Raising Readers

Gotta Keep Reading!

2010-02-19T08:09:00.000-08:00

Babies, Brains, Nature and Nurture

2009-12-01T13:45:00.000-08:00

Here's an very interesting discussion on brain development. This is very helpful for parents to understand how they can best help their baby or children learn!

Dr. Stuart Shanker is a Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at York University and currently serving as Director of the Milton and Ethel Harris Research Initiative (MEHRI), an initiative whose goal is to build on new knowledge of the brains development, and help set children (including those with developmental disorders) on the path towards emotional and intellectual health.

Information regarding the interview:

Here's the interview with him:

There's an interesting segment regarding Teens: scroll to 0:44:0 and it goes through 0:45:30

The 3 Parts of Reading

2009-01-01T18:23:00.000-08:00

Reading has three INTEGRAL parts and all are necessary, these are not presented in any order:

Phonics
Sight Words
Contextual

Phonics are the pieces of the puzzle, the sound components that make up words. Speech alone is only 1/2 of phonics. Its the association with the spoken sounds to the letter or letter combinations which make up the written word.

When the brain (and in the case of people who were very early exposed to reading -- meaning seeing the words while being read to at a very early age, the BRAIN associates these phonetic letter combinations and many sounds for one letter -vowels- into the subconscious.)

Phonetic reading in the beginning when taught to children in a methodical way is mechanical, (this is the typical 5-6 yo) but as the brain experiences the relationships, it comes to a point when it becomes automatic and it is done lickety split. Its true that as adults after reading for a long time, we no longer use this mechanical process until we come to a contextual or unknown word.

Once a word is learned, it moves over into the sight words bank of KNOWN words.

Sight Words are words that are either memorized, learned through phonetic means or learned through a contextual process -- even if only learned as a word on a card and memorized by sight with its vocal pronunciation they are all ways in which the brain maps these words. As we are exposed to books, reading and the symbols of things, this supply of known Sight Words grows. The more we read, the larger this Sight Words Bank becomes over time. Even if the phonemic code is never directly taught, it is subliminally recorded in the brain. Eventually this phonemic coding is accessed when words are looked up in the dictionary, where we see yet another set of symbols to aid with the phonemic code to sound out the word. In the effort to learn to write the rules of spelling also come into play.

Contextual is where we guess the meaning of a word based upon the place we encounter it. The essence of the meaning is derived from the context in which it is used. We also guess the pronunciation of a word, and depending upon how many words are in our 'sound bank' we do apply some sense of phonics -- whether it is mechanically or experience taught, our brain does eventually map a phonetic code. How strong or weak it is also depends upon the amount of reading experience the learner has had. As more experience is gained then the ability to sound out new words increases.

When this happens we don't know HOW to read the word, but we typically SOUND it out phonetically with the code as our brain understands it. As we re-encounter this new unknown word, it eventually also moves into our Sight Words bank, because the meaning is applied. Eventually to pronounce it right becomes refined through the process of hearing others saying the word correctly, reading a dictionary to learn the meanings of the word and a code which describes the phonetic or correct sounds for the word. It is through this process these that Contextual words also become KNOWN and move into the Sight Words Bank.

I'm not saying that there is any ORDER of these three, with which we must learn to read. However, everyone DOES learn through these three parts of reading.

ALL THREE are needed.

Bottom line, the more practice in the process of reading, the easier and more second nature reading becomes.

In my experience, I've encountered cases where as children, adults never learned to read good until they got a good dose of being INSPIRED to read. We know that it is through being inspired one becomes motivated to overcome any obstacle in achieving a goal or means to an end.

In the case of reading, I know of adults who didn't read well at all in school and avoided all reasons to read, especially refusing to ever read out loud. But finally decided to participate in their read-alouds. By so doing their children were learning to read, but the parent found that their inability to read well diminished. It was through this process of taking their turn they discovered they became rather fluent verbal readers.

I will say that the best way to improve personal reading ability is through reading out loud! IN addition to reading books, The McGuffey Readers are also great tool -- they include instruction for elocution in reading, where the rules for emphasis are applied etc. I highly recommend them to parents to study and practice their reading -- or for students who ask for help in improving their reading!

McGuffey Third Reader is on Emphasis.
McGuffey Fourth Reader is on Articulation: Vocal, Sub-vocals and Aspirates

I'm a believer that the older a child is who is learning to read, the more mechanical it is and more effort or work it takes for the brain to learn the process. -- Its not that it can't be done, or that it has to be done earlier, but in the ideal situation, because of brain development -- it is actually more natural for the brain to learn the process of reading at around age 3 -- it is an optimum time because of the way the developing brain works.

90% of a child's brain is developed by age 5.

The synaptic activity by age 5 is 1/4th it once was at birth to age 2.5. So its in this earlier window where LESS EFFORT is required for the brain to learn the association of written word to sound through input visual, auditory and kinesthetically (verbally) and as fine motor skills develop later then written to get it from the brain back out again.

Its important to be aware that there are distinct and developmentally appropriate methods for teaching reading to babies. Do not subject children younger than age 6 to the traditional mechanical methods (used in school) when working with a very young child. Older children 6+ must learn through a mechanical process because basically what is happening is having to re-map the brain, through the existing synapses now that the brain is mostly formed, this is why many children have difficulty learning how to read, are often labeled as having a reading disability when in fact they DO NOT! To apply the process of learning to read as a blanket to all children, should be at a specific level at a certian age is like saying all children at 12 months should be walking or they're 'behind' > which is obviously an absurd belief.

The Very Young Child (birth to age 3) forms the synapses very naturally and easily. The older one is when they learn to read, the more work it takes.....and we all know the bottom line to motivate learning to read when they're older is through inspiration -- the learner MUST have the DESIRE in order to learn it.

Think of adults who DECIDE they must learn a Foreign language.

The process for learning that new language is done through a methodical and mechanical way. Think of older children who are not yet reading well, or fluently -- they MUST WANT to read, in order to be motivated to do the necessary work to learn to do so. They can and they will once they decide that the need to do so, their focus on the process is amazing once they get the VISION of the blessings of being fluent readers.

Brain pathways for reading

2009-01-01T16:13:00.000-08:00

As an educational consultant who helps parents find books for their children, the number one question I'm asked is "what can we do because our child is having such difficulty with reading?"

First of all, let me say the problems with reading are not usually a weakness or learning disability of the child, rather it points to the methods and process of how and when the child has been exposed to the reading in a relational way, specifically the written word. Before we point blame at educators, parents, or pass the problem off on a disability, lets note that the experts in the field of reading education have always said -- they all catch up around 5th or 6th grade.

Quite a generalized statement -- too bad it doesn't come with an explanation. I will attempt to explain -- This great 'mystery' of teaching reading has everything to do with the brain development of the child from birth until the day they show up in the classroom. This place in time is sometimes referred to as "The Window of Opportunity" and I will do a follow up post on specifics.

The early or late factor is actually about the types of experiences the child has with words and books long before he ever walked through the doors of a school!

So for starters, the truth is children do eventually catch up. For some it doesn't take all that long, for others it may seem to take forever, the bottom line is -- so long as they have an interest in reading.

This is all about timing. The debate goes round and round over when to formally begin to teach reading. Lets look at how the brain develops to see when the optimum time for learning to read is easier vs more difficult. Early or late, a child can and will learn to read.

Babies learn spoken language and understand it long before their ability to speak. The same is true for sign-language. But in general, no one seems to think that the written word can be understood as early, well why not?

Speech Language Pathologists will tell you that if there is obstruction of the hearing mode, it directly affects speech development. The brain wires the phonemic sounds of the native language during these crucial first 2 years of life. So if hearing or seeing are affected, then, these two channels of mapping the brain are vital to creating the infrastructure that reading depends upon.

Brain research has discovered that the neurons in the brain at birth are firing off up to 1,000 trillions of connections a second. It basically records channels to everything it gets exposed to. Heat, cold, quiet, loud, bright dark. All the senses provide the input. Seeing, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch, etc. When those things are not involved, the channels available for those tasks drop of significantly.

This process is all about the amount of time the brain synapses are exposed to the various elements of reading (there are 4 major pieces) and WHEN, (early or late) in their brain development this exposure takes place. The more frequently those passageways are used to connect useful information, (the phonemic coding, letters, sounds, and their combinations into words) this process links together into a complex neural network from which their ability to read will emerge.

Its all about exposure and repetition.

This process the brain creating this network, from which the process of learning to read comes from can done be over a short period of time (when exposed to the pieces, in a relational way early) , or can take a very long time (when this relational exposure is done later.) This depends upon when in their brain development this 'building project' is being specifically happening.

Children are born, wired for learning -- more so from birth and significantly less by age 5. Ninety percent of a 5 year old child's neural network is formed, and the synaptic activity for mapping learning activity has dropped off significantly. Learning to read later means the brain has to work through this lower synaptic activity channel. It also relates to where the brain decides to put the reading center, and the distance it is, from the language center of the brain.

If the neural network has not been exposed early to the phonemes and their relational symbols and combinations, the resulting network has to go a greater distance to connect the information.

It is therefore a process of exposure and repetition. Early exposure requires less repetition to form the process of reading fluently than late exposure, which will require more exposure and time to end up with a similar result of fluent reading.

Reading can be a playful, fun and engaging process.

What is essential to the late reader, involves the need for them to be inspired (either from outside himself or from within.) The inner drive and motivation which comes through inspiration plays a major role in being a driving force to work through any challenge. When their own personal desire to learn gets fired up, then their motivation to do the work necessary (mentally) that the subconscious brain will connect the dots. Forcing the idea that a child must read by a certain age, expecting them to perform when they just aren't really ready to do so, tends to backfire in the whole process. When they avoid, the subconscious brain will slow the process down, and causes it to take longer.

Are their playtime activities associated with connecting the dots to the pieces of reading, words and sounds together, written word and action together, etc? Most young children today are amused by the TV/Videos that do not offer much, if little of any relational meaning, most of it not at all, which delays this process significantly. (media watching is a passive brain activity, learning to read and reading is an active brain activity.)

Other factors involved was the infant talked to with regular spoken language--(rather than baby talk i.e. mispronunciations because they sound 'cute' -- ask any speech language pathologist and they can tell which families actually speak to their babies, vs those that either don't talk at all or talk incorrect spoken language, they can identify the affects of temporary hearing loss from chronic ear infections.) The vocabulary of the understood language of children is also a base from which the brain uses for phonemic cataloging.

Learning with fewer sensory wired modes, takes twice as long, or worked more frequently compared to the same time one would learning with significantly more sensory modes over a shorter period of time.

As parents, the bottom line is, we must ensure to show joy in the process of learning. Young children can learn to read naturally and easily so long as they are exposed to the linked elements in a fun, engaging and playful way.

