Scribblings Blog

Mary Had a Little Turkey?

1/1/2023

That’s a pretty strange name for an article, but it did catch your attention, right?

Back in 2019, I answered a call for submissions from Spider Magazine. The editor was looking for a Thanksgiving story suitable for early readers that wasn’t the run-of-the-mill Pilgrim’s first Thanksgiving saga.

So, I sent in a manuscript I was sure no one else would duplicate. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving passed, and I never heard anything back. After that disappointing rejection, I forgot all about the article.

A couple of years later, I received an email from Stacey, the editor of Spider, complimenting me on my wonderful children’s story and asking if it was still available.

I had no idea what she was talking about.

Stacey apologized for the delay in contacting me. It took a while for her team to fact-check my article. It seemed no one on her staff had ever heard of Sarah Josepha Hale except as the author of the poem “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

After reading the email several times, I vaguely recalled writing the article but had to dig through my ‘rejected articles’ file before finally finding it. Then, after reading the story, it dawned on me why I liked the piece so much.

Sarah Hale was a fearless activist/author/magazine editor. She spent 36 years writing governors, senators, presidents, and anyone else she could pester on why Thanksgiving should be a national holiday. Finally, in 1863 Abraham Lincoln passed a proclamation declaring the last Thursday in November as a “Day of Thanksgiving and Praise.” Mission accomplished!

That’s how “Mary Had a Little Turkey” came into being. Spider bought the piece and came up with the catchy title.

I wanted to tell you all about this in November but had to wait 60 long days after publication before announcing it. So now, here it is:

“Mary Had a Little Turkey” by Greta Burroughs, published in the November/December issue of Spider Magazine.

https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:9e47ebab-9a9d-34a4-879c-e08158e52d05

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All It Takes is a Desire to Help Others

12/14/2022

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Even if you’re not a fan of country music, you’ve heard of Dolly Parton. During the last 30 – 40 years, her music has opened the way for other artists to break through the stereotyped twangy, hillbilly, country music barrier to appear in other popular top 40 rankings. Added to that, she’s been in movies, on TV, and her Dollywood Companies have theme parks and tourist attractions peppering the countryside across the US and Canada.

What you may not know is that this same person is the driving force behind the Dollywood Foundation, a non-profit organization formed in 1988. Through the foundation, Dolly wanted to thank and give back to her hometown community around Sevierville, Tennessee for believing in and supporting her dreams of being a writer and singer.

She began by distributing scholarships to high school students. She also challenged local high-risk teenagers by offering $500 awards to “buddies” who signed a contract promising to graduate high school. (Incidentally, the Buddy Program reduced the drop-out rate to six percent in surrounding high schools and initiated the community to develop other incentives to keep kids in school.)

Dolly wanted all kids to have a chance to live their dreams as she had and believed “the seeds of these dreams are often found in books.” So in 1995, the hometown celebrity founded her Imagination Library to promote a love of reading among preschool children and their families. Dolly knew that reading would open up the young minds to the infinite possibilities ahead of them and allow them to reach for the stars.

From there, Dolly’s humble desire to help children blossomed into a global venture. One that you and your family may be able to benefit from.

How the Imagination Library Works
What started as a small project in Sevier County, Tennessee nearly 30 years ago has now grown to encompass five countries around the globe (Australia, Canada, Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom, and the United States) and is still expanding. The premise is straightforward – every child who signs up for the program receives one free children’s book a month from birth to age five, no matter the family’s income.

Since its inception, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has mailed more than 184 million books to one million plus children. The Dollywood Foundation provides the infrastructure and resources for the worldwide endeavor and works with local businesses, school districts, organizations, and individuals to bring the program to children in cities, towns, and communities across the country. Not every geographic region is covered yet, but as new affiliates sign on with the program, more and more kids will benefit from the program.

For me, what makes the Imagination Library so distinctive is that each book is personalized with the child’s name and mailed directly to the child’s home. Can you think of a better way to make a kid feel special? The American Printing House for the Blind makes many of the books in the program available in audio format and braille so blind and visually impaired kids can also benefit from the Imagination Library.

