Contributing Writer: Alicia Lindberg
Spring has sprung. Do you and your kids have what it takes to unplug from screens? To read and journal surrounded by the great outdoors? Okay, maybe just the kids. But you aren’t off the hook entirely. Don’t worry. I’ll equip you with the tools you’ll need. As a mom and teacher with twenty years of experience, I’m often asked, how do you get your three kids into reading and writing?
How to Train Your Dragon
The answer is YOU are their role-model. Take Jennifer Garner for example. When she’s not playing an action hero in films, she’s dressing up as one from the book, How to Train Your Dragon. Garner embodies the reading experience for her kids. For my kids, I took our embodied reading experiences to a new level of fun with something we call, the Reading Picnic.
If you’re like most parents, you read bedtime stories to your kids and wait till they’re down for the count before diving into your favorite adult books. With the Reading Picnic, it’s about everyone enjoying a book at their own levels. Place children’s books from my spring reading list in a basket, as well as, the latest adult book from Oprah’s Book Club . . . and you’re off.
Yep, that’s right. This will be self-care for you too! Your kids need to know that reading is a lifelong habit and is meant to be cathartic. They will see you laugh out loud, gasp, or maybe even cry to books at your level. To determine your child’s reading level, click my http://www.pocketfullofprosies.com/readingpicnicreading level assessment. Grab your leveled books. Cuddle on a blanket. This is family bonding for-the-ages!
Read for at least 20 minutes. Then discuss the favorite parts of your books over a light snack or perhaps fresh squeezed lemonade. Here’s where the writing comes in. You will write down the comments your kids say about their reading experience in a family journal, called Kid Quotes. My mom did this, and my kids love how I carried on the tradition. Its purpose is two-fold.
First, you are showing your kids that what they have to say matters. Second, you are modeling writing for pleasure. Kids are more likely to do what you do, not what you say. The Reading Picnic is your ticket on the literacy success train. Next, you can show them how other children are readers and writers with a book from my spring reading list, BeYouTiful Love, Sofia.
Sofia Sanchez became a viral internet sensation on Facebook with over five-million hits in one weekend. Want to know how? She said this now famous quote, “Down syndrome isn’t scary, it’s so exciting!” This same quote was the basis of her book. Show your kids and explain how writing starts with what we say. Our words can become a story in our authentic writer’s voice.
As a professional writing teacher, I believe discovering our writer’s voice is so exciting! But it won’t happen overnight. Try the Reading Picnic for three weekends in a row or every other day of spring break. After seven days, you will notice your children deciding to read on their ownand asking you to write more of their new comments in the Kid Quotes journal – without prompting!
By the way, I’d also encourage you to add cute comments your kids say in general to the Kid Quotes journal. Sometimes your kids will want to read this during the Reading Picnic. If they can’t read it independently, you can read their quotes during the discussion part of the Reading Picnic. Now when your kids ask for screen time ask them, “How about a picnic instead?!”
Below are sample titles from my tried-and-true spring reading list which I use to spawn independent reading and creative writing in kids. Click my http://www.pocketfullofprosies.com/readingpicnicreading level assessment to determine which books are the best level for your children. Questions? Connect with me at www.pocketfullofprosies.com or at @pocketfullofprosies on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.
Spring Reading List Sample Titles:
A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan
