Journal 62

[Courtenay]

Gosh, yes, my sister and I both learned to read well before we started school, simply from having our parents read to us every day. Of course some children have genuine difficulties with reading and need more help, which is fair enough, but going by how many others in this discussion are saying they and/or their children and grandchildren learned to read before starting school, it can't be that uncommon an ability. I suspect it has a lot to do with whether the parents are also avid readers and read to the children from a young age and instil a natural enjoyment in them.

Maybe it's also not a coincidence that most of us here who learned to read at an early age were brought up on regular doses of Enid Blyton?

[Chrissie777]

Seriously, I'm shocked at the thought that an average 7-year-old wouldn't be able to read something at the level of Noddy or Amelia Jane. I know I was certainly reading the Famous Five and the Five Find-Outers (and many other books) independently by the time I was 7, as was my older sister when she was that age.

I suppose you'd be shocked by the German education system then. I started school when I was 7 years old, and I lernt to read then. When I was 8 I struggled to read "Das Schiff der Abenteuer" (Ship of adventure), it was the first or second book I got as a present when I was able to read.

Way back in the early 1960's Germany school started either at 6 years or at 7 years depending on the county. I was lucky and went to school in Bavaria when I was 6 and learned reading, but then we moved away to Lake Constance and in Baden-Wuerttemberg school didn't start before I turned 7, so I had one long summer where I was able to enjoy spare time with reading Pixi books or playing with my new friends in the neighborhood. Both of my parents were avid readers, so I wanted to read from an early age on.

Unfortunately the children's books that I received as birthday or Christmas presents were rather tame and educational with the exception of "Robinson Crusoe" and "Tom Sawyer"...which fortunately changed after I turned 10 and found a new friend at school (we had now moved from Lake Constance to the north of Germany, to Braunschweig). Katti's brothers lent me their old FF books.
A whole new, adventurous world opened up for my imagination.
I envied the British children for living in a beautiful country with lots of caves and castles.

The only other adventurous children's books that I remember from that time were those of Norman Dale and of course Kalle Blomquist aka Bill Bergson by Swedish children's books author Astrid Lindgren.
Looking back I'm rather amazed that I got into reading books at home BEFORE I turned 10. But I read those pretty boring children's books nevertheless. The offer at the library was a bit better than my slowly growing children's books collection at home, even though EB was banned from the Braunschweig library.

Also I believe way back then (without the Internet) it was close to impossible to get used children's books, so I could only get newly published books from the bookstores for birthdays/Christmas.
If I discovered a really good book from the library like "The Saturdays" by Elizabeth Enright or "Poosie" by Ruth Hoffmann which was no longer in print, I could only re-read them as long as the library held on to these books.

[Rob Houghton]

One of the books I definitely remember learning to read at a very early age - possibly preschool or just after I started at 4 (I never attended nursery school by the way) - was 'Fox In Socks' by Dr Zeuss. I remember borrowing it from the local library, and for a while I was hooked on Dr Zuess books, but Fox In Socks was always the number One for me! It is a book that's such fun to read that reading is made an instant pleasure!

I love Enid's descriptions of the daffodils - splashes of sunshine tied onto a long green stalk'!

I also agree about the various varieties of daffodils - even more now than when Enid was writing, I should think. Modern varieties also don't smell the same! I like my daffodils to be 'yellow, yellow, yellow' too!

[Chrissie777]

But many children nowadays can't read that well at 7 or 8.

And many of them can't spell correctly.

[Rob Houghton]

I'm still pretty bad at spelling now, despite having an English degree, lol!

[sixret]

Most of us here love books and/or reading instilled by our parents and/or teachers. Otherwise, we would not have been here in the first place. But there are many people out there whose parents hadn't taught them the basic 3R.

[Chrissie777]

...whose parents hadn't taught them the basic 3R.

Sixret, I keep wondering what 3R means?

[Courtenay]

It's an old term in English for the three basics of education (slightly misspelled!) — reading, (w)riting and (a)rithmetic.

[Chrissie777]

Thanks, Courtenay, as a person whose first language was not English I would never have guessed.

[Courtenay]

Nor would I if I hadn't encountered it it a book somewhere years ago!

[Tony Summerfield]

I rather foolishly thought that this thread might have been about Journal 62, I suppose I should have known better by now!

[Rob Houghton]

I was waiting for you to say that, Tony!

[Kate Mary]

I have just read Ilsa's Anne Kirrin's Diary and thought it was very good indeed, an unusual story for the Journal perhaps but it's an excellent piece of writing, looking forward to part 2, are there any further instalments after that? Anita' s article on Tales of Long Ago has inspired me to dig out my copy, another well written piece. Likewise with my copy of The Adventure of the Strange Ruby, the pile on my bedside cabinet grows ever higher. I still have the second half of the Journal to read although I have read Tony's The Ones That Got Away. I wonder what happened to the two unpublished John Jolly manuscripts if they were ever written?

[Rob Houghton]

Must admit I haven't read much of the Journal yet...its on my table near where I sit, looking very enticing - sometimes I just like to savour anticipating reading it! That's why I haven't made much comment yet, and why I have been derailing this thread somewhat! I will definitely remedy this by reading a few more articles this week!

[Jack400]

So far I have read Robert's Adventure of the Strange Ruby- a book I've no personal knowledge of but comparing two versions was interesting. Enid's letter gave an insight into her (and her nephew's ) lives. Thank goodness for the transcript! Angela's FGTST brought back memories as I found myself utterly immersed in a book I last read as , probably, a 10 or 11 year old.

It's an old term in English for the three basics of education (slightly misspelled!) — reading, (w)riting and (a)rithmetic. :wink

:

My understanding was that it was started by a semi-literate mayor of London. He thought that the three words started with an 'r'.Knowing how much it hindered him he wanted all children to learn the " Three R's". Of course his audience had no idea what he was referring to - but decided it was a good idea and even called it by the name he had given it. I imagine that today the idea would be shelved as no-one would risk raising the topic for many years after the inevitable sarcastic laughter had died down!

Looking forward to the rest of issue 62 especially part 2 of Nick Hopkin's account of the filming of the Adventure Series. Now I recall how much I'd enjoyed part 1 - and how painfully long the wait for Journal 62 (with part 2 ) was going to be!