It would take more space than this post will allow to give all the specific details. The website provides a more thorough, complete rundown for anyone interested. For US residents, click here to check for an Imagination Library affiliate available in your area. If the program isn’t currently available in your area, enter your zip code here and provide your contact information to receive a notification when the program does become available.
Naturally, details vary from country to country, so please check the website for the UK, Republic of Ireland, Canada, and Australia

As an Indie Author, Can I Donate My Book?
Every author’s dream is to get your book into the hands of every possible eager reader you can find. When I first started researching the Imagination Library, one of my goals was to get Patchy and Calico included in their inventory. Unfortunately, that ain’t going to happen. They do not accept Indie authors in their review process.

The books are chosen solely from works published by Penguin Random House. A hand-picked committee of early childhood literacy experts takes great care to select age-appropriate books that cover various themes and concepts but are limited to that one supplier. Bummer.

However, this is still a fantastic program and needs to be praised for the great job they do.

And they have been. This book gifting organization has won countless awards, including the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval and the Best Practices award from the Library of Congress Literacy Awards.

It’s incredible how simple things can make such a big difference. Dolly Parton’s father could not read, but that didn’t stop his daughter from dreaming of being a writer and singer.

She never forgot her roots and wanted to help other kids with the same hopes, desires, and dreams of being successful. Through the Library, she’s giving every child a chance and encouraging them to let their imagination take them wherever they want.

She believes in the power of the written word and so do I. Keep the spark going. Inspire children, one book at a time.

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My Child Hates to Read!

7/21/2022

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Face the facts: not everyone enjoys reading.

I’ve talked with adults who have never enjoyed reading and only look at a book, magazine, or newspaper when they have to. When asked why, the answer usually revolves around not being a “good” reader and having a hard time at school because of their poor reading and comprehension skills. It’s sad. Think of all the beautiful adventures they missed simply because no one took the time to guide them in overcoming their aversion to the written word.

Hearing the words, “I hate to read,” makes me cringe. However, I know it’s inevitable; I’ll hear it again and again from young and old alike. For grown-ups, it’s hard to change the mindset, but for the current generation, there’s still hope.

Usually, when a young person says he or she hates to read, there’s a logical reason behind it. However, if he or she initially enjoyed reading, we know the cause behind the change of attitude is due to a recent bad experience or something similar. That means we can fix it.

What Causes the Sudden Change?
Looking at and enjoying books are the first steps in learning to read. Some preschoolers develop an interest in words at a very early age, but it’s pretty rare. If the child is interested, let him take the lead, only taking it as far as the kid’s attention span allows. In other words, don’t try to force the issue. It ain’t going to work! All you’ll succeed in doing is turning your toddler off of books.

For six to seven-year-olds, reading is a new and exciting experience, or at least it should be. The excitement wanes, though, if the child has a hard time picking up the new skill and is forced to keep up with his peers. Instead, allow the child to learn at his own pace. Not being able to absorb all the new knowledge doesn’t always mean he has reading disabilities. He may just need more time.

Some folks attribute the differences in reading proficiency to age. Yes, all first-grade students are six-years-old, but some are born at the beginning of the year while others are born in the fall. Those few months of brain growth and development are believed to play a significant role in how quickly children learn to read. Interesting theory, but I don’t think it’s been scientifically proven yet.

A lot of times, as an early reader advances in proficiency, reading becomes more of a chore than a pleasure. Educators and parents sometimes forget that the child isn’t that far removed from the days when all reading was for fun. Completing reading assignments designed solely to go along with worksheets, memory work, and boring lessons zap out the pleasure and dampen the joy in reading.

Asking a child to read books that are too hard can spark a dislike for reading and will only worsen as the kid runs into more and more roadblocks. Also, a lack of understanding, skill, or self-confidence can lead students to avoid complex subjects. Parents and teachers want them to succeed and pressure them to work harder, which, in turn, creates tension and stress, making everybody miserable.

Not having anything interesting available to read is another reason for a child to take a disinterest in books.

Another issue is the time it takes to complete projects, assignments, and homework. In middle school and high school, (pre)teens want to have a little “me” time to spend with friends, play computer games, and generally goof off. After doing lessons, their priority is to do something other than schoolwork, so reading takes a back burner.

How Can We Turn Our Kid Back into a Book Lover?

One approach to reversing the downward spiral is to make books fun again. Give your kid books he used to enjoy with no strings attached.

Zero in on the child’s interests. Take a step back and examine what excites or intrigues your child. Knowing what interests him can help you pinpoint what types of texts he may enjoy reading.

