The Books on My Shelves

Tackling Screen Free Week? Break Out Some Books to Pass the Time

2013-05-02T04:49:00.000-07:00

This week is Screen Free Week in the USA when families attempt to turn off the television and other screens and find some alternative entertainment for seven days.

The idea is to promote less time in front of the TV and more time doing other things indoors or out.

I'm not really against screen time as a whole, and in fact my kid has learnt a lot from television and using my iPad. In many ways I agree with Geek Mom when she writes that the conversation should be less about "screen bad - non-screen good" and more about focusing on balance in general.

But, for some it takes a push to engage in other activities so if you are using screen free week to kickstart a reduction in viewing, don't forget to include reading as part of your non-screen related activities.

This is a great time to introduce reading to young children, re-ignite the passion for books in reluctant readers and generally teach youngsters that not all characters were created by the Disney Channel.

Remind Children that Television Isn't the Only Source of Creativity.

Teach them that before he was the cuddly rotund bear on television Winnie the Pooh was a delightfully illustrated book character. That before Noddy chugged around the screen in his little car, he chugged through the pages of a book, and that before Jake and the Neverland Pirates came about, JM Barrie was imagining a wonderful world in which Peter Pan and his friends never grew up.

It is recommended that you spend at least 15 minutes a day reading with or to your young children, or encourage them to read by themselves for at least this amount of time each day. Screen free week is a great excuse to schedule time for reading which will hopefully become a habit.

Searching for Inspiration

If you are stuck on what to read, I collect lists of great books for kids on Pinterest. Visit The Books on My Shelves: Kids Edition to find some ideas. Many of the pins have themed lists while some have more than 100 suggestions. You will find everything from first picture books to chapter books for older readers.

Liked This? Try These:

Screen free week - official website
A diary of a week screen free - A Blogger and A Father
Screen free challenge - Toddler Approved
An alternative view - Geek Mom

Happy Belated Birthday Dr Seuss: In Which I Apologize For Not Liking Him

2013-03-03T04:07:00.001-08:00

Over the past few days, my Pinterest selections, my blog reader, and all kinds of other places have been inundated with pins and posts about Dr Seuss.

Eventually, intrigued by this sudden interest in activities related to a cat in a red and white striped hat, I Googled and I discovered that this week it was Dr Seuss' birthday. Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr Seuss, was born on March 2nd 1904.

His birthday, I discovered from my internet research, is also marked in the United States as a special reading day.

Now, I'm all for encouraging reading on special days or on any old day if you feel like it but I just can't bring myself to get enthusiastic about Dr Seuss.

Don't get me wrong I love rhyming books. We read plenty of them at our house. Lynley Dodd's Hairy Maclary stories about a dog that gets into mischief are among our favourites. (She's a New Zealand author so if her books haven't made it to your part of the world yet, check out the links below).

But The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham - they all elude me.

I've tried, honestly I have. We have got Dr Seuss books out of the library and I've dutifully read them. We even watched The Cat in the Hat on television and I didn't like it then either.

I can't put my finger on what it is. Maybe it's that some of the rhymes feel a little forced or maybe it's just that the rhymes come so thick and fast that I tend to gabble them and trip over my tongue half way through the book.

Whatever it is I'm sorry to say there are no Dr Seuss books adorning our bookshelves and in his birthday week I feel like I should say sorry to Dr Seuss for not liking him. Millions of others do, so obviously it's not you, it's me. I'm sorry.

Is it just me? Tell me if you don't like Dr Seuss either. Or convince me why I should give him another try.

In case you want to try Dr Seuss:

Liked This? Try These:

Celebrate Dr Seuss's Birthday- ABC News
The Cat in the Hat Games - Seussville.com
Hairy Maclary - New Zealand History

A Post About International Book Giving Day: In Which I Tell You To Do Something

2013-02-11T04:06:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day - a day of love, flowers, chocolates, jewellery and......books.

Books? I hear you ask. Yes, I did say books because as well as being Valentine's Day, February 14th is also International Book Giving Day which means it is your chance to spread a little literary love.

International Book Giving Day was launched to encourage people to donate books to children to foster a love of reading at a young age. As well as donating books to individual children, people are encouraged to support charities which bring books to children who might not otherwise have books in their lives.

