Read-Aloud

Watch for New Site Coming Soon

January 8, 2009 by racheldenning

Read-Aloud will be launching it’s new website soon. It will offer free drawings, videos, book clubs and other great resources for getting your children to read and for home educators.

Look for it coming soon! Send an email to launch@read-aloud.org and we’ll let you know as soon as it’s launched, as well enter you in our first Free Book Drawing.

wizard-things

You can look at more Usborne books by visiting their site here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged jim trelease, read-aloud, reading aloud, reading with children | Leave a Comment »

Fundraisers with Usborne

January 2, 2009 by racheldenning

Raise Money and Kids’ Reading Levels! The Usborne *Reading Is A Gift* book fair program was developed by Usborne Books to encourage reading and at the same time, raise money and/or free books for your school or organization. We understand the needs and challenges faced by organizations trying to raise funds so we’ve designed the program to make it both easy on sponsors and successful in reaching your fundraising goals! With the FREE book and/or cash incentives that are in place for each book fair sponsor, your fundraising options are as easy as 1, 2, 3: FREE books – Up to 50% of retail sales in free books Money and books – provides the sponsor with cash and FREE books for the library Money – fund special projects, teacher resources or extras for your students
Reading is a Gift & Book Fairs are Fun! With more than 8,000 Usborne Consultants in the United States alone, your *Reading Is A Gift* book fair partner is probably right around the corner and ready to work hard for you. An Usborne educational consultant will literally take you by the hand and walk you through a mind-enriching event where there are two winners – your students and your school! All of the Usborne “Reading Is A Gift” book fair promotional materials are provided by the consultant to help make your event a huge success.
Customize your Book Fair to meet your School’s Needs! Free Book Program 50% of the sales in free books for book fairs over $500.00 in sales. 25% of the sales in free books for book fairs between $200.00 and $500.00 in sales. Minimum sales for a book fair is $200.00. Cash Only Program 25% of the sales in CASH for book fairs over $3,000.00 in sales. 20% of the sales in CASH for book fairs over $2,000.00 in sales. Combination Program A percentage of cash and free books can also be divided to give your organization an opportunity to earn both. Together we can design a program that will fit your needs.
Book Your Event Today! To hold an Usborne event, simply contact your Usborne consultant (email me at fundraiser@read-aloud.org) who can discuss your individual requirements, arrange the entire event for you, and offer an unrivalled book service. You can view Usborne books here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged fundraiser, fundraisers | 1 Comment »

The Girl Effect

October 30, 2008 by racheldenning

Posted in Benefits, How To | Tagged girl effect | Leave a Comment »

November is…

October 27, 2008 by racheldenning

National Adoption Month

Books about Adoption

American Indian Heritage Month

National Life Writing Month

November 9-15 is National Young Readers Week

Phonics

First Readers

Young Readers

Chapter Books and Classics

November 9-16 World Kindness Week

Practice Random Acts of Kindness

November 20-26 National Farm-City Week

Books on Farms

November 22-29 National Bible Week

Bible Stories

November 22-28 National Game and Puzzle Week

Family Games and Puzzles

November 20 Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Books

Posted in Activities | Tagged american indian, american indian heritage month, bible stories, bible week, Books, boy who cried wolf, farm week, first readers, how to write your life story, life story, national adoption month, national bible week, national game and puzzle week, november, november activities, november is, november national month, phonics, random acts of kindness, reading, world kindness week, writing, young readers | 1 Comment »

Are You Raising a Texter or a Reader?

October 14, 2008 by racheldenning

We live in an amazing age of technology. Never before have we had so much information available at our fingertips (literally). We have the convenience of cell phones, laptops, video phones, instant messaging, texting, iPhones, email and more. If you ever have a question about anything you can Google it, and if you want to keep in touch just Twitter or get on Facebook.

All of these things are wonderful and connect people like never before. They give us access to more information in two seconds than a person in the 16th Century was exposed to in their entire life.

With all the influx of technology, I sometimes wonder if we’re losing some of the essentials. A 13-year-old girl won $25,000 from a texting competition (she averages over 8,000 texts per month to friends and family), but 37% of fourth graders are below a ‘basic’ reading level.

Speaking of fourth graders, many states, like California, use fourth grade literacy rates to estimate how many prison cells they need to build for future inmates. There is a direct link between illiteracy and crime. The average American reads less than one book per year, and 55% of Americans do not read a non-fiction book after high school.

