Getting Kids Reading

Please change your RSS feed for Getting Kids Reading

2011-01-13T10:06:00.000-05:00

We've upgraded Getting Kids Reading!

We're at http://www.gkreading.com/.

However, if you've got an RSS feed for Getting Kids Reading, it will be pointing to this page, under a different URL.

Please go to http://www.gkreading.com/ and grab our RSS feed from there.

I wish I were technically knowledgeable enough to make this process seamless for you, but there you go. Thanks everyone, for reading GKR and we hope to see you at the new site!

Thanks,
-Joyce

Reading keeps those characters alive

2011-01-04T13:12:00.002-05:00

Beautiful PSA about reading.

This brilliant and moving public-service ad expresses perfectly how I feel about kids and reading. It really touched me and I want everyone to see it, so please do share it.

It was created for a second-year Media Arts class at Sheridan College, Ontario. Mike Rilstone, Director of Photography; Directed by Steph Korski and produced by Bryn Ross. Here's the original YouTube link.

Getting kids reading: What does work

2010-12-28T16:07:00.000-05:00

What does work. (By Getting Kids Reading.)

Reading to your kid every day. The number-one thing you can do to create a reader.

Letting him see you read. Kids do what their parents do. If you don't enjoy reading - fake it. Or read magazines or comic books or something.

Surrounding your kid with books. Access to books gives a kid ownership and once they feel entitled to books they're more likely to casually pick them up - now and throughout their life.

Reading extensions. I'm referring to other media that are associated with certain books - movies, a TV series, cartoons, merchandise - that may interest the child in a book. Who cares what hooks the child into reading? As long as he eventually reads the book, it's all useful.

Letting your kid choose what he reads. Many schools now go by the maxim that "any reading is good reading" and, barring violence or inappropriate content, I agree. If you don't like his choices, then find something similar that you do approve of. For instance, if he's reading Superman comics, find him novels with superheroes.

Treating books like treasures. Books contain: secrets, surprises, gems, rewards, new friends, adventures, useful facts, gross stuff, silliness and lots of other things your kid values. Let your kid see that a book is something precious and exciting and cool.

Turning off the TV. Much as I hate being the bad cop, you've gotta, gotta limit screen-time. Create space for reading time. Here's a GKR article about the reading bubble.

Sharing books with friends. The next time your child's friend is over, casually mention that your kid is reading "....." book, and ask what they're reading. Before you know it, the two will be having a conversation about books. And that will reinforce what you're trying to do in a way that only peers can.

Letting girls be girls and boys be boys. Your boy may want to walk around while he reads. Boys need to move, especially when they're thinking. Your daughter may want to read stuff about dogs and love and celebrities. Girls often gravitate towards books with detailed relationships. (Advice: get your boy an exercise ball to sit on instead of a chair; get your girl a book with an empowered heroine who has sophisticated relationships.)

Never giving up. Don't stop trying to get your kid to read. It's so important. So, so important. If one thing doesn't work, try something else. One day it will click and your kid will be a reader. And spend the rest of his or her life thanking you.

Getting your kid reading: What doesn't work

2010-12-26T23:33:00.001-05:00

From the RIF (Reading is Fundamental) website: What doesn't work.

Nagging. Avoid lecturing about the value of reading and hounding a child who is not reading. Your child will only resent it.

Bribing. While there's nothing wrong with rewarding your child's reading efforts, you don't want your youngster to expect a prize after finishing every book. Whenever possible, offer another book or magazine (your child's choice) along with words of praise. You can give other meaningful rewards on occasion, but offer them less and less frequently. In time, your child will experience reading as its own reward.

Judging your child's performance. Separate school performance from reading for pleasure. Helping your child enjoy reading is a worthwhile goal in itself.

Criticizing your child's choices. Reading almost anything is better than reading nothing. Although you may feel your child is choosing books that are too easy or that treat subjects too lightly, hide your disappointment. Reading at any level is valuable practice, and successful reading helps build confidence as well as reading skills. If your differences are simply a matter of personal taste, respect your child's right to his or her own preferences.

Setting unrealistic goals. Look for small signs of progress rather than dramatic changes in your child's reading habits. Don't expect a reluctant reader to finish a book overnight. Maybe over the next week, with your gentle encouragement.

Making a big deal about reading. Don't turn reading into a campaign. Under pressure, children may read only to please their parents rather than themselves, or they may turn around and refuse to read altogether.

Hmmm. So here's an interesting conundrum. I liked this article, which I found on RIF.org a month or two ago. Sometimes when I see a good article, I stash it or its URL in my "edit" file until I can use it. Unfortunately, in this case I don't know whether I parsed/rewrote it before stashing it (to prevent plagiarism) or just stashed the whole article from RIF, intending to rewrite it later (crediting RIF, of course). And now I can't find it on RIF's website. Can't find it anywhere. Searched and searched. So: apologies to RIF if I ripped (or riffed) you off. Just to be safe I'll put a nice big link to RIF right in the headline. There. Good article, though, eh? On second thought, maybe it's RIF's original article after all. I don't think I'd say "youngster." "Kid" is more my style. UPDATE: Oh geez, it's like a week later and I just remembered. I actually contacted RIF and asked them if I could reproduce their article! (They said yes.) Oh phew! Know what made me think of it? I was writing the companion article, "What does work," and I was thinking, "I wonder if RIF would be interested in reading this?" And then I recalled e-mailing them and hearing back from them. Oh geez. Sorry to make you read all of this fine print - but thanks for hanging in there. Wasn't the ending worth it? Well, it was for me. You're awesome, reader.

Take 30 seconds for literacy this holiday

2010-12-21T11:31:00.007-05:00

Think about literacy.

Take 30 seconds during the holidays - today - to reflect on how you can help your child become a better reader, enjoy books more and have greater access to books.

Just taking the time to focus on literacy will bring your child one step closer to enjoying reading more.

Here are some ideas to help you answer the question:

"How can I help my child enjoy reading more?"

* Extend your child's bedtime - as long as he's reading, he can stay up a bit later.

* Take your child to the library.

* Buy a great book and put it on your child's pillow for her to discover tonight.

* Buy yourself a good book. When kids see their parents reading, they're more likely to read themselves. (Have you read Andre Agassi's new biography Open? Even if you don't like sports, biographies or Andre Agassi - you will enjoy this great, fast and engaging read.)

* Read with your child tonight, even if he's already reading by himself.

* Buy books at Goodwill or another second-hand store.

* Rent your child the movie of a famous book. Buy the book too.

* Suggest that the grandparents purchase a magazine subscription for your child.

* Buy your child a booklight. Let him use it tonight after lights-out.

* Get your son a fact-based book like the Guinness Book of Records or one with lots of adventure like Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (the graphic novel has just come out).

* Get your daughter a book with lots of great characters and developed relationships, or one with a wonderful, empowered heroine like Eloise.

* Don't ever give up. Every second you spend with your child on reading is quality time and an investment in his future.

Image: Wikimedia Commons, by this author.

Great game: "No it wasn't"

2010-12-13T13:50:00.002-05:00

Here's a great game that can spark an interest in plot and character. (And giggling and goofiness.)

By Jennifer A. Nielsen

A great road trip game is called “No, It Wasn’t.” It’s played with partners. One begins telling a story—any story. The other interrupts as often you like with, “No, it wasn’t”—or any grammatically-correct contradiction.

It may sound like this:
1: One morning, Jane went for a walk.
2: No, she didn’t.
1: That’s right. It wasn’t a walk. She was running. For exercise.
2: No, it wasn't.
1: Actually, it was because someone was chasing her. A bad guy.
2: No, it wasn’t.
1: No, it was the police. Jane is the bad guy.

And so on. The challenge to the storyteller is to instantly change direction, as often as they’re prompted.

As the story continues, the predictable story lines usually fall away, and the requirement to make changes opens the doors to great creativity. A new story begins to emerge, one that goes in radical new directions. In the example with Jane above, it would’ve originally been a story about her going to visit her friends. In only three twists, Jane is on the run from the police.

Choose a main character, any main character, then give them something to do. And so your game begins.
Need a prompt?

Here it is: When (Main Character) came home that day an old friend was waiting.
No, it wasn’t.

Ed: Thanks, Jennifer - it is a great game. My son and I played it and we giggled like idiots the entire time. I found that the game worked best when the adult did the first story-telling, so the child could get the hang of it. All he had to say was, "No it wasn't" and he could sort of see how things changed because of that. Then when it was his turn, he understood what needed to happen in his retelling. Thanks for letting us reprint this from the blog, Writing For Kids.

Jennifer A. Nielsen’s debut novel Elliot and the Goblin War was released in October 2010. And it comes with a warning–as of today, only seven children who have ever read this book have lived to tell about it. If you’re very brave, perhaps you’re willing to take your chance with it. The next book in the series, Elliot and the Pixie Plot will be released in May 2011.
(Ed: As soon as she's able to send us a review copy, we'll post a review about it. But I love the cover - look out, goblin! JG.)

Access to printed materials does help

2010-12-04T17:57:00.001-05:00

What impact, if any, does access to print materials have on our children's reading?

A lot, according to extensive research by RIF, Reading Is Fundamental, a non-profit children's literacy organization based in Washington, DC.

Owning and borrowing books from the library causes, "positive behavioural, educational and psychological outcomes."

In other words, kids who have access to books do better socially and at school.
(Does this sound familiar to regular GKR readers? But I digress.)

RIF found that having access to printed materials:

...improves children's reading performance. Children, and kindergarten students in particular, read better when they're often surrounded by books.

...is instrumental in helping children learn the basics of reading. Kids who have lots of different books become better at identifying words, being able to sound out words, and read sentences.

...causes children to read more and for longer lengths of time. There is more shared reading between parents and children. Kids read more often and for longer stretches.

...produces improved attitudes toward reading and learning among children. Kids who own, borrow or who are given books say they like reading and schoolwork more than kids who don't have access to books.

So there you have it. It's what this blog has been advocating for more than a year, and I'm thrilled to see another significant study that backs it up: kids who have access to books are much more likely to become great readers, and to love reading.

Scatter books around the house
Please check out these ideas for surrounding your kid with books.
Mom got her son reading!
Percy Jackson and the Olympians (let him find books on his bed)
Get your six-year-old reading
More books = more education

How the RIF study was done
Researchers searched 11,000 reports and analyzed 108 of the most relevant studies. They then chose "the most thorough and carefully conducted 44" of the 108 and did further analysis in order to draw their conclusions. That's a lot of stuff.

Play on Words - literacy action game

2010-11-26T10:45:00.000-05:00

By Nancy Miller

Here's a fun activity that can take five minutes, or roll out to 10 or 15.

The goal here is to have fun with words -- and encourage your kid to get reading!

Play on Words
This activity uses three major learning styles:
• visual: they see the words.
• aural: they hear the words.
• kinesthetic: they act out the words

Here's how to play:
1. Ask the child to say his name and what he likes to do. For instance:
“My name is Fraser. I like to swim." (or ride my bike, or run, etc.)

2. Write down the answer in large letters.

3. Then together, pretend you're swimming hard (lie across a chair and kick your feet while stroking with your arms; diving... make sure there's lots of action!)

3. Read the words aloud, pointing to each word. Read the words together.

You can also extend the learning:
*Do the actions again. Then ask your child to pick out the words that go with that action.
*Keep a record of the words.
*Later you can also cut out pictures to go with the activities; this is excellent for reinforcement.

Variations
Other times, pretend:
*Animals; "My name is Fraser. I am a lion."
*Vehicles: "My name is Fraser. I am a train."
*Sports: "I like to play baseball."

This will work with whatever your child's interests are.

This activity is a shortened version of a longer learning-to-read program. If you would like more information on the program, please contact: Nancy Miller at millerneighbour@rogers.com.

Save the Words

2010-11-22T14:03:00.002-05:00

Won't you adopt a word?

You don't normally think of the Oxford English Dictionary people as silly, but they've developed a project that's pretty goofy, and it's something you can do with your kid to get her thinking about language.

They've rounded up hundreds of words that don't get used much any more. Words like gumfiate (to swell), lambition (licking) and vellicle (something that pinches or holds fast).

They've taken all of these nearly extinct words and knitted them into a virtual quilt, which you'll find here.

When you move your mouse over the words, they'll call out to you: "Pick me! Pick me!" They want you to adopt them.

You can find a word or two that you like and click on them. That will bring up its definition, and a form that allows you to "adopt" it. (Like all adoptions, you first have to register. Unlike human adoptions, it's free.)

Adopting a word means pledging that you'll try to bring it back into the mainstream. You'll use it in conversation and in writing, and you'll explain it to people.

Save a Word is meant to be a fun concept to get people thinking about words. It's a great resource to use to talk to your child about the fact that words evolve and how our language has changed.

NYTimes 10 best picture books

2010-11-17T16:30:00.000-05:00

In time for holiday gift buying, three editors at the New York Times have published their choices for the "top 10" picture books of 2010.

I'm not sure I'm completely with them on this list. I mean, "top 10"? Out of everything, these are the ones? No Jeremy Tankard? So... as with any suggestions, take 'em with a grain of salt. But do check them out because no matter what, these books are no slouches.

The New York Times published excellent synopses for each book, here.

WORDS, an image-and-word poem

2010-11-11T01:51:00.002-05:00

WORDS is a brilliant short (1:54) film that blends images to create a flowing "word poem" that is lovely, fun and thought-provoking.
It starts out with "play," which leads to "blow" and then "break" and "split" and then "run."

The images examine all aspects of the words. For instance, "run" is a person running, and then a runny nose, running a red light and running away... which leads to fly, and fly (zipper), and fly (work), and then fall... falling down, falling in love, waterfall, the Fall...

They used YouTube images to produce something really mesmerizing. Watch it with your kid, to bring new sense to some basic words and concepts and what they mean to us.

Re:WORDS from Everynone on Vimeo.

Thank you, Everynone, for this brilliant word poem. And BoingBoing for bringing it to our attention.

How to build reading success

2010-11-09T01:19:00.002-05:00

Could this be Snappy the mouse?
Well, no, I made him up.
But if there was a mouse named Snappy,
this would be him. In a bi-plane.
Image: by Dvortygirl.

Here’s a great way to help your child succeed at reading and at the same time develop a love of books… and it starts with one word.

When you’re reading with your child, point out a word or two and help him to memorize it. Every time the child reads that word—and can read that word—he’ll feel successful. And that’s when you praise the heck out of him.

Here’s how it would look
ME: This is a book about a mouse named Snappy. Look at that name, “Snappy.” See the big S at the front? It’s like a snake, isn’t it? How many letters does Snappy’s name have—let’s count them. Six! What else does Snappy’s name have?

KID: Two of these letters. (pointing).

ME: That’s right! Snappy’s name has two ps! And do you know this letter? (Pointing to the y.)

OK, so now the child will recognize that if there’s a word with two ps and a capital S and a y, it’s likely to be “Snappy.”

You’ve shifted his focus from all of the grey text in the book, to looking for just one little word. And you’ve chosen a word that will come up a lot in the book, so there will be lots of successes.

And now as you’re reading out loud, pause whenever the word “Snappy” is in the text. And you know who’s going to read that word? (Right!) The kid.

The first couple of times you’ll pause and point to the word, and maybe point out the capital S and the ps with your finger. And then look pointedly at the child, as if waiting… for… him… to… say…

KID: Snappy!

ME: Good one! That’s right! There’s that word: Snappy! Nice job. I wonder if it’s in here again…

And sure enough, the second time you pause, he’ll notice the capital S and call out, “Snappy!” And you’ll both be delighted. And the next time it will happen faster, and the next time you won’t even have to pause at all.

It will become seamless, like this:

ME: One day when (child: Snappy!) was in his bedroom, his mother called to him. (child: Snappy!) she called. Oh, (child: Snappy!). Come down and eat your dinner!

And then later in the week, the child will see the word in some other context, in another book or in an ad (Snapple) and he’ll be so proud that he knows that word.
Is he sounding out the word using phonics? No, he’s memorizing it by its shape and a couple of cues. And memorizing is an important part of learning to read, especially in the beginning.
But more than that, your child has taken ownership of a word. He’s taken ownership of a book with “his” word in it. He has learned that he can read something, and he’s been successful.

Parents can teach media literacy

2010-11-07T12:49:00.001-05:00

The North American House
Hippo exists... right?

Move media literacy up on your curriculum.

The world for kids today is increasingly packed with messages from the media that are contradictory, confusing and overwhelming.

(By media, I mean primarily advertisers, news organizations and the Internet.)

Media literacy—being able to make sense of what advertisers and news organizations are telling us—has been moved up on the curriculum in many school boards, including the massive Toronto District School Board (TDSB).

Parents should also move it up on their “curriculum.” There’s a lot you can do to give your kid a basic foundation in media literacy that will help prepare him to navigate a world full of ad messages, hidden agendas and conflicting ideas.

When you’re walking down the street, point out some ads and talk about them:
For younger kids—Talk about the actual words and pictures on the ad. Ask basic questions like, “why is there a picture of a hamburger on that poster?” “What is being sold?” “How much are they selling it for?”

For older kids—“Who do you think they’re targetting with that ad?” “How much do you think the company spent on that ad? Why?”

Open up a newspaper with your child:
For younger kids—Show them that there are different sections to a newspaper. Explain what a headline is for. Talk about some of the pictures. (Note: It’s tempting to turn to the comics page, but ironically most comics will be too obscure for young kids, so you’re probably better off with Sports or Lifestyle.)

For older kids—Focus on a specific story. Pick one from a section that interests them; perhaps Sports or Fashion. But don’t shy away from current events or politics, either. If there’s an election in your area, explaining what an election is, and who’s up for election can be one of the most engaging conversations you have with your child.

When you’re watching TV, talk to your kids about the program they’re watching. Talk to them about actors and make-believe. Take them mentally out of the program and “behind the camera,” where the show is actually created.

Here’s a great place to start: the North American House Hippo
It’s a one-minute TV “commercial” created by a non-profit group, Concerned Children’s Advertisers. It advertises “the North American House Hippo,” a supposed nocturnal, rodent-like creature.

The message at the end of the ad is that of course there’s no such animal, but didn’t the ad make you feel as if the hippo really existed?

Superhero School

2010-11-04T19:11:00.001-04:00

Kids love superheroes. But...

...superheroes are usually found in comics. And parents want kids to read books. Plus, superhero comics are often too violent for younger children.

Solution: books with superheroes.

Superhero School, by Aaron Reynolds, is just such a book, and it's terrific.

Protagonist Leonard is a kid with super-strength and super-speed. When he gets sent to superhero school, he can't wait. He looks forward to learning how to stop trains, and bend iron and clobber bad guys.

So he's more than a little disappointed when the teacher at superhero school teaches them boring stuff like fractions, and division instead of flying and clobbering.

But when the ice zombies kidnap the teachers and threaten to take over the world, Leonard and his classmates sure are glad they have the math skills they'll need to divide and conquer!

A terrific book, with a nice twist that kids might not see coming.

The illustrations are quirky-great; there's only one illustration of clobbering and it's just silly rather than violent.

Other great superhero books we've reviewed:
So your kid loves superheroes? No problem.
More superheroes.

Promote literacy: four important activities

2010-11-01T21:41:00.002-04:00

There’s a fourth promoter of literacy.

You know that I’m always going on about the three most important things you can do to turn your kid into a great reader:

1) Read to her every day.
2) Have lots of books scattered throughout your house.
3) Let her see you reading.

Research tells us that if you do those three things, you’re more likely to have a kid who loves to read.

A Grade 1 - 2 teacher at my son’s school told me about another one: The number of books she reads/looks at/has read to her.

Mr. Remisch told me that kids who “go through” books at a fairly good clip tend to be lifelong readers. It makes sense; it’s kind of an extension of #2—exposing her to books, having them around her.

Mr. Remisch has a wonderful plan to get the kids in his class to “get through” a lot of books. He uses an incentive.

