Delirium Propaganda

When my kid Conor started school 5 years ago I imagined that we would go through the same process that we had done with my older daughter, enthusiasm and excitement of finishing her first book and ready for the next. She built her vocabulary knowledge as she went and with it an understanding of how stories began, developed and came to interesting conclusions and of course alongside this so to did her willingness to write her own imaginative stories which sometimes were very long repetitive ones!! I guess many of you recognise this as perfectly normal behaviour which of course it is. Being a teacher I was pleased with how Shannon was progressing into a confident reader.

Conor on the other hand was, as you say, another kettle of fish! Homereader sessions were torture, he would slump over his book at the mere request of having to open it, cry because he couldn?t blend the sounds together in the words in front of him or just guess wildly, by checking out the pictures. Conor was oh yes what I had experienced many times in my job a ?reluctant reader!? I tried coaxing, bribing, shouting, withdrawing toys, to no avail, we did move on a little each year but I new that he was set for problems later in school with reading and writing; anyway what he did like was listening to me read to him and the whole bedtime routine that you do! As he got older we discovered Audiobooks! What a fantastic invention and the saviour, I believe, to my son?s education.

They helped him to become involved in the books, experience them himself, develop his own ideas and imagination and indeed with this a fantastic range of vocabulary. When his year 3 teacher asked me to come in one evening after school it brought tears to my eyes as she showed me a piece he had composed in class, with her as scribe, the vocabulary was amazing and structure of the plot interesting and exciting. From constant failure in literacy he and I could both see a light at the end of the tunnel.

He is about to go into Year 5 now and yes I am worried a little because the physical task of writing is still a chore but at least he has the knowledge, understanding and vocabulary to develop these skills. Audio books saved my boy from a world without books and adventures and to all those parents out there who recognise the pain and torture of a reluctant child to reading, just give it a go, It?s a great way to get them to sleep on time too as they just drift off, with adventures to discover in dreamland!!

Checkout this website for MP3 Books where you can Download Books for a whole range of adventures

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