Fine, as long as you accept that the main purpose of reading a story aloud is to relax and enjoy the story together rather than to develop skills. Just as the main purpose of lego and similar toys is not to develop 'hand-eye coordination' but rather to build cool stuff. (Whatever claims are advertised on the packaging.)
This isn't a trivial point. If you read stories with the intention of fostering skill development you will neither inculcate skills nor get the most out of those stories.
>parenting coach
Ha. The idea that there exist professional parents who explictly know what they are doing (with footnotes and sources) is a major conceit in our present culture.
That's absolutely the purpose when you're doing the activity with the child, but there's a decision in the toy shop when you have to choose between Lego and the talking movie-tie-in doll, or between the book and the DVD.
> professional parents
Psychologists or psychiatrists study child development. That's some distance from a "parenting coach", but the coaches probably read the books or study what the psychologists write.
A friend teaches "child development" to 14-16 year olds, in the end they take this [1] exam. It's fairly basic, it mostly deals with babies and infants, but it seems completely reasonable that there's and evidence-based way of dealing with "daddy, there's a monster under my bed".
The conceit exists with people who assume they are experts at something despite having very limited experience with the subject and zero attempts at research. Are you saying you or anyone else is equipped to be a decent parent just because you were a child and maybe had a parent? Or is it just because you are a decent person that you think you are equipped?
I know plenty of decent people who think it's okay to spank a child when we know full well that it results in kids thinking that violence is a solution to their problems. It took me years to unlearn yelling at people as a solution to my problems. It took me years to not fight every little semblance of stupidity I see. It took me decades to recover from depression induced by a father who still thinks to this day that he was doing the right thing by yelling at me for my every little wrong as a child.
This same ridiculous logic that spawned this frivolous criticism is the same logic that results in people saying "we've gotten along just fine for y years without x; you are being ridiculous for wanting or saying you need x." Feel free to substitute in electricity, clean water, doctors, internet, cars and child labor laws for x. And yes life finds a way despite a lack of technology or understanding but that doesn't mean we can't seriously improve our lives or the lives of our children by using either. If you took a second to look at current child development research you would see how out of your depth you are.
> If you read stories with the intention of fostering skill development you will neither inculcate skills nor get the most out of those stories.
[citation needed]
I suspect this only even approaches reality if by “intention” you mean “clumsily projected attitude”.
> The idea that there exist professional parents who explictly know what they are doing (with footnotes and sources) is a major conceit in our present culture.
The idea that parenting isn't a field which can be, and is, productively studied and that there aren't people who can provide useful guidance based on greater knowledge of that study and skill at observing and applying that knowledge is, itself, a major conceit in our present culture.
The main reason I read to my kids is to get them to stop running around and calm down and go to bed.
Similar with Lego. It’s amazing how much time my kids spend playing Lego, how quiet they are when playing (unless they are fighting over one of the special pieces) and I’m grateful for every minute that it keeps them occupied while I clean the kitchen or whatever.
> as long as you accept that the main purpose of reading a story aloud is to relax and enjoy the story together rather than to develop skills
American culture puts so much stress on young kids these days. While I’m still an undergraduate, I see my sister who is about to graduate high school make dark jokes about going to college and her life but it seems there is some truth there.
If or when I become a parent, I’m going to teach inner cultivation rather than productivity, etc. I.e. “Do whatever you please, pal. I got your back.”
It’s just the whole social order seems very toxic and I don’t want that for young kids growing up. I argue that it’s the way we are raised and taught that we become so anxious, etc. We worry that we if we aren’t accumulating skills for the workforce or whatever, we are wasting our time. No, man. Play video games for the sake of playing video games. When did we become so anxious about doing the latter?
I respect your intent —- there’s a lot going on in the co-enjoyment of reading that can’t be captured by research. But what research has captured are differences in literacy, verbal and cognitive abilities in children from different socioeconomic classes. When researchers went in and studied the actual reading styles of the different parents, they found that higher socioeconomic status parents asked different types of questions and engaged in different thinking patterns than lower SES parents. There was a tendency towards abstraction in the former and concreteness in the latter. That kind of stuff has significant effects in the process of early childhood brain development, which people don’t realize is this crazy critical window that the brain kind of solidifies around for the rest of life. So yeah, read and enjoy it, but be mindful of staying engaged and of engaging your kids’ thinking in multiple areas. Sometimes that’s not exactly natural or “in the moment.”
