Here are a few practical parenting tips to help you read out loud with your older kid. 
​

When you first get back to reading with your bigger kid, do it more than once per week. You'll obviously work around your schedule and your child's schedule, but start with 15-20 minutes twice per week. 

Do it early in the morning or during downtime in the afternoon. Before bedtime might seem rushed or more stressful than other parts of the day. Try it early on a Saturday morning at breakfast to start the day or late Sunday afternoon to wrap up a busy weekend. Just try it! 
​

Moms do the bulk of reading with kids at home. Especially if you have boys, consider having Dad read out loud with your kids. Reading Dads are fantastic.

But also, consider other adults. Grandparents, babysitters, aunts and uncles can all be looped in here. They can read a whole book with your child or a chapter here and there. One caveat - someone needs to know the entire book so your kid can discuss consistently with the same person.
​

Audiobooks are a fantastic option, especially if you want to read with your child, but aren't yourself a great reader. Or you're tired. 

A few tips with this one - still have the hard copy book so you can follow along. Listening to a book and also tracking the words has been shown to help with comprehension. Listen to the audiobook together so you can debrief together or you can stop and chat about something as you listen. 
​

This is a more upfront time intensive option. In case you don't have time or your schedules don't line up at all, you can record yourself reading chapters of a book. Then, have your child listen to you reading the book, without you being there. You can set up each chapter like a track of music to listen to. 

You're still reading the book so you can still discuss it later. And, when you record, you should still stop and ask questions (just pause after you do). It might feel weird at first, but it's a great feeling to know that you are still reading to your child even if you can't be there to do it in real-time. 

​You can record yourself on your phone or use a voice recorder. We use this one in our house. For more details on recording your own audiobooks and benefits, read through this literacy quick tip. ​
​

For less pressure, pick a collection of short stories to read. This is a really great collection from Louis Sachar - Sideways Stories from Wayside School. It will be quick and is appropriate for end of 2nd-early 5th grade students.

If you both don't like the book or someone is really bored, abandon the book and choose another. It's okay and a good exercise in why you don't like a book or why you don't think it will get any better. If it's not worth your time and you're not enjoying it, don't read that book. Read one you like. ​

Enjoy!

P.S. The companion post to this is What to Do with Big Kid Readers.

She's won the Newbery Award outright  and has honorable mentions in the category for a couple of her Ramona books.

But, one of the movie adaptations also won an award - the Carnegie Medal of Excellence. And you guessed it, it was a mouse movie. Ralph S. Mouse.

​Having a movie night - what a great way to celebrate a birthday.

This is the cover of the original award-winning movie adaptation by Churchill Films.

It can be hard to come by, but it's a great movie. It's 120 minutes in length.

​You can buy it as a DVD on Amazon.

Enjoy!

Please share!

Remember sending postcards as a kid? I used to love sending postcards when we went on vacations or even better, receiving them in the mail. Who doesn't love getting mail?!

Liliana and I were in Dallas this past weekend and we visited the zoo. As souvenirs, I put pictures up from the trip in her picture frames instead of getting tchotchkes. And as something fun to do, we always get postcards to send. Liliana has a lot to say (always) so she thought it was great when I told her postcards are a way of "telling stories" to other people who live far away.  

​Plus, writing postcards is a quick way to get literacy into your day and works for little kids all the way up to big kids! 

Pura Belpre Award
This award is given to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work affirms the Latino cultural experience. There are two separate awards - one for a written work and one for the illustrations. They have always been two different books, each year. This award has been given since 1996 and works include Magic Windows, Esperanza Rising and most recently, I Lived on Butterfly Hill.

Coretta Scott King Award
This is awarded to authors and illustrators who make an impactful difference in African American books. It is awarded in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King. It has been awarded since 1970. Past winners include Escape to Freedom, Bud Not Buddy, and most recently Gone Crazy in Alabama.

Stonewall Book Award
This is awarded to authors who greatly impact the LGBT community. It has been awarded since 1971 and titles include And the Band Played On, The Laramie Project and most recently The Gods of Tango.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Award
This award is given to authors and illustrators who have made a substantial impact in children's literature over a period of time. This award is not awarded every year. The first award was in 1954 to Laura Ingalls Wilder. Past winners include E.B. White, Maurice Sendak, Donald Crews and most recently Jerry Pinkney.

