds. Next time I vow I will do it and will go home with one of the coveted world record framed certificates.

The fact that we have not managed to bag a world record has not diluted the kids thirst for all things GWR though, not at all. Last year they each had a copy of the Guinness World Records book and I can’t believe how much they were looked at. I did wonder at first if three books might be overkill but it has proved perfect as one or two are kept in the car and others float from room to room in our house. I shouldn’t be surprised if the kids could now tell you some of the facts in that book off by heart.

They haven’t been selfish though, oh no. The books have been shared with their three mates that we take to school each day and the six of them chat about the woman who had eight babies, the tallest elevator in the world or which country has the most mobile phones per 1000 people (UAE if case you were wondering with 1709 per 1000 people). They have also been into school and other kids been allowed to read them and used as fun props in lessons.

This year is the 60^th anniversary of Guinness World Records and that is quite some time for it to have been running. I remember it right back to 40 odd years ago as a child when it was presented on TV by Roy Castle and I can still sing you the tune and hear him playing his trumpet. It’s a shame there is not a Records Breakers prime time show anymore as I think we miss good old fashioned variety show fun entertainment nowadays. Of course the kids can still watch a similar program with Officially Amazing being aired on CBBC.

Last year when we was at the GWR blogger event they used us as a focus group to talk about the book and get the kids input and feedback on what they liked about the book and perhaps what could be changed or updated. There were some interesting conversations but in truth I didn’t think much about it at the time, it was only when the 2015 GWR book arrived on my doorstep last week that I recalled the group and felt a little proud that we had helped to choose that cover and had an input to how it might look this year. That sure does make this year’s book feel even more special.

JJ was gutted that we won’t get to make the blogger event this year as we are away in Jersey at the same time. Hopefully we will get an invite to the next event and JJ can console himself by reading he book.

So what is the book like this year?

To put it simply - it's great. Full of all the fun facts and great pictures that the children enjoy but fresh and with lots of new content. It is amazing really how they manage to keep such a big book interesting year on year. It is 255 pages of non-stop entertainment and there is a bonus chapter available as an e-book, which will take you on a behind the scenes tour of GWR. As always it has a strong hardbacked cover so it remains nice and the pages are thick and glossy.

As with the last two years the augmented reality feature is here again. You can download the app for free (on apple and Android) and then parts of the book come alive. It really is very simple and very effective, what a great way to engage the kids. They have the tech they love but it is still book based and educational. The sort of experiences you can have are measuring yourself against the worlds tallest man, explore the planets of the solar system and witness the worlds most venomous spider leap from the page (ekk!).

Here is JJ with Craig Glenday the GWR Editor last year looking at the augmented reality app.

The Guinness World Record 2015 book has an RRP of £20 but I see it is currently £9.00 on Amazon and I've seen it for £10 in some shops, it really is a snip at those kind of prices and for sure I'll be buying copies if JJ needs any birthday gifts for his mates in the coming months.

If you have youngsters who are interested in world records then they must check out the new kids GWR website, as it has all the information they love presented in a way that appeals to them.

Yet again GWR have done good and the book is a big hit in our house. It is juts a shame we only have on copy this year as there have been arguments so far and JJ is now asking me for the gamers edition.

Disclosure: We was sent the book free of charge for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

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Read On. Get On.

I'm really pleased to be able to share with you a case study from Save the Children and their Read On. Get On.campaign which launched this week. Reading is the key to unlocking a child’s full potential and one of the best routes out of poverty for our poorest children. In the UK today too many of our children, including 40% of our poorest children, leave primary school without being able to read well and this sets them up for so many struggles as their life progresses. As the mother of a child who is struggling to learn to read I know it is not always easy but it is so necessary that every child has someone patient to work with them and help develop their love of reading.

Save the children have set a target to ensure that by 2025, every child is a confident reader by age 11. One of the ways they are trying to make this happen is through their Born to read program which works in partnership with other charities and recruits volunteers to work in primary schools with children who are struggling with literacy.  Sara is one such volunteer, have a read of what she has to say about her voluntary role -

“My youngest child had just gone to secondary school and I was rattling around at home when I saw the ad [for Born to Read]. I thought it was a great idea. My own children have been really privileged in their education and their access to books, and I loved the idea of helping children learn to love to read. These days it’s all about tablets and social media, and I think we need to go back to the basics.

