Telling and sharing stories is a tradition so ancient and universal that some say that it’s what makes us human. It’s also an incredibly powerful tool for engaging children and building literacy. In fact, some teacher training suggests that storytelling supports all areas of literacy learning—listening skills, imagination and creativity, language use and story structure, and more—as well as improving cultural connection.
But we knew that, didn’t we? The power of story is visible in everything from the draw of television to the ubiquitous childhood cry (so often heard as bedtime passes into night) of “tell me a story!” Spinning a tale, whether tall or true, is one of the best ways to spend time with the little ones in our lives. However, turning the tables can be great too, and not just because it gives tired parents a break: Encouraging children to invent and share stories builds their fluency and their confidence as future writers.
In celebration of the ancient power of sharing stories, we’ve pulled together some cute crafts to spark storytelling in your family. We invite you to check them out, tell a tale or two, and then ask your child to tell one of their own.
Create a Storytelling Puppet
Telling a story with a puppet is loads of fun, and it really helps self-conscious kids (and grownups) deflect the limelight and come out of their shell. You—or even better, you and your child—can make an adorable storytelling hand puppet out of a paper lunch bag. We’ve got tutorials and printable templates to make a mythical lion puppet inspired by Lunar New Year traditions and to make a super-cute bunny puppet. Or draw your own animal or other character to inspire your family’s storytime. Silly voices encouraged!
You can also create mini storytelling puppets by drawing little faces on the tops of craft sticks or on cardboard cutouts glued to craft sticks.
Upcycle Building Blocks into Storytelling Dice
Storytelling dice are a fun game to get your creative juices flowing. Just roll the dice and make up a story based on whatever pictures are showing. You can buy premade dice, but why not save the planet and engage your kids in a craft by recycling some old building blocks into your own DIY storytelling dice? Our Easter Storytelling Dice tutorial shares how to make Easter-themed dice, but you can adapt it to any theme or topic your family is interested in.
Make DIY Storytelling Cards
Another adaptation is storytelling cards, which have different pictures (or creative and inspiring words, for older kids) on each card. Just shuffle them, deal a few cards, and let the story roll!
Check out our tutorial to make your own storytelling cards from old playing cards or index cards.
How, when, and where do you get the stories rolling in your household? Do your kids love real-life memories or tall tales best?
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Raising a successful reader means more than having books around and sending your child off to school when the time comes—unfortunately, all too many kids are coming out of U.S. schools less than literate. To ensure children’s success, parents should actively teach them the ABCs and then support them all the way through learning to read, write, and spell well.
But what if your child just can’t sit still? There’s no need to force things. Instead, find ways to meet them where they are and bring the learning to them. This can mean going on a letter scavenger hunt around your neighborhood, singing alphabet songs in the car, doing goofy finger play and reciting rhymes that support literacy, and engaging kids in all kinds of ways that don’t involve worksheets of flash cards.
Ditching the worksheets or flash cards (or taking a break from them) doesn’t mean you don’t need to drill certain skills, though. And that’s where some creativity can go a very long way. Try this letter-sound and sight-word soccer game to work in a little practice with active kiddos who’d rather be running around than drilling indoors. It’s a fun trick to teach reading to kids who can’t sit still. And guess what? The fresh air and exercise may do you both some good, too!
Materials:
- An old soccer ball, volleyball, kick ball, beach ball, or other larger ball
- Permanent marker or dry-erase marker
- List of letters, sight words, or spelling words for your child to practice
Cost: Free if you have a ball to upcycle. Or pick one up for a few dollars!
Preparation: Just write your target letters or words on the ball. Easy as pie! However, we do have a few tips for you, as well as levels of play to move your child through. Scroll down to read them.
Tips:
- Start by writing just a few letters or words spaced apart around the ball. As your child gains knowledge and confidence, add more in the spaces in between.
