My daughter loves to read. She does it all on her own, with no coaxing at all from me. Well … OK, that’s not exactly true. The thing is, she just doesn’t REALIZE she’s been coaxed into reading her entire life. I believe a love for reading starts early; very early and in the home. I homeschool my daughter now, but we did spend the first couple of years in the public school system and I distinctly remember volunteering to help second-graders who were having trouble reading. I would volunteer every Tuesday and Thursday for about 40 minutes and in that time I would see three students. They would woefully carry their basket of books into the library to meet with me, sit down at a table, conducive to discomfort, and proceed to read to me for 15-20 minutes. They never did get comfortable with it and it felt almost impossible as I was never guaranteed to see the same child twice. For me, it was painful to sit through and I knew in my heart that this was not the way a child should learn to read. Ultimately, and unfortunately to no avail, I recommended to the school that we try a different approach; comfy couches perhaps? Maybe the volunteers reading to the child as a way for them to experience the joy that comes with being read to … being up close and personal and allowing them those simple, engaging moments not every child gets at home. Sometimes overwhelmed and understaffed, schools are often slow to catch up with new and enlightening trends, but here are some things you can do at home to help ensure your child develops a love for reading. Start Early. Infancy is not too young; in fact, I know many mothers who start reading to their babies while still in the womb. My sister did just that and strongly feels it made an impact on her son. Honestly, the younger your child is, the more likely he or she will stay engaged as they grow older. The underlying reason being, that your child will associate reading with love. They will relate those memories of reading with the connection and bond you both developed and nurtured over the years. Reading and love will go hand-in-hand and being read to will consistently be a source of contentment and peace; a way to soothe them when they need it. Side bonus, it’s good to know every Dr. Seuss book by heart; goes over great at parties! Create Reading Nooks Everywhere. I scatter books throughout the house. In every room, you will find an inviting book just crying out to be picked up. The kitchen hutch, right by the breakfast table, every nightstand in every bedroom, an old-fashioned magazine rack bolted to the wall, bookshelves in the family room, and a basket on the hearth that we switch out with specifically selected books that help bring in new seasons or holidays. Go to the Library. Seems like an obvious one, but I’m surprised at how little my town library seems to be used these days. When I was a kid, we lived in an area that was fairly remote and we had a book mobile that used to come to our small, isolated neighborhood. I cannot put into words the joy those visits brought me! Libraries offer so many resources; you’ll find story times for all age groups, craft activities, book clubs, groups for teens and so much more. I’m even starting to see libraries offer more than books. I’ve read about libraries growing with the times and lending out tools and other household items as well. Even 3D printers are starting to become available! Read All the Time, every day. Reading at our house is as important as brushing our teeth. No TV at bedtime and, in fact, there are no TVs in any of the bedrooms in our house. Reading time happens every night and we continually change it up so it doesn’t get stale. Sometimes I still read to my daughter, sometimes we read together, and sometimes she reads to herself, but it is always how she ends her day … which also leads to her starting off her day reading because she remembers that she was into something before she fell asleep. In addition, I read to her at least once at some point every single day. I think a lot of parents think their kids no longer need to be read to once they start reading on their own, but they still value the moments and memories that come from being read to. Get Caught Reading, in case it wasn’t implied in the last tip. Be seen reading yourself. Read for pleasure; be the example. Like so many things in life, nothing could ever work quite as well as being their example. Start a Book Club. We started a book club for my daughter and her friends when they were five, we’re still going strong after three years. At first I picked the books, simple story books about strength, empowerment, giving back, family, finances, etc. Everyone came prepared with at least one question for the group. After our discussion we had a craft and snacks. Today they take turns picking the books, have pretty great discussions, and have been inspired to do many things beyond the book club like volunteering. We even sponsored a child last year at Christmas. So put down that phone for ten minutes, pick up a favorite book and read to your child. As the ever wise Dr. Seuss once said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
Teacher Resources
Using Silence to Create a Mood
Every once in a while a story comes along that is unlike any other. Dancing Birds, the featured story from our September/October 2015 issue, is such a story. What makes it so special? Yes, the characters and setting are exotic. A Welsh girl named Glas lives with her family in a French-speaking village in Quebec. Glas makes mechanical animals in her attic. She misses her father, who is in Denmark, helping his sick brother. She misses her grandmother, who has gone home to Wales. Then her cousin Maskine arrives, sad and silent. But beyond the unusual characters and setting, the story, by 11-year-old Ayla Schultz, is special for the mood it creates. When we finish reading it, our mood has changed too. We feel the sadness, the loneliness, and the final glimmer of happiness. We are in the world of the story. How does Ayla do it? Read the story carefully, and you will see that it is full of descriptions that engage our senses. We see Glas’s dark blue eyes and her grandmother’s red coat. We smell and taste the cinnamon hot chocolate. The bare trees, icy water, and freezing rain tell us how cold it is. But above all, sounds—and especially silence—set the mood of this story. In the first scene, Glas sits silently atop a sand dune, staring at the chilly scene below, thinking about happier times. When cousin Maskine arrives, she doesn’t say a word for weeks. Finally, she speaks a few words to Glas, then grows silent again. Maskine is deeply worried about her family back in Denmark. Sometimes the silence is broken by a doorbell, a knock, or a slammed door. The postman is chatty when he brings a letter. Then all is quiet. In the story’s final scene, Glas has invited Maskine up to her attic workshop. Glas silently hands her the key to a beautiful mechanical bird. From their one conversation, we know that the girls have a bond. They share a love of birds and the way they appear to dance on the sand. Maskine turns the key and the mechanical bird lifts it legs one by one, just like the birds on the beach. For the first time since she arrived, Maskine smiles. No words are spoken, and the story ends with this perfect moment of understanding. The next time you write a story, think about sounds. Which sounds will you include, and which will you leave out? Will your characters reveal themselves through dialogue or through their thoughts? Sometimes a connection can be made between two people from a shared experience, without any words being exchanged. See if you can create a mood that stays with your reader long after the story has ended.
Free Verse and Kids’ Poetry
Most of the poetry we publish in Stone Soup is free verse. Free verse is the most prose-like form of poetry. It is very popular amongst adult poets and it is also very common in American schools. Free verse may by rhymed or unrhymed. What defines it is that it is unmetered. Walt Whitman was the American poet who popularized the form. Here is an example by Whitman. This poem is called The Noisless Patient Spider. “A noiseless, patient spider, I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated; Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding, It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself; Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them. “And you, O my Soul, where you stand, Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space, Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,—seeking the spheres, to connect them; Till the bridge you will need, be form’d—till the ductile anchor hold; Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul. As free verse, Whitman is not constrained by meter or by rhyme. The poem consists of two grammatical sentences, one for each stanza. I’m not going to parse the poem here. If you are interested, look up the poem in Google Books. There are many commentaries. I’ll offer you this commentary on The Noiseless Patient Spider for those of you who want to delve further in the poem. For my purposes here, I will just say that by choosing free verse Whitman is able to focus on other things — to say things he couldn’t say if otherwise constrained by form. The language is poetic — .. “till the ductile anchor hold;/Till the gossamer thread you fling…” This is not prose. The great 20th-century American poet, Robert Frost, rejected this style of poetry for himself. Famously, in an 1935 speech at the Milton Academy he said, “Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.” We at Stone Soup believe that this is a style that more easily lets children get someplace deep with their poems. If you want to think of it as Robert Frost did — then its a style of poetry that gives the young poet a handicap. It lets young poets focus on content and language but doesn’t impose an overly consisting of structured meter. Anyone with a free verse poem to share by a child is encouraged to do so in the comments.
