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Best Summer Tip for the Love of Children and Reading

There are few things you could give your children this summer that would have a greater value than the love of reading.

            I would like to share a literacy practice that will enable your children to not only acquire a fun reading strategy, but also writing strategy, to help them achieve success with their “thinking” about their reading.

            I am suggesting a reading journal, or diary, in which you share with your child a book you are reading together. The journal can be something you purchase together with the idea you are both are going to write about what you are reading, or a gift left on your child’s pillow the first time with a note that you have written, a note about the book you read that night.

            Children benefit from writing about the world in which they live, and that includes what their parents are reading, and doing in daily life. There is a strong connection between writing and reading. When children write about what they read they make connections to the meaning of the text and what they are writing, they are thinking deeper about what they are reading, thus improving comprehension of what they read, see, hear, understand and write.

            One night after you read pick up a pencil and journal and write a note to your child about the book you are reading, “I remember when my teacher read this book to the class. Everyone wanted to read it when the teacher finished sharing the story. Does that happen in your class, too?” The trick to this is your child can’t “tell” you he/she must write back. Make a special spot for the journal and pencil to live that is easily accessible to both of you. It might be as simple as when you have written back to your child, you place the journal on their pillow, when they have written to you they put it on your pillow. You can talk about an article or comic from the newspaper or an interesting magazine that you place with the journal. Ask questions about what you read. Talk about new words. For new readers play word games such as “I Spy.” When reading a book about colors write “I spy a word on page 3 that names a color. Can you find it?” Keep it simple; A few sentences. You are not writing a book report, you are sharing ideas about what you read. Your child can not be wrong about their opinions about what they are reading. Maybe they truly do not want to read any more books that dogs die at the end. Allow them the flexibility to communicate to you their true feelings about what they are reading, even if you don’t agree. Try to keep this very positive, this would not be the place to remind your child to clean their room. This would be a great place to encourage their efforts in both reading and writing.

            If you, as their parents, value reading and writing, your children will come to value reading and writing. The efforts you make as a parent, to instill a love for reading in your children will result in lifelong enrichment. Open a book; sharpen a pencil and write your child a love note about a book you are enjoying together. I promise your words will last longer in your child’s mind, then all your long summer days.

 

Enjoy a summer full of books with your children,

R.R.Cratty