Category: Raising Readers

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Parenting Raising kids Raising Readers

Tried and true tactics?…Not so tried and true

One tactic I use to try to get my children into books is giving them books that coincide with their favorite movies and/or television shows. Now I’ll be honest, these usually aren’t the most interesting or original storylines, they are often just the original script regurgitated, nothing they haven’t seen before. But again, I’ll do just about anything to get them excited about books.

Now that I’ve got a 7-year-old daughter who is a pretty good reader, I also occasionally try the tactic of having her read to her 5-year-old brother. First of all, its cute, like Facebook-post worthy cute.

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(See aren’t they adorable? And yes, it was Facebook worthy a couple of years ago.)

Secondly, because I want him to witness her as a reader and want him to want the same for himself. And third, because its good practice for her.

So, I thought I was a genius and tried to combine those two tactics (book from movie and partner reading) together…nope, nada, bad idea.

Thanks to my day job, I am obsessed with Scholastic Reading Club, so I ordered a 2-in-1 book based on the movie The Secret Life of Pets. After I looked through it, I figured it was short enough that she could read it to him. (Also, in all honesty, I also realized I hadn’t bought a book for her, so I had to figure out how to prevent sibling drama.)

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Here’s my proud mama purchase

When I picked up my son after school, he saw the book in the front seat right away and immediately asked to see it (yay!). On our way to pick up his sister, I let him know that I thought it would be a book his sister could read to him, and he was on board (yay again!).

So when she got in the car, I told her about the book and what her role was going to be. Right away she says, “I want to read it to myself first”. Ok. I really can’t be mad at that, its good practice. At the very least, I personally like to at least look over a book before I read it to students or my own kids, so I decided to be patient. My son, not so much. At least twice on the way home I heard, “You’re supposed to be reading to me!”, and it wasn’t a super long drive.

By the time we got home, my patience was disintegrating, so when we got in the house my directions were “Both of you sit on the couch and you read to him!” (Sounds real inviting, right? Surely that would make you want read, wouldn’t it?)  So they begin, and it’s cute, but not quite Facebook cute, like, I won’t even post my picture of it on here. That should’ve been my first sign…

‘Cause then I get a phone call, and I make the rookie mistake of thinking I could answer it and hold an uninterrupted conversation with an adult….and this is what the book looks like now…

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Yeah, that’s the inside of the book now on the outside. And like key pages too, from right smack in the middle of the book.

So, the book has been demolished within 90 minutes of it being in their little hands. But, the two of them are having a ball doing whatever they are doing now, screeching and running around the living room.

My learnings from this? Stop being so forceful in trying to create these idyllic situations between the two kids. That picture from a few years ago? I didn’t make them go outside to read, it just happened. My tactics? Still valid and still effective…just maybe not together.

 

 

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Parenting Raising Readers

“I am NOT afraid of chapter books!”

Earlier this summer, I was inspired by a friend on Facebook to read a chapter book with both kids at night. My 7 year old daughter and I had occasionally been reading chapter books, but I had yet to approach this idea with my 5 year old son.  Some people were skeptical, including my husband and my mother, but I was determined.  To try to ensure success, I became armed with a plan: I needed to pick a chapter book that still had some pictures in it (my son is a very visual learner), was not super long, and-here’s the key– was made into a movie. Initially I had narrowed it down to Stuart Little and The BFG, but eventually decided on the E.B. White classic.

(Here’s the two books I had it narrowed down to):

So initially when I presented the idea, my daughter was excited (as expected), but my son was adamantly against it. Now to be fair, he was against it partly because he thought I was going to read it all in one night, and he was right, that is an unattractive thought. But even after that, he still was hesitant, and I’ll admit, I forced the first chapter of the book onto him that first night. But the story of the little mouse eventually drew them both in and they were very excited to listen to me read a chapter of the book each evening.

Now I already know that the book is better than the movie, but I wanted to see what my children’s reaction to this would be. The book and the movie, Stuart Little, have a lot of differences, so there was a lot missing. They both enjoyed it, but when talking about it later, my son said, “The author got things wrong”, so I had to explain to him that the book actually came first. 🙂

So, fast-forward to this week in September. One evening my son randomly tells me, “Mom, next time we go to the library and we get books to check out, I can get a chapter book. I am NOT afraid of chapter books.”

What?! You could’ve knocked me over with a feather. I wanted to immediately get in the car and go to the library, but that wasn’t really feasible at that moment. I also knew that as a kindergartener, he’s not ready to actually read a chapter book himself. However, thank God for Graphic Novels!

During every visit to the library for about 5 months now, my daughter gets at least one book from the Lunchlady series by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. Whenever she’s not looking at them, my son tries to steal some time with the problem-solving cafeteria ladies.  So this library trip, each child got their own Lunchlady book to enjoy and then swap.

Can’t go wrong with this villain-nabbing Lunch Lady.

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So again, as a parent trying to instill a love and enjoyment of reading with your children, you may not reap the benefits right away, but just be patient, they will surprise you.

 

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Parenting Raising Readers

The Little Engine That Could and the Olympics?

Like many households, we’ve spent a decent amount of time watching the Olympics this past week. Both of my children have learned a lot about different sporting events, recognize and root for specific athletes, and they definitely can recognize the American flag.  So tonight, when my son chose the classic book The Little Engine That Could to read, the last thing I expected was a connection to the Olympics. As he often does, my son and I spend a lot of time looking at the illustrations, including the end papers and inside cover. Tonight, as he pointed to the different trains in the picture, he determined that one was gold, one was silver, and one looked bronze….really? I mean, I realize that we had just finished watching the Olympics before we started getting ready for bed, but I didn’t see this connection coming.

(But…if you really look at the trains, I guess they do look gold, silver, and bronze. This boy surprises me often.)

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Once I started reading, he decided a couple of the trains didn’t look so silver and bronze up close, but that didn’t take away from the story. We’ve read this story multiple times before, so he knows the storyline, and his focus was more on the toys in the trains, and which ones he would choose if he had a choice.  I always imagined that he would get excited and proud when the little train made it over the hill, but that’s not his focus.

At any rate, my takeaway tonight is…sometimes you don’t know where the connections are going to come from, but it’s still evidence that they are thinking and learning while you’re reading.

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(Shout out to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, who sent my son the book when we first enrolled a couple years ago. If you have a child between the ages of 0-5, and you haven’t looked into this program, I strongly suggest that you do so.)