The Power of Reading Games

Happy Monday, or, as I like to call it, "Keep Reading Fun Day"! Today I want to talk about the power of reading games.

So often learning to read can feel like very serious business, and this "serious business" can lead to loads of stress for both parent and child. Of course, feeling stressed does not help good learning... or good teaching. In fact, it pretty much makes both impossible. :(

So, how can we get past this sometimes miserable situation?

Motivating Young Readers: Rewarding Reading with... Reading!

Happy Keep Reading Fun Day!  Today I'm going to talk about fun ways to motivate young readers.

As mom to a beginning reader, this is a topic that is frequently on my mind. And it was also a topic that was on my mind a great deal when I was a classroom teacher and when I taught reading in private practice.

Before I begin talking about motivating young readers, I have to talk about how I don't try to motivate young readers. I don't offer pizza parties for reading or points or prizes. I'm sure these motivations can work for some young readers and their parents and teachers, but they don't match with my philosophy of teaching reading.

I want my kids and my students to know that reading is its own reward. But, when readers are at the very beginning stages, reading isn't as rewarding as it will be when they are a bit more advanced. They can't yet just curl up with a good book and get lost in the world of a story.

So I have found a variety of other ways to reward reading with.... reading!

Here are just a few of the ways I've found to motivate young readers:

Keep Reading Fun Day: How Easy Books Can Help Young Readers!

There has been a lot of talk lately about what books are assigned for school reading and what books kids should be reading. A lot of talk got stirred up with this article  For an awesome response to that article read this fantastic blog post.

The basic complaint of the original NPR piece really struck a chord with me. A negative chord. (As it did with many readers. You'll see if you read the comments following the article).

While the piece is talking about high school kids (and I agree with those who debate that many books are often much more complex than a simple analysis of sentence length and word complexity would suggest), there still seems to be a basic assumption in the article that it is good for kids to be reading challenging books (which I agree with) and bad for kids to be reading easy books (which I disagree with).

 This assumption about easy books being a negative exists many other places as well. I often hear people complaining about younger kids' book choices in much the same way.

A child brings a book up to a grown up. "Oh no," says the parent or the teacher. "That one's too easy. Choose something harder." of "for your age." or "at your level."

Now I am a huge fan of pairing kids with "just right books". But "easy books" have a place too. A really important place in my opinion.

Here are just a few ways that easy books can help young readers (and older readers too):

Keep Reading Fun Day: Why Magazines are Fantastic for Young Readers!

Yay! It's Monday, or, as I like to call it, "Keep Reading Fun Day"!  And today I'm so excited to talk about something that is super helpful for young readers... magazines!

Around here, we love our subscriptions to Ranger Rick Jr. and Highlights High Five!  And before Ranger Rick Jr,. we loved getting Your Big Backyard and Wild Animal Baby!

And, of course, there are so many other wonderful kids magazines I look forward to subscribing to as my boys get older. (So looking forward to Cobblestone and Cricket and Highlights and  Dig!)

Yes, kids magazines are awesome and they help keep reading fun in soooo many ways. Here are just a few of them:

Keep Reading Fun Day: Motivating Books are Key!

Once again it is Monday (or as like to I call it around here "Keep Reading Fun Day").  Last week, I wrote about the power of reading aloud and this week I am going to write about what I have found is key to come next, finding books that motivate young beginning readers to want to read.

It can be very tempting to find the correct reading level for a child (a student or my own) and to give them a book at that level and expect them to start reading. At least I have made that mistake at times.

About a year ago, my oldest son was ready to begin reading and I gave him books that were at the exact correct level for his current (very beginning) reading stage. Unfortunately, I had made a big strategic mistake. While some kids will read through books that don't interest them my son found this miserable. Part of it is probably personality and part of it is probably those wonderful read alouds. He had heard such wonderful stories that the very short books he was then able to read seemed very disappointing by comparison.

All I wanted was for my son to love reading and he professed to hate it. Ouch! What could I do? (I promise this story has a happy ending. Please keep reading :o) )

Monday is "Keep Reading Fun Day" (and what my kids learn from read-alouds)

Father's Day read-aloud on the ferry!

I write children's books, I read children's books and I love children's books. I also care deeply about helping kids to love reading them too.

Since helping kids love reading and books is something I care so much about, I have decided to rename Monday on my blog. Instead of Monday, it is now "Keep Reading Fun Day," and every Monday, I will post about something I'm trying to do to keep reading fun for kids.

Especially as Mommy to a learning-to-read 6-year-old, these tips are super important for me to remember. I want my son  learn how to read. But I also want him to love reading once he has learned how. (And the same for my 4-year-old, once he is ready.)

So, for today's first  "Keep Reading Fun Day", I will focus on the power of Read-Aloud!