In my opinion reading is one of the best things you can do with a child and starting the reading habit is easy. Just pick a few simple to read, age appropriate books, find a quiet comfortable spot and start turning the pages. Books can fire children's imagination, help them learn new concepts and begin to master reading and writing skills.

Celebrating International Book Giving Day doesn't have to be hard. You could simply buy a new book for a child in your life, whether that be your own child, a grandchild, a niece or nephew or the child of a friend and make a time to read it with them. You might even like to leave a little message in the book explaining why you chose it and what you love about reading.

If your children already have plenty of books why not think about donating some of them to your local playgroup, library, doctor's waiting room or children's charity. Pick books that your children may have grown out of, but are still in good condition and make a donation. If your children are old enough you might like to involve them too and use the opportunity to discuss the importance of reading and how it is cool to give other children the opportunity to read books.

If you would like to make a longer-term contribution then think about financially supporting a charity which provides books to under-privileged children such as Books for Africa or find a local organisation which promotes reading and literacy among children in your neighbourhood and make a donation to them.

Books are a simple gift that can bring hours of joy to children, so I hope you consider getting involved. And remember - it doesn't have to be a special day to open a book, so get reading whenever you can.

How do you spread a love of reading? Do you donate books to others when you have finished reading them?

Liked This? Try These:

International Book Giving Day - Official Website
Opening Chapter: In Which I Discuss My History As a Reader - The Books of My Shelves

Opening Chapter: In Which I Discuss My History As a Reader

2013-02-10T04:03:00.000-08:00

To some people, reading is a chore but for me it is a joy. With a job, a house to look after and a busy four-year-old I don't get as much time to read as I used to, but it is still a pleasure I enjoy whenever I get the chance.

I learnt to read before I started school and I was always encouraged to enjoy and love books by my parents who were also keen readers. I worked my way through plenty of books when I was young including old favourites such as Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton. Often I would pretend I was out there with the Famous Five or wandering around the chocolate factory, escaping from the ordinary for a few hours.

As I grew older, I experimented with different books. Classics like Catch 22 and Animal Farm and books that my parents had enjoyed like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Sometimes I failed - my dad is still one of the only people I know who has actually read Lord of the Rings in its entirety and I am unlikely to join him in that feat. Likewise, I have never made it to the end of Crime and Punishment despite starting it several times. But, I tried and sometimes I think that is all that matters.

It should come as no surprise that I studied English and American Literature at university. Here again I succeeded at some and failed at others. I have a lifelong love of Chaucer and Shakespeare, I like Jane Austen and Edith Wharton, but I would rather stick pins in my eyes than ever read Moby Dick again. It may be a great work of literature, but my god I hated it.

After university I rebelled against fiction. Having spent three years studying so many books and dissecting them I was over fiction. Non-fiction was where it was at. Many people dismiss non-fiction when they talk about reading, but I believe that it doesn't really matter what you are reading as long as you are doing it. By reading non-fiction, I have learnt many useless facts, discovered more about new hobbies and learnt about the lives of famous people through biographies.

Now, I mix the two. I read whenever I have the time, which more often than not is in three page bursts. The record on my library card probably makes me look like a book schizophrenic. Some chick lit here, a little gory murder thriller there, a book about Google one week and a book about raising creative children the next but I enjoy nearly all of them.

For me reading is as much about the process as it is about the subject. It is about learning and discovering, taking yourself out of the present and in to another world for a few moments, learning more about yourself as you realise what you like and don't like when it comes to stories.

And now, I have the pleasure of reading to others. I have a son, which of course sets me on the worried mother path that because he is a boy he will hate reading and will never pick up a book unless I force him. I hope that will not happen, and so far it does not seem to be the case. He likes reading almost as much as I do and we read everything from comics and books, to recipes and street signs. He already has his own library card and we end every day with books at bedtime, many of which he can recite to me because he knows them by heart.

I am lucky that my husband is a keen reader, so my son has a great male role model when it comes to books and reading. I hope as my son grows he will continue to love reading as much as he does now and enjoy reading some of the same books I did when I was a child.

I won't, however, ever make him read Moby Dick.

So there you have it, a potted history of my reading habits.

How did you get started in reading? Do you still love to read now?