- Using a permanent marker will ensure your writing doesn’t smear as you play, but you can also try a dry-erase marker in order to change up the letters or words over time. It will wipe off little by little as you play, but dry-erase markers have some staying power on certain balls, so you can go ahead and experiment.
How to Play Letter-Sound Soccer or Sight-Word Soccer
Just play ball! You can sit on the ground facing one another (with your legs open in a V to catch the ball if you miss) and roll it back and forth, toss it to each other if your child is ready to catch, or kick it back and forth, stopping the ball with your foot each time. When you get the ball, read the letter or word facing you, then invite your child to do the same on their turn.
Tips:
- Your number one goal is to make practice fun, so keep your game light-hearted, brief, and playful. Fit your play to your child’s attention span; it’s better to play a few minutes regularly than burn them out on the first go.
- When your child doesn’t know an answer or makes a mistake, avoid showing frustration or disappointment. Instead, act excited about getting to help them (“Yes! I get to help you for once! You’re such a big kid, and I still want to be able to help you sometimes!”) and then move on quickly.
Levels of Play for Different Ages, Stages, and Interests
- Letter names: For the youngest kids, it’s best to begin with common letters written in capital letters. Start with frequently used consonants, such as M, N, B, P, W, H, T, G, K, D, N, and G—plus your child’s first initial and any other familiar letters.
- Letter sounds: As your child begins to recognize the letters, you can quickly integrate letter sounds into your game. Take turns identifying the sound each letter makes as you toss (or kick) the ball back and forth. As soon as your child is ready, change things up by asking your child to make a word that starts with each sound when their turn comes.
- Vowels: The next level is to add in vowels: A, E, I, O, and U (and sometimes Y, if you like). Explain that each vowel can make a long sound (A as in cake) or a short sound (A as in apple) and then practice through play!
- Sight words: Write words your child is learning to read on the ball. To keep the fun up and frustration down, we recommend mixing in some words they already know with some that are more of a stretch. Include your child’s name and any other family names they know; you may also include “mama,” “daddy,” etc. Slowly add new words over time.
- Sight-word sentences: You’ll want to add some twists and turns to your game play to keep your child from getting bored. You can take turns making up silly sentences with the words you read, or throw the ball back and forth a few times and then make up a sentence together with all the words you read.
- Spelling words: You can keep playing this game with kids’ spelling words as they grow. Sometimes there’s nothing for it but to memorize tricky words (“might,” “could,” and “would” come to mind!) and games like this can help make the memorization bearable.
Bonus Storytelling Version for All Ages
- Storytelling: Kids of any age can benefit from storytelling games, which engage them in hearing and inventing stories, building up their language skills, imaginations, and fluency in the process. You can create a storytelling soccer game for any age by drawing simple pictures or writing creative words around the ball. Just pass the ball back and forth a few times, then take turns making up a story based on the pictures or words that came up.
We hope this game inspires you on ways to teach your child to read even when they can’t sit still—or just when you both need a little active fun. Enjoy! And be sure to let us know if you come up with any fun adaptations of this game with your little ones.
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*Soccer ball pictures by Laila Weir.
We have a saying in our family of three children: Siblings are friends for life. But along the way to that lifelong relationship are plenty of challenges, competition, and complicated feelings.
Encouraging first children to get excited for an upcoming sibling, and then supporting both younger and older children through the emotional ups and downs of their relationship, will help them develop that special bond. And a well-selected book is among parents’ most powerful tools to gently nurture siblings through each stage, cultivating their relationship without ever feeling heavy-handed.
Read on for tips on using story time to build the sibling connection, plus suggestions of picture books for siblings that will help with each.
Share What to Expect for the Expecting Sibling
Small children have no idea what’s coming when their family is expecting a new baby. Helping them understand is the first step to preparing them to welcome and embrace their new sibling and all the changes of an expanding family. Think of “big brother/big sister” books as “what to expect when you’re expecting” for first children. It’s well worth reading a range of these books to get your kid primed—and pumped. Here are a few to try, and you’ll find lots of other options at your library or bookstore.