The kids in his class will write down the title of every book they read, along with as much as they can or want to say about the book. When they get to 30, they’ll get a certificate.

For a six-year-old, that’s a pretty solid incentive. In fact, just keeping track—or having your teacher keep track—of the books you’re reading is enough to keep a kid reading.

In this exercise, Mr. Remisch isn't concerned as much about the quality of the reading material, as the quantity. He’s not trying to make kids read specific things, here; he’s trying to expose them to books. Lots of books.

He’s setting the stage for later years, when the quality of the reading material will become more important.

He doesn’t want kids going home and staying up until two in the morning, reading all 30 books in one week, so he’ll probably set a limit of three books a day.

And he says it is important that the child understand what she’s reading, so there will be some discussions about the books. And for every, say, dozen or so books, he’ll ask the child for a bit more detail.

A reading incentive chart with a nice reward is a great way to expose your child to books and get her reading.

Here’s an earlier article we wrote on Reading Reward Charts.

Winner of PictureIt Contest

2010-10-29T11:21:00.000-04:00

Thank you to everyone who entered our contest for free PictureIt books.

We have a winner! We put all of the names in a (virtual) hat and randomly chose a winner. Congratulations to Maria Butcher, who should be receiving the books right... about... now.

Maria mentioned in her comment that her son has Asperger's - these books, in which the child draws his own illustrations, may be an excellent resource for him. I hope Maria will let us know if he enjoys the books (or not - either way, we wanna know!).

Now, for all of you who entered but didn't win
I can't bear to see anyone walk away empty-handed! So I went back to PictureIt and asked if they could offer some small discount to anyone who entered but didn't win.

They're not set up to offer discounts, but here's what they generously offered to do: If you entered the contest, they will give you free shipping if you purchase the books through their website directly.

So if you entered the contest and want to buy the books and take advantage of this offer, you'll need to e-mail Alicia and Leanne (the creators) directly and mention Getting Kids Reading. They can be reached at creators at pictureitpicturebooks dot com.

Thank you to PictureIt for supplying the six free books. And congratulations on having recently been picked up by Chapters/Indigo!

If you don't know what I'm talking about, here are the links to our contest (which, as I say, is now over). Thanks everyone!
PictureIt book giveaway
Win free PictureIt books

Mother-Son bookclub part II

2010-10-28T08:09:00.003-04:00

Our mother-son book club met again this week.

It’s a great example of parents taking their children’s literacy into their own hands. And anyone can do it – you can do it.

The boys drew, read, wrote, ate,
chatted, answered quiz questions
and had an amazing time.

Once again, the evening was total chaos… and I wouldn’t have changed a thing. There were boys writing, boys reading, boys drawing maps of faerie sightings in their neighbourhood, boys eating cupcakes, boys talking (in very loud voices—ok, shouting) about books, boys presenting at the front of the room, boys running around and overall, boys enjoying and sharing their experiences with books.

There were about half a dozen moms wondering what the heck was going on. (The one dad remained very calm, taking it all in stride.) The moms all had the same expression on our faces. It said: “This is chaos!”

Yes, it was chaos. It was wonderful chaos.

It was the way boys often need to learn, to connect, to delve into books, to share. Touching things and doing things and running around occasionally and eating snacks—while they were learning.

Every boy there walked away knowing that for a month, while they were living in “The Spiderwick” world—there were a dozen other boys in exactly the same world. And that’s the whole point of the bookclub.

Our itinerary:
Amongst the chaos, quite a lot was accomplished.

The book this month was The Spiderwick Chronicles (Book I), about three siblings who move into an old house and discover a secret world of faeries and goblins.

Two families hosted; their boys created a quiz about the book and its characters. They called out questions and the audience members answered.

They also gave out hand-outs: one asked kids to draw a map of their neighbourhood, showing where faeries and goblins could be found; another had kids draw their own “field guide” book cover; another gave the first three lines of a poem and had the child create the final line; still another taught “deductive reasoning.” So there was something at both ends of the spectrum, for kids who prefer drawing and kids who prefer writing.

Joulie handed out our special shrinky-dink I.D. badges that we’d created last month. They looked fantastic and the kids were excited to see their creations turn out so well.

And then Joulie created special I.D. cards for each child, which she’s brought home to laminate. (Yes, Joulie is our neighbourhood supermom who not only has a shrinky-dink machine, but apparently a laminator as well!) Each card has a photo of the child, which Joulie must have taken last month, wearing a fake moustache. I completely missed that she did that – when does she do these things?!

We read out a couple of the stories the kids started last month. Remember the envelopes, on which each child wrote the beginning of a story – we each took one home to continue the story. They were handed out yet again, for the kids to develop the story a bit further at home.

There was a lot going on, all the time. The boys could draw or read or write or eat or answer trivia questions—sometimes all at once. It was so great, I can’t even tell you.

You’ve got to start up a kids’ book club in your neighbourhood. (Just don’t ask to borrow Joulie, ’cause you can’t have her.)

Next month:

Our book selection for next month is Big Nate: In a Class by Himself.

In December, we're doing The Red Pyramid, which is a really big book so we're giving two months' notice. We're also suggesting that parents check the audio version of the book out of the library (you can get the CDs or download an MP3) because the book will be a bit too ambitious for some kids to read.

Teen says reading helped save him

2010-10-21T14:23:00.002-04:00

Haille Bailey-Harris is an amazing teenager.
His mom helped him get on the right path,
in part by nurturing his love of reading.

An incredible success story

In the Globe and Mail's coverage of "boys and education" this week, a very moving column by a boy named Haille Bailey-Harris caught my attention.

He's a 16-year-old high school student, and he's determined not to become one of the statistics the Globe has been writing about - boys who don't do well in school and don't go on to university.

He's an amazing kid. Just Googling him for this article uncovers a whole series of articles he's had published in major newspapers. Clearly, he has brains, initiative and goals (including arguing a case before the Supreme Court and publishing a book). I have no doubt he will achieve his goals.

However, it wasn't always like that. The deck was stacked against him from day one. He hasn't seen his father in 10 years - he's being raised by his mother alone; he's an avid video gamer; and he's dark-skinned. He was bullied in school, full of anger and got into lots of trouble.

As he says in his column, "according to the research, I should be failing in school, a non-reader and basically a loser... hell, I should just throw in the towel!"

Instead, his mother intervened. She developed a plan with his school's principal, and it worked.

I'll direct you to his beautifully written Globe column for the whole story, but basically, here's the plan that worked for him:

1) Find other role models. Teachers, relatives - both male and female.

2) Create a community family. For instance, Big Brothers and Big Sisters provided him with a mentor.

3) Nurture a love of reading. "Instead of banning me from video games, my mom got me games that also required me to read (like Pokemon) and encouraged me to get books (even comics) that interested me. Gradually, I wanted to read books and, eventually, I wanted to read everything, all the time."

4) Do community service. He and his mom volunteer at the public library and a homeless shelter.

His "battle plan," as he calls it, helped him realize that he had potential, "as do all children, no matter what the circumstances." He tried harder in school, found better friends and, "suddenly, before I realized it, my life was right-side up."

Now that's a great success story.

The column Haille wrote touches on a couple of themes that I've been espousing for a long time. First, that parents can offset poor schooling, bad teachers, lack of resources and just about any obstacle that stands between a kid and the love of reading. Parents can accomplish just about anything. And second, that no matter what a boy wants to read - embrace it! Haille was reading Pokemon video games, for crying out loud. He says he's now "a happy, well-adjusted 16-year-old who really loves to read." Lots of people say that boys need to choose their literature carefully and shouldn't read "just anything." Haille and I disagree.

I couldn't find a copyright-free picture of Haille Bailey-Harris and I wanted to show you what he looks like, because this is his story. Haille, if you object to me using this photo (which I found on Globe.com) then let me know and I'll take it down. But I hope you don't - because people need to know you.

Series on "how school is failing boys"

2010-10-15T14:49:00.002-04:00

The Globe and Mail is beginning a new series tomorrow, taking a look at “why school is failing boys.”

They say that boys earn lower grades overall than girls in elementary school and high school. They do more poorly than girls in reading and writing and they are more likely to have to repeat a grade or to drop out of school.

Girls are also more likely to go to university: they make up 60 per cent of undergraduates.

Boys are more likely to say they feel disengaged with school, they spend less time studying (or none at all) and to report that neither they nor their friends plan to go to university.

The Globe plans to examine reasons for these statistics including:

Textbooks, long criticized for being sexist, have been revised but the pendulum may have swung too far. Most of the “smart” pictures of happy and productive kids are girls and the “bad” pictures are of boys doing destructive or ill-advised activities.
Parental expectations for boys are too low. Only 60 per cent of parents said they expect their son to get a degree. (Ten per cent lower than for daughters.)

An article by Carolyn Abraham which will be published in tomorrow’s Globe and Mail, notes that a recent wide-ranging study of youths found that the top four predictors of which teenager will go to university are, in order:
1) Overall marks
2) Reading ability
3) Study habits
4) Parental expectations.

The article says that parents and schools don’t take boys’ interests seriously enough, understand what motivates them, or pay enough attention to their needs or aspirations.

The societal factors may all be true, but I think one should never underestimate the power of parents to change the course of their kids' lives, to encourage boys to do better in school and to help make it a place where he feels engaged.

Never underestimate the power of parents.

Related links
We’ve covered many of these issues in GKR before. Here are some links to previous articles. Also, click on “Boys” in the Labels to get ideas to help get your video-loving or active boy reading, as well as great books for boys:
Boys don’t like school
Boys' and girls' brains develop differently
Getting boys reading: start in the middle

Halo by Alexandra Adornetto

2010-10-08T13:32:00.001-04:00

I’m not so sure it’s a great book… but I can’t seem to put it down.

Halo hits all the right buttons for today’s modern tween girl: the main characters are supernatural (angels); there’s a romance; cute and enigmatic boy characters; a spunky yet conflicted girl protagonist.

Synopsis
Halo tells the story of three angels who have been sent to earth to set things right. Apparently evil is overtaking us, and enough is enough for the Guy upstairs. One of the angels is 17-year-old Beth, who is more susceptible to her new human form than her two older and wiser siblings. She succumbs to the temptations of human emotion and falls in love with a human boy. This sets up a conflict, since she finds herself too busy dating to pay attention to the more charitable pursuits she has been put on earth to fulfill. The whole thing comes to a climax when a sexy male devil character sets his sights on her.

Kinda like Twilight
Whereas Twilight, the hugely popular teen-girl-fantasy novel against which all others must now be measured, had vampires, Halo has angels. Twilight is set in a quiet, nondescript town in the U.S.; so is Halo. Both have strong female lead characters. Both books feature gentle (yet strong) male love interests. In both books, the female lead characters must battle supernatural forces. And in both books the main character is quickly swept off her feet by a boy with whom she falls irrevocably in love, a love she puts beyond all else – including common sense and her responsibilities.

If your teen or tween girl liked Twilight, I’m going to bet that she’ll enjoy Halo.

It’s a gentle love story, an easy read, with just enough action to keep the pages turning. And it's clean. Angel-clean.

However, I would have liked the book to have been edited a bit more carefully. Not only are there occasional grammatical errors, but some of the dialogue is stilted, especially when the kids are tryin’ to talk hip-like. That’s the writer’s fault but also the editor’s, who should have pointed it out and asked for rewrites.

I once had an editor who talked about an author who “worries every word.” Halo feels like it was written a bit hastily, without the words having been sufficiently “worried” by this young author (Alexandra Adornetto is 19.)

But it doesn’t really matter, because the kids are reading the book in droves and loving it, with or without clunky dialogue.

Adornetto is already working on the second book in what will be a trilogy: Hades, due out next year. The third book will be entitled Heaven.

She is also working on a website for young aspiring authors which will offer writing tips. Now, that is something to really look forward to, and something that will undoubtedly help to get kids writing. Good for her.

Related Links
Here's the video trailer for Halo.
And here's a nice video interview (1:30) with author Alexandra Adornetto.

Previous articles posted on Getting Kids Reading
The Twilight Series.
New Twilight Book.
Newest Twilight Book - Free.

Contest: Win free Picture It books

2010-10-06T11:25:00.000-04:00

We've only had two contest entries so far.

And while it's great that two people have entered (thank you, M and K!)... I ask myself, "why haven't more people entered?"

I figure it could be for two reasons (both of which have to do with the fact that I'm a neophyte at offering contests):

1) You don't want to have to worry about picking the books up or paying for postage. Fair enough - I get that. Can't change it, though.

2) You don't want to have to put your e-mail address (as asked in my original post) on the Internet. This one I can fix.

So now if you want to enter the contest, just e-mail me your information at joycegrant at sympatico dot ca and I'll enter you!

3) Don't know what contest I'm talking about? Read this. And then enter, please.

Mother-Son book club

2010-09-29T11:40:00.000-04:00

My friend Joulie is a supermom.

That needs to be said right off the bat. There is no way to live up to the things that Joulie does with her kids. And for the kids at the school. And for the neighbourhood kids.

Luckily, I don't have to be as good as Joulie - I can just wait until she organizes something, and jump right in. (And now thanks to this post you can, too.)

Her latest venture is a mother-son book club. It's a fantastic way to get kids reading. It's also a boy-celebration of books and of reading.

I wasn't sure what to expect from a mother-son book club. The book clubs I've been to have been calm, thoughtful, philosophical affairs (with wine). This was not that kind of book club.

About a dozen boys and their moms (and one dad) gathered in a room in our local library. Each boy was given a T-shirt with a Star Wars character on it with the caption, "Reading is strong in this one." Their first task was to colour the shirt with fabric markers.

I love this shot of Joulie as she tries to say something over the
din of boys drawing, and eating, and laughing - in short,
celebrating books in a way that only boys can!

At the same time, a boy was asked to come to the front and talk about his favourite book. My son gave a heartfelt speech about Rick Riordan's "The Red Pyramid."

After that came the trivia questions about Diary of A Wimpy Kid. "What was the main character's father's name?" Hands go up. "Frank!" Correct.

Fun, fun, fun.

Then, each boy and each mom made a shrinkey-dink name tag, which Joulie (of course supermom has a shrinkey-dink machine, it's one of the many things we love about her) will shrink down for next month's club meeting.

While we drew our name tags, another boy presented his book and more trivia questions were read out. We kept going that way until each boy had presented. The list of books presented was varied and interesting: How to Train Your Dragon; Hamish X and the Cheese Pirates; The Hardy Boys; and Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief, among others.

While the presentations were being made, some kids were listening attentively. Some were eating cupcakes. Some were drawing. Some were wandering around, listening but moving. That's boys! A boy book club is not going to be about perfect silence, waiting turns, putting hands up. No, a boy book club is about doing, and calling out, and giggling, and moving around, and challenging each other. And that's perfectly fine.

Our boy book club had everything that boys like - including poop jokes, and stories that end with "and then he died," and swords and questions and laughter and physicality.

It was by far the noisiest book club meeting I've ever been to. And probably the most fun.

After the presentations and name tags and cupcakes and t-shirts, Joulie handed each child and each parent an 8x10 envelope. She instructed us to write the beginning of a story on one side of the envelope. Why an envelope? Why not? Next month we'll use wood to write on, she said, or cloth or whatever else is an interesting medium for writing.

After everyone had started their story, Joulie shuffled them and everyone took someone else's home. Our "homework assignment" is to continue the person's story on the other side of the envelope.

Then each child submitted the title of a book they would like us all to read for next month. We chose one by random draw: The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book I. Next month we'll all have read the book and Max's mom will be the one to come up with the trivia questions and to bring the snacks. Joulie's going to supply another craft, because she's amazing at it.

The first meeting of our mother-son (and one father-son) book club was a noisy, lively, celebratory, exciting... success! We all gave Joulie a passionate round of applause and a big hug.

This book club is going to be the start of something big for our kids.

"Picture It" book giveaway

2010-09-28T13:48:00.000-04:00

"Picture It" picture book giveaway.

Toronto hosted Word on the Street on Sunday.

I'm always blown away by the sheer number of people who come out to the one-day festival. There are kids' literature lovers, fantasy and sci-fi afficiandoes, magazines, alt literature - even Harlequin had a booth.

I picked up some fantastic ideas for kids' literacy. One of the best was a brand-new series of books called "Picture It picture books." They're the brainchild of Leanne Milech and Alicia Belvedere.

They're picture books with text on each page, with a big blank space for kids to illustrate them themselves. So for instance, a page will say "I have many toys, but this one is very special to me." And then room above for the child to draw their special toy.

It's a brilliant idea, because some kids are more into art than words. This draws them into the language as they explore their artistic side.

There are six books so far. "Goodnight Dreams" is about a girl who doesn't dream and sets out to discover why. "Captain Zane" takes kids on a sea adventure. There's also an alphabet book and a number book as well as a book about the child and their family.

The women have sold their idea to Chapters Indigo so it's certain to take off. It's also been featured on TV on CityLine.

Here's the Picture It website with more information.

We're giving six books away
Getting Kids Reading is proud to be giving a series of these wonderful books away to one lucky GKR reader. I'll be doing a random draw, selecting one name to win.

If you live in the Toronto area and can pick up the books, that's great. If you're outside the city that's fine but you'll have to be willing to pay for postage. (I don't think it'll cost that much, but I'm no postal expert, so I can't say for sure yet. Update: Under 10 bucks, the Picture It people tell me.)

The books are for kids 6 and up, although I'm sure that younger kids would enjoy them too. They're listed at $7.99 each.

To enter the draw, write a Comment with your name and e-mail address. I'll put all the names in a hat and pick a winner! The winner will be notified on Tuesday, October 12. (If I haven't had enough entrants by then I might extend the deadline a bit, but let's see what happens.) Good luck!

Awesome book review - The Hobbit (by Luke, 10)

2010-09-23T17:52:00.000-04:00

Image: Amazon.ca

Not sure if your kid would be interested in reading The Hobbit? Don't take it from me – here's a review written by 10-year-old Luke, who has read the book (wait for it) 15 times.

The Hobbit
By: Luke (Grade 5)

Peace-loving Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit (or halfling) is living in the country of the shire in Middle Earth (more on that later). He meets a strange wandering wizard talking of adventures; Bilbo invites him to afternoon tea and thinks nothing more of it. But instead of just one wizard arriving at Bilbo’s house, 13 dwarves arrive as well.

And so begins an adventure beyond Bilbo’s wildest imaginings. An adventure that takes him to the Grand House of Elrond, through the dangerous orc-infested Misty Mountains, past the mazes of Mirkwood and to many other places as well.

The author, J.R.R. Tolkien, was a professor of mythology at Oxford, so he knew a lot about myths. He created a world from his imagination – Middle Earth – in which all of his stories took place. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit as stories for his children and not to publish as a book. Later, he was convinced to publish the stories as a book – which has never been out of print to this day.

The Hobbit is a great adventure story and is a classic as well as a must-read. I have read it 15 times. You heard me, 15 times! I don’t often read a book more than once.

It submerges you into another world and it captures your imagination – taking you to another realm. It paints a perfect picture in your head and it has a really good story line. And when you get that combination in a book, you can read it over and over.

The Hobbit was so successful when it was published that Tolkien was encouraged to write a sequel, which became his masterpiece: Lord of the Rings. I love Lord of the Rings, but I haven’t read it 15 times. I think it is because there is a charm in The Hobbit that is not matched in the sequel.

So if you haven’t read Lord of the Rings yet, read The Hobbit first. And if you have, read The Hobbit anyway.

Luke is a student at Hillcrest Community School. This review was originally published in the school's online newspaper.

Blocks With Letters On 3

2010-09-14T14:52:00.000-04:00

Oh my, this one's tricky!

If you have a kid who's a real fan of puzzles, he'll love the newest Blocks With Letters On online game - their third in the series.

Once again, you have to figure out what word the jumbled letters spell, and then try to manipulate the blocks into the yellow squares.