Remember a babies work is his play. Engaging the older child in various forms of "play" with the educationally rich materials he is bound to learn to read so long as we don't treat the process as a chore. Realize the subconscious, will resist when forced to perform in a manner it is not ready to.
When the child exhibits his will to tackle a problem he can overcome it -- personal drive and motivation play a significant part in the learning curve of the older learner.

Just like learning to play a musical instrument. The earlier the exposure, physical experience with and the amount of practice with it all affect the individual's ability to learn quickly and achieve mastery.

I like to think of reading as the musical score of our spoken language.

Back To School! - Kindergarten

2008-07-31T23:04:00.000-07:00

With fall fast approaching we'll be posting Grade - by - Grade (K - 5) review one each week as a resource for Parents. Each new grade your child will enter comes with fresh challenges and with parents support rich rewards. Here's some key changes to expect and how to best support school success!

Kindergarten
Your child is entering a bold new world. While exploratory play is essential to her development, you'll probably find kindergarten is more academically rigorous than it used to be. She may explore basic science by growing plants in paper cups. Her classroom may include a computer area where she'll explore educational software. She'll learn to identify colors and basic shapes. Perhaps most importantly, her social and emotional skills will develop. You may discover over the course of the year she is better able to listen to directions.

Sample subjects:

Counting
Rhyming
Creating and replicating patterns
Recognizing basic sight words

Top 10 Ways to Raise a Lifelong Reader

2008-06-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

Read to or with your child every day, for at least 15 minutes, even when your child is old enough to read independently.
Create reading rituals. Cuddle together in the same comfortable space at the same time every day for bedtime stories; read a chapter book aloud at the breakfast table; pick out new books every time you go on vacation.
Keep a running conversation: Talk about books you are reading as you read them. Ask your child open-ended questions about the plot and the characters.
Show your child that you're a reader. Kids are more likely to grow up loving to read if they see that you enjoy it too.
Surround your child with words -- spoken and written -- from birth. Even the simplest everyday conversations build his vocabulary and sound-recognition skills. Frequent exposure to letters and print helps pre-readers learn the alphabet and recognize words by sight. Have fun with language: Sing songs, read rhymes, play word games.
Get your child a library card and make a regular date for visits to the library.
Make books available in every room of your home -- as well as your car -- so that reading can happen spontaneously.
Feed a passion: Help your child find books, magazines, or other written materials that relate to a special interest or hobby.
Limit "screen time" (TV, video games, and computer games) so that it does not cut into time better spent reading.
Writing supports reading and vice versa. Provide crayons, pens, pencils, and paper and encourage your child to write. Anything will do: letters, shopping lists, journal entries, original stories, etc.

Babies & Young Children: Sharing Books & Talking Together

2008-05-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

Sharing books with babies and young children is a great way of helping them learn to talk, and a wonderful opportunity to share a cuddle at the same time!

Babies love to communicate. They are born sociable and come into the world with a willingness to communicate and learn. Their experiences in their early years shape their future social, communication and learning skills. Books can be a great way of helping babies and their parents during this period of discovery.

Seventy-five percent of brain development occurs in the first two years of life and babies need stimulation and attention to make the most of this opportunity. This is not as daunting as it may first sound, as stimulation comes from simple, everyday activities such as talking, listening, singing and sharing books together.

A language-rich home helps a child to develop in many ways. Talking to babies helps them learn to listen and gives them the chance to respond and be listened to. Over time, their coos, babbles and smiles will move on to first words and sentences. Interaction helps this natural process along.

Storytelling and book-reading are an easy way to have regular, additional talking time. Storytelling introduces structure and language patterns that help form the building blocks for reading and writing skills. Reading aloud combines the benefits of talking, listening and storytelling within a single activity and gets parents talking regularly to young children.

Reading to children on a daily basis gives them the best start to life. It is never too early to start communicating.

Tips For Parents

If you are at home, find a quiet place and turn off the TV or radio. This will help your children to listen without distraction.
There are many talking time opportunities throughout the day and reading can be a regular part of this. Try and keep a book in your bag at all times. Reading together can help a long journey or waiting time pass quickly and enjoyably.
Your baby will recognize and enjoy the sound of your voice. At times of distress, reading can be very calming, particularly when your voice is coupled with his favorite book or character.
Be slow and clear when you read and don't be afraid to use sing-song or funny voices for characters, or for words or phrases that are repeated throughout the book. After reading a book several times, your baby will anticipate hearing the change in tone and may well show this with a smile, widening of the eyes or a wiggle.
Don't be embarrassed or shy about using different voices or tones. Your baby will be an enchanted audience.
You could use props, such as puppets or his favorite cuddly toy, to help bring the words alive and add actions to your words. It all adds to the appeal of spending talking time together.
Give your child time to respond to your chatter. This could be with a babble, arm waving or gentle finger movement. Listening shows how interested you are in hearing what he has to say and encourages him in his natural discovery of communication.
Don't put pressure on your child to name pictures or objects, but if he follows your words, praise him and say the words again.
Don't read for too long. Young children get bored easily, so little and often is best. Try regular bedtime or bathtime story sessions.
It's good to share favorite books again and again. Repetition helps children to understand and remember the language they hear.
Remember you are not teaching your child to read. You learn to talk a long time before you learn to read, and book sharing is a wonderful way to help your children's language development.

Help Your Child Remember What He Has Read

2008-03-31T09:58:00.000-07:00

Help your child retain what he reads -- a crucial skill, especially as he gets older and needs to glean important information from textbooks.

1. Have him read aloud

This forces him to go slower, which gives him more time to process what he reads. Plus, he's not only seeing the words, he's hearing them, too. You can also take turns reading aloud.

2. Provide the right kinds of books

Make sure your child gets lots of practice reading books that aren't too hard. He should recognize at least 90 percent of the words without any help. Stopping any more often than that to figure out a word makes it tough for her to focus on the overall meaning of the story.

3. Reread to build fluency

To gain meaning from text, your child needs to read quickly and smoothly -- a skill known as fluency. By the end of 2nd grade, for example, your child should be able to read 90 words a minute. Rereading familiar, simple books gives your child practice at decoding words quickly, so she'll become more fluent.

4. Talk to the teacher

If your child is struggling mightily with comprehension, he may need more help with his reading -- for example, building his vocabulary or practicing phonics skills.

5. Supplement class reading

If your child's class is studying a particular theme, look for easy-to-read books or magazines on the topic. Some prior knowledge will help him make his way through tougher classroom texts.

6. Talk about what he's reading

This "verbal processing" helps him remember and think through the themes of the book. Ask questions before, during, and after a reading session. For example:

Before: "What are you interested in about this book? What doesn't interest you?"

During: "What's going on in the book? Is it turning out the way you thought it would? What do you think will happen next?"

After: "Can you summarize the book? What did you like about it? What other books does it remind you of?

Feed Me A Story!

2008-02-28T09:24:00.000-08:00

Does It Really Matter
If I Read To My Child Every Day?

Yes, if daily reading for 30 minutes a day begins at birth, by the time the child is 5 years old, he or she has been fed roughly 900 hours of brain food!

Reduce that to just 30 minutes a week,and the child enters kindergarten with just 130 hours. The child’s hungry mind loses over 770 hours of nursery rhymes, songs, and stories.

No teacher, no matter how talented, can make up for those lost hours of mental nourishment.You want me to read to my child for 30 minutes a day. How in the world can I do that? I don’t have time!

The good news is that much of what you already do every day can be brain food. See below for good ideas on how to fit your child’s 30 minutes in every day.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, America Reads Challenge, Start Early, Finish Strong: How to Help Every Child Become a Reader. For more information, www.ed.gov/americareads.

30 minutes of
brain food everyday!

The thought of reading to your child for 30 minutes can feel overwhelming. But “reading” for infants and small children involves talking, singing, naming telling stories out loud as well as reading books. Here’s how to fit it all in:

In the morning…
Sing a good morning song to your child------------------------ 1 minute
Talk about the clothes that your child will wear----------------- 2 minutes
“Read” a thermometer to see what the temperature is -------- 1 minute
Play “This Little Piggy” while putting on socks------------------ 1 minute
Name parts of your body or things in the room ---------------- 1 minute
Read the cereal box (milk carton, etc.) at breakfast ----------- 2 minutes
Think of all the words that rhyme with “milk” or “egg” --------- 2 minutes
Read the bus schedule/school schedule to get information--- 1 minute
------------------------------------------------------------TOTAL 11 minutes

During the day…
Sing “Old MacDonald” while walking to school ---------------- 2 minutes
Read all of the store and street signs on the way to school -- 5 minutes
Bring a book to read while riding on the bus ------------------- 3 minutes
Ask your child’s teacher/caregiver to read to your child ------ 5 minutes
------------------------------------------------------------TOTAL 15 minutes

In the evening…
Read the TV Guide to find out when your shows are on ----- 1 minute
Cuddle with your child and point at the pictures in a book ---- 2 minutes
Sing a lullaby to your child at bedtime---------------------------- 1 minute
------------------------------------------------------------TOTAL 4 minutes

This gives you a total of 30 minutes of reading activities a day!

Other ideas:
• Tell your child about what it was like when you were little
• Make up a story about a bunny who loves to make friends
• Have your child “read” a book to you

Source: Annie Atwood, Middletown Even Start, Middletown, CT.

Ten Ways to Make Reading Part of Every Day

2007-12-01T10:38:00.000-08:00

1. Keep Books in Reach
Make sure there are plenty of books where your child can easily see and reach them so he can pick one up whenever he wants. Include catalogs and magazines too!

2. Drawing Time
Build up your child's ability to hold writing implements and control her use of line just by letting her draw and color.

3. Write a Story Together
Have your child draw a picture and ask her what's happening within it or what she would title her drawing. Write down the story or title at the bottom. Encourage her to draw a series of pictures and develop her sense of story. You'll also empower her with the idea she can create stories herself.

4. Meet and Greet the Library
Bring your child along on trips to the library. Make it a familiar and friendly experience and show him that there is a place where he can freely access tons of books.

5. Stop, Look, and Ask While Your Child Listens
Make sure to pause and point things out to your child while you're reading. Ask questions about stories as you read them and discuss plots and characters after you're done to develop reading comprehension skills.

6. Make Your Own Books on Tape
Tired of reading the same books again and again? Record you or your child reading those books so she can listen to them whenever she wants -- at bedtime, while playing, or in the car.

7. Label Everything
Putting signs or stickers on things around the house is a great way to connect language with concrete objects. It lets your child know that everything has a name and a word attached to it.

8. How Was Your Day?
Expand your child's sense of narrative by giving simple explanations of what happened to you during an ordinary day. Tell him of happenings and how they affected later events. Ask him to tell you about his day, too.

