Ok, I think we’re all fed up with all of the bad news flying around. What about hearing some good news for a change?

Well, here it is. 

All children based in England will be able to access a range of books for free online during the time in which schools are closed.

Internet classroom Oak National Academy has created an online library. They set this up after schools were transitioned to remote learning until February half term.

The Academy was actually created last year April 2020 in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Over 40 teachers got together with other leading education organisations and decided to join forces and pool their efforts to support schools and keep children learning.

Oak National Academy is part of the Reach Foundation, registered charity 1129683.

The main aim is to increase young readers’ access to audiobooks and ebooks, especially those that are disadvantaged. For that reason, they’ll provide a book a week from its author of the week.

Even though Oak is a charity it is funded by the Department of Education and since it was set up has provided over 28million lessons since the start of term. In the last two weeks alone over 4.1million students have accessed its resources.

Matt Hood, principal of Oak National Academy, said: "It's incredible to be able to add to our offer something vital for children's literacy and their mental wellbeing."

Bear in mind that most schools and libraries are closed. A valuable resource like this is essential.

Snippet from: - The Importance of Reading to Your Child

The Importance of Reading to Your Child

What’s that very popular saying? “You’ll never get those years back.”

For many parents, this quote will probably be ringing in their ears every time they find out something new about the child or children.

There are many parents that miss their child's first steps or when they mumble their first words.

Even though you may miss out on those important moments, you can always make up for it by finding the time to read to your child.

Not only is this fantastic bonding for both of you, but it also means you feel like you are somewhat involved in their life.

Start Young

We don’t think of a 3-6-month-old taking notice of books, do we?

However, even at this age a young baby is taking in the scenery, listening to the sound of your voice and able to point to different objects.

If you start drawing attention to different pictures and associating different words to match those pictures and real-world objects, very soon your child will start to understand the importance of language.

Believe it or not, children start to recognise the sound of language long before they notice printed words on a page.

By reading out loud to them (even at such a young age) starts to stimulate their imagination and gives them a better understanding of the world around them.

If you do this continuously, they will start to develop an understanding of language and also learn how to listen.

With the melody and rhythm of language, it starts to become such a big part of their life that in time, learning to read will be as natural as them learning how to crawl and then walk.

Even when your children learn to read, it’s still important to continue reading to them out loud together.

Be sure to pick a book that they like and stokes their interest.

Also, if you continue to expand the different ranges of topics and some words beyond their reading level you can help improve their understanding of more complex words, thus motivating them to improve their reading skills.

It’s Part of Life

By reading to your child at least once a day at a regularly scheduled time they start to get used to you reading to them and will look forward to it.

Even if you skip a few days, don’t worry too much. It’s so easy to fall back into a schedule with children. The idea is to read to them as much as you can.

If you have more than one child, try to read to them exclusively (especially if they are more than 2 years apart). With that said, it all depends on the circumstances and where you are reading to them.

If it is the last thing at night, then independently is better, whereas after they have just finished lunch or dinner, it might be more convenient to read to them at the same time.

The key is to keep varying the books and content from time to time.

Most children enjoy multiples of different stories even if they are complex storylines. This encourages questions and stimulates problem-solving abilities.