Batchelder Award
This is awarded to the best children's book published in another language and country and then translated into English for distribution in the United States. It has been awarded since 1968 and includes The Island on Bird Street and The Wonderful Fluffy Little Squishy.

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award
This is given to the authors of beginning readers in the United States, published in English. It has been awarded since 2006 and includes Henry and Mudge and the Great Grandpas, The Watermelon Seed and most recently, Don't Throw It to Mo!

Sibert Informational Book Medal
This is awarded to authors and illustrators for informational books published in the United States. It has been awarded since 2001 and includes The Voice that Challenged a Nation, We Are the Ship, Almost Astronauts and most recently, Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras.

Carnegie Medal
This award is given to the most awesome (just checking if you're reading) video production for children. It has been awarded since 1991 and winners include Ralph S. Mouse, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, and most recently, This is NOT a Good Idea!

​The more you know...Enjoy!

Once we get past the board-book and very simple storybook phase with kids, we really want to dig in with thoughtful stories. Trouble is, not all storybooks are useful for teaching critical thinking skills. Many of our old favorites like The Very Hungry Caterpillar are too simple to teach critical thinking. There isn't much of a plot, there isn't much to discuss and there aren't many characters.

As children get older and school-aged, we want to captivate their attention and dazzle them with what the world could be. Through books. We want reading to be magical.
​
If we want our children to turn into imaginative, critical-thinking grown-ups, we must expose them to complex storybooks - books that require the reader to infer character thoughts and motivation. And then, the reader needs to connect those thoughts to why a character acts.

The books listed below are some of the best complex storybooks for little readers. The reading levels exceed our youngest readers, but when read aloud or read together, these books are appropriate for young children. In no small part, because the illustrations in all of these books are compelling and aid in comprehension. They are all Caldecott Award winning books.

Without further ado, here are some of the best complex storybooks for little readers:

Complex Multi-Cultural Books for Little Readers

​Enjoy!

Dads are awesome in all sorts of ways. 

Now that that's out of the way...

​Dads who read are more awesome. 

​Reading aloud to your kids is a great skill to have. As we discussed last week, reading aloud to your kids is important and there are ways to make it fun at home and reachable. You can read stories over and over and over again. Day after day. You can focus on the art one day, words another day, story the next. For bigger kids, you can practice your inflection while reading. You can choral read. You can do it at the library. You can can do it in a new place altogether. There are lots of possibilities - and we'll get to them. But one of the best is, handing reading aloud to your kid off to your partner.

I love reading. And, I love reading to Liliana. I love getting lost in the story - getting loud, whispering, pointing out pictures, catching funny words in a story and seeing the bigger picture. I love listening to her say, out loud, the parts of stories that she knows - showing me that she's latched on to a story. I used to love reading to bigger kids and middle school kids because they get so into a story. You can see them analyzing its believability as you read it. You can see the wheels turning.

And sometimes, Dads are the best to get those wheels turning.

By second grade, most students start to identify reading as a feminine activity. Moms do the bulk of the reading aloud at home and many elementary school teachers are women. Boys see girls reading more at school and this contributes to the cycle. 

And it follows, fathers only read to their children an average of 15% of the time. Jim Trelease, in The Read Aloud Handbook, posits that boys who are read to by their fathers enjoy higher reading achievement scores. And sons who see their fathers read recreationally, read more themselves. Makes a lot of sense.

So, what's the big deal? This is not new, but girls are outperforming boys in overall reading achievement. Anecdotally, I always had a harder time getting my middle school boys to read for fun. And, I'm not the only one - engaging boys in the classroom is a topic of discussion for many teachers.

Much of this is due to the differences in motivation to read, having good reading choices and having good reading role models. Studies show girls are more intrinsically motivated to read and have an easier time finding books to read. Boys have a harder time and start to shy away from reading in the classroom (and at home). A lot of my boy students wanted to read about dinosaurs and sports and that starts to wear thin after awhile.

Boys also perceive themselves to have a lower ability to read than girls. This perception of lower ability starts early in elementary school and persists through to high school and you guessed it - this perception concurs in timing. It's right when reading is identified as a girls' activity. 

Let's make it an everybody activity. And, let me amend my earlier statement.

​Mom, hand off the reading aloud time every once in awhile because Dads who read to their kids and read recreationally in front of their kids are the most awesome. Dads who read to their boys have an extra level of awesome added on.

Enjoy!