9. Create an Alphabet Book
Take 26 pieces of heavy paper and write one letter from the alphabet on each. Challenge your child to draw pictures of things beginning with each letter. When she's finished at least one drawing per letter, bind it together, and present her with her novel work.

10. Rhyme Time
Challenge your child to come up with simple rhymes for words like "cat" and "ball." It's a fun game you can play anywhere and builds phonemic awareness.

source unknown

Why pictures won't teach Johnny to read

2007-10-26T13:43:00.000-07:00

Why pictures won't teach Johnny to read

Posted: October 19, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

There is much puzzlement these days over why so many children can't seem to become proficient in reading. A letter in the New York Times from one Lee W. Anderson on Oct. 8 summed up the general public frustration. He wrote: "The goal of universal math and reading proficiency by 2014 may be harder to reach than the moon, which simply means that we have to get more serious about providing schools, teachers and students with the tools they need."

Curiously enough, the needed tools were available well before the progressives took control of public education in the 1930s. These educational reformers decided to change the way reading is taught in the schools. They got rid of the traditional phonetic method and adopted a new picture method known as look-say. The switch from sound to image meant that children would be taught to read by looking at each printed word as a little picture, sometimes alongside of an actual picture, instead of a group of letters standing for speech sounds. The result has been massive reading failure among American children. Indeed, by 1955 the situation was so bad that Rudolf Flesch was compelled to write his famous best-seller, "Why Johnny Can't Read."

In that book, Flesch wrote: "The teaching of reading – all over the United States, in all the schools, in all the textbooks – is totally wrong and flies in the face of all logic and common sense." He then explained how imposing an image methodology on a phonetic writing system would lead to reading failure, generally known today as dyslexia or functional illiteracy.

Back in 1973, I wrote "The New Illiterates," in which I researched the origin of the look-say method and discovered that it had been invented in 1837 by the Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, teacher of the deaf and dumb in Hartford, Conn. He juxtaposed printed words with their pictorial equivalents, which the deaf were able to memorize to some extent. He thought that this method could be adapted for use by hearing children. And so his method was adopted by Boston's primary schools, and it produced a literacy disaster. It proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that a phonetic writing system must be taught phonetically if the learner is to become a fluent, proficient reader.

Today, primary reading instruction still relies heavily on pictures as the means of training children to look at printed words. Children are still required to memorize a "sight vocabulary." And that is why we still have large numbers of children unable to achieve proficiency in reading. They are given more phonetic information than in previous years, but they are not sufficiently drilled in the letter-sound combinations so that they can acquire the needed phonetic reflex – the automatic ability to see the phonetic structure of the written word so that they can sound it out. In other words, the pictures produce a holistic or image reflex, which becomes an obstruction to seeing the word in its phonetic structure.

That is why pictures in reading instruction are harmful. Indeed, in 1983, I produced Alpha-Phonics, a reading program without pictures, which has been used by thousands of homeschoolers very successfully. The learners acquire the needed phonetic reflex, and thus become proficient, fluent readers. I proved that pictures are not necessary in learning to read.

There is another important reason why reading should be taught without pictures. Every child learns to speak his or her native language without pictures. The left side of the brain – the verbal side – contains the language-learning faculty. When children learn to read without pictures, the left side of the brain expands its language learning power. However, picture reading is a faculty of the right side of the brain, which deals with images and space. You cannot train the right brain to do the left brain's job. In fact, you create internal cognitive conflict by imposing an image methodology on a phonetic system. Thus, picture reading retards the growth of the language faculty.

The importance of the spoken word over the image cannot be exaggerated. For example, if you watch television and click on mute, you cannot understand what is going on. People are talking but you can't hear them. On the other hand, if you listen to a radio talk show without any images, you are easily engaged in what is being said. And that is why talk radio has become so successful. The message is conveyed in spoken language, not image.

Spoken language appeals to the innate logic of the human mind. The image appeals to the emotion. That is why the average listener learns more from talk radio than from watching the TV news where the appeal of the image is to the emotions and language is used to enhance the emotional impact of the image. Of course, the spoken language can be used to influence the emotions and also to convey falsehoods. But a good reader will be better equipped to discern truth from falsehood than a non-reader dependent mostly on the image.

Black children, in particular, need to be taught to read without pictures. Picture reading has largely destroyed high literacy among blacks. That is why they have such high rates of academic failure and are inclined to drop out. We don't know why sight reading is so harmful to black children; all we know is that it is. Unless we change the way reading is taught in our schools, the cognitive skills of black children will continue to be greatly damaged, with tragic consequences.

For more information about Blumenfeld's Alpha-Phonics reading program, contact him via e-mail.

This article comes from World Net Daily:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58230

Read 20 Minutes Every Day With Your Child!

2007-09-10T13:35:00.000-07:00

Learning to read is hard work for children (especially age 5 and older). Fortunately, there are things we can do to help raise good readers. Reading with a child for 20 minutes every day dramatically improves their ability to read. (Most parents do not ever read to their children!) AND the best part is you can begin from BIRTH -- never consider a child too young to begin, nor too old. Some of the greatest family bonding times can come from family read-alouds too.

Here are some simple things you can do to help create a strong reader.

Be fun and creative, animate the story by using character voices and dramatics
Ask questions as you read, so they can think beyond just the words they hear
Relate stories to your child's life, are they the same or different, what would they do, etc.
Re-read your child's favorite books, they're learning from them again and again!
Run your finger along the words as you read, this shows we read from left to right.
Let your children turn the pages, involve them in the process
Select stories that use repeated phrases. Rhymes help teach word endings and build confidence, let them finish the phrases.
Subscribe to a children's magazine and enjoy it together
Get a library card for your child. They love to check out their own books.
Ask your librarian for a recommended (age appropriate) book list.
Fill your home with books (studies have shown there is a direct correlation to adult illiteracy was connected to the number of books in their homes as children)
Be a reading role model. Why should they read, if they don't ever see you enjoying books. Share your excitement of a story you're reading.
Tell stories to your child, allow their minds to imagine the people, places, times and circumstances.
Ask them to review (narrate) the story back to you. Helps with building memory, sequencing and other valuable learning skills.
When planning a family vacation. Read books that describe the history of the destination, or stories of the different modes of travel you will take to get there. Get stories that are set in those places and then while there have the children see if they can locate any landmarks that were read about before the trip. Historical fiction is also a fun way to learn too!

adapted from a bookmark put out by the sponsors of "Read With A Child": Zion's Bank, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Bonneville International, and Governor's Literacy Commission (Utah)

Turning Boys into Readers

2007-08-04T11:54:00.000-07:00

Read, Boys, Read: Books That Turn Boys into Readers
by Dr. Pamela J. Farris and Dr. Pamela A. Nelson

Many teachers find boys losing interest in fictional stories with happily-ever-after endings. Keep your boys reading by providing what they like: fact-filled books and swashbuckling adventures.
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In first grade, Kurtis drifted away from the library bookshelves of picture books with happily-ever-after endings and chapter books about kids his age. He was drawn like a magnet to informational books about science and social studies where he could pore over photos and accompanying captions and learn “neat stuff.” Kurtis longed to know how and why things work, who did what in history and science, and what causes creatures to be the way they are. Today he is headed off to college and, while he reads novels in his free time, he still devotes a great amount of time to gleaning facts and concepts from informational books. When it comes to science and social studies, he’s a walking encyclopedia.

Boys gravitate to informational books because they want to know “just the facts.” Give them books about dinosaurs, insects, or knights, and they will become fountains of knowledge in a relatively short time. “Considering gender as one aspect of reading instruction is critical inasmuch as boys read far less than girls at all age levels” (Farris, Fuhler, and Walther, 2004, p. 491). As adults, it is estimated that 94 percent of all that we read is nonfiction, informational text. William Brozo believes that many boys are turned off by fiction books. He notes that when boys are given informational books to read during independent reading time they “shift their postures from complacency and disengagement to involvement and curiosity” (2002, p. 17). Brozo points out that, when they do read fiction, boys prefer reading text that is politically incorrect—books with lots of action and adventure plots, which may be why Harry Potter and the Red Wall series are so popular with boys.

Research indicates that when reading preferences and interests are matched with books, the depth of students’ thinking processes is enhanced and learning is internalized (Guthrie, Alao, and Rinehart, 1997). Studies also suggest that girls find it easier to lose themselves in fiction than do boys. By middle school, 85 percent of girls read for pleasure compared to only 65 percent of boys (Moffit and Wartella, 1992).

Boys' Preferences

Adventure books and coming-of-age novels about boys lure young male readers to open a book and turn the pages. Yet, swashbuckling tales are not politically correct in the classroom. Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet (1987) and its sequels depict Brian’s plight when the pilot of a small plane suffers a fatal heart attack and Brian must take over the controls. The plane crashes in a small lake in the Canadian wilderness, and Brian must learn through trial and error how to survive alone. Boys avidly read this classic book and conjure up their own resourceful ideas just as Brian does.

Whether each boy must go through a rite of passage vicariously in his reading has yet to be proven; yet it is clear that plots involving adventure and danger are much preferred over milquetoast novels or the usual selections in basal readers. But few authors are writing books meeting the adventure and danger criteria as compared with female-protagonist novels. Finding action- and drama-laden trade books and sharing them through book talks, then having a couple of copies available for classroom use, results in boys reading—and reading a lot.

Introducing Informational Books

Exposure to informational books must be guided. Students need a roadmap of what to expect. Just as we tend to point out the story structure of fiction, so too should we inform our students about the structural elements of expository, informational text. Illustrations may be actual photos, drawings, or computerized renditions. Cutaways may give a close-up view of something being studied, such as the actual size of a shark’s tooth. Captions accompanying illustrations often provide information in addition to the main text. Bold text is usually new vocabulary or terminology. Informational books follow certain organizational patterns as outlined below (Farris, Fuhler, and Walther, 2004):

• Description—The author points out specific characteristics, details, or features and provides examples for the reader. The student should look for such cue words or phrases as a number of, features are, several, types of, as an example, small (medium or large) sized, characteristics are, for instance. An example of a book for grades 4-6 is Seymour Simon’s They Swim the Seas: The Mystery of Animal Migration (1998).

• Sequence—Events are placed in an appropriate order. The student should note such key words or phrases as first, second, third, then, to begin with, later, not long after, next, at last, at the same time. For an example, see Gail Gibbons’ Chicks and Chickens (2003).

• Comparison and Contrast—The author explains how two or more things may be alike or different such as different species of the same creature in Gail Gibbons’ Spiders (1994) and Owls (2005).

