Mom it Forward » Reading With Your Children

Literacy: Ways to Teach Children How to Read

Jill Greenlaw — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:00:37 +0000

Now looking back on my childhood, I realize I was fortunate that our house was filled with many types of books. My favorite time in school was the designated half-hour of reading in our Homeroom Class. Some students hated this time meant for reading, but it was the period I most looked forward to throughout the day.

I don’t think it is an accident that coming from a family of readers, I in turn, absolutely love to read. I enjoy Young Adult (YA) Books, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and even Middle Grade (MG) Books! My husband does think I am (a bit) silly for reading MG and YA Books, but the good ones have interesting characters and storylines such as The Ember Series by Jeanne DuPrau and The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

Research has found that the most important aspect of reading is how the child feels about reading. This means that positive reinforcement from parents and educators does help. For a child to see that their parents enjoy reading is one of the best ways to encourage them to read. Research has also found that forcing a child to read does not yield positive results. Instead of forcing the issue, it might work to have a reading time that the whole family enjoys together (Source: www.creativeteachingsite.com).

How To Increase a Child’s Literacy Skills

Here are some suggestions that can help your child build the necessary literacy skills.

Model Reading and Writing

My parents were always reading and I just thought that all families enjoyed reading growing up. As we know, children learn best by what we model. You can ask your middle-grade or teenager to write out to-do lists, shopping lists, letters, and invitations. Another great idea is to have them find a pen pal from another state or even another country. Also, read an MG or YA book together and discuss the characters, storyline, and what you hope will happen next if it is part of a series such as The Hunger Games. This might be fun to do together as it is coming out as a movie this March.

Participate in Everyday Activities

This could include discussing newspaper articles you read together, journals, or magazines. Another idea is to have them compare prices of items they want at different department stores or sporting equipment to find the best deal. Playing language and spelling games together like Scrabble, Boggle, or Trivial Pursuit can help improve literacy skills by looking up the meaning of certain words together.

Turn Family Vacations and Trips Into Learning Opportunities

My daughter loves to go the local museum, planetariums, and zoo. This provides a wonderful opportunity for me to explain how things work and about the animals. Maybe put together a scrapbook of a family vacation together and have them write out funny captions above the pictures.

These are all simple ideas to help to encourage your child to enjoy reading and writing. The less it feels like a chore and more a way of life, the more likely they will grow up with a positive association with reading.

What books are you and your family reading? How can you encourage your kids to read more?

References:

How To Encourage Students To Read (http://www.creativeteachingsite.com/read1).
Peel District School Board. Help your teen build literacy skills (www.peelschools.org).

Picture courtesy of Flickr.

Melissa Northway, M.S. Human Nutrition, is a mom, writer and her storybook app Penelope the Purple Pirate has been chosen as a Top 10 Must-Have eBook by lilsugar of Popsugar.com and a Top 10 Educational iPad App by Digital Storytime. She does consulting work for companies interested in marketing their apps or eBooks. She can be reached at: mcube@sbcglobal.net and http://www.melissanorthway.com or @melissanorthway. See my review of The Hunger Games coming next week.

Children’s Literacy: 5 Ways to Get Your Kids to Love Reading

Desiree Allen — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:00:22 +0000

Reading books to kids, being creative when it comes to books, using technology to make reading fun — all of these activities help get kids to love reading. Did you know that more than 88 percent of children who have difficulty reading at the end of first grade display similar difficulties at the end of fourth grade? And, three-quarters of students who are poor readers in third grade will remain poor readers in high school. Research also indicates a growing number of children are becoming apathetic readers. Some of these children are choosing not to read; not because it’s difficult, but because they don’t want to read.

5 Ways to Get Your Kids Excited About Reading

It is important to be actively involved in your child’s literacy experiences. The following are five suggestions to help you raise a reader in your home:

Listen carefully to your child when he/she shows an interest in something. For example, if he/she tells you about a cool animal on the Discovery Channel or a new student who is coming to school from Japan, make a mental note. Find a book about that “hot topic” and remember: a child’s interest fades quickly, so don’t wait too long to get a book!
Allow choice to be a strong motivator. Let your child choose some books that he/she likes. Reading Rockets, a website dedicated to teaching kids to read and helping those who struggle, offers a themed book list that you can browse to find the best book for your child.
Don’t make reading difficult! Let your child read a few pages to you. If he/she misses five words out of 100, the book is too difficult for him/her to read by himself. Choose another book, or read it to your child. In addition to a wealth of books, your library most likely will have tapes and CDs of books, musical CDs and tapes, movies, computers that you can use, and many more resources. You also might find books in languages other than English, or programs to help adults improve their reading. You can also pick up some reading tips on the U.S. Department of Education’s website.
Model reading in your home. Set a time when the whole family reads together. Each of you can share something about what you read.
Set small goals with your child, such as reading one page every night. Use chart paper and chart the nights she reads. He/she can see for herself if she’s achieving her goal. Do an internet search for a template to use or you can make your own reading log.

