When I talk about reading with my kids with other parents—-that is, either me or my husband sitting down with them to read aloud or share the reading duties—-I hear these responses like these: “I wish I could find the time to do that,” or “we’re just too busy to read.” I understand completely. Between [...]
My first grade teacher, Miss Mary Bodi, spent a lot of time bringing out the writer in her students. Regularly throughout the year, she asked us to choose a picture from a file. In it were magazine advertisements, clipped comics, and other images she’d collected. One-by-one, were called to sit next to her at a [...]
Good Dog Carl Toddlers–and their reading partners– love Carl, the even-keeled Rotweiler that is charged with minding the baby in several of these beautifully illustrated picture books, including Carl’s Afternoon in the Park, and our family favorite, Good Dog, Carl. The books have very few words, but the story is brilliantly told through the paintings of Alexandra Day, who incidentally owns [...]
No more pencils No more books No more teacher’s dirty looks So goes the chorus of Alice Cooper’s anthem, School’s Out, that gets ample airplay each June. I am A-OK with doing away with the teacher’s dirty looks, but I’m a firm believer that the books and pencils should not be discarded just because school is [...]
Want to see what a difference 30-minutes of reading each day can make in your child’s life? Check out the Feed Me A Story page at the America Reads website.
Way back when I was studying Shakespeare as a sophomore in college, the rather animated professor used to act out scenes from the plays, lunging toward us in sword battles, and moving about the room reciting a character’s solilioquy. More than just bringing the text to life, his readings helped us absorb the language of [...]
Most every book I have on rearing babies and toddlers includes mention of making reading part of the daily play routine. In What to Expect: The Toddler Years, there is a generous section covering reading with the pre, pre-school set, encouraging parents not to be concerned with teaching their kids to read, but with teaching [...]
Keeping books in the car is a great way to squeeze reading into the day. Kids can get a quick read in on trips to and from school, shopping trips, and other excursions. Warning: Looking down into a book for long periods of time can trigger motion sickness. If your child is prone to getting [...]
I took the two-year-old to his first Toddler Story Time at the library, just as I took his sister and brother before him. It has been a while since I had a toddler, nine years to be exact. Long enough to forget that two-year-olds don’t always sit patiently through every story, rhyme, and fingerplay. In [...]