Get into the festive spirit with some Christmas-themed bedtime stories – perfect to snuggle up to in front of the tree, sipping hot chocolate 🙂 From wintery classics to new favourites about Father Christmas and his life in the North Pole, this reading list is suitable for all ages. Here are some classic and popular […]
It’s #ChildrensBookWeek so I thought I’d give you some ideas around reading for pleasure. Reading for pleasure is so important for children & it can benefit your child’s education, social and cognitive development, their wellbeing, and their mental health. Reading with children can help to create a love of reading for life & multiple studies […]
What is it about nursery rhymes that is so helpful to kids? A recent study has revealed half of millennial parents can’t recite many popular nursery rhymes all the way through! A tenth of millennial mums and dads do not sing lullabies at all to their little ones – because they have a ‘terrible’ singing voice […]
Today I am delighted to have Dan Freedman one of the UK’s leading football fiction writer as my guest blogger today. Dan worked at the top level of football for the last decade – writing for the FA, the Premier League and attending two World Cups – he combines his work in the game with […]
McDonald’s just might become the country’s largest children’s book publisher for the month of November ! The chain, which typically offers toys in its kids meals, will package four original children’s books carrying a nutritional message Nov. 1 through Nov. 14 with its Happy Meals, the beginning of a massive children’s book push expected to […]
There’s an alarming study out by The Literacy Trust showing a drop in the number of fathers encouraging their children to read 🙁 The study by the National Literacy Trust shows one in three dads give no reading encouragement to their children to read at all – a 30 per cent increase over the past […]
I’m delighted to have been published in Magic Town as their guest blogger, as October is dyslexia awareness month, so I have some guidance for parents whose children may be struggling with reading because of dyslexia . Have you ever studied a foreign language and been confused by the words in the textbook? Now, imagine what […]
I was talking to a lovely Dad about helping his kids to read more often and it dawned on me that our kids read a great deal from the Internet where articles are short and very often in bite sized chunks and in bullet points (and I should know as I am asked to write hundreds of […]
Today I’m delighted to be published in Magic Town the place where stories live ! This month my blog post is about My Back to School Reading Tips Here’s an excerpt from my post. “When I was a teacher, I loved story time with my students. I enjoyed sitting on the carpet with a bright, […]
As a former Deputy Head teacher I just love this little poster from The Reading Kingdom so make a committment today as the New School Term begins here in the UK to get involved in your child’s learning !
Today I’m delighted to be published in Magic Town the place where stories live ! This month my blog post was inspired by my 3 visits to the London Olympics and it got me pondering about how to use such an historic event to inspire your kids to read. Here’s the first bit of my […]
How can I encourage my kids to read more ?
As a former Deputy Head and class teacher and of course now as a writer, I am supporting the Evening Standard’s Campaign “GET LONDON READING” because being able to read empowers children and adults alike and gives people confidence, self esteem and a key life skill. Here is an uplifting article from last week’s Evening Standard. “For 20 years, […]
As a former Deputy Head teacher and class teacher for 22 years I was appalled by the latest survey by the London Evening Standard that points out that thousands of 11 year olds start their secondary school with a reading age of 7. I was interviewed on London LBC Radio this week about this shocking statistic. […]
I’ve been working in quite a few schools recently teaching my “Confidence Classes for Kids” workshop and I’ve noticed the different styles of teaching, mentoring and motivating. I was in a failing school with extremely low morale a couple of weeks ago and found myself in full “Tony Robbins” motivational style as I battled to […]
