September, 19, 2012 - A friend of mine recommended the book The Reading Promise by Alice Ozma. She is a teacher too and I admire her greatly so I downloaded the book on my Kindle (LOVE that thing) and started reading it thinking it might be a good resource for teaching reading. I was only 3 pages into the forward when I realized this was a book for me as a parent, not a teacher.
As a parent of 3, I believe I relate well to what you want for your child. We ALL want the best for our children. As a busy, single working mom I know that providing what is best for my kids has been an ongoing balancing act. Sometimes I'd rush home from work to get my kids to soccer practice or music lessons or over to a friends house for a play date. There were days when I went to work early, came home late, threw dinner together and did the dishes and well... it was time for bed already. i would be exhausted and ready for bed. But I remember those times when my kids were really little and each night before bed, we would curl up with a book and read and laugh and talk for a few precious moments before we closed our eyes on another day.
My two oldest kids are grown now and live in Bend. I just have Tyler left. He's a sophomore in high school, 15 with his driver's permit, very busy with advanced courses, marching band, guitar lessons, lots of practices and, of course, hanging out with his friends. I only have 3 years left and my youngest is off to college. We are both busy people and there are days when we have just a short conversation in the morning and another one at dinner. I've wanted to try and find a way to connect with him on his own level. So, inspired by Alice and her dad, I invited my 15 year old son to read aloud with me every night and start our own reading streak. He looked at me kind of funny, tilted his head to the side and said in his usual teen age fashion, "Huh?" Was I crazy asking him? Could I really get him to sit down with me and listen to me read? What could I do to actually make this feasible?
Here is what we came up with: We promised to read a book together for 5 minutes every night. We both knew we could stop our busy lives for 5 minutes and spend a few quality minutes together. He gets to pick out all the books we read (of course I get to make sure they are appropriate for his age). After five minutes we can stop or keep reading if we want to. After our reading time, we promised to take a few minutes to talk about what we read.
So, we've started our own reading streak. For our first book Tyler picked Anthem by Ayn Rand. Our goal is just 30 days. We've read one night so far and I'm looking forward to another...and another...and another....
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
The Reading Promise
September, 19, 2012 - A friend of mine recommended the book The Reading Promise by Alice Ozma. She is a teacher too and I admire her greatly so I downloaded the book on my Kindle (LOVE that thing) and started reading it thinking it might be a good resource for teaching reading. I was only 3 pages into the forward when I realized this was a book for me as a parent, not a teacher.
As a parent of 3, I believe I relate well to what you want for your child. We ALL want the best for our children. As a busy, single working mom I know that providing what is best for my kids has been an ongoing balancing act. Sometimes I'd rush home from work to get my kids to soccer practice or music lessons or over to a friends house for a play date. There were days when I went to work early, came home late, threw dinner together and did the dishes and well... it was time for bed already. i would be exhausted and ready for bed. But I remember those times when my kids were really little and each night before bed, we would curl up with a book and read and laugh and talk for a few precious moments before we closed our eyes on another day.
My two oldest kids are grown now and live in Bend. I just have Tyler left. He's a sophomore in high school, 15 with his driver's permit, very busy with advanced courses, marching band, guitar lessons, lots of practices and, of course, hanging out with his friends. I only have 3 years left and my youngest is off to college. We are both busy people and there are days when we have just a short conversation in the morning and another one at dinner. I've wanted to try and find a way to connect with him on his own level. So, inspired by Alice and her dad, I invited my 15 year old son to read aloud with me every night and start our own reading streak. He looked at me kind of funny, tilted his head to the side and said in his usual teen age fashion, "Huh?" Was I crazy asking him? Could I really get him to sit down with me and listen to me read? What could I do to actually make this feasible?
Here is what we came up with: We promised to read a book together for 5 minutes every night. We both knew we could stop our busy lives for 5 minutes and spend a few quality minutes together. He gets to pick out all the books we read (of course I get to make sure they are appropriate for his age). After five minutes we can stop or keep reading if we want to. After our reading time, we promised to take a few minutes to talk about what we read.
So, we've started our own reading streak. For our first book Tyler picked Anthem by Ayn Rand. Our goal is just 30 days. We've read one night so far and I'm looking forward to another...and another...and another....
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Of Mice and Men...
ReplyDeleteDay 2 of our reading streak. Last night I got home from work after 10 PM. Tyler had been at a marching band fundraising party. For the past few weeks they have been networking through friends and family, using social media, campaigning to win a grant from Chase Community Giving. They had one last push last night and then voting closed at 9 PM. Southridge High School Music Ensemble won a ten thousand dollar grant last night due to the efforts of these kids.
Anyway, we didn't get to reading until 10:30. I reminded him about our reading streak and he said "Oh yeah. I'll be right there." I thought to myself, "Wow! No moans or groans... no feet dragging? Cool!" I grabbed my Kindle and waited for Tyler to come down.
He came down with a paperback book in his hand and asked if we could read Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck instead of our current choice. He explained that he always wanted to read it and asked if we could switch. John Steinbeck! Of course I said yes. So we settled down on the couch and took turns reading it aloud. We read for about 5 minutes each, chuckling out loud several times during the reading.
Afterward, happy with our choice to switch books, he said "I like the way he writes."
"Me too" I replied.
Not a big huge discussion, but the time spent together was worth more than all the work I had done that day.