I was talking to a mom at baseball practice on the weekend.
She said her son wasn’t reading at grade-level, and she’s just signed him up for an expensive course to teach him phonics. (Or read this blog – for free. Plus it’s more fun. But I digress.)
Another mom had a great idea. She said, “I put books in the bathroom!”
She said she always has to “hold it,” because her kid’s in there reading. (The things we do for our children.)
But it is a good idea, sprinkling books all over the house, wherever the kids tend to lurk. And the bathroom’s the perfect place for a little Robert Munsch or, well, Capt. Underpants.
When kids are surrounded by books, they’ll eventually pick one up and flip through it – and that’s the first step to creating a ravenous reader.
No photo on this post because, I figured, who needs pictures of the bathroom? Not us. Gack.
Oh, and by the way, if you haven’t put your phone on the Do Not Call list yet to get rid of those pesky telemarketers, here’s the website (Canada only). Nothing to do with literacy; I just hate getting calls during dinner.
Hi Joyce: You’ve got me thinking about what sorts of things encouraged my boys to enjoy reading when they were small. One idea that really worked and was a lot of fun:
When Ryan was about seven or eight years old, he spent several snowy afternoons writing a simple story and illustrating it with playdough art. He was inspired by the Barbara Reid books, particularly Two by Two, which is a wonderful depiction of “Noah’s Arc.”
Ryan worked for hours and hours on his “illustrations.” I covered a flat surface for him with plastic and he produced eight different pictures. Then I took photos of each illustration and he dictated while I typed out the words for each page. We put words and pictures together and created a book.
Ryan was really proud of it. I think his grandpa was as well because he took Ryan’s book to church where Barbara Reid was also a member. She was kind enough to respond with a letter to my son.
A nice memory!
Cathy