Take 30 seconds for literacy this holiday

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.

NYTimes 10 best picture books

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.

Winner of PictureIt Contest

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

Halo by Alexandra Adornetto

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.

Scrabble Flash (Boggle Flash)

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.

Macdonald Hall

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.

Reading Incentive: KidsCash

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.

The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary

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.

Dry-Erase Crayons

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.

Finger Puppet Book Bags

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.)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

"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.

Great homework

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.

Make a book for Christmas

This is a great time to make your child a book for Christmas or Hannukah.

Children of all ages are motivated to read a book about their favourite subject - themselves.

Here's how
*Buy a small scrapbook with stiff pages. (Craft stores have them. You can also use a photo album.)

*Select five to 20 photos of the child, her favourite activities, family and friends, and events from the year. I usually print them out on one of those machines in Shopper's Drug Store - they're just $.23 per print, or so and I don't have to wait.

*Put them in some kind of logical order.

*Tape them into the book.

It's best to type the text for the book on your computer, print it out, and cut it into lines that you can paste below each photo. Use a simple font like Times New Roman (don't get fancy - the goal is legibility.)

For really young children, print one or two words in a large font under each picture:
"Susie"
"Daddy"
"Susie's teddy"

For slightly older children, try one-liners:
"Sebastian turned 4 this year!"
"Sebastian loves to play hockey."
"Daddy and Sebastian at the museum."

For kids who are reading, try writing your own short story.
Each page can have a few lines or a paragraph, with pictures on some pages. Reflect on the year, and write about some of the highlights:
"Our trip to Hawaii was incredible. Dad got seasick on the boat, and Mom lost her wedding ring - but she found it again! I couldn't wait to try Mahi-Mahi - it was delicious."

Another idea is a book that shares some of your insights about your child.
"Daddy and I love you, and we are so proud of you for always trying to do the right thing. Remember when Bradley at school was getting bothered by that boy? We were so proud when you stepped in and stood up for your friend. That took courage!"

Or, help your child keep track of milestones.
"I am a good hockey player. Just two years ago, I was barely skating... now I'm a fast skater and I can do a hockey-stop. I played in goal twice this year; I've scored six goals and gotten a whole bunch of assists. The coach says I'm a good team player. Next year, I want to join the Select team."

Other tips:
In your captions, try to go beyond what's obvious in the picture: "At the beach," could be "This is where we found the big orange conch shell."

Write from the child's perspective, "I, I'm" and the book will be more interesting to them.

Include the names of your child's friends. Wouldn't you love a record of names and photos of your friends from when you were really young? Do it for your child.

Cut some of your photos into shapes if they don't fit on the page.

Pick a great photo for the front of the album, and don't forget to date your book.

A book about your child will be something that fascinates him, and makes him want to read every word. He'll pick it up again and again - and for years to come.

The book in the picture is one that I started for my son this time last Christmas, but never finished. I picked it up, blew off the dust (literally) and flipped through it. I teared up - you forget how fast they grow, and how small they were last year! I'm going add the captions and a photo on the front and give it to him this year.

Great reading tool - Boggle Jr.

I'm excited - I've got a great reading tool your (young) kids will love.

I e-mailed Hasbro and asked them to send me some word games and I'm really glad I did. (I have no affliation with Hasbro, by the way.) I tried Boggle Jr. with the six-year-old I'm working with, and it was really helpful.

Boggle Jr. has a set of large dice with letters on the sides. And it has flash cards - a picture of a car with the word "CAR" underneath it, for example.

A holder sets the flash card in front of the child, who finds the appropriate letters and builds the word using the dice. You can also hide the word and get the child to spell the word just from the picture.

There are tons of ways to use the game, depending on what the child needs to learn. I used them to talk about vowels. He had to find the vowels and tell me what each one says.

We also put letters together to discuss what the letter pairs say (th, sh).

What's so great about it is that the dice are bulky and just perfect for little hands. There's a game aspect because the child has to turn the dice over to find the right letters. And the flash cards allow for four levels: three-letter words and four-letter words, with and without looking at the words.

I'm excited about this new discovery because it's going to make teaching easier, and learning more fun. I think there will be a limitation - for instance, my own eight-year-old wanted to play with it, but it was clearly far too young for him. However, the six-year-old had a great time playing with it.

Update on my sessions with the six-year-old. They're going great, and we're both having fun. But guess which book he picked - from the 15 on offer? SpongeBob Squarepants. Oooooof course.

Hallowe'en books for kids

Now's the time to start gathering Hallowe'en books.

It's a great idea to have seasonal books, that only come out during certain holidays like Hallowe'en, Hannukah, Easter, or Christmas.

Most of your child's favourite authors will likely have at least one Hallowe'en book. The Berenstain Bears, Robert Munsch, Clifford, Froggie, Angelina Ballerina, Arthur, The Rugrats, and magazines like Chirp, to name a few.

You can buy them new, but I like to start looking at this time through the bins at Goodwill and at garage sales and church bazaars. You can usually get them very inexpensively and they're usually not overly abused, since they're seasonal.

Here's a list from Amazon, which someone compiled of their favourite Hallowe'en books for kids aged 4 to 8. And here's another collection of Hallowe'en books featuring kids' favourite characters like Clifford and Arthur.