Suggested titles:
Other options include I’m A Big Brother Now and I’m A Big Sister Now by Katura J. Hudson, winners of the 2019 Ben Franklin Gold Medal Award in the children’s picture book category, as well as the popular I’m a Big Sister/Brother books by Magic Schoolbus author Joanna Cole and I Am a Big Sister/Brother by author/illustrator Caroline Jayne Church.
Address Big-Sibling Jealousy with a Book and a Cuddle
For children who are used to being their parents’ “only”—especially older kids who have a firm grasp of what it means to have a baby on the way—it’s natural to have mixed feelings about sharing their parents, possessions, and lives with a new sibling. These feelings can occur before and after the new little person shows up. A relevant read and a good cuddle will go a long way toward making your first-born feel accepted, and then letting them move on.
Suggested titles:
Cultivate Pride in Older Siblings
Being an older sister or brother means sharing with and adjusting to sometimes-demanding little ones, but it also means special privileges and responsibilities. Helping children feel proud of themselves and their role is a huge part of cultivating their satisfaction and self-confidence, as well as their warmth toward their younger sibling(s).
Suggested titles:
Use Books to Deal With Big-Sibling Meltdowns
Tantrums and emotional outbursts are part of learning to deal with (and manage) big feelings, and there can be a whole lot of big feelings in sibling relationships. And after parents have to set firm limits with an older child (or maybe even let their own emotions run away with them in the face of a meltdown), finding a way to reconnect and help the child grow from the experience is key. Once again, the right book and a good hug can be just the ticket.
Suggested titles:
Use Books to Support Younger Siblings and to Connect the Two
You’ll be busier and busier as your family’s “new baby” grows into a bona fide little person with complicated emotions of their own. But taking time to read and connect with them around their little-sibling experience will continue to be an invaluable investment. We’d need a whole other article to delve deeply into this stage, but here’s one favorite to get you started.
Suggested title:
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Libraries are a lifeline to their communities. With free WiFi, technology, programming, and—of course—books, they’re also a refuge for many. Libraries not only support reading skills but also equip vulnerable populations like the formerly incarcerated with the tools necessary to learn technology and find jobs, narrowing gaps in internet literacy as well as actual literacy.
In The Library Book, Susan Orlean beautifully sums up their function: “All the things that are wrong in the world seem conquered by a library’s simple unspoken promise: Here I am, please tell me your story; here is my story, please listen.”
Despite being closed during the pandemic, libraries have continued to provide key community resources and offer hope during a dark time. To ensure all libraries can keep serving their communities and allowing space for people to hear and share stories, the American Library Association (ALA) is launching its annual #FundLibraries Campaign to make sure libraries are fully funded in the upcoming fiscal year.
For the 2022 budget, ALA is urging Congress to invest $206 million in the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and $50 million in the Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) grants. These grants ensure essential library services like STEM programs, business development, WiFi and technology access, literacy resources, and more are available to the 116,000-plus public, academic, and government libraries across the country.
If your local library has made a difference in your life or you value the difference it’s making for others, ALA offers a variety of ways you can join in their annual campaign—and teach your kids about advocacy. This post will share how to support libraries through easy actions you can take as a family.
Visit Your Local Library
While it might seem like an obvious step, using your local library is one of the best ways to support it. While many libraries are currently not open for indoor browsing because of COVID, take advantage of online reservations for curbside pickup and the option to borrow digital books. Plus, many libraries have additional programming to encourage kids to read, like crafts and activities you can do at home, virtual events, and reading challenges.
Support Your Library on Social Media
We’ll support extra screen time if it means advocating for literacy! According to ALA, “vocal community support helps libraries secure much-needed funding”—and it shows some much-needed love to your librarians. Follow your local library on social media and, during National Library Week from April 4 to 10, use the hashtag #MyLibraryIs to share how your library has made a difference in your life.