Yeah, there was a guy who was nicknamed the baby whisperer, recently died. Said while being able to help other parents, he was at a loss with his own children, well, to a degree.
I probably get as much out of reading to my daughter as she does. I absolutely love some of the stories. I will be very sad when she gets to an age when she no longer wants me to read to her. Mind you, a friend of mine was still reading to his daughter when she was 18, so hopefully I have a few years to go still!
Any recommendations for childrens stories that are a must read?
IMHO, the best kids book we've encountered. Some of the nice features:
a) well drawn and sharply delineated characters. (One of my pet peeves about some kids books is difficult to distinguish images that tend to get lost in a sea of bright colors.)
b) the text is _large_ and changes size according to the emotions of the characters.
c) phrases are repeated -- great for language acquisition -- but not in a way that's irritating or vacuous.
d) funny stories; real emotions that toddlers can grok.
e) good construction -- high quality printing, thick pages, etc...
My parents read to my brother and I up until I left home at 18. By then it was more so that we didn't all (parents included) squabble about who got to read the new books first.
My dad read the Swallows and Amazons series to us,
then a bit later the Hornblower series, also the Redwall series, the Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings, Treasure Island, Kidnapped, a few Dickens, Robinson Crusoe, all Narnia, possibly a couple of Shakespear. A bunch of classic Sci-Fi: Day of the Triffids, the Foundation series, etc.
My mum read first quite a lot of Enid Blighton (Famous 5, Secret 7, magic faraway tree, etc)(really dated now), a few of the 'Chalet School' books (I got bored of those though my brother read the rest to himself), Agatha Christie, Jane Austin, Jane Eire, Don Camilo, Adrian Plass, Harry Potter, an Abridged Narnia and Abridged Lord of the Rings when we were younger (I think she just skipped the scary parts), Roald Dahl and Dr. Seuss (our 3 year old loves them now), Katie Morag (lovely gentle stories), Dick King Smith, Alexander McCall-Smith has a few great calm fun fiction for kids (The Perfect Hamburger, for instance), Treasures of the Snow, Paddington, E.Nesbit, the Princess and Curdie et al, The Secret Garden, Dogger, the Story of Ping (AFTER you read it, check the amazon reviews), Politically Correct BedTime Stories ...
My wife and I are now reading (for the second time) through David Eddings' 'The Belgariad' together. I grew up reading those, although my parents never read them out loud, I dunno why. They work great out loud, but are definately for older readers. Teenagers or so. Kind of obvious plot - but the characters are so much fun to read, and it's a predicatable enjoyable journey.
Other older teenager series to read might include Ted Dekker's the Circle, Tamora Pierce, some of Anne McCaffery (depending how comfortable you are reading stories which include sex - maybe read them yourself first), Eragon (don't watch the movie though), Stephen Lawhead's various serieses, the Empryion one is a good start. Not too long, nor too heavy. Some John Grisham (The Street Lawyer is EXCELLENT.)
- "Book with No Pictures" (B.J. Novak [yes, that's Ryan from The Office])
- anything by Sandra Boynton
- Boxcar Children series
- Cam Jansen series
- "Ada Twist, Scientist" (Andrea Beaty)
We have tons of books, from a variety of sources; some are duds, IMHO, mainly gifts from my MIL (tip for giving books to children: read through them first, from the perspective of reading that book every day for a month; bargain bins contain tons of garbage). Unfortunately, the kids like some of the duds, so they slip them in from time to time.
Swimming along, sometimes at great speed, sometimes slowly and leisurely, sometimes resting and exchanging ideas, sometimes stopping to sleep, it took them a week to reach Amos's home shore. During that time, they developed a deep admiration for one another. Boris admired the delicacy, the quivering daintiness, the light touch, the small voice, the gemlike radiance of the mouse. Amos admired the bulk, the grandeur, the power, the purpose, the rich voice, and the abounding friendliness of the whale.
It doesn't get much better than William Steig — all of his books give kids the tools and analogs to confront complex emotions and overcome fears. Amos and Boris is my favorite, The Real Thief is excellent if they're a little older.
I don't think there are any "must-reads", but I'll recommend the Ramona series by Beverly Cleary as fantastic read-alouds for kids age five or older. My older child (12 now) and I really enjoyed Bill Bryson's "Made in America" and "A short history of nearly everything".
Many of the Disney books - they can be very hit and miss but some have been quite popular, like the Dumbo book above, Beauty and the Beast, Winnie the Poeh, and a few others.
