[mykdsmomy]

Ok, I know that reading is super important and obviously reading to your child is essential however, do you think they overdo the whole "read read read til your blue in the face?" The commercials, billboards, radio commercials, PSA's.....what about the kids that dont have a zest for reading? Are you supposed to push the issue? I just wonder because I didnt push reading with my kindergartener and he is reading better than my 1st grader (K is hs'd and 1st is in ps) What do you mamas think of the reading campaign??

 

[alegna]

Sadly, I don't think it's overblown. I taught in public schools, and even in the "good" neighborhood, at the "good" school we had kids who just weren't read to. Not ever. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/greensad.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="greensad"> It DOES make a big difference.<br><br>
I had a prof. in college (elem. ed.) who used to say if you didn't read to your child every day you'd go to hell! <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/winky.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Wink"> Wise woman that one....<br><br>
-Angela

 

[mykdsmomy]

<div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px;">Quote:</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="99%"><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset;">
<div>Originally Posted by <strong>alegna</strong></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;"><br>
I had a prof. in college (elem. ed.) who used to say if you didn't read to your child every day you'd go to hell! <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/winky.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Wink"> Wise woman that one....<br><br>
-Angela</div>
</td>
</tr></table></div>
<img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/biglaugh.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="laugh">: that's hilarious.....and yes, it's sad that you had students whose parents never read to them <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/greensad.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="greensad">

 

[Charles Baudelaire]

<div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px;">Quote:</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="99%"><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset;">
<div>Originally Posted by <strong>mykdsmomy</strong></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;"><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/biglaugh.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="laugh">: that's hilarious.....and yes, it's sad that you had students whose parents never read to them <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/greensad.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="greensad"></div>
</td>
</tr></table></div>
I wish they could make it mandatory through age 12 to be read to every day -- and not from Junie B. Jones crapola either, but the good stuff.<br><br>
I teach English. Sorry. I don't think it's overblown at all.

 

[L&IsMama]

<div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px;">Quote:</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="99%"><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset;">
<div>Originally Posted by <strong>Charles Baudelaire</strong></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">I wish they could make it mandatory through age 12 to be read to every day -- and not from Junie B. Jones crapola either, but the good stuff.<br><br>
I teach English. Sorry. I don't think it's overblown at all.</div>
</td>
</tr></table></div>
Totally,OT,but,CharlesBaudelaire,I have a Lou,too.<img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/lol.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="lol">

 

[UnschoolnMa]

I am not sure I would say overblown exactly, and I do think many many children love being read to, but if a kid preferred that I did not then I would respect that.

 

[midwifetx]

The Reading Mother<br><br>
I had a Mother who read to me<br>
Sagas of pirates who scoured the sea,<br>
Cutlasses clenched in their yellow teeth,<br>
"Prisoners" stowed in the hold beneath.<br><br>
I had a Mother who read me plays<br>
Of ancient and gallant and golden days;<br>
Stories of Marmion and Ivanhoe,<br>
Which every boy has a right to know.<br><br>
I had a Mother who read me tales<br>
Of Gelert the hound of the hills of Wales--<br>
True to his trust til his tragic death,<br>
Faithfulness blent with his final breath.<br><br>
I had a Mother who read me things<br>
The wholesome life to the boy heart brings--<br>
Stories that stir with an upward touch.<br>
Oh, that each Mother of boys were such!<br><br>
You may have tangible wealth untold;<br>
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.<br>
Richer than I you can never be--<br>
I had a Mother who read to me.<br>
~Gillian Strickland~<br><br><br><br><br>
My grandmother recited this poem so often to us, and just reading it makes me miss her and remember that what she held dear is important. She was right.<br><br>
While the PSA's are annoying, if they cause one parent to stop, turn off the TV and read to their child on a day they otherwise wouldn't, I'm happy to put up with them whenever and where ever they show up.<br><br>
I don't think it is about pushing the child to read themselves, but about reading TO them and WITH them. My 9yo ds does not like to read at all, but he looooovvvvves to hear a story. I will read to him until he decides he wants to pick it up himself. Yes, he knows how to read, but that's not as important to me as a 'lesson' as the one that shows him what amazing adventures can be found in books.

