So, we’ve established that reading to kids is important. Not just our own kids, but to those who don’t have the benefit of being raised in an environment which comprises of books and reading.

There is no question – if we want our kids [...]]]> Reading to Kids Besides Your Own

(contd from Raising a Generation of Readers 1)

So, we’ve established that reading to kids is important. Not just our own kids, but to those who don’t have the benefit of being raised in an environment which comprises of books and reading.

There is no question – if we want our kids to inherit a better world, we had better begin equipping them with the tools today. And, among other things, improving literacy levels ought to be our number one priority.

So, besides reading to our kids everyday, exposing them to different kinds of books and knowledge and providing them opportunities to learn and expand their minds – what else needs to be done in order to raise the generation of readers that will make this possible? In other words, what specific actions can each of us – parents, educators, librarians and anybody interested in creating such a world – take?

Plenty. Regardless of the time on your hands, your skills, interests or motivation, there is always something you can do about spreading literacy around you, be it small or significant.

Whether we spare 30 minutes a day or 1 hour per week – the time we choose to spend in helping kids(besides our own) learn to read is probably among the best investments we make towards our children’s future.

1.Believe that it’s NEVER too late to start. Yes, it’s true that kids should be read to from an early age and that they benefit most when they are exposed to books and language at home since birth. And yes, most of the nerve connections in a child’s brain are formed by the time he turns 5 and his brain, up until that age acts like a sponge – under ideal conditions, he would have been read to countless times by that golden age. However, just because a child missed out on reading for the first few years doesn’t mean that he has to miss out for the rest of his life. If you know a child who hasn’t been read to since he was a baby or a family where kids are not exposed to reading – do your best to encourage them to start. Now. Reading, no matter how late you begin, improves things.

2.Volunteer your time and skills. Become a reading mentor. If you enjoy reading to your children and have seen them benefit from the process, why not share the experience with other children who may not have access to books or people who read to them? Several organizations provide you the opportunity to volunteer just an hour of your time every week to read to children from low income families or who are at a high risk for dropping out of school, taking to drugs or crime or simply choosing lives they don’t really deserve. It’s hard to imagine that 30-45 minutes of your time a week will make any difference to these kids, but you’d be surprised at how eagerly kids start looking forward to these sessions, how well they respond to your reading and how this seemingly insignificant gesture on your part could improve their chances of staying in school and opting for better lives. A list and description of various organizations and programs that you could volunteer with warrants a separate post – but just to mention some of them – Everybody Wins Power Lunch( spend 30 mins of your lunch hour a week reading to a child), Reach out and Read (among other things, volunteers read to children in waiting rooms, organize community book drives, build bookcases), Communities in Schools After School program( Help kids prepare for life by providing homework help and reading to them for about an hour every week) You could also do this on your own for kids in your community, if you don’t want to commit to a particular organization or program. But I find that doing it through an organization has many benefits – it is regulated, you have a common place to meet, a set time for reading, coordinators you can discuss issues with and books always readily available to read.

3. Donate children’s books – new and old. One of the most important factors affecting literacy is access to books. In low income neighborhoods in the United States, there is only one age appropriate book available for every 300 children. (Source: FirstBook) So, when it’s time to clear out the clutter in your child’s bedroom, the attic or in your garage, have a plan for salvaging and separating children’s books, categorizing them and boxing them so you can donate them to kids who could use them. There are several places you could donate used books that redistribute them to needy children. Alternatively, if you know kids or families that would benefit from those books, you could donate directly to them. But, unless there is someone in the family who can read the books to the children, this may not be of much use. So, even if you donate books,spending your time reading to those kids is still important. Of course, if you’d like to and can afford to donate new books – even better.

4. Encourage your kids to read to others. It’s no secret – kids are mirrors. If they watch you reading to other kids or know that you donate your time for the purpose, they’re bound to be inspired to do the same. If your kids are reading at or above grade level, encourage them to read to/with their classmates or peers who could use some reading help.

5. Read to your child’s class. If your child is in elementary school, your child’s teacher may be more than happy to have you volunteer in her class every week. Even if you can’t volunteer with an organization, try committing an hour or so a week to your child’s class. You could either offer to help a handful of kids with reading, or read to the class as a whole, depending on what the teacher prefers, the reading levels of children in the class and how much time you can commit each week.

6. Start a reading program at a library or community center – Your local library will most probably have story time sessions for babies and preschoolers. Check with the youth services librarian if you can start a program to help older kids to read or expand on an existing program. You could start a weekly reading session and invite older kids who have difficulty reading or who don’t have access to books or reading mentors to participate. You could even use the library to interact with kids individually, tutor them and help them with reading. Work with your librarian, parents and teachers in your area to come up with a program that will benefit kids with regards to reading.