Reading to our kids at bedtime is one of my favourite times too :)
Richmal Crompton's Just William stories had us all falling about on occasions. Richmal Crompton had no children but knew quite a bit about how small boys operate. She wrote the first story nearly 100 years ago but they remain popular for very good reason.
My daughter, who is 9 now, adores anything by Roald Dahl. I've read most of the famous ones to her. It's super fun when you try to read his nonsense words. Always a laugh. I'm trying to go towards abridged classics. I've read most of Jules Verne to her and some Stevenson (Kidnapped was one of her favourites). She also enjoyed the Milnes original Winne the Pooh (I'll never forgive Disney for destroying it), Gaiman's Coraline and Fortunately the milk. The classics like E.B. Whites Charlottes Web and Stuart Little were fun too. We also went through a childrens adaptation of the Arabian Nights hauntingly illustrated by Victor Ambrus. I heard that the Woz used to read Tom Swift Jr. books to his kids so I read one of those to my daughter. It felt a little cheesy and dated (eg. Asian people were called Orientals) but she enjoyed it. I also read The Water Babies (by Rev. Charles Kingley) to her. It was a weird book but she seemed to enjoy it. The only one she asked me to stop reading to her was "The Borrowers" by Mary Norton. The only thing where she preferred the animation over the book. Right now, we're reading Swallows and Amazons.
She also enjoys reading a lot by herself. Her latest craze was Astrid Lingdren and right now, she's reading Mrs. Frisby and the rats of NIMH.
My son, who's 5 now and can't read fluently yet, enjoys graphic novels. I read at lot of simple "Thomas the Tank engine" stories to him. He also enjoys the "From the black lagoon" series of books as well as stuff from Dr. Seuss and other kids books like the Gruffalo series. One of his favourites are the books by Quentin Blake (Mrs. Armitage, Patrick, Angelo etc.). Interestingly, I read Kidnapped to my daughter while he (unknowingly) listened on and later he was able to recount some of the important scenes in the book quite well. He knew about Alan Breck and how he fought in the ship and what not. That was a bit of a wow moment for me.
I also love reading poetry to them. Even singing it if I can. The Random House book of poetry for children edited by Jack Prelutsky. Both of them love it and enjoy reciting stuff by themselves. They even have a few "favourite poems".
I think one of the responsibilities of a parent, especially in the younger years, is to curate the world that reaches their children. You have to expose them to the best of humanity so that they grow up that way and when they encounter the failings, they'll know how belong human potential it is. The humanities are a wonderful way of doing this and I emphasise them a lot more in my household than the sciences.
My favorite from childhood, and which still holds up quite well as an adult, is Once on a Time, by AA Milne (same author as the Winnie the Pooh stories).
I also believe that playing video games with your kids has benefits. Also throwing a ball. Even kicking the ball with kids (btw, do not do that with baseball ball - lesson learned). Or just walking and talking about shit (sometimes literally).
I'm just sarcastic here (and angry on myself): I did many mistakes of not being around for my first kid but I'm trying to fix up with second and third. Please do listen to the old guy: spent time with your kids. Period.
I think that this is an article, because if children are read to they will be more literate, and then when they grow up their comments on the Internet will make more sense.
Studies which divide people into two groups and do "$THING_WITH_LIKELY_POSITIVE_EFFECT" on one group and nothing on the other group are not very interesting or convincing IMO.
Normally, unless done really badly, initiatives like the one described here will have a significant positive effect.
More interesting studies follow the pattern of comparing different potential initiatives, or even better, comparing a surprising initiative with an obvious one. E.g. some studies have indicated that giving school children chess coaching improves their maths scores more than extra maths lessons.
That said, I'm hugely grateful to my parents for being very involved in reading aloud and telling stories while I was young. I'm convinced without the results of this study that there was a huge positive effect.
I just want to share my story. My son always seemed to be behind his classmates. He's a bright, articulate, has an excellent spoken vocabulary, and a has wonderful sense of humor. He just always seemed to struggle in school through the early elementary years.
My son especially struggled with reading. In an effort to help him with reading, I spent huge amounts of time forcing him to read different books. I used Anki to help him memorize difficult words.
I did help him, but by the fourth grade he was still behind his classmates
Everything changed one day when I decided to back off and instead read to him (and my daughter) every night for pleasure. I stopped asking to read part of the book. I tried different books and quickly my son and daughter started to enjoy the nighttime ritual of being read to.
