How to Use Your Child's Interests to Make Reading Fun

Something magical happened with my son last week. I have been very frustrated and discouraged that for quite a while now, My Little Reader has not been the least bit interested in listening to Bible stories. He enjoys books, but when I pull out the Bible, he will literally stick his fingers in his ears. Sometimes I can get him interested in a Bible story presented in a picture book format. But there are only so many of those, and they often cover only the same few Bible stories. Even children's Bibles don't interest him.


My Little Reader loves Legos though. Can't get enough. We picked up a book from the Brick Bible series that told the Christmas story using Legos. My boys loved it. They were mesmerized.

Then I found more books in the Brick Bible series. We borrowed the New Testament Brick Bible from our local library. I started it with my little guy the first day we brought it home, and I think we read every story in it that same day. He couldn't get enough. And we have since reread the stories in it several times, per his request!



My Little Reader jumped up from reading this book with me and decided he wanted to make his own Garden of Eden with his Legos, just like in the Brick Bible. He got straight to work. And he kept on happily working on it for quite a while.

It was a joy to see him having so much fun with a Bible story.

I had found the right book!

Maybe your child doesn't dislike Bible stories; perhaps you're having a tough time getting them interested in books period.

It's amazing the kinds of book choices that are out there. There are books your child will enjoy! To find them, try starting out by thinking about things your child already loves. Interests they have, maybe even shows they watch (I was surprised to find graphic novel versions of some TV shows my daughter watches, and she gobbled those up). Then get on Amazon and search whatever that thing is in their book department. You'll be amazed!

Or ask your local children's librarian. Again, you'll be amazed!

Have you tapped into your child's or students' interests to get them excited about reading? Tell me about it in the comments!

Turn Your Car Into A Literacy Learning Lab!

How many hours a week do you spend riding around in your car with your kids? Far more than you would like I'm guessing.

What if you could put that wasted time to good use for your kiddos? I like to fill up my car with great books, toys, and various educational-type items that will engage my kids' minds a bit and help keep them all from driving me nuts. If you have a DVD player in your car, there are even some videos that can be awesome for entertaining and teaching while in the car! Really!

Watch the video and I'll share my ideas with you!




Do you keep things like this in your car for your kids. Share your ideas in the comments!

Ideas for a Reading Christmas

I'm always looking for ways to bring some reading fun to the holiday season. Things can get so busy, so working some ideas for encouraging reading into the holiday plan can make sure you don't get too busy for reading.

 Here are some ideas for a holly, jolly, reading Christmas:

 1. Check the events going on at your local library. Weekly story times often take a hiatus this time of year, but instead there's usually lots of holiday programs and activities going on.


 2. While attending a special holiday event at the library, go on a hunt for some great Christmas books. Some libraries will mark the spines of their books to make special titles (like holiday titles) easier to find.

3. Do a reading advent calendar, like this one here. Have you seen this idea? Wrap 25 Christmas picture books (they can be ones you already own), then allow your child to unwrap one each day and read it together as you countdown to Christmas.


4. Make books a part of your gift-giving tradition. Unwrapping a cool new book or two on Christmas morning attaches the right connotation to books - they are something to be enjoyed! Some families make gifting a new pair of pajamas a Christmas Eve tradition; perhaps pairing a new book with their snuggly pajamas could become part of the tradition as well. Think about subjects your child is especially interested in, or books in a series they might be specifically wanting. We might be gifting some fun magazine subscriptions in our house this year!


5. Start a tradition of adding a new Christmas book to your family library every season. Make a special trip to the bookstore together to pick it out. Maybe get some hot cocoa while you're at it, and make a whole date of it!


6. If you do Elf on the Shelf, incorporate some reading fun into your elf's repertoire of tricks. Perhaps he will get caught reading the kids' Christmas books? Or perhaps he will get caught reading to some of your kid's toys, like in this photo?


7. Gift some fun items to your child that help encourage reading. We're giving neat reading lights to our kids to encourage them to stay up late in bed with a book.
 


Another idea is the fun book timers for keeping track of their reading time (they are book marks that can be stored right in the book your child is reading).
 



How about a kit for creating their own books?


Or a fun bag for toting books to and from the library?


8. Give books as gifts to others with your child. How about for their teacher? Friends? Family? Ask for their input and help in selecting the right book for the people on your list this Christmas.

9. Make some festive sugar cookies with alphabet cookie cutters. Spell out festive words like "joy" and "merry" and then box them up and gift them to friends and family.  Isn't this pretty? You could also make fun alphabet ornaments and gift tags using a variety of different supplies and things. Get creative!

How do you encourage reading and literacy during the holidays?

Books About Books... For Teachers and Parents!

I love a good book about books... or about reading! I love gleaning new insights and wisdom, and discovering new picture books that I have yet to read (there are many of them believe or not)!

Anita Silvey, that authored this book, worked for years as a reviewer and editor for The Horn Book Magazine. She also worked as a children's book publisher. So this is a fantastic list, very thorough in the information it provides. Contains both picture book recommendations, as well as chapter book recommendations. I love reading people's lists like this, and comparing my own list with it! You can bank on this author's expertise and the recommendations she provides in this book!

I love this book! It's one of my go-to's. It's full of inspiration, information, tips, reviews, recommendations, lists, ideas. It's awesome. I love to read through it from time to time and then also keep it handy for referencing! In fact, that's why it's not in the photo at the top of this post; I didn't have it on my shelf, I had it handy for referencing!