Sometimes you need to flip the blocks and sometimes you need to temporarily fill a hole with one block and then slide another block over it. You always need to plan ahead, thinking about how the letters need to line up in order to spell the word.

The graphics are very silly and cool, and after every time you spell a word correctly, a little animation plays that depicts the word.

This version of the game is very tricky, so it's not for young kids but teens who love puzzles will definitely find it intriguing. I noticed that on the BLWO games website they also have a version for the iPhone. Fun!

Here's an earlier post about the previous two BLWO games.

Vote on Munsch's next book

2010-09-09T10:33:00.000-04:00

What's Robert Munsch going to write about next?

You (or your kid) can help him decide.

Munsch has three outlines for new books. Kids can pick which one they'd most like to see made into a book by clicking on the voting button.

Go to Pick-A-Munsch on Scholastic's website and vote for #1, #2 or #3.

#1 is about a pet rat that escapes; #2 is about a kid who goes ice fishing; and #3 is about a family that lives in a temporarily overcrowded trailer.

You can vote from now until Hallowe'en (Oct. 31) and the book that's chosen will be published in May 2011.

This little voting game is a great way to connect kids to the writing process and help them to understand how a book comes together.

Actually, it's going to help me with a children's book I'm working on. I've been trying to figure out how to do an outline of my book--well, here are three great outlines by one of the most famous and successful children's authors in the world. Great examples of how to sketch out a book outline.

Thanks, Robert! (Er, Mr. Munsch.)

After you're finished voting, put your mouse over the image that says "Which story is in the lead" and you'll see which one's winning at the moment. (Not the one I picked.)

I took this picture when Munsch was at the Mississauga Living Arts Centre doing a presentation and signing autographs. Doesn't it look like he's asking that kid, "Which outline should I develop into a book? Really? That one, you think? That one?" But he's actually just signing an autograph. Psyche!

Scrabble Flash (Boggle Flash)

2010-09-06T19:49:00.000-04:00

Don't you wish there was a board game that encourages literacy - but which your kid would actually enjoy?

Scrabble Flash goes one better... it's also electronic, which kids love. And it's completely portable, packing down into a little holder about the size of a small TV remote. (Which parents love.)

You get five electronic Scrabble tiles. Line them up so they're touching at the sides (they "talk" to each other electronically this way). Turn them on, and select Game 1, 2 or 3.

Game 1, Scrabble Flash

The five tiles each display a letter. You have to arrange them into words. For instance, if you get P-A-C-E-S you could make PACE, PACES, ACE, ACES, SEA, APE, APES and so on. You shuffle the tiles around to make as many words as you can in 60 seconds. After you make a word, the tiles flash to signify that your word is acceptable. If it's not a word, it won't flash and it won't count. You can create three, four or five-letter words, although five seconds are added to the clock every time you create a five-letter word.

When the time runs out, you're given your score ("SCR08") and the highest score you could have gotten if you'd guessed all the possible words.

Game 2, Five-Letter Flash

Use the letters to create five-letter words. When you create a five-letter word, you're given five new letters. You keep going until you can't think of a word and the time runs out. It's a great one-person game.

Game 3, Pass Flash (for two or more players)

Just like in Game 2, you have to create five-letter words. When you've got your word, the tiles will say NEXT and you pass them to the next player, who tries to get a five-letter word. If someone misses, they're out and the tiles will tell you what the word was before encouraging you to pass them to the NEXT person. Last one standing is the winner.

Bring out Scrabble Flash the next time your family is waiting for their meal at a restaurant. It's not noisy, so you won't disturb anyone, and it's truly portable.

In our family, Scrabble Flash has been an instant hit, not just with our son but with the adults as well. And it's kind of addictive, actually. You want to keep challenging yourself, keep making words.

It's extremely easy to use and the rules are simple. It's not one of those games that has pages of arcane rules - it's as simple as, or simpler than, Scrabble. You can play for five minutes or you can play for an hour. It's probably best with one or two people, but theoretically you can play game 3 with a whole bunch of people.

And it will help improve kids' literacy skills, because the more they play with letters and words, they more they will understand how they work together. For instance, every time you get an S, kids will pretty quickly figure out that they should try it at the end of the word. And then try the word without the S for a second point. Same thing when they get an E or an ES. And from there, other combinations like EA or OU.

This is a seriously good game, and I give it two thumbs up. It sells for about $30 and if you're buying it somewhere other than Canada or the US, it's called Boggle Flash.

Here are a couple of other reviews of Scrabble Flash.

1) http://scrabble.wonderhowto.com/blog/new-game-by-hasbro-electronic-scrabble-flash-0118257/

2) http://drakesflames.blogspot.com/2010/09/word-game-review-scrabble-flash.html

I should mention that Hasbro gave me a "review" game of Scrabble Flash for free after I'd requested it. I mention it in case you think that my getting the game for free might skew my review. I don't think it does, because they also sent me another game that was OK but which I didn't think had tons of literacy potential, so I simply didn't review it. Dat's mah policy.

Also, the photos on this page were supplied by Hasbro. I thought they'd be better than the lousy ones I'd probably take with my point-and-shoot. But now that I see them on the page they aren't that great, actually. Makes me feel better anyway.

Literacy Lava 6 - e-newsletter

2010-09-02T20:39:00.000-04:00

Please check out the 6th edition of Literacy Lava e-newsletter.

I have an article in it ("Newspapers Build Literacy Skills") that I hope you enjoy.

Click here to access the free .pdf, Literacy Lava 6. Scroll down on the page and click on the image of LL6.

You'll find lots of other great literacy articles in this edition of LL, including:
* How to create a father/son book club;
* Telling tales with "story stones";
* Using poetry to support literacy; and
* Revving up reluctant readers.

Our thanks to Susan Stephenson, of The Book Chook, who produces Literacy Lava.

Macdonald Hall

2010-08-25T05:00:00.000-04:00

Most of the summer, my son has been absorbed by the Macdonald Hall series, by Gordon Korman.

Set in a Canadian boarding school, it's all about the antics of Bruno Walton and Boots O'Neal, who share a dorm room - and get into a lot of mischievous fun.

The MH books are real page-turners, with lots of action and just enough character development so that you get to know the quirks about the kids who live and study at Macdonald Hall, but not so much that the book gets bogged down.

For instance, there's the clumsy kid who can always be counted on to stumble over his own feet and smash everything to the ground (think Lucille Ball carrying a big chocolate cake); Elmer is the smart one, who can hear a bird in the forest and instantly name it; Bruno is the guy who's never met an adventure he didn't like - and will do anything for his school; and Boots is Bruno's long-suffering best friend who tries to talk sense into Bruno but eventually gets dragged into all of his schemes. And of course, there's Fish (Mr. Sturgeon), the strict but lovable headmaster.

While it's set in a boys' school, Korman also has two feisty female protagonists who attend the girls' finishing school just over the highway. Not only do they assist in many of the boys' schemes, but they start up a few of their own.

What kind of things do the MH kids get up to? In one book, they want to buy a new pool for the school so they hold all kinds of massive fundraisers - without the knowledge of the Fish. In another one, a major movie star (think Justin Bieber) shoots a movie at the school and Bruno tries to get himself into every shot possible.

And in others, the boys try to thwart a new dress code and a change in dorm-room assignments. These may sound like pretty tame plots, but Korman makes them exciting and interesting. Boys, especially, will giggle out loud.

Here's something really cool that you need to know about the first book in the Macdonald Hall series (This Can't be Happening!). Gordon Korman wrote it when he was 12.

Yes, he was 12. As in, at 12 years old he wrote his first book - but not only that, a book that would become an award-winning series. But not only that... a series that would endure to the present day, when it's still every bit as funny and interesting and relevant as the day it was written.

Scholastic has revamped the Macdonald Hall series, giving them new covers and updating some of the information. For instance, the boys use computers and e-mail - something I'm quite certain they didn't do in the original books. But they haven't changed too much (in fact there are still some anachronisms in the books).

The one thing my son and I were a bit miffed about - and I think it's kind of a major error - is that Scholastic listed the books out of order in the frontispiece of each book. For instance, on the back of Beware the Fish! it says it's "The third fearlessly funny book in the Macdonald Hall series." But it appears as number four in the list - in every MH book.

Now, it's not all that important to read them in order, but my son and I both went by that list and we read them out of order when we didn't have to. Just sayin'...

So here's the correct order:

1) This can't be happening!

2) Go jump in the pool

3) Beware the Fish!

4) The wizzle war

5) The zucchini warriors

6) Lights, camera, disaster!

7) The joke's on us

Incidentally, want to know how my son found out about the Macdonald Hall books? They were my husband's favourite books when he was growing up. From father... to son. Way to go, Gordon Korman.

I have to send a shout-out to Scholastic's awesome Nikole Kritikos (who I'm quite certain had nothing to do with the frontispiece mix-up), who just sent me Gordon Korman's latest book, Swindle. My son and I will be gobbling that one up in no time - as soon as he's finished Schooled, by GK.

By the way, did you know that Gordon Korman was named after Gordie Howe? He was.
Lots more information on Gordon Korman's website.

Back to school 2010

2010-08-23T12:42:00.000-04:00

By Julia Mohamed

It’s nearly back-to-school time! Time to go from running wild and free to becoming a studious student once again. Here are a few ideas to help make the transition as smooth as possible:

Goal Journal
Have your kids contribute to a nightly journal. Begin now, with their anticipations and goals for the upcoming year, and continue to use it as the year progresses. It will help get them into the routine of writing again, and it’ll be great to look back on it later in the year. They can do all of the writing, dictate to you, add some pictures or make it a combination of everything.

Great sites
School means reports and essays. Here are great, kid-friendly websites where kids can search for the answers to questions on just about anything.

Homework Helper
This site offers categories like “Science, History, World, Sports and exercise.” From there, kids can drill down until they find answers to questions they have on just about anything. Includes facts and information on Canada, plus a “World” category.

It’s a non-profit website and each category uses a specialist in the field to write the information and answer kids’ questions. If you can’t find what you’re looking for on the site, you can ask their experts a question and they’ll e-mail you back. They'll also send parents links to kid-friendly websites.

Fact Monster

Published by Pearson publishing, this site offers information and facts on lots of different subject areas, for kids K to 8. It also has an online atlas, dictionary and encyclopedia and some online games and quizzes (for instance, hangman, Star Wars quizzes, an interactive periodic table, Sudoku, how to write a book report and much more.)

Funschool Kaboose
Funschool Kaboose is a Disney site with great information, games and crafts for kids from preschool to grade 6. It also features sections for parents and educators.

Stock up on school supplies

Before heading out, prepare a list of the school supplies you need. Why not make it a scavenger hunt? Be sure to be specific when you’re writing your list: Number 2 pencils, blue and red ballpoint pens, a calculator, white erasers, a one-inch three-ring binder, etc. Refer to our article, Supermarket Scavenger Hunt for details on how to create the perfect hunt!

Reading - every night

Keep reading to your child every night. Create a reading log for your kids. A simple chart with headings including “Date,” “Title,” “Author,” “Number of Pages Read,” and “Amount of Time Spent Reading” can help keep track of how much they read. For every milestone, give your child a reward. Here’s a past GKR article on Reading Reward Charts.

If you only get a chance to do one thing from this article, check out the websites Julia found - they have a great wealth of information your kids will appreciate when they start getting into essay writing time.

Julia Mohamed is a freelance journalist.

Keeping kids reading

2010-08-19T05:00:00.000-04:00

My son reads a lot.

Erm... well, he used to.

It appears that I've been resting on some laurels that have deserted me while I was looking the other way. (To use an overly complicated metaphor.)

Over the summer, I started to notice that my son has been playing more video games and going to bed later and reading less and less.

What got me thinking about it was a book I picked up recently that had a chapter entitled, "Good readers: How to keep your child reading."

I realized that I have been assuming that once he became a good reader, my son would always turn to books. And now I think that isn't necessarily the case. The bond between a boy and his books might actually be more tenuous than I thought.

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that lately video games, baseball and TV have been winning - and books are going unread. Like, for weeks.

So here's what I did. First of all, I started reinforcing a more normal bedtime. I told my son when he has to be "in bed," and when he has to be "asleep." There's a half-hour difference in those times - and that's for reading. So he goes to bed before he's completely exhausted and then he gets half an hour to read.

Next, I asked him why he's not enjoying reading. It turns out he been waiting for the next book in the series he's working on (Macdonald Hall by Gordon Korman). It was sold out at our local bookstore and no one had gotten it for him for his birthday. So he's been waiting.

We could have ordered it online, but when you only buy one book you have to pay shipping, so we tracked it down and then went really, really far to a bookstore that had it. And we bought it for him. All of that seemed a bit crazy at the time, but it paid off: he started reading the book in the car on the way home. Sha-zam!

The third thing I did was start reading to him at bedtime again. As he'd begun reading more and more by himself, I realized I'd been reading to him less and less frequently. My husband bought another book by Gordon Korman (Who is Bugs Potter?), and I started reading that to my son out loud - while he was in the bath. I took advantage of a captive audience, I admit it - but again, it worked. Who is Bugs Potter? is a pretty awesome book. (I'll blog about it soon.)

It piqued his interest and now I'm happy to report that my son is reading again. A lot.

I figure we're good until he runs out of the Macdonald Hall books and finishes Bugs Potter. So Rick Riordan, if you're reading this, could you please hurry up and finish the next book in the Kane Series? Type, darn you! Type!

I've got tons of stuff I want to blog about in the upcoming weeks... great books. A few products I've ordered from Hasbro that look like they'd be great at promoting literacy. Some research I've been reading up on. The results from that study we all took part in. And I'm hoping for a few more articles by Julia. So stay tuned!

Supermarket Scavenger Hunt

2010-08-16T09:57:00.000-04:00

By Julia Mohamed

The next time you go grocery shopping, make it a more educational, enjoyable and literate experience for your kids with a Supermarket Scavenger Hunt!

1. Give each child a list of items to gather. Be as specific as possible (include a brand name, size, etc.) For instance, you might put:
□ One 18 oz jar of Kraft Crunchy peanut butter,
□ Three small green zucchinis,
□ One loaf of Dempsters 100% whole wheat bread.

It helps if your list is divided into categories, such as produce, meat, canned foods and, of course, snacks. That way, the kids will be in one specific area of the store at a time and you can keep an eye on them more easily.

For older children, throw in a few challenging items, such as ethnic foods. For instance, One jar of Red Shell Teriyaki sauce.

2. As each child brings you items, check to make sure they’ve picked out the right ones. If not, send your troops back out into the field.

3. Reward your kids with a healthy treat!

You can continue this activity when you get home. Include them when you’re making dinner by asking them to read out the ingredients in your recipe to you.

You're going to have to go grocery shopping anyway, and you know it's always a hassle. This great game is fun, it gives the kids a bit of freedom, and it gets them reading. A win-win! (Just do keep your eye on them, eh? I don't want to be getting any letters from parents saying their kids were lost for days in the zucchini aisle...)

Julia Mohamed is a freelance journalist. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Write your kid a letter

2010-07-28T18:40:00.001-04:00

Have you sent your kid a letter this summer?

What a great thing to do!

When you're bored at work - instead of re-checking your e-mail for the tenth time, or surfing, do something that will help your kid... write her a letter.

It takes, like, 10 minutes and it will be one of the most rewarding things you will do all day. Use a big, easy-to-read font like Times 18. (Resist using a cartoon or handwriting font. They may look fun, but they're very hard to read. The easiest ones to read are serif fonts, like Times.)

You don't have to say anything profound. Just chat, let her know what's happening at work, tell her that you're proud of her, ask her what she wants to do this weekend.

A letter from you will let her know that you're thinking of her, it will give her some insight into your day and it's a great way to get your kid reading!

When you're finished your letter, actually mail it - don't just bring it home. Half the excitement is going to the mailbox and getting something that's been sent to you.

It's also a good idea to include a self-addressed, stamped envelope that your child can use to write you back. (And if you use your work address, you'll get something at your desk in a couple of days besides conference flyers and departmental invoices!)

Writing your kid a letter is one of the greatest ways to spend 10 minutes. For you, and for your kid.

Don't have a kid? Write your grandchild a letter. A neighbour. A friend's kid. Santa (don't need a stamp for that one!). Snail-mail is fun... and it's still pretty cheap (especially if you sneak your letter in to the company mailbox and let the firm pay for your postage).

Image: Wikimedia Commons, by Deadhoax.

The Red Pyramid

2010-07-26T14:18:00.000-04:00

Looking for the next great book?

Here's a conversation I've had a couple of times recently:

Parent: "I need a good book for my son."

Me: "What books has he already enjoyed?"

And then the list goes like this, not necessarily in this order:

* The Bone series

* Diary of a Wimpy Kid series

* The Harry Potter series

* The Percy Jackson series

Me: "Great! I know exactly what to recommend."

The next absorbing reads

First of all, if your kid loved the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, take him to see the movie. It's heartwarming and every bit as good as the books.

If he's seen the movie, then make sure to get The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary. It's the "making of" the Wimpy Kid movie and he will love the book. For more information about it, check out my post - it'll tell you all about it.

But after that...

The Red Pyramid

As you know, the Percy Jackson series was about a modern-day boy dealing with monsters and gods from Greek mythology. Your kid (and you) will be thrilled to know that the author, Rick Riorden, has started a new series - this time drawing on Egyptian mythology.

The Red Pyramid is the first book in the new series The Kane Chronicles. It's about a brother and a sister who have family bloodlines that go back to ancient Egypt. That makes them, it turns out, very powerful magicians and it gives them mystical abilities which they discover throughout the course of the book.

The Red Pyramid has the same rollercoaster excitement of the Percy Jackson series, it's action packed and it's one of those books you just can't put down. I found it much more fact-heavy than Percy Jackson - which I found impeded my enjoyment of it a bit, but which actually makes it more attractive to boys. Boys love facts. They love to collect information about things that are interesting to them, and The Red Pyramid gives them tons of useful information about Egyptian gods, goddesses and monsters.

My son is in the middle of The Red Pyramid right now and he's eating it up like candy. His reaction seems to be typical amongst boys.

The other day he was on a playdate and suggested to his friend, "Uh, let's take a break and, um, maybe read a bit?" Basically, he was thinking about his book and wanted to get back to it - in spite of the fact that he was in the middle of a fun playdate. His friend said, "Whaa-?" And my son tried to recover: "No, that's silly - we can read later. We'll just play a video game or something." A-heh.

I love that little exchange because it illustrates the kind of pull a really great book can have on you. It becomes like a little obsession that you think about and want to get back to as soon as possible.

Here's the official website for The Red Pyramid/The Kane Chronicles. It gives you a great overview of the book. Links to related information are "coming soon." The site says that book 2 in this series will be coming out in Spring 2011 and book 3 in Spring 2012.

Rick Riordan's website

Here's Rick Riordan's website, which is surprisingly content-rich in terms of Greek mythology, teachers' guides for his children's books, online research websites where kids can learn more about Greek mythology, links to relevant online games and lots more information for kids who don't want the Percy Jackson series to end. They can look at maps supposedly drawn by Percy Jackson and Grover and get tons more behind-the-scenes information.

A few kids have asked me how to pronounce Rick Riordan's name. It's like Ryer-din, where Ryer rhymes with fire. There's even a link on Riordan's website where he pronounces his own name for you and then reads a bit of one of his books.

License Plate Game

2010-07-20T14:23:00.001-04:00

Our family recently took an 11-hour car trip.

And guess what we did in the car? Played Julia's License Plate Game.

It was great! First of all, it took our son away from his DS video game (curse you, Pokemon!).

Secondly, it did exactly what Julia said it would - it got us creating goofy sentences and thinking about words. When you have to create a phrase with the letters "FTP" you realize there are so many possibilites.

It's funny, but the first phrase you create sticks in your mind, like "Frogs top poles" and you can't think of any word for the letter F other than frogs.