About half way through Roald Dahl's book the BFG, something clicked in my fourth grade son. He started reading the BFG on his own. Then he started to read during school downtime. When I'm driving him somewhere he is often now reading books in the backseat instead of playing games on his iPad.
My point is reading fun books to your children can help them fall in love with reading and thus make them want to read.
If I could give any advice to new parents is to read to your children every night (maybe take weekends off :-) ) and try and just have fun reading interesting stories to them.
Hopefully my son has found a lifelong love of reading, which will serve him well.
There have been multiple and ongoing studies that show reading to your child helps develop multiple parts of the brain, including auditory processing capabilities that are essential to early reading development. The diversity of words matter, even the positive nature as opposed to negative tone of words matters.
That show it also has to do with the diversity of words, and even their tone (the positive vs negative) that is a key driver towards how well they engage and grow.
Just anecdotally, reading is the most powerfully positive shared experience I have with my kids, and we do everything together. We paint pictures, play outside, eat dinner, watch movies, play video games together, etc. But reading is different; when I read to them, they're quiet, they're well-behaved. They are really paying attention.
It's not the activity they enjoy the most, and it's not proactively educational (at least not in the sense that I'm forcing numbers and letters down their throat), but it just seems to turn them into a different sort of kid for a few moments.
[+] [-] truculation|8 years ago|reply
This isn't a trivial point. If you read stories with the intention of fostering skill development you will neither inculcate skills nor get the most out of those stories.
>parenting coach
Ha. The idea that there exist professional parents who explictly know what they are doing (with footnotes and sources) is a major conceit in our present culture.
[+] [-] Symbiote|8 years ago|reply
That's absolutely the purpose when you're doing the activity with the child, but there's a decision in the toy shop when you have to choose between Lego and the talking movie-tie-in doll, or between the book and the DVD.
> professional parents
Psychologists or psychiatrists study child development. That's some distance from a "parenting coach", but the coaches probably read the books or study what the psychologists write.
A friend teaches "child development" to 14-16 year olds, in the end they take this [1] exam. It's fairly basic, it mostly deals with babies and infants, but it seems completely reasonable that there's and evidence-based way of dealing with "daddy, there's a monster under my bed".
[1] http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/sample-papers-and-mark-schemes/2... (PDF linked from http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/home-economics/gcse/home-econ..., which also has the official answers).
[+] [-] rxhernandez|8 years ago|reply
I know plenty of decent people who think it's okay to spank a child when we know full well that it results in kids thinking that violence is a solution to their problems. It took me years to unlearn yelling at people as a solution to my problems. It took me years to not fight every little semblance of stupidity I see. It took me decades to recover from depression induced by a father who still thinks to this day that he was doing the right thing by yelling at me for my every little wrong as a child.
This same ridiculous logic that spawned this frivolous criticism is the same logic that results in people saying "we've gotten along just fine for y years without x; you are being ridiculous for wanting or saying you need x." Feel free to substitute in electricity, clean water, doctors, internet, cars and child labor laws for x. And yes life finds a way despite a lack of technology or understanding but that doesn't mean we can't seriously improve our lives or the lives of our children by using either. If you took a second to look at current child development research you would see how out of your depth you are.
[+] [-] dragonwriter|8 years ago|reply
[citation needed]
I suspect this only even approaches reality if by “intention” you mean “clumsily projected attitude”.
> The idea that there exist professional parents who explictly know what they are doing (with footnotes and sources) is a major conceit in our present culture.
The idea that parenting isn't a field which can be, and is, productively studied and that there aren't people who can provide useful guidance based on greater knowledge of that study and skill at observing and applying that knowledge is, itself, a major conceit in our present culture.
[+] [-] jakobegger|8 years ago|reply
Similar with Lego. It’s amazing how much time my kids spend playing Lego, how quiet they are when playing (unless they are fighting over one of the special pieces) and I’m grateful for every minute that it keeps them occupied while I clean the kitchen or whatever.
[+] [-] bernardino|8 years ago|reply
American culture puts so much stress on young kids these days. While I’m still an undergraduate, I see my sister who is about to graduate high school make dark jokes about going to college and her life but it seems there is some truth there.
If or when I become a parent, I’m going to teach inner cultivation rather than productivity, etc. I.e. “Do whatever you please, pal. I got your back.”