To support federal funding for libraries, post with the hashtag #FundLibraries and use one of ALA’s suggested captions. Here are a few ideas to get your kids involved and spark their creativity:
- Interview your kids about why they love their local library and their favorite books. And then flip the script and let them interview you.
- Challenge your kids to a photo scavenger hunt and post your family’s favorite literacy-themed picture.
- Play dress-up together by each dressing up as a favorite literary hero or heroine.
As a reminder, only post videos and pictures of your kids with their consent!
Write to Your Members of Congress
Model civic participation by helping your kids write a letter, asking your members of Congress to support library funding. Letter writing is a literacy-boosting activity for kids of all ages. It encourages creativity, builds communication skills, expands vocabulary, and—in the case of snail mail—offers handwriting practice. Writing is also an advocacy tool and an easy way to empower your children to advocate for causes they care about.
Use an online template to draft a letter, and then, once it’s ready to go, ALA makes it easy with an online form so you can directly reach out to your state’s representatives without tracking down each office’s contact information. In addition to encouraging members to support funding, ALA suggests inviting them to attend a library tour. A virtual tour allows librarians to share why funding is crucial and build a relationship with potential library allies. (Before suggesting a tour, make sure to first coordinate with your library to make sure it’s a possibility.)
After your kids send their letter, keep the conversation going and encourage them to continue practicing this new advocacy tool. If you have an elementary schooler or preschooler, explore topics they might care about with picture books for an age-appropriate introduction to different causes. (You can start with our roundup of books on water conservation!)
Let us know in the comments how your family is advocating for library funding. What causes are your kids passionate about supporting?
By Tulani Thomas
In my family, Earth Day is every day. We strive to cherish our planet and never take it for granted. Every day we can do small acts that make a big difference: This is the ethos that I have always taught my children. I try to incorporate nature-friendly living into so many areas of our lives that it becomes second nature (pun intended). We turn the lights off when leaving a room, use reusable water bottles, turn the water off when brushing our teeth, and, yes, eat loads of leftovers to reduce our food waste.
These are some ways that I instill in my children green habits that will serve them and the environment well as they grow. As with any habit, they’re formed through repetition and revisiting the same idea in different ways. Children love stories, music, play, and crafts. So I encourage finding playful ways to bring the message home, from sharing picture books on environmental topics to engaging in kitchen play about food-to-table concepts or making crafts with recycled items.
Read on for tips about how to create easy, free Earth Day activities for preschoolers at home to teach your kids green habits, all beginning with a few great reads. (And then check out our related post on An Earth Day Read-Aloud and 3 Fun Activities to Build Early Literacy.)
Start Your Earth Day Activities for Preschoolers with Books
Picture books are one of the best ways to introduce and reinforce any lesson or habit with young kids. That’s why I wrote a children’s book to help families teach their children to care for our planet, called TuTu Goes Green. It’s also why I recommend introducing children to environmentalism through picture books and then reinforcing the messages with related activities.
Begin by choosing and reading a selection of age-appropriate books. I designed my book specifically to introduce these concepts, and there are so many other great options to choose from as well. Some of my favorite titles that empower children to be change agents for our world are: The Berenstain Bears Go Green by Jan and Mike Berenstain (this is an oldie but a goodie), The Big Beach Cleanup by Charlotte Offsay, and the Save the Earth series by Bethany Stahl. (For older kids, check out Heroes of the Environment by Harriet Rohmer.)
But books are just the jumping-off point. To really build comprehension and bring home the message, how you and your child talk about and act upon a book’s messages are key. In fact, research shows that parent-child conversation around story time involves more complex language and more diverse vocabulary than usual. It gets the child thinking and deepens their understanding, meaning your read-aloud time packs a lot more punch.