7. Read about reading to kids. Write about reading to kids. Talk about reading to kids. No matter how much you know or do, you know there’s more that could be done. If you’re truly interested in and passionate about raising a generation of readers and thinkers, keep looking for ways to make reading accessible and pleasurable to children. Use any platform you have to your advantage – blog and tweet about why it’s important to read to children, write to an editor of a magazine or newspaper, talk to your friends, join ‘groups’ or become a ‘fan’ and use whatever medium and technique you’re comfortable with to share your interest in raising enthusiastic readers.

8. Hold reading events at home, the park or at the library. In an earlier post about why it’s never too late to start reading to your kids, I suggested a few fun ways to get older kids interested in reading. Use whatever works for you in your efforts to help kids with reading. Meet other parents and kids at the park, library or a picnic area and have a reading party. Reading to kids in an informal, outdoor environment may help them overcome inhibitions associated with school work or required reading, especially if they have difficulty with it.

9. Help kids start or join a book club. Guide them. Encourage participation from kids of all reading levels and not just those who read above their grade levels. Help kids select books that appeal to reluctant readers. Ask your librarian for book recommendations. Be open to stopping a book mid-way and switching to a new one if it doesn’t ignite interest in the group. Encourage interaction, provide directions for discussion, ask questions, suggest alternative answers – your goal is simply to get the kids excited about the idea of reading. For very young children, a book club could simply be a version of a story time where you encourage other parents to bring their children to a certain venue every week and read aloud to them from various books, tell them stories and even show parents by example, how to read with their kids. Or you could just help spread the word about story time sessions at the library or book store in your community. I’m always surprised by how many parents I talk to aren’t aware of or simply do not have the inclination to bring their kids to these free reading sessions.

10. Talk to friends and family about steps 1-9 and encourage them to adopt as many as they can or would like to.

By adopting these or any other measure, if each of us make just a little impact on a few children during the course of a lifetime, and manage to encourage friends and family to do the same, we might actually be closer to creating a better, more literate world for our kids. Laughable? Maybe. Anyone who has ever tried to do any good, wonders at some point, “Will this really make a difference? Is this enough? A drop in the ocean!”

I’m no exception – I often wonder if these 30 minute reading or tutoring sessions will really have any impact on kids. Will those 30 minutes spent with books make a difference to the other countless hours spent away from them?

I’m not always convinced, but I have to believe that it does make a difference.
Studies show that even with a late start, children who are read to and who have a positive mentor or role model in their lives, have a better chance of going on to complete school and enroll in college and lead better, healthier, more fulfilling lives than their counterparts who don’t have the experience. When we remember that the idea, to start out with, is to get kids enthusiastic about and interested in reading, learning and books, and not so much about grades or instant improvement in academic results – we may begin to view things in perspective. So, remember – if you start today and read to a child, albeit an older child, once a day or week, by the end of the year he would have been read to 365 times. Or at least 52 times.

Which is way better than 0. No matter how old the kid is.

My husband has this weird benchmark when it comes to measuring anything – he says, look at it terms of a calendar year – 365 days. And pretty much like the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding whose solution to every problem is Windex, my husband’s answer to almost any frustration or problem is – give it a year and see how it turns out.
Me: I don’t think I like this new city. I want to go back. Him: Give it a year and then we’ll see.
Me: I’m sure this new project won’t work out. Him: Give it a year and then we’ll see.
Me: I’ll never be able to potty train M. It’s just impossible. Him: Why don’t we keep trying and check back in a year.

And sure enough, when I look back a year later, I’ve almost always managed to accomplish what I believed to be impossible 365 days ago. And at time, it seems ridiculous that I was ready to give up even before I had begun.

So, I’m thinking – Maybe, if we all worked at it, our little efforts and baby steps at spreading literacy and raising readers will pay off after all.

What do you think we can do to raise a generation of readers?

Raising a better, smarter, more compassionate generation starts with reading to your baby from an early age, but it certainly doesn’t stop there.

Why reading to your baby everyday isn’t enough

We know that reading to babies and interacting with them is one of the greatest gifts we can give them. The [...]]]>

Raising a better, smarter, more compassionate generation starts with reading to your baby from an early age, but it certainly doesn’t stop there.

Why reading to your baby everyday isn’t enough

We know that reading to babies and interacting with them is one of the greatest gifts we can give them. The love of reading is the gift that empowers them for life. The experience of hearing and watching print come to life is the foundation for almost every kind of learning. And since you’re reading this post, it is safe to assume that you are already giving your child this incredibly important gift.

However, according to studies, in almost 50% of American families, children are not read to even for the recommended minimum number of minutes a week. I can only guess what the percentage may be in lesser developed nations.