It’s just the whole social order seems very toxic and I don’t want that for young kids growing up. I argue that it’s the way we are raised and taught that we become so anxious, etc. We worry that we if we aren’t accumulating skills for the workforce or whatever, we are wasting our time. No, man. Play video games for the sake of playing video games. When did we become so anxious about doing the latter?
[+] [-] wmwm|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sjg007|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mc32|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] weavie|8 years ago|reply
Any recommendations for childrens stories that are a must read?
[+] [-] msluyter|8 years ago|reply
IMHO, the best kids book we've encountered. Some of the nice features:
a) well drawn and sharply delineated characters. (One of my pet peeves about some kids books is difficult to distinguish images that tend to get lost in a sea of bright colors.)
b) the text is _large_ and changes size according to the emotions of the characters.
c) phrases are repeated -- great for language acquisition -- but not in a way that's irritating or vacuous.
d) funny stories; real emotions that toddlers can grok.
e) good construction -- high quality printing, thick pages, etc...
[+] [-] deckiedan|8 years ago|reply
My dad read the Swallows and Amazons series to us, then a bit later the Hornblower series, also the Redwall series, the Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings, Treasure Island, Kidnapped, a few Dickens, Robinson Crusoe, all Narnia, possibly a couple of Shakespear. A bunch of classic Sci-Fi: Day of the Triffids, the Foundation series, etc.
My mum read first quite a lot of Enid Blighton (Famous 5, Secret 7, magic faraway tree, etc)(really dated now), a few of the 'Chalet School' books (I got bored of those though my brother read the rest to himself), Agatha Christie, Jane Austin, Jane Eire, Don Camilo, Adrian Plass, Harry Potter, an Abridged Narnia and Abridged Lord of the Rings when we were younger (I think she just skipped the scary parts), Roald Dahl and Dr. Seuss (our 3 year old loves them now), Katie Morag (lovely gentle stories), Dick King Smith, Alexander McCall-Smith has a few great calm fun fiction for kids (The Perfect Hamburger, for instance), Treasures of the Snow, Paddington, E.Nesbit, the Princess and Curdie et al, The Secret Garden, Dogger, the Story of Ping (AFTER you read it, check the amazon reviews), Politically Correct BedTime Stories ...
My wife and I are now reading (for the second time) through David Eddings' 'The Belgariad' together. I grew up reading those, although my parents never read them out loud, I dunno why. They work great out loud, but are definately for older readers. Teenagers or so. Kind of obvious plot - but the characters are so much fun to read, and it's a predicatable enjoyable journey.
Other older teenager series to read might include Ted Dekker's the Circle, Tamora Pierce, some of Anne McCaffery (depending how comfortable you are reading stories which include sex - maybe read them yourself first), Eragon (don't watch the movie though), Stephen Lawhead's various serieses, the Empryion one is a good start. Not too long, nor too heavy. Some John Grisham (The Street Lawyer is EXCELLENT.)
I'd recommend all of the above to get started :-)
[+] [-] organsnyder|8 years ago|reply
- "Book with No Pictures" (B.J. Novak [yes, that's Ryan from The Office]) - anything by Sandra Boynton - Boxcar Children series - Cam Jansen series - "Ada Twist, Scientist" (Andrea Beaty)
We have tons of books, from a variety of sources; some are duds, IMHO, mainly gifts from my MIL (tip for giving books to children: read through them first, from the perspective of reading that book every day for a month; bargain bins contain tons of garbage). Unfortunately, the kids like some of the duds, so they slip them in from time to time.
[+] [-] straws|8 years ago|reply
It doesn't get much better than William Steig — all of his books give kids the tools and analogs to confront complex emotions and overcome fears. Amos and Boris is my favorite, The Real Thief is excellent if they're a little older.
[+] [-] tomjohnson3|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] guelo|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] artpepper2|8 years ago|reply
- DC Super Hero Girls
- Cleopatra in Space
- Adventure Time
- Zite the Spacegirl
[+] [-] mathgeek|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dubya|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] davedx|8 years ago|reply
Hooray for Fish
The Hobyahs
Don't Wake Up the Tiger
Katinka's Tail
All the Harry the Dog books
Dumbo's African Adventure
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
A New House for Mouse
Many of the Disney books - they can be very hit and miss but some have been quite popular, like the Dumbo book above, Beauty and the Beast, Winnie the Poeh, and a few others.
Reading to our kids at bedtime is one of my favourite times too :)
[+] [-] vixen99|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] noufalibrahim|8 years ago|reply
She also enjoys reading a lot by herself. Her latest craze was Astrid Lingdren and right now, she's reading Mrs. Frisby and the rats of NIMH.
