Literacy in America

We frequently see the headlines about literacy in America, but I have stumbled upon an interesting statistic. As I perused the Kids Count Data on the Annie E Casey Foundation website, I saw a listing for "Children ages 1 to 5 whose family members read to them less than 3 days per week". The latest data that they have is 2007, but I still found the numbers shockingly high.

On average in the United States, 16% of children ages 1 to 5 are not read to by family members at least three times per week. That means no nightly bedtime stories, no fun rhyming books, no board books, no picture books, no literacy.

Research has shown that the earlier a child has access to books, the better their academic achievement. A baby that plays with board books, grows into a child that reads chapter books, grows into an adult that is literate and able to continue the cycle with their children. Without literacy, there can never be quality education!

For a family that is struggling to pay for the basics, affording books can be out of the question. How do you provide quality literacy moments for these families? With the prices of new children's books averaging from $3.00 for softcover to $15.00 for hardcover, it can be an unattainable dream for struggling households. Sadly, in these households a book can be a luxury, much like a cashmere sweater or concert tickets to another household. These children are beginning their education, markedly behind children coming from households with a family library. A family library does not have to be a huge affair, just a chance for children to look through books and understand that the marks they see on the pages, conveys a story to match the pictures. Every child should have this opportunity and every family member should have the opportunity to provide the joy and happiness that books can provide to their children.

Monday Meanderings - Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss's birthday is celebrated on March 2, so I thought I would start posting some activities to celebrate the big day. As far as authors go, there is no more well known name, than that of Dr. Seuss! Children and adults love his work. I even have a poster of a Dr. Seuss quote framed and hanging on my office door!

First up is The Family Kitchen with an adorable Cat in the Hat marshmallow hat snack.

Here is a Cat in the Hat activity from Teaching Two. I love this stacking idea. If you do not have the Styrofoam discs, they could be made with red tape around pool noodles too.

I would not normally encourage my child to jump on his bed, but this is too cute to pass up. obSeussed drew a picture of Pop, from the book Hop on Pop, onto her child's bed sheet and they hopped on Pop while reading the book. What fun!

Last but not least, we have I Can Teach My Child showing a great activity for Ten Apples Up on Top.

Have fun with your kids and with Dr. Seuss. He is my favorite Dr.!

Tuesday Teachings - Encouraging Early Literacy

There are many ways to encourage early literacy skills for your child during her normal play time. You do not have to sit down with your child and force her to complete a worksheet for you.

During the day there are numerous times to "fit in" literacy. If your children are playing and she says "Let's play restaurant. I'll be the waitress." This is a great opportunity! Suggest that she write the "order" down on a notebook and hand her the notebook and a pencil. This is a huge learning activity for her. She has to stay in character, write down what you ordered to eat, go get the food, recall what she wrote down and then return to you with the food. When she returns to you, tell her that she needs to tell you what everything is as she sets it on the table.

Do you have picture books in your house? We sit down a few times a week with a picture book and my son will look at the pictures and then make up a story to go along. Sometimes the stories are closely related, other times he can look at the same book 3 days in a row and the story will be different each day. In addition to understanding that the pictures have meanings, he is also recalling his friends and past activities as they often make appearances in his stories. These stories are a building block to strong literacy skills.

Does your child love to paint or color with crayons? They are learning the tripod grip that is vital for writing skills, but they are doing much more than that. As they are painting, they have an image in their head that they are trying to re-create. Once a masterpiece is complete, ask your child to tell you all about it. I will frequently write down these stories that my son tells me so that we have a memento of the moment.

Doing worksheets and memorizing letters are an important part of every one's education, but it does not have to be the only part. There are many ways to learn and as parents and teachers, we need to offer a variety of ways for our children.

Storytelling - A gift for the whole family

Everyone has favorite stories that they love to tell. People tell fairy tales, folk tales, childhood memories, old family legends, stories from friends or family or even just what happened to them today. Many of these stories will become tales that are told over and over but many of them will be forgotten.

Tell lots of stories in your family to stimulate your children. There are several things that stories can help children with.

1) Background: Many people wander through life wondering where they are going but it can be easier if you know where you came from. If your family has special traditions explain to your child why you do these things. That is something your child will carry with them always. Do you eat certain foods at certain times? Do you have a special vacation spot that you go to time and again? Explain these things to your child. Also dig deeper, tell them about your heritage. Where does your family hail from? You may learn several new things yourself.

2) Imagination: When you tell a story instead of reading a book a child must visualize the pictures on their own. This will assist with their reading comprehension and when they begin to write, an imagination will make it easier to come up with ideas. It can be difficult as an adult to use our imagination but try hard to stimulate your child's imagination.

3) Language: Telling stories and reading books are a great way to stimulate a child's language skills. They will hear words that they have never heard before, they will hear the proper sequence of words and they will detect the punctuation of phrases. The more words a child hears, the larger their vocabulary as they age. Be ready to explain a word to a child if you think it is a new word to them or if they ask for an explanation.