But then someone else comes up with a completely different word for F. My husband said, "For the people." And that created all kinds of new possibilities for us. Then we started on a bunch of "For the" sentences and that was really funny. "For the penguins." And then we morphed that one: "Free the people."

"Free the penguins!" (I just thought of that last one.)

Heehee. Fun game.

And no, incidentally, none of us ever thought of "that" F word. For pete's sake, people.
Photo: Sean Mack, Wikimedia Commons.

Survey for research on "enhanced books"

2010-07-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

GKR readers, the U of C needs our help.

The University of Connecticut is doing a study on illustrated children's books. They'd like GKR readers to help by taking a brief (four-minute) online survey.

Before passing along their request to you, I called them and spoke to them about their research. It sounds pretty interesting.

It's an academic study - not funded by any toy company or book publisher. They're interested in investigating a product that would enhance an illustrated book with online information. So for instance, it might be that a child clicks on a picture of a dolphin and gets some facts about dolphins. Or maybe the child is instructed to click on all of the nouns on a page and the device counts the number of nouns the child successfully finds.

The survey is intended for parents of children 8 and under, but if you've got an older child and can simply cast your mind back to the time when they were 8, they'd like your input too.

I've asked them to share with us the results of their survey so we can blog about it. The results should ready in August.

Here's the survey:
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22ATY56VF98

Canadian (and other non-US) GKRers - when you come to the question "What state do you live in?" resist the temptation to type "state of bliss" and just leave it blank. Their research includes Canadians and non-Americans, but not to the extent where they'll actually let you select a province. Whatevah.

Literacy games for in the car

2010-07-09T15:02:00.001-04:00

By Julia Mohamed

Going on a road trip? Here are some great literacy games you can play in the car.

THE LICENSE PLATE GAME
● One person begins by spotting a license plate and announcing the letters (not the numbers) on it.

● Everyone else, in turn, must come up with a funny phrase using the letters of the license plate, in order. So for example, KES could become “kiss every squirrel” or “knights eating steak.”

ROAD-TRIP SCAVENGER HUNT
● Create a list of things to look for while you’re on the road.

● Your list can be adjusted, depending on where you’re travelling. For instance, a city scavenger hunt list may have: a flashing red light, someone talking on a cell phone, and a sign in a foreign language. A rural scavenger list could include: a horse, a tractor, road kill, a silo, a pond, and a gas station.

TRAVEL JOURNAL
● Before the trip, buy a note pad and box of crayons for each child in the car.

● Every day on your vacation, or for each memorable event that occurs, have the kids draw a picture and write about it in their travel journal.

● Give them some suggestions to get them started (“how about drawing the beach we were on this morning”) but after that, let their imaginations run wild. Encourage them to use as many words as possible. They may want to do the art in the evening in the hotel room or campground, and add the words in the car while you’re driving to your next destination. Young children can write one or two words (“Beach” or “Playing frisbee”) while older kids can write descriptions and even leave out the pictures altogether.

Julia Mohamed is a freelance journalist. This was her first assignment for GKR and I'm hoping it will be the first of many articles from her. (Hint, hint Julia.)
Photo: Ian Britton, FreeFoto.com.

Car literacy games? Literacy games in the car? Not quite right. Literacy games for in the car? Looks weird - sounds ok. It's what you'd say but it looks wrong when you see it spelled out. I dunno - today's not a good headline day for me obviously. Sorry, Julia. Harumph.

The "Air Mail" game

2010-07-06T09:34:00.001-04:00

My son’s friend likes to play “air mail” whenever he comes over on a playdate.

It’s a great game and I know that it works on their literacy skills because I've seen improvements. It involves a bit of the adult’s time, but it’s such a fun game that I indulge them whenever they ask me to play.

Here’s the game:
The kids run upstairs and hole up in their bedroom.
They each, or together, write a note to me on a piece of construction paper.
Then they run downstairs and throw the note in my general direction – and then run giggling, like criminals, back upstairs where they slam the bedroom door.

So we’ve got lots of good elements here. There’s some kind of “chase” which involves getting the note to the adult without being seen. The adult can add to the excitement by either pretending not to see the note, or suddenly flinching in the child’s direction as through he’s going to chase them.

The first note from the children will be something like:
“We want a snack!” or “Ask us a question!”

Then the adult writes a note on the other side of the paper. I usually try to get some kind of dialogue happening, like: “Ask the Oracle a mysterious question.” Last time, I tied two snack bags of jelly candy onto the note and then pitched it at their bedroom door where it made a very satisfying – and disconcerting – thump. That was the kids’ cue to gingerly open the door to see if I was still there (I wasn’t) and retrieve my note.

If you can picture it, there is a lot of silliness, giggling, whispering between the kids and slamming of doors. There’s a lot of running up and down the stairs and a lot of suspense about what the note will say, whether they’ll get caught sending or retrieving their notes and whether they’ll get a treat.

In the meantime of course, there’s reading and writing. And I don’t make it easy for them. I use big words and I make sure there’s a pay-off for reading and understanding each message.

For instance, in our most recent game “Ask the Oracle,” the kids’ second note didn’t include a question. I figured they probably didn’t know what an Oracle was. So my next note told them to look the word up in the dictionary to find out what an Oracle could do for them. There was a pay-off to using the dictionary (because Oracles are cool).

Sometimes I make my notes into paper airplanes and throw them at the bedroom door. Sometimes I load them with a treat or even carrot sticks. Usually there’s a payoff for them writing another note back to me—maybe it’s a knock-knock joke they’ll have to ask for the answer to. Or sometimes it’s a nugget of information that they have to ask for more details about. Just something to keep the game going and keep the kids reading and writing. And giggling.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons, by Akkana.

Set up summer reading rewards

2010-06-18T14:40:00.000-04:00

Stats show that kids who read throughout the summer have a great kick-start to school in September.

And kids who don't, typically start the school year a bit behind.

With the school year ending, now's the time to plan your child's summer reading and writing projects.

Does your library have a summer reading program? Ours does; it's usually a large poster with about a dozen stickers you can earn over the summer by reading a book and then telling the librarian what you read.

The stickers are motivating because they "add" to the picture on the poster when you stick them on it. It's also nice for kids to have the undivided attention of the librarian while they're telling her about the books they've read.

This would be a pretty simple project to do at home. Instead of a poster, it's a big picture you or your child draws on bristol board - and a flat of stickers that have some kind of theme.

You could also arrange the stickers in a "reading reward chart" configuration. Each sticker represents a book the child has read and when he's read five (or 10) books he gets a reward of some kind.

It's important to put the poster or chart up on the child's wall so it's constantly motivating for him.

I don't know about you, but when my son was small I counted books that we'd read together as well as ones he'd read himself. Both types of reading are equally important and valuable, I think.

Related posts:
http://www.gkreading.com/2009/08/summer-reading-program.html
http://www.gkreading.com/2009/07/summer-reading-tips.html
http://www.gkreading.com/2009/01/motivate-your-child-with-reading-reward.html

Here's a link to the Summer Reading Club. This year's theme is "Destination Jungle" and the image with this post is this year's poster.

Numeracy activities

2010-06-14T12:23:00.000-04:00

A few posts ago, I listed some great literacy activities from our school board. Here are some numeracy activities to get kids doing math (same source, TDSB).

Again, I've put in bold the ones I think are particularly interesting.

Estimate speed/distance/time relationships while travelling with your family. What was the average speed of the last trip you took?
Examine maps with your child. Estimate distances. Find locations.
Make a favourite recipe together.
Log and graph sports scores over time. Find trends.
Log and then graph daily temperatures over a one-week period with your family. (Make sure you take the temperature at the same time each day.)
Estimate quantities and volumes during activities like gardening or planning food for a trip.
Track three different stocks and see how they do in one month.
Do mental calculations such as estimating grocery or restaurant bills.
Pay cash for a purchase at the register. Check the correct change.
Calculate how long it will take to save for a certain item your family would like to buy using your money from a part-time job or your allowance.
Calculate a bat/run average for a specific baseball player.
Make a weekly schedule with your family. Make time estimations for different activities.
Read signs with your family while driving. Specifically look for advertising that has a math concept embedded in it. Talk about it.
Explain how to calculate the tip at a restaurant. Do the calculation together.
Open a bank account. Many youth accounts have brochures that explain interest rates. Read the literature together and decide which type of account will earn the best rates, minimize your transaction costs and meet your minimum balance plans.
Look at sports statistics. Have a discussion about an interesting trend.
Go grocery shopping together. Compare prices. Estimate price per kilogram. Which is the better price?
Talk about items on sale. Do some Internet research to find out whether other vendors have similar products costing more or less.
Talk about lotteries. Examine the odds.
Talk about how a credit card works. Look at a statement together.
Look at your electricity, gas or water bill. Which utility costs your family the most?
Look at charts and graphs that appear in newspapers or magazines you receive. Find one that has information that interests your family. Talk about the chart or graph.
Examine different cell phone packages. Which is the best value for your calling pattern and payment preferences?

Source: Toronto District School Board, TDSB.

Offering a healthy choice

2010-06-10T14:18:00.000-04:00

My son doesn't eat enough fruits and vegetables.

And I think that one reason is that I often take the easy route instead of the healthy one.

Let's say he has 10 minutes before his baseball game - he's starving, but he's late. "Mom! I'm hungry!" I will usually make him crackers and cheese or a give him a granola bar.

Because I know that if I offer him a banana or an apple I'm going to get, "I'm not hungry for that!" A big hassle. And while we argue, the clock is ticking and before you know it we're even later.

My husband, on the other hand, can tell him, "Grab a banana" and although he'll whine, my son will eat it. Because he's learned that with daddy, that's a snack. Daddy stands firm.

This can apply to reading.

Like last night, the Stanley Cup Playoffs were on. The Stanley. Cup. Playoffs. (If you're Canadian you know what I'm talking about. If you're not, you can imagine.)

But I could see that my son was tired and needed to get into his bed. So rather than cave into his demand to watch the game, which would have meant he'd be up for another half an hour, I told him that he could read for 10 minutes in bed.

He did whine. I insisted. He whined some more (seriously, the Stanley Cup playoffs!). I stayed the course. Bedtime, and as a treat you can read for 10 minutes. The implied threat was that if there was any more whining I'd take away the reading. (Which I'd never do, but he doesn't read this blog so he doesn't know that.)

So he read for a bit. And because he really was tired, he went to sleep.

And in the morning, I had a kid who was well-rested. (And had to be told that the Blackhawks had won the Stanley Cup in overtime.)

Getting kids reading can be really hard. But it's worth it.

Get involved in your child's school

2010-06-09T10:46:00.001-04:00

Enrich your child's learning, help your teacher, get involved.

I despair when parents complain that their kids aren’t getting what they need from their school.

I despair, not because the children aren’t getting what they need from their school, but because we parents have been conditioned to accept those terms lying down. And I strongly believe that if your child is not getting what he needs from school, you can change things.

We parents need to recognize our power. We need to ignore the “stop” signs that have been put up around us—Stop! You can’t participate in school. Stop! You we can’t go into the classroom. Stop! You can't change the curriculum.

School is not some sacrosanct chamber. It’s where our children spend the vast majority of their time during the day. School is where our children are living their lives.

And if they’re not getting what they need from school, we can change that. As parents, we need to change that. We need to add stuff, we need to get the teachers to add stuff, we need to change stuff.

We can raise money for great books if that’s what’s needed—or just make a donation to the classroom of appropriate books (with input from the teacher, of course). We can find interesting programs that are being offered and get them incorporated into our school’s curriculum. At our school, for instance, the parent council funded a chess program so now all of our kids, from grades 1 to 6, get instruction in chess once a week.

We can talk to the teacher and the principal to find out how we can help. Taking a look at our own skill set is a good place to start. That’s how I arrived at the idea to do a weekly current events session in my child’s class. I’m a journalist and I love the news, so I simply asked the teacher if he’d be interested in my bringing newspapers to the kids once a week.

How about buying a few sets of Boggle or Scrabble and introducing your child’s class to a weekly game that gets them thinking and spelling? Or researching excellent fun learning websites on the Internet, so that when your child’s computer time comes around, the teacher has some good options to offer the kids.

Or how about introducing chess to your child’s class? Chess is actually extremely easy to play at a beginner level; once you know how each piece is allowed to move, you’ve pretty much got it. (It only gets hard at more advanced levels.) You can teach yourself how to play, buy or borrow a few sets and then – presto – you’re bringing chess to your child’s classroom once a week. And as our chess instructor will readily point out, the game teaches children how to think ahead, which is a valuable life skill.

If you can throw off the shackles of “parents should not interfere in school” and get involved, there are thousands of ways in which you can customize your child’s learning, help the teacher and enrich the school’s curriculum. And that’s a good situation for everyone.

I'm not suggesting some radical, half-cocked approach here. I'm talking about taking your ideas to the teacher or the principal and letting them know what you can offer and why it would benefit the school. Working with them as a partner. And of course, the benefit to you is that your child will then be exposed to new and extended learning. I mean, like, don't just do stuff for other classrooms - do it for your own kid's. It's a win-win.

Newest Twilight book - free

2010-06-07T11:22:00.000-04:00

the short second life of bree tanner - by Stephenie Meyer

It's hot off the press and today until July 5 it's available free online here.

The book is a novella, only 178 pages, and its protagonist is one of the minor characters from Meyer's earlier novel, Eclipse.

Bree Tanner is a "newborn vampire," whose life is dangerous and ultimately tragic. The book is told through her voice, giving Twilight fans a chance to look at Eclipse in a completely different light.

As a parent, you should know that your girl will definitely want this book. That Chapters/Indigo is selling it for $9.99 when you purchase another teen book. And that it's available online for free until July 5, 2010.

Even if you're not planning on reading this book, check out the free online version - the technology is pretty interesting. You can increase the size of the print, view it as a one-page or two-page spread, and choose individual pages to read or just go through it all page by page.

If you've got a reluctant reader, this may be just the ticket. It's a short book, full of action, easy to read and it's online. Until July 5.

I bought the book yesterday and it only took me - I tend to be a very slow reader - an hour or so to get halfway through it. It's interesting and it clips right along. And I like that Stephenie Meyer lets her readers into her thought process (in the Introduction) in terms of the way she thinks about her characters. She may get kids writing as well.

Theodore Boone by John Grisham

2010-06-04T08:01:00.000-04:00

Does your child want to be a lawyer?

Does he negotiate bedtime like Alan Dershowitz? Does he want to put the bad guys behind bars?

If this is your kid, then you need to buy John Grisham’s new book for young adults, Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer.

Grisham has written 22 books for adults, mostly about the small-town lawyer up against the baddies. His books are legal thrillers, packed with the real-world details that only an author who used to be a lawyer can provide. They’re quick reads with lots of action.

This book is Grisham’s first attempt at a young adult novel, and it’s kind of like his other books – only a lite version.

In trying to write for a younger audience Grisham faces some challenges. There’s a lot of legal stuff he has to explain, which comes off either sounding like a lecture or being condescending. And any exciting tension he builds up between the bad guy and our hero fizzles out because his normal fight/chase scene would be too scary for this audience, so he has to pull all of those punches. It ultimately becomes confusing for the reader, who wonders what all the fuss was about. Also, the main character isn’t very well-rounded; he’s a likeable enough kid but too two-dimensional and perfect to believe.

Having said all that, however, there is a fair bit of action in the book, it's well-paced and it centres on a good moral: that people are innocent until proven guilty.

I’m not going to review the book here, because Kate at Book Aunt has written everything that I would have said about it – the good and the bad. So do read her review.

If you’ve got a child who is interested in the law, or becoming a lawyer, then definitely get this book.

If your kid wants to be a baseball player or a ballerina (or anything else), take a pass on this book and wait for the sequel that is sure to come – there’s an enormous cliffhanger at the end of the book, so presumably there will be a second one. And I’m hoping it will be more firmly edited and more appropriate for its audience.

Overview of Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer
Theo, 13, is a straight-A student whose parents are both lawyers. He loves everything about the law; he’s got a dog named Judge. Kids at school come to him with their troubles (parents getting divorced, pets in the animal pound, etc.) and he hacks into the Lexis-Nexis system at his parents’ office to give his friends legal advice.

One day a murder is being tried in his small town. Theo gets mixed up in it and must decide when to bring in the adults, as what he knows about the case gradually becomes pivotal to the prosecution.

The website for the book, http://www.theodoreboone.com/, has a few things for educators and parents including a teaching guide and a three-minute video of Grisham talking about the book.

Is it a good book? I'm not sure. I did enjoy reading it, but so much of it went "klunk" that it was hard to decide if it's a worthwhile read. Certainly for kids who are struggling with reading (unless they love the law) I'd give it a miss. I'm going to keep my eye out for the second Theodore Boone book and I'll keep an open mind. And fingers crossed.

Literacy Lava - excellent (free) resource

2010-06-01T21:59:00.001-04:00

Literacy Lava 5

I've got an article in the latest edition of Susan Stephenson's (The Book Chook) great e-newsletter, "Literacy Lava."

"Literacy Lava" is a free .pdf for parents and educators, and is basically a collection of great articles on helping kids to read.

This is the 5th edition of the newsletter and it includes:
*my article, on getting your video-loving kid to read;
*developing spelling skills;
*whether graphic novels are real reading;
*encouraging kids to write poetry;
and much, much more.

It's a tremendous resource, very professionally done, with articles taken from various experts on children's literacy. Stephenson does it as a labour of love, and to help promote her excellent blog, "The Book Chook."

I'm honoured to have been asked to contribute to the e-newsletter; I'm in excellent company.

Click here to download a free copy of the .pdf. While you're on the site, click around and you'll find lots of gems - including back issues of Literacy Lava.

Current events

2010-05-27T14:43:00.000-04:00

I’ve been doing current events at my son’s school.

I approached my son’s teacher a few weeks ago, and proposed a weekly, half-hour current events discussion for the grade 3 / 4 class. My son’s teacher is very cool, and progressive and totally supported the idea. He also helped to provide structure for my amateur (I’m a journalist, not a teacher) efforts.

I’ve gone in twice now, and the kids do seem to enjoy it.

It occurred to me that what I’m doing with the class can easily be done by parents (and educators) with their own kids.

The Current Events class
The first class was a review of the news from the past few days. I wanted to tell the kids about some of the major news stories that were unfolding – like the oil spill and the G20 summit that’s coming to our city this summer. And then I just picked out a bunch of interesting stories that I thought kids could relate to.

I held up each newspaper article, read the headline and then explained what the article was about. I also gave a bit of information about the various newspapers available in Canada and what they were all about. I talked to them about “how” to read a newspaper – for instance, you don’t have to read every word of an article – and how to understand headlines even though they’re often written in a very truncated way.

We talked about the G20 summit – what it is and the various ways in which it would impact the city. And the oil spill, and what BP was trying to do to stop it (including shoving golf balls into the pipe! We had a show of hands as to how many kids thought that would work.)

And then we reviewed a handful of other stories including the discovery of some new species in New Guinea, the fact that our city is missing millions of dollars in unpaid speeding ticket fines, and Robert Munsch’s revelation of his alcohol addiction (we were careful to present that in a positive light—how he had overcome adversity).

The children were very interested in the news and how it affects them. For many of them, it was an introduction to parts of the newspaper that didn’t have comics or Sudoku.

And then the teacher did something really, really smart. He took a vote on which stories the kids wanted me to follow up on the next week. That way, we could see what the kids were interested in and hone the presentation to be of the most interest.

The kids picked the G20, the oil spill and the species, which I thought was an incredibly mature list—this is some heavy stuff.

Week 2
The second week I followed up on the G20: the $1B security tab for the summit, and the many tourist attractions (including the CN Tower) that will be shut down during the talks. And I was also able to report that the golf-ball idea is going ahead – and that one of the back-up plans is to use human hair to clog the spill. Seriously. (No one in the class thinks that will work, either. Maybe BP should call us.)

