Literacy Tip: New Back to School Tradition – Write a Letter

Start a New Back-to-School Tradition!

Whether you send your child to public or private school or home educate them, returning to school can be exciting, stressful, or even scary for some children.  It can be a big change in their routine and even if they have the same teacher, they don’t always know what to expect.  Anything unknown can be scary.

Why not start a new back-to-school tradition by writing your child a letter on their first day of school?  Offer encouragement, share special things about your child that make you proud, remind them of how much they can do and how much confidence you have in them for what they will do this year.  Make it age appropriate and print for younger children.  It will reinforce the importance of being able to read and write, too.  Be prepared to read it aloud to the youngest children.  We want this to be a wonderful loving memory, not another lesson or frustration at not being able to read your handwriting or every word you chose.

Consider saving your letters to re-read at their high school or college graduation.  You can slip them all into a drawer, a binder, or a special box so you’ll know right where they are when the time comes to bring them back out and enjoy the memories of these letters.  It really is the little things that can make all the difference.

I’d love to hear what you think!  Have you done this before?  Will you start this year?  What other Back-to-School traditions do you celebrate?

Literacy Tip: Reward Reading in Your Family

Most of us know that to be the best example we can be, we need to make sure to read in front of our kids and read aloud together on a regular basis no matter how old our kids are.

Go a step further and create your own reading contest!  Set a goals for your children and for yourself. If they read a certain number books, give them a reward.  Some families will want to have it be a collective goal and others can create competition between siblings or between siblings and parents.  You know your kids best and know whether to have it all be team-oriented, competetive or a combination of both.

Be creative! Rewards can be anything your child would get excited about. Perhaps, it would be buying the next title in a series they are reading, going out for ice cream, or having a slumber party.  Discuss what they’d like most, make it reasonable and something that will fit your budget.  It doesn’t even have to cost money.  It could just be a special visit to a park, making everyone’s favorite cookies or getting Dad to help act out a play.  For additional fun and to help everyone stay focused, make signs or log sheets to keep track of your progress.  Devote some time every day to reading together and to updating your family reading log.  If your goal is rather large, consider having smaller rewards along the way.

Reading together and having not only a reading friendly, but a reading focused family will bring everyone a great deal of joy and give your children a better chance at future success.

Do you LOVE what you do?

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”  ~Confucius

Do you truly LOVE what you do?  Does it bring you joy?  Do you like to do it?  Do you look forward to it?  Do you love the poeple you work with every day?  Do you look forward to work travel because you get to see some of your favorite friends in the whole world?  Do you love the affect you have on people?  Do you love your product?  Do you have a PASSION for what you get to do to earn a living?  Is earning a living adding years to your life?

I can say YES to all of those questions because I get to help parents find the absolutely best books for their kids, raise money for their favorite causes, start businesses that will change their lives for the better and help children LOVE reading and learning.

Go to www.UsborneNow.com for more information on how you can do what I do and how I can help you be awesome.

Not the toys

“It’s not the toys in the house that make the difference in children’s lives; it’s the words in their heads. The least expensive thing we can give a child outside of a hug turns out to be the most valuable: words.”  From Chapter One: Why read aloud?  The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease

Smarty Pants Camps Prevent Summer Reading Loss

Introducing a new reading program designed to help prevent summer reading loss: Smarty Pants Camps!

It is estimated that students can lose up to 30% of their skills and knowledge during the summer!  Smarty Pants Camps will help keep children reading, writing and problem solving during the summer to help prevent this Summer Brain Drain.

Each Camp Kit includes a student lab notebook and a set of fiction and non-fiction books for reference, reading and exploration.  We offer packages that work
with groups of all sizes.  It is hands-on-literacy fun that is perfect for the summer or for enrichment anytime.
 It is all the FUN of camp at your house!

Choose from Apollo Camp for ages 10 to 12: http://tinyurl.com/ApolloCamp

or Discovery Camp for ages 8-9: http://tinyurl.com/DiscoverySpaceCamp

or Junior Camp for ages 5-7: http://tinyurl.com/JuniorSpaceCamp

Have various ages?  You can also get combos so you don’t repeat books and just get extra notebooks.  Just ask me!
www.UsborneNow.com

Fight the “Summer Reading Slump”

This summer, set reading goals for your whole family. When kids see parents modeling a love of reading, they are more inclined to do the same. Encourage kids to talk about the books they are reading, and remember to celebrate every time your child completes a book!

Consider a special meal each week to sit down as a family and give each other book reviews!

Comment here to share your ideas for celebrating reading and encouraging summer reading – or reading any time of year!

Help Daddy read to his kids this Father’s Day

“It takes 1000 hours of ‘lap-time’ for young children to have the readiness skills in place to learn to read.” –National Institute for Children’s Health and Development

“Lap-time” means one-on-one interaction between a parent or caregiver and a child where meaningful language interactions take place. Types of lap-time activities include: talking, singing, rhyming, chanting, and, of course, reading.

Father’s Day is June 19^th.  Help your child select a book to give to their Daddy.

www.UsborneNow.com