My son, who's 5 now and can't read fluently yet, enjoys graphic novels. I read at lot of simple "Thomas the Tank engine" stories to him. He also enjoys the "From the black lagoon" series of books as well as stuff from Dr. Seuss and other kids books like the Gruffalo series. One of his favourites are the books by Quentin Blake (Mrs. Armitage, Patrick, Angelo etc.). Interestingly, I read Kidnapped to my daughter while he (unknowingly) listened on and later he was able to recount some of the important scenes in the book quite well. He knew about Alan Breck and how he fought in the ship and what not. That was a bit of a wow moment for me.
I also love reading poetry to them. Even singing it if I can. The Random House book of poetry for children edited by Jack Prelutsky. Both of them love it and enjoy reciting stuff by themselves. They even have a few "favourite poems".
I think one of the responsibilities of a parent, especially in the younger years, is to curate the world that reaches their children. You have to expose them to the best of humanity so that they grow up that way and when they encounter the failings, they'll know how belong human potential it is. The humanities are a wonderful way of doing this and I emphasise them a lot more in my household than the sciences.
[+] [-] exolymph|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cowpewter|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] crooked-v|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marktangotango|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] clarkevans|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] balls187|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] psadri|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kpeetry|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] procinct|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scubaguy|8 years ago|reply
Rosie Revere Engineer and others from the same author
The Fairy Bell Sisters
Magic Treehouse
Junie B Jones
Princess in Black
Ling and Ting series
The Golly Sisters
Sisters (comic book)
Harold and the Purple Crayon
[+] [-] tlogan|8 years ago|reply
I also believe that playing video games with your kids has benefits. Also throwing a ball. Even kicking the ball with kids (btw, do not do that with baseball ball - lesson learned). Or just walking and talking about shit (sometimes literally).
I'm just sarcastic here (and angry on myself): I did many mistakes of not being around for my first kid but I'm trying to fix up with second and third. Please do listen to the old guy: spent time with your kids. Period.
[+] [-] kerbalspacepro|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sixhobbits|8 years ago|reply
Normally, unless done really badly, initiatives like the one described here will have a significant positive effect.
More interesting studies follow the pattern of comparing different potential initiatives, or even better, comparing a surprising initiative with an obvious one. E.g. some studies have indicated that giving school children chess coaching improves their maths scores more than extra maths lessons.
That said, I'm hugely grateful to my parents for being very involved in reading aloud and telling stories while I was young. I'm convinced without the results of this study that there was a huge positive effect.
[+] [-] andrei_says_|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bllguo|8 years ago|reply
this seems like a long-winded way of saying "obviously this was true", which is a ridiculous attitude towards science (social science in particular)
[+] [-] thisisnotmyname|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] baxtr|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lowken10|8 years ago|reply
My son especially struggled with reading. In an effort to help him with reading, I spent huge amounts of time forcing him to read different books. I used Anki to help him memorize difficult words.
I did help him, but by the fourth grade he was still behind his classmates
Everything changed one day when I decided to back off and instead read to him (and my daughter) every night for pleasure. I stopped asking to read part of the book. I tried different books and quickly my son and daughter started to enjoy the nighttime ritual of being read to.
About half way through Roald Dahl's book the BFG, something clicked in my fourth grade son. He started reading the BFG on his own. Then he started to read during school downtime. When I'm driving him somewhere he is often now reading books in the backseat instead of playing games on his iPad.
My point is reading fun books to your children can help them fall in love with reading and thus make them want to read.
If I could give any advice to new parents is to read to your children every night (maybe take weekends off :-) ) and try and just have fun reading interesting stories to them.
Hopefully my son has found a lifelong love of reading, which will serve him well.
[+] [-] SystemOut|8 years ago|reply
https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/word-gap-speak-more... is one article that discusses some options but the original study can be found here:
http://www.aft.org//sites/default/files/periodicals/TheEarly...
There have been follow on studies discussed here
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/04/22/key-to-vocabul...
That show it also has to do with the diversity of words, and even their tone (the positive vs negative) that is a key driver towards how well they engage and grow.
[+] [-] tboyd47|8 years ago|reply
It's not the activity they enjoy the most, and it's not proactively educational (at least not in the sense that I'm forcing numbers and letters down their throat), but it just seems to turn them into a different sort of kid for a few moments.
[+] [-] MrTortoise|8 years ago|reply