And we added in a few new stories that were interesting that week: the boy in Alberta who was refused the right to wear a kilt to his graduation (his principal has since changed his mind); the million works of art that are currently in the hands of the Toronto District School Board and which may be loaned out to schools; and the fact that vending machines in our city’s recreation centres will be going healthy (the class cheered).

Reading the news is a fantastic literacy exercise. Kids are keen to know what’s going on around them, but newspapers can be daunting. Headlines are hard to read and articles generally require a lot of general and historic knowledge in order to understand them. But once an adult puts things in context, kids just jump right in.

And that’s a gigantic step towards getting kids reading.

Sorry I haven’t been blogging as much as usual – but you can see how busy I’ve been. Add our school’s FunFest and other activities to the mix, on top of my “money-making” job and it hasn’t left much time for blogging. But I hope to be back on the horse again soon.

Quick and easy literacy activities

2010-05-20T08:18:00.001-04:00

Our school board issued a list of great literacy activities.

They're simple and fun, and are great examples of what I like to call "guerilla literacy" - using tons of little tactics here and there that add up to... a kid who likes to read.

You may want to print this list out and put a copy in your kitchen, in your car, in your purse; wherever you can use it to remind yourself of a quick and easy activity that encourages reading.

The great thing about the list is that it specifically targets some of the things that the Toronto school board has found that kids typically struggle with: identifying the main idea, making inferences and explaining point-of-view.

The school board also found that students could use more exposure to poetry and graphic texts. Discussing song lyrics or talking about billboards, ads and menus for instance, will help familiarize your child with these text forms.

So here's the list - I've bolded some of the ones I found particularly new, fun or do-able.

Write out a phone message for a member of your family.

Bake a favourite recipe.

Tell a story about growing up.

Tell the story of your birth.

When you are travelling in the car with your parents, give the directions.

Tell a traditional story about your culture.

Put a message on a sticky note and place it on the fridge for your parents.

Look at family photos and tell stories together.

Make up stories when you are travelling together.

Make a scrapbook about something that interests you.

Play cards.

Play board games.

Read or write poetry.

Make up tongue twisters.

Look up words you don't know in a dictionary or online.

Read a news story out loud and talk about what you think about it.

Learn a song. Teach it to your parents.

Write an e-mail together to a friend or family member.

Get some refrigerator word magnets and play with them.

Write a thank-you card together.

Watch a TV show together and talk about the main idea.

Watch a movie and see whether you can summarize it in just five sentences.

Read a book together and then watch the movie version. Talk about the differences between the two versions.

Write out the family shopping list.

When you are travelling together, point out street signs, ads and other text that is interesting.

Read a computer manual or online instructions together.

Put something together that comes with plans.

Read something while thinking about the author's message.

Read "between the lines" and see if you can make an inference about the way someone in your family is behaving. For example, "based on the fact that you are rushing around the house frantically looking in every drawer, I'm going to infer that you've lost your keys again, Mom."

Make a connection between an idea in a book and something from your own experience.

Give a five-minute summary of a movie you recently enjoyed (but remember not to ruin the story by giving away the ending!).

I don't think "bolded" is a word. It sure is a concept I find that I need to use a lot. Emboldened? I could say "higlighted in bold" I guess, but "bolded" is faster. Sigh. But probably not a word.

This list was put together by the Toronto District School Board.

A good teacher - the most important thing

2010-05-16T08:46:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, the research catches up with what mothers already know.

"Everything the world has learned about education shows that the quality of the teacher is the most important factor in a student's success." -The Toronto Star, reporting on a speech given by Malcolm Gladwell, author of the bestselling Blink and The Tipping Point. Gladwell was speaking to Ontario's Liberals at a fundraiser in Collingwood, Ont.

Let's look at that again.

The quality of the teacher is the most important factor.

And I'm going to add, "equally important is whether or not the parents play an active role in supporting the child's education," but I think Gladwell's talking about an "all-things-being-equal" scenario here.

So what he's saying - and what the research says - is that if a kid has a lousy teacher, he's likely not going to do well that year. And if he has a lousy teacher three years in a row, he "will fall three years behind a child lucky enough to have a good teacher three years in a row," Gladwell said.

Gladwell says it's much more important than classroom size, and that "even if you were to cut every class in Ontario in half, you'd (only) improve the performance of Ontario's schoolchildren by about five percentile points."

So back to the parents. I don't know about your school, but this is the time at our school when we can let our principal and our current teacher know what our child needs. We are encouraged to write a letter outlining our child's strengths and weaknesses, and what kind of teacher we think could best help our child.

So for instance if your child is having trouble reading, you could let the principal know that reading instruction would be a priority for you next year. Or if your kid's a really good reader, you could ask for "learning extensions" in reading so he's challenged.

No teacher is good at everything. And getting a good teacher who is proficient in the areas in which your child needs help is really important to a successful year. So talking to the principal about what your child needs is a good idea. It's something parents can do to advocate for their child, and I don't think we should be shy about doing it.

After all, teachers and principals can't be expected to read our minds. And as long as we're respectful and talk about the teaching qualities our child needs, then I think it's a good thing to do.

Here's a link to the Toronto Star article.

And here's a link to Malcolm Gladwell's website.

Reading is a language

2010-05-14T10:36:00.000-04:00

My son called me over.

"Mom," he said,"remember when I used to look at a word like 'fox' and I'd sit there, trying to sound it out? And it would take forever?!"

"Yes," I said.

"Well, isn't it funny," he said, "that now I just blast through sentences and pages of words. I don't even have to think about it! Why is that?"

And then we both sat there, silent, thinking about that.

If your child is struggling with reading and sounding-out - here's a great reminder that one day... it will all just click.

And reading will become a new language that your child doesn't even have to think about - that he'll just know - that he'll blast right through.

It will.

Tips from an editor

2010-05-10T17:22:00.001-04:00

Here's a tip that may help your child's writing.

Half of me (professionally) is a writer, and the other half is an editor.

I edit books, articles and speeches; I've been doing it about 20 years or so, and over the years I've discovered some common traps people get into with writing.

I was thinking that some of this insider knowledge may help kids who are struggling with an essay or a book report. When writing is easier, it's more enjoyable and they'll do it more often.

So here's my first tip:

If your child is working on a sentence that doesn't sound right and she's tried it several ways and it still doesn't sound right... bail! Delete it. Start the whole sentence over. It will be faster, and it will sound better.

It seems obvious, but the next time it happens, you'll be surprised. We write a sentence that doesn't sound quite right, and so we rework it. And rework it and rework it. Frustration builds, and the sentence never ends up sounding right.

If you can catch yourself doing this early on, you can really save time by just stopping, deleting, and rewording the whole thing.

Here's an example:
"Being discouraged is a fact of life. But giving up is not the right answer."

The first part doesn't sound quite right. So you can try:
*Becoming discouraged is a fact of life.
*Being discouraged is a fact, in life.
*It's a fact that everyone becomes discouraged.

Instead, delete the whole thing and start over:
*We all get discouraged sometimes. But giving up is not the right answer.

It says the same thing, but you've taken yourself out of that frustrating idiom maze that can drive you crazy. The end result is faster and clearer.

If you see your child struggling to perfect a sentence that just doesn't sound right... tell her to bail. And come at it from a new angle.

I'll try and remember some more tips that have helped me out over the years. Anything to get those kids writing!

Reading Incentive: KidsCash

2010-05-08T21:02:00.001-04:00

Try KidsCash to get your kid reading.

If you’re looking for an incentive to get your kid to read, you may want to take a look at KidsCash.

I saw this product on Breakfast Television, and I think it could be applied really well to help encourage kids to read.

You reward your child for reading by giving him "KidsCash," printed kid-friendly coupons that look like money. You can dole out the KidsCash for each book read, or each page he reads, or for reading for a certain amount of time.

Here’s the twist: your child then spends the KidsCash to do something he really wants to do, like video-game time or TV time. Or he spends it on a toy, switching out with you for real money which he then takes to the toy store.

The KidsCash website has lots of ideas, including reward charts.

KidsCash comes in six different colours—they recommend a different colour for each child in the family—and it sells for $25 (plus tax and shipping) for a box of 250 coupons.

Related posts:
Using real money.
Create a reading reward chart.

So, I sent the KidsCash people an e-mail, asking them if I could see some samples of the cash or post a .jpg, but I haven't heard back from them. I got tired of waiting and thought I'd post this anyway--I think I've got the idea. Meanwhile, my friendly little e-mail is probably sitting in their JunkMail box and they have no idea I've even e-mailed them. Another potential friendship scuppered by technology!

UPDATE: The nice people at KidsCash did get my message and they e-mailed me the above image of their coupon. Friendship has triumphed over technology! A happy ending.

Physical literacy games

2010-04-29T14:51:00.001-04:00

It's a good idea to link learning to physical activity.

I was inspired this week by my son's teacher, who was teaching them fractions by having them throw balls into various buckets marked 1/7, 1/3, 1/4, etc. They had to add them up and avoid making an improper fraction.

I think that's great. Because they're doing something physical, their thinking will be linked to muscle activity - not to mention being outdoors - and it will all sink in so much more easily. The learning will stick with them longer, too.

It got me thinking about physical games we could play with kids around words.

The buckets could be labelled with letters (E, I, A, L, S, M) and the kids could throw balls into the buckets to gather letters which they could use to make words. If they miss a bucket, they can't use that letter.

Or, the game could be about vowels. You have to try to only get your ball into the vowel buckets, and avoid the consonants. You get a point for every vowel you hit. Or you then make words that have those vowels in them.

Or, you could label the buckets with words, and try to form sentences.

Matching physical, outdoor activities will help most kids achieve better results. For certain kids, it may be the only way they can learn.

The Internet helps kids read

2010-04-27T14:30:00.000-04:00

The Internet can help to get kids reading, according to a 2008 Scholastic Kids and Family Reading study. In an article in the Bismarck Tribune (North Dakota), journalist Pamela Krueger says the study shows that:

*Kids who use the Internet are more likely to read a book for fun.
*Two-thirds of children aged 9 to 17 go online in order to broaden their reading experience (in other words, for reading extensions).
*Kids who are low-frequency readers prefer to read online rather than books.

The article suggests that your child look up their favourite author on the Internet to learn more about them and find other books written by them, e-mail family and friends, or visit the American Library Association's "Great Websites for Kids" page.

Here's the article in full.
And here's an article from GKR about how to get your video-loving kid reading books.

(Via a tweet from @JeanetteMcLeod.)

The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary

2010-04-22T18:56:00.000-04:00

Just when you thought the Wimpy Kid series couldn’t get any better, author Jeff Kinney has outdone himself.

He’s created The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary—a non-fiction version of the Wimpy Kid books. How great is that?

We know how much kids love the Wimpy Kid books. And then there was the movie, which was a real extension of the books. This “making of” book goes one step further, and may encourage kids to not only read the other books and see the movie, but to take a look at a career in filmmaking.

The Movie Diary is written and illustrated just like the Wimpy Kid books. And it has colour stills (like the movie). It uses that same hand-writing font featured in the books and the movie.

The Movie Diary takes the reader through the making of the Wimpy Kid movie—from the time the book idea and the lead actor are born, until the movie is made.

Along the way it explains how a movie gets made including:
*choosing the actors;
*writing the screenplay;
*blocking the shots;
*wardrobe;
*props
and tons of other stuff that will be fascinating to any kid who loves movies.

The book tells some wonderful secrets, like the fact that Mr. Winsky’s (the Safety Patrol officer) office has newspaper clippings of him as a young safety patrol member—and that the set designer used actual pictures of the actor when he was younger.

It also shows you all of the “Zoo-Wee Mama” comic strips, which go by too fast in the movie to allow you to enjoy them.

And the fact that the school in the movie is actually three schools in Vancouver, spliced together.

The Movie Diary also explains some things in the books, like the fact that all of the girls in the Wimpy Kid books are drawn to look exactly alike, except for hair colour. That’s because, explains the author, they’re meant to be from Greg’s perspective, and to him all girls look alike.

This book is full of gems, and tells the story about the making of the movie in a way that lets the reader understand the process without overwhelming him with technical details.
Intelligent and not condescending—just like the Wimpy Kid books.

It contains everything boys, in particular, like in books: facts, brief snippits of text and lots of pictures. I can’t imagine there’s a Wimpy Kid fan out there who wouldn’t love this book.

And for pete’s sake, if your kid’s read the Wimpy Kid books and you haven’t taken him to the movie yet? Well, what the heck are you waiting for!?

I'd like to thank Veronica Wasserman, who rushed a review copy of this book to me so that I had it in, like, two days. Some people just do their job really well, and she's one of those. So thanks.

I filed this article under "gift ideas" because--grandparents, aunts, parents of friends who need a birthday gift suggestion--this book would make an awesome gift.

More books = more education

2010-04-20T12:24:00.001-04:00

Books lead to education.

There are three things that you can do to help ensure your child will become a reader:
1) Read to him every day.
2) Have lots of books in your home.
3) Read, yourself.

The research is very consistent. Statistically, families that do these three things end up having kids who read.

Yesterday, the Toronto Star ran an article about the benefits of having lots of books in your home.

Basically, the more books in the home, the more education the child is likely to get. The effect is very profound in less-developed countries like China and among low-income families.

"In China the study found a child whose parents own 500 books will average 6.6 more years of education than a child from a home without books. Amongst blacks in South Africa it is 4 years. In the U.S. the figure is 2.4 years. In Canada it is 1.6 years. According to Evans a child from a family rich in books is 19 percentage points more likely to complete university than a child who grew up without a home library." (-Toronto Star.)

Why?

It's a statistical correlation. In other words, having books doesn't send a kid to university. But in homes with lots of books, kids tend to go to university. And if parents are poor and uneducated, kids are much more likely to go to school longer when there are lots of books in the home.

There is another link, brilliantly outlined in the book Freakanomics. When a child is surrounded by books, she feels entitled to them. Whether or not she even opens up a book at home, she becomes comfortable with them, understands them and feels that she is entitled to be in a place where there are lots of books - ie, a university.

The article and associated research also speaks to my third point - that reading, yourself, will get your child reading.

"If you get parents reading even a small amount, Evans said, you gain in cognition, learning capacities and vocabulary in children. “This study says having bookish parents no matter where they sit in social stratification if they stick to their books they can improve their children’s futures,” she said." (-Toronto Star.)

So number one, read to your child every day.
Number two, give your child his own books.
Number three, read yourself.

Here is a link to the article in The Star, by Debra Black.

And are some past GKR articles that talk about the three most important things parents can do to get their kids reading:

Read to your child. Every day.

Get your six-year-old reading.

The three main factors.

Another reason to read to your child.

How to foster a "reading culture."

I know it sounds like I'm beating on the same drum--read to your child, scatter books, read yourself. But everything, everything I read about literacy points to the same things. It's like saying, "If you want to lose weight, eat less and exercise more." Yes, it's simple.

But yes, it's true.

Thank you to my wonderful husband for pointing this article out to me. Good get.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Movie

2010-04-17T17:56:00.000-04:00

My son and I saw the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid the other day.

As you know, the books are hugely popular with boys and girls of all ages. But I was leery about the movie. I pictured one of those "revenge of the nerds" types of movies, where the main character gets picked on mercilessly for the first half of the film.

That's not what this is. Wimpy doesn't mean loser. Sure the main character is at the bottom of the pecking order in his new school, but he's never a victim. I think it's because he never sees himself as a victim.

That crucial distinction takes Diary up a step--several steps--from other kids' movies.

The other thing I like about the movie is that it's not just a good movie for kids, but for adults too. It's fun to see with a kid, but it would probably be just fine for two adults as well.

Most importantly, I think that Diary the movie is a great reading extension that will encourage kids to read Diary the book series.

And speaking of reading extensions, here's a great twist: author Jeff Kinney has recently published a book about the making of the movie. It was the author's first movie and so he's documented it in Wimpy-Kid-Diary format. I haven't read it (I just found out about it as I was researching this article) but it's a great idea that could extend the learning even further.

Here's a great quote from Roger Ebert's review - and one with which I thoroughly agree:

"The movie is inspired by the books of Jeff Kinney, and the titles reproduce his hand-lettering and drawing style. The movie reproduces his charm."

His movie review will also give you more information about the plot of the film and the characters.

Here's a link to the books.

And a link to a past post featuring Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Before you go, make sure to flip through one of the books with your child to remind yourself of the main characters. They have been brilliantly cast and considering how simplistic the drawings are, they're remarkably accurate. Fun!

Read the signs

2010-04-15T09:41:00.000-04:00

Signs are great "flash cards."

The other day, I was speaking with a mom whose son is having some trouble with reading.

It was recommended that he start learning "whole words." (As opposed to phonetically sounding things out.)

I'm all for the whole-word approach to learning to read. It's a great partner to phonetics and for some kids, may be the best way to learn.

When kids memorize some words it gives them confidence. When they're struggling with a sentence and then they come to a word they know, it's like an oasis in a desert.

We do it in math - math teachers will tell you that memorizing the times table is a must. With reading, memorizing words creates successes and can help defray frustration.

Flash cards are what come to mind when you're thinking about learning whole words. They can easily be created yourself or downloaded from the Internet or, as in the case of this boy who is very artistic, he can create them himself. That will give him buy-in and because he's drawn the pictures, he'll have the exact images that will make the words stick in his mind.

I know this boy well, and he's also very active. He loves to keep moving. So I suggested to his mom that they go for a walk outside and take advantage of the natural "flash cards" that are all around us.

The Stop sign. Yield. For Sale.

And here's a good one - our neighbour built a bird house and put "Vacancy" on the side of it. But it was damaged this winter, and now it says "Vacanc..."

It's a great flash card, because it begs a question: "What is that word? What does it say now? What do you think it should say? What does that word mean? What letters are missing?"

Life isn't perfect, and signs are often hard to decipher. Don't shy away from them - stop and talk about them with your child. The strange ads that at first glance make no sense. The missspellings on signs and billboards. The misplaced punctuation marks.

My son often stops and points out grammatical errors on signs. We laugh together at the funny meanings that get created by these errors. (Yes OK, I know it's nerdy but we have fun. We just don't do it when there are, um, people around.)

The whole-word approach is great with really long words. Kids can often memorize long words that may be difficult to sound out. Often those are better memorized. Kids are sponges - use that quality! Store some good stuff in their memory banks that they can draw on later.

Profile: Girl, 7, tomboy likes nature, video games

2010-04-13T11:00:00.000-04:00

When you're trying to choose books for your own child, it's really useful to ask kids with similar interests what they like. Chances are, there'll be some cross-over. But it's kind of hard to find just the right kid. So we've got a series of Profiles (click on Reading Profiles in the Categories for more) to help you with some great book suggestions.

Here's a spunky, imaginative and extremely interesting seven-year-old girl with some great book choices.

PROFILE
Girl, almost seven, Canadian, reading above grade level.

DESCRIBE YOURSELF
Kooky, brave, tomboy

LIKES
Pokemon, animals, nature, computer games

FIVE FAVOURITE BOOKS
1) The 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith (the original, not the Disney version)

2) Unicorn Wishes and entire World of Wishes series by Carol Barton

3) Wild Paws series by Susan Hughes

4) The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden

5) Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

6) The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

This is a great list. It's got some wonderful classics... and then some unicorns. You've gotta love this girl!

Read to your child. Every day.

2010-04-12T10:00:00.001-04:00

It's the single most important thing you can do to get your kid reading.

Statistics show that if you read to your child, every day, even for 10 minutes - it's likely that your child will grow up to become a reader.

The New York Times recently published a heartwarming true-life story about a father who read to his daughter every night, without missing a single night. For more than nine years.

It's a wonderful article about a single father who wanted to create a bond with his youngest daughter. He proposed "The Streak" - to see if they could read together for 100 straight bedtimes without skipping.

That 100 became 1,000. And then 2,000. And they didn't miss a single night right up until she went to college. (Are you tearing up yet? You will, read on.)

