Helping Children Learn to Read

Helping a child learn to read, is a gift that will last a lifetime and takes a partnership that begins at home and continues at child care and in school.  Here you will find tips and information to help children build the foundation to learn to read.

How Can I Encourage My Child To Read?

"The majority of reading problems faced by today's adolescents and adults could have been avoided or resolved in the early years of childhood."
--National Research Council (1998)

As a parent of a young child, you are probably more concerned about your child's progress in reading than in any other subject taught in school. To achieve in math, science, English, history, geography, or any other subject, your child must have reading skills that are developed to the point that most of them are automatic. He can't be struggling to recognize words in a school textbook when he is trying to read quickly to grasp the meaning of the text. In other words, children must learn to read before they can read to learn.

To instill the love of reading in your children is one of the very first thing parents wanted to do. Once a child begins to read at an early age, the tendency is that he will have the love of reading for the rest of his life.

What Can Families Do to Keep Children Reading During the Summer?

As children's first and most important teachers, families have a major role to play in motivating children to read during the summer months. There are many strategies families might employ to encourage summertime reading. Here are tips offered by Reading Is Fundamental:

Teaching someone to handle a Book

In cultures that have had little or no exposure to books, handling a book properly is a skill that must be learned.

Character Is Destiny : Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember (Hardcover)

"McCain's latest volume uses biography as an illustration of virtue, but this time the senator broadens his palette significantly, telling 34 stories of heroes whose lives embody qualities ranging from honesty and loyalty to curiosity and enthusiasm. At the root of them all, he says, is a willingness to stay true to one's conscience against all challenges."

"Although he is reaching out to a younger readership, McCain's plain but sincere language does not condescend to his audience."

Recommended Reading by Grade Level:

Into, Through and Beyond

1. Get "Into" the book — This is where you introduce the book & develop a connection to the book before you read. Tell a personal story, use props, play music, start a discussion. Talk about the title, make predictions about what will happen in the book based on the cover art, write difficult words on the board (especially in language limited classes). If you are reading TOAD by Ruth Brown, you could bring in a book about real toads or ask, "How many of you have touched a toad?" Be creative.

2. Go "Thru" the book — Read using expression, voices, sounds, timing - make the story come alive! Whether you read straight through or stop occasionally depends on your style.

3. Get "Beyond" the book — talk about what happened in the book. Ask questions like "Did the story turn out the way you thought?" Discuss issues and/or the children's lives as a place to begin.  Relationships develop during "Into" & "Beyond". Literacy is modeled and language is developed during the "Thru" portion of your visit. Have fun!

How to Raise a Family & Career Under One Roof: A Parent's Guide to Home Business (Paperback)
by Lisa M. Roberts

Well formatted and easily read, this is a must for any parent considering a home business. The author has drawn parallels between nurturing a business with that of raising a child. She recommends color-coding various areas of your business for task management, and offers practical business and home organizing advice. The references to her personal journal were a nice touch, allowing the reader to identify with the writer. This one was hard to put down!

This guide to entrepreneurship is full of practical advice, heartwarming essays, and bountiful resources. The author provides guidelines and frameworks to help parents methodically and sensibly transition their current careers to home-based entrepreneurial reality. She shows readers how to plan, initiate and manage a successful home business and household while reminding us to stop and drink in the richness of life at home with the children. An affirming and well-researched manual for anyone considering a home-based career.

 Amazon

All New Square Foot Gardening (Paperback)

by Mel Bartholomew

...anyone, anywhere can enjoy a Square Foot garden. Children, adults with limited mobility, even complete novices can achieve spectacular results. I've rarely seen a more reader-friendly book! It comes complete with layout pages, very concise planting guides, even planting time tables for your area and the amount of time you can store your seeds! If you have never gardened before or started a garden that eventually left you frustrated, then this is the book for you! I just think that you should check your area for agricultural grade vermiculite before you buy the book. But once that little snafu is over, you are going to be amazed at how brilliant and easy this book makes successful gardening. I highly recommend this method for busy people and parents like myself. It is wonderfully easy to maintain, makes loads of produce, and looks very attractive. Two green thumbs way, way up.

 Based on extensive research (hers and others'), Coontz's fascinating study places current concepts of marriage in broad historical context, revealing that there is much more to "I do" than meets the eye. In ancient Rome, no distinction was made between cohabitation and marriage; during the Middle Ages, marriage was regarded less as a bond of love than as a " 'career' decision"; in the Victorian era, the increasingly important idea of true love "undermined the gender hierarchy of the home" (in the past, men—rulers of the household—were encouraged to punish insufficiently obedient wives). Coontz explains marriage as a way of ensuring a domestic labor force, as a political tool and as a flexible reflection of changing social standards and desires. She presents her arguments clearly, offering an excellent balance between the scholarly and the readable in this timely, important book. Agent, Susan Rabiner. (May)

She writes in a very readable style. You will find yourself quickly having read large passages of this book effortlessly. The book is informative, eye opening, and definitely well worth the read. I recommend this book if you want to see what the institution of marriage has been through out time and different cultures Stephanie Manley