Here are ways to build on your eco-story time and deepen your kids’ comprehension:
Incorporate Earth Day Games into Your Everyday Activities
Any parent of young children knows that play is key. Anything you want to teach them, from pre-reading skills to environmental lessons and beyond, is better with games!
Simple games can turn everyday chores and lessons into fun for your preschoolers, so look for opportunities to revisit the messages in your Earth Day books with playful moments throughout your day. Be sure to remind them how what they’re doing is like the characters in the picture books you read.
Here are some ideas:
- Start counting and see who can turn off the lights the fastest. Explain that this is a great way to save energy. Congratulate them for being environmental heroes!
- Make it a game to see how little food your family can waste. Invite your child to help package even small amounts of leftovers to save and help you come up with creative ways to work leftover food into new dishes. (How about a smoothie from all those half-eaten bananas and other fruit preschoolers love to leave around?)
- Invite them to help the planet by sorting used containers and other (safe) household waste into recycling. Have them separate plastic, paper, and other recyclables. Preschoolers love sorting, and it reinforces to them what materials are recyclable.
- Bonus: If possible, provide simple waste baskets your child can put in various rooms of your house and help them write labels, such as “paper” and “plastic” on them.
Hands-on projects can show the impact of their actions
Teaching children about environmental issues can be challenging since it’s such a vast topic, and children may struggle to see how their small acts can affect the whole planet. Here are some ways to make these concepts more palpable for preschoolers:
- Put a large bowl under the faucet while your child brushes their teeth, and leave the water running. Children are always amazed to see the bowl overflow. Then show them how much water they use if you have a cup of water pre-filled for their brushing and rinsing. Physically comparing the amount of water they use when the faucet is left running really brings home how much water is wasted that way.
- Use plastic water bottles for a week and save all your empty bottles. Kids will enjoy counting up all the plastic bottles you accumulate to recycle at the end of the week. (Let them write down the number using tally marks, practicing their writing skills at the same time). Look at the pile and invite them to imagine how many bottles you would use in a month, then a year! You can also use this method with pre-packaged snacks vs. reusable snack containers, reusable bags, and so on.
We can teach our children how to live green and build their reading comprehension and literacy skills at the same time—incorporating both goals into everyday life is simple and fun. Easy, free Earth Day activities for preschoolers like the ones above will ensure your kids develop great habits and important skills from the start. So get reading and go green!
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“Families are like branches on a tree. We grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one.” The author of this saying is unknown, but its wisdom resonates with so many of us.
In my family, so much of our love is rooted in shared books. The women of the family have always made time to read with their growing children, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren. These reading roots helped every single one of us grow into the people we are today and continue to shape us. This Mother’s Day, I want to share a list of some of my favorite books that celebrate the wonderful women in our families.
I hope you enjoy these Mother’s Day reads. But even more importantly, I hope you enjoy spending time creating strong roots together with your family.
It’s that time of year. We’re packing our suitcases, putting on the sunscreen, and eating Goldfish crackers aplenty! But all that time in cars or planes can be tedious for little ones, so how do you keep them occupied?
Games, of course! Here are a few of my favorite educational road trip games for kids, to keep your children engaged and learning while you travel. All of them are free or cheap, require little to no prep work, and fit into a backpack or purse. Happy trails!
Educational Road Trip Game 1: The Alphabet Game
It’s free and all you need is a keen eye! As you travel, everyone has to keep an eye out for letters of the alphabet and call them out as you see them. But it has to be done in alphabetical order. You might see them on license plates, billboards, airport gates, t-shirts, or even suitcases!
The first person to get all 26 wins. This game is great because you can play it with as many people as you want. You can make it an ongoing game throughout the trip or give it a time limit. If you want to switch it up, try doing it in reverse. Finding Z won’t be easy!
Educational Road Trip Game 2: Alpha-board
Cut a piece of cardboard into a rectangle that will fit inside your child’s backpack or whatever carry-on bag you’re using. About the size of an iPad is perfect. On one side of the cardboard, write the alphabet in uppercase letters in a mixed-up order. Do the same thing on the other side, but in a different pattern. Wrap the entire thing in clear packing tape.