This is THE book for teachers and parents that care about helping kids become lovers of books and readings. The research and data in it is extensive and sobering, and put out there in a way that is easy to understand and apply in meaningful ways. It also has ideas, suggestions, tips, inspiration. My copy is full of notes and highlights. It also has a treasury at the back of read-aloud book suggestions. If you only get one book about books, get this one! Everybody should read it!

This book was written by a 6th grade teacher that is passionate about helping her students learn to enjoy reading, now and for the rest of their lives. She details her methods for working toward this goal in her classroom with her students, and it's very brilliant and inspiring! I wish all teachers and schools were like this! The book might seem like one that would be geared more toward teachers, but I think it would be very helpful and motivating for parents. The ideas and techniques could be used in the classroom, or adapted to be used at home too! This one's a quick read too!

This one is written more as a teacher resource book. But again, as parents, we are also teachers of our children, and so that's why I feel these books are so relevant for parents as well. Reading especially is something that is essential to encourage at home, and to cultivate as a lifestyle in our children. This book has a lot of ideas for setting up the classroom, and coming up with literacy-rich lessons. But all that can so easily be modified from a classroom environment into your home environment. There are lots of photos, and the layout is easy to read and navigate through. Lots of great info and resources are provided in this one!

Written by an awesome children's book author, this one is a quick, easy read that's great for parents that don't have a lot of time to sit down for some of these bigger reads. It focuses on parents, but is great for teachers too, and could really help teachers with ways to encourage parents and families to be reading together at home. Small, but potent, this might be a great one to start with! No book lists of recommendations in this one, but it does include a list of Mem Fox's books which are great ones to go read!

This is a great resource book, and I think especially helpful for parents. Keep it on hand and browse through it and jot a few titles down before heading out the library or bookstore. Or bring it along with you to the library! Focuses on lists of various book recommendations from varying genres, but also includes splashes of info about reading and author info, and some interesting little trivia facts. A great book to keep your kids reading books they'll like!

Start a Preschool Book Club

What if we could create a book club experience for our little ones similar to the kinds of book clubs that we adults participate in? Yes, there are plenty of library preschool story hours (and I love them), but I'm talking about a small gathering of friends, meeting in a place like someone's house, each family contributing to the planning, reading, and discussing...

This has been a little dream of mine for a while. I honestly don't see it happening anytime soon for me and my son, but the fall would be the perfect time to launch your local preschool book club if you might be so inspired.

Here's what to do:

1. Invite neighbors, friends, your child's classmates, church buddies... you decide what kind of group you want to form. Use Evites, old fashioned paper invitations, email, word of mouth, Facebook (how fun would a little Facebook group for your book club parents be?). Get the word out and make it easy for people to respond and keep in touch with you about details.

2. Decide where you'll meet. It doesn't need to be formal. A home, the park, church space... Maybe you even rotate locations?

3. Choose a book to begin with and let the group know where they can find it, and when it needs to be read by. This can be any format, genre, or length depending on the ages and interests of the kids in your group. Maybe you want to assign a little activity for parents to do with their child at home, post-story, and then the kids can discuss the book and how the activity went for them. Make sure it's an open-ended activity so there's lots to chat about and there's likely to be variety in how it went for each family.

4. Plan a little discussion. Depending on the ages and attention spans of the kiddos in the group, the amount and type of questions you ask may vary. But just like any good book club, you want to talk about the book! So brainstorm or research some discussion starters.


5. Personalize your book club. What makes a book club different from a library story time is that it's meant to be more intimate and personalized. Choose a theme that interests your kids, let the kids give book talks and bring in some of their favorite reads to share with the group, develop special interests and opinions about various authors and illustrators together, give the kids some ownership and say-so in club plans.

6. Make it fun. Have parents take turns planning an activity and/or game to do with the kids at the club meeting. Scour the internet and Pinterest (and Literacy Launchpad) for ideas; you'll find more than you need! Serve snacks during book club and make them coordinate with your theme or specific book, if possible. Maybe let the kids help make the snack as part of book club. Maybe everybody can bring a snack to share that they feel coordinates with the story for that meeting; this would be a great discussion starter. Plan field trips, bring in special guests, have all kinds of fun!

The possibilities are endless, it makes my head swim. I think this would be something your kids would look forward to every week, or couple weeks, or month... or however often your group decides to meet.

Here are some ideas for a book club meeting for The Very Hungry Caterpillar (just as an example):

Have everyone bring one of the foods the caterpillar ate? (idea and photo from Offbeat Mama) Maybe do a taste testing together and you can make a chart, or discuss which foods are everyone's favorite. 

Get fancy with your storytelling? (idea and photo from A Wednesday Afternoon)

Plan an art project? (idea and photo from SmArt Class)

Learn something? (idea and photo from Busy Bees)

You get the idea, right?

Are you already doing a preschool book club? I would love to hear about it! Have some ideas to add to this list? Put them in the comments!

And here are a few more The Very Hungry Caterpillar ideas from me!

When Reading is Not Fun

When you were born in Ethiopia and are still working to get a firm grasp on English...

When everybody else you go to school with has been reading since they were young...

When the literature at your reading level is far below your maturity level, far below what interests you...

When sounding out words often leads to frustration and makes you feel dumb...

When picking up a book only reminds you of how far behind you are, and how much further ahead you wish you were...

When reading feels like an alienating experience instead of a unifying one...


These are the struggles my eight year old and eleven year old face everyday. We work hard in our family to make reading fun, even when it's hard, and to show our kids the potential for it to be fun.

But today I am reminded that sometimes reading is not fun.