Remember “Janet and John?” Probably I’m showing my age, but when I grew up you read “Janet and John” books from Nursery school upwards. You (or your teachers) could tell what stage you were at simply by the colour of the book you were on. They were mostly about the ubiquitous “Janet and John” who led an increasingly more complicated life the older you got.
These days Children’s nurseries hope to get your babies hooked on books from a very young age. Nurseries in Essex join together with nurseries from all over the UK in helping children through what are designated “Key Stage 1” and “Key Stage 2”. The former takes the children to the age of seven and the stage 2 goes up to age 11. At Poppetts in Brentwood, Essex, the Tadpoles in Maldon and Little Halinbbury in Bishop’s Stortford, they all claim they are eager to get their charges developing pre-school reading skills and ignite a love of all things book. Nursery rhymes and poetry are also on the curriculum.
The National Reading expectations for children can be achievable if “speaking and listening”; reading and writing are all integrated. The hope is that children will learn to read fluently and take on less familiar texts with ease, tackling unfamiliar words. Similarly, the more they read aloud, the more their knowledge and understanding of punctuation and paragraphs will grow.
Every parent should be encouraged to sit with their baby or child for at least twenty minutes a day to read aloud to them. They should also get their child to read to them. From small acorns might oaks do grow