A few days ago, I whispered to my kinders that I knew THE SECRET to becoming amazing readers.
“I wonder,” I said, “if anyone might want to know my secret. Hum…” Then I looked around the room, as though I didn’t see them all sitting there, bouncing on their bottoms, saying “Me!” and “I do!” and “I wanna know the secret!”
“Oh! You do?! You guys want to know the secret?”
<Insert more bouncing and blurting and wiggling and giggling here.>
“Well, you’re going to have to beg me for it then. I don’t tell just anyone my reading secrets.”
<Insert lots of on their knees, hands folded, pleading eyes and mouths here. And no, I’m not joking.>
“Okay, then…I guess I’ll tell you…but lean in close…”
And then I told them.
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So….do you wanna know the secret too? The secret to helping the child in your life become a better reader?
I thought you might.
It’s really no secret at all…the best way to become a better reader is to read, read, read, read, read, read, read. And read again. And when you think you are done reading, read some more.
Read for them, read to them, read with them, listen to them read, let them see you read.
Read in the kitchen, read in the bathtub, read on the porch, read on the couch, read with the dog for pete’s sake.
It doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t have to be frustrating.
Just read.
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One of my kinderbabies is a pretty rockin’ reader. I was talking with her mom, and she mentioned that this past summer they went to the local library almost every day to read. She said “I read to her everyday, and then one day….she started reading to me.”
This mom gets it.
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As I was sharing this story with my Mom, it made us think of our own experiences. As a child, my mom would take me to the library in the summers as well. We would check out an entire box full of books, which I would slide under my bed and read during the two-week check out period. Mom had a couple of “rules” for our visits…
#1 – I could pick out half of the books, and she picked out the other half. While I picked books I was interested in, she picked books that she thought I could find a little reading success in.
#2 – At the end of the 2 weeks, all the books had to go back. ALL of them. It was great incentive for me to make sure I read all those babies before we returned them.
I would read everytime we got in the car (it’s why I have no sense of directionality!)…often to the frustration of my dad, who would be tellin’ me to put that book away and look out the window. I would sit inside on beautiful days and read, and when my parents told me to go outside and get some fresh air, I would sneak my book out with me.
I also remember just reading everything I could get my hands on. <I’m still not that different actually.> I would read the cereal boxes when I ate breakfast, the shampoo bottle as I took a bath, just…everything.
Heck, I even vividley remember trying to read a chapter book backwards once.
What a nerd.
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Anyway, I could go on and on. <Don’t worry…I won’t.> I’m a total bookworm at heart.
But, even if you aren’t, the principle remains the same.
Read to your babies.
Please?!
KEEP CALM & READ ON!
P.S. – In case I haven’t said it lately…thanks Mom!
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