Snapshots of Little Readers

I had to share these. They are my (Katie's) two boys caught reading. The first is of my almost five year old during nap time. He is surrounded by books and loving it. The second I caught on camera as I happened to walk by and discover my fifteen month old enjoying the pictures of a library book. Adorable!

13 Words by Lemony Snicket book trailer

A Book Trailer: 13 Words

Our interest is peeked! And, I for one can not wait to get my hands on a copy of Lemony Snicket's and Maira Kalman's new book. There is so much that we can do with this book in terms of vocabulary, creative writing, and art. What fun!
Introducing~  13 WORDS 

The trailer is above!

Great HomeSchool Conference in Cincinnati

Read Me Home will be an exhibitor and also presenters of a workshop entitled, Reading, Understanding the Pieces to the Process at the Great HomeSchool Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio March 31-April 1. Please come see us if you are attending the conference!

Reading Revelry

After school at our house can be described with a variety of adjectives and adverbs added to any noun or verb that describes chaos. It is probably not unlike many other after school home environments. A few years ago, a pop group released a song entitled, “Who Let the Dogs Out?” That aptly describes this timeframe in our home. On a recent, March afternoon, however, something was quite different.

It was one of those days when Mother Nature becomes a vixen and lures us with her charm of unseasonably warm weather. The sun was full and radiant, and the breeze smelled like, well, warm. I was putzing around the kitchen which is attached in a greatroom style to our living area. I had that sudden realization that something was wrong. What was wrong was silence. It’s never silent in our home at that time of day! I stopped in my tracks and looked into the living area. I was stunned to see both of my children and three of their friends all nestled into different pieces of furniture with their noses in books! Sunbeams were enveloping each of them with that wonderful, bone-warming heat, and they were gone somewhere other than the living area, each of them to the place he/she was reading about.

I turned off the oven, grabbed my Jan Karon book and found the last piece of vacant furniture. For the better part of an hour, we all lounged in this manner delighting in our chosen author’s conversation in print. No one even cared that we had toasted PBJ’s for supper!

FieldTrip: The Fire Station

For me, teaching preschool and kindergarten is an incredibly experiential few years. There are very few things that we formally learn about that we do not also find a way to touch or interact with on some level. Reading books can peek a child's interest in a topic and a first hand look at that topic can seal the deal~ a readers becomes a doer! It is much more difficult to forget that which we actually do with our own hands. Even if young children do not remember the specific event they will still integrate the experience into their continuously growing minds.

A field trip is the perfect opportunity to take a subject matter and turn it into hands on fun!

Using the book, Tito the Firefighter, which has both English and Spanish text I created a unit study that touched on fire safety, introduction of Spanish words, people in the community (firemen) and my son's favorite~ the big red LOUD  firetruck!

The unit study ended with a trip to the local fire house that really put the power (water power that is!) behind the story.

Tips for making a field trip to your local firehouse:

It is easy! Simply call your local fire department and express interest in visiting the fire station. Tell the ages of the children attending. Many fire stations will simply let you come for a visit and as long as no emergency is taking place they will give a tour, talk fire safety, and even let you sit in the truck! For an added bonus, check and see if your fire department puts on a special program for Fire Safety and Prevention Week October 9-15, 2011. And, make sure to make a special visit in May for International Firefighters Day and express appreciation for the work these men and women do each and every day!

Some more resources:
Crayola Fire Station Field Trip 
Apples for the Teacher Fire Safety Resources 
Sprout Online Fire Safety Activities

Many blessings raising readers!

Katie

Creation of a Reader

A new year and a new venture, or adventure is more like it. Thanks to the vision of my oldest daughter, Katie, we are trying out a blog about one of our favorite activities in the world- READING! While I have degrees, professional experience etc… with this things called reading from a teaching and research vantage point, I still think that the insights and lessons I gained from my own children learning to read, and struggling to learn to read make up my greatest bank of knowledge which I am happy to share with others in hopes that it may help another child bridge the gap into becoming a successful reader. I’m going to start with my oldest and work my way through the five, very different children, and very different learners of reading. Thanks kids. I love you all!

I’ve already changed my mind! Readers (and writers) can do that you know. I’m going to start with myself. My own transition to becoming a reader is surely my foundation from which all else was fixed.

I have so many memories as a child. Good memories. Marvelous adventures. Many wonderful relatives who spent time with me, building my bank of experiences on which I draw to this day. Reading, however, is somehow linked to most of my memories. As an only child of educated people, and from an extended family who valued education, books were part of my life from my earliest experiences. Bedtime stories were the norm. Books as gifts were looked forward to on any occasion. I remember when I was three, I had the chicken pox. My mother worked as a secretary and I usually went to “nursery school.” My dotted physique remanded me to being home with a babysitter. I can see in my mind’s eye my mother coming home early one afternoon. She had with her a bag. When the sitter left, mother sat by me on the couch and produced Golden Books, one after the other. There was Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and one about farm animals.  She read them to me several times that evening and I loved it. I still have the Sleeping Beauty book. Even though it looks as aged as I do, I have read that very book to my children and grandchildren and the pictures and story is just as wonderful!

My paternal grandfather had a great reading lap. I wonder how many times I crawled up there with books in my hands? He never told me that he was too busy yet I know that he probably was. In his deep, commanding voice, he read me the classics, and Bible stories. He changed his voice to become different characters, and he would add personal stories that fit just right with whatever book we were reading. Papaw, as we called him, would get tired and skip a page here or there. I don’t think that I ever fell for it and as I reminded him that he missed one, I can see the smile on his face as he obediently turned back to read every page.

My maternal grandmother was the smartest person I know. She was the daughter of immigrants and was selected to attend a public school for gifted children. Life was hard and she only went through the 8^th grade. She raised 5 children as a single parent when her husband disappeared and those children say that they never knew that they were poor. Poor wasn’t the word for it! Somehow in their poverty, books were available treasures and they all read. Grandma read herself into knowledge that I would have put up against Ph.D.s any day. She was wise and smart.  She worked in factories until she retired. I would go and stay with her and couldn’t wait to explore her bookshelves. Every night, I would snuggle in her twin bed with her in our flannel jammies. She would read to me until she literally fell asleep and dropped the book! It was Grandma that read me Grimms Fairy Tales and developed the movie screen in my mind from stories. The Twelve Dancing Princesses was the kicker. I could see the beautiful ball gowns, the secret passage, and the lake that had to be crossed to get to the underground palace where they danced with their princes, and the book wasn’t illustrated! If I had a dollar for every time she read me that story to sooth my pleading for it, I would be a rich woman today.

I went to Kindergarten as a reader. I understood how stories and books worked. They were totally familiar to me and working with them was not overwhelming to me. While I don’t believe in teaching reading strictly from a curriculum of phonics, that is what I experienced in Kindergarten.  I caught on quickly to that aspect of reading because I had already had the balance of reading for meaning at home.

When my dad traveled, mother and I would read novels aloud to each other, The Wizard of Oz, Little Women, The Borrowers, and books I bought from school book clubs. As our family traveled, it was inevitable that we would locate a book from that region. Staying on Prince Edward Island for a month as a middle schooler pushed me over the edge of falling in love with Anne of Green Gables and all of her companions.

I was brought up as a reader and transitioning into the skills and activities it takes to be a reader just melted in to me seamlessly. I wish it worked that way for everyone, but it doesn’t. That will be what I share with you next.  

 Debi