Next, on a set of stickers, write all the letters of the alphabet in lowercase letters. Hand the stickers and the cardboard to your child and let them match the lowercase letters to the uppercase letters. When they’re done, they can flip it over and do it again. If they’ve finished both sides, you can peel off the stickers and save the game to use again another day. If you want to make it a little more challenging, time them. Then see if they can break their own record!
Educational Road Trip Game 3: Fill-in-the-Blank Storytelling
This one is a fun way to create original stories that are unique to your family. Start off by saying, “Once upon a time there was a …” and pause. The person next to you can say whatever they want (cat, princess, alien, mountain, etc.). Pick up the story and pause occasionally, letting everyone have a turn to add their own twist to the story.
For example: Once upon a time there was an … alien! The alien was very … slimy. The slimy alien decided it wanted to … eat cookies! But there were no cookies in the … and so on. In five minutes, you’ll have a completely crazy and fun story that no one else has ever heard before.
Tip: Record the audio of your story as your family is telling it. Later, you can write the story down and have a copy for your family to illustrate and have as a forever keepsake of your vacation.
Educational Road Trip Game 4: Rhyming Go Fish
Try our literacy adaptation of the Go Fish card game. Now, card games can often get a bit unwieldy in a moving vehicle, so I’ve got a couple of modifications you can make: To make it travel size, cut the index cards in half before you add the words and illustrations. Give kids baggies to keep their completed sets in.
To create a stable place for the draw pile to sit while playing on the go, place Sticky Tack on the bottom of a Tupperware container and stick that onto the armrest, drink tray, or seat. Then place your cards inside the container. Sticky Tack costs about $5 and is reusable!
By Sarah Tiglao
Learning letters, letter sounds, and eventually sight words becomes a fun game that your little one will want to play again and again, with this easy activity that grows with your children. Read on for step-by-step instructions on how to make a fun, simple, free alphabet flash-card game to play at home or bring with you. You’ll also learn how to adapt it to your child’s skill level as they progress—plus how to keep it fun even for kids who aren’t yet emotionally prepared to handle the frustration of losing.
In order to learn to read, children must develop an understanding of letters as symbols that represent sounds, which can then be combined to make meaningful words, sentences, and paragraphs. Even once children have a strong foundation in letters and letter sounds, they’ll have to learn to recognize certain “sight words” like “said” and “whose” that appear frequently in elementary school texts but don’t follow typical spelling patterns.
Whether your child is learning letter names, the sounds associated with letters, or starting on sight words, this game will help make the memorization fun! You’ll use index cards to make your very own homemade playing cards to play an adaptation of the classic card game of War: Alphabet Flash-Card Game of War or Sight Word Game of War. You can also just print our free premade cards and cut them apart to get started playing right away!
Materials:
1 pack of 3 x 5-inch index cards (or any stiff paper or thin cardboard cut into rectangles)
Markers or pens
Optional: list of sight words (use a list provided by your child’s teacher or one of these lists)
Cost: Free if you have index cards on hand or are willing to cut up some cardstock, paper, or thin cardboard to make your own! You can also just pick up some index cards for $1-2. It’s well worth it—they’re in our absolute top must-have tools for teaching reading.
How to Make Alphabet Flash-Card Game of War: To make the game, simply write one letter on each card. (Use index cards as they are, or cut them in half to make the cards fit more easily in little hands.)
I recommend you write each letter on two cards, so that each comes up twice in a game. For the very youngest of children, write only the uppercase version of the letters. Once they have mastered those, add lowercase letters to the mix.
How to Make Sight Word Game of War: Write one word on each card. Again, write each word from your list on two cards. It’s often a good idea to start with just a small list at first and gradually add more words as your child is ready for them.