And, in case you're wondering, it's Judy Blume's, Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing, that's getting those two reading goofballs laughing. And, Joe will read it to Liliana for real one day. 

Having physical books at home allows children to become familiar with books. Reading books you find joyful to your kids, will make reading joyful.

It sounds so simple. 

Growing up, there was a wall of books when I walked in our front door. I rarely went into this wall of books, but it was there. It was a floor to ceiling wall with books two rows deep on each shelf. That wall, in its existence, sent the message loud and clear, "Books are important to us. We take care of them and we show them proudly. We enjoy books."

Just reading any book aloud to your kids won't make them love to read. Or make them good readers.

Consider this scenario. Your child really wants to read a Dr. Seuss book before bedtime - but you hate reading through them. Do you think you're going to read it enthusiastically? Or impart a love of reading? Probably not.

​So, don't read them. 

Years ago, in the monumental report, Becoming a Nation of Readers, reading aloud took centerstage. Reading aloud was called the single most important activity for eventual success in reading. Children learn to listen and comprehend and they pick up uncommon vocabulary words. They hear the musicality and fluency of language. They learn to make connections and critically think.

So, read books that you're interested in. Be picky. You will encourage better reading habits. You will leave time for your kids to point at the pictures they like, or ask questions about the story. You will naturally make connections between the book you're reading and events in your lives instead of rushing through a book you disdain just to get to the end. You will ask what your kids think about the story and look back at beautiful illustrations. You will, because you will genuinely want to know. Read books you like to your kids.

Read joyfully and your kids will find reading joyful. 

 
​Enjoy!

​

We used the butterfly kit from Insect Lore, which you can purchase here. Everything came intact and we had no problems with the kit itself.

There are some well-known fan favorite books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar that are good to have on hand, but we can get more specifically into the science of butterflies too. The books below are a good starter pack for understanding butterflies from toddlers, on up.
​

​The Thomas Marent Butterfly book is filled with photography that is detailed and very engaging to look at. Liliana loved looking at this book over and over again. Gail Gibbons' book does a great job diving in to the butterfly life and is migration patterns. 

This takes 5 minutes of your day. If you have a toddler, you will be making the observations and leading the conversation. If you have an elementary aged student, they can make the observations. 
Most importantly, you are looking for metamorphosis with the butterflies. 

Keep track of your observations, just like scientists would! You are running a butterfly experiment. Some observations you might want to watch are, how quickly it takes the caterpillars to cocoon themselves, how long they are cocooned and what they eat once they've emerged as butterflies.

Keep your butterfly books out for your child to continue reading. Often times, kids want to relive fun memories through books. They will connect their experience with the books you used while you had your butterfly kit. Leave them out and let your kids peruse. 

And, keep making observations for conversation. When you see butterflies out and about, point them out excitedly. If you are excited, your kid will be too. 

We are looking forward to doing another round of butterflies this year and will add to our butterfly book arsenal.

If you have any specific questions about doing a butterfly kit or have questions on books that go well for a certain age, or your child specifically, please reach out. I'm happy to answer specific questions!

​Enjoy!

Please share!

​A few weeks ago, I wrote a reflection on how I felt about poetry. In it, I intimated that I don't always love poetry. In fact, most of the time it's a genre I have to force myself into. And, I'm finding in my own teaching career, in training teachers and conversations with parents, most people are a little more intimidated by poetry than any other genre. So, at least I'm not alone.

But. 

Once I get into some poetry, I do really like it. Not all of it - you have to find the right kind of poetry. Right now I'm reading Booked, which is an entire story told in verse (a follow-up on Newbery award winner The Crossover). I do like whole stories in verse. So, I'm trying to seek more of them out.

Also, I don't want my daughter (or my students previously) to be scared of poetry. I want her to jump right in. In fact, I usually found kids were really good at writing poetry, partially because I think they are better at experiencing life. They feel highs and lows and intense things. 

So, I thought about how to incorporate poetry more regularly. I used to do one poem per week with kids. I didn't always teach it, but I'd put one up on part of the board and leave it there all week. Sometimes we talked about it, sometimes we didn't. I only put up poems I was willing to talk about. 

Here's the super simple tip and I'm going to do it, right along with you.
​

​And lastly, if you have or know a kid who loves art, make sure to check out the very helpful blog, The Artful Parent. 

​Go inspire Reading and Art together!