Archive for category: Crafts

Kids love rewards.

If you’re having a tough time getting your child to read, try a reading reward chart.

Make a graph with a week’s worth of days. Your child puts a sticker on each day you read together. (Fifteen to 30 minutes is ideal.) Or, your chart can be for when your child reads alone, or when she reads a specific book for 15 minutes at a time, or for 15 minutes’ worth of writing – whatever you’re working on.

Some kids are motivated by the stickers, alone. Others need a reward – for every week that has four or more stickers, the child gets a small toy. It’s important to choose and, I think, buy the reward first.

The child will be more motivated when she knows what she’s playing for. (May I suggest – a book?) Put the reward on a shelf so she can see it, but not use it, until it’s been earned.

And of course, adjust the reward so it fits your child. The length of the reading sessions and the number needed for the reward should be whatever will work for your child. Using fun stickers often helps.

Encourage her to tell her grandparents, friends, teachers and everyone you can think of, that she’s doing a reading chart. Research shows that people are more likely to succeed when others know about their project.

Don’t go dollar-store on this one. The toys are too cheap and break too easily. Think Silly Putty, a bakugan, hockey cards, doll accessory or comic book. Ironically, dollar stores do have really good books like Caillou or maze/activity books. Pick up a handful and put ‘em in your sock drawer until they’re earned.

This great comment from Cathy was too good to leave in the comments section.

You may remember Nancy, from our Sept. 18 post. She’s the little girl who wasn’t terribly keen on reading.

Her mom and I discussed getting her to write about something she’s interested in.

Well, Nancy and her mom took the idea and ran with it! We’re pleased to present her first-ever book of poetry.

Here’s a sample of one of her wonderful poems:

FALL IS HERE
The leaves are falling
It’s almost winter
And I see you
In the trees

I look outside
And all I can see
is flying leaves

So rest your head
On the pillow
It’s time to go to bed
Throw the blanket
Over your head

She wrote four other poems as well, and illustrated them. And, she’s been reading them out loud to her mom.

Her mom plans on getting the book cerlox bound (after first taking a colour photocopy). Nancy’s school has an incredibly supportive librarian, who lets children put their books into the school’s circulation system, with a bar code and everything, so other kids can check it out.

Way to go Nancy, and her incredible mother!

For a child, the most exciting thing to read about is – himself.

One of the best ways to get a child excited about reading is to give him a book that he opens to discover it’s all about him. What could be better?

And it’s really simple to do. (This isn’t one of those “scrapbooking, super-mom” projects.) I found this mini-scrapbook at a Goodwill for about a dollar, but you can get them at Chapters/Indigo as well.

Then, I picked out 10 of my favourite photos and taped them onto every other page. The pictures were mostly about my son’s favourite activities, his friends and relatives, or places we’d been.

I made captions in Word – using a large font – cut them out and pasted them in place. I didn’t complete the whole book at once. I did as much as I felt like doing, and then I gave it to him for his birthday. For his next birthday, I added another chapter to the book.

I used age-appropriate language and words, keeping it very simple at first (“I am two years old.”) and using slightly longer words as he got a bit older (“…hockey is my favourite.”).

When he was very young, we read the book together. Eventually, he memorized it and could “read” it himself. Later, he was able to read new entries all by himself. Being very familiar with the content of the photos helped him figure out what the captions said, and made his guesses about the words much more accurate. (Beginning readers make guesses about some words at first, and later begin sounding them out.)

The book has an added bonus – it’s a time capsule for him, and for me. Plus, I can add to it – or not – or start a new one any time.

It’s been about four years since I worked on this one, but I’m planning on doing a new one for next Christmas. It will have more complicated captions and words, commensurate with the way he’s reading now.

But the most important thing won’t change – it will be all about him.