 

[L&IsMama]

<div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px;">Quote:</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="99%"><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset;">
<div>Originally Posted by <strong>midwifetx</strong></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">While the PSA's are annoying, if they cause one parent to stop, turn off the TV and read to their child on a day they otherwise wouldn't, I'm happy to put up with them whenever and where ever they show up.<br></div>
</td>
</tr></table></div>
ITA!

 

[faeriewisp]

I think it's very overblown. I think it's kinda silly to read a book to an infant.<br><br>
What's important about reading to your kids is the story telling part of it, and I think it can be much more effective to get a kid interested in stories if you TELL him a story. Then he can create his OWN images of the story, not having to just believe what someone else illustrated. Telling your child a story is so much more intimate than reading, too.<br><br>
Reading books is important, don't get me wrong. But oral storytelling is so important! It can even help so much with gentle discipline or getting through hard times or in teaching children about life because you can on-the-spot create a custom story for your child. I think it's also great to draw your own pictures and make a book for your child, or help them make one once they are older.<br><br>
I really think it's exposure to vocabulary and poetic imaginative language (think nursery rhymes for the little ones and fairy tales) that inspires a strong desire to read. A child can certainly be read a bunch of crappy commercialized books all the time and never have any interest in reading.

 

[Charles Baudelaire]

<div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px;">Quote:</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="99%"><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset;">
<div>Originally Posted by <strong>faeriewisp</strong></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">I think it's very overblown. I think it's kinda silly to read a book to an infant.</div>
</td>
</tr></table></div>
I'm sorry, but I could not disagree with your opinion more. I strongly believe that it was the hours and hours of reading that we did with our dd as an infant that enabled her to teach herself to read at an unusually early age, and with very little effort on our parts. Moreover, she genuinely loved sitting and being read to -- and still does. Even if it was only "the lull I like / The hum of your valved voice," as Whitman says, she still liked and responded to it.<br><br><div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px;">Quote:</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="99%"><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset;"><br>
What's important about reading to your kids is the story telling part of it, and I think it can be much more effective to get a kid interested in stories if you TELL him a story. Then he can create his OWN images of the story, not having to just believe what someone else illustrated. Telling your child a story is so much more intimate than reading, too.</td>
</tr></table></div>
The one does not preclude the other. It's not a one-scoop cone. There is so much value in getting children to "read" pictures as well as text because in both cases, you're getting them to be consciously aware of their thought and WHY they think so. For example, I taught First Day School today and we read a book called The Lord's Prayer, which (not surprisingly) was an illustration of the Lord's Prayer. It showed a man and a little girl painting and fixing up an old woman's yard. In the process, the little girl finds a gold pendant that has fallen from the old woman's necklace, is tempted to keep it, but returns it to the old woman, who gives it to her.<br><br>
None of that is "spelled out" in the book's text, which (as I said) consists solely of the Lord's Prayer. It's in the illustrations. The questions I asked got the kids to "read" the pictures as well as the story: <i>Who are these people? Why do you think so? What is their relationship like? What gave you that idea? What are they doing to the old woman's house? Why do you think they're fixing it up? What will the girl do with the pendant?</i> and so on. It's not creative, imaginative thinking, but it's another -- and exceedingly valuable -- kind of thinking: <i>critical</i> thinking. I teach English, and I'll tell you, if I didn't have to teach this skill to my seniors from the ground up, my job would be so much easier and they could learn so much more.