Tip: Include a majority of words your child knows or can sound out, to give them lots of chances to feel like winners and encouragement to stay engaged!
How to Play Alphabet Flash-Card Game of War and Sight Word War:
- Shuffle or mix all the cards together and then deal out half to the child and half to the parent.
- Say “1-2-3-War!” and both simultaneously show your top card. Have your child try to identify the names or sounds of the letters, or read the sight words. The child gets to place either or both cards on the bottom of their pile if they can read them. When they can’t read one, explain what it says and add it to the bottom of your own pile.
- Keep playing until your child has all the cards in their pile.
No-Losing Variation: Obviously, the aim of this game is early literacy, not making our kids feel like losers if they don’t yet know how to read a letter or word. If your child is very new to recognizing letters or reading sight words, or you are concerned they will get too frustrated by losing their cards, try this variation:
Rather than losing their cards when they can’t read them, let your child hold onto their own cards that they can’t read, and only withhold your own cards when they can’t read them. Tell what the cards say and place them on the bottom of the two piles. Or even replace them on the top for very young kids—remember the aim is for them to keep playing and keep learning! You can always up the competitiveness of the game later.
Letter-Sound Variations: Once your child has mastered the names of the letters, it is time to start learning their sounds. In this version, your child wins cards by knowing the sound each letter makes.
This version can also become more complex as your child develops. Initially, you will want to start with just the 26 letters in the alphabet (for vowels, teach them the short vowel sounds, e.g. A is for apple), but once they master those sounds, you can add in phonemic chunks like /th/ /ou/ /ng/ and so on. Recognizing these patterns will be hugely helpful as they begin to read.
Let us know how your child likes Alphabet Flash-Card Game of War and if you come up with any fun adaptations!
Sarah Tiglao is a writer, designer, and mother of three energetic boys; her recent works include a children’s book called Christmas in Quarantine.
Alphabet card photos by Sarah Tiglao
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Teach a person to read and you open a door—not only to an unparalleled world of wonder and entertainment—but also to independence, freedom, and success.
Yet those doors are remaining closed for too many: In 2019, the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that two-thirds of the nearly 294,000 fourth- and eighth-grade students who took the test couldn’t locate information that’s stated in a text, infer the main ideas of an article, explain the theme of a story, or evaluate a text from multiple perspectives. Wow.
The assessment has shown decade after decade that a minority of students meet grade-level reading expectations: The majority of U.S. students have limited reading skill. Worse still, the latest scores reveal that our lowest-performing students are worse readers than the lowest performers ten years ago.
This site is dedicated to the proposition that supporting today’s children—tomorrow’s citizens—to develop full literacy is one of the most important things any of us can do for our neighborhoods, community, country, and world. Read on for ways to support this goal, whether or not you have kids of your own.
Support Public Libraries
Public libraries not only provide incredible collections of books and resources freely available to all, they also offer early literacy programs and literacy support for families.
These include story times and other free events, raise-a-reader programs demonstrated to significantly increase the amount families read aloud to kids and the value they place on shared reading, parent education around early literacy, multilingual programming, campaigns to distribute free books that families can keep permanently, and more.
Supporting your public library is a crucial way to advance the cause of literacy for all.
Check out these related articles from MayaSmart.com:
The stunning Austin Central Library has scored high marks for its green power, water-recycling systems, daylight use, views and community connectivity. Yet, we should feel challenged — not satisfied — by this last designation. We’ve built an impressive library, but what must we do to ensure that the people come, including the broadest swath of our community possible?
A particularly moving scene in the film Hidden Figures takes place not at NASA but in the public library of Hampton, Virginia. It got me thinking about the incredible barriers to adult education and career advancement that continue to persist, helped by complex systems of discrimination and segregation.
Support Literacy Nonprofits
Going by the statistics, the deck is already stacked against the three-quarters of children who show limited reading skills in the national assessment.
