Linus is great at reading, but I decided a few months ago that – for a few reasons – it would be good to read to him every night at bedtime and to focus on chapter books that would take weeks each to read.

For one thing, I think it’s easy to get so caught up in the technical aspects of reading – especially as you’re learning – that you fail to get immersed in the story and to use your imagination to its potential.

I also chose to do this at a time (first trimester, perhaps?) when I was having trouble coping with bedtimes at all and was getting very grumpy with the swarming children. I figured that I could commit to giving myself to one child for that time, but if I tried to be involved with all of them I’d just end up growly and it would be horrible for all concerned. (Bob is far more patient with them than me… although to be fair, I’ve usually spent the whole day with them while he’s been with them for an hour.)

Choosing books to read to Linus also extends him and opens him up to options that he either wouldn’t or couldn’t choose to read himself.

And finally, it’s always a treat to get one-on-one time with any of my children

So far we’ve read:

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
• The Story of Dr Dolittle
• one of The Famous Five

And we’ve nearly finished The Hobbit (another perk – I get to choose books I’ve been meaning to read or re-read for a while!).

Next, I’m thinking about The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but we’ll see…

Linus started reading this page out loud to me this morning. I had it open on the screen from trying to identify a bug that Ada found a couple of weeks ago.

He reads amazingly well, and there was so much for me to observe in the short time listening to him:

• I’m surprised over and over again at the words he manages almost without a hitch (like “recognisable”).
• It’s also interesting which ones he gets right but looks at me for confirmation of (like “presence”)
• He didn’t even make an attempt at the Latin insect name – perhaps the italics scared him off?
• I also found out that he read “10mm” as “ten millimetres” without any pause for thought.
• He stopped when he got to “typical” (end of second paragraph) without even trying the word and asked me to read the rest. I guess he makes it sound easy, but it’s a little tiring mentally for him still.

PS from the looks of it the bug is a manuka chafer beetle, a type of scarab beetle.

Perhaps as a follow-on from his interests in knock-knock jokes and reading voraciously, Linus is now very keen on homophones. Daddy has explained to him that homophones sound the same but have different meanings and spellings, so at random times Linus will burst out excitedly with “I’ve just found another homophone!” and tell us what it is. And he’s almost always right! *

Just as with the knock-knock jokes, Ada is keen to keep up, and has been surprisingly good at thinking up homophones with no help from us

Here’s a site with a small-but-useful diagram to explain what a homophones, homonyms, synonyms, homographs, heterographs, and heteronyms are. Long names for some very simple concepts!

* About the only exception I can think of is when told us that “train” and “chain” were homophones. It’s fascinating that – even though he can read and hear well – he thinks of these two words as sounding identical because HE can’t yet make the initial sounds different.

I’m relishing having a child (Linus) who is old enough to enjoy being read to.

In the past I’ve read him a couple of Enid Blyton’s ‘Faraway Tree’ books; Nana has read him Roald Dahl’s ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’; and we’ve all read him bits and pieces of Dahl’s ‘The Twits’.

Our latest book that we’ve just finished has been Dahl’s ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, and our current one (from the library) is Arthur Ransome’s ‘Swallows and Amazons’, as recommended by some home-educating friends of mine.

Linus’s attention span is surprising and delightful, and I only wish I had more time to read with him without two little girls – whom I love dearly, of course! – around to distract and interrupt us!

I remember my dad reading random chapters from ‘The Restaurant at the End of the Universe’ to us when we were little I look forward to sharing such diverse and adult pleasures with Linus.