Games, books, activities and ideas to get your kids reading!
Saturday, July 5, 2025
By Nancy Miller Here’s a fun activity that can take five minutes, or roll out to 10 or 15. The goal here is to have fun with words — and encourage your kid to get reading! Play on Words This activity uses three major learning styles: • visual: they see […]
Kids love superheroes. But… …superheroes are usually found in comics. And parents want kids to read books. Plus, superhero comics are often too violent for younger children. Solution: books with superheroes. Superhero School, by Aaron Reynolds, is just such a book, and it’s terrific. Protagonist Leonard is a kid with super-strength […]
Our mother-son book club met again this week. It’s a great example of parents taking their children’s literacy into their own hands. And anyone can do it – you can do it. The boys drew, read, wrote, ate, chatted, answered quiz questions and had an amazing time. Once again, the […]
Haille Bailey-Harris is an amazing teenager. His mom helped him get on the right path, in part by nurturing his love of reading. An incredible success story In the Globe and Mail‘s coverage of “boys and education” this week, a very moving column by a boy named Haille Bailey-Harris caught […]
The Globe and Mail is beginning a new series tomorrow, taking a look at “why school is failing boys.” They say that boys earn lower grades overall than girls in elementary school and high school. They do more poorly than girls in reading and writing and they are more likely to have […]
My friend Joulie is a supermom. That needs to be said right off the bat. There is no way to live up to the things that Joulie does with her kids. And for the kids at the school. And for the neighbourhood kids. Luckily, I don’t have to be as good […]
Most of the summer, my son has been absorbed by the Macdonald Hall series, by Gordon Korman. Set in a Canadian boarding school, it’s all about the antics of Bruno Walton and Boots O’Neal, who share a dorm room – and get into a lot of mischievous fun. The MH […]
Looking for the next great book? Here’s a conversation I’ve had a couple of times recently: Parent: “I need a good book for my son.” Me: “What books has he already enjoyed?” And then the list goes like this, not necessarily in this order: * The Bone series * Diary […]
My son’s friend likes to play “air mail” whenever he comes over on a playdate. It’s a great game and I know that it works on their literacy skills because I’ve seen improvements. It involves a bit of the adult’s time, but it’s such a fun game that I indulge […]
It’s a good idea to link learning to physical activity. I was inspired this week by my son’s teacher, who was teaching them fractions by having them throw balls into various buckets marked 1/7, 1/3, 1/4, etc. They had to add them up and avoid making an improper fraction. I […]
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