Reading Challenge
The girl’s are busy getting ready for an early dash to the library this morning. They are determined to get to the library for opening time in order to be the first on the “Reading Challenge” list. No pressure from the parents, they just like reading and like the library. Oh, and Rebekah in particular likes certificates and competitions! Why am I blogging this? Well, first off I’m rather proud of my girls, they are engaged with reading and use of the library in a way their father cannot comprehend (I think I have taken books out of the library once in the last seven years). But I also want to make a point about learning to read. Rebekah could read by four and a half. Ruth was reading by age nine. Both read and read and read now. Jonathan has more or less split the difference, reading at seven. This is completely normal, cbhildren just don’t adhere to averages. Unfortunately the Badman Review suggests all chidlren should eb able to read by 8. So Ruth would have been condemned as a failure under the proposed new system, and possibly returned to school, against her will and ours. So please Badman, Balls et. al. listen to the home educating families who are the experts in home education, not a load of self appointed “education experts” from schools, local authorities, and “safeguarding” organisations. If you have no idea what I’m on about, take a look around the blog. Or don’t, but do give kids a little slack if they start reading later than a mythical “normal” time.
They have just texted to say the library doesn’t open for another half an hour. Now I am imagining them camped out beside the entrance with their sleeping bags, ready to elbow out of their way anyone who dares get ahead of them. The Next sale has nothing on this!