I had no connection to the school before this. Beanstalk [in partnership with Save the Children] tries to give you a local school. I was given a choice of two and I picked this one because it is a faith school and it’s something I’m familiar with.

I was really worried before I started that I wouldn’t be able to engage with the children or they wouldn’t like me or I wouldn’t know what to do. My two training days at Beanstalk were just fantastic, really comprehensive, and they give you lots of scenarios. You do some role-play and you get lots of other people’s advice.

When I started, the children viewed me as this teacher figure and they just weren’t themselves. They thought ‘who is this strange person and why have I been picked?’ But then you make it fun for them; we started doing crosswords and we played hangman and we read silly poems. I like to get ones that are a little bit cheeky! And when they realised it wasn’t just serious reading then the barriers were broken down and they really transformed and blossomed.

We work one-on-one, that’s really important. I have three children whom I read with and I come in twice a week and we do half-hour slots. You have to gauge their mood: sometimes they just don’t want to read. Once you’ve got them into a book and they’re on a roll, they want to find out what’s happening, but often at the beginning you have to do crosswords or play a game just to settle them down. Reading doesn’t work if it’s only for five minutes: you need to engage them in the story and the characters. Then the half hour is up and I have to take them back up to the classroom and get the next reader. And the hour and half just disappears before you know it.

It’s about focusing on the children. I don’t think children have enough time when someone is actually just looking at and listening to them, and it makes a really big difference. They love it, they like being the centre of attention.

The children have almost reduced me to tears with the joy and enchantment on their faces. I had one little boy, Ishmael, who was obsessed with a particular football team and I would bring in sections from the sport pages of the weekend newspapers. So we would read that but then the football team started doing very badly in the premiership league and he got really annoyed and didn’t want to talk about it anymore. My youngest son is a similar age so I asked him what he liked reading. He gave me Gangsta Granny by David Walliams, one of his own books, so I brought it in for Ishmael and he just transformed. He runs down the stairs to read with me now and he really wanted to take the book home to finish it during the half term. I was so proud that he began to feel so connected with the book. He began to see that there is a world outside football − a world he hadn’t thought about or been introduced to."

It really warms my heart to read that case study and know some children are being opened up to the possibilities that await them and in case you are not familiar with Gangsta Granny here is a short clip of David Walliams himself reading an excerpt in support of the Read on. Get on. campaign.



Why don't you check out the Read on. Get on website, you can sign up for top reading tips (like I have done), make enquiries about becoming a volunteer for the program and also sign the petition.

Sign the petition NOW

Politicians need to do their bit if every child in the UK is going to be reading well by 11. That's why STC are asking all the party leaders to commit to the goal of every child leaving primary school as a confident reader by 2025. With the General Election coming up next May, now is the perfect time to ask politicians to come on board with Read On. Get On. So click that link above and add your support, it takes seconds and you can even opt out of further communication if you so wish.

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How LeapReader is helping my little Miss E

I've hinted before on the blog that Miss E finds reading incredibly hard and we have been wondering for the past few years if she has dyslexia. She is such a bright little girl and really wants to do well, learn and fit in but reading just will not click for her - d's are sounded as p's. Z's are written backwards and she tries to read right to left.

For quite some time she was so negative about her reading skills that she used to hit herself and call herself stupid and it has taken a lot of praise, reinforcement and even stern words to help her realise how clever she is and that just because she finds reading hard she is not stupid (as she suggests). It must be extra hard for her having a brother and twin sister who are both book worms and read at far beyond their years.

As a keen reader myself I do want all my children to enjoy books and of course it is a skill Miss E needs to master as best she can but I don't want it to become a chore so I have been looking for ways to make it fun for her. We did in fact find out earlier this year that Miss E does display some classic signs of dyslexia and she came up as mild risk as there are many tasks which involve fine motor skills that she excels at and this lowers her risk of dyslexia (for some reason!).

