General Chat

Ann,
I taught myself to read, before going to school, using the Beano and Dandy!!!
We moved around a lot and mum always threw out books - apart from an Enid Blyton - which I hated - hence the comics :-D
By the time I was 6, and we were living in Scotland, I could read 'The Broons' and 'Oor Wullie' annuals - they're written in a Scottish dialect

Maggie, I so agree with you about should've, should have and not should of. What is worse you even see this in newspapers and magazines. ugh!!

I taught my daughter to read before she went to school with Ladybird. (about 1964 I also taught, or tried to teach, my son in about 1971. He wasn't having any. Yet it was interesting that by the age of seven, they had both reached the same standard of reading. :-)

Interesting article about Ladybird books in the DM:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2922746/Penknives-airguns-Ladybird-books-joyous-age-elf-n-safety-forgot.html

I used to try their experiments :-D

How many others did - and do you still have your eyebrows? :-0

I bought our eldest some of the reading scheme books when she started being taught at school. They might have been Peter and Pat or something like that.

The delight on her face when she realised she could read them was priceless :-D

I think you will find that Ladybird got started in Loughboro' about 100 years ago.

If my memory serves me right, the Janet and John books, though horrifyingly sexist 'John flies his kite, see Janet, see how John flies his kite', (you're a girl, what would you want with a kite?) then 'Janet goes home to help mummy with the dinner before daddy gets home', (and John finishes flying his kite) and many of the Ladybird books didn't contract words, or perhaps I should say, did not contract words.

Therefore, those of us forced to read this excruciating stuff (that is Janet and John. Ladybird books were good) at least know should've is should have and not should of (which it sounds like), could've is could have and didn't is did not, not a word - didunt - in it's own right :-D

Dear All

Hello

Hope you are okay.

I am sorry I am a bit late returning to the post.

Thank you all very much for your replies.

I am very glad you have good memories of these lovely books.

One of the happiest sights is to watch a child learning to read.

Thank you all.


Take gentle care
With best wishes
Elizabeth, EOS
xx

I have several tucked away and remember my son enjoying them. I taught him to read from them too when he was quite young. Maybe one day I can do the same for his children

Lizx

I still have 'The Wise Robin' bought by my grandmother when I was about age 6. I loved it. You can tell because I looked after it. :-)

I have over 400 of them, back in the 90's when OH was picking up die cast vehicles from the car boot i decided that I had to have something to go for. So I chose ladybird books. They are all on a shelf specially built to size by OH.

Anne

Our children had a whole array of Ladybird books. They started on picture books, through Peter and Jane to books about what they were interested in.

We got a Ladybird book on cricket for an American friend of ours who was working with OH and wanted to know its history and rules. :-)

:-D

ladybird book :-0 :-0

Your favourite what?

I have a bin bag full in the loft
the enormous turnip was my favourite :-D :-D

Indubitably.

Ooh You Are Awful... But I Like You! Lack of grammar and spelling can indeed lead to who knows what.

BBC had a great program about Ladybird books recently
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03mp53s
which can be dug up out if iPlayer if you are good at that sort of thing. If not here is a clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDGgnJypjy0

I never quite jelled with Ladybird preferring lighter reading such as Edgar Allen Poe MR James and for practical matters Meccano Magazine and the Beano.

Failure to get up to speed with Ladybird and Janet & John could have dire consequences .....

"and now without furher ado it's back to ramblyng syd - who will now give his rendition of a popular ye olde englishe sea shanty....take it away syd....

What shall we do with the drunken nurker,
What shall we do with the drunken nurker,
What shall we do with the drunken nurker,
He’s bending his cordwangle.

Hit him in the nadgers with the bosun’s plunger,
Slap him on the grummitt with a wrought iron lunger,
Cuff him in the moolies with the Captain’s grungerrrrr....
Till his bodgers dangle.

(Kenneth Williams, Round the Horn)

Ladybird kept the impressionable youth of the UK away from this sort of thing while father larfed and mother burnt the roast beef.

Grammar and spelling are extremely important in the workplace - that is why many companies insist on qualifications such as English GCSE.
That is not said to knock those who are not so good at grammar and spelling but to highlight the importance of at least striving to teach correct English.
Dizzi, you are indeed unique and nobody would ever wish you to change.

ERROL
I'D RATHER CHILDREN READ THAN WORRY ABOUT
GRAMMAR AND SPELLING,
I KNOW YOU CAN TELL THAT BY ME,
BUT THEN I AM UNIQUE

Quite often, I use them in adult literacy lessons.

It's a shame more people don't heed the grammar and spelling!