Peter Andre: My little son gave me grammar lesson

Pop star Peter Andre has spoken of his joy at seeing his son, Junior, learning to read - and his astonishment as the six-year-old corrected his grammar.

Junior spotted the absence of punctuation when Andre signed his birthday card, "You are the best love dad".

The singer, who today joined Mayor Boris Johnson to launch a campaign recruiting 500 volunteers to help children learn to read, said: "I was so shocked. He not only read the whole thing in front of all of us, he said, 'This doesn't make sense.'

"He only just turned six and he is correcting me. My brother said, 'Pete, you have got to give the school credit.'"

Andre endorsed the Standard's campaign to highlight London's illiteracy crisis, with one in five parents unable to read to their children. The star reads to Junior and to three-year-old daughter Princess, who are his children with ex-wife Katie Price, and to his stepson Harvey, the model's nine-year-old son.

He said that doing so has given him the confidence to write a series of children's books, the first of which is due to be published by Penguin in September.

Today's launch, at Botwell Green Library in Hayes, is in partnership with the National Literacy Trust. The aim is to recruit 360 "literacy champions" who will work one-to-one with families whose children have learning development issues, and 140 people who will take part in library story times and reading workshops.

Andre, who lives near East Grinstead, said: "The easiest thing to let a child do is watch a DVD. However, there is much more you can do for their education. It's the personal time you give to your children, by sitting there reading to them. The last thing they remember before they go to sleep is that bond between you and them."