A Matter of Choice

There are many things that I imagined I would do (or not do) when I had children and in most cases it turns out that I was completely wrong - providing fresh home cooked meals every day, no junk food, limited tv and technology time, educational arts and crafts etc but one thing I was right about was the fact I would read to my children and try and encourage a love of books in them. As a child I absolutely loved visiting the local library, and spent many hours there choosing hundreds of books over the years. I remember the excitement of becoming old enough to get an adult card and suddenly being able to take out 9 books at a time.  I think they actually let me get one early as I used to go through the books so fast! When Leo was just a couple of months old I took him to a Baby Bounce and Rhyme time at the library, and although he was way to young to appreciate it I know it is something I would have continued, and I'm sure we would have been regular borrowers of children...

Books and reading have always been a big part of my life, some of my earliest memories are sitting on my Mum's lap reading books together. As a pre-schooler I would insist on Mum reading the same books to me again and again, much like my boys to do me (and her!) now.  Often after I had dragged her out of bed at sunrise and run her ragged all day she would be struggling to stay awake once snuggled up reading books to me, her eyes would droop and I'd complain that she was reading my well loved stories wrong! My Dad is also an avid reader too, and our house was always full of books. I also loved our frequent library trips which continued until I could drive when I would go by myself after work. I can picture the library as well as I can my childhood bedroom and I have fond memories of how we would split up as soon as we entered and find each other later on at the desk with an armful of books each.  There was one book Mum and I regularly read, I can't remember the name...

I've lost count how many times I've recommended the Reading Eggs website to people since discovering it 2 years ago but just in case you're not one of those people, I'm going to do it again! Reading Eggs, I thought would be a great assets in helping Leo not only develop a love of books but also to read English seeing as he won't be learning English at school for a year or two yet.  At the age of three he loved to play on my laptop, usually on the Thomas the Tank engine website but I introduced him to Reading Eggs using a free trial offer.    He loved it and over a long period of time merrily worked his way up to lesson 120, pretty much abandoning poor old Thomas and sticking to this instead! Now it amazes me to hear him reading, books, adverts, you name it he's giving it a very good shot and usually figures it out.  He still loves Reading Eggs as there is so much to do on the site, and it doesn't feel like learning - the only problem being was having...

It's been a very long time since I joined in with Kate's Listography but I couldn't resist at the mention of books. I couldn't even begin to tell you how many books I've read and I have so many favourites but these are these ones which are the most memorable to me. The 'Little House' series - Laura Ingalls Wilder After reading Little House on the Praire at school, and then finding 'These Happy Golden Years at the library I was totally hooked on the story of Laura and her family.  Eventually I owned the whole set and read and re-read them for many years. I can't remember how old I was when I got rid of them but I dearly wish I'd kept them all now. Flowers In the Attic - Virginia Andrews This was the first time I realised how you (usually) ruin a very good book with a bad film.  I loved Flowers in the Attic and the rest of the series, but I sat in disbelief at the film - it wasn't even the same ending! I went on to read almost every...

Ever since Leo started using the Reading Eggs website  (an online world where children learn to read) back in September of last year it has remained one of his favourite activities, he even abandoned the Thomas and Friends website for it, and last week he has completed lesson 120! Too busy looking at his certificate to look at the camera! We usually did the lessons together as he found it a lot more fun that way, I doubt he would have finished them in that time on his own especially as they got harder towards the end, but he has amazed me with how well he has done considering he is only 3 still! I would now say that thanks to Reading Eggs, Leo can actually read - for a while I thought he was maybe just remembering the words of stories we have read many times but he's reading things everywhere, on signs, packets, from the television and is quite happy to try and work out what a word says by sounding it out if he doesn't recognise it. The main ...

Our family have always had a big love of reading and a house full of books, my Mum taught me to read before I stared school and Leo has also caught the reading bug.  He has had his own books and been read to from a very early age - in fact I often read out loud to him from whatever I was reading at the time when he was only few weeks old (it was the only time I got to read and he used to sit happily on my lap and listen) I'd heard many English parents here in Cyprus worry about their child's English and end up getting private tuition for them as they progress through school to keep them up to speed in case they have to go back to England to study at any point.  It concerned  me that there was going to be an extra thing to worry about, but I thought with the wealth of information and resources available surely we'd be able to do it ourselves? I know that it's often said parents should leave teaching to the teachers, in case we teach them 'wrong'. (In fact my...

Reading has always been my passion and barely a day would go by without me spending at least a small part of it stuck into a book, well in the good old days before the distractions of the internet that is! Aaron is also a very avid reader and we've spent many days over the years reading in silence next to each other. I can't remember a time when I didn't love books, my Mum likes to tell me how I used to tell her off for falling asleep whilst reading to me as I'd know when she got the words wrong.... much like a certain little man does to me these days.  Our house was full of books and I regularly visited the library with my Dad which was hugely exciting... FREE books, what more could you ask for especially as I wanted to read everything, more than I could ever manage to buy! I spotted on another blog  a prompt to share 'my three books' one each from Childhood, Adulthood and Parenthood which got me thinking of my lifetime favourites so far.  I have ...