29 Nov National Family Literacy Month
By: Bailey Brewer
I always loved reading while growing up. As a child who was never into sports or video games, reading was my outlet and you could often find me curled up somewhere with a book. Reading gave me a safe space to be myself and explore different worlds. My parents, and especially my mother, always encouraged me to read and learn as she was open to hearing about new things I was learning from books and the adventures I would go on through the stories. Often I would read aloud for the both of us so I could share with her the stories I enjoyed. While I do not have children of my own, my family just welcomed our first baby, my niece, into the world this month and I have already started thinking about books that I loved as a child to share with her as she grows. I even signed her up for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program so she can start receiving age-appropriate books for us to read to her. Thinking about it now, I feel excited knowing that there will be so many fun adventures we’ll go on through the books and stories we’ll read together as she grows up.
It’s easy to understand the importance of being able to read, however, there are also many more positive benefits for both you and your child! Most simply, reading with your child helps them learn new words and build their vocabulary, while the time spent together also helps you build a bond with your child and this calming activity with someone you love can actually help you manage stress after a long day.
If you choose to read stories with a wide variety of characters (especially characters with cultural backgrounds different from your own), you and your child are also learning about different cultures and traditions, which can help build empathy and understanding of others. Additionally, if you act out the stories and show the character emotions as you read to your child, you’re also showing them what different emotions look like and how characters navigate big emotions. This can help children label and understand their emotions in their daily lives, building their emotional vocabulary. There are even ways to build these skills outside of your home by attending local literacy events with your child, such as attending a storytime hour or reading event at your local library. These events build on the literacy skills you’re building at home by allowing your child to gain experience reading and learning in a social setting with other children and adults. Not only are many of these events offered regularly at urban and rural libraries, they’re also often totally free to attend! You and your child might even make some new friends at an event!
There are lots of different ways that you and your child can benefit from reading and learning together. Here are some fun and free resources from I Would Rather Be Reading you can use to increase the time you spend reading and learning with your child:
1) Family Activities – this website is full of family activities, including calendars of daily fun activities. We recommend this site because it has lots of fun ideas to get the whole family involved.
2) How to Help Your Child Read at Home – this site is a practical guide of how to help your child at home in fundamental reading skills, broken down by grade levels! This makes it easy to target the areas where your child needs to work on!
3) Research Based Reading Games & Activities – this is a bank of quick, research-based activities that families can print and practice with students to help develop their foundational phonemic awareness and phonics skills. We love this because they are self-contained activities; print, cut, and go! Each game or activity takes just a little set up for a big pay off in reading skills!
Just as I did this month, if your child is under the age of five, you can also sign your child (or children!) up for the Imagination Library program, which will send one free book to children from birth to five years old. The books are high-quality age- and developmentally-appropriate books selected by child literacy experts that discuss many different topics and issues. You can find more information and sign-up here: www.imaginationlibrarylouisville.org.
You could also check out Baxter’s Corner, which has various stories that specifically touch on important topics, such as compassion, cooperation, family values, and respect. You can find more information from Baxter’s Corner here: www.baxterscorner.com.