'Books have been reintroduced to us as a family'

Rochelle is mother to Neina, 6 years old and Vincent, 2 years old. 

Rochelle first discovered Learn to Love to Read when she attended one of our talks for parents about how to help your child with reading at Franciscan Children’s Centre in Tooting given by Head of Family Programmes, Tara. Rochelle described this talk as a “game changer” for her. “I’d dropped the ball in helping my children love reading and this talk made me see how doable and fun helping your child with reading could be and how important it is for your child’s future.”

The talk really made her realise what a difference reading with your child can make. She continues: “It was so helpful to see how a love of reading had benefited Tara’s own children and see some of the activities she did with them to make reading fun.” Simple tips like trying non-fiction books with more reluctant readers worked well for her son. “Books have been reintroduced to us as a family since that talk. We went to the library again (when we hadn’t for a while) and looked for books Tara had talked about. I have the library app on my phone to reserve books and I have put books all around the house in baskets now and they love dipping into the books at any time. I even read to my child as a gentle way to wake them up in the morning. One day I was reading ‘Shark in the Park’ to my child in the playground after school and a whole group of children joined us to listen to us read.”

During the talk, Tara suggested trying to have books to hand on journeys or when waiting. 

Rochelle commented: “Today we were waiting around for an appointment and having a Humpty Dumpty book and a Mr Men book in the bag is helping keep us occupied. We also do this on the train.” 

Rochelle then attended a set of Early Years classes with Vincent at his nursery school. As part of the classes, attendees receive gifts of books and puzzles each week to use during the class and afterwards at home. Rochelle enjoyed learning about the games she could play with her child as well as building her knowledge about reading including the importance of distinguishing between different sounds in the environment before your child starts reading. 

The family also attended Learn to Love to Read’s summer reading programme. Rochelle reported that it was great to see which activities the children chose and enjoyed, and how useful it was for Neina to read to one of our reading volunteers. 

Rochelle loves sharing the knowledge and passion she now has for encouraging children to read and has even set up a community bookshelf at her housing estate. She enjoys watching the children take books to read and has noticed that other people have now started to put new books in the bookshelf for others to share. 

Her daughter Neina, is about to start reading online with a Learn to Love to Read volunteer once a week and she is really excited to get started.