Students also should realize that informational or expository books have a specific job to do. According to Carol Piazza (2002), when reading such books the students can expect the text to:

• Inform, report, or explain
• Be precise and accurate in its explanations
• Give examples to clarify concepts
• Define unfamiliar concepts and vocabulary
• Clearly differentiate between facts and opinions
• Emphasize important points
• Provide technically sound information
• Pose clear and relevant questions
• Explain and support legitimate differences in information that arise

“One simple but effective tactic to broaden the exposure to expository text and to build a schema, or cognitive foundation, for understanding it is by introducing informational books as part of the classroom read-aloud routine on a regular basis” (Farris, Fuhler, and Walther, 2004, p. 545). By reading aloud different authors from different topics you can provide different voices and topics for the children to sample on their own (Graves, 1983).

Selecting Informational Books

Limited library funding, a common situation, may lead to keeping older, outdated informational books on the shelves. If a section of a nonfiction book is inaccurate but the rest of the book is accurate, merely attach a “reader beware” sticky note on the outdated portion of the book indicating that newly discovered evidence points to other information (recent findings on dinosaurs, for instance).

Some librarians practice the “if it isn’t an inch thick, it doesn’t have enough information” measure. But many recently published picture books offer a wealth of information, often taking on just a sliver of a broader theme. For instance, Secrets of a Civil War Submarine: Solving the Mysteries of the H. L. Hunley (Walker, 2005) is an award-winning book that explains the mystery of how the first submarine to sink a ship vanished into the ocean’s depths. While hundreds of Civil War books have been written for children and young adolescents, this picture book focuses on the construction of the H. L. Hunley so students learn about ballast, hull plates, and snorkel tubes as well as the men who served on board. The book addresses a piece of folklore that a coin had stopped a minnie ball from penetrating one of the Confederate sailors during a battle. The tale was found to be true when the body and its belongings were exhumed over a hundred years later. How could any boy resist such a book?

Another recent picture book that connects science and history is The Story of Salt by Mark Kurlansky and S. D. Schindler (2006). From examining the chemical makeup of salt and the critical need for the element by humans and animals to the wars fought over it and economic trade of it, the authors tell an intriguing tale of a common kitchen substance. Boys will pore over this book, discovering that their own bodies each contain about three shakers of salt.

History as a Content Area Boys Enjoy

Most popular textbooks on children’s literature cite the value of story in teaching history. Recent research by Cathy Block (2004) indicates that engaging students with two pieces of current, award-winning literature read back-to-back increases motivation and comprehension for both strong and struggling readers. Camp (2000) and Hancock (2000) also advocate reading fiction and informational text sequentially in order to enhance comprehension. For boys in the study of history, a major portion of their interest in topics also comes from the stories that are told in film. Students’ interest in the topics, time periods, and issues are connected especially closely to the films and to the stories of the individuals who lived through those experiences. Films such as Glory, Gettysburg, and the more recent Sands of Iwo Jima deepen interest and background knowledge that send them in pursuit of more information.

A study by Pamela Nelson (2005) of fifth graders e-mailing preservice teachers as they read notable historical fiction found that the interest of the boys who were involved in the e-mail project was heightened as they read a book set during the Civil War. More recent interest in Jackie Robinson flowed from their reading and discussion of Teammates (Golenbock, 1992) and their teacher’s use of United Streaming video clips associated with Jackie Robinson.

If story is used in teaching history or science, however, teachers must urge students to approach it with knowledgeable and critical eyes. Doing so provides opportunities to gather schema or background knowledge that strengthens comprehension. It also allows students to compare and contrast fictional and informational writing styles and to explore the literary devices authors use to reach particular audiences and goals. Students may also be involved in noting the writing traits of main idea, organization, details, sentence fluency, word choice, voice, and presentation in order to detect bias and to check accuracy of interpretation.

In particular, boys tend to note details. If the teacher demonstrates the scientific method in weighing and discarding information, students will hone their own research skills. Keeping in mind that the greatest scientist never to live was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, trained not as a police officer but as a chemist, students need to refine their “research reading skills”— that is, the ability to note subtle changes in a character’s actions or mood.

Combining Literature and Primary Sources

Using literature and primary sources gives students the opportunity to see that there are indeed differences in perspectives and interpretations of the same event when it occurs and over time. Historical objects and reproduction objects bring a more complete picture of the past to the present. Maria Harris calls this anamnesis (Nelson, IRC Journal):

Anamnesis is a recalling to mind, as is all remembering. However, it is not so much a mental act as it is the actual bringing into the present—the re-membering—of a past event… at the core of anamnesis is the human capacity to take hold of an event or occurrence or person from the historical past in the present, and to allow that event, occurrence or person to take hold of oneself… [teaching] becomes a… ritual of re-membering where as teachers and learners we reenter the past and make it our own….

Museums, libraries, community agencies, and families often have photographs, memories, and objects that are related to a particular unit of study in either the sciences or the social studies (Nelson and Brady in Farris, 2004). Using such documents or artifacts creates the need to provide a context for the document or artifact being used. It is equally vital that teachers actively teach students ways to take from such documents.

This includes transcribing handwritten letters or diaries, introducing unfamiliar vocabulary, and using small portions at a time. In the case of maps, charts, and graphs, students must have the necessary skills to draw information from them. However, the power of seeing the copy of an actual document or artifact in itself lets the students know that the topic is “real.” Boys in a fifth-grade class remembered what it took the Wright brothers to be successful as developers of the airplane through the biography The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane (Freedman, 1994) as well as through seeing and holding a copy of the U.S. Patent Office drawings of the plane.

Summary

Boys seek out the nuts and bolts of informational texts and historical fiction. Facts that many girls readily discard are pounced upon by boys as though they were pure gold nuggets—memorizing them for sharing at a future date. Adventure books and coming-of-age novels with male protagonists are readily sought after if the teacher can give a motivating book talk that fires up their imaginations. Actual documents and artifacts are revered and pondered as boys gravitate toward hands-on activities. Using this knowledge we can spur boys’ interest in reading by sharing books that motivate them and, in turn, improve their comprehension.

References

Block, C. (2004). The research-base: Effects of trade book reading on student achievement. Paper Presented, International Reading Association Regional Leadership Workshop East and Great Lakes, Pittsburgh, PA, June 25-27, 2004
Brozo, W. (2002). To Be a Boy, To Be a Reader. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Camp, D. (2000). It takes two: Teaching with twin texts of fact and fiction. The Reading Teacher, 53, 400-408.
Farris, P. J., Fuhler, C.A., and Walther, M. (2004). Teaching Reading: A Balanced Approach for Today’s Classrooms. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Fuhler, C., Farris, P., and Nelson, P. (2006). Reaching across the curriculum: Opening the doorway to the past through artifacts. The Reading Teacher, 59,646-659.
Graves, D. (1983). Teachers and Writers at Work. Portsmouth, NH: Heineman.
Guthrie, J. T., Alao, S., and Rinehart, J. M. (1997). Engagement in reading for young adolescents. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 40(6), 438–446.
Guthrie, J., Wigfield, A., and Perencevich, K. 2004. Motivating Reading Comprehension. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Hancock, M. (2000). The survival of the book in a megabyte world: Children’s literature in the new millennium. Journal of Children’s Literature, 26, 8-16.
Harris, M. (1988). Women and teaching: Themes for a spirituality of pedagogy. New York: Paulist Press.
Moffitt, M. A. S., and Wartella, E. (1992). Youth and reading: A survey of leisure reading pursuits of female and male adolescents. Reading Research & Instruction, 31, 1-17.
Nelson, P. (2005). Preparing students for citizenship: Literature and primary documents. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 17: 21-29.
Nelson, P. A., and Brady, M. (2004). Social studies and the arts: From inner journeys to faraway lands. In P. J. Farris (Ed.), Elementary and Middle School Social Studies: An Interdisciplinary, Multicultural Approach, pp. 510-554. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Piazza, C. (2002). Journeys: The Teaching of Writing in Elementary Classrooms. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Children’s and Young Adult Books

Freedman, Russell. (1994). The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane. New York: Holiday House.
Gibbons, Gail. (2003). Chicks and Chickens. New York: Holiday House.
Gibbons, Gail. (1994). Spiders. New York: Holiday House.
Gibbons, Gail. (2005). Owls. New York: Holiday House.
Golenbock, Peter. (1992). Teammates. New York: Voyager.
Kurlansky, M., and Schindler, S. D. (2006). The Story of Salt. New York: Putnam.
Paulsen, Gary. (1987). Hatchet. New York: Atheneum.
Simon, Seymour, and Elsa Warnick. (1998). They Swim the Seas: The Mystery of Animal Migration. San Diego: Browndeer Press.
Walker, Sally. (2005). Secrets Of A Civil War Submarine: Solving the Mysteries of the H. L. Hunley. Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda Books.

Lists of Award-Winning Books

The Carter G. Woodson Award and Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, featured each year in the May-June volume of Social Education, are excellent sources of high quality, content-accurate literature for students. Recognized books are drawn from all genres—poetry, nonfiction, fiction, historical fiction, and picture books. The National Science Teachers Association also identifies and recognizes children’s and young adult literature that present science content accurately and skillfully. That list appears in Science and Children annually. Another source, which consists only of informational books, is the list of Orbis Pictus Award and honor books identified by the National Council of the Teachers of English. These are published by the Council in the November volume of Language Arts. They include nonfiction books of science and social studies content. Finally, the American Library Association recognizes high-quality nonfiction books through its Siebert Award which is found on the American Library Association website.

The books on all of these award lists offer a wide range of readability levels on a variety of topics. Books that are recognized as winners and honor books meet stringent content and literary criteria. The books are reader-friendly in terms of text structure and text features which boys identify as being important. Books that are honored by these professional organizations also include experiences and views of diverse groups, which offer insider perspectives. All of the award groups have recognized that persons of color, persons with physical and emotional handicaps, and the elderly and very young have often been marginalized in terms of their place in informational books. The committees also look for materials that present fresh interpretations or perspectives of events, concepts, or individuals.

Motivating Students to Read

If students are reluctant to dive into informational text, create a climate of mystery and intrigue in your instruction by wrapping up a picture book on the topic to be covered along with four or five copies of an appropriate historical or scientific novel. Present an authentic or recreated artifact from the period or a recreated one for students to examine and discuss. Where would you expect to find it? In what time period? Who would likely use the object? Finally have the students take turns reading the picture book as a group, stopping from time to time to discuss it. Then they can open the package of novels and begin reading the title as a book club (Fuhler, Farris, and Nelson, 2006).

Dr. Pamela J. Farris is a former elementary teacher. She’s the author of several books including Teaching Reading, Language Arts, and Elementary/Middle School Social Studies as well as over 175 journal articles. Dr. Farris served as distinguished teaching professor in the Department of Literacy Education, Northern Illinois University.

Dr. Pamela A. Nelson is a former elementary teacher. She’s the author of several articles on children’s literature and social studies. Dr. Nelson is an assistant professor in the Department of Literacy Education, Northern Illinois University, where she teaches children’s literature and language arts and serves as director of the Children’s Literature Collection.

