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Top 10 ways grandmothers can help celebrate Reading Month
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March is Reading Month. So? You read to your grandkids. What makes Reading Month special? In a word, literacy. According to Wikipedia, in the U.S., only 13% of the population is proficient in the areas of prose, document, and quantitative literacy. That is alarming. What could be more important than reading and writing?
Reading Month provides an extra incentive to celebrate these great arts. Coincidentally, Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) was born on March 2, 1904 -- another reason to celebrate reading. So this month, why not try to do reading-based activities with your grandkids. Change it up each time you see them. Get creative. They’ll love it – because you’re there to share the experience with them.
Top 10 ways to celebrate Reading Month
1. Make arrangements with your grandchildren’s teachers to show up as a Mystery Reader. Imagine your grandchildren’s surprise and pride when you show up to read a book to the class.
2. Some of the best read-out-loud stories ever written for children are Seuss classics, including The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, Horton Hears a Who, and The 500 Hats of Bartholemew Cubbins. Here’s a complete listing of Seuss books.
3. Have a Dr. Suess birthday party. You can go all out and actually buy Cat in the Hat hats, but if you don’t want to spend the money, there are other ways to get creative, including, of course, reading or acting out some of the Seuss classics. The menu? Green eggs and ham, of course.
4. Take your grandchildren to the library and check out books by these other leading children’s authors: Eric Carle, Marc Brown, Ezra Jack Keats, Steven Kellogg, A.A.Milne, Beatrix Potter, H.A. Rey, Maurice Sendak, Aaron Shepherd, Shel Silverstein.
5. Make bookmarks out of paper, fabric, cardboard or whatever you happen to have laying around the house. The kids can decorate them with markers, glitter, yarn, macaroni, anything. As long as it’s a “grandma-and-me” project, it will be fun-tastic.
6. Make your own books. Fold several sheets of 8x11” sheets of paper in half and staple in the folded area. Number the pages. Have the kids write a story on a separate sheet of paper. Read through the story together and decide where to cut enough story strips to fill the book. Paste the story strips onto the pages of the book. The children can illustrate each page using crayons, markers, magazine clippings, whatever. Don’t forget to include “Written and Illustrated by Child’s Name”.
7. Little ones can make books, too. They’ll just need a little more help. Start with an oral version of MadLibs. Grandma starts the story with “Once upon a time there was a ___” and wait for them to fill in the blank. Continue until you get to “The End.” Remember to record the whole story onto your blank book pages. Have the kids go back and color it and voila! A book of their very own.
8. Another great author idea: Have any handy magazines around? Have the kids find a picture they like and cut it out. Glue it to a sheet of construction paper. Depending on their ages, have the kids either write a story about the picture or tell you the story and you can write it.
9. Want to buy them a special gift for reading month? Take them to the bookstore and let them pick out a book of their very own. You might want to walk through the store with them and show them some of your favorite childhood books, too.
10. Here are some great FREE posters (you pay only the $5.00 s/h) of celebrities “caught reading”.
As grandparents, we love our grandchildren and want the best for them and there’s no greater gift than the gift of literacy. Help ensure your grandchildren are successful in life and grow up with a love of reading and writing. Read with them.
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