"Read to your bunny often,
It's twenty minutes of fun.
It's twenty minutes of moonlight,
And twenty minutes of sun.
Twenty old-favorite minutes,
Twenty minutes brand-new,
Read to your bunny often,
And...
Your bunny will read to you."
-Rosemary Wells, Read to Your Bunny
reading with Ellie really has become my very favorite part of our days together. she is so enthralled with every page, every picture, and every type of book. in fact, i'm pretty sure that she would pick a book over a toy any day. she loves it.
so here's my plug for literacy. read to your little bunnies! reading twenty minutes a day...heck, even ten minutes a day is the greatest gift you can give to your child (outside of loving them). my kindergarten students are never as quiet and as engaged as they are when i am reading to them. my Ellie is never as entertained and still (she's such a wiggly bug) when i am reading to her- it has been my experience that children really can learn to love to read...and it all starts in the home when you read that first nursery rhyme or peek-a-boo book to your little baby.
ok, i will now kindly step off my soap-box...and go eat a burrito... or something equally satisfying.
11 comments:
Although I don't have kids of my own, I'm a huge literacy advocate. I am heavily involved in the Ken Garff Road to Success Reading program and I hear first hand how impactful reading to kids can be. Great post. We all have a soap-box moment or two.
Hooray for reading to your little bunnies! Tim and I love reading to Emerie - even though she's still really little, you can tell that she enjoys hearing us and she's even started looking at the pictures (at least, I think she does). Reading to kids is awesome. My mom and dad did it with me everyday, and I grew to love reading. I hope that happens with all my children, too.
K, I am SO SAD about Jillian.. why didn't we talk about this the other night at YW? Oh yeah, it was because I was chasing my little ones around an ice cream parlor while my husband played basketball.. fun times.
WHAT WAS HE THINKING letting her go?? She was my favorite.. and I just hope he goes with Melissa. I'm not a fan of Molly. I think you might agree with me.. but maybe not. I'll tell you my issues with them on Sunday! :-) Toodles!
Yay! I volunteer with a literacy center here in Boston (826 Boston, Dave Eggers' nonprofit). So important! I also just heard an awesome segment on This American Life about a program where they talk about the importance of words in early child development - the kinds of words, the quantity of words, etc - and about teaching Harlem parents to engage their kids via books.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=364
There's also a book about the project:
http://www.powells.com/biblio/7-9780618569892-0
Amen! Love it RaeAnn
Working at a Title-One school, the biggest deficit we face is exposure to literacy in the home. I wish and pray that each of my students reads at home or is read to, but that will be a long day coming. I love teaching the little ones and watching them learn to read. What a complex and fascinating process! I loved this post! Thanks Marce!
So true!
Dear Marci:
I think anyone, any age would love to hear YOU reading books! It's so fun to hear all your voices and see those faces that you make. It's better than going to the movies for me. I LOVE to read to Ellie. I can't get over how attentive she remains. Today, I read at least 12 stories ( short ones) and she stayed on my lap the whole time, just smiling and doing her tricks! You MOMs that are reading to those babies....you are all doing a fabulous job! Including you my dear.
See ya! Love ya!
I love that you posted this! I am so excited to get to read to my little one (when he comes). I am so greatful that my parents always encouraged me to read because it has truly benefited my life.
Yesterday, my husband and I attended my stepdaughter Addie's parent teacher conference. Her wonderful teacher informed us that she is far behind the other kids in her kindergarten class with reading. She absolutely refuses to read and participate! Addie lives with her mom so we don't have a lot of control over what goes on in her home, and we only have her every other weekend. We really try so hard to read with her and try to get her more interested when we have her, but she is just really stubborn and refuses to really participate. Do you have any tips to help us get Addie more interested in reading? You seem like you are a great teacher.. and teachers always have much more creative ideas about how to make it interesting.
oh i love it.. we already read to kenz.. she loves the colors even if she can't really tell what's on the page yet.. and sometimes only likes it for 5 minutes but we try.. it's fun... and i love that bunny poem.. so cute.
Ummm I think you're cool. Just for your information I totally agree with Tiffany about Jillian by the way. Bad move Jason. Bad move. So I want to know what your favorite children's books are. I'm sure you have a ton that you love and I want to start collecting them for my future children's library in my future cool home. So Bryant stayed up ALL NIGHT last night. Can you tell? Do I seem a little crazy? Crazy becca. haha (imagine crazy laughter). Ok I'm done now :)
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