I don't think we are quite as sensitive as our American cousins seem to be when referring to anything resembling bodily functions. I was reading something recently where the poster referred to their dog needing a 'potty break' when they were travelling!
My OH tells me he was listening to the car radio a week or so back when a woman talking about the NHS information website, said that based on government statistics, the average reading age of adults in this country was EIGHT, for heavens sake! The website is actually pitched at an eleven year old reading age which means everything on it has to be in simple terms so people can understand it.Â
I caught a bit of that. She pointed out that the Sun newspaper was written at about an 8 year old's reading level too. It didn't really surprise me given the quality of many of the social media posts you see now
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I'm trying to remember what I would have read as an 8 year old. I remember reading all the Willard Price books back to back around that age and I was probably way ahead of my age group when it came to finding Wally.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I recall finding one of the Susan Cooper 'Dark is Rising' books in the library van that used to come around to my primary school every couple of weeks and being completely enthralled. That would have been when I was about 8. Do they still have mobile children's libraries visiting schools? Lack of access to libraries must seriously hamper development of reading - I went at my own pace with reading because I could get all the books I wanted. There was a really good library in the town as well as the mobile one at school.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”Â
By the time I was eleven I’d read everything on the shelves of the children’s section in the library in the nearest market town where we went once a fortnight ... I started reading books from the adult shelves ... then Ma happened to look at one of the books I’d chosen and was horrified and contacted the County Librarian or some such person. More books were obtained for our local library and a Young Persons’ section was established. Â
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I was always a voracious reader and read anything I could get my hands on - self taught, under the bedclothes with a torch usually, often until the early hours. I remember reading my grandfather's Readers Digest magazines when we went to visit and some of those articles were quite hair-raising! The only trouble is that I quite often mis-pronounced words (and still do sometimes) because I never heard them pronounced and couldn't ask because of reading in secret! I used to get so bored at school in English lessons because I was streets ahead of everybody else. I read fast as well and just have to read a book all the way through in one go (depending on the size of course).Â
My niece and nephew are both now in their 30's but neither is a particularly keen or proficient reader. Even when reading out bits from the likes of Facebook, they often stumble over words.
Voracious reader here too as a child but then there was no TV/telephone to distract kids when playing outside wasn't possible and when we did get a TV it was very limited both in content and by parents. Possum loves stories but not reading them tho she's slowly starting to get the bug.  Her English spelling and pronunciation can be "creative" but then she's never had formal training.Â
OH likes to read too but prefers sports. He barely manages a chapter a night before nodding off whereas I need to know what happens next.Â
Oh yes @Lizzie27 ... I remember the utter boredom in those lessons where we took turns in reading sections of a set novel out loud to the rest of the class ... Id read ahead and finished the book .... 🙄Â
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
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“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”Â
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
OH likes to read too but prefers sports. He barely manages a chapter a night before nodding off whereas I need to know what happens next.Â
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.