3: Books: for when children cant read...

“What’s the best way to use books with children who are not old enough to be reading?”

Maggie Barfield and Marjory Francis, editors for materials for under fives and 5s to 7s; serious book fans answer:

The nursery leader had asked me to read a story to the children before they went to have their lunch. I selected a book I knew well, grouped the children round me on the carpet and began to read, involving them with what might happen next, using different voices for different characters, pausing to admire and examine the pictures. A few lines in, and the nursery helpers started taking a few children at a time to the bathroom; then parents started to arrive for those who did not stay to lunch. I struggled on but it was a disaster: people were chatting in the background, children were coming and going, some were trying to follow the story but were dragged off mid-way: the story – which I had seen as an important event – was being treated as a stop-gap. Just after half-way, the remaining children were taken off to their meal and story time was over. 'What,' I wondered, 'have these children learned today about I the value of books?' Books – and stories – have so much more to offer.

Opening a book is a way of entering a whole new world: the experience of language, the rhythm of words, the pattern of print on a page, the richness of vocabulary – a treasure trove of sight, sound and meaning.

Sharing a book with an individual child or a group is a calming, secure and intimate experience. It's an effective way to help children relax and rest without having a sleep! Books help children to develop their powers of observation and their ability to listen; they improve talking skills, stimulate imagination, encourage emotional development, extend the children's knowledge of the world, introduce new situations and help them get to grips with the experiences they are already facing. If that's not enough, books will form an important part of the young child's formal education, and an early love of books and ability to listen may help them move more eagerly into reading for themselves when the time comes.

Think for a moment of all the things you are teaching children when you read a book to them – many without even trying or being aware of what you are doing:

• they will see the way you hold a book and turn the pages and want to do the same
• they will start to look at the cover to get an idea of what the book is about and to use the pictures to check whether the book is the right way up
• they will discover that marks on paper carry messages and to distinguish between print and pictures
• if you point to the words as you read, they will absorb the convention that, in English, we read from left to right and top to bottom
• by watching you, they will learn that books are not toys or for colouring in or tearing up, but have a special quality of their own, and seeing you enjoying reading, will make them want to read too.

Reading a book to children doesn't have to be a passive activity – and their listening does not need to be passive either. Involve them as you tell the story: ask questions about the pictures; discuss what might happen next in the story; chat afterwards about what happened and encourage the children to tell the story back to you or to each other. Use plenty of expression as you read and make up voices for the different characters. Children can get very involved with the people and events in stories, especially when they can compare them with their own lives; a story can help children face big issues through even very simple text. After using the book together, make it available in a cosy corner where it can be examined and investigated at leisure Encourage them to retell the story to themselves and each other.

But there's more to books that we want to show our young children. Christians are often referred to as 'people of the Book', those who put the Bible at the centre of their belief, their understanding and their relationship with God. Can our pre-readers and early readers also be ‘children of the Book'? In our groups we have the great privilege of sharing the Bible with our children each week. Even if we tell the story rather than reading it, we can always show them where it comes in the Bible, thus emphasising the importance we lay on God's word.

All that has been said above about books can apply to the Bible stories we tell, and we can make available to the children good quality Bible story books. Many churches like to have a children's library. This is possible with even very limited space as our portable display unit shows.

Above all we want children to love the Bible for themselves. How can they possibly do this without access to it?

'We don't want children to look at the Bible superficially and bounce off it uninterested or unchanged. We want them to get involved in it physically, mentally and emotionally so that God can change them. With young children, this shaping of thoughts, directing of emotions and inspiring of actions will happen if we use the Bible faithfully and wholeheartedly, and encourage them to be totally caught up in it. Why? Because God will make sure his word achieves what he wants it to achieve.

'Delving into the Bible with children will mean living adventurously. Not only shall we attempt thinking, attitudes and activities that we have never tried before, but our children themselves will be giving us as much as we give them: perhaps they will bring us fresh insights and thrilling new ways of getting 'under the skin' of the Bible.'

Terry Clutterham, The Adventure Begins, SU/CPAS       Buy it online

Here’s Marjory’s suggestion for making a portable display bookshelf for your group:

You will need: a pasting table (available from decorating shops), pinboard, wood glue, nails etc, curtain wire and hooks, wood filler, paint, brushes etc

How to make:

• Remove the legs from the table. Fill in all the holes with wood filler.
• Fix two of the pieces from the legs across the inside to make ledges. You can make room for A4 books at the bottom and paperbacks at the top.
• Cut the pinboard to size and fix to one of the outsides.
• Paint inside and out. Decorate the front with the name of your group, pictures, posters etc.
• Fix curtain wires across the inside at suitable heights. It you are going to carry the display unit with books in, make sure the curtain wire will hold them securely. You may also find you need a stronger handle. It may be better to carry books separately in a box.
• Use the inside to display books for your group library. Use the pinboard for notices, the children's contributions, and your visual aids.