Easter - Chocolate v Reading Books, ‘To Be Or Not To Be’?

As Easter approaches, most shops are stocked up on chocolates branded as Easter eggs and bunnies. If you take a snapshot of most homes (with or without children), you’re likely to be presented with boxes and baskets of Easter chocolates in a variety of designs, sizes and colours.

Research figures from the National Child Measurement Programme which assesses the height and weight of primary children in England indicate that “obesity prevalence among four and five-year-olds in reception classes rose from 9.9% in 2019-20 to 14.4% in 2020-21. In 2006-07 - the earliest year for which comparable data is available for this age group - obesity rates stood at 9.9%.

Among Year 6 pupils, who are aged 10 and 11, obesity prevalence increased from 21.0% in 2019-20 to 25.5% in 2020-21. The earliest comparable figures for this age group are from 2009-10, when obesity prevalence was 18.7%.

A great number of children are struggling with healthy eating and obesity and so, even though we don’t want to deny them a few bites of Easter eggs, we must take care to not over-indulge them as well. This Easter, we can find ways of cutting down on the ‘eggs and bunnies’ and introduce gift items such as reading oriented materials to our children without compromising their health.

1. Buy books, some ‘comics’ and less chocolates.

2. Search for local book activities to join, take part in a reading challenge, a story competition or a poetry recital- they nurture imagination and build reading interest.

3. Motivation – Many famous Children’s authors didn't like reading as children. A few may argue that they were not good readers, and some may say they didn’t have adults who encouraged them. As parents we should constantly make time and seek to be the inspiration our children require for those early reading steps. Michael Morpurgo often spoke about how it was his mother’s reading to them at bedtime that energised him. It’s not too late to start!

4. Register with a library, get books from your school –

5. Use technology wisely – This is 2024 and I must say that technology has really come to stay! The world some of us grew up in is completely different from the one we are having to bring up our children in today! Whether we like it or not, we’re in an era where technology is undergirding our very existence, so our children should be taught to use technology as an interface rather than an interference.

We’ve long known that a love of reading and writing can help children flourish at school and go on to succeed at work and other ventures in life. But now, according to ‘The National Literacy Trust’ reading and writing for enjoyment can also play a vital role in helping children lead happy and healthy lives. In 2018, their research found: Children who are the most engaged with literacy are three times more likely to have higher levels of mental wellbeing than children who are the least engaged (39.4% vs 11.8% Clark & Teravainen-Goff, 2018).

In their most recent Annual Literacy Survey, they asked children and young people aged 8 to 18 to reflect on the reasons why they read - 3 in 5 (59.4%) children and young people reported that reading helped them relax. Nearly 1 in 2 (46.0%) said reading made them feel happy, 3 in 10 said reading made them feel more confident (29.8%) or helped them deal with problems (27.3%).

Children learn best from role modelling, so why not make healthy changes together as a family?

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." - Dr. Seuss