Start small. Read an article together that’s related to a favorite TV show, movie, activity, or sport he enjoys. Then, move up to a magazine or online publication about the same topic. Then go from there.

Read together. Take turns reading pages, sections, or chapters, or silently read the same book together. Most kids really want to spend time with their parents, even teens, but once children reach seven or eight years old, many parents don’t view reading together as an option. It is!

Audiobooks – let the kid listen to a story. Then, after a while of just listening, he can start following along in a book to get a better understanding of the words and sentence structures.

Be a role model. Kids learn from the examples their parents set for them. It doesn’t matter what you read, but make sure you make time to do it in front of your kids. And remember, it’s never too late to start.

Reluctant readers are often struggling readers, so create a safe, comfortable, relaxed environment where reading is encouraged in a positive, friendly manner. Though there is definitely not an easy way to inspire our unenthusiastic children to love books, you can help give your child the reading boost he needs with a little focus and direction. It’s not magic, but every little step helps.

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Resources to Help You Find Great Books for the Kids

7/14/2022

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There’s never enough time to do everything you need to do. So some projects continually get put on the back burner. One of these tasks may be taking the kids to the library to pick out some books. It’s not that you don’t want to do it, but sometimes it takes forever for your picky readers to decide what they want. We can’t blame them though. Grown-ups suffer from the same problem. It’s hard to make decisions when faced with so many tantalizing choices.

Life would be so much simpler if your children could have a book magically appear in front of them whenever or wherever they wanted without having to go anywhere. To sweeten the deal, the books need to be free, like at the library, but no one has to make a special trip to pick them up.

Don’t get me wrong. Nothing will ever replace our beloved public libraries. However, with the price of gas, and our busy schedules, it’d be nice to get a break from running around.

Well, ask nicely, and the World Wide Web will give you a diverse selection of options to make your wish come true.

Naturally, everyone is familiar with Amazon.com. If you have Prime and/or Kindle Unlimited, books can be downloaded to a computer, tablet, or phone at no cost. Of course, kids will not have free access to your Amazon account, so you have to supervise the transactions. Then again, that’s not so bad either. Sitting together and looking at books is a great way to spend an evening with the young ones.

There are also free, reputable, user-friendly reading websites that offer eBooks, games, activities, etc., for children of all ages. As with any site designed for kids, initial parental supervision is required to sign up or register the children and confirm the site is appropriate for their child’s grade or age level.

Weareteachers.com has approved the following websites to be safe and fun for the kids:

ABCya has a free basic account that offers cool games in math, science, social studies, arts, music, language arts, and even typing. (Grades Pre-K– 6+)
Between the Lions has video segments from the PBS Early Reading series, “Get Wild About Reading.” (Grades Pre-K-1)
Bookshare makes reading easier for people with dyslexia, blindness, cerebral palsy, and other reading barriers. It’s free for US students. (Grades Pre-K – 12)
Explorer Magazine is the digital version of the magazine published by National Geographic. It contains nonfiction content that encourages passion and wonder. (Grades K – 6)
FunBrain features learning games and videos along with a selection of free books to read online. (Grades Pre-K– 8)
Harry Potter Reading Club has activities, videos, discussion guides, and more for all the Hogwarts fans. (Grades 2–8)
International Children’s Digital Library is from the University of Maryland. It’s not glitzy or filled with animated characters, but the site has more than 4,000 free eBooks kids can read online. (Grades K–8)
Khan Academy is another no-frills free learning site with top-quality reading and language arts courses. (Grades 2–9)
Khan Academy Kids is for children learning to read. (Grades Pre-K–2)
Roy: Tale of a Singing Zebra has punctuation, reading, and spelling games, along with guided reading for early readers. (Grades Pre-K–2)
Scholastic Kids Press has current events articles from around the world written by kid reporters. (Grades 4–8)
Storyline Online is a very popular, award-winning website featuring videos of popular illustrated books being read aloud. (Grades Pre-K–4)
StoryPlace brings story time at the library to your home. It is produced by the Charlotte – Mecklenburg Library and has stories, activities, videos, and reading lists. (Grades Pre-K–1)

There’s no excuse now for kids not to have access to books. Be sure to check these websites out and get those children and teens off of Tic-Toc and doing something constructive with their digital devices!

Below we have provided a PDF you can download below and print out so your child can keep a list of their reading.

reading_list_image.pdf
File Size:	164 kb
File Type:	pdf

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Mom, I'm Bored!!

7/7/2022

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Boredom is nothing new. It's a common ailment that afflicts all kids. It begins before the youngsters walk and talk and continues until they leave the nest. Undeniably, television and computer games fill some of the time, but those pacifiers get very old after a while.

Of course, you know my solution – books.

There's nothing like getting lost in a spellbinding story while sitting in front of the air conditioning or under a giant shade tree on a hot summer day. It's a cure for boredom that never fails. It may sound old-fashioned, yet it has worked forever and will continue to work as long as we pass the secret down to subsequent generations.

One way to cultivate this solution to boredom is to allow the children and teenagers the freedom to choose books they find interesting, peppered with suggested titles you recall from your childhood. Exposing the kids to a variety of reading material from both the past and the present expands their minds and their worlds to include different perspectives, ideas, cultures, and lifestyles from the present as well as earlier times.

It's important to encourage young readers to try out some of the classics – books that have been around for a while. These stories have withstood the test of time and give the kids a taste of what life was like before iPhones. That not only includes the late 20th century but further back when going to town entailed hitching up a horse and wagon.

Of course, with older children, especially teens, your suggestions automatically indicate a book they want to stay from. Far away! That's why it's more effective if you start augmenting their collection before your kids consider you too antiquated to know anything.

I hate to admit it, but I don't remember too much about the books I loved as a little tike, except for Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes and a very battered copy of Cowboy Sam. So, as a grown-up, I've attempted to make up for my poor memory by reading beloved stories by Dr. Seuss, Richard Scarry, Beatrice Potter, and many other classic authors to my preschoolers and elementary school students.

The following list of classic books may trigger your memory and be good candidates to get for your child or grandchild (or yourself).

Preschool
Corduroy by Don Freeman
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Just Me and My Dad by Mercer Meyer
The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey

Elementary and Middle Grade
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C S Lewis
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car by Ian Fleming
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Pippy Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Teens
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Where the Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls
Jane Eyre by Jane Austen
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

This is only a starting point. So many lovely classics are sitting out there just waiting to be read. Go ahead. Think of a book that had an impact on you and suggest it to your child. Remember, asking your child to read a classic doesn't mean you're asking them to not read books they enjoy -- but rather to diversify their reading and try something new!

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Keep Those Little Gray Cells Busy Over Summer Vacation

6/16/2022

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Did you know there was a phenomenon referred to as summer-learning-loss? During their summer break, kids seem to forget lessons they had learned during the prior school year. On average, student achievement scores decline by one month’s worth of learning. The sharpest declines are in math and spelling, and the extent of loss increases as the grade levels advance.

A 2008-2012 summer-learning-loss study using data from over a half-million students from second to ninth grade discovered that students lost 25 to 30 percent of what they learned during the school year over their summer holiday.

Why? Summer vacation breaks the rhythm of instruction and leads to forgetting. So, when it’s time to reengage in the daily grind of reading, writing, and arithmetic, it requires a significant amount of review to get students up to par before tackling new material.

How Do We Fix It? This has been an ongoing dilemma researchers and educators have been studying since 1909, and a multitude of suggestions have been introduced to combat the problem. Yet, basically, it all boils down to keeping our children’s young minds stimulated with exciting and fun summertime endeavors that’ll motivate their little gray cells to continue soaking up knowledge during their time away from formal learning.

How Do We Get Kids Enthused About Studying During Their Holiday? When I was a kid, the last thing I wanted to think about during the summer was doing schoolwork. I’m sure that hasn’t changed! The secret is to suggest activities which promote thinking, reading, and learning in a nontraditional way, so the kids associate it with summer fun instead of its being educational.

Being a pollinator enthusiast, I naturally gravitate towards activities like the Xerces Society’s X Kids Program. It’s a super cool way to get kids outside to explore their own backyards and discover all the creatures living just beyond their doorstep.

The X Kids Program is led by a butterfly named Blue. Children aged 8-11 learn all about bugs – a subject most kids find fascinating! Using a downloadable book, the children complete projects and receive a badge when all the activities are completed.

