Maya Smart

  • About
  • Books & Authors
  • Parent Resources
    • Book Lists
    • Literacy Activities
    • Book Crafts
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Create a Lunar New Year Fortune-Teller in this Fun Literacy Craft

    By . . .

    Read the Post

    Create a Lunar New Year Fortune-Teller in this Fun Literacy Craft
  • Celebrate Lunar New Year and Boost Literacy with a Storytelling Lion Puppet

    By . . .

    Read the Post

    Celebrate Lunar New Year and Boost Literacy with a Storytelling Lion Puppet
  • Teach Kids Letter Sounds in this Fun Story Time Activity for Chinese New Year

    By . . .

    Read the Post

    Teach Kids Letter Sounds in this Fun Story Time Activity for Chinese New Year
  • Celebrate Lunar New Year with this Brain-Building Story Time Activity for Young Kids

    By . . .

    Read the Post

    Celebrate Lunar New Year with this Brain-Building Story Time Activity for Young Kids

The Easy Sound Blending Tool You can Make at Home to Teach Reading

December 21, 2020

Teach Reading

By Chrysta Naron If you’ve ever sat with a beginning reader, you’ll notice that knowing letter sounds doesn’t magically jump straight to reading words fluently. Learning how to blend those sounds into a word is your child’s next step to literacy. However, it can be tricky to demonstrate without just doing it for them. With this word slide, your child will learn this key reading skill and be able to control the speed at which they read. This simple activity is a great tool to teach reading. . . .

Read the Post

Leave a Comment · Literacy Activities, Parent Resources, Reading Skills

Three Ways to Use Playdough to Teach Letter Lessons Kids Won’t Forget

December 16, 2020

Playdough for early literacy

By Chrysta Naron Letters are keys for children to unlock the written world, and their futures. They’re also shapes—complicated ones. Teaching your child to see and form these important lines and curves will set them on the path to reading. Yet all those letters can look a whole lot alike to young kids. This crafty early literacy activity helps even the youngest kids, who can’t yet write with a pencil, distinguish and remember letters. This easy project leverages the power of talking about . . .

Read the Post

Leave a Comment · Literacy Activities, Parent Resources

4 Memorable Quotes from Award-Winning Authors at the Texas Book Festival

December 14, 2020

Texas Book Festival Authors

By Maya Payne Smart Austin may be known for live music and technology show stoppers ACL and SXSW, but the quieter, gentler TBF stole my heart when I landed in Texas. Within weeks of moving to town, I signed up to volunteer with the Texas Book Festival’s Reading Rock Stars program, which brings authors to Title I schools and gives each child a book, sometimes the very first they’ve ever owned. And within a few months I joined the festival’s board and served for four years. This year the . . .

Read the Post

Leave a Comment · Author Interview, Books & Authors, Literary Events

DIY: Easy Duct-Tape Pencil Case

December 9, 2020

PencilCase_cover

By Kelsey Nickerson Why buy a pencil case when you can make your own in a few simple steps? Duct tape comes in so many fun patterns that you can use to create a super-cute DIY pencil case. You can even punch three holes along the bottom of your case and it will fit perfectly in a binder.  Once you get the hang of cutting the duct tape, this DIY pencil case craft will not take long at all. Kids might need a little help aligning the tape, but they can easily join in and create their own . . .

Read the Post

Leave a Comment · Activity

4 Brilliant Ways Nursery Rhymes Prepare Kids to Read and Write

December 7, 2020

a group of mothers clapping and singing songs

By Maya Payne Smart More and more students enter school with no knowledge of classic nursery rhymes, primary school teachers report. Some traditional poems like Baa Baa Black Sheep passed from generation to generation for centuries, but they hold markedly less appeal for today’s parents.  Indeed, many parents admit not recalling the nursery rhymes of their youth, let alone teaching them to their kids. And this has some educators, researchers, and early childhood experts . . .

