If you have a primary school aged child, you have probably heard of the extreme reading challenge. You take a photo of your child reading in an extreme place, and the school hold a competition to find the pupil who has the most extreme reading photo.
One of the biggest challenges for parents (and teachers!) is to make reading enjoyable for children. The National Literacy Trust found that an enjoyment of reading from an early age helps to encourage a lifelong love for reading.
Reading is such an important aspect of education, and essential for success. Reading competitions like this are fantastic, even the most reluctant of readers are usually happy to enter a competition, and it gives them the incentive to open a book.
Reading for entertainment
When I was a child I spent hours reading for enjoyment, getting lost adventures with the Famous Five or Secret Seven. I think part of the reason for my enjoyment of reading was entertainment. I was raised by my religious grandparents and had limited social contact with other children except my family outside of school/Sunday school.
I grew up when there were only 5 channels on TV and few video games. I remember that once the children’s TV shows ended with ‘Newsround’ at 5pm, the rest of the evening needed to be filled, and so I immersed myself in adventure.
Times have changed and our children have access to limitless video games and TV on demand. The advances in technology are amazing. but as a parent its important to me to find a good balance. I want our children to embrace technology and all that it offers, but still lead a balanced life. I want them to embrace our time together as a family, and find enjoyment in other things such as reading.
Our Extreme Reading Photos
We found that we carried our books around a lot more during the extreme reading challenge, so they could be on hand should an extreme photo opportunity arise. The children choose to take an extreme reading photo whilst sitting in the ruins at fountains abbey.
Our photos don’t look very extreme, but they were really high up!
Have you done any extreme reading recently? I would love to see your photos! You can share to Instagram, hashtag #extremereadingchallenge and tag @simplethingsme
Hannah xx