An excerpt from the beautifully written New York Times article by Michael Winerip:

"In those nine-plus years, they survived many close calls. When Kristen was still in elementary school, her father and older sister went to Washington. "The phone rings at 10:45 in the hotel and it's Kristen," Mr. Brozina recalled. "She says, 'Dad, we forgot The Streak!' Fortunately, I always travel with several books and we read right then and there."

The Streak brought the pair much more than a love of reading. It brought them a shared language, taken from the pages of the Dr. Seuss and Dickens and Shakespeare books they read together.

But more importantly, it was something they both could count on, through the hectic days. No matter what happened during the day, they knew where they would both be that evening.

Together - reading.

Here's a link to the article.

You can do this, too. Don't think of it as a nine-year streak. Think of it as - tonight I'm going to read with my kids. Just 10 minutes.

Thank you to Jen Robinson, for bringing this story to my attention through your tweet. And to Michael Winerip for being "that" kind of journalist.

Bonus nonsense: Did you catch that I've used a picture from Family Affair, that great 1966 sitcom about a single dad bringing up two children (and of course featuring their butler, Mr. French)? If you look at the picture accompanying the New York Times article, you'll see why. I hope. Or maybe it's just me.

Profile: Girl, 8, likes skiing and horses

2010-04-09T04:03:00.000-04:00

Quite a charmer.

Here is a girl I know quite well. She’s a fun-loving, easygoing girl who has a twin brother (with a very different, albeit nonetheless charming disposition). If you know a girl like her, check out this girl’s favourite books and maybe your girl would like them, too.

PROFILE
Girl, 8, Canadian, in French immersion at school. Enjoys reading and being read to.

DESCRIBE YOURSELF/LIKES
Eight-year-old girl who likes playing with her friends, books, skiing and horses. And is charming.

FIVE FAVOURITE BOOKS
1. The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits and a Very Interesting Boy, by Jeanne Birdsall
Birdsall has also written a sequel (which this girl enjoyed), The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, and is writing a third book in the series. There will be five Penderwicks books in all.

This is President Obama and his daughter putting the book into backpacks for kids whose families are in the military. (The book for the boy-backpacks is The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan.)
Here's a link to the Obama article.

2. Fel icity Wishes: Secrets and Surprises, by Emma Thomson

3. Princess Lillifee, by Monika Finsterbusch

4. Miss Rumphius, by Barbara Cooney

This very popular book follows the life of Miss Rumphius from childhood to old age. As a child, she decides what she wants to do with her life when and then achieves her goals - which includes searching for ways in which to make the world more beautiful.

5. Miss Bridie Chose a Shovel, by Leslie Connor and Mary Azarian

The story centres around a young woman leaving the "old country." The text begins, "She could have picked a chiming clock or a porcelain figure, but Miss Bridie chose a shovel back in 1856."

“Oh, and why stop at five favourite books? I also like the Junie B. series, Clarice Bean, and the Ramona books.”

Great online game: Clockwords

2010-04-07T12:26:00.000-04:00

Clockwords is an online word game I can't stop playing. (Must. Stop. Playing... Have. Deadlines...)

Here's why it might be good for your child - in moderation, something I'm not particularly good at, so be forewarned.

1) Literacy
The game is based on you (uh, your child, that is) coming up with words, lots of words. But not just any words. You do much better in the game when you come up with words that are long and use "difficult letters" like J and Q rather than, say, vowels. Plus, you get more points if you don't repeat the same words and if you enter a string of words the same length. So it gets you thinking about vocabulary. And spelling is very important because the game won't accept a word that's spelled incorrectly.

2) Typing
You have to type in all of the words, of course. And the faster and more accurately you can type, the better you'll do. I'm a big advocate of kids learning to type, because it helps them get their ideas down faster when they're writing something and it may be an incentive for technology-oriented kids to write.

A synopsis of the game
Like most games, the plotline is a bit fuzzy. Something about a clock-machine and some robot bugs that are eating its documents? Does that sound right? No it doesn't, but stay with me.

You type words into the machine, preferably using the letters that appear on the screen in tubes. Those words are loaded into some kind of blaster and are shot at the bugs. The more letters in the words you choose, the more ammunition to blast those bugs. You win a round by blasting all the bugs so they don't - erm, eat your document? Or something.

Did I mention this is a really good game? Trust me, it is.

At the end of each round you can "buy" letters that have qualities like freezing ability or... OK, I'm going to stop here. It's sounding a lot more complicated than it is.

Just play it.

Thanks to Barte Bonte for pointing out this addictive game. Now, could you please call my publishers and explain why I'm about to miss my deadlines? Thanks.

New Twilight book

2010-04-06T14:21:00.000-04:00

Here's something exciting to tell your teenaged daughter.

There's going to be a new Twilight book out soon.
June 5, to be precise.

Here's the title (deep breath): The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella.

Author Stephenie Meyer is calling it a novella, although it's 192 pages long. For her that's a novella, since her books typically come in at more than double that size.

The story is the tale of Eclipse (her third Twilight novel), told from the point-of-view of Bree Tanner, a minor character from that book. It will retail for $16.99 in Canada.

Cool facts
Here are some cool facts to casually let slip in conversation with your teenager, showing that you're an oh-so-plugged-in parent who sometimes knows even more than she does.

* Bree Tanner was a newborn vampire created by Victoria. (Your teenager will likely not even remember this character, because Bree was killed off early in her chaotic young life, so this will be a cooler fact than you may realize.)

* $1 from every book will go to benefit the American Red Cross (think about it...)

* Meyer began the book as a short story to "help me examine the other side of Eclipse, which I was editing at the time."

* The book will be posted online, free, from noon June 7 to July 5.

* Stephenie's name is spelled with an "e" rather than the traditional "a" because it's taken from her father's name - Stephen. I've mentioned this one before, but it's still cool.

Here's Meyer's website.
Here's Bree's website.
And here's another article I posted about the whole Twilight series.

Sorry about the long delay in posting - I've had a backlog of deadlines. I'm still not finished with 'em, but I've got too much stuff to blog about to wait any longer! More soon. And thanks for all of the great feedback I've been getting from everyone (you know who you are). Please keep those e-mails and comments coming!

Scott Pilgrim trailer

2010-03-26T11:12:00.000-04:00

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - Official Trailer

This looks like a lot of fun, and I'm hoping it will be a good reading extension.

It's the movie, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, starring (the adorable) Michael Cera. It's based on the very popular series of Scott Pilgrim books. Here's the official trailer which has just been released.

The movie was shot in Toronto, and lets the city be itself for once (Toronto usually doubles for a big US city). So that's kind of exciting.

Here's the website for the movie.
And the website for the Scott Pilgrim books.
And here's another book recommended by Michael Cera.
And here's a post on Boing Boing about the Scott Pilgrim movie.

Oh, and just for fun, here's that great Canadian please video that I do enjoy so much.

Alice movie too dark for (most) kids

2010-03-20T17:43:00.001-04:00

As you know, I'm a big advocate of what I call reading extensions.

They're the added bonus events, movies, products and tie-ins that go beyond the book, and which may help some kids get interested in a book or explore a book more fully.

Alice in Wonderland
The other night, I saw Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

I enjoyed it. I thought it was a well thought-out interpretation of the book, with some nice visuals. (Why it had to be in 3D I'm not quite sure.)

But in my opinion it is not really a children's movie. I had high hopes for it, but I have to say that it's probably not a good reading extension for young children. Before you take your child to see this movie, I would urge you to either see it yourself, or check out some reviewers whose opinions you trust. (Here's Roger Ebert's review.)

Quick synopsis
Alice has previously visited Wonderland as a little girl. Now she has returned as a young woman to a very different Wonderland. The Red Queen has taken over, despoiled the landscape, and cast fear into the hearts of Wonderlanders. Everyone awaits "the Alice" who will slay the jabberwock and restore peace to Wonderland.

What's different about the movie and the book
Lewis Carroll's masterpiece (the book) relies heavily on the absurd. The Red Queen threatens to lop off everyone's head, but they all know that you just have to run away and she'll soon forget. In the movie, Burton's queen organizes a public beheading in the town square.

The lovely bits of nonsense, like having to repaint the white roses red, are glossed over and put into a flashback. No one's allowed to be very silly in this movie.

In the book, the Mad Hatter was mad as in loopy or wacky. In the movie, madness is flat-out insanity. As a result, we get a Hatter who is more Sylvia Plath than Daffy Duck.

That lovely character, the Dormouse, who walked such a fine line between pathos and silliness thanks to Carrroll's elegant depiction of him, has been Hollywoodized until he is flat and common.

The scary characters like the bandersnatch and the jabberwock, whose terrifyingness was only hinted at in the book, are made all too real in the movie. The jabberwock is given its own plot line. And don't get me started on "the vorpal sword." In the book vorpal is an adjective. In the movie, it's the sword's title, as if there is only one sword that could be vorpal.

There are a couple of pieces of nice new imagery, such as Alice becoming Joan of Arc as she battles the jabberwock. The caterpillar is given a more prominent and quite interesting role in the movie. And they haven't messed too much with the white rabbit, which is a good thing because he is a masterpiece as written.

But on the whole, while it may be an interesting movie, Alice in Wonderland 2010 is not for most children. It's rated PG and listed in the "kids and family" category, a misnomer that I think is almost as egregious as calling Slumdog Millionaire "uplifting," for which I will always despise those moviemakers.

Obviously, only you know your child and only you can judge what is or isn't suitable. But I think that most young children would be scared by the red queen's furious rants, the threat of the deadly jabberwock and the overall darkness of this typical Tim Burton-like fare.

As a palate cleanser, may I present Carroll's original nonsense poem (which, incidentally I memorized as a young girl, which feat I would be happy to demonstrate to anyone who would ask, which hasn't actually happened yet but I await...):

JABBERWOCKY, by Lewis Carroll
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Munsch-mania!

2010-03-17T20:48:00.000-04:00

What rock star had people at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga, Ontario lined up two-deep, for blocks?

Robert Munsch, children's literature rock star!

Robert Munsch did two shows today at the Living Arts Centre, and in-between he signed books and had his picture taken with star-struck youngsters (and their star-struck parents).

It was truly impressive. People waited an hour and a half in line, with impatient toddlers, no less, to meet one of the biggest stars of the kidlit world.

Worth it?

Worth it!

Thank you to Andreas Kyprianou at LAC for helping me to get these great shots.

Mr. Munsch is turning 65 this year, and he's keeping up a pace that would shame a 20-year-old. Not only did he perform two shows today, but he signed hundreds and hundreds of books in-between and after the shows. Humble and proud of our fellow Canadian, we are. Humble and proud.
Here's his website.

Read what your kid's reading

2010-03-15T11:53:00.000-04:00

My son’s copy of Percy Jackson has two bookmarks in it—his and mine.

We’re both reading it. Not only is it a great series and a lot of fun to read, but I’m realizing there are huge benefits to reading what he’s reading.

The best part is catching those really subtle teaching moments. For instance, part of the third book takes place in the Smithsonian, which we visited last year. So I’ll be able to talk to him about that. To me, that’s a great learning extension.

If I hadn’t been reading the book, I’d never have known about that opportunity.

Also, having read the book I know there are a lot of Greek names that are pronounced very differently from the way they’re spelled. I was able to tell him the correct pronunciations.

And I can judge for myself how scary the book is, given my son’s tolerance for certain types of scariness. For instance, you can hack the limbs off a monster all you like and it won’t bother my son. But show a little “portent” or foreshadowing, and he’s gonna have nightmares all week. Which explains why Voldemorte never bothered him, but he couldn’t sit through the evil queen’s threats in Cinderella 2.

Of course, you’re not going to want to read everything your kid reads. Nothing’s going to entice me to read the Scooby-Doo series, no matter what the benefits. So it helps to have a great children’s book reviewer you know and trust.

But if you can, pick up what your kid’s reading. It’s worth the effort.

The hardest part is finding time to read it, when he’s not reading it. I’ve found that the best strategy is to wait until he… falls… asleep… and then take the book out of his hands. Then I can read it for an hour or so before I go to sleep. Sneaky.

Get your video-kid reading

2010-03-10T20:08:00.000-05:00

Kids can be into video games and enjoy reading, too!

Your child loves video games but isn't a big reader? No problem. Here are some tips that will get your video-loving kid reading.

1) GO WITH THE FLOW. Studies show that kids are more apt to read things that interest them.

If video games are a huge interest for your child, try to work with that:
*Subscribe to a gaming magazine. There are tons of them, and they contain what gamers crave-tips to help them unlock secrets in their favourite games.

*Suggest gaming websites that have a lot of written instructions, or which require the player to type instructions in order to progress in the game. For instance, Dungeon Scroll is a new kind of hybrid game combining a word game with a RPG (role-playing game).

*Kids who like video games may also like comics and graphic novels. At websites like Make Beliefs Comix they can create their own comics online.

*There are some cool online literacy and math games at Bite-Size Literacy.

2) THINK LIKE A GAMER. If your child has a Nintendo DS, get him to use the PICTOCHAT function to type messages back and forth with his friends. From the DS's main screen, click on PICTOCHAT. It will bring up a screen and a mini keyboard your child can use to type messages.
How about PICTOCHAT Hide-and-Seek? Have one child hide and have his friend type messages via PICTOCHAT with clues to find him. (This game was developed by an eight-year-old boy who loves video games.)

3) GET HIM TYPING. It's a skill he needs for gaming anyway, and it will develop his literacy skills. Once kids can type, getting them to write stories and essays will be much easier since they'll be able to get their thoughts down as fast as their brain can come up with them.

Make sure the typing program you choose is QWERTY-based so they'll learn to use the Home Row. An excellent one (that worked for my child) is Dance Mat Typing, by the BBC.

4) SUGGEST ONLINE GAMES that include a literacy component. For instance, at Club Penguin, kids control a virtual "penguin" who plays games and can chat with other "penguins." In the Club Penguin book room there's a great typing game where the penguins can type a virtual book to earn all-important Club Penguin dollars.

5) GET YOUR CHILD BOOKS WITH SHORT BLOCKS OF TYPE AND LOTS OF IMAGES. Boys in particular like books with facts, lots of visuals and chunks of text.

Here are some suggestions:
*The Encyclopedia of Immaturity by Klutz.
*Guinness World Records
*Books on magic or featuring science experiments

6) CONSIDER V-BOOKS. This is a brand new genre in publishing, and it may be appealing to kids who like gaming. Kids read the book, and every few chapters there's an instruction from the writer to go to a website and input a password that lets the child see a video. The video supports the book in some way and furthers the plot. The v-books that are currently available (Skeleton Creek, by Patrick Carman, for instance) are too scary for most kids. However, he recently released Trackers, which is apparently less scary (although it's still pretty intense, from what I've seen). In any case, this is just the tip of the iceburg. This is clearly a new realm in publishing for kids and young adults, and within a very short time we're going to see an explosion in the number of books that cross the boundary between paper and technology. To check out Skeleton Creek and Trackers, visit the author's website. For a book series with a different type of online accompaniment, read The 39 Clues, by Peter Lerangis. Kids can go online (http://www.the39clues.com/) to track down clues and enter a contest to win prizes.

7) SET SOME BOUNDARIES. There's no getting around it--you will have to set "screen-time" limits. Kids can't read if they're gaming all the time. How much will depend on your child, but some parents say no gaming during the week, and then two hours of screen-time a day on weekends.

This post is part of the Literacy Blog Tour (March 8-14, 2010) - welcome tourists! We hope you'll be back again and again.

Getting active kids reading

2010-03-08T08:09:00.000-05:00

Sitting and reading is not the only way.

At age five, girls are able to sit still and listen about 2.5 times longer than boys, according to studies.

But we don’t need research to tell us that most boys would rather get up and move around than sit and read.

Here are some great ways to keep active kids happy while they’re learning. (Statistically, this tends to be a boy issue--so we're using the male pronoun--but if you’ve got an active girl these tips will apply just as well.)

1) LET HIM MOVE. Let your son play with a ball while you read to him. Having a ball to quietly hold and catch helps lots of kids concentrate better.

2) INTERRUPT THE STORY. When you come to a plot point, stop and ask him, “why do you think that happened?” or “what do you think that meant?” Not only does it help with comprehension, but it breaks up the monotony of listening.

3) GO OUTSIDE. It's called "environmental literacy" - finding things to read outside. There are tons of signs and advertisements to read out there, and even word puzzles to figure out. What does that parking sign mean? When can you park here? How much is parking? What is that an ad for? Do you believe the ad? He’ll have to read carefully to figure out the answers.

4) MAKE EVERYTHING A CONTEST. Active kids, and especially kids who like sports, love to be timed, challenged, and rewarded. When you play literacy games, getting out a stopwatch can bring the right measure of fun competition to it.

5) PLAY ACTIVE GAMES. Take a long strip of paper – say four feet long by four inches high (or several strips). In marker, write a sentence on it. Then cut the sentence up into words. Hide the words around your backyard or playground. Have the child run around and collect the words, bringing each one back to you when it’s found, before running out and getting the next one. When he has them all, he can piece them all into a sentence. Time him and see if he can do it faster the second time around.

6) HOST A TREASURE HUNT. Use signs to lead your child up to his bedroom, across to his dresser, over to the bathroom, down to the basement, into a closet, up to the attic, into the fridge… and then over to the dining room table, where he’ll find his treat (chocolate, or a wrapped book, or some other small reward). It’s a great game that combines reading with physical activity.

7) WRITE A STORY WHILE YOU’RE WALKING. Schedule a long walk, just the two of you. While you’re walking, lead him to create a story – with characters, an interesting setting and a couple of plot points.

Extending this activity: When you get back home, he can dictate the story so you can write it down, or he can type it up. Make it into a book and add illustrations. He’ll have something tangible that he has created.

This post is part of the Literacy Blog Tour (March 8-14, 2010) - welcome tourists! We hope you'll be back again and again.

Fishy literacy game

2010-03-02T13:45:00.001-05:00

A do-it-yourself game that helps early readers connect capital letters with their lowercase equivalents. Thank you to guest blogger Dawn Little, for this post.

Here is a fun letter match game to help your child recognize and match capital letters to lower case letters.

1. Gather your materials: One small magnet, a wooden dowel, yarn, glue, construction paper, markers, scissors, and 52 paper clips (and 26 googly eyes, if you'd like).

2. Make a fish template on a piece of construction paper. Use the template to cut out 52 fish (26 capital letters, 26 lower case letters). Give your fish smiles and either make an eye using marker or glue a googly eye on each one. Attach paper clips to the mouth of each fish, like a fish hook.

3. Make a fishing pole by tying a piece of yarn to one end of the dowel. Put glue on one side of the magnet and attach it to the hanging end of the yarn.

4. Scatter the fish on a table or the floor. Give your child the fishing pole and call out letters, calling out a capital letter first. After your child catches that fish, call out the lower case letter match. Ask her to match the lower case letter with the capital letter.

It's a good idea to use only half the alphabet at a time; for instance, A through I. Do J through K next time; you don’t want to overwhelm your child. Plus, if you only do half the alphabet, you’ve separated out the tricky b/d and p/q, which can be confusing for kids.

I adapted this game from the School of Fish Game at No Time for Flashcards.

Have fun fishing!

Dawn Little (aka Links to Literacy on Twitter) blogs at Teaching With Picture Books, providing educators with picture book lessons based on comprehension strategies and the Six Traits of Writing. She also blogs at The Literacy Toolbox, where she provides educators and parents with tips and tools to enhance the literacy lives of children. She is the founder and owner of Links to Literacy, a company dedicated to providing interactive literacy experiences for children and families.

Did you spot those cute little Dawn's-daughter's-toes in the bottom left of the photo? Cute little fisher-girl.

Alice now and then

2010-02-27T10:19:00.000-05:00

Do cheer up, Alice dear!

This is the first Alice in Wonderland - the namesake.

