The Importance of Reading at Home

So sorry for posting this a day late, but my AC decided to break yesterday. That "drip, drip" sound in the hallway is never good.  However, the AC is still cooling the house, we minimized the leaking, and a repairman is scheduled for today.

This week, we're going to talk about the importance of reading at home with your kids.  Rather than just tell you that it will make a HUGE difference, I thought I'd let the statistics do it for me. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, children who are read to at home:

• are more likely to write their own names
• can count to 20 or higher, than those were were not
• read or pretend to read
• develop stronger reading skills
• have a  higher success rate in school

Tips to help you get started:

1. Read bedtime stories
2. Play a board game
3. Visit the local library (Map to Garcia Library)
4. Read a recipe and cook something yummy together
5. Create a comfy reading space in your home
6. Put your child in charge of reading the grocery list at the store

Don't forget the use The Five Finger Rule when choosing books for your child to read to you.

You can read the full NCE article here

The Five Finger Rule for Choosing a Just Right Book

As the school librarian, I'm often asked by parents "How do I know which books my child should read?" Here's what I tell them: first, let the child pick out a book that looks interesting to him/her. Then, perform the Five Finger Rule.

Before they learn this rule, many children's first picks are books that are too difficult for them to read by themselves. If this happens, I would suggest keeping the book as one that you can read aloud to them. However, have the child keep testing other books by the rule until they find one that is "just right" for them to read on their own.

Besides our school library, Garcia Public Library  has a wonderful selection of books in their Children's area and a wide variety of children's programs such as Preschool Story and Craft and Little Tot Story Time.  Garcia Library is only eight minutes from Dawson. Map to Garcia Public Library.

Free Online Read Alouds

Today's Parent Post features The Indianapolis Public Library.  

"Storyline Online" contains 100 FREE Read Alouds.  You'll find characters like Pete the Cat, Fancy Nancy, the  Berenstain Bears, and the Rainbow Fish.  Of the six stories that I looked at, all six were read by the authors themselves. How cool is that? 

What are you waiting for? Click here to starting reading a story

Free App called Flipboard

Well kiddos, I hope you've had a FANTASTIC summer. I sure did! Staying up late, sleeping in, going on vacation, and eating LOTS of ice cream:)
This is my Orange Creamsicle Milkshake! YUM!!!

Although I haven't been posting book reviews, I've still been reading a lot - mostly on my iPad or my phone.  I like keeping up with what's going on in the news, so here is a FREE app that I'd like to share with you. It's one of my favorites - Flipboard.  You as the reader get to pick the topics that you like to read about. It's like a newspaper filled with your favorite kinds of stories  - sports, celebrity news, the Olympics, music, etc... Share it with your family! Let me know what you think about it, ok?

I'm looking forward to seeing all of you real soon so that you can help me by writing book reviews for our school blog - DawsonReads.