Tips from a Reading Teacher

So I've really been missing my classroom and imparting a love of reading to my low income students. I had a thought today. I'm going to make my blog and these posts my classroom. I'm going to share with you books, ideas and tips for getting and keeping your kids to be life-long readers. Who says I need four walls to have a classroom right?  So here's my first official post. Enjoy

Tips for Getting Your Kids to Read During the Summer

• Pick a bedtime family reading novel you will read with them in the evening. Twenty minutes every night. You're not having to do homework, so you have extra time in the evening for family time.  You can still keep their thinking caps, vocabulary and imaginations primed by doing this. My Mom was a pro. She picked a book she read to us in the car on vacation and we loved it. If you haven't already introduced your kids to the C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia series, now's the time. Also consider the John Christopher Tripods series. Your kids will love it! Another good book is Water Buffalo Days by Huynh Quang Nhuong. He tells the story of his life in the village in Vietnam and his pet water buffalo. By picking a family reading book, you are picking quality literature that you approve of (and you don't have to tell them that either!)
• Make one of your summer weekly outings the library. Let them pick books they want and offer treats incentives for any of your kids who finish all their reading books before the next weekly trip. You're probably going to have some ice cream cones this summer anyway. Make them reading incentives, and you might double the books they read this summer:) Make a chart to keep track of their books, and as they finish one have them do a quick verbal book summary to you. Summarizing is one of the best skills they need to learn to do in school, and you don't have to tell them they are practicing a "reading skill." By the way, it's also one of the most tested skills in reading. And it tells you immediately if they got the main idea of what they were reading.
• Be willing to splurge on taking them to a bookstore and buying them two new books of their choice--as long as its at least on their reading level. Take them to get these new books before a road trip or family vacation so they are loading up on books for the trip and not just video games or DVD's. Bookstores are brilliant at great displays to entice kids to pick books.  
• When prepping for a road trip, splurge on buying them an audible book for them to listen to in the car. Its better than a movie b/c they have to practice the reading skills of visualizing, and context clues by what they are listening to, and they won't even know it. You can also check these out from the library. 
• Learn the value of hooking your kids on a book: Hooking means reading far enough into the first part of the book with them, that the kids get hooked on the plot and world of the novel and will want to finish this on their own. I would do this with their required reading as well as reading for fun novels.

Ok well hope those tips help...more later and feel free to write me with questions and ideas. I welcome the dialogue!

Happy Reading !