Tots & Teens Thursday: Label Your House

In the previous 2 Tots & Teens posts, I discussed reading to your little one & how to get your teenager interested in reading.

What I am going to tell you to do in this week’s post, you will probably think I have completely lost my mind. What can I say? It’s the elementary teacher background in me.

Are you ready?

Here it is.

Label your house.

Not your actual house, but items in your house. When you walk into my kitchen, for example, here is what you’ll see:

There’s more, but you get the idea. Once your child shows interest in what words look like & how things are spelled, they are ready for this.

When Sweetie Pie was about 3, he started being really interested in how words looked. He wanted us to write names on his doodle pro. Then we had sheets of paper with every. single. Thomas. train. friends’ name on it. And believe me, he knows them ALL. We’ve now moved on to him wanting me to type out names—especially when I’m tweeting. So, if you notice weird tweets from me containing random names, you know what is happening at my house.

The labels are just another way to show your child that every word they hear can be written. It serves as another way to immerse them in words.

So, go. Make labels with your child & put them up all over your house. You’ll love the response you get from people when they come over.

Tots & Teens Thursday: Teens & Reading

Welcome to the beginnings of Tots & Teens Thursdays. If you missed last week’s post, I discussed reading to your tot. This week I am expanding some of those ideas to teenagers & I’m including some new ones.

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I’ll be the first to admit that I do not have a teenager in my house. But I did teach middle school for 12 years. These ideas stem from both that experience as well as ingenious parents who shared ideas they used in their homes.

So, how do you encourage your teenager, who might be reluctant (or downright obstinate), to read? 

Let’s be honest. It’s safe to say most teenagers are not big readers. Most. They aren’t going to choose to spend their free time engrossed in a book. This is especially true at the middle school level. And especially true for boys. I will say this. The more ownership kids  have in what they read, the more likely they are to read it. (Read: Give them choices in what they read when at all possible.)

Here’s the good news. If your child loved to read in their elementary days, that love will more than likely return…eventually. 

But, in the interim, there are things you can actively do at home to help promote reading.

1) Model. Model. Model. Your kids need to see YOU reading. Book, newspaper, magazine, Kindle. Doesn’t matter. They just need to see that it is a priority for you. This will not make an immediate impact, but they’ll refer back to it later in life.

2) Go on a hunt for reading material. As a reading teacher, this was key to getting my reluctant readers to read. Find SOMETHING. ANYTHING. they are interested in reading. It might be a reallyyyyyyyy long hunt, but don’t give up. There is bound to a magazine, type of book,or particular author your child would like. I will get a page up soon of titles & authors that have proven to be good starting points on this hunt. Other good sources for reading suggestions? English teachers, librarians (both school & public), your kid’s friends, & your kid’s friends’ parents.

3) Have a reading community in your home. Yes, your teen is going to bock at this. You might even have to force this on them. But if your are reading this prior to your kids being teenagers, start this early. Then it’s just something you do as a family. Ideas straight from parents of middle school kids…

--Have a set family reading time. Everyone sits in the living room together each with their own reading material & reads. Same time. Everyday. For a set period of time. When you first start this, the it might be for just 15 minutes. Gradually work up to 30 or 45 minutes. Maybe bigger chunks of time on the weekends.

--Keep at home library & visit your local library. This doesn’t have to be extensive, but have some books for you & your kids in your house. Kindles & Nooks have made this easy, but I’m guessing if your teen isn’t a reader, he or she doesn’t have one of those. Utilize your public library as well. A plethora of choice awaits there. Remember the importance the role of choice has in your child’s desire to read. (And by the way, the choice doesn’t have to be extensive. Pick 3 or 4 books you have had recommended to you for your teen & let them choose from those.)

--Conduct a family book club. If you find a book that everyone in the family would enjoy reading—or halfway enjoy, as the case my be—read it as a family. Make a reading schedule together. Decide that you all are going to read the first 2 chapters by Thursday night & then instead of reading during your family reading time, you are going to have a book discussion. I know this sounds cheesy & you’re thinking ::Yeah, like my kid is going to discuss anything with me, let alone a book.:: Give it a try. You might just be pleasantly surprised. Think about how much more you enjoy what you are reading when you have someone to discuss it with. You will have to drive the discussion, of course, but the more you do this, the better everyone will get at it. And if a book is too daunting to start with, maybe find a newspaper or online article to use before moving to a book.