It's Alice Liddell, one of three girls to whom Lewis Carroll told the original story of Alice Through the Looking Glass. They urged him to write it down, and the rest is history.

The Globe and Mail has a wonderful slide show of Alice through the ages, including an Annie Lebowitz portrait, one by the Hunter S. Thomson illustrator and this one, from the movie.

Please do encourage your child to read the book, or read it out loud to them. It's so worth it.

It's also a good idea to show them the Globe's slide show. Reading extensions like seeing the movie or getting a taste for the background of a book can really help to get kids reading.

Dry-Erase Crayons

2010-02-26T08:15:00.000-05:00

Things that make you go "d'uh!"

This is one of those inventions that you wish you'd thought of.

Dry-erase crayons. How good is that?

No mess, no smell, no drying out. But do they work? This is the best part - they really, really do work well.

The colours are deep and rich, and they write smoothly. Kind of like a cross between crayons and lipstick. Even on paper, which I don't advise because they smudge, they are vibrant and smooth-writing.

Combine this product with the idea about using a plastic plate as a mini-whiteboard, and you've got yourself a fun literacy-building activity. That wipes right off.

The dry-erase crayons come in packs of eight, with an "E-Z Erase Mitt" (in Canada it's an E-Zed Erase Mitt, which makes no sense but still wipes off just fine) and a built-in crayon sharpener.

I bet it won't take long before you're seeing them in classrooms and boardrooms. Fun! Crayola's selling them here for $5.48 a pack. Incidentally, I just Googled "dry-erase crayons" and found out that Sargent also makes them.

Sorry if this article sounds like a commercial for Crayola. I'm not affiliated with them, I don't get money from them - heck, I didn't even get a free box of crayons, just two sample crayons (which everyone at the For the Love of Reading conference also got). I just happen to like this product. Still, the article is a bit gushy. I will try to curb my enthusiasm just a titch in future.

Bubblegum writing

2010-02-24T13:50:00.000-05:00

Another tip from Lori Jamison, speaking at the recent Reading for the Love of It conference.

When she's trying to get young children to sound out words, she calls it "bubblegum writing."

She tells them to pretend the word they want to write--let's say, "camping"--is a piece of bubblegum.

With one hand, you s-t-r-e-t-c-h the bubble gum from your mouth out into the air.

You're stretching the word.

With the other hand, you write down each letter as you say it. Like this:

C....a....m.....p....ing

The child writes: k m p n

It's not "book writing" yet, of course, but they've learned how to manipulate a word to figure out the sounds within it. And that's a pretty great start!

A related tip - every day she teaches one new word, spelled properly. And then she says, "now, whenever we want to write that word, that's how we'll write it." She always starts with "I" because it's easy and it's about the child. So in a very short time, a child will be able to write:

"I wnt kmpn." Not bad.

Sorry about this photo. Lip gloss - not good. But it was all I could find. As with all of my blog photos, one must use one's imagination!

Wanna hear something cool? Two days ago, CBC radio picked my account of teaching literacy to a young adult, to win a small prize. The bigger prize was that Rita Celli read my article on the air. Thanks, CBC!

Early writers - adding detail

2010-02-21T21:51:00.000-05:00

Yes, Lori Jamison's workshop was packed.

And for good reason. Here's another excellent tip she shared.

When her kindergarteners were starting to write sentences (towards the end of JK or in SK), they would write this way: "I like my cat."

And that would be it. I'm finished, teacher!

How to encourage them to add detail? To add another sentence or two?

Jamison would go around the room, reading the kids' sentences, and give each child a dot sticker on the back of their hand.

If you had a dot on the back of your hand, that meant to add another sentence. The period was the dot.

As she was handing out the stickers, she would say something like this: "I like my cat. That's very good. Do you think you could add another detail about your cat?" The child would nod. And she would put a dot on the back of the child's hand. ("Here's a detail dot.")

The child would write: "I like my cat. He is funny."

For some students, Jamison would apply two dots to the back of their hand. Two dots! Two details. Go, kid, go.

She says she has never had a child refuse a dot. In fact, children come up to her asking for more dots. That's pretty good - kids asking to write more.

As kids are given dots, it's a good idea to offer a prompt that helps them come up with the next sentence. Like "How did that make you feel?" or "What do you like about it?"

The kids' sentences weren't always "book English" - in other words, written perfectly, the way you'd see sentences in a book. Sometimes they were pictures with scribbles. And sometimes they were jumbled letters meant to represent words. Doesn't matter - it's all part of the continuum of learning to write. They're all forms of "sentences" to which the kids can add more "sentences" and greater detail. Those kids still get dots, and the dots help them progress along that continuum. And it's fun.

Why Percy Jackson is awesome

2010-02-20T07:13:00.000-05:00

Now this is a goood book.

How do I know that Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is a good book? Here's how:

The other day my son was home sick with an ear infection (he's fine now). Even when he's sick, he normally never stops moving around, playing sports, doing his usual stuff.

However, on this day he sat in his bed for four and a half hours reading Percy Jackson. All of it. More than 200 pages.

He didn't even stop for lunch - I had to give him a sandwich in bed.

OK, so the ear infection played a part. But I think it was mostly this book that stopped my son in his tracks and kept him reading for the whole day.

I'm reading the book now, before we all go to see the movie. I think it's appealing to certain kids because it's a very fast read and it has tons of action. Even before you find out Percy is half Greek god, there's lots of physical stuff happening.

If your child has ADHD, this book has an added bonus. Percy Jackson and the other half-blood kid protagonists in the book have all been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and/or learning disabilities. Then, of course, we find out that they're all heroes. If your child has been similarly diagnosed, this book may help to boost his self-esteem and help him see his potential. Well, not to become a Greek god (I hope) - but you know what I mean.

The book is a bit easier to read than I thought it would be. It might be good for older kids who are somewhat reluctant readers. The content is more mature (fights, battles, general mayhem) but with the exception of the Greek words and names of the gods, the vocabulary is fairly light.

I have an idea for the author, however. In the back of each book, include a pronunciation guide for the names of the Greek characters. I thought that my son was getting a bit of an education on Greek mythology--and he is--until he said some of the names aloud and I realized that he's pronouncing them in his head very differently from the way they're normally pronounced. For instance, "Chiron" as "Cheer-on" rather than "Ky-ron." Don't worry, I set 'im straight.

Until the author takes me up on my fantastic idea, here's an online pronunciation guide to Greek mythology.

Here's a link to the Percy Jackson website.

We're now gkreading.com

2010-02-18T21:34:00.001-05:00

We have a new - and improved - web address.

Getting Kids Reading is now at www.gkreading.com.

The old address (http://gettingkidsreading.blogspot.com) will still work. And the content hasn't changed. But the address is just a bit easier to, um, read. And isn't that the point? Yes.

I'd like to thank my husband without whom, trust me, this could not have happened. Like, in a million years.

Plastic plate as whiteboard

2010-02-18T12:52:00.000-05:00

Here's another great idea from Lori Jamison's workshop.

A cheap, plastic plate can be used as a mini-whiteboard for kids.

They're durable, easy to store and inexpensive.

And best of all, dry erase marker wipes right off!

Kids can practise their writing on them, wipe off what they've done, and then practise again.

Jamison suggests you give each child a little glove (raid the lost-and-found, she says), which they can use to wipe their mini-whiteboard clean.

She packages a plate, marker and glove in a Ziploc bag for each child.

One caution - she says that not all plastic plates are erasable. And she says you should never, ever bring a marker to a store, poke a hole in the packaging, and try the plate before you buy it. No, no.

Lessons from a kindergarten teacher

2010-02-16T21:32:00.000-05:00

This is a kindergarten teacher - and a teacher of teachers.

Lori Jamison introduced a roomful of kindergarten teachers at the recent Reading for the Love of it conference to a handful of "mini-lessons" to get kids reading.

Her first point was, "what do we want kindergarteners to know about literacy?" Here's what she thinks are the most important take-aways.

1) The concepts of print - which is the front/back of the book? How does a book work?
2) The conventions and structures of spoken language.
3) Why do we read/write?
4) Motivation - helping children see themselves as readers and writers.

This last point, she said, is the most important one.

I'll be posting more information from her very interesting session. In the meantime, here's one of the many great suggestions she had for teaching beginning readers and writers: Have them use the letters in their name to write.

She pointed out that the first letters children learn and use are the ones in their name. They're most comfortable with those letters, and they have a context for them. So concentrate on using those letters to help them spell new words.

It's a simple idea, but wonderfully helpful.

About the only thing I didn't love about Jamison's speech was that she made us all do a "hello to your neighbour" song - with high-fives and thigh bumps - at the beginning of her speech. As I was scowling, wondering how I could avoid doing it without making a scene, it brought home to me that I am far too cynical to ever be a kindergarten teacher. Fair enough.

Video-kid ideas needed

2010-02-13T08:05:00.001-05:00

As you may know, when I'm not blogging or mothering I'm a freelance journalist.

I'm currently writing a magazine article about how to get kids who love video games, to love reading as well.

One of the ways to do this is to use technology, that has a literacy component, to interest them.

Do you know any particularly interesting websites, games, toys or products that use technology but have a strong literacy component?

If so, I'd love to hear from you. Please comment, below, or send me an e-mail at joycegrant (at) sympatico (dot) ca. Please include your e-mail address so I can follow-up with you if necessary.

Thanks!

The readers of this blog often have the most amazing ideas, which is why I'm reaching out in this way. Thank you, everyone, in advance for your thoughts. And Happy Valentine's Day!

Finger Puppet Book Bags

2010-02-12T15:05:00.000-05:00

A little gem from the literacy conference.

It's a knitted book bag, with finger puppets that adhere with snaps to the bag. A knitted string lets the child hang it around her neck and take it anywhere.

Each bag has a theme. For instance, the Ocean bag has a handpainted ocean scene, and it comes with a clownfish, a crab, a mermaid, an octopus, a sea turtle, a seal, a shark and a starfish.

The idea is that you put a book, or a couple of books, into the bag.
There's a list of book suggestions for each bag. For the Ocean bag, they suggest Baby Beluga, by Raffi and Commotion in the Ocean, by Giles Andreae (and eight others).

Then, wherever your little reader goes, she carries an entire puppet show with her.

Interacting with literature is definitely a great way to get kids reading.

The bags are made in Bolivia by indigenous peoples; it's a Fair Trade project, benefitting both countries and helping families in Bolivia earn a living wage.

You can purchase a bag, a product the owner calls 3 Bags Full, from her website.

And speaking of the owner - here she is. Her name is Sue Berlove, and boy, she is passionate about what she does. Do visit her website. For one thing, they have way better pictures of her bags than the one I've used here (taken myself, as if you didn't know.)

For the Love of Reading

2010-02-11T06:15:00.001-05:00

I'm covering the Reading for the Love of it conference today.

I've never been before, and I'm really excited about it. It's a two-day "language arts" conference in Toronto aimed at educators. I consider myself one of those--after all, if this blog isn't about educating, what is it about? ("Fun!" screams the sassy voice in my head, but I shush it.)

For every workshop time-slot, there are dozens of speakers. Impossible to choose. I can only imagine how many booths there will be. I had 100 business cards printed up yesterday, and I hope I give them all away.

From this literacy cornucopia, I will try to distill the best and most useful information and present it here in upcoming posts. In the meantime, I'm bringing my laptop and my camera and my good shoes.

Here's a link to the conference's home page.

Stephen Lewis is speaking on "Education: the world's greatest force for good." Good lord, how does anyone take the stage after that? It's like trying to follow Al Gore at an ecology conference.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

2010-02-09T13:11:00.000-05:00

"Surprise!"

When my son went to bed last night, this is what he found on his pillow - a Coles bookstore bag, with a book-sized lump in it.

You're eight, you don't feel like going to bed, you're dragging your feet, prolonging the inevitable... and then you find a new book in your bed.

The whole situation suddenly changed. His face lit up, and he thanked me like crazy.

Giving a book as a "just because" and "for no reason" gift is a great way to get your kid reading.

And it helped that it's a book there's some buzz about, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan. Many parents have been telling me how much their kids are enjoying it--those who like fantasy and even those who normally don't.

I haven't read it yet (I'm going to), but it's based on Greek mythology; Percy discovers that he's a demi-god--a son of Poseidon, who rules the sea. He finds out there are other living Greek gods in the world, both good and evil. He meets up with them, has some battles, and presumably finds out some things about himself in the process. Here's a slightly longer synopsis.

There's a series of five books, and the movie is due out this month in the US and Canada (I'm not sure about the UK or other countries, but I would assume so).

Hiding a good book in your child's bed is a fun way to stall bedtime for just a few minutes--and get your kid reading.

The Percy Jackson books started out as tales the author told to his son, who was studying Greek mythology in Grade two. Eventually, he wrote them down and now... well, now he's a ba-jillionaire. Ka-ching! Wait until my writers' group hears about this.

Seen in Blockbuster: books!

2010-02-07T14:20:00.000-05:00

Get your kids reading by telling them about the movie or TV show.

I don't visit Blockbuster very often. So it was a revelation to to me that they had a book rack filled with the book versions of about a dozen popular movies.

That is great.

I'm a big advocate of what I call "reading extensions." That's a book that has been made into a movie or a TV show.

I think reading extensions can get kids reading. For instance, while they're waiting for the new Alice in Wonderland movie to come out, I bet a lot of kids are picking up the book for the first time.

Or let's say they've seen all the Twilight movies. It takes a long time for those movies to be made. In the meantime, they buy the buttons and the reversible Jacob/Edward posters... and then they see the book stand at Blockbusters. And maybe they buy the books.

Harry Potter. Julie and Julia. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Up in the Air (betchya didn't know there was a book). The movies can be portals into the joys of reading, that's what I think.

My 18-year-old niece is, by her own admission, not a big reader. But she did read all the Twilight books. The other day, I gave her The Host, by the same author. I'm hoping that her interest in Twilight will spark her to read The Host. If not, the book may sit on a shelf in her room until the movie comes out and then I'm almost certain she'll read it.

Wait - I just Googled it - yes, they are making a movie of The Host. So now I've just texted my niece, saying "you'd better hurry up and read the book!"

See, that's how it works.

So - good on ya, Blockbuster, for selling books and helping to get kids reading.

That last line had a bit of an Aussie accent, didn't it? Consider it an homage to all our readers down under (undah).

Profile: Girl, 7, likes art, spaghetti

2010-02-01T10:51:00.000-05:00

Playing in the snow.

Here's a girl who's 7, and likes art, ballet and spaghetti. She also loves books. Maybe you know someone similar, who would like the same books she does.

PROFILE
Female, age 7, Canadian, loves reading

DESCRIBE YOURSELF
Smart, creative

LIKES
Art, Disney World, spaghetti, ballet, soccer, horses and playing in the snow and on the beach

FIVE FAVOURITE BOOKS
1) Camping Out: A Shadow Story, by Lisa Allen and Julie Sharp

2) The Paper Bag Princess, by Robert Munsch

3) Eloise's Guide to Life: or, How to Eat, Dress, Travel, Behave and Stay Six Forever, by Kay Thompson

4) Thomas's Snowsuit, by Robert Munsch

5) Santa Knows, by Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith

Want to know more about this post and the profiles we're writing about? Click here.

Reading as a part-time job

2010-01-28T11:55:00.000-05:00

One mom found an interesting way to get her daughter reading.

She paid her.

I think that’s really interesting.

Now, as this mom told us about what she'd done, she cringed a little—she knew full well that bribery is not the best way to hook a kid on reading. She knew it was a short-term solution… a Hail Mary pass, if you will, when you’re really desperate.

But the intriguing thing is, it worked. Her daughter started reading. (I’m not sure if she’s still being paid to read or if she’s now reading on her own—I’ll find out and update you.)
Update: Yep, she's become a reader! The mom said she originally paid her daughter $20 once to read a specific book. That incentive got her over the hump; the girl got through that book and carried on, reading the rest of the books in that series... and now she reads for her own enjoyment.

Another mom said that her kids are always clamouring for books when they visit a bookstore. Her solution? The kids buy the books out of their allowance, but she reimburses them for the book once they’ve read it.

Now, obviously she’s in a pretty positive situation; her kids already love books. But her idea about reimbursing them ensures that the books actually get read, rather than just sit on a shelf.

I’d like to know what you think about paying kids to read. Could it be a positive way to get kids into reading, when combined with other more sustainable activities—like reading to your child, letting them see you reading, and generally reinforcing the value of reading?

Or is bribery just out of the question, even if you’re super desperate? Should we take it out the equation altogether?

And lastly, if we say that paying a child to read might be OK… how much are we talkin’ about, here?

Family Literacy Day - Jan. 27

2010-01-27T07:28:00.000-05:00

Today is Family Literacy Day.

This is the day!

It's the day you and your kid:

1) Read together.

2) Talk about your favourite book.

3) Listen to a book on tape.

4) Write each other a letter, which you drop in the mail for each other. Surprise!

5) Vote for your favourite children's books here.

6) Go to the library.

7) Create a storybook about your child. (Here's how.)

8) Cook something together - your child reads the recipe as you go along.

9) Read together.

Happy Family Literacy Day.

I hope you enjoy celebrating it with your family.

We will celebrate by continuing to read The Mysterious Benedict Society (the second book) together, just before my son... falls.... asleep... to dream mysterious dreams.

The picture - no, it's not me and my son but I just love it. They're so into reading together! Ooooh, Family Literacy Day. It's such a cosy celebration.

Profile: Girl, 8, likes nature, poetry, art

2010-01-25T13:18:00.000-05:00

Pippi meets Wednesday.

Here we have a likeable, creative, nature-loving and artistic eight-year-old girl.

She's a little bit Pippi Longstocking and a little bit Wednesday Adams.

Sound like someone you know? If so, she might enjoy the same books this girl enjoys.

PROFILE
Female, age 8 (almost 9), Canadian, enjoys reading (smaller books)

DESCRIBE YOURSELF
Attentive, caring, nature lover

LIKES
Nature, poetry, writing, art

TOP FIVE FAVOURITE BOOKS
1) Journey to the River Sea, by Eva Ibbotson
(Take a look at Eva Ibbotson's bio - it's fascinating.)

2) The Penderwicks, by Jeanne Birdsall

3) The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick

4) Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Dog Days, by Jeff Kinney

5) The Fog Mound series, by Susan Schade and Jon Buller

(The rights have just been purchased, to create an animated feature film of these great books.)

What the heck is this post about? This'll explain it.

The mom who interviewed her daughter said she was really interested to hear how her daughter described herself, and the thoughtful list of books she came up with. Great job! Thanks, S and L.

The image is a picture of Pippi Longstocking and I think it conveys this girl's spirit pretty well. This is the illustrator.

Mysterious Benedict logic puzzles

2010-01-22T07:18:00.000-05:00

If your child loves puzzles, click here.

I've been raving about The Mysterious Benedict Society books.
My son is loving them and frankly, so am I.

They're about four unusual children who are called upon by Mr. Benedict to solve a threatening, decidedly adult problem. The impending utter breakdown of society by an evildoer, to be specific.

The books are great because they're focussed on the children, and their very diverse and unique gifts. Each of the children is brilliant in his or her own way, and each is a bit of a misfit. Working together, they pool their gifts to solve mysteries and save the world.

The reader gets in on the fun, since many of the puzzles faced by the children are posed in such a way that the reader of the book can attempt to figure them out as well.

A great website
The website that accompanies the book has a series of logic puzzles, like the ones found in the book. In one instance, you'll face four doors, each with a number and a letter. You have to figure out which one to open. (And I love that the instruction isn't, "which door doesn't belong?" it's "which door should you open?")

Kids have to figure out for themselves that on one of the doors, the number of letters matches the number. For instance six-3 would be the answer since "six" has 3 letters.

There is a whole series of delightful puzzles that should prove fun for kids who enjoy thinking things through, and get a kick out of getting the answer right.

