So, how did we do:

• Good - we insist on reading at bedtimes which normally extends to 20+ minutes each evening.

• Bad - we didn’t maintain this same approach after the children moved into Senior School. 

• Good - we tried to model the right behaviours and regularly, ‘get caught reading’.

• Bad - we probably do not do it enough (I was certainly more guilty of this than my wife).

• Good - we have rules about phones at the dinner table and after lights out.

• Bad - we still find ourselves staring at screens when the children are around which is no doubt setting a bad example.

So, overall probably something of a mixed bag which I suspect mirrors most families.  Modelling the correct behaviours takes real discipline and we can all err at times but I think the important thing is to ensure there are at least a few instances each week when children see you picking up a book and reading.  Even if these moments need to be ‘engineered’, they still have real value in establishing a positive family approach.

What I'm Reading

For World Book Day I was asked to read, The Magician’s Nephew, by CS Lewis.  As someone who is more comfortable thumbing through a non-fiction Beevor or Hastings tome, this was a challenge but one I was up for!  The book is set in a time before Narnia, a time when magicians are experimenting with unknown powers.  The book is based initially in London where the two protagonists find they can use their uncle’s magical rings to travel to other worlds.  Needless to say, this creates upheaval and results in a new world forming, the world of Narnia.  There are more than faint connections with the Christian story of creation here but it is a wonderful, whimsical adventure story which gives birth to one of the most enduring tales of all time.  I highly recommend it to ages 9  or 10 and above.