I have a passion for reading, it has been, and always will be my means of escapism, from the age of 6 I remember reading proper books, in fact I remember very clearly doing a class read of William Tell and having to stand up to read, I was a shy child but took pride in my reading ability. Reading has taken me to far off continents, I have travelled by ship, aeroplane and even in a hot air balloon, all whilst sitting in the comfort of my arm-chair. The need for children to read is as great today as it was when I was a child, so if I can spark a child’s imagination with a story then that is what I will do. A couple of weeks ago the children I work with asked for their home time story to be a Horrid Henry book, one we had read a couple of times before, so I got comfortable on the sofa with 2 children on my lap and one laid on the bean bags beside me, I opened the book and was about to start reading when all of a sudden a little voice started to read it instead, I sat back and was both thrilled and amazed, he continued with some help on the more difficult words until he got about half way through then asked if I would continue, which I did, when I had finished I gave him lots of praise and told him how proud I was of him, you may think what is she making such a fuss for? Well he is 7 years of age and up until now he hasn’t seen the need to learn to read, yes he could but would lose patience very quickly, also his dad is unable to read and kept telling him he didn’t need to, “look where I have got,” was his continual reply, so yes I was very proud that he had taken on board me continually saying to him about the places I have been all from the comfort of my arm-chair!
If you give a child positive life experiences then life will be positive, give them negative life experiences and life will be negative.
Me today.
pud227 