Read the Post

Leave a Comment · Literacy Activities, Parent Resources, Reading Skills

Easy Literacy Activity: The Best Soup You’ll Never Eat

December 2, 2020

Best Soup

By Chrysta Naron All my kiddos are top notch chefs. I have eaten some of the best imaginary banana cupcakes and sand buckets filled with stew in the world. I bet you have too. So today, let’s cook up a little “edible” literacy activity for you and your little one to enjoy! Dramatic play (aka “playing pretend”) is a very important part of child development and one of the most enjoyable parts of any day with young kids. It can be tough to ask a child to stop being a superhero in order to sit . . .

Read the Post

Leave a Comment · Literacy Activities, Parent Resources

Don’t Make Story Time A Snooze. Try These 6 Read-Aloud Styles Instead.

November 30, 2020

Two young sisters read in the living room by the Christmas tree with their Mom

By Maya Payne Smart The term “read aloud” is deceptively simple—so self-evident in meaning that it seldom inspires discussion beyond admonitions to read with feeling and do it daily. But three decades of reading research reveals that there’s much more than reading aloud going on during the best story times. And, in fact, conversation that veers off the page may be as literacy-rich as the words in print. Caregivers use more than 20 different kinds of speech during read-alouds, ranging from . . .

Read the Post

Leave a Comment · Parent Resources, Reading Skills

These 6 Easy Crafts Support Literacy and Make Great Stocking Stuffers

November 25, 2020

Stocking Stuffer Roundup

By Laila Weir Big eyes in little faces as they behold a trove of gifts just for them. Delivering an enticingly wrapped bundle to a loved one. Spreading holiday cheer, and letting someone know we’re thinking about them. Nothing says holiday spirit like sharing gifts, and, as the days turn colder, thoughts naturally turn to acquiring them.  All that generosity may bring joy to young and old, but it isn’t always a gift to our planet, or our pocketbooks. Creating homemade presents can be . . .

Read the Post

Leave a Comment · Book Crafts

7 Guaranteed Ways to Engage Kids with Family Read-Alouds

November 23, 2020

Board Book

By Maya Payne Smart From the pediatrician’s office to parenting magazine columns, numerous voices tout the benefits of regularly reading aloud to young children for language development. But storytime quantity is just part of the equation. How parents read to kids (not just how often) matters too, and I don’t mean the pacing and performance qualities of reading aloud. No matter how thrilling the story or a parent’s delivery, a verbatim front-to-back reading of a book leaves out critical . . .

Read the Post

Leave a Comment · Literacy Activities, Parent Resources, Reading Skills

The Easiest, Most Fun Phonics Game You’ve Never Heard Of

November 18, 2020

Wheel of Phonics 8

By Chrysta Naron Matching letters to sounds is a crucial step on the road to reading. It’s a seemingly simple skill that actually requires a whole lot of practice to master. Every app and workbook alike asks kids to draw a line from a picture to the letter it begins with. This literacy activity is everywhere for a reason—it works. But I think we can upgrade this classic to make it much more fun and interactive.  Given how much repetition kids need to commit the sounds of all 26 . . .

Read the Post

Leave a Comment · Literacy Activities, Parent Resources

Newer Posts
Older Posts

Hey There, I’m Maya!

Maya Smart

I’m Maya Payne Smart, a journalist, book lover, and literacy advocate. I split my time between deep reading and slow writing, often about dynamic women who lift as they climb. My focus? Promoting a #litrich lifestyle for families and individuals. I aim to show parents what it takes to raise fluent readers and to connect people of all ages to great books and authors. I also share productivity tips, interviews, and more, when inspiration strikes.

About   |   Why I Blog   |   Austin Woman Cover Story

Popular Posts

  • A Farewell to Remember
  • Wonder Women: Sex, Power and the Quest for Perfection
  • Are You Hitting Enough Home Runs in Your Life?
  • Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America (Revised and Updated)
  • When Books Are the Best Medicine: Fostering Literacy in the ER

Copyright © 2021 · Maya Smart. All Rights Reserved. · Privacy Policy · Terms & Conditions · Comment Policy.

This website uses cookies as well as similar tools and technologies to understand visitors' experiences. By continuing to use this website, you consent to our usage of cookies and similar technologies, in accordance with our Privacy Policy.ACCEPT