As a want-to-be writer, I find it fascinating that some authors can slip back and forth between genres and age groups. It shows a wide range of talent when an author produces a best selling thriller and then follows it up with a highly entertaining graphic novel. James Patterson and John Grisham are powerful examples of authors who show this flexibility on a regular basis. What really shows their strength as writers, however, is that the books they write for their younger audiences are so appealing to adults as well. Aside from providing more great reading material, authors such as these are also providing a unique way for parents (or teachers) and children (or students) to connect.

Patterson’s latest young adult novel is Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life. The quick and fun chapters, along with the sketch graphics and the humor of two friends trying to get through their first year of middle school make it a great read. I laughed out loud at parts, remembering my own middle school days. While it connects with many of the students in the upper elementary grades, it definitely reaches out to boys.

Finding things in common with our kids (and students) is extremely important. They live in a fast-paced world of texting, Facebook, and instant messages. They are “connected” in ways that we never were. We need to jump on the opportunities to share meaningful conversations with them whenever we can. Taking an interest in what your kids are reading can be a way to start these conversations.

I had a Teacher on Call come in for me last week for a half day. I showed up right before the lunch bell and we were discussing how the morning went. I asked about a few students in particular and she made a comment that got me to thinking about this post: she had brought in the book The Mocking Jay, the third in the Hunger Games trilogy, so that she could read it while waiting for a friend after work. When a few of the students noticed she had it, they began asking her whether she liked it, had she finished it, did she like the others. The fact that she was reading a book that many of them are absorbed in right now created an instant connection, which is not always easy to do as a teacher on call.

Kids always find it a bit surprising when they realize that you may enjoy some of the same things they do. I have had wonderful conversations about Harry Potter, Holes, Twilight, Hunger Games, and a variety of other books that kids are hooked on. My enthusiasm is real and the kids respond to that. They want to know what you think, what you liked, and if you got to a certain part yet. I tell the kids how I feel about the books that we have in common and they feel open to sharing their thoughts. My class knows that even though I really liked Hunger Games, I stopped reading the trilogy because, for me, it was too sad. We ended up having a conversation about what makes us put down a book, what makes us go back to it, or what makes it so we absolutely cannot put it down.

I believe that connecting with kids strengthens our relationships with them and makes teaching them more successful. Try reading something your child is reading; aside from connecting with your child, you’ll likely find yourself reading a great book as well.

In her book, Child’s Play: Rediscovering the Joy of Play in Our Families and Communities, Silken Laumann, challenges parents to reconnect with children and build safe, supportive communities.

Ms. Laumann suggests that neighbours (parents and children) get together once a week, at a neighbourhood park, to allow children opportunities to enjoy unstructured play together – ride bikes, skip, kick or throw balls, play tag, road hockey or basketball or enjoy the swings. She points out that unstructured play helps to keep children healthy, creative and active. Enjoying the park together gives parents and neighbours opportunities to meet, talk and get to know each other.

Ms Laumann’s homepage

Child’s Play: Rediscovering the Joy of Play in Our Families and Communities at Amazon.com

Child’s Play: Rediscovering the Joy of Play in Our Families and Communities at Amazon.ca

Try some of these strategies to help your child with reading comprehension

• Before opening the cover of a book, take a moment to talk about the cover art and encourage your youngster to make some predictions. Do you suppose this will be a scary story or perhaps a silly one? Do you think this book will be like something else we have read together? Do you recognize the illustrator’s style and/or the typeface? Savvy readers will recognize that Stella Fairy of the Forest and Houndsley and Catina are both illustrated by Marie- Louise Gay although the characters are not the same.

• Once you have read partway through the book, pause to talk about it. Involve your child in making predictions about what will happen next. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom offers more than a couple of opportunities to guess what will happen to the letters of the alphabet. If a character is facing a choice, ask your child what he would choose and why.

• At the end of the story, take a moment to talk about the characters. Which character does your child like best? / least? Does this character remind him of a person he knows or another book you’ve read together?

• Try reading more than one version of a fairy tale or other familiar story. Compare the illustrations and the author’s words. Which version of the story do you like best? / least?

• Try reading wordless picture books. In these books, all or almost all of the story is told through the illustrations. Wordless and almost wordless books are great because they “level the playing field.” Your child becomes an equal participant in carefully “reading” the illustrations and deciding what is happening in the story. Wordless and almost wordless books are also great for young children to share with someone who does not read in English. They are also valuable because they offer an opportunity for your child to use visual clues when retelling a story to someone else.

• Speaking of  “retelling,”  having an opportunity to retell a story is great for young children. Perhaps after you and your child enjoy a story together, your child could summarize the story for another adult.

• Finally, matching a book to an upcoming event or experience will help your child to make connections between the story or information in the book and his own experience. Whether reading a story about a visit to the dentist prior to an appointment or laughing about No David’s misadventures, making connections is what it is all about.

When making presentations to parent groups and professional organizations, my goal is always the same: to inspire adults to read good books to children on a frequent basis.

I have two children and I began reading aloud to them when my oldest boy was 6 months. I continued reading two stories a day until the youngest was about 7 years old. (We still enjoy chapter books together.)

Believe it or not, I actually did the calculation:
8.5 years X 2 stories per day X 365 days = 6,205 bedtime stories! Unbelievable!

We know as parents that we are going to read some books over and over again because our children will insist we do. The rest of the time, let’s do our best to find books that are worth reading.