On average, Americans ages 15 to 24 spend almost two hours a day watching TV, and only seven minutes of their daily leisure time on reading.
American 15-year-olds ranked fifteenth in average reading scores for 31 industrialized nations, behind Poland, Korea, France, and Canada, among others.
Money spent on books, adjusted for inflation, dropped 14 percent from 1985 to 2005 and has fallen dramatically since the mid-1990s.

Is it any wonder that literacy is on the decline, with Americans spending more on fast food than books and education combined. Over 1.9 Billion dollars is spent on Halloween candy each year, and over $2 billion on chewing gum.

Well, the economy is not good right now, we can’t afford to buy books. Consider for a moment how much you spend on ‘necessary’ expenses like cell phones, internet, cable, Direct TV, movies, video games and more. Americans easily spend hundreds per month on these expenses. While there is nothing inherently wrong with this, ask yourself, to you have a budgeted amount for books?

Brian Tracy said that you can tell a person’s values by their actions. If you believe reading is important, and you want your children to reap the full benefits of life-long learning, are your actions (and more specifically your spending) conveying that message to your children? If you spend your money every month so that there’s nothing left over for books, then your actions say that books really aren’t that important to you.

But they are important, crucially important. Here’s why:

Fourth-graders who reported daily reading for fun scored higher on the NAEP reading test than peers who reported less reading for fun (NCES, 2001b).
Children who score at the 90th percentile on a reading test spent five times as many minutes per day reading books as children at the 50th percentile (Anderson, Wilson & Fielding, 1988).
Children and adults who read become more intelligent, influential, earn a larger income and achieve higher levels of success

So what determines whether you raise a reader or a texter?

Families play an important role in their children’s reading success.
Studies of individual families show that what they do to support literacy in the home is more important to student success than family income or education (Ballen & Moles, 1994).
When adults interact with young children — talking, singing and playing rhyming games — they stimulate language and vocabulary development and build important foundations for learning to read (Hart & Risley, 1995).
Reading to preschoolers is the most important thing families can do to prepare them for reading (Adams, 1990).
Reading aloud to infants stimulates their brains to create new learning pathways and strengthen existing ones (Shore, 1997).

Simply put, give books and reading and important place in your life. Let your actions reflect that it is consequential. Here are some action ideas to get you started:

Decide to make a love of reading your most important educational goal for your children. Children who love to read will excel at whatever they do.
Show your children you value reading by letting them see you do it.
Have a wide variety of books on hand, as well as newspapers, comics, magazines, etc. Build a home library for you and your children.
Find books that your children like- an interest in the subject is the first step to pleasure in reading.
Spend more on books than you do on Disney movies

Click here to see more ideas.

Posted in Benefits, How To, Techniques | Tagged children reading statistics, get children reading, illiteracy, literacy, love reading, read-aloud, reading, texting | 2 Comments »

50 Ways to Get Children to Love Reading!

October 11, 2008 by racheldenning

Make a love of reading be your most important education goal for your children. Children who love to read will excel in everything they do
Show your children that you value reading, don’t just tell them. Let them see you reading
Make reading a daily activity
Take outings to the bookstore
Give books as gifts
Always have time to read with them or help them with their reading
Have a wide variety of books on hand, as well as newspapers, magazines and comics.
Find books that your children are interested in
Surprise your children with books about their favorite animal, hobby or passion
Join the Book of the Month Club and let them receive a new book every month
Create their own little ‘library’ in their room on their own bookshelf. Give them a sense of ownership

For Preschoolers

Take your children o the library often while they are young and eager to go
On special occasions, take your children to the bookstore and let them pick their favorite book
Buy lots of cheap books at garage sales and flea markets
Spend more time (and money) on books than on Disney movies
Make read aloud time fun for your child
Read whatever books your child wants to read
Narrate the story with voices and action, get into it and have fun!
Wrap up quickly when your child loses interest
Let your child participate as much as possible- let her finish the sentence, read the pictures, take turns reading, etc.
Plan play activities that involve books- picnics, crafts, science projects, kits.
Act out favorite stories and characters from books
Let them ‘read’ stories to their dolls or younger siblings
Play bookstore or library
Do projects, recipes, crafts and activities from books
Play reading games- cross of shopping lists, put name tags around the house, play school
Have a reading time after meals
Be aware of how your child learns best- visual, auditory, or hands on
Do a reading night with popcorn and blankets, instead of movie night
Don’t do any activities that your child doesn’t enjoy. Learning should be fun!
Don’t buy books that your child isn’t interested in and make them read them
After your child learns to read continue to read books to them above their reading level