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Source: Today's Catholic Teacher, January/February 2007

Writing Through the Summer

2007-07-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

9 Ways to Keep Your Child's Brain Focused (K-5)

by Nereida Llonch

SUMMER!

Those six letters mean the world to children who have just spent the last nine months behind a desk. But while kids are building forts, catching lightning bugs, and eating ice cream, parents can squeeze in some brain-boosting to help them prepare for the next school year. At a young age, children often develop the idea that writing is something to be done only at school. Nothing is further from the truth. Here are nine ways to help your child realize writing can be not only fun, but inspiring!

Travel journal: As you travel, have your child draw or photograph his favorite people or places and keep brief written notes. Photos and descriptions can be about a place, person, or event. Display the finished work at home as your child's first book!

Observation log: Before you go to the pool, park, or zoo, ask your child to observe something in particular: leaves, insects, trees, clouds, birds, etc. As with the travel journal, have him record his observations with drawings and a brief description. Once the topic has been exhausted, turn the page and begin a new topic.

Local newspapers: Check out your community newspaper and search for the children's section. Have your child submit a writing piece or drawing with a short script. Remember to cut out the published piece and put it in the album! If your newspaper doesn't have a children's section, have your child write to the paper and suggest the addition.

Treasure hunt scrapbook: Take your child's favorite things--airplanes, cars, coins, etc.-- and make a game. Have your child search for pictures and articles about their hobby in magazines, newspapers, online, and at the library. Paste the pictures and articles into a scrapbook!

Rainy-day fun: Have your child select a letter of the alphabet in the morning. Throughout the day, collect words that begin with this letter. Older children can select a theme or topic and list all of the related words. Offer an incentive for the most words collected or have a friendly competition! For more rainy-day ideas, pick up Zany Rainy Days by Hallie Warshaw.

Writing online: Some Web sites offer story starters on a weekly basis and then randomly select pieces to feature on the Web. Some sites, such as Global Story Train, will allow your child to write the first, second, or last chapter of a story that has been worked on by other children from around the world. Journal writing has also become a popular pastime for children. Sylvan Learning Center offers free writing journals at www.educate.com/activities. Children are provided with story or thought starters as well as trivia and math problems as part of the journal exercises.

Photos and family journal: Bring out old and new photos and have your child write a phrase, a sentence, or a brief story for each photo. Older children can write a narrative for pictures they really like. This is a creative way to record your family history. Use labels or special blank photo captions. Visit www.lifestorywriting.net/lswkids.htm for more ideas.

Jokes and riddles collection: Have your child write and read riddles or jokes. Understanding humor increases reading comprehension and inference. Have neighborhood children join in and have a small "Original Joke Pool Party" or have a "Stand-up Comedian Night" as a celebration.

Family/friend pen pal: Encourage your child to get a pen pal. A distant relative or a friend who has moved is a good choice. This is a practical way to keep in touch, share values, and practice writing and reading skills. Younger children can draw and include their "message" at the bottom of the page.

Article provided by Sylvan Learning Center

10 Ways to Motivate Your Child to Learn

2007-06-15T23:31:00.000-07:00

Inspire her thirst for knowledge inside — and outside — of school.
By Caolan Madden

If you want your child to be a stellar student, don't limit learning to the walls of his classroom. Although the skills he's learning there are crucial to his intellectual and social growth, your child needs your help to really "open up the world of ideas," according to child psychologist Robin Forman, PhD. His renewed joy in discovery will transfer to his schoolwork, so you'll boost his academic achievement, too!

Fill your child's world with reading. Take turns reading with your older child, or establish a family reading time when everyone reads her own book. It's important to show her that "it's not only a school task," says Ted Feinberg, Ph.D, assistant director of the National Association of School Psychologists. Demonstrate how important reading is to you by filling your home with printed materials: novels, newspapers, even posters and placemats with words on them. According to Stephanie Fanjul, director of student achievement at the National Education Association, "Children can learn to read by living in an environment that's rich in words."
Encourage him to express his opinion, talk about his feelings, and make choices. He can pick out a side dish to go with dinner and select his own extracurricular activities. Ask for his input on family decisions, and show that you value it. "One of the things valued in school is class participation," says Feinberg, and "having practice at home expressing his feelings" is "good for self-esteem and self-confidence." He'll be more likely to engage with the material he studies if he's comfortable asking questions and drawing his own conclusions.
Show enthusiasm for your child's interests and encourage her to explore subjects that fascinate her. If she's a horse nut, offer her stories about riding or challenge her to find five facts about horses in the encyclopedia. Make sure she has the tools she needs — since Feinberg's daughter "loved looking for sea life" at the beach during family vacations, he bought her little nets so that she could catch crabs and minnows. Now she's a marine biologist.
Provide him with play opportunities that support different kinds of learning styles — from listening and visual learning to sorting and sequencing. Fanjul recommends supplies that encourage open-ended play and "do more than one thing," such as blocks — your child will develop his creative expression and problem-solving skills as he builds. He'll need lots of unstructured play time to explore them. Although sports activities and language clubs are valuable experiences, too many scheduled activities can add "too much stress" to your child's life, and distract him from exploring the pleasures of learning at his own pace.
Point out the new things you learn with enthusiasm. Discuss the different was you find new information, whether you're looking for gardening tips on the Internet or taking a night class in American literature. Let her see you in action: choose an activity that's unfamiliar to you both, such as playing tennis or speaking Spanish, and schedule a lesson or pick up a couple of instructional tapes. "Parents are the single most important modeling agent in a child's life," says Feinberg, and if you "demonstrate that learning is a lifetime adventure," your kids will get the message.
Ask about what he's learning in school, not about his grades or test scores. "Even if he doesn't do well grade-wise compared to the other students, he might still be learning and improving, and you don't want to discourage that," cautions Fanjul. Have him teach you what he learned in school today — putting the lesson into his own words will help him retain what he learned.
Help your child organize her school papers and assignments so she feels in control of her work. If her task seems too daunting, she'll spend more time worrying than learning. As she gets older and has more responsibilities, things can get "excruciatingly painful," warns Fanjul. So check in with her regularly to make sure she's not feeling overloaded.
Celebrate achievements, no matter how small. Completing a book report calls for a special treat; finishing a book allows your child an hour of video games. You'll offer positive reinforcement that will inspire him to keep learning and challenging himself. "If a child feels as if he is successful regardless of what it is, it builds him up and makes the next challenge easier," says Feinberg.
Focus on strengths, encouraging developing talents. Even if she didn't ace her math test, she may have written a good poem in English class. In addition to a workbook for math practice, give her a writing journal. When she knows that she's talented in one area, she'll be confident enough to try to achieve in others. "You don't want to not offer challenges," explains Feinberg, "but there's always a transfer when you have your kid feeling good about who she is."
Turn everyday events into learning opportunities. "Being educated doesn't mean knowing a lot of disconnected facts," says Fanjul. "Learning is building from what you know and connecting it to new facts." Encourage him to explore the world around him, asking questions and making connections. Fanjul remembers pointing to a prickly pear in the produce aisle and asking her young daughter, "Have you ever seen anything so bizarre?" When she replied that the fruit looked like "one of those fish that blows up," Fanjul knew that the structures for learning were firmly in place.

Article From:
http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=1304

How To Make Reading Fun

2007-05-11T00:57:00.000-07:00

Reading can be a blast -- a wild, laugh-a-minute, occasionally rambunctious party between two covers. Here's how you can encourage your child to have some fun with books:

♥ Throw a book exchange party

Invite your child's friends over, and ask them (or their parents) to bring five books they want to trade. Then let the bargaining begin! It's the best way to refresh your collection without spending cash. Tip: Offer gift bags for toting home "new" books.

♥ Have some bath-time fun with books

Get your child a few bathtub books (made of vinyl and labeled "bath-safe") and some bathtub paint. Let your child "read" a book in the tub and draw pictures from the book on the bathroom wall with the paint.

♥ Heard of books on tape? Make your own!

Read a book with your child into a tape recorder. Let your child add sound effects (using pots and pans, any musical instrument, utensils, anything that makes noise) or read a couple of lines of the book. If it's a favorite your child has memorized, let him read part or all of the book into the recorder. Let your child play the tape back and read along.

♥ Let your child "buy" her own books

Make your own "book dollars" out of construction paper, and give them to your child for chores or good deeds at home. When your child earns ten or 15, go to the bookstore and let her spend the equivalent money on books.

♥ Arrange a holiday book grab-bag

Try a preschool holiday gift exchange with books only. Each child brings a new book to wrap and contribute to the gift pile. Number all the gifts and then ask children to pick numbers out of a hat for their gift. You can add to the fun by asking all the other parents to give the teacher a children's book as a holiday gift rather than a ceramic apple for her desk. With a new book from every child, she'll be well stocked for the rest of the year.

♥ Make an alphabet book

Draw each letter on a different piece of white paper. Then go through magazines and catalogs, and cut out pictures of things that begin with each letter; glue them to the page. Next put the book together. Let your child put the letters in order. What you'll need: a stack of white paper (more than 26 sheets to account for mess-ups), markers or crayons to draw each letter, old magazines and catalogs, a glue stick for gluing pictures, and a stapler to assemble pages or a hole punch and string to tie the pages together.

♥ Frame a book

Make a color copy of your child's favorite picture in a book -- or favorite book cover -- and frame it for the bedroom. Let your child pick the frame, or pick a plain white one and let your child decorate it. What you'll need: access to a color copier -- try a local office supply store or chain such as Kinko's, an 8.5 x 11" plain frame with wide rim for decorating (if the book is smaller than a standard sheet of paper, cut down the color copy and put it in a smaller frame), and materials to decorate the frame, such as permanent markers, glue, ribbon, feathers, stickers -- anything goes!

♥ Play dress-up and act out a book

Invite your child's friends over to play the other characters.

♥ Have a reading picnic

Take your favorite eats and your favorite books to the park.

♥ Serve a meal from a book

Use food coloring to make green eggs and ham, try to re-create parts of the Grinch's Christmas feast, or make your own oatmeal porridge for the Three Little Bears.

Reading to young children improves language and cognitive development

2007-04-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

English-speaking mothers who begin reading to their children at a very early age have toddlers with greater language comprehension, larger, more expressive vocabularies and higher cognitive scores by the age of 2.

Meanwhile, Spanish-speaking mothers who read to their children every day have 3-year-olds with greater language and cognitive development than those who aren't read to. These results, based on research from researcher at the universities of Nebraska-Lincoln, Iowa State, New York, Columbia and Harvard, and from Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., are published in the July/August 2006 issue of the journal Child Development.

The researchers chose their focus because while numerous studies have shown connections between parental reading to preschoolers and children's language development in low-income families, there has been surprisingly little research of low-income children below the age of 3. Yet this is a very important period for the language development required for later reading success.

