Helping Your Child to Read

Helping Your Child to Read – Hey, this is for grandmothers, aunts, and close friends, too!

Football season is upon us!  The roar of the crowd.  Tailgating until your belt’s too tight.  Downing beer until neither you nor your buddies can even drive a tricycle.

Hey, I’m as big a fan of college football as anyone I know, with the exception of my nephew whom Nick Saban calls for advice. Forgive me a very slight exaggeration.

But, my biggest passion is not football, but reading.  Reading ‘bout football? you ask.  Reading ‘bout anything! Sometimes I have a couple of books going at once. Fiction and non-fiction.  I’ve been told I can even keep reading while my wife tries to get my attention.  Turns out she can handle stovetop fires herself.  Possibly, in time she’ll get over it.  I have faith in her.

Matter of fact, I call reading the most important skill, bar none, surpassing even foreplay and lying with a straight face.  Yes, in the title to this article, I wrote, “Your Child,” but maybe it’s your grandchild or a neighbor’s child, or helping out in a classroom.  No limits to gently coaxing children to read and enjoy reading!

Dear heart, not only is it the start of football season, but also classroom season!  From the youngest ages not yet ready for school, and up until they become rebellious middle schoolers, you can help them learn to read and appreciate reading by reading to them.

But, so as to not strain your patience and dreadful lack of attention, let’s specifically address children from infancy through third grade. Why third grade? Stats show that children who don’t read well by the end of third grade are either going to have to fight their way through the challenges of high school, or learn to play football.

Now, it’s only fair to add a few notes before asking you to swallow the words from this oracle of inebriation and seasoned reader.  Pick one.  I can’t do both at the same time.

My mother was a second grade teacher with a master's degree and taught in a style that was well before her time.  My wife has taught every grade through middle school and upwards to GED.  She’s also been a reading specialist and has a master’s in reading.  So, does that make me an educator or reading expert?  Please don’t ask.  I am simply a humble dad who asked my mother and wife a lot of questions and read to both my sons up through the sixth grade.  Both of them are excellent readers, says their dad with pride.  Besides, experts complicate everything.  Just ask a watchmaker what time it is.

So follow this humble dad's simple and stress-free suggestions for helping your child to read.

1.    Keep It Fun

Quiet, tranquil, comfortable for the both of you.  Sit close enough for everyone to see the pages. Make it a quiet and calming expression of love.  I have great memories of warm, pajama clad babes cuddled close, with a book in my hand.

     

2.    Follow your Child’s Interests

Some children like to read about picnics and some about trucks.  I have sons of both varieties.  Path of least resistance! Read what interests them. Children’s minds are open to exploring the universe.  Let them explore.  Harry Truman, our 33^rd President said it best.  “The only way to influence your children is to find out what they want to do and encourage them to do it.”  My wife had a child in 3^rd grade, a poor reader until she found out he was hungry for airplanes and space.   She shoved those books his way and he suddenly developed a passion for reading!  Even made presentations to the whole class.

3.    Read Consistently

Start with very simply written picture books for the pre-readers. Your child will let you know when it’s time to move up a level and that may come sooner than you think.

My brother was a soccer coach and at one coaching symposium he came back with this jewel:  “As a coach, don’t you decide how much your players can learn.”  Note:  To me, teacher and coach are synonymous.  Same with player and student.

Read with your child everyday, building up to 30 minutes a day by 3^rd Grade.  Your child will adore that perfectly calm time with you, when the two or three or more of you share stories from a book. Easy to check Google for suggestions about age appropriate books.  Also, I’ll bet your local librarian would love to help.

      4.  Discuss What You Read

Time to open up your child’s imagination and sense of discovery. Best way to develop your child’s vocabulary and fan the flames of natural curiosity is to discuss what you read. Encourage questions. Lead the way and express your own questions:  I wonder why…..?  Who do you think was the bravest?  Which dress did you like best?  (Pointing)  I like the red dress. Do you like the green one?