How do you get your kids excited about reading? How do you make reading fun for your kids?

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

Desiree Allen is a thirty-something single parent with two children. A native of Denver, Colorado, she lived there until 2009, when she moved across the country to northern New Jersey with her kids. She is doing her best to avoid ‘picking up’ a Jersey accent, but she’s not making promises that she won’t eventually start sounding like some of her new friends. You can find her blogging at Writing to Sanity and tweeting @writingtosanity.

Reading: The Importance of Reading Aloud to Your Children

Jamie Moesser — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 12:00:17 +0000

It’s easy to argue the importance of reading to your children.The effectiveness of doing so, both in terms of improving your child’s literacy and your bond with him or her, seems to be obvious. I read to my son every night for the first six years of his life and that has made a marked difference in the success of his education. How do I know? Because research (like this study and this book) says so. But how important is reading to one’s child, as opposed to letting them read on their own or learn from TV, really? Extremely. Paramount even, some would say, because research shows it is a determining factor in a child’s academic success, and by extension, their overall success throughout their life.

Indeed, Jim Trelease, author of the definitive book The Read-Aloud Handbook, says this is why reading aloud to your children is important: it conditions your child’s brain to associate reading with pleasure, creates background knowledge that makes more reading easier and facilitates academic growth, builds their vocabulary, and provides them with a reading role model. A long-term study of children in poverty found that those who were assigned for five years to a high-quality year-round day-care program focused on language-enrichment had higher IQ’s at age 21, made it farther in school, had higher reading achievement, slightly higher math scores, and were twice as likely to go to college and delay having children than those in the study’s control group.

It is for reasons like this that the Reading is Fundamental (RIF) organization exists. Just having celebrated its 45th birthday, the national organization works to give books to children in poverty who wouldn’t otherwise get them. “We know that books are essential to help children achieve and that one book can spark a lifetime of ambition in a child. Yet, underserved children are facing increasingly daunting obstacles to their path to success,” said Carol H. Rasco, president and CEO of RIF. “In low-income communities, there is only one age-appropriate book per 300 children and statistics show children without access to books are well on their way to becoming one of the 33 percent of fourth graders who cannot read at the basic level. It is clear that we have more than an issue to solve; we have a movement to begin. The time for a reading renaissance is now and RIF is calling on all Americans to join us in leading the charge. Together, we can build a literate America.”

The reason Ms. Rasco makes this impassioned plea is that RIF is experiencing a mid-life crisis of sorts, as Congress recently eliminated $24.8 million of its funding. In response, RIF has launched several new initiatives to ensure their continued ability to get books into the hands of impoverished kids so their parents can read aloud to them. These include a national brand awareness campaign, a new program model called the “RIF National Registry,” a multicultural book collection, an expanded effort in the digital realm to create mobile literary experiences for children and families to enjoy while on the go, and a series of literacy grants, customized training programs and local reading celebrations empowering families in underserved communities to develop the skills and confidence to guide their children’s reading, learning and love of books.

RIF’s commitment to providing books for children is an example of the type of commitment all parents should have to read aloud to their children every day. We all stand to gain so much by doing something so simple but profound.

How often do you read aloud to your children? How do you make reading fun for your kids?

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

RSVP for This Tuesday’s #gno Twitter Party Sponsored by Cheerios

Jyl Johnson Pattee — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 06:39:05 +0000

What are your favorite books from your childhood? What are story time rituals you have with your kids? What are tips for helping the reluctant reader?

These are just a few of the topics we’ll cover in this week’s #gno party. Join in and chat with some great folks from Cheerios, some terrific children’s book authors and illustrators from the Spoonfuls of Stories team, as well as fantastic Mom It Forward moms.

Don’t forget to enter to win Cheerios’ giveaway this week for 10 lucky winners! Click here to check out the details. The contest ends Sunday, October 18.

What: Cheerios is sponsoring this week’s #gno Twitter party (Click here to learn about #gno!)

When: Tuesday, October 13, 9-11 p.m. EST

Where: Click here to party with us on our custom Tweetgrid. (Use hashtags #gno and #cheerios.)

Topic: Children’s literature

Who: @banteringblonde @cheeriosbrand @childhood @derek_author @cheeriokeeper @LeighannMMM @oohamanda, @robinglasser @karmawilson

Party Favors: Click here to check out this week’s giveaway sponsored by Cheerios.

RSVP: Please leave your Twitter ID in the comments to follow and be followed (on Twitter, of course!) by other #gno gals. The best format is as follows: http://twitter.com/jylmomIF.