Tips

I find that even very young books, if they're about Hallowe'en, are fun for kids no matter what their age. When you bring them out of storage, there's a brief novelty to them that makes kids want to pick them up. They're only going to read them quickly once or twice anyway, and then back up into the attic they go - until next year.

Books like Winnie the Witch are not specifically for Hallowe'en, but they work just fine. And for grandparents - they make a great gift to send to your grandchild for Hallowe'en.

So... I went to Yellowknife and I missed Word on the Street last weekend. Argh! Oh well, I still have last year's Word on the Street pictures to reminisce with. Plus, Yellowknife was amazing - well worth it.

Writing in light

So, here's a pretty cool product.

Crayola's Glow Station is essentially a flexible white board made of a phosphorescent material. It comes with a pen-flashlight so kids can "write" (or draw) using light.

At first, I thought it was a one-trick pony. My son used it the first time for half an hour and then didn't really go back to it.

However, as time goes by, I'm liking it more and more. Here's why. It hangs on his wall, so it's always handy.

Come bedtime, our family inevitably writes messages to each other.

So actually, it's becoming a pretty good literacy tool. It's getting my son to write more, and that's hard to do. (He loves reading, but writing - not so much.)

The Glow Station also comes with stencils and an adapter that creates little starbusts of light.

But the real genius of the thing is the fact that kids will use it, again and again, to pass messages back and forth. In the dark.

By the way, check out this website that'll explain why things glow.

I couldn't take a picture of my son's Glow Station because it's, like, really hard to get a picture of stuff that glows. You use a flash and it doesn't glow - you don't use a flash and you can't see it. So you get the Crayola image, and they're drawing not writing. Your kid will write.

"I'm bored!"

We said it to our parents - your kid says it to you.

You've hated hearing it in the past. But the next time he says "I'm bored!" you're going to love it. Here's what to do:

The next time you're in a book store or a corner store, check out the magazines. Think about what your child loves - it may be video games, sports, cars, fashion, music, TV - this isn't about what you want them to like, it's about what they really do like.

Whatever it is, there is a magazine geared to it. And chances are, if they're not used to reading a lot, this will be a revelation to them. The magazine will have the latest information on their favourite subject. Imagine how exciting that will be for your child!

Buy the magazine and hide it in your sock drawer.

So now we come to the good part. It's raining and video-time is spent, and your child says, "I'm bored!" Go up to his room and quietly put the new magazine on his bed. Then come down and casually tell him, "There's something on your bed."

I guarantee you won't see that kid for the next half-hour. Left alone with that magazine, which contains all the latest information on his favourite subject - no matter how much he hates reading, he will read it.

Well done, parent.

After he's read the magazine, "what then?" you ask. How about a monthly subscription? Get him to fill out the subscription card, and take it to the mailbox. Or, next time leave a graphic novel on his bed. Or a comic book, or a novel. Or give him $10 and take him to Chapters to buy a new magazine. Fun! (Not boring.)

How will we read our Christmas books?

Let me count the ways.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Singin' in the Brain

Singing helps children learn to read

When my son was little, our life was a musical. If I could sing something rather than say it, I would. "We're... puttin' our shoes now, tying up the laces, goin' to the park!" (to the tune of Top Hat, White Tie and Tails). "Let's cross... to the sunny side of the street!"

I also frequently sang another ditty: "A says ah, A says ah. Every letter makes a sound; A says ah!" And I'd get him to join in. "B says... what?" "Buh!" "Right! B says buh. B says buh. Every letter makes a sound. B says buh!"

I'm not a spokesperson for LeapFrog, just a fan. It was their fridge magnet toy (which we didn't even own - another friend had one) that taught me this catchy tune. It helped my son to learn the sounds the letters make. And that's a huge step towards reading.

Singing has major teaching benefits. For one thing, you're happy while you're singing, and fun and passion always aid understanding. And facts that are sung are much more easily memorized. Singing also creates synapses in the brain, so you're really doing two things at once - learning and increasing the capacity to learn.

I'm going to ask the LeapFrog people if they can send me a music file so you can hear the fridge magnet song. I don't know how to post a music file, so I'm a bit scared of that. But I'll do it for literacy.

Attention grandparents

Here's a great gift idea.

It's a personalized book from Kids Shared Book.com. You visit the website and choose a book; there are a lot of great classics. I chose "The Prince and the Pauper."

Then you type in a message for the first page. I wrote: This is a book about two boys from different backgrounds, who learn to see things from the other person's point of view. We hope you enjoy it. Love, Mommy and Daddy.

You can then add a picture (of you and your grandchild, perhaps) that will be in black-and-white on the first page, and you can add a colour photo for the back cover.

Kids Shared Book.com let me try out their site, and it was fast, easy (you don't have to be a computer genius) and the book is lovely. My thinking is that having photos of your child right in the book will be added incentive for him to read it.

The books start at $19.95 plus about $10 each for shipping within Canada (shipping is free in the domestic US). The range of books is good, including many classics.

I'm hoping this post is in time for the holidays, but check the website or call and ask whether your book will arrive in time. There is a customer service number you can call if you don't have a computer. But if you don't have a computer, how are you reading this blog, eh? Ha! Got you again.