Over the last few months some of the things we have tried with Miss E that have helped have been to read together - she reads a page and then I read a page, we use a paper cut our cursor, so she just reveals one word at a time and can stay focused on that one and listening to audio books whilst following the paper version with her finger.

But the thing that seems to be making her smile, the one she is going back to time and time again and the one that made me want to cry is the LeapReader.  I better start by explaining why I wanted to cry.... as Miss E was exploring the Tangled book and playing the games after the story had been read to her, she was answering the questions with the help of the LeapReader pen and she got them all right and it congratulated and praised her and I could just tell as she turned to me with a big smile that she felt good and it had hit a chord with her that has taken me a long time to convince her of. She felt capable.

What is the LeapReader?
It is like a jumbo pen that you charge via your computer USB port and you can store audio books, trivia quizzes and music on it and is aimed at 4-8 year olds. Your child can wear headphones to listen in privacy or listen aloud but the best thing is to use the LeapReader with one of the compatible interactive books and they can decide how to listen to the story. The purple book icon reads the page to you, the yellow triangle will read the whole book and you can glide over a word for that to be read to you.  This is perfect for Miss E as she does not feel forced to read and I've watched her let the LeapReader read a page or two to her and then she will try and sound out some words and follow the written word.


The LeapReader was easy for Miss E to control herself, it took just moments to explain to her about using the home button to choose between modes and then the backward and forward button to choose what book to listen to and of course the play/ pause button too. Also being a pen like device it did not matter that Miss E is left handed and Miss M right, they could both use it with no issues.

There are literally hundreds of different downloads and books that you can purchase to use with your LeapReader and from what I understand if you had the books that worked with the older tag reader these also work with the LeapReader. The books are broken down into four series so that you can easily identify where your child is at - Get ready to read, followed by Early Reading, then Read on Your Own and Learn through Reading too.

It certainly is a system designed to help your little one learn to read (by sounding out the phonics with them), write on the special paper with mess-free ink magically appearing and develop good listening skills which also improve comprehension and imagination.

The LeapReader came with a sampler activity book which my children really enjoyed and the ability to download an audio book, music album and trivia challenge and of course the USB charging cable. The RRP is £40 but I found it for as low as £29.95 and it is available in green or lilac colour.

Setting up the LeapReader was simple. I had to charge it via the supplied cable and then install the LeapFrog connect application onto my PC or Mac, this did not take too long and it guided me through what to do. It now means I have a parent portal to be able to keep track of what progress Miss E is making and I can manage which content is current on the LeapReader and which is stored in my account.

Reviewing Tangled Interactive Book
LeapFrog have launched a book club on their Facebook page and the book of the month for August is Disney Tangled. This can be purchased for £12.99 and it is a great book, hardbacked to last and 25 pages long. The classic story is still there but it has been compacted to make it easy for the recommended 4-7 year old reading age. Although my daughters are at the oldest part of the age range it still captivated them, Miss E was nowhere near the point where she could read some of the words but Miss M could read it and enjoy it easily.

The pages are glossy and thick and feel durable and the characters look endearing and captivated my girls. It is not too samish and there is something nice to look at one every page. The text is clear and easy to read and the pages do not feel too cluttered with words, it is a good balance and I imagine if you get the book at the younger age range it will grow with your childs reading skills over the years.

On numerous pages throughout the book there are games and Miss E loved these, they were often questions which checked her comprehension of the book and at others they looked for her to use her common sense to answer a question. At the back there is a maze which times how long you took to take the right route and the twins liked to challenge each other and see who could be the fastest.

Probably the part that made Miss E laugh the most was the 'Wanted! Flynn Rider' poster. You can fill in the blanks by choosing words from a list of adjectives and then it will read it out to you and she got some really funny combinations, like Flynn's nose being green and his hair being scary. It was great to hear her laughing at something that was also helping her with her reading difficulty.

There really does seem to continually be new things to learn and explore from the book, I just figured out that if you touch the characters on the pages with the LeapReader you get to hear aloud what they are thinking, which gives a nice extra element to the story.

