Reading to a preschooler

Nate loves his bedtime stories, sometimes he will ask for five or seven books just before bedtime. This is great but I'm starting to get bored of the same books every night. I decided at the beginning of the year to start reading a chapter book for a bedtime story to Nate. 

We have started with the Chronicles of Narnia. 

Nate struggled slightly with The Magician's Nephew or at least he looked bored but after every chapter I'd ask one or two questions about what we'd just read and he'd answer them. Every night as it approached bedtime he'd ask for the story so he was obviously enjoying the book. 

We have recently moved on to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. 

Every night he has wanted another chapter and before he settles down to read he tells me about what has happened previously in the book. 

I found that letting Nate choose one picture book to read before the chapter helped him settle into listening to the chapter. We also chose a book which contained pictures so that once in a while there was something for his eyes to focus on instead of looking around the room. This also helps with the transition from reading being a very visual experience with a little listening to reading becoming a listening experience. 

Most importantly it's something we both enjoy. 

Kindle Fire HDX & Paperwhite

Last week I was invited to an event at Maggie and Rose all about the new Kindles. We had a quick demonstration of the Kindle Fire HDX and Paperwhite. I'm a little bit of a gadget geek (little is very likely an understatement) so I really enjoyed having a look and play with these e-readers.

The Paperwhite is perfect as an e-reader for a family with slightly older children (or just the adults) who can read as it has a section of achievements such as having read for 30 minutes everyday for 5 days. It also has a flashcards section where words that were looked up in a book being read are placed to later test their understanding of the words.

We however, chose to play with the Kindle Fire HDX which I think is the better choice if you have smaller (non-reading) children and want something they can explore. Nate has his own profile on the Kindle and it even say's Nate's Kindle in the top left hand corner when his profile is active. There is the option of having up to 4 child profiles on the Kindle, in managing child profile you have the option of limiting the amount of screen time they have, the apps and even the books they can access.

A new update to the Kindle Fire allows you to set Goals and to specify that the Education goal must be reached before playing with other apps. These goals can be in relation to reading or for the younger children playing with an educational app. Also included in this update is the bedtime feature, you can set the hours in which the kindle can work so it will stop working between the hours of 8pm - 8am for example.

One of the first apps downloaded for Nate was the Lego Duplo Train app which has kept Nate very busy. Thomas & Friends is another, it contains a few puzzles and the option of making it harder or easier (the same puzzle but with either 6 pieces or 12). Although I was quite disappointed that the Cbeebies Playtime app wasn't supported by the Kindle Fire HDX (but it is by the Kindle Fire).

I found setting up the children's profile quite easy, although I should mention that Nate's dad struggled as Kindle FreeTime didn't automatically stand out to him as where he would find the 'other' profiles.