Watch what you Say

After a day of crying for no apparent reason my son was asked 'what's wrong?'



DS: I'm worried



Me: What are you worried about?



DS: My whole life!

3 years, 11 months going on 15!

Age Branding on Children's books

(just one shelf of my son's bookcase)

If you haven't already seen the press on this Juliet Doyle gives a very good background here.

It may be very 'middle class' of me but I am against the age branding on books. I'm immersed in books 24/7 - in my 'work', reading to my 3 year old and I rarely go to sleep without dipping into a book (I sometimes have two on the go - one downstairs and one upstairs - and have been known to stay up late into the night to get to the end). My relationship with books started at an early age and it is something that I have tried to pass on to my son, cousins, god children and friends - basically if you've got a birthday coming up you are going to get a book from auntie Dougalfish!

I can see the reasons behind it - but feel the arguments against it are more valid than those for.

For a start READING age differs from actual age. Some children take longer to read than others for various reasons. A lot has already been done to ensure that children are exposed to books - at 3 my son has received 3 different book packs from BookStart, the 'library lady' is a regular at local toddler groups and nursery school make books and important part of the day. As for the 'danger' of reading books to early I was *very* popular at school when it was discovered I had a copy of Judy Blume's Forever when I was 12 - did it make me promiscuous? On the contrary I was very, very far from it.

So what are your feelings on it? - do you think that age branding will help or hinder the struggle to get children to read? do you want to be told what is suitable reading for your child? (I read a chapter of this to my son yesterday because he wanted to see what I was reading) does your child have the same reading age as his/her actual age? What does your child choose to read?