Current affairs and funny books and poems

Harry wrote some Christmas cards for his friends at French this morning, before we went out for a dentist appointment for me. We looked through the newspaper in the waiting room and the boys spotted some interesting pictures so we read a couple of short articles. I encourage Harry to take in interest in current affairs by keeping an eye out for news stories I think he would enjoy and he is usually keen to hear them. This often sparks ideas for more reading and research. I am planning to get a First News subscription sometime in the next year when he is more able to read it himself. 

At home this morning, we also read about today's Gaia star observatory launch. Harry is really interested in space and I read him the news article on the BBC website before looking at the European Space Agency website where we read an article for kids and watched some interviews with the scientists.

Peter fell asleep on the way home from French - both boys have looked exhausted all week - I think the lack of sunlight really affects them so we had an early tea with a long reading time before bed.

Harry and Peter are really enjoying these books at the moment. Peter brings me the Michael Rosen poems every morning and we are all laughing out loud at The Puddleman, which features a small boy taking his grandpa, 'collar', out for a walk on a lead to look for puddles. I found UG by Raymond Briggs at the library too yesterday. They are both written as cartoon strips, which makes an interesting change to a usual picture book.

I went to a talk by Michael Rosen last year (I made notes here) about the role of poetry in education and he encouraged everyone to make it accessible by being part of everyday reading instead of a special event. Harry and Peter definitely enjoy poetry, especially Michael Rosen's. We have another of his books with a CD for the car too. We have been making up our own rhymes today in the car, following up on our enjoyment of the book.