Researchers studied 2,581 families in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project and a control group in 17 communities across the U.S. Within a subgroup of 1,101, they explored in-depth relations between reading and child outcomes for English- and Spanish-speaking families. The children were evaluated at ages 14, 24 and 36 months.

About half the mothers reported reading daily to their children at each age, although slightly more mothers read daily when their children were 2 and 3 than when they were 14 months. White mothers reported reading more frequently than mothers in other racial/ethnic groups, as did mothers of girls, firstborn children and children in the Early Head Start program.

In addition to the findings noted earlier, the researchers also found that reading and children's vocabulary seemed to enhance one another beginning as early as 14 months in English-speaking groups. In other words, the more mothers read, the better the children's vocabulary, which, in turn, encouraged more reading.

"Thus, we propose a snowball model in which reading and vocabulary lead to more language opportunities and competencies for children," said lead author Helen Raikes, Ph.D., professor of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "This study shows relations between reading to children and children's language and cognitive development begin very early and implies that parent-child bookreading and other language-oriented interventions for vulnerable children should begin much earlier than has generally been proposed." The researchers also found that most children in the study, with the exception of non-English speaking children, had access to picture books. Thus, the team recommended that libraries, intervention programs and commercial vendors increase the availability of picture books with language and cultural themes of interest to non-English speaking families.

This information provided by Society for Research in Child Development.
http://sheknows.com/about/look/7411.htm

Learning To Read: How do you raise a reader?

2007-03-02T12:37:00.000-08:00

How do children learn to read?
How do you raise your child to be a reader?

The process of learning to read is a mystery to most parents. We can read but have few (if any) memories of how we learned to read. We know learning to read is one of the most important steps are young children will take toward success in school and life. We want to help but we don't know how. There are five simple ways you can help make your child a reader and you can start with young toddlers or use these techniques with preschoolers. In fact, these skills can also be used to support school age children who are learning to read.

One important way you can teach your child that reading is important is to model reading.
Show your child that you value reading by experiencing printed material whether it is books, magazines or newspapers. Children often imitate their parents so you certainly want to show them (as well as tell them) that reading is important and fun.

Probably the most important step in helping your child become a reader is by reading to your child every day.
You should make reading to your child a part of your regular daily routine but also include spontaneous opportunities as well. Not only will these moments draw you closer to your child and provide lasting memories but you are also giving your child benefits that will impact their entire life.

Exploit your child's interests to create an interest in books.
If your child is interested in horses or dinosaurs then check books on those topics out of the library or buy them for the child's personal library. Make sure the books have lots of pictures and be willing to read them over again.

Have fun with words and books.
Many children's books are written (and illustrated) to tickle a child's funny bone. Exploit those and seek out funny songs and poems as well for more word play. While learning to read is serious business that does not exclude fun from the process. The more fun your child has with reading and books then the more eager they will be to learn to read.

Finally, show your child that books contain useful and interesting information. When your child asks a question about the world then use that question as the focus for your next library visit and look up a book about Pueblo Indians or fruit bats or whatever.

You can help your child learn to read by modeling reading, reading to your child, exploiting your child's interests, having fun with words, and showing that books contain answers.

Article from:
http://preschoolerslearnmore.com/blog/?p=31

Growing Up To Read

2007-02-15T23:08:00.000-08:00

Article taken from "Starting Out Right"
http://bob.nap.edu/readingroom/books/sor/sor-2.htm
____________________

Children begin to develop their language skills in infancy. Even their babbles and coos and the ways their families speak to them before they really understand can help them to become speakers of their native tongue. When an infant shows excitement over pictures in a storybook, when a two-year-old scribbles with a crayon, when a four-year-old points out letters in a street sign--all of these actions signal a child's growing literacy development.

The more children already know about the nature and purposes of reading before kindergarten, the more teachers have to build on in their reading instruction. Research reveals that the children most at risk for reading difficulties in the primary grades are those who began school with less verbal skill, less phonological awareness, less letter knowledge, and less familiarity with the basic purposes and mechanisms of reading.

To prepare children for reading instruction in the early grades, it is best that they be exposed to high-quality language and literacy environments--in their homes, day care centers, and preschools. The best time to start sharing books with children is during babyhood, even when they are as young as six weeks. Families, early childhood educators, health care professionals, and communities can bring literacy into the lives of young children.

Early research dating back to the 1930s suggested that there was little use in teaching children how to read until they had already conquered specific readiness skills, such as certain fine motor skills and the ability to tell right from left.

Today, researchers know more. They know that growing up to be a reader depends mostly on the child's knowledge about language and print. A wide range of experiences with printed and spoken language, from infancy through early childhood, strongly influences a child's future success in reading. What is good for a six-year-old, however, is not necessarily good for a three-year-old. Children need activities they will enjoy and can succeed at, without being pushed uncomfortably beyond their current developmental stage.

-- Even when children cannot yet spell,
they learn from trying to write.
-- Even when children cannot yet read,
they learn from being read to.

Article taken from "Starting Out Right"
http://bob.nap.edu/readingroom/books/sor/sor-2.htm

The Best Window of Opportunity..

2007-01-22T12:19:00.000-08:00

...for learning to read is ages 0-5 years!

Did you know that:

Tens of 1,000's of new synapse connections are being formed in a baby's brain every second from Birth through 2-1/2years old (this is when language/speech skills are wired in the brain)
Babies prefer stimulation over food, even when they're hungry - They want to be stimulated!! (its better if its educational stimulation vs passive forms such TV. It needs to have a meaningful connection that involves the baby as purposeful stimulation)
Once a baby learns to read his first 50 words (the hardest ones to learn), they learn additional words much faster usually by only being told once or twice they will remember it.
By age 4 this synaptic activity slows down to thousands per second (still good but significantly less)

90% of a child’s language is developed by age 5
90% of a child's brain is formed by age 5
40% of 8-year-olds in the U.S. cannot read independently
Only 1 in 8 kids who cannot read at grade level by 1st grade will catch up to grade level in their life
The earlier a child reads the better he reads…it’s important to start as early as possible(the more second nature reading will be)
Americans are usually at the bottom of industrialized countries in almost every educational study done

There are ways YOU can take advantage of the early Window of Opportunity

When a child learns how to read early, the ability is incorporated into the brain's developed language center. When reading is learned after age 5, it ends up being stored into a different part of the brain, causing learning to read difficulties because then the "reading" part of the brain and the "language" part of the brain are in separate sections. This makes the brain work harder in order translate to from and from the reading to language centers it has created.

Why not then teach reading before age 4?

There are many who object to early reading instruction. They feel that because if its done a structured format as in the school setting: such as make a child sit still for 30 min a day to "learn to read" will get the teacher and the student nowhere.

Our previous article did emphasize that children should learn before age 5. Obviously, we're not advocating teaching reading as done in a structure setting. Certainly a young child would not gain anything from being taught in a manner inconsistent with the age.

Think of fun ways young children learn. Think about how they learn their native language. Babies do not learn language so formally do they? Rather we expose them to language from birth -- they hear it, they babble and we cheer any sounds they make that we recognize. When we cheer and repeat the sound they make, they try again. It typically takes 12 to 18 months for infants to produce recognizable speech. AND they do understand spoken language much earlier than they can perform it through their own ability to speak it.

If words are shown and incorporated into the language development phase of babies development, we would create a nation of "natural" readers rather than develop reading as a "second language" for the brain to translate. It has been done! Watch this amazing video.

This is not to say that anyone learning to read after age 5 can't. Of course that is simply not true. But consider this: we do know that the older one learns how to read the more difficult the process becomes. The more intensive and consistent the process must be for daily reading to practice and develop that ability. Think of it as an adult learning a second language -- it is much easier if they are in an environment where they hear the foreign language and have to use it daily -- vs -- being in an environment where that new language is rarely used but once a day or once a week such as in a traditional language class in high school or college would be.

A child's environment needs to be rich in the written word to help the brain connect the spoken language to the written one. When done early, reading becomes naturally as easy as speaking the language.

A major set-back for many children is, their good parents in an effort to help them start by teaching them the A-B-C's. Unfortunately they do it with all upper case letters (98% of written words are with lower case letters) and using the letter names instead of the sounds they make. The letter 'G' makes two sounds, "C" makes two sounds. Letter 'a' makes 4 sounds depending upon what consonant or vowel is next to it and so forth.

What typically happens to many children in Kindergarten is they end up having to re-learn the abc's sounds correctly before moving on so they can begin to learn how to read the letters using the correct sounds. This is a very common set back for children in school. Then they become labeled as behind and in need of remediation.

Here are ways to work with a baby to help them learn the language of reading more easily.

Speak correctly. Do not use baby talk or substitute words. The child may make attempts to speak, and we think their efforts are cute, but when we perpetuate mispronunciations, it makes for more difficulty with reading later. Always, praise and repeat the intended word correctly. They will learn the correct speech patterns better that way.
Talk to them from birth. Describe all the senses they are experiencing, what they see, touch, taste, and hear. Colors, textures, temperatures, flavors etc. This also builds an enriching language base for them.
Use lower case letters. To teach young children the A B C's be sure to get lower case letters, write word cards in lower case (use variety, hand written, block letters, print in different fonts from the computer, etc) use magnets on the fridge. Magnadoodle or dry erase boards are also wonderful tools.
Be sure to model the sounds those letters make. Meaning: avoid using the letter names until well after they understand and can use the letter sounds correctly. i.e. the letter 'g' makes two sounds, g as in good and g as in George. Be aware that vowels make more than just long and short sounds, particularly when paired with other vowels and relative spelling rules. Use or make a chart that illustrates all those sounds/letter combinations. As adults we know these patterns without thinking. Having a chart to refer to helps immensely.
Reading to the child several times a day. When reading to your child, make sure they can see the words with you and show them by using finger across the page under the words as you read them. Read slowly too. If they know a word, then let them say the word any time it comes up in the reading of the day! Participating in the process is a multi-sensory application that hard wires the brain.
Make it fun. Play word games, matching, sing nursery rhymes and recite poems and read along books. If they are tired, move on. No one ever learns well when tired or disinterested. Young children have a short attention span. They fill their day with constant moving activity.
Review in small segments several times a day will do more for them than any one long session will never accomplish.

This information is intended to enlighten you and encourage you on ways to begin. We'll post additional information soon. Enjoy this special time with your baby/toddler child!

Praise for Effort -- While They Learn

2006-12-03T03:45:00.000-08:00

As you work with your child reading with them and as they make their best efforts beginning reading, especially with the very young, we sometimes do a lot of "gushing" when a child correctly reads a word. There is a difference between praise and encouragement. Praise is an overall statement: good job, great job, good girl, good boy, wow that's the greatest thing you ever did, you are so smart, that's a beautiful picture, you always do the right thing.

