8-year-old Aiden, who lives in Edwalton, has been on a marvellous journey with his Grandma during lockdown, socially distanced of course.
It all began one lockdown day in April when Aiden and his Grandma set up a video chat so that she could listen to him practicing some reading. At the time Aiden was a reluctant reader, only managing to read a few pages a week.
During the call, they chose a book from a boxset called “The Diary of Robin’s Toy” by Ken and Angie Lake. Aiden managed to read the entire 96-page book during that first call, his mum Victoria Shatmani said, “He was over the moon and we were equally as proud, after that he couldn’t wait to read the next book the following day.”
After a few more days of reading, Aiden decided to read “The Diary of Robin’s Travel Books” by the same authors. Each book was an amazing story about a boy and his Grandad travelling to an exciting destination, Aiden was thrilled to read these books each day until he read all 10 books!
Before the coronavirus lockdown, Aiden, a year 3 student at Edwalton Primary, often spent a great deal of time with his Grandparents going on adventures. But due to social distancing, he was unable to see them other than on video calls, but thanks to his newfound enthusiasm for reading, the family could resume their adventures together.
Together Aiden and his Grandma began a new project which they worked on for at least 3 hours a day during half term. Here is what they achieved:
- Aiden read the whole box set of 10 books (and a few others) while his Grandma made notes to ask questions on for the following day.
- They then set about researching each country that the books were based on. They wrote a fact file for each city and then researched for pictures to support their writing.
- They then continued to write more fact files for places Aiden and his Grandma had been to on holiday together (Belfast, Sydney, Kosova, New York and Beijing) this brought back happy memories.
Aiden’s mum Victoria continued, “Aiden has virtually travelled the world with his Grandma during lockdown, he has learnt so much about each country as well as reading and writing. It’s been a phenomenal adventure.
“For us it represents wonderful life memories of this long lockdown and we hope it inspires others to pick up a book and start reading. Aiden now reads every night before bed and his reading abilities have improved so much.
“It has been amazing to see the two generations sharing time together and achieving an incredible project. I am so proud of my son and grateful to my wonderful mother who has given so much time and has so much patience, love and care for her grandchildren, it’s a credit to my mum that this has been possible.”