So, unless literacy conscious people like us reach out to the millions of kids out there whose parents aren’t reading this blog or any other for that matter, who for reasons known best to them – circumstance, affordability, or the inability to read themselves – do not give their children this crucial and priceless gift, it’s clear that they won’t benefit from it.

Just think. Millions of kids growing up without knowing what it is to be read to, without experiencing the joys of reading, the freedom and thrill that, as far as these kids are concerned, remains trapped within the world of books. For every minute you spend reading to your child and every new book you bring home to read to your baby – there are probably tens of thousands of kids out there who are missing out on that experience.

Time spent not reading as a child is related to problems in adult life

And it’s anybody’s guess what those kids are doing in that time and what alternative experiences they are being exposed to. The fact that high crime rates, high healthcare costs, poverty and various other social problems are directly related to one’s literacy levels, especially early literacy efforts, speaks for itself.

So, basically, while you’re cuddled up reading to your kid, enriching his vocabulary, helping him form nerve connections in his brain, making him smarter, reading him stories about being kind, diligent, perseverant, honest and helpful and hoping that it will all impact his life for the better – his counterparts elsewhere are undergoing experiences that probably lie on the other end of the spectrum.

While you may be doing your best to raise a responsible, intelligent, thoughtful child who loves to read and learn, there are other kids, maybe in your own backyard – who, simply by virtue of where they are born, may be growing up to be everything you don’t want your child to be.

And although these kids may be strangers to us today, we need to remember that they will grow up sharing the same world with our kids.

These are the very kids that your baby is likely to encounter later in his life – at school, on the streets, while shopping or as he takes his commuter train to work.

Which leads us to the point of social responsibility

When it comes to education and literacy, what do you consider your responsibility? That your children learn to spell and read, that they go to the best schools you can afford to send them to, bring home grades that make you proud, that you help them with their math homework or find the best tutor who can and ensure that they develop a well-rounded personality that will set them up for a productive life? Great. But, is that enough?

Does our responsibility to our kids stop with merely educating them and ensuring that they have the skills to lead successful lives?

What of the dozens of kids in your son’s school whose parents simply don’t know how to, can’t afford to or are unable to spend as much time with them? (Let alone read to them.)Who don’t have the benefit of being surrounded by well-educated family members?  Or whose lives have been predetermined by who their parents are and not by their own potential or desire to succeed? Who is responsible for them?

Why, we are, of course!

The answer isn’t immediately obvious. We all have enough to worry about without having to worry about strangers’ kids as it is. I mean, we barely squeeze time to spend with our own kids in the first place. So, how can we possibly be bothered about others we hardly even know? We are even aware of their existence only because our child happens to share a classroom or school bus with them. So why would we worry about who’s reading to them and even if they have a positive influence in their lives? And even if we wanted to, how could we possibly help?

Let’s talk about the Why, first

Leaving aside philanthropy for a minute – although I’m sure many of us agree that that too, should be an integral part of our lives – let’s look at this from a completely selfish point of view.

We should care about kids who don’t have the benefit of being exposed to books and reading because those are the kids that will grow up into adults whom our children will interact with. Wouldn’t your child be better off living in a world surrounded by peers who value reading, learning and intelligent discussions, who have had the enriching experience of being read to when young? Who enjoy reading themselves? Who are well-read, open-minded, expressive, articulate, creative, kind hearted and thoughtful?

Of course you would.

But how can you provide your child such an environment when at least half the kids in his own country are deprived of the benefits he enjoys, with respect to early literacy? These are some statistics compiled on The Literacy Gap, a report published by Everybodywins – a national literacy and mentoring nonprofit that hopes to create an impact with one mentor, one child and one book at a time.

* In the US, the typical middle-class child enters first grade with 1,000-1,700 hours of picture book reading time; a low-income with 25.

* Only 50% of low-income 4th graders read at or above the basic level compared to 79% of their middle-class peers, according to the Department of Education’s 2007 Nation’s Report Card.

* According to Dr. G. Reid Lyon, Chief of Child Development and Behavior at the National Institute of Health, “surveys of adolescents and young adults with criminal records indicate that at least half have reading difficulties, and in some states the size of prisons a decade in the future is predicted by fourth grade reading failure rates.”

* $500 billion:  Annual cost to the U.S. economy of children growing up poor, a result of eventual lower productivity and earnings, higher crime rates and health costs

So, with all that in the background, how can we help but wonder – what can we do to create the kind of world we want for our kids?

The answer to this question could fill hundreds of books and still be incomplete.

How do you spread the gift of reading?

When it comes to giving children the gift of reading – the one gift that is likely to lead them to all the others – there are specific actions each of us can take to enrich the lives of children, not just our own, but hundreds, maybe thousands of others who desperately need the gift to succeed and to lead fulfilling lives.

What can you and I do to spread the gift of reading? How can we raise a generation of readers?

To be continued…