Try the website for yourself - the great thing about these books, and the website, is that the puzzles are intended for kids but could easily stump an adult. The other great thing is that hints are provided, so if your child is stuck she can click on up to five solid hints that should lead her logically to the answer.

Photo: This is a picture of the author, Trenton Lee Stewart. I snagged it from Publishersweekly.com, but since it's also the one featured on the book's website I figured it was probably an officially sanctioned photo so I won't get sued.

Profile: Male, 14, likes movies, skiing

2010-01-21T06:10:00.000-05:00

Some great teen fantasy reads

Do you know a teenaged boy who's into movies, skiing and video games? Maybe he'll like the same books as this young man.

PROFILE
Male, 14, enjoys reading

DESCRIBE YOURSELF
Funny, tall, smart, athletic

LIKES
Video games, books, movies, skiing

TOP FIVE FAVOURITE BOOKS
1) Percy Jackson and the Olympians (all 5 books in series)

(Here's a cool 15-second video that gives you a good sense of what the Percy Jackson books are like.)

2) Entire CHERUB series by Robert Muchamore

3) Deltora Quest Series by Emily Rodda

4) Daniel X by James Patterson

5) The Heir books - Wizard Heir, Warrior Heir and Dragon Heir

Are you wondering what the heck this post is all about? This will explain everything.

Thanks, F and T, for sending in your profile!

The argument for making Harry wait

2010-01-18T19:11:00.000-05:00

There’s an interesting post on a blog called Kidliterate - here.

The author, Melissa, argues that parents shouldn’t be in a big hurry to read the Harry Potter books to their children.

She says there are lots of books kids should experience first, and if they dive into Harry Potter too early:

1) around book three the series gets quite scary as “Voldemort starts picking off Harry’s friends and family one at a time”;

2) while young children may be ready for the “happier” themes in the book such as loyalty and magic, they’re likely not sophisticated enough for the darker themes such as racism, self-loathing and evil.

3) If they hear Harry Potter read aloud at a young age, they will likely not go back and read the books themselves, later.

She suggests starting kids on books such as the Ramona series, Stuart Little and Roald Dahl.

While she doesn't recommend a specific age at which Harry Potter is appropriate (probably because it depends on the individual child), she does say that 6 is too young.

She then offers a terrific list of 14 great fantasy-type books, and reasons why she recommends them.

If you can ride out the author’s occasionally condescending tone (“Usually these parents did not listen to my careful, polite warnings that this would happen.”), she makes a pretty interesting point.

The article is worth a read.

Thanks to Jen Robinson’s Book Page, where I learned about the Kidliterate article.

Profile: Boy, 8, active, likes video games

2010-01-17T09:22:00.000-05:00

Parents are always asking each other for book suggestions.
It’s a good idea, because what one child likes will often appeal to other kids of the same age and interests.

I’ve decided to profile some very different kids and ask them to share their top five books. When kids are forced to only list their top five, you get the absolute cream of the crop.

GKR readers will be able to compare their child’s interests to those of the profiled kids and they might find a new book that child would like, based on their top-five list.

I am sending out a request for profiles to my friends and neighbours. I’ve started with my son, getting him (rather than me) to describe himself. I think that his description is pretty accurate.

Interviewing him was really fun for both of us, and revealed some things about him that I didn’t know. For instance, he thinks he’s “a little lazy,” and “likes to show off.” I mean, I knew that but I didn’t realize he did.

I encourage you to interview your child(ren) using the categories below. Send us your results and we’ll post them on GKR. Not only will you find out what your child’s top five books are – a list that may surprise you – but you’ll likely learn some other things about your child in the process.

So here’s the first profile and his top five books.

PROFILE
Boy, 8 – reading level: above average/enjoys reading; Canadian

DESCRIBE YOURSELF
Athletic, energetic, a little lazy, I like to watch TV and play video games, I like to show off, I like to dance, I like eating, gracious, brave (ie, can perform in front of people).

LIKES
Physical activities, music (rock, pop and metal), TV and video games

TOP FIVE FAVOURITE BOOKS
1) Harry Potter
2) Mysterious Benedict Society (there are three)
3) Hamish X
4) My Weird School (series)
5) Archie comics

If you know a child you'd like to profile, please send me an e-mail (joycegrant (at) sympatico (dot) ca) and I will send you the questionnaire. Interviews take about five minutes, and are really fun. I'd love to have kids from all over the world profiled - we'll all get some great book suggestions from each other!

It's not your imagination - I've changed this post slightly. I've added links to the books, above. A couple of the websites have related games and activities, so they're worth a look. -JG

Kids love to talk about themselves. Can you imagine how special a child feels when you sit down and ask him to describe himself - without interrupting or questioning his description of himself. And you'll learn more than you thought about your kid and about yourself.
Photo: iStock photos.

Idioms are helpful

2010-01-15T12:51:00.001-05:00

My son loves idioms.

When he was in junior kindergarten, a wonderful school librarian took him under her wing to give him some learning extensions.

She taught him about idioms – phrases that can’t be taken literally, like “break a leg” or “you run like a cheetah.”

He had great fun creating his own, world-of-a-five-year-old idioms.

That lesson helped him enjoy school more and challenged his imagination. It was also a great literacy activity, since it involved reading and writing. (They used books to get inspiration for new idioms, and they wrote them down.)

Since then, just knowing about idioms has been a really good thing for my son. Whenever someone on TV says a phrase that makes no “literal” sense – but we kind of know what the person means, I can point out that’s it’s an idiom. And he knows exactly what that means.

And, his writing is more colourful and fun because he's good at using idioms now.

But most of all, it’s fun to use the word “idiom” with an eight-year-old.

Here's a link to a definition of idiom.

Yesterday I saw, well not an idiom but somewhere between “pun” and “idiot” comes to mind. It was a phrase written on the windshield of a truck. It said, “King of Pain.” I was taken aback – what kind of sicko publicizes that he’s the king of… wait a minute (I thought to myself) what’s the side of the truck say? And sure enough, it was a window installer’s van. Puns aren’t supposed to use the word that fits, they’re supposed to use the other word. If you’d written “King of Pane,” I would have gotten the joke. And I wouldn’t have been all creeped out. Idiom.
Image: Wikimediacommons, Tltld.

GKR on Rogers Cable TV

2010-01-12T14:02:00.001-05:00

Getting Kids Reading's first television interview!

I was invited to do a brief segment on Rogers Daytime (Peel Region), yesterday, with hosts Travis Dhanraj and Deja Gordon. It was very exciting - and nerve wracking, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to spread the word about Getting Kids Reading.

I want to thank all of the staff members at Rogers Cable in Peel who made the experience easier for me.

For a couple of weeks before the segment, I prepped, got professional make-up tips from my friend (and freelance make-up artist) Kerry O'Hana, loaded up about a dozen literacy games and books and headed to the studio in Mississauga.

There, I waited in the lobby with Fred who was promoting a Cancer awareness event, a professional organizer, a snowboarder promoting a local ski hill, and a woman and her PR rep who were flogging a new Wonder bread.

Deja and Travis kept flitting back and forth between the studio and the offices. Travis shook our hands and asked us who we were and what we'd be talking about. It amused me to see him with one of those tissue collar-protectors to prevent his make-up from smearing his shirt. The last time I saw that, it was on the Mary Tyler Moore show. Remember Ted Baxter?

My eight-minute segment flew by incredibly quickly. We talked about the importance of literacy, and how so many parents are concerned that their kids aren't reading as well as they'd like. We also talked about some games, activities and books that are good for fostering a love of reading. And Deja pointed out that instilling good reading habits is a bit like getting your kids to eat healthy - you've got to have healthy options available, show them by your example, and do healthy activities with them.

Thanks again to everyone at Rogers, including Jake Dheer and Sandra Chabot.

For my first TV appearance, all I can say is I'm glad it's over - it was a bit nerve wracking.. Thank goodness Travis lead the conversation and kept the ball rolling. Anyway, now that I've had one under my belt, I'll know what to expect next time - and I'll leave most of my props at home (there was no time for them!).
Thanks again, Kerry, for giving me an all-important pep talk, and for introducing me to the wonders of concealer.

School-wide literacy ideas

2010-01-10T12:28:00.001-05:00

Most of these ideas can be used in your home.
(Or suggest them to your principal).

Here are some great, inexpensive literacy ideas for teachers from the blog, Choice Literacy.

Currently Reading posters on lockers
Kids post a notice on their locker that says what they’re currently reading, and features a colour photocopy of the bookjacket.

At home, this would be great on the outside of a kid’s bedroom door.

He can be proud of what he’s reading, and the overall effect says that what you’re reading matters to others. Plus, it gives other kids suggestions for good books.

It takes a solitary occupation and makes it shareable with others.

Everyone reads the same book
The Toronto Public Library system did this for the whole city and it can be done in a school, an individual classroom, or with a kid and his friends. You get one great book (“The Mysterious Benedict Society,” for instance) and everyone agrees to read it.

Young kids can have it read to them – older kids can read it themselves.

You can set up a website or a face-to-face forum like a book club to discuss the book.

It’s fun and creates a buzz. There are tons of spin-offs possible, like having the author visit the school or renting the video/movie (for instance for Alice in Wonderland or The Phantom Tollbooth).

READ posters
Remember that awesome poster campaign featuring various celebrities reading, with one word – READ – underneath? How about doing that in your school, featuring local celebrities (the mayor, councilors, teachers, the principal). It sends the message that reading is important.

Reading night
Schools can host a “reading night” once a year. After dinner, kids and parents return to the school where there is an hour or two of fun literacy activities. It could be a readaloud, learning a craft using a how-to book or a book swap. Add baked goods and it could also be a school fundraiser.

For more information on each of these ideas, and other good ideas besides, check out the Choice Literacy website.
I came across Choice Literacy via a tweet from @JensBookPage – thanks Jen!

Image: Barry Lou Polisar.

PICTOCHAT Hide and Seek

2010-01-08T08:31:00.000-05:00

My son and his friend invented a new game.

And it just happens to have a literacy component.

Even better, it uses the Nintendo DS (Gameboy), so for kids who are really into video games, this can be a good alternative.

The game: PICTOCHAT Hide-and-Seek

Each child takes his DS and goes into a different area of the home.

One child hides, and the other has to find him.

The child who is hiding uses the DS's "PICTOCHAT" function to provide clues.

My son hid in his friend's room, under the covers of his bed. For his clue, he wrote "sleep."

Another time he hid in the bathroom and his clue was "pee" - hey, he's eight.

I loved this creative use of technology that would otherwise just be about video games, and it kept them busy for a long time, having fun.

What is PICTOCHAT?

PICTOCHAT is a great feature of the DS that lots of parents - and kids, even - don't know about.

It's a screen that allows you to write or type a message which is then relayed wirelessly to any other DSs in the vicinity.

To access it, touch PICTOCHAT right after you turn on the DS.

(Here's an earlier post about it, with a bit more information.)

Having a hard time telling your Wii from your DS? DS stands for "double screen" - it's the one with an upper and a lower screen. DS. Don't call it a Gameboy - I just did that for clarity's sake. So uncool, maaaaawm!

Thank-you cards

2010-01-06T10:54:00.000-05:00

A great literacy activity.

Your kids have probably just received a bunch of gifts, and I'm betting that at least some of the senders weren't in the room when they were opened.

So that means thank-you cards.

They're not optional. In our house if you don't want to write a thank-you card, that's fine - just give back the gift.
(Ooh, that sounds awful, but I do say it with a twinkle in my voice so he never actually chooses that option.)

How do you ensure sending thank-you cards doesn't turn into an activity that he comes to loathe?

Make it fun
* Offer options. Send gramma an e-mail (which the child types). Or text gramma.

* Make it an art project. The note could be a picture, a painting, origami, or just about anything else that you can write "thank-you" on.

* Send a photo. Have her put on the new shirt she got (or hold the toy); take a picture; and print it (at Shoppers Drug Mart or even on your black and white printer). Have the child write a couple of words on the back.

* Keep it short. Don't force your kid to write a two-pager. A couple of sentences will do.

* Give them the words. Tell your child: "Write something like, Dear Grampa, Thank you for the book. I'm thinking of you. Love, Simon." Then, he'll probably add something on his own.

* Younger children will enjoy putting their return address on the envelope, sticking a stamp on it and mailing it. (You can even let the child write gramma's address on the envelope herself - if it's illegible, just write it again, yourself, on the other side.)

* Have you ever explained how mail gets to gramma? Kids love that story, and it makes writing a thank-you note part of something bigger.

* Make sure gramma calls, e-mails or writes back when she receives your child's note. That provides your child with a reward that she'll remember the next time she has to write thank-you notes.

* If you have no one to send a card to, why not send a thank-you note to Santa? You might even get a letter back.

* Write thank-you notes yourself. Let your child see you doing it, too.

* Send a thank-you note to your child. Let him see how fun it is to get one.

* Don't make your child write a million notes. They can do one or two, and just sign any others which you write.

Start slowly, but make sure that every time they get a gift from someone distant, they write a note or send a e-mail. It's a lifelong habit your child will be thankful you passed along.

I used to send gifts to more relatives, but I stopped doing it when I never received a thank-you card or even a phone call. So that's another thing - kids who send thank-you notes tend to get more presents!
The beautiful thank-you notes in this picture are from my son's teachers. I think it's fantastic that teachers give kids thank-you notes; it really helps them see how important and thoughtful thank-you notes are.

His favourite gift - a book

2010-01-01T13:59:00.000-05:00

A tiny Christmas miracle.

So we're in the middle of opening Christmas gifts.
Have you ever seen an eight-year-old tear through gifts? You get the idea - that's how it was going.

But then he opens a book, and everything. stops. completely.

No more gifts.
Time to read.

It was awesome.

The book that stopped my son in his tracks is The Encyclopedia of Immaturity, Vol. 2.

It's every bit as silly as Volume 1, with lots of ideas about how to act immature and do really silly things like how to: talk like a pirate, take off your underwear without removing your pants first, pick the lock on your sister's diary, paint a kid's face without him knowing about it. You can see why my son couldn't put it down.

If you have a kid in your life, this is the book. They will love it, and it will get them reading.

You can see for yourself - Santa brought him a bike! And he still sat down and read the book. My mom was already on the phone telling her friends. Was it a Christmas miracle? OK, well not really but almost.

Klutz sent me this book, btw - but I was going to get it anyway. Klutz stuff goooood.

Great homework

2009-12-22T11:19:00.001-05:00

Our son's teacher created an awesome homework assignment.

And it's something parents could do, too.

I just asked my son and his friend if they've finished their homework (it's just two days into the winter break). They both said yes. Even though there was a lot of reading involved, and some math. Here's why.

It's a detective story. It covers about three pages (yours could be shorter), and leads the reader through several interesting "logic puzzles."

Here's a sample plot:
A detective receives a note.
The note says there's going to be a bank robbery.
The reader (child) has to figure out when the robbery is going to take place, at which bank, and who the culprit is.

The clues, and the steps to solve them, are in the story.

For instance, the note can say, "A robbery is going to take place at 1 2-1-14-11 9-14 20-15-18-15-14-20-15."
Detective Bill thought, "I can figure out the blanks by substituting letters for each number. For instance, "A" is "1"."

So now, the message says: "A robbery is going to take place at A BANK IN TORONTO."

Then the detective had to figure out which bank.
He got a list of banks like this:
Bank of Montreal, 24 Quebec St., 431-1435
Royal Bank, 91 Queen St., 987-1243
TD Bank, 43 Canada St., 332-1322

The note told the detective the robbery would be at bank #428.
The detective decides to use a formula for figuring out which one was #428. (Something like, add all of the numbers in each phone number and multiply them by the street number).

You get the idea.

The last clue was about whodunnit.
The note was signed, "Raymo."
The reader had to rearrange the letters to figure out that the culprit was the city's "Mayor."

Kids will get excited about reading and math when the story is about them, and lets them figure things out. Your story could be about a detective who has to solve a mystery surrounding a baseball team. Or with Hannah Montanna. Or in a dinosaur museum. Or a video game parlour. Or whatever your kid's into.

Use your child's name in the story, the names of siblings, pets, her school - whatever will catch her eye as she's reading. She'll love it!

So right now you're surfing the net. You're reading this blog (way to go, you rock, incidentally). But obviously you've got a few minutes before the boss comes back. So use this time to write a quick story. Steal liberally from my ideas, above (after all, I stole them from my son's teacher, a-hem). Don't even worry about including a "mystery" if you want - just make it a story. Don't worry if it's simple, if it's not as good as Robert Munsch would do. Your kid will love it - and she'll be reading.
Photo: iStock.

Toys for the CHUM Christmas Wish

2009-12-21T11:48:00.000-05:00

I had some unopened toys that companies had sent me to review.

Some of them weren't literacy-based, so I hadn't opened them.

And others didn't need to be opened in order to review them.

Anyway, I had quite a stash, so I brought them over to the CHUM Christmas Wish. Apparently, they'll be sent on Wednesday to kids in time for Christmas.

Thanks, companies! (You know who you are.)

Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone!

Image: Wikipedia Commons, www.commons.wikimedia.org.

I like it, because it's pencils (much like what I dropped off for the kids) but it kinda looks like a Christmas star.

Club Penguin

2009-12-18T19:59:00.000-05:00

My son is hanging out in Club Penguin these days.

And, um, so am I.

Club Penguin is a virtual world for kids - each kid is a cartoon penguin.

You take your penguin around the island, into various buildings, down ski hills, onto a pirate ship. (Still with me?)

Theoretically it's free, but all of the fun games are behind the membership wall, and that's $5.99 a month. My son and I are trying it for one month.

I set up my own penguin so I could play with my son online.

He wanted to join up because it's something his friends are doing.

I agreed, because I thought it would get him typing more (the penguins can talk to each other).

The literacy angle

Long-story short, I just found a terrific area on Club Penguin that may provide a good incentive for him to type. It's in the "book room" (natch), in the Coffee Shop. There are several books there that feature stories which you have to type in order to read them. As you type the tale, more story is revealed.

At the end, not only have you read a story but you receive a bunch of Club Penguin coins, the local currency.

And you've done a bunch of typing, which is the whole point, as far as I'm concerned.

Here's a link to Club Penguin.

It's known for being very safe, with excellent parental tools such as the ability to limit the amount of time your little penguin hangs out there, and they're very responsive to people writing them with queries.

I have no idea if this Club Penguin thing is good or not, or has anything to do with literacy. Probably not. But I am enjoying exploring stuff my son's interested in, and we're having fun.

Incidentally, if you think Club Penguin is a little thing, it's not. There are about 50 servers on the site, and at any given time most of them are full, with thousands of little virtual penguins. It's a big club.

Wonderful book - Tiny Tyrant

2009-12-15T13:30:00.000-05:00

Here's a masterpiece kids will love.

I've never thought of a graphic novel (high-end comic book) as a masterpiece before, but I think the moniker fits Tiny Tyrant.

The hero is a six-year-old king; a kind of likeable spoiled brat. King Ethelbert rules Portocristo - and we have no idea why, or where his parents are, but we don't care.

He has an equally diminuitive and bratty cousin Sigismund, with whom he feuds, and there are some adult handlers who keep the mayhem from getting too out of control.

Even better than the plots - which are silly enough for any kid - are the gorgeous illustrations. They're simple and clean, in the best French tradition (think Asterix), and rendered in beautiful, rich colours.

Good readers will devour the book fairly quickly, but younger readers may be able to get a few more hours out of it. Either way, it's time well spent. The books never condescend to young readers, which is part of their charm.

There are two volumes, but beware that Volume 1 has a chapter featuring Santa Claus, that may shine too fine a light on the legend for young readers.

Ever since First Second Books sent me Tiny Tyrant Volume Two: The Lucky Winner (I subsequently asked to see Volume I as well), I've been a bit obsessed with the books. The covers are beautiful - that soft, deeply saturated paper. And each chapter is printed on a different coloured pastel background. I can't put them down, and neither could my son.