When you first purchase the book you will need to download the audio which accompanies it, you do this by plugging in your LeapReader to your PC and choosing the relevant book in your LeapFrog Connect application, it was easy and quick to do.

Conclusion
The girls and myself were both impressed with the LeapReader and I will definitely invest in more books. The next on the hit list is the Human Body discovery pack as the girls really enjoyed the taster page that came with their Leapreader.

Disclosure: We were sent a LeapReader and the Tangled book free of charge for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

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Scottish Friendly Children's Book Tour

Just one of our bookshelves!

Since a young age I've loved to read, I can recall going with my Mum to our small village library and choosing my books for the week as a young child.  I knew even then that reading and books were something very special. I still remember the thrill of discovering a series of books that really engaged me when I was a teenager, I had a massive thing for the Sweet Valley High series of books and loved to read what Jessica and Elizabeth were up to.

My love of reading has never lapsed and I always have a number of books on the go at once. Generally there is my bible, a non-fiction book, a Christian resource book and a 'for-fun' light fiction book. I can somehow manage to keep up with all of them and grab them and put them down and know what is where. I really do want to pass my love of reading onto my children and so far JJ and Miss M are following in my footsteps. Miss E has recently been assessed for dyslexia and you can therefore understand why she finds reading by herself more of a struggle. She does love to cosy up with me though be read to and that is enough for now.

I think any initiate that helps children to learn to love books and exposes them to the joys of reading when they might not get that opportunity normally is a great thing. That is why I was really pleased to learn about the Scottish Friendly children's book tour. This book tour takes place six times a year and takes the very best UK and international authors directly into schools across Scotland and England to inspire a love of reading, writing and illustration. It reaches on average 6,000 children every year and any school can benefit, from those with 8 children on their pupil roll right up to theatres full of 400 kids.

Marcus Sedgwick on tour

You might wonder who these authors are that go out on tour and I'm sure you would be surprised to hear that it is super popular ones like Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Rosen and Michael Morpego. You can check out which tours are upcoming on the website and I was excited to see that there is a tour down in my neck of the woods in East Sussex in June. Any schools in the Brighton and Hove area can book to have the author come to their school for a free one hour session of reading, singing, drawing, fun and daftness with Chae Strathie, the renowned picture book author. He plays guitar and harmonica and gets all the pupils (and teachers!) involved in his sessions. I think they sound like a lot of fun.

Chae Strathie, best known for Jumblebum and The Loon on the Moon

The Scottish Friendly Children's book tour has now been running for 14 years and that just goes to show what a success it is, add to that the number of awards that have been won over the years and you can tell this is a really worthwhile initiative that is making books accessible to all children, not just the privileged ones.

The book tour is run by the Scottish Book Trust, which is Scotland’s leading agency for the promotion of literature, reading and writing. The organisation works with writers, children, teachers, librarians and readers from all backgrounds to spread a love of books and reading. Despite the 'Scottish' name you'll notice from my mention of East Sussex above that England is also served by the book trust and book tour. The Scottish Book Trust site is worth checking out as there are lots of good recommendations on there for books, I particularity liked the feature about the 5 Young Adult books for Mental Health Awareness Week.

I know that my children have an author coming in to their school in the next couple of weeks and after reading about these books tours I'm sure they will have a fun and educational time with Thomas Taylor who nowadays is a published author in his own right but go back a few years and he was an illustrator and actually he illustrated the cover for the first Harry Potter book. How cool is that?

Have your children had an author come to their school?  If not, perhaps check out the Scottish Friendly Children's book tour site and send the link onto their school.

Disclosure: This is a commissioned post but the content is all true and I'm signing off now to head to bed with a good book!

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If you like what you have read and want to stay up-to-date then subscribe by email for free and receive blog posts directly to your in-box - just click the link Subscribe to Mummy From The Heart... by Email or perhaps you like to keep all your blog reading in one place, if that is the case you can follow me on BlogLovin too!

