Back to school and more dressing up!

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Now that the little ones are all back to school and the new term in is full swing (with mock exams going on this week – good luck teens!) I’ve been adding the official term dates to the calendar and have spotted another important date for your diaries – World Book Day on March 6 2014.  I am very keen on the ideas of book week and world book day because as a child I was a keen reader and have continued to enjoy reading throughout my life so I’d like to think that these educational days are helping to encourage a lifetime of reading in the next generation. I really believe that reading helps children to develop an inquiring mind and sparks their imagination in a way that watching TV simply doesn’t. Surely children painting their own pictures of the story in their minds-eye from the clues that they are reading will  lead to a whole new generation of film-makers, artists, actors, writers and influence millions more to be creative and questioning throughout their education and onwards into their working life.

So often I’ve read a book and imagined a scene in a certain way, and am delighted when I watch the film version and see my thoughts come to life – for example, when I watched the recent Chronicles of Narnia films and saw the beavers’ home from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe I became quite emotional at seeing ‘in real life’ the scene that I’d conjured up in my mind so many times as a child – it brought back memories of childhood that, although completely imagined, were very real in my mind. I hope you understand what I mean… it’s hard to explain how a scene I’ve read about and imagined as a child could become as real a memory to recall as any other experience.

Little girls book week fancy dress costumes

Anyway, I’m sure you can see how passionate I am about encouraging children to take up reading and I think that engaging them in any kind of reading activity – such as book week – will be very beneficial and encourage them to above all enjoy reading! World book day and book week always seem to creep up on parents and before you know it, it will be the night before book day and your child will be asking where their costume is – that’s right, you knew there was something you had to sort out! So I’ve been thinking ahead to the storybook costumes that your little ones can maybe wear this year and you’ll have everything organised well in advance! I love these cute costumes above – especially the little evacuee outfit and Mary Poppins – something a little bit different to the Hogwarts outfits that have been so popular over the past few years! Anyway, getting dressed up for book week and world book day will be fun for children and I really hope that many of them start to enjoy reading more as a result.

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