Text and toy sets can help little ones begin to sense how books and things they love are connected to their families’ cultures.
Archive | Community Involvement
Skill Without Joy is Rare
There’s a basic, simple solution that nearly doubles the number of children doing well in learning to read.
Grow Readers to Grow Communities
Literacy is always about sharing. It can serve as the accumulating glue that holds communities together and builds lasting paths to lifelong personal growth and enduring relationships in life.
“My Old Kentucky Home” and How It has Changed
Old books, songs and other media with racist content can be crucial conversation starters and catalysts for societal change.
Establishing Boundaries Around Book Time
Book time qualifies as special time that shouldn’t be interrupted.
How Recommending a Good Read Can Be a Prescription for Health
The need for connection with book ideas and the relief and thrill they can bring, is powerful these days, more than ever.
Help for Establishing Child and Family Well-Being
Every parent can use some helpful advice from time to time. The Annie E. Casey Foundation offers timely support to help families thrive.
Racism and Children: Read, Talk About What You Read
Kids are home from school (still) and the vastness of summertime stretches before us filling our vision of what that once meant, and how, due to the pandemic and to overdue showcased racial inequalities in our lives, those possibilities have forever changed. I recently read, with a strong measure of personal embarrassment and regret, a book […]
The Simplicity of Building Literacy Foundations
This week, my hometown newspaper published a list of 100 books to enjoy during social distancing, which reminded me of many similar lists that have been published recently for parents, for new graduates, and for kids. The Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards lists of books preferred by kids are among my favorites. (I featured them in my May 21, 2020, blog.) […]
Building a Future from Tragedy
These days there are so many ways for us to dismiss a religious, political, racial or economic individual or group as not fitting, in one way or another, and thus not seen as any kind of asset to our lives. All my life, I’ve heard that children can be so cruel and petty to each other. […]