Did you know England is the only developed country producing school leavers who are worse at reading than their Grandparents?
According to a recent study by the organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development adults aged 55 to 65 perform better than 16-24 year olds.
A survey by the National Literacy Trust recently revealed that fewer children read in their own time, one in five are embarrassed when caught reading a book and one in three said they only read when they had to.
These stats are very worrying and the team at Room To Grow HQ started thinking “What can we do to encourage more reading at home?”.
So they come up with a bookshare scheme, in which you are sent a book in the post and you can read it to your heart’s content for 14 days before you send it back. The book share scheme will run from November to February during which over 300 children’s books will be sent out to children from the ages of 1 to 14.
We were asked if we would like to take part and we were more than happy too.
It was quite exciting when our first book was delivered, I couldn’t wait for Ethan to finish nursery so that I could share the new book with him. We were sent Owl Babies, one I had never heard of before.
Ethan on the other hand must have known this book as he was very excited by it, and wouldn’t put it down for two whole days.
Ethan said the word ‘owl’ and it even sounded like he tried to make owl sounds whilst I read it. I have read this book front to back many times, counting the owls and nanny even introduced pointing to the words. Ethan even went looking for this book when I put hid it away.
I loved how much Ethan has enjoyed this book and how he engaged with it and us. Without taking part in this scheme I doubt I would have ever picked this book up.
I can’t wait to see which book turns up next.
What a really good idea. I think K has come on so much more since we made more of an effort to read with him. hope you enjoy the books.