Pieces of Time

New years come and new years go,
Pieces of time all in a row.
As we live our life, each second and minute,
We know we’re privileged to have you in it.
Our appreciation never ends
For our greatest blessings: our family and friends.
By Joanna Fuchs

Happy New Year!

Get excited about reading in 2010... Does your child like to read? If not, there are many ways to inspire passion for reading. Sometimes it can be difficult to get some kids to get excited about reading on their own. But with a little creativity and planning, as well as setting a good example, reading caterpillars can become reading butterflies.

Here are a few tips:

1. First and foremost, set aside a daily time for reading, when all you and your child do is read. It could be for as little as 15-20 minutes or for as long as you wish. You can read to your child, have your child read to you, or share in the reading. Try not to let anything else take away from your daily reading time. You can even give your reading time a special acronym. A popular one is called DEAR, for “Drop Everything and Read”. Some other ideas are SQUIRT, for “Sustained Quiet Un-Interrupted Reading Time”, or WYRMS, for “When You Read Many Stories”. Any acronym that your child likes will work.

2. Set the example by letting your child see you reading for pleasure. Share the book you’re reading with your child to show how much you’re enjoying it. Children (like most people,) are intrigued when they see someone enjoying an activity, and they want to participate also.

3. Incorporate art projects into your reading. Some ideas are to let your child create a filmstrip of a book just read, or design a new cover for an enjoyable book. If the reading is from an adventure or travel book, creating a map of the areas in the book is fun to do.

4. Read a book, and then watch the movie of the same story. Talk about which one you liked better; the book or the movie. Just recently, my son and I read “Bridge to Terabithia”, by Katherine Paterson, an exciting account of the importance of fun, friendship, and imagination. A few days after reading it, we watched the movie version, “Bridge to Terabithia”, with AnnaSophia Robb acting as Leslie Burke and Josh Hutcherson playing the role of Jess Aarons. We enjoyed them both!

5. Play games to review books they’ve read. Making up your own Jeopardy-type game or Trivia-type game with prizes and rewards for correct questions and answers works like a charm!


Happy Reading…


Pamela Breaux
Reading Specialist