Research shows that childhood literacy is crucial for achieving further academic success. Students that can read by third grade are less likely to drop out of high school and subsequently less vulnerable to poverty and unemployment. Adult literacy directly correlates with quality of life, as well. What’s more, around 70 percent of U.S. prison inmates operate at the lowest literacy level.
From poverty to equity to criminal justice, just about any social issue you might care about can be positively impacted by supporting literacy. Get started by donating to a national literacy effort, or support an organization in your area with a gift of time, money, or resources.
Check out these related articles from MayaSmart.com:
Austin offers a plethora of options for supporting literacy initiatives. Explore eight local nonprofit organizations in the Austin area that offer opportunities to help open the door to literacy for all. Even supporters outside the area can help with these important initiatives by donating to support their life-saving and life-affirming work.
Sometimes the best thing an emergency room doctor can give a kid is a book. In a world where low-income children hear 30 million fewer words than more affluent peers, literacy’s a true life-saver. Just ask ER doctor Robin Foster, who says she makes as much impact with social engagement as with medical intervention. Foster helped found in-hospital programs dedicated to child advocacy, youth violence prevention, and literacy.
Share Early Literacy Resources with Parents
As demonstrated above, we can’t assume that children will get the reading instruction they need to thrive in school. Most schools simply aren’t equipped to get the job done without outside help.
Instead, parents and caregivers need proven information on fostering literacy at home—ideally from the very earliest days of babyhood. You can help children beat the odds by sharing such science-backed information far and wide. (If you’re ready to take it to the next level, you might even seek out opportunities to give brain-building literacy support to kids in your community or network, by volunteering as a tutor, offering to host a neighborhood story time, or engaging with schools or community groups.)
MayaSmart.com offers a variety of articles and tips about evidence-based ways to develop key literacy skills from birth onwards. Begin with the following posts, then direct any parents, caregivers, or early-childhood educators you know to our many literacy activities for fun and easy hands-on ways to build key skills.
Discover science-backed insights into boosting brain capacity, stimulating language development, and spurring vocabulary growth by sharing reading from day one.
Get a rundown of the top reasons for caregivers to add nursery rhymes—classic, remixed, or brand new—to their daily routines with kids.
The reassuring authors of raise-a-reader books often prescribe a chill pill and a nightly dose of bedtime stories to parents anxious about their kids’ reading. In reality, there’s so much more than reading aloud that we should do to support children’s literacy.
A robust body of research dating back to the 1980s positively associates interactive parent-child reading with language-development gains. Learn seven research-backed ways to capture a child’s attention during story time and give them all the vocabulary and brain boosts possible.
How are you supporting literacy for all? Let us know in the comments, or use the buttons below to connect with Maya Smart on social media!
By Carlene Murray
As a mother of three young children and an early childhood educator, I’m always looking for ways to help my charges learn about other cultures and traditions from around the world, as well as explore their own heritage. I’m fortunate to live in an area where my kids see faces of many colors everyday, and nothing warms my heart quite like seeing a group of children from different backgrounds bonding and playing together. But no matter where you live, reading a wide variety of books about different experiences can help your little ones grow up to be open-minded citizens who are accepting of others.
Ramadan is one of the most important times of year for Muslims, a holy month of fasting, prayer, and introspection that’s meant to help believers strengthen their faith, self-control, gratitude, and compassion for the less fortunate. Children are exempt from fasting, but they can engage in introspection and cultivate these same qualities through thoughtful shared reading, including sharing Ramadan books for kids. (Note that Ramadan is celebrated in the ninth month of the Islamic year, which is slightly shorter than our Western calendar, meaning the event happens at a different time each year.)
For me, reading to my children about Muslim traditions is a way of teaching them part of their cultural heritage. But reading books that tell about different cultural celebrations is also one of my favorite ways to celebrate our society’s rainbow of diversity. Families from all religious backgrounds can enjoy the following Ramadan books for kids while gaining understanding of why this time of year is so important for Muslim families around the globe.
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