Elementary School to Teenagers

Encourage reading a book series
Continue to encourage and participate in library use
Don’t schedule so many activities that your children don’t have time to read
Continue to spend money on books as well as all their other activities
Try reading plays aloud (and acting them out)
Have a quiet, comfortable reading area in your home. Make it the most comfortable room in the house
Fathers, spend time reading with your kids
Keep books and magazines in the car
Don’t make your kids turn the lights out at night, let them stay up and read!
Only own one television, and never put it in your children’s room
Cancel your cable subscription and buy books instead
Don’t force them to read something they don’t like
Send teenagers to the bookstore with money to buy any book they like
Allow them to choose their own books from the Book of the Month Club
Read a book together at the same time and discuss it
Encourage them to write and share what they read about. Do ‘book reports’
Keep perspective. Reading should be the number one educational goal, but not the only goal
“It is impossible to sit down to write if you have not stood up to live”- Emerson

Posted in How To, Resources | Tagged book of the month, children love reading, encourage reading, get kids reading, how to get kids reading, love reading, read-aloud, reading aloud | 1 Comment »

Reading Sparks Imagination

October 10, 2008 by racheldenning

Reading is wonderful because it introduces your children to ideas, experiences and concepts that they might not get otherwise. It provides fuel for the imagination and the seeds of new ideas.

My children have rarely been to the doctor, except for a couple of emergency room visits. As a result, they seldom, if ever, play doctor. (Which isn’t suprising, children play what they see, their mimickers).

We received a shipment of books from UPS two days ago (always exciting!) and in it was Daisy the Doctor from the Jobs People Do Series at Usborne. My husband read it to them last night as the went to bed. It’s a simple story about Daisy Flowers and her day as a doctor.

The result? Today I heard the children walking around gathering items- “This can be to listen to the heart. This will be for our x-ray. Mom, we’re being doctors.”

This is one example of the power of reading. It introduces children to new ideas, experiences, and realities about the world. It expands their mind, literally, helping them to grow and develop, and as Oliver Wendall Holmes once said:

A mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to it’s original dimensions

Reading is a powerful way to stretch minds and expand realities- the purpose of education.

And what about imagination? Albert Einstein once said that “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

Imagination is what drives invention, creation and progress. Without dreamers with imagination we might still be driving horse drawn carriages and sending letters by mail. Our children need to be dreamers and doers.

Let them recieve as many ideas in their mind as possible. Introduce them to a wide array of concepts, thoughts and notions. Then their imagination will run wild with the endless conceivable combinations and possibilities. They will be the ones who create an even better future.

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.

So let’s introduce our children to the world they live in through live experiences and through reading about the experiences of others, and then let’s let them dream and imagine an even better world.

Posted in Benefits, Vision | Tagged imagination, read-aloud, reading, reading aloud, reading with children | Leave a Comment »

Easy and Fun Ways to Learn Spelling

October 9, 2008 by racheldenning

The best way to learn is to create a fun environment in which the individual is interested in what is happening. This can be applied to any subject- make it fun, and your kids will be interested and will learn faster and easier.

There are so many tools available to us today to assist in guiding our children’s learning. The internet is one of those.

One of our favorite sites, Starfall.com offers spelling games with simple words. (Go to the page here) They have games to play in which the kids can finish the word- easy words like fox, box, log, dog, etc. It sounds out the letters for them and then says the word.

Additionally, they can print out the words that they completed, and it creates a nice worksheet where they can trace and write the word, and then create a sentence and draw a picture about it.

The interactive capability on the internet is great for combining auditory, visual and kinesthetic. You can then transfer what they do on the computer to a worksheet that carries the learning further. It makes learning a little more fun than doing only worksheets.

Another way to make spelling fun is to make it informal. Don’t require that your child sit down and study their spelling. Take a walk and review the words, spell the things around you, dog, bike, ball, book, spider- whatever you find in the world around you, especially the things that your children takes interest in like dragons, princesses, ballet or karate.

For older children, you can play online Wordfind or Spelling Match. For younger children, sing spelling songs and word games

Allow your children to type on the computer. Let them send emails, or post on a blog, to practice spelling and computer skills (a must for today’s world) (Here’s an idea that incorporates keyboard and flash cards)

Remember that teaching something does not have to be difficult or cumbersome. The more natural you can make it, the more you can relate it to your child’s life, and the more fun it is, the easier it will be for them to learn and remember it. Our purpose is to make learning fun, incorporate it into daily life and develop into a lifetime habit, instead of for only a 7 hours a day, 5 days a week for 18 years. Learning is always!

For more ideas on teaching spelling (on and off line), click here.

Posted in Resources, Spelling, Techniques | Tagged reading, Spelling, teaching, vocabulary, words | Leave a Comment »