Dogs help kids read

It makes sense, when you think about it.

Dogs enjoy any story you read to them, they don't judge when you get a word wrong, and they have an enormous attention span.

A non-profit organization in Chicago, Sit Stay Read!, uses trained dogs to help children read. The kids read to the dogs, and the dogs make reading more fun and relaxing for the children.

If your child has a pet, why not suggest she read to it?

Just don't read it one of those PETA brochures - it might get funny ideas and petition for equal rights. Woof!

Update: MaryEllen, of Sit Stay Read! suggests these tips for reading with your dog.

How will we read our Christmas books?

Let me count the ways.

It's important that children discover that books can be used many different ways. Here's how we're using the books we got for Christmas.

*My husband and our son had a great time going through his new Guiness Book of Records, giggling over the disgusting records (biggest earthworm) and discussing the sports ones;

*We'll be using his new cookbook in the new year to bake some treats (and learn measurements);

*Our son loved his new, personalized book and was thrilled to see his picture on the back cover;

*Our son has already started reading his new Bailie School Kids series;

*He loved the Sports Illustrated for Kids Santa gave him in his stocking;

*His new joke books are going to keep us groaning well into the new year;

*Not to mention his puzzle book, Owl magazine, Space book with tons of facts about meteorites and planets, and Build It Bigger - a book about the world's largest building projects.

So he's got lots of reading options - to read alone, with mom and dad, to read to us aloud, or just flip through and look at the pictures. It was definitely a reading Christmas.

Hope you had a great holiday. We'll be taking a new bag of books (thanks, Julie!) to the Children's Book Bank in the new year so please do drop your donations off with me.

Scrabble time!

The holidays are perfect for Scrabble.

Turn off the TV, get out the board, pour the adults some red wine. Crack open a bag of Doritos. And create a new holiday tradition.

Here's the Scrabble board from our game last night. Because our son's seven, he gets to double his score at the end of the game. He won, handily.

We helped him by showing him how to find an "open" letter on the board and build on it. We asked him what vowels he had, and suggested words like "cake" or "hope." It was exciting for him to get triple letter scores and double words.

It was a nice, quiet, family evening. All three of us had some laughs and most important, we shared some quality time together. The great bonus is, playing Scrabble will increase your child's ability to work (and play) with words.

You're looking at RIF, aren't you? That was mine. About 30 points - not bad. I don't know what it means, but it was in the Scrabble dictionary, so it counts. Thirty points.

Thank you for the Children's Book Bank donations

Thank you to John Rahme and the CBC for the generous donation to the Children's Book Bank.

After hearing about our book drive, the CBC donated a huge box of brand-new Mr. Dressup books, including school workbooks.

By that afternoon, the Book Bank had already sent the books along to neighbourhood schools that will put them to good use. The rest of the books will stay in the Book Bank and be handed out to local children.

Thanks also to L.B., who donated a big bag of beautiful hardcover books that will be much loved by their new owners.

I'll be going back to the Book Bank near the end of next week, so it's not too late to donate your excellent used or new books. For more information see the post, below.

I took a tour through the Book Bank and it really is fantastic. The books are lovingly displayed and I was very impressed by the excellent titles - these are not "cast-off" books. They're popular current titles and series. After I got home, Kim at the Book Bank sent me an e-mail thanking everyone for their generosity. Ditto from me!

Donate your gently used children's books

Give the gift of reading.

Your child is surrounded by books, but just doesn't want to read. (Don't worry - we're working on that.) In Toronto, there are thousands of kids who love to read, but can't afford books of their own.

Fortunately, the Children's Book Bank gives free books to children who otherwise wouldn't have their own.

If you've been reading this blog regularly, you know about the correlation between children who are surrounded by books, and children who excel at school. It's very important for children to have books they can take home, read in bed, and enjoy at their leisure. Books they never have to give back to the library.

The Children's Book Bank is a non-profit organization that gives low-income kids a great space in which to browse for nice books, free story readings, and a book they can keep.

Please:

*Drop off gently used or new books at The Children's Book Bank at 350 Berkeley St. at Gerrard, just west of Parliament (10-6 Tuesdays to Thursdays; Saturdays 10-2).

*Ask your friends to donate books as well.

*Donate money to the Children's Book Bank.

*If you happen to know me personally (lucky you!), give me your gently used children's books and I'll take them down to the Book Bank.

It breaks my heart to think about children in this we-have-so-much city not being able to afford a book.

Breaks. My. Heart.

So I am organizing a book drive. You can give me your used children's books and I"ll take them down to the Book Bank. Post here and I'll contact you, or e-mail me.

For more information about the Book Bank, read this excellent article that appeared in The Toronto Star.

What are kids into these days?

I spent last week helping to staff a fundraising book fair for my son's school.

It was a great way to get a sense of what the kids are interested in these days. By far, the book that flew off the shelves the fastest was Diary of a Wimpy Kid (grade 5-6). We literally could not keep it in stock.

For the grade 5-6 girls, it was Twilight, of course. The books seem to be invoking a better response than the recently released movie.

The grade 2-5 boys were interested in books about, or featuring, Pokemon and Bakugon. Any books to do with video games, especially the Wii, were hits (although not necessarily with the parents). Also popular with grades 2-5 were books about science and history, archeology and dinosaurs. Books with "facts."

Many of the grade 2-3 girls gravitated to books featuring pets, ponies and Hannah Montana.

A big surprise for me was how popular the Canadian section was. The book Passchendaele, and books about Canadians at war were really popular (grades 4-6). Those kids also liked the Bone series and a book called Schooled by Gordon Korman (he was my favourite author when I was a kid).

And of course, Knuffle Bunny and Scaredy Squirrel were big hits with little brothers and sisters (pre-school and kindergarten).

The book fair was all Scholastic books, which meant that some of the money we raised went to buy books for the school, which is great. However, it means that this list is specific to Scholastic books - that's still a pretty wide range. But still.