5.    Children Like Repetition

After you’ve read a few books, let your child pick out favorites.  Don’t be surprised if she picks out the same book fourteen times in a row. Go with it. Repetition is how children learn to read.  Ask him to tell you the story.  Remembering and expressing the story in his own words is the first step toward reading and understanding what he is reading. You may want your beginning reader or pre-reader to tell his grandmother or someone else about the book.

6.    NO NEGATIVE COMMENTS (which I realize is a negative comment)

Negativity will turn off learning faster than whispering, “WHAT WAS THAT STRANGE NOISE IN YOUR CLOSET?”  Comments such as “You’re just telling the story, you’re not reading it!” will soon make your child anxious.  Stand by for a lot of “I don’t feel like it.”

7.    FIRST and FOREMOST KEEP IT FUN and FOLLOW YOUR CHILD’S LEAD!

Reading each day should be a wonderful time for both you and your child and a very special way to build fabulous memories for both of you!

Made it through the whole article?  You get a gold star and a second and maybe even a third wine.

Now for some famous and not so famous quotes:

“If you cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.”

- Oscar Wilde

“The more things you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”  - Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut

“I find television very educating.  Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” – Groucho Marx

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” – Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“Don’t just teach your children to read….teach them to question everything they read.  Teach them to question everything.”  - George Carlin

“A child who reads, will be an adult who thinks.” – unknown

“A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.” – Chinese proverb

“Reading is the boat that will sail you to the far shores of knowledge.” – I know, but I ain’t sayin’

Finding London Bookstores! An Adventure

Besides pubs and theater, other musts for any worthwhile, thinking traveler to London, are the array of not-to-be-missed bookstores.  I’m not talking about the grab a novel newspaper stands in the airports, or the thin selection in American malls.  London is blessed with tome filled islands of wonder that lure you inside and steal your hours, soaking in the smell of printed works, reveling in the atmosphere of rebounding knowledge, in the presence of brilliant minds.  Speaking of brilliant minds, in my benevolence, as you might guess, I have a few personal treasures to share.

Foyles Books on Charing Cross Road.  Five stories high.  There are Foyles outlets all over London.  But, you’re going to Leicester Square to pick up theater tickets anyway, so why not wander down Charing Cross Road, which is noted for its array of second hand bookstores.  Forget the musty stacks for now…although they do have the charm and elegance of gray haired men, with frayed cuffs and knotted ties.   Time is short.  Let’s keep going down a few blocks and step into the Foyles flag ship.

Used books on Charing Cross Road

Teenage brothers, William and Gilbert Foyle failed their Civil Service Exams and decided to sell their textbooks.  The rest of the story reads like a script for a Hollywood movie.  Bought used textbooks, sold them for a profit.  Opened a store, outgrew it, opened another, etc.  Finally settled in the current location in 113-121 Charing Cross Road (1929!).  See, even in a depression, there are those who roll their money to the bank in wheelbarrows!  Foyles has branches all over the world, but I always prefer the original.  By the way, Foyles is still family owned and operated.  (http://www.foyles.co.uk/about-foyles)

You step through the door into the world of books.  First thought.  This shop isn’t so big. Hahahaha…you’re only in the new book section, surrounded by a few thousand selections.  Traipse upstairs, or downstairs.  There are more worlds to conquer.  Now, get to it.

Hatchard’s  has been selling books from the shop on Piccadilly since 1797!  Prime location, right next to Fortnum & Mason.  Now owned by Waterstone, Hatchard’s is still a fabulous bookstore of high, polished-wood shelving, and there’s no way I can think of stepping into the food emporium next door before I gaze over a few new titles, and browse the never-ending stacks that stretch through fiction, non-fiction, art, travel, and god only knows what else.  It’s a wonderful place to get lost in your dreams.  Hatchard’s often features book signings, with significantly famous authors.  (http://www.hatchards.co.uk)