#R2BC - Wk 31 - Great Books

<center><a href="http://mdplife.blogspot.com/search/label/reasons%20to%20be%20cheerful"><img width="150" alt="Reasons to be Cheerful at Mummy from the Heart" src="http://i902.photobucket.com/albums/ac230/RebaMc/reasonstobecheerfulv2-1.jpg" height="150" /></a></center> 
Morning, I am early this week?  Do you like it, shall I change the time to earlier on a Thursday?

A different take on my Reasons to be Cheerful (#R2BC) today!  One of the things that has been making me really happy recently is doing some good reading, so here are 3 books that I have recently read that I would recommend.

Remember Me?  by Sophie Kinsella

Lexi wakes up in a hospital bed after a car accident, thinking it’s 2004 and she’s a twenty-five-year old with crooked teeth and a disastrous love life.But, to her disbelief, she learns it’s actually 2007 – she’s twenty-eight, her teeth are straight, she’s the boss of her department – and she’s married! To a good-looking millionaire! How on earth did she land the dream life??!

She can’t believe her luck – especially when she sees her stunning new home. She’s sure she’ll have a fantastic marriage once she gets to know her husband again. He’s drawn up a ‘manual of our marriage’, which should help.

But as she learns more about her new self, chinks start to appear in the perfect life. All her old colleagues hate her. A rival is after her job. Then a dishevelled, sexy guy turns up… and lands a new bombshell.

What the **** happened to her? Will she ever remember? And what will happen if she does?

This book took me no time at all to plough through, it was fabulous.  The kind of read that requires no mental energy, perfect after a busy day.  It would make a great summer beach read, if you have that luxury available to you.  Chick lit at it's best!

The Beach Cafe by Lucy Diamond 

Evie Flynn has always been the black sheep of her family - a dreamer and a drifter, unlike her over-achieving elder sisters. She's tried making a name for herself as an actress, a photographer and a singer, but nothing has ever worked out. Now she's stuck in temp hell, with a sensible, pension-planning boyfriend. Somehow life seems to be passing her by. Then her beloved aunt Jo dies suddenly in a car crash, leaving Evie an unusual legacy - her precious beach cafe in Cornwall. Determined to make a success of something for the first time in her life, Evie heads off to Cornwall to get the cafe and her life back on track - and gets more than she bargained for, both in work and in love...

This one I finished just a couple of days ago and it was one of those books that I did not want to finish, I am ready for the next installment in the life of Evie....  I want to know what happens next!  Another winner with me, chick lit again.  Go on shoot me I have been doing some chilling out and enjoying a good book which does not require much of me.

Grace for the Moment Daily Bible by God (lol).  Daily devotionals by Max Lucado

A completely different choice here. I  posted recently about how I had got out of the habit of reading my bible daily, so I have reinstalled that discipline. The bible is the bible, yes you can get many different versions and they have slight changes in language but fundamentally the information is the same and you have to accept the fact (well I believe) that parts of it are completely boring! This bible is NCV, New Century Version and I do like it as the language is modern but the meaning does not tend to be changed so it reads authentically and easily.

This book breaks the bible down in 365 parts so that you can read between 3 - 6 pages a day and complete the bible in a year, I have done this a couple of times already and like I say I have started again now.  Each day there is a part from the Old Testament, Proverbs, Psalms and the New Testament. This particular book has a short devotional each day written by the acclaimed Christian author Max Lucado and these parts are always the calm in my storm - beautiful!

Over to you, what is making you cheery this week? If you are new to Reasons to be Cheerful, then check out HERE and then link up a cheery/ gratitude post from the last week.

Thanks for joining in, leave me some comment love. Visit others and leave them some comment love and don't forget to tweet with #R2BC. I will come and visit you and reciprocate.

So what about you?  Any good recommendations for me?  Do leave me a comment if so, I intend to do some good reading over this summer period.





Guest Posting!
Just in case you have scrolled this far and you are still reading! I guest posted on Wednesday 3rd August.  This is not something I do that often but when fellow twin mummy Kerry put a plea out on twitter, I had to respond.  If you fancy reading about the first family holiday we took when my twinnies were a mere 6 weeks then head over to Multiple Mummy on Wednesday or beyond!  Cheers, Mich x