Praise is not wrong, it's just overused at the expense of encouragement, which is more focused on a single effort. We want to use more encouragement so we can help children learn to value themselves and become more self-reliant.

Some children don't know how to judge what the've done unless an adult tells them. We want children to be able to judge their own accomplishments and capabilities; we don't want them always looking to someone else to tell them how they did. As they grow, we teach them the proper guidelines (educational, social, moral, ethical) so they can learn to critique themselves without always trying to please an adult.

In fact, we all probably know some grown-ups who continually seek someone else's approval. Sadly, they lack the ability to think for themselves and to decide what is good and what needs improvement. We will never stop praising children, but it will be better if we use fewer general statements of praise and more focused statements of encouragement.

Here are some examples that really work:

You did it! (This is the easiest and the most effective).
You worked hard on this, didn't you?
I can tell that you thought a lot about that.
That's the first time you were able to lift that!
I see that you used purple circles in your painting. (Or when they show you something they made, ask, "Do you like it?")
You shared because you like to help others.
You've been trying for a long time, and you did it.
You're being helpful; you gave him a tissue.
You found a way to do that!

...and when you show a child a word and (s)he reads it correctly, you can just simply say, Yes!

In the book How to Teach Your Baby to Read by Glenn & Janet Dorman, (also authors of How to Teach Your Baby Math) list 8 points to remember about the child: (Ch 7, pg 88)

1. Before age 5, a child can easily absorb tremendous amounts of info
(before age 4 it's easier and more effective, before 3 it's even easier and more effective, before 2 it's the easiest and most effective)
2. Before age 5, a child can accept info at a remarkable rate
3. The more they absorb before age 5, the more retained
4. before age 5, a child has tremendous amounts of energy
5. before 5, a child has a monumental desire to learn
6. before 5, a child can learn and wants to learn to read
7. all tiny children are linguistic geniuses
8. before 5, a child can learn an entire language (and as many as are presented to him)

There are two vital points involved in teaching your child: (pg 89)

1. your attitude and approach
2. the size and orderliness of the teaching materials

I highly recommend reading these books (use your library!) They will give you the means to explain to others about the child's ability to learn at such an early age! There is so much more information on their research on brain injured children and how it led to teaching 'well children' at earlier ages.

Appreciation to colleagues Beckey Thomson and Cheryl Macdonald for their contributions to this article.

Five Things Every Smart House Needs

2006-10-11T00:50:00.000-07:00

From the pages of "Family Fun" magazine November 2006, pg 58

1. A world map. Name a country and see who can find it first. Study the map and design a quick geography quiz: Which US states border Mexico? What's the skinniest country in South America? See any of our beautiful world atlases (page 102)

2. A good dictionary. Need the meaning of mentation or the spelling of moonquake? Look it up. Then play the dictionary game: choose an unusual word and challenge each family member to come up with a definition; vote for the one that sounds most convincing. See First Dictionary (page 80)

3. A jigsaw puzzle table. Puzzles, says education neuroscience consultantMarilee Sprenger, build visualization skills, as well as memory and pattern recognition. See all the fantastic Luxury Jigsaw Books (page 61)

4. A brain-boosting library. Stock it with books of crossword puzzles, mazes, brainteasers, and Sudoku. Check out the wide selection of puzzle and game books (pages 64-67)

5. A domino set. Play the classic version to reinforce number skills, then create knock 'em down courses to enhance creative thinking. See Farmyard Tales Dominoes (page 62)

Don't Read Just Anything

2006-07-31T15:18:00.000-07:00

While in the pediatricatian's office this past week, I picked up a magazine in the rack which I've never seen before. Called Wondertime, it focuses on things parents can do to spark the love of learning in their newborn to 6 yo child. The issue I saw was Spring 2006, the premier issue. You can see what this publication is all about at www.wondertime.com

Don't Read Just Anything
by Daniel Pinkwater
Why you should be as choosy about what you read to your child as you are about what you feed your child.
Here's an experiement you can do at home. Some Saturday morning tune in to a random children's television show -- Astro-Rocket-Transformer-Kids, Space Gerbils, or whatever you happen upon. Sit comformtably. You may enjoy a snack or a beverage. While viewing, try to refrain from conditional thoughts. In other words, you may not think, "I find this appaling, but my kid might like it. " Do not think of the program as something for children--just watch it. Seek to enjoy it. Time yourself. Note how long it is before you a) become engaged in the program, b) drift into private thoughts, or c) get disgusted.
Unless you are very lucky, your answer will likely fall into the b or c category, as you probably expected. The simal state of much of children's TV has been well publicized. Now do the same experiement with some random picture books at the library or bookstore. You may be unhappily suprised. As one who writes and reviews children's books, I am sorry to tell you that half the storybooks published are juast as mind numbing as bad TV, only the pictures don't move. And yet, the truisim persists: Ready anything to your children, anything so long as you read to them. No, I say! Be picky. Life's too short to read bad books.
If you as a parent don't like a book, like it for yourself, like it because there is something there to like, then why in the world should your ch ildren like it? And if you and they are merely pretending to like it, its' laying the groundwork for mistrust and a distaste for reding in general.
If, on the other hand, Mommy cracks up laughing every time she comes to a certain part, if Daddy really likes the drawings, if lines from a story or aspects of a character become part of the family's everyday language, then you've got riches that will last generations. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, The Story of Ferdinand, Where the Wild Things Are--classics lilke these come to mind. You remember them, right? You're smiling, right? If you don't remember these or somehow missed them growing up, hunt them down--you will gladly read them more than once.
I said that half of children's books are a disgraceful waste of trees. The bright side is that half aren't! Here are a few more I like.
Six books you won't mind reading again and again and...
OLD FAVORITES:
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
by Virginal Lee Buron (Houghton Mifflin, ages 3 and up)
Where the Wild Things Are
by Maurice Sendack (Harper-Collins, ages 2 and up)
The Story of Ferdinand
by Munro Leaf, illustrated by Robert Lawson (Viking, ages 3 and up)
NEW FAVORITES:
Rootbeer and Banana
by Sarah Sullivan, illustrated by Greg Shed (Candlewick Press,2005 , ages 3 and up)
Carmine: A Little More Red
by Melissa Sweet (Houghton Mifflin, 2005, ages 1 and up)
Bad Bears and a Bunny
by Daniel Pinkwater, illustrated by Jill Pinkwater (Houghton-Mifflin, 2005, ages 3 and up)
Daniel Pinkwater has written about 100 books for children, many illustrated by him, and "the really good ones" illustrated by his wife, Jill Pinkwater. He reviews children's books on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon.

(I will come back and enter his reviews of the titles he listed...sorry on the run and will have to come back. I just wanted to get this post started asap! aa)

Keep Your Children Reading During Summer Break

2006-06-13T02:04:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the last day of school for summer break when you were young? Anticipation of what you would be doing for all the long days, and extra time? Of course as children we most likely never even gave a thought to the idea that we could keep on learning over the summer break. This is why it is critical as parents we take an active role in emphasizing the importance of reading through the summer months.

Kids should have as much free time and fun as possible, but it is also important that they continue to read and engage their minds while away from the school day structure. Here are some ideas that can help your child be engaged in reading over the summer break.

Find out what's available with your library Summer Reading Program. Most public libraries have programs to encourage reading in the summer break. They typically have their reading lists available as a hand out at the Children's desk or online. The programs usually include incentives along the way and a chart to record their reading. They're designed to motivate the children to read and usually the library includes a special event to help keep the students focused on achievable goals with a prize or certificate of recognition.

Know what reading level is appropriate for your child. Before school lets out, check with your child's teacher and ask what his reading level is and also for suggestions to aid in specific areas your child should be working on. As the teacher for suggested books which should be read. The library staff will also be able to assist you based upon your children's reading level and interests.

Select books that your children will like. Most importantly, ask your children what things they'd like to discover -- if you focus on their interests, your child will typically be more motivated to take the time to read. Find a series of books they like, it will motivate them to ask for more. Stopping at the cliff hangers keeps them thinking about what may happen next. If your children like a particular style or special genre, there are plenty of reading lists for children and young adults.

In the weeks leading up to that summer vacation trip, seek out brochures and books about the places you'll visit. Brochures and trip guides, books and stories related to where you're headed can help build anticipation for the trip. Knowing what things they can be looking for will help keep the trips interesting. Looking up the history of how a place came to be can lead you to history, non-fiction, and fun facts about where you're headed. Reading reviews and looking up websites also provide ways to engage their minds.

Always continue to read aloud to your children. This is a valuable way to spend time with your children daily while helping them develop their desires to read when you read aloud. Your children will improve in their listening and vocabulary skills, increase their overall knowledge and give your family great subjects to discuss. They will enjoy the time together. This is also a great way to take turns reading aloud, which builds their skills. Or you can do all of the reading. Its a great way to show your child how fun reading can be. Especially if you 'dress up' the reading by dramatizing voice and put some theatrics into the story for some extra fun.

Do they anticipate the newest movies coming out? There's always books, magazine articles, and novelty items promoting the next releases. By reading the book before the movie, (especially if you can get the original story a movie is based upon) will give your children something to compare and contrast -- providing an opportunity for a variety of topics for discussion. Did they like the book or the movie better? Was the directors interpretation of the story line way off, or right on. Did you imagine the characters represented differently? What was the message behind the story? There's a lot of thinking going on if they've been able to know the original story before seeing a movie interpretation.

Another idea is to find out and view many different movie versions of well known classics. By watching each to see the differences and to discuss what they like to dislike about the various interpretations, will give hours of entertainment. What does this have to do with reading? Children benefit from the opportunity to develop critical thinking skills from reading a story and then viewing several different interpretations of it. By having discussion over these interpretations, each member of the family can express differing viewpoints, like or dislike a character or his actions, and provide great themes for discussion over the table while eating or while on traveling.

Books on tape provide another avenue. These can be listened to while traveling or at naptimes and bedtimes. There is higher cognitive brain activity while listening to a story being read by a parent or a tape than when the visual stimulation of TV or movies is going on. The brain tends to work less with audio/visual learning, unless it is broken up with discussion or if there is a reason to "what do you think 'character' will do next?" or "why did that character decide to do 'x', would you do the same? or what would you do differently if it were you?" and so forth. When the brain has something to seek there is more active thinking going on.

Older children can even write their own versions, or go so far as to film their own interpretations of familiar stories. One family we know, takes classic stories and then creates the story using modern characters, such as "Little Red Riding Hood" using the characters from "Star Wars." By having unusual projects such as these engage their minds in complex ways, they won't have time to be bored. While doing these activities throughout the summer will keep their brains engaged in learning and you'll find they'll be ready for school come end of the summer.

