It's certainly one of lifes greatest and most simple of pleasures in my opinion, and one I have loved ever since childhood. Even when I was as young as 8, I remember my parents laughing about my book-loving ways and how they would never see me without my nose stuck in a book at every given opportunity.
It's something that I hope my own children will enjoy too, and so ever since Tyne was a few months old I have read a bedtime story. It started out as short picture books back then, but now Tyne & Noah enjoy their bedtime story together - we usually read two, a shorter one for Noah and a longer one for Tyne.
They have lots of favourites that we read over and over again - Room On The Broom, The Tiger Who Came To Tea, Cops & Robbers, Funny Bones, Burglar Bill, Charlie Cooks Favourite Book, Goodnight Spaceman and so on - but as the story teller, it can get a bit dull reading the same thing over and over again (I can actually recite Room On The Broom from memory now!) so I like to introduce new books every month or so.
As Tyne is getting older, I've been trying to increase the length of the stories we read - I've even been wondering about when might be the right time to introduce the Harry Potter books! - but his concentration isn't quite there yet.
I read some statistics recently that actually shocked me - did you know that on average children today can only concentrate on a book for around 30 minutes (some no longer than 10 minutes, which is much closer to where Tyne is at the moment) but yet they can spend around 53 minutes playing a computer game?
When I read this, I had to admit to myself that this was certainly true of my son - even at 4, he can certainly concentrate for longer periods of time watching YouTube videos than he can on listening to a story.
But there are certain things that can be done to help improve concentration.
Omega-3 fatty acids are known to be very important for brain health and cognition but yet the average intake of oily fish, our best dietary source of omega-3, is just 54g per week, less than half of the recommended 140g.
We've recently been introduced to Equazen - a range of supplements which are ideal for providing the Omega-3 fatty acids we're lacking and are designed to meet each individuals needs.Each capsule contains the unique Equazen combination of omega-3 and 6 fatty acids:
· 186mg EPA
· 58mg DHA and
· 20mg gamma-linolenic acid
Equazen Baby provides a balanced blend of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids for babies from six months to three years of age. You simply twist off the top of the capsule and squeeze the contents into any food or drink, making it super easy to administer.Equazen Liquid is ideal for children who don’t like swallowing pills and capsules. Available in two flavours — citrus and vanilla — these naturally sourced marine oils have been processed to remove as much fishy taste and odour as possible.
There's also Equazen Mumomega for pregnancy , Equazen chews & Equazen capsules.
New research has revealed a 64% greater improvement in reading comprehension when a child's diet was supplemented with Equazen in the first three months of the trial - even Dame Judi Dench uses Equazen to help her remember her lines when rehearsing for roles!
To find out more about the Equazen range, please visit www.equazen.co.uk
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