4) Convenience: You do not need any supplies to tell a story. You can do it in the car, the bed, a doctor's office or anyplace else that you may be.

5) Reading skills: Telling stories teaches a child the nuances of plot, sequence and characters. They will begin to understand the concept of a story long before they can actually read.

6) Lessons: Many stories that we tell or read often teach a lesson. Whether the lesson is about sharing, not hitting or just being nice many stories teach many lessons. After you tell your child a story, take a few minutes to talk to them about it. Ask what they learned in the story.

Story Projects:
Ask family members near and far to record themselves telling stories. They can read books, tell stories from their childhood, make up stories or recite fairy tales. These will be great for your child to listen too. It not only helps with their development but it also keeps family that they may not see every day familiar to them. If they do not want to record their voice they can also write the stories and your family can read them.

Story Dice: Have you seen these yet? They are wooden blocks purchased from a craft store that you draw pictures on or decoupage pictures onto them. Then you roll a dice and start telling the story based on the picture that comes up. Some samples that you can purchase are below.

Muffin Baby Shop on Etsy - I love that these are in color.

Mama Mayl's Shop on Etsy - love the symbol key and book.

Fancy Fannie's Shop on Etsy - I love the variety on these.

Oh Sew Crafty Canada's Shop on Etsy - These also come with a book to write your stories.





Tuesday Teachings - Summer Learning

Picture Source

Most schools are out or getting ready to let out here in the United States and kids can not wait for summer vacation. As a child, I remember the excitement and thrill I felt when it was time to finally put away the textbooks and pencils; it was time to run, play and be free! Kids need that time to just be kids but summer vacation is also no time to just forget everything they learned in the past school year.

You can give your child numerous opportunities to continue learning over summer vacation without them even realizing it.

Cook together - Let your child pick out a new recipe to try and then take them to the store to purchase all of the ingredients. This gives them opportunities to work on reading (recipes and food labels), writing (grocery list), math (measuring ingredients and timing meal) and is a great activity to do together. Research shows that when kids are involved in selecting and preparing food they take ownership of the meal and are more likely to not only try the food but to also enjoy the food.

Garden together - Go to a local garden center and give your child a set amount of money. They can then select several plants to grow in your yard or in pots. This works on math skills (spending money and spacing plants), nurturing skills (caring for the plants)and then recipes and cooking skills.

Scavenger Hunts - See our blog post of 6/4/10 for a great scavenger hunt in the grocery store and we are hoping to give another scavenger hunt sheet for the great outdoors in the next week or so. This is a great skill for kids to teach them to focus, pay attention, search and read.

Photo Source

Public Libraries - Our local library kicks off their summer reading program on 6/1/11. The theme this summer is One World, Many Stories. We have participated in the summer reading program every year. It is cheap, challenging entertainment that encourages literacy making it a win-win for everyone!

Art Camp - No need to pay expensive camp fees. Get together with some of your friends and organize a camp for the kids. Each day the kids can rotate the house they go to and each parent would be responsible for one day of camp. If you need some great art ideas check out Pink and Green Mama's blog for some great ideas and e-books on outdoor arts.

Make homemade art supplies - see our blog posts for Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments, play dough, Chalk Paint, and Surprise Soap.

In addition the the activities listed above, also remember that "Playing is Learning"! Have a great summer!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I am lucky that my son still enjoys one of my favorite books, "The Hungry Caterpillar". We read it again this week and then we decided to make some butterflies of our own.

Supplies:
Coffee filters
washable markers
water
pipe cleaners/chenille stems
Blow dryer - if you are as impatient as we are

Use the markers to color your coffee filters. There is no need to color it entirely, unless you want to. Once you are done coloring, spray water on the filter just until it flattens out, do not saturate the filter. This will allow the color from the markers to bleed and mix.

If you are impatient, use the blow dryer to dry the filters.

Once dry, smoosh the center of the filter and wrap the pipe cleaner around it, bending the ends to resemble antennae.

See our other book and craft ideas below:
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
The Grouchy Ladybug

Enjoy!

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

My son and I recently read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. He did not fully understand it but he liked the flow of the book. Once we finished reading the book we did a few crafts.

I had a couple of extra CD's laying around the house and decided it is time to put them to good use. I used the CD as a pattern and cut out two circles of blue construction paper and two circles of yellow construction paper.

Other supplies needed for the Cloudy picture are two blue chenille stems, three white pony beads, cotton balls and glue (we used glue dots).

Attach three glue dots to one side of the CD. Cut the chenille stems in half and put a white pony bead on teh bottom of three of the stems. Fold the end of the stem up over the bead to hold it on. You will now put the non bead end of the stem in the glue and allow it to dry. Once dry, glue a blue construction paper circle on teh back of the CD and a circle on the front of the CD. Now you can glue your cotton ball clouds onto the blue sky.

Other supplies needed for the Sun picture are glue and orange tissue paper. I cut out lots of orange tissue paper triangles to go around the edge of the CD. Go ahead and glue those on. Once they dry, glue the yellow construction circles on teh front and the back of the CD.