Daunt Books, 83-84 Marylebone High Street , is not easy to find.  (http://www.dauntbooks.co.uk) By the way, the street is pronounced Mar-lee-bone.  Nearby are Marylebone Road (huge), Marylebone Rd (small), and Marylebone Street (tiny) Follow my directions closely:  Take the underground to Marylebone Tube Station. (Baker Street Station is closer, but who knew?) Get out of the underground and up to the road.  Look perplexed.  I scratch my head.  Ask a few people for directions.  Watch them scratch their heads. Unfold my map and notice that London is a tiny dot, while the rest of England unfolds endlessly.  Notice the huge Landmark Hotel.  Race inside.  Get a better map from the concierge and let him mark the spot.  Walk down Marylebone Road until I’m blocks past Madame Tussaud’s.  This isn’t turning out well.  Did the concierge say to turn at Madame Tussaud’s?  Maybe.  Memory isn’t what it used to be after that last pub.  I wander the several blocks back to Madame T’s.  Turn at the spot I think I remember and find myself on Luxborough Street.  Keep walking he said.  I had several pints of beer an hour ago.  This is beginning to be troubling.  Rain with a chance of soggy socks.

Luxborough Street is a looooong street.  I pass the point of bladder control and am headed toward the abyss of self-control.  I hurry back to the Landmark Hotel, which is several blocks behind me, but offers the only faint hope I’ve got.

The Landmark gents room is a lovely place.  All polished marble and mirrors.  I spend an hour there, holding my own, idly watching people come and go as I continue to unleash a torrent of after-market beer.

I begin again.  Past Madame Tussauds and a hard right turn.  Looks familiar.  Oh, yeah, been here before.  Seems like only moments ago.  Luxborough Street, check.  Somewhere, the hip bone has got to be connected go the thigh bone.  I run into Crawford Street.  But, since this is a T intersection, I’m faced with a dilemma.  With great trepidation (and half my brain calculating how far it is back to the Landmark), I chance a left turn.  This may be the longest walk since Chairman Mao took his first step on the thousand mile journey.

My need to find Daunt Books has changed from sunny joy, to golden rapture (at finding a men’s room), to steel gray determination, to the red heat of passion.

I once again stop and ask directions.  The lady backs off a few steps and wraps her arms protectively around her child.  It’s over there, she points and I hear the click of her heels as she speeds the kid to safety.  Was it my tone, or the perhaps the way spittle flew in wide arcs?  It’s getting dark.  If this fucking place is closed…

I catch a glimpse of heaven.  The magic words, Marylebone High Street.  I ask again, just to be sure.  Daunt Books, I say so calmly I don’t recognize my own voice.

Right over there.  The man points across the street and down about fifty paces.

I race.  Blessed sweet mother of angels, it’s open!  I gander at endlessly long oak shelves, stare up at the high gallery, peel back a few covers, browse until my eyes ache.  Find tales I simply cannot live without. Daunt Books specializes in travel, but they have everything.  Although parts of the building date to 1912, the owner and the name date only to 1990, when the shop was purchased by a former banker, James Daunt.  No matter the date or pedigree, this is another London treasure.

It’s now pitch black outside and I have no remote idea how to trek back toward any known tube stop, or bus stop, or where I might find a frightened mother and child to clear the path ahead.

Ah, but all is well.  Diagonally across the street is a championship pub. Prince Regent, reads the sign over the heavy stone front.  Better yet, the bar is not crowded and they have my favorite, DOOM Ale on tap.  It may be raining outside, but in here it’s sunny as a warm day on the beach with a bosom buddy, and the gents toilet is only a short glance from where I’m celebrating with a few pints.

Before I finish this thumbnail sketch of London booksellers, I must mention one small bookshop that never makes anyone’s list.  South Kensington Books is just steps away from the South Kensington tube stop.  It’s small, it’s independent, but two things make it really special:  price and selection.  Most of the books, which include best sellers and many prominent authors, sell for half price or less.  We’ve all seen half-price bookstores, but I’ve never seen one that grabbed me and made me walk out the door with three books under my arm.  Only an iron will and the airline’s baggage limit stopped my free-fall toward financial ruin.

Don’t for a minute think the South Kensington underground station is out of the way.  Right on the Piccadilly, District, and Circle lines.  Very artsy, quaint area surrounding the tube stop, including pubs, coffee shops, restaurants, and ice cream parlors.

As was famously said, A man who’s tired of London is tired of life.

Remember this short list of bookshops.  They’re my favorites.