Along the same lines are citizen science projects that combine a little bit of science with a little bit of observation, and a whole lot of fun for the entire family. Many of the projects are simple, yet the activities stimulate those gray cells to absorb all kinds of new information. How about taking 10-15 minutes in the evenings to count fireflies? https://scistarter.org/firefly-watch. If you’re more into counting squirrels, try https://scistarter.org/project-squirrel.

Do you like picnics? So do ants. With https://scistarter.org/ant-picnic, you and your child prepare six types of food you think ants might like, wait an hour, and then record the number of ants attending your picnic.

There are also more complicated projects, such as NASA’s Globe Observer: Clouds for middle grade and high school students. On https://scistarter.org/, you can find citizen science projects for all ages and interests, ranging from archeology to zoology.

If you and your child aren’t interested in citizen science, here are some other games and activities that’ll keep young/middle-grade/teenaged minds active:

Baking or cooking
Acting out a story or playing charades
Growing vegetables or flowers
Looking at and identifying stars
Jigsaw puzzles
Playing I spy
Making up a secret code and writing messages
Creating a new superhero
Keeping a diary or journal
And of course, Reading!

It doesn’t have to be anything complicated or time-consuming as long as it stimulates those little gray cells to think, make decisions, and learn.

How are you and your family going to spend your summer vacation?

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Add a Magazine to Your Children's Reading List

5/19/2022

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Reading with the little ones is so much fun, except for one thing – it gets pretty boring reading the same books over and over. Of course, young children never get tired of the repetition, but a little variety would be nice for grown-ups.

We could go to Wally World (Walmart) or order new books online every few months. However, that gets expensive, and over time the collection of books engulfs a lot of living space. Plus, what do you do with the reading materials your child outgrows?

Borrowing books from the public library offers one way to ease the literary dilemma. Your friendly librarians welcome one and all to browse the hundreds or even thousands of titles they have amassed. The only drawbacks are making sure the crayons remain in a different room and remembering to return the books on time.

Another alternative solution can supplement your kid's library, give you the variety you desire, come directly to your home, and expand your child's world – magazines.

As a child, I remember how thrilled I was to get my monthly Highlights Magazine. Believe it or not, Highlights is still around, along with a host of other quality magazines. When I say host, I do mean a bunch, covering everything from archaeology to zoology.

Children's magazines are no longer just a collection of short stories with a few fun facts mixed in. Instead, they're geared for specific age groups and delve into subjects that'll fascinate young minds and teen minds alike.

Here are a few of the better-known publications to give you an idea of what's out there:
Cricket Media has nine magazines for ages six months to 14 years old. The subjects range from stories and activities to history, culture, science, and discovery.

Highlights offers four magazines for ages 0 – 12 years old. The magazines have age-related stories and activities that satisfy children's curiosity, inspire imagination, and help them to grow into their best selves.

US Kids features two magazines, Humpty Dumpty (ages 2-6) and Jack and Jill (ages 6-12) that promote young children's healthy physical, educational, and creative growth through interactive activities and stories.

Nickelodeon (Ages 6-14) is filled with colorful comics from your kids' favorite shows, games, and puzzles. You can also find new books for them to read.

National Geographic is an iconic publication known worldwide for its photography and subject matter. Their Little Kids (ages 3-6) and Kids (ages 6-14) magazines spark the same type of curiosity about our natural world and science in the minds of the next generation.

Ranger Rick from the National Wildlife Federation has been around for eons and is now joined by five other magazines for ages 0 to 99. The stories and photography of wild critters, from frogs and bunnies to elephants and tigers, are informative and fascinating.

If you were a Boy Scout and remember Boy's Life Magazine, it's still around but has been renamed Scout Life. Different name but the same type of content spotlighting scouts' accomplishments and service projects and offering practical advice, facts, DIY projects, and fun.

American Girl magazine went out of print a couple of years ago, but it lives on as an interactive website for girls 8 – 12 years old with characters, games, videos, and quizzes.

If cooking is your family's thing and you want to train your young chef in the fine art of enjoying food, then Chop Chop is a magazine dedicated to just that. It's filled with delicious recipes, essential how-tos, STEAM activities, fun food facts, interactive games, and more.

Sports Illustrated Jr. (Ages 7-15) is perfect for any kid (boy or girl) who enjoys watching or playing sports.