Whether through this website or a Parent Ed session at your preschool, I want to help you discover some new books that will help your child…
• grow his vocabulary
• learn about places and situations
• explore the language and conventions of print
• discover new information and ideas
• become a good listener

When selecting books for children we should look for
• respected authors and illustrators and their well-reviewed books
• good matches for our child’s interests (in my case it was, ‘Books about trucks!’)
• ways to connect books with life experiences (i.e. an upcoming trip or planting a garden)

Keep reading, I will do my very best to help you discover some new Storytime Standouts.

Last week I made a Parent Education presentation at a Vancouver preschool. I call the workshop, “Winning the Reading Game.” During the workshop, I talk about various strategies that I’ve had success with. Participants make four reading games that they are able to use with their children. During last week’s workshop, one of the moms spoke to me about what she had done at the suggestion of her son’s teacher. The inventive teacher had suggested that she give the young writer access to paper and a stapler. The strategy worked like a charm. In no time at all, her son was a “book publisher.” He was enthusiastically making books to write in and was drawn into the world of the printed word.

Beyond Bedtime Stories by V. Susan Bennett-Armistead, Nell K. Duke and Annie M. Moses

Beyond Bedtime Stories is a very thorough exploration of ways parents can promote early literacy with young children. The authors address dozens of important questions like “What if a book contains words or ideas that I find offensive?” and “Should I teach my child to read before kindergarten?” Beyond Bedtime Stories also includes suggestions of ways to fill your home with books even if you are on a budget, how to improve comprehension and ways to promote literacy inside and outside your home.

This is a very worthwhile resource for young families, daycare and preschool settings.

Beyond Bedtime Stories: A Parent’s Guide to Promoting Reading, Writing, and Other Literacy Skills from Birth to 5

Beyond Bedtime Stories : A Parent’s Guide to Promoting Reading, Writing, and Other Literacy Skills from Birth to 5 at Amazon.ca

When children are beginning readers, we often encourage them to “sound words out” but there are some other strategies that we can and should suggest. There are many words that don’t lend themselves to “sounding out.” If you think of your own reading, you probably have used some or all of these strategies -

1. Beginning readers should look at the illustrations. I once worked with a child whose mom covered the illustrations so he couldn’t use picture clues when reading! Please don’t do that! Reading pictures is part of a child’s early reading experience. That is why almost all easy-to-read books are generously illustrated. Please, encourage your child to use picture clues.

2. Beginning readers are allowed to skip the tricky word and read the rest of the sentence. The rest of the sentence may give your child enough other information to help him figure out the word. As an aside, sometimes books use relatively simple words but include difficult-to-read names for characters. If your child can manage the story but stumbles over reading a character’s name, suggest calling the character by his or her initial and avoid the challenge altogether. It won’t make a bit of difference to your child’s understanding of the story (unless there are two tricky names and both start with the same letter!).

3. Beginning readers sometimes check out the first couple of letters and then make a guess. Not very scientific but we all do it! Keep in mind that the larger your child’s listening and speaking vocabulary, the better his guesses are likely to be.

4, Beginning readers should be encouraged to ask for help . When I listen to a young child read, my number one goal is that she enjoy the experience. I want her to want to read. I don’t want her to get hung up and frustrated. If I can make the reading experience more pleasant – by acting as a resource when she encounters difficult words – then she is more likely to attempt challenging books.

When working with children who are just beginning to sound out words, I have had great success using word families.

Shortly after a child discovers that C -A -T spells cat, it can be enormously rewarding to introduce B-A-T amd M-A-T. Often a child’s eyes grow as big as saucers as he realizes the relationship between the three words. He makes a connection and sounding out BAT, CAT, FAT, HAT, MAT, PAT, RAT and SAT is not nearly as difficult as he originally thought. Soon he has eight new words to be proud of (rather than just one).

On the Storytime Standouts Beginning to Read page, we include Word Family Flip Books for short vowel word families. Print the pages and cut out the individual letters. Cut out the larger rectangle along the lines. Make a pile of letters (check that they are all the right way up) and staple them to the left of the word ending. Encourage your beginning reader to ‘build’ on her knowledge that C-A-T spells CAT by flipping the letters and substituting the consonant. She’ll create many more words and feel a thrill of success.

Our early literacy printables, including our word family printables are in PDF format, if you don’t already use Adobe Reader, you will need to download it to access the word family printables.

Please note: some of our early literacy printables are available to Storytime Standouts members only. To become a member of the website (without cost or obligation), please click on the “Members” tab and register as a user.

You will find our selection of free printable alphabets here and all of our early literacy printables here.

If you appreciate our word family printables, please support this site by visiting and purchasing from Amazon.com or Amazon.ca.

There have been many, many books written that focus on word families. A search of “Fat Cat” might produce a dozen or more results. I’m delighted to let you know about a series that combines word families, spinning word wheels, picture clues and early reader books. The word wheels are sturdy and easy to spin. They each create eight words: the wheel for Bug in a Rug produces bug, hug, dug, jug, mug, pug, tug and rug. Beginning readers will need some help decoding the story but will find the illustrations helpful and will soon notice that the word family words are printed using red ink. if ‘reading’ with an older family member, the child could be asked to ‘read just the red words’ until familiar with the vocabulary. Good fun and a helpful resource for those who are just learning about word families and beginning to read.

Fat Cat at Amazon.com | Fat Cat at Amazon.ca

Jen The Hen at Amazon.com | Jen the Hen at Amazon.ca

Dog In The Fog at Amazon.com | Dog in the Fog at Amazon.ca

Bug In A Rug at Amazon.com | Bug in a Rug at Amazon.ca