All this week, I've been doing work based around Robin Hood with my 5yo. I asked him what book he wanted to focus on for World Book Day and he chose Robin Hood. He has an easy reader version of the story (bought a few years ago with a gift voucher kindly sent by Formula One Autocentres as a result of one of my 'Travels With My Toddler' posts) and we read that together at the beginning of the week. We then did a series of extra-curricular activities alongside his school work. He's absolutely loved it and has done almost as much work in a week as he did in over a month on his other extra topic of Ancient Egypt.
We love Robin Hood in this house and I'm delighted that the youngest member of the family has finally come around to the idea that Robin Hood is cool. We've watched episodes of Robin of Sherwood and the Q-Pid episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and have plans to watch the Doctor Who Robin Hood episode and Disney's Robin Hood tomorrow. We've played Robin Hood games, including the brilliant Robin of Sherwood Top Trumps game created by the Nothing's Forgotten forum. He's learnt how to spell new words and practised his reading with a Robin Hood literacy game.
However, pleased as I am to have drawn in another Robin Hood fan, I'm more pleased at how much he loves reading in general. I freely admit that listening to him read is a battle for me. It's not him, it's me. I hate it and I have no patience with it. He's doing fantastically well, especially for his age, but I really struggle. It was exactly the same with his older brother. I am terrified that he will lose his love of reading because I struggle to be patient. But, so far, we've coped. One of the worst punishments I can give him is to not read his bedtime story and he will often talk about books we've read long after we've finished them. It took the 15yo a long time to learn to read and even longer to learn to enjoy it. However, he now not only reads, but is writing his own book. The 5yo has already started writing his own 'stories' and will often sit with a book 'reading' it to himself. He sees how much I like reading, although he gets cross when a book gets in the way of him having a cuddle and I get instructed to 'put your book down, Mummy.' He knows that when my friend turns up at the door, she's delivering some more reading material - although the last time she came and asked him what he thought was in the bag and asked him 'what does Mummy like best?' he did respond with 'cheese'. Now to be fair to him, this is also a true answer and he did then guess 'books' next!
We have thoroughly enjoyed our work this week and I can't wait until he can start reading books himself with ease. He's getting there and I've realised I need to stop stressing about it and just enjoy the journey with him.