This short list is just the tip of the iceberg. Conduct a computer search for children's magazines, and you'll find pages of monthly and quarterly publications displayed on your screen.

Are there any magazines you recall reading as a child or teen? Any you’d recommend to others?

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Are Schools Unknowingly Turning Our Kids into Poor Readers?

5/5/2022

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An increasing number of kids in the United States can't read very well. One-third of all fourth-graders can't read at a basic level, and most of these students do not improve their reading skills by the time they finish high school.

Parents grow concerned when their children fall behind their peers, and rightly so. Reading is the backbone of learning. Without basic reading skills, other subjects suffer as well. How can a child master science or social studies if they can't comprehend what's written in the textbooks?

Some educators claim it's because the children were not exposed to books and reading at an early age. However, that idea doesn't hold water because there's a combination of early and non-early readers in the mix of students.

Of course, being familiar with books before entering school gives children a definite bonus. Yet, learning to read the actual text is when things start to slow down. The kids are ready, willing, and able to learn and eagerly go about the task, but something gets in the way.

Are Schools Unknowingly Turning Our Kids into Poor Readers?

Cognitive scientists and some educators say yes.

Up until the 1960s, word repetition and visual memory were the preferred methods of reading instruction. Then came phonics which required knowledge of the relationships between sounds and letters. Children learn to read by sounding out words. A few years later, another theory called three cueing became popular and was adopted by most school systems.

We're all familiar with the first two approaches but may have never heard of the third one. With three cueing, there is no longer an emphasis on learning an unknown word. Instead, early readers are taught to pick up cues on what that word may be from:

graphic cues (what do the letters tell you about what the word might be?)
syntactic cues (what kind of word could it be, for example, a noun or a verb?)
semantic cues (what word would make sense here, based on the context?)

For example, if a beginning reader sees the sentence – "I see a butterfly." and does not know the “b” word, instead of sounding out the word, he looks at the picture, and matches that with the letter “b” and identifies the butterfly. That works fine until he comes across the same word but without a picture. Then it's up to the child to predict (guess) what the word could be from how it is used in the text and ask: Does it look right? Does it sound right? If yes, the child continues reading.

With three cueing, accurate word recognition isn't the reading goal. The goal is to comprehend the text. If the sentences make sense, the reader must be getting the words right, or right enough. The hypothesis states that as people become better readers, they rely more on their knowledge of vocabulary and language structure to read words and do not need to pay as much attention to the letters.

Does Three Cueing Work?

This is where the curious cognitive scientists come into the picture.

They wanted to see if the proponents of three cueing were correct in saying skilled readers rely more on contextual cues than letters to recognize words.

The results were surprising. All the research and studies consistently proved that the opposite is true.

Experiments forcing skilled readers to use context to predict words showed that they could correctly guess only a fraction of them. In addition, proficient readers instantly recognized words without relying on context or graphic cues. Instead, they quickly identified a word as a sequence of letters and immediately knew the difference between "house" and "horse."

So what does this tells us?

Weak word-recognition skills are the most common source of reading problems. Nevertheless, cueing is still being used in schools. Is this the reason children's reading skills have gone downhill?

Should parents question the use of this educational method? What are your thoughts?

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Have Post-Boomers Forgotten the Joy of Reading?

4/21/2022

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I read a very disheartening statistic in Dannye’s blog post, “Are Avid Readers More Likely to Succeed?”

However, the National Endowment for the Arts has discovered that twice the number of seventeen-year-olds since the turn of the century no longer read for pleasure!

What does that say about passing down our love of reading from one generation to the next? Has our love of technology replaced our love of reading books with our kids?

I did an informal poll on Facebook and Twitter. I asked Baby Boomers, Gen Xs, Millennials, and Gen Zs if they had read or listened to traditional stories, folk tales, or nursery rhymes when they were kids. If yes, did or will they pass on the classic poems and stories to their own kids?

The only responses I got were from boomers saying yes to both questions. Even though I’m friends with younger adults, none of them answered. Did that mean they had no idea what I was talking about, didn’t care, or were too busy to respond? I needed the answers, though.

When all else fails, go to plan B, right? So I got online and googled it. The results surprised me!