The Grouchy Ladybug

We recently read The Grouchy Ladybug and decided to do an activity with the book. Once we read the book, I used the Cricut machine to cut out twelve ladybugs. I then proceeded to put the same number of dots on each ladybug as their order. The first ladybug got one dot, the second ladybug got two dots, etc.

Once they all had the appropriate number of dots, I laminated them for durability. We then re-read the book and used the appropriate ladybug for each page. We have also used the ladybugs for just general math/counting practice and it has worked out great.

This is a display table that we set up in our office lending library. If you are in the Lexington, KY area, come on by and see.

Monday Meanderings - Banned Book Week

Well another Monday is upon us and that means it is time for Monday Meanderings. Normally, I would link you up with some very cute crafts or snacks but since this is Banned Book Week, I thought I would show you some of the books that have been banned.

Our first link is the American Library Association's list of the 100 most challenged or banned books from 2000-2009.

I personally find it sad that many of those books I have read and enjoyed them tremendously. The sad part is that somewhere there is a kid that will not be able to enjoy the books based on someone else's interpretation of the book. Everyone should be able to form their own opinion instead of some random person deciding for them.

I do believe that there are some books that are not appropriate for my three year old and since I am his parent, I can make that call on a book to book basis. Just because my son is not reading them does not mean I want the books off of the shelves. Each family has to decide for themselves what is appropriate and act on it. I would NEVER feel it is appropriate for me to tell you what to read, watch or eat. That is the right of every person to decide for themselves or their child.

Just glancing over the list I can assure you that we own all of the series in #1, I have read all of #13-#19 and #21 is one of my all time favorite books and movies. I read To Kill a Mockingbird about every other year.

Here is a list of banned children's books provided by Illinois Library. I can tell you that there are several books on this list that we own in our home or have checked out at our public library. I do not feel they have caused any damage to my child, they have enriched his life with language and illustrations just like any other book we have read.

During this week, look over the banned books and see how many of the books that you recall from your youth or see if there are books you already own that are on the list. I then challenge each of you to go to the public library and check out some of these books and make up your own mind: "Are they so bad that they have to be banned or is someone blowing the whole thing out of proportion?"

Have a great literary week.

Gender Role Stereotypes

We have come a long way from the old belief that the man always goes out and earns the money while the wife stays home and keeps the house. I remember growing up and watching reruns of Leave it to Beaver. June Cleaver would be the stay at home mom and the whole day she would be walking around cleaning the house and cooking meals in her high heels and pearls. It was impressive in a strange way, but nonetheless that is not the reality of people today. Even though we are more open minded about matters now, we frequently push kids into the old fashioned gender role stereotypes.

How many dolls have you bought your son? How many trucks have you bought your daughter? Does your son like to play with kitchen toys and your daughter with the army men action figures?

There is no need for us to push our kids into these roles. We would be offended if someone else pigeon holed our kids into doing the typical boy or girl roles. How can we be offended when others do the same things we are subconsciously doing? Studies show that kids do typically go into these stereotypes on their own to some degree. Preschool aged boys are typically more aggressive than girls and more likely to play in large active groups further away from the teacher. Preschool aged girls are typically more motherly and nurturing. They are also less likely to take risks than boys.

There are many ways to try not to pressure a child into a predetermined gender role. Do not be afraid to let your child play with all kinds of items. My son and I play "kitchen" all the time. He serves me meals and we sit and pretend to eat. He also has a doll that he helps to put to sleep at nap times. He lays the baby on his belly and pats his back until he announces the baby is asleep. I also try to buy books that are diverse in the roles of genders. Some of our favorites are:

Pinky and Rex and the Bully - by James Howe, Illustrated by Melissa Sweet; A boy loves the color pink and defends himself and his choice for a best friend, a girl who loves dinosaurs.
White Dynamite ant Curly Kidd - by Bill Martin, Jr & John Archambault; A child watches excitedly as Dad rides the rodeo bull and want to grow up to be a bull rider like him. The twist is that she is a girl.

Typical male or female roles are not inherently bad, but the person should decide their role without being forced to it. There are many differences in kids that are undeniable in the eyes of science. I do not always agree with them but will list some of them for your increased knowledge:

Girls have superior verbal abilities through early and middle childhood.
Boys are more curious and have an exploratory behaviour pattern.
Girls are more compliant with requests of parents or teachers.
Boys are more likely to play in large groups and have lots of "pals" instead of close friends.
Girls are more likely to have a few really close friends and play in small tight knit groups.

When you go into a toy store, the toys are typically presorted for you into a boy section and a girl section. We do not need toy manufacturers and toy stores pointing out to us which toys our kids should play with based on sex. We need our kids to play and learn from a variety of toys and to grow up into well rounded human beings. As a small child one of the worse names a boy can be called is "Girl". It is usually the ultimate put down for a boy and that is sad. It not only makes the boy confused and sad for being called a name but it also makes any girls that may be nearby feel like they are not as good as boys.

Do not push your kids to do only "boy things" or only "girl things". Let them do "kid things".