Play word games and mad-libs. Some of my fondest summer memories were of times my friends would sit around together filling in the blanks on mad-libs and rolling on the floor belly laughing to the silly stories we'd invented. Creating our own crossword puzzles for each other to solve, or coming up with riddles or clues for a scavenger hunt kept our creative juices flowing.

Make a "Flat Stanley" to go with you through the summer, or to exchange with long-distant family or friends. Taking pictures and journaling what "Stanley" did on his summer vacation will provide writing activities. Just thinking up crazy things that "Stanley" will do, is fun and helps keep the children focused on creative thinking. Later, having a journal of the summer is also nice to look back on later.

Keeping the mind engaged through a variety of ways throughout the break will help keep your children actively learning all summer long. When you're feeding their minds in fun and engaging ways, learning can be ongoing year round and you'll be less likely to hear the common summer complaint, "I'm bored!"

Creating a Reading-Friendly Home

2006-06-02T18:37:00.000-07:00

The best way to raise a great reader is to make reading a big part of their lives. Here are some ideas to fill your home with reading.

Books, books, everywhere! Surround yourself with books. Store them in a place that is easy for your children to reach. Visit bookstores and your local library often, and get your children their own library cards. Also, try flea markets and garage sales for inexpensive books.

Build a book nook. It doesn't take much to create a special reading spot--just a cozy chair in a corner or a comfy pillow by a sunny window. Show your own love of reading to your children by curling up with a book of your own too!

Fit reading into everyday life. Ask about your children's favorite books or what they read at school while you're riding on the bus or in the car. When the family is cleaning up after dinner, ask them to read you a story. Then trade--you read aloud while they clear the table or put away silverware.

Follow their lead. Help your children find books that reflect their interests, such as nature, sports or mysteries. And don't worry if your kids are reading comic books or ghost stories -- as long as they're reading!

Give yourself a break. Listening to recorded books on tape or CD is a great substitute when you're really busy, not around or too tired to read. And listening in the car is almost guaranteed to keep your drive calm.

Did You Know???

2006-05-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

It is strongly recommended that children read and/or are read to at least 30 min a day?
When children read and are read to, they increase their vocabulary, reading comprehension & spelling?
Books contain three times as many rare words (30.9 rare words per thousand) than a conversation?
That children who utilize the Internet and /or CD ROMs in homework do better on tests?
Most children each year spend about 1,500 hours in front of TV vs. 900 hours in a classroom?

“If every child were read to daily from infancy, it would revolutionize education in this country.”-- U.S. Education Secretary Richard W. Riley

Creating A Library for your Little One

2006-03-22T01:32:00.000-08:00

I find that there is just NO WAY to under-emphasize the importance of reading.

In order to be a successful in school as well as in any future vocation, it is imperative to posses strong literary skills. For this we need to be exposed to the proper materials from the beginning. Not every child has an easy journey on the road to literacy. And some children never fully learn to read properly. Others may acquire the skills involved eventually, but retain the idea of reading as a dreaded chore rather than a cherished activity.

Its all relative to how they are exposed to reading. Are they shown how fun reading can be? Do they see you reading? Or, are they being forced to sit down and "learn to read"? If the whole reading experience is one where the child is brought to tears over not meeting up to the expectation of him performing to a particular level, not only is the parent frustrated, but the child is feeling "failure". To push them to meet up to the expectations of their parents and teachers, or they may also feel the negative peer pressure. When a child is pushed too fast, too soon, the end result is the child looses all interest in wanting to read and they will likely avoid any opportunity to read.

So how do we as parents guarantee that our little one will acquire the necessary abilities to read with ease? The short answer is "start early". Regardless of when you start, how do we ensure they will view a book as their "buddy" rather than their "burden"? We must have a solid understanding of early development and offer some suggestions on what types of books will work for each age.

Babies... Will enjoy being read to from birth. The content of the book makes no difference at this stage, our purpose here is to develop a bond with those who love and read to him. Simply hearing the gentle rhythm of a voice associated with books will set a firm foundation for a lifelong love affair with the written word. While any book is appropriate for this activity because what a parent is building is emotional messages of love, comfort, security. Doing it before naps and bedtime helps the baby settle down and sets the patterns they know that its time to unwind, relax and enjoy this special time!

6-12 months... Infants begin to want to "get in on the action". They will want to grab the books and explore them with their eyes as well as their mouths. Given their excitement and lack of experience, it is unrealistic to expect them to be gentle as they do so. If we approach this in a critical way they may get the sense that books are "don't touch" items and that they are not for them. Therefore, getting durable board books which are en curiosity curiosity of the busy body baby works like magic to capture their focus such as "touchy feely" types where they can touch and explore the textures. Talking about how we hold a book will introduce your child to important concepts and develop good habits for later years. Continue the routine of reading before nap and bedtimes, these are treasured moments that won't last forever.

Many parents often object to spending any "book" time with the young toddler. Typical objections are: won't sit still, reaches at pages, tears pages etc. This is why board books at this age with mostly pictures, vivid color, and basic themes work well. Again, talking about the images, using descriptive language is more important than reading written word. This age is critical for building the familiar vocabulary of "reading" with spoken language. Children thrive later if the vocabulary is heard long before the written words of reading are taught.

12-24 months... As our children grow, so does their fascination with books! This is largely based on their intense fondness for simple mechanisms. The binding on a book makes a nice hinge, and infants will be enamored by their ability to simply turn the pages back and forth. Again, content isn't as important as the "construction" at this point. Books that have a peek-a-books, rattle, squeak and have interactives are fun. Board books continue to be used at this age, as most children's fine motor skills are still developing and few might be ready for real book pages. Chunky style board books are favorites for this age.

Continue the rich vocabulary. Speaking regular words are important. Don't use baby talk as this will be confusing when the child is learning the mechanics of sounding out and reading words later. So talk it up! Directional words, adjectives, adverbs are important building blocks that the brain will be familiar with when the more in depth reading development occurs later. Have fun! Do silly things. Books with familiar songs, ones with rhyme and rhythm are additional building blocks they will use later as they build phonemic awareness and help the brain learn new pathways for language.

Toddler years... During these years our vocabulary expands enormously and children start to make a connection between the spoken word and the object or picture it represents. Here is where picture books become so important...Which ones are Best? Well, the best way to teach a child is to find what they are interested in. And dive in!

Preschoolers... As children move through these years they begin to master the various elements involved in actual reading. The greatest challenge at this point is not to force reading upon them. In the schools there is often the debate of which method is best "Phonics" or "Whole Language". Some children learn better with one style , while others will learn faster with the other. Most however, will learn through both, so with that in mind, parents should keep a verity of materials on hand for their children to view.

School age... As children finally become involved in independent reading it is essential to reinforce the notion that this is an extraordinarily useful and enjoyable activity. Find books with puzzles, riddles, mysteries. There are many books which are of topical interest particularly in non-fiction. At this age they're really wanting to know how things work! Where do things come from and learning about history with biographies told as a story are fun and engaging.

By building your own family library, your children will be well on their way to a healthy and enjoyable lifelong love affair with reading! At this point, if you have built your library around the indications of her unique rate of learning and pattern of development, you will get to reap the rewards of cuddling up with your child and experiencing the pleasure of hearing her read to you!

How to build your own family library

You can always "test drive" many different types of books through your local library. It keeps the reading habit affordable. Be aware that studies have shown a direct correlation to literacy with the number of reading materials found in the home. Usborne Books at Home helps parents build their own library when a family hosts a book demonstration, based upon the purchases of their guests. The cost to the family is basically two hours of time for the evening and a small handling fee and shipping, typically earning $100 or more in FREE books!

Usborne has plenty of books and subjects for every age in the family. Activity books that encourage basic understanding of math, writing, and reading. First Experiences series helps children discover how to deal with new situations. Their wide variety of storybooks incorporate whole language learning while providing fun and exciting stories in most of the early childhood categories. Usborne is the king of non-fiction for youngsters. They have topical encyclopedias, reference books, and themed activity books, etc. They also have plenty of pre-reading books to engage even the youngest of children.

Click here for information on how you can build your family library for pennies on the dollar with an Usborne home demonstration.

You can also trove used book stores, Goodwill, Salvation Army and Deseret Industries stores. People are always giving away books and second hand is also great!

Have you've ever heard of Freecycle? This is another treasure trove to get the things you need from someone who doesn't need them any more. Many on the list are moving on, either literally moving and they can't take it with them, or their children are growing and they'd rather give it to someone who would enjoy and use it rather than throw it into the landfills. (BTW, its a great source for more than just books!)

Hopefully this has given you some background to get you started in building your own family library!

How? Let's start with a simple list.

2006-02-22T15:03:00.000-08:00

The number one question people ask me about their child is, "How do I raise a reader?"

This question is just as complex as it is simple. I could go on and on about all the technical and scientific terms, processes and methods that are used to teach reading. But that would bore most who come here looking for useful information. So, here is the purpose of this blog: To give parents a place to find tips and information about how to raise their children with the love of reading.

Lets start with a simple list:

1) Read to your Baby!
Its never too early to introduce your child to books. "Read" board books to your infant, put cloth books in the crib, and float plastic books in the bathtub. Your children will grow up with the idea that books are an integral part of their lives.

2) Make Time For Books.
Set aside a specific time to read to your child every day. Nap time and bed time are obvious opportunities. Another might be over mealtine or while they are in the bath tub.

3) Keep Books Available.
Make it easy to read. Keep a sack of board books in the car to divert kids while you're running errands and on the nightstand to amuse early risers. Pack a vareity of books while traveling. Put a shelf in the bathroom with books to read while potty training.

4) Be A Reading Role Model.
Show your children that you value reading. Let them see that you are reading for pleasure, and tell them how much you enjoy reading with them. Take them along on trips to the library and book store.

5) Make Your Own Books.
Preschoolers can dictate their own stories and then add illustrations. Other ideas? Make a Holiday Book that shows your family traditions, a birthday book recording party memories, or a travel diary about the family vacation.

6) Read Anything And Everything.
While in the car, encourage your child to read the road signs. In the grocery store, ask the children to find the juice or cereal they want. Learning to differentiate amoung packages and to recognize road signs is a beginning step in learning how to read.

7) Play With Letters.
Magnetic letters allow children to spell t heir name on the refrigerator. Letter blocks combine stacking and spelling for double the fun. Cards with the letters raised in sandpaper give the shapes a tactile feel, and they can make rubbings of the letters and create words too.

8) Read it Again and Again.
Parents may get tired of reading the same favorite book over and over, but repetition is an important development step in learning to read. As they repeat the familiar refrains with you, children begin to associate the words they say with the words on the page. Soon they'll be recognizing and reading words on their own.

Those are a few ideas to get you started. Keep coming back to find more tips and ideas to envelope your child in the love of reading.