Physical books are still preferable over digital
The Silent Generation (76+) reads for the longest period of time.
Boomers (56 – 75) are more likely to read bestsellers.
Gen X (41 -55) are more interested in news and read more online news than anyone else.
Millennials (26 – 40) are the most likely group to use a public library.
Eighty percent of Millennials vs. seventy percent of Baby Boomers have read at least one book in the past twelve months.
Gen Z (5 -25) have increased their reading since the beginning of the pandemic but stick mainly to social media.

So, the good news is reading isn’t a relic of the past, even though it is declining as a favorite way to spend free time. However, the terrible, awful, heart-breaking news is that only fifty percent of 6-8-year-olds read for fun, five to seven days a week. Even worse, the number drops to twenty-five percent for 15-17-year-olds. Yikes, how do we fix this?

And that leads us back to my original question, are parents still reading to their kids?

Eighty-six percent of Baby Boomers who were read to as a child carried on the tradition with their own children. Yet in 2016, the non-profit organization, Read Aloud 15 Minutes found that fewer than half of parents read aloud to their children every day, and only thirty-four percent did so for at least fifteen minutes.

I guess that accounts for the low number of children who read for pleasure now.

My rant is not about turning your kid into a bookworm. Instead, my main concerns are preserving the benefits reading aloud brings to your baby and preschooler – building vocabulary, cognitive and social skills, and preparing for school.

I’ll never give up on my crusade to continue inspiring and encouraging children to be the best they can be. The negative trend in reading aloud to children can be reversed. Will you all help spread the word? Kids today will be our leaders tomorrow. Let’s make them the best leaders we’ve ever had!

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Kids & Books: Start Them Off Early

4/7/2022

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I'm a staunch believer that every child should be exposed to books from day one!

Have you noticed how an infant will stare at you as you hold her and talk to her? If a sound makes the little one chuckle, you repeat it over and over just to hear the baby’s laughter.

What better way to hold your baby’s attention than to read to her?

Of course, she doesn’t understand the words, but according to the experts, during the first year of life, an infant’s brain grows more than at any other time. When read to, the baby learns the sounds of language, the meanings associated with words, develops social skills, and forms an emotional bond with her family. Who knew that spending five to ten minutes a day cuddling and reading out loud to your little bundle of joy could be so beneficial?

The best part of introducing books to an infant is that the joy of reading increases as the child grows older. Babies and young children are sponges soaking in more than just words as you read aloud. Their minds are constantly on the go picking up information and discovering new ideas and concepts.

As babies progress into toddlerhood, they’re better able to hold books, look at pictures, and ask questions. This further increases their knowledge and vocabulary as they cherish their favorite stories and choose new books to expand their horizons.

Not only that, but their imaginations soar as our kids begin to visualize the stories in their minds. Parents can help preschoolers picture the characters, settings, and actions by asking questions and discussing what you’re reading together. It’s mind-boggling to hear some of the profound thoughts flowing from those innocent minds—things our adult brains would never dream up.

As kids progress to more complex books, it’s essential that they are comfortable using their imaginations to “see” what they’re reading. Eighty percent of what we understand comes through visual cues. That’s why it’s so crucial for us to encourage young readers to talk about, understand, and genuinely enjoy reading. When preschoolers or kindergarteners can draw pictures to go along with a story, we know the young ones comprehend what they’re hearing.

Come on, folks, don’t hesitate to read to your kids or grandkids. If there are no children in your home, volunteer to mentor a child. Inspire those young minds! Believe me, it’s just as rewarding for the grown-ups as it is for the young’uns.

Do you remember the first storybook you “read” to yourself? Aside from a collection of nursery rhymes, my favorite book was called Cowboy Sam. Sam and I spent hours together making up stories to accompany the pictures. For some of us, childhood was a long time ago, but if you can, share a book that still lives in your memories.

Come on, folks, don’t hesitate to read to your kids or grandkids. If there are no children in your home, volunteer to mentor a child. Inspire those young minds! Believe me, it’s just as rewarding for the grown-ups as it is for the young’uns.

Do you remember the first storybook you “read” to yourself? Aside from a collection of nursery rhymes, my favorite book was called Cowboy Sam. Sam and I spent hours together making up stories to accompany the pictures. For some of us, childhood was a long time ago, but if you can, share a book that still lives in your memories.

Be sure to subscribe to the Sweet & Sassy blog, so you never miss out on any of our posts!

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