Conclusion?

The most important thing you can do for a teenager who doesn’t enjoy reading, is to help him or her find their niche. Hunt until you find it. I am a firm believer that those who don’t enjoy (or at least tolerate reading) never found what they like to read. So, be on the look out for magazines about anything your child is interested in. Books by authors their friends are enjoying. Books where the main character plays the same sport your child plays. Check out graphic novels. Anything you can grasp onto to pull your child in. All in hopes of finding something he or she will never put down.

Tots & Teens Thursday: Read. Read. Read.

Welcome to the beginning of Tots & Teens Thursdays. If you missed last week’s post, here is how this whole idea come about.

This first post is more for tots than teens, but I will be taking this idea & expanding it to teens next week.

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You’ve heard it before, & I’m telling you again.

The single.most. important. thing. you can do for your child to create a love of reading is to read to them.

Read. Read. Read.

Just like building a house, you have to build a reading foundation. Sitting down with your child and reading books is the way to establish that solid foundation.

When my boys were babies (read: before they were mobile), reading books to them was a piece of cake. They were a captive audience.   Then they started getting wiggly when I tried to read to them. It’s okay. Let them move around. Let them walk around the room. Play with toys. Just sit and read to them anyway. I promise the day will come that you will once again have your captive audience back.

Another thing? Have books in your house. Please don’t read that as “You need to go buy a gazillion & 1 books for your child.”  Sure, buy some books, but hear me on this…

Take your child to the library. Often.

1) It saves you money buying books. 
AND…
2) It surrounds them in books.

Our local library has several options for baby & toddler & preschool play times, singing times, & story times. Granted several of the programs are during the day, but there are some in the late afternoon & early evening. If your local library has these options available, I recommend you partake if you are able.

Board books are great for the little ones. You know the ones, right? They have the big, chunky pages. My boys love the Sandra Boyton books. Eric Carle is awesome too. Lots of good ones out there. Chantelle over at Mom Went Crazy already has an awesome list of great children’s book titles & authors. I couldn’t have made a better list myself, and, in fact, I would have included the majority of the same titles. The list has books for wee ones all the way up to 7 or 8. (Charlotte’s Web, for example, could easily be a read aloud book for a 5 or 6 year-old & an independent read for a 7 or 8 year-old.)

So, what exactly is your child learning when you read to them?

Besides that all-important foundation you are building, your child is learning the way books work. Which way to hold a book. Where the front cover is. That you read print front left to right. That pictures relate to the words on the page. When you hand a book to your child upside down & with the back cover up & he or she turns it right side up & flips it to the front cover, you know your child is understanding the early, early foundations of reading.

Tots & Teens Thursdays

During on of the “For the Love of Blogging” week, Katie over at Sluiter Nation hit on a point that struck me. Hard. It was one of those “Well, Duh!” kind of moments, but it just clicked for me right then.

The point she made?

Write What You Know

Sounds simple, right?

This got me to thinking. What could set my blog apart from other mommy blogs out there? Besides this motherhood, wife, friend gig, what do I know? My answer?

Middle school kids & reading

What you might not know about me is that I taught middle school for 12 years. That kind of makes me an expert on those moody people—you know the alien that took over your sweet child—if you ask me. Do I have all the answers? Absolutely not. But I have been around that block a few times, & I do have some tricks and wisdom up my sleeve.

The other thing I know…reading. Many of you probably don’t know this, but I am a reading specialist. And now that I have kids, I have found myself using my Master’s degree in reading to build as strong of a literacy foundation as I can for them. As I began to label my house for Sweetie Pie (more on this in another post), it dawned on me. Any parent can do these things. They just need to be made aware of them.

Enter Tot & Teen Thursdays.

My idea is to dedicate Thursdays’ posts to 2 concepts:

1) Sharing ideas on how to foster reading skills in your little one. A strong literacy foundation will serve your child & you well in the coming years.  And, seriously, there are hundreds of little things & even reading lessons you can do at home to give your kid that extra little boost.

2) Either sharing thoughts on middle school kiddos or taking questions from you concerning a struggle you might be having with your middle schooler. Topics could range from grades to attitude to organization to how to address a problem with a teacher. I don’t know. Just throwing some ideas out there.

I’d love to hear your thoughts & opinions on this idea. Would there be interest out there for these posts? Or is this just a hair-brain idea? Be honest with me, please. Yay or Nay? What say you?