 

[saintmom]

No .the reading campaign is not over blown.When was the last time you read a really good book?I usually keep three going.Right now I'm reading Walden(for the 5th time)Guatemalan Backstrap Weaving,and The story of Seigfried,(because I never got to as a kid).<br>
If you don't read widely you will end up with a limited vocabulary,and fairly stunted thinking.I'm convinced the brain is like any other muscle and will atrophy from lack of use<img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/thumb.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="thumbs up"> .<br>
If you want intelligent, articulate children Read to them ,with them.write your own stories and plays. Your children will thankyou for it one day.

 

[Jennifer3141]

I could not even IMAGINE a day without reading to my kids. Nope, I don't think the campaign is overblown unfortunately. I know of too many moms who live with a TV on and no books in the house. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/greensad.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="greensad">

 

[marilynmama]

Not overblown at all, how can anyone really think that with the plummeting literacy levels in this country?<br><br>
TV rules in America, people are NOT reading to their kids. I was taking to my friend who is a kindergarden teacher and she said I would be shocked at how many kids come into her kindergarden classroom and no one has read a book to them *in their life*, some have never even colored with crayons or cut with scissors. I mean that is the reality of so many children in this country. Not everyone is like us here in this group, where we do read to our children.<br><br>
My own neices each have 3 kids and they don't have a single book in their house! They simply do not read and it has effected their children greatly in school. I don't think they have ever even been to the library.<br><br>
How can encouraging reading be overblown?

 

[Pandora114]

I can't read to my DD <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/bag.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Bag">: Not because I can't read, but she wont sit still, she wont pay attention, she'll keep turning and trying to rip the pages...even if I do a formal type story time like thing with her and keep her away from the book..she just gets up and goes...<br><br>
No intrest....<br><br><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/bawling.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="bawl">: bad mommy here....

 

[myhoneyswife]

<img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/lol.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="lol"> I don't like people telling me what to do, so those kinds of things annoy me. I live where their major PSA stuff consists of anti-Meth, so I guess we're missing out on the reading stuff.<br><br>
That said, I read to my baby (I'm 6 months pg with our first) almost every night <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/orngbiggrin.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="orange big grin"> I think it's really important to read to children. I'm not doing it because I want them to read earlier, I just think it's a good thing. I don't care if they don't learn to read til they're 12 years old.. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/orngtongue.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Stick Out Tongue"><br><br>
Waldorf is anti-reading but very into story telling. I totally understand that aspect also, but I'm not a story teller, so I read.<br><br>
Cara

 

[dharmamama]

<div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px;">Quote:</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="99%"><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset;">
<div>Originally Posted by <strong>faeriewisp</strong></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">I think it's very overblown. I think it's kinda silly to read a book to an infant.</div>
</td>
</tr></table></div>
How is it any more silly than talking to your infant? It's more exposure to language.<br><br>
I read to my daughter every day starting from when she was two days old (I was a little too tired the first day <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/lol.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="lol">). She is 4 now and has a larger vocabulary than I do. My son came to us from another country when he was somewhere between 21 and 33 months old. He joined right in the reading and his language has developed superbly. I started reading to Desta, who joined us 16 days ago, the day after she arrived. She has already learned a lot of new words from reading.<br><br>
I was lucky to be raised in a home that loved books. Many kids are not, and if they are not reminded to, their parents won't read to them. I don't think you could ever over-hype the importance of reading to your kids.<br><br>
My dh likes to say, "You know how they say read to your kids 20 minutes a day? In our house it's more like 20 minutes an hour!"<br><br>
Namaste!

 

[dharmamama]

<div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px;">Quote:</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="99%"><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset;">
<div>Originally Posted by <strong>Pandora114</strong></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">I can't read to my DD <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/bag.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Bag">: Not because I can't read, but she wont sit still, she wont pay attention, she'll keep turning and trying to rip the pages...even if I do a formal type story time like thing with her and keep her away from the book..she just gets up and goes...</div>
</td>
</tr></table></div>
Read to her while she's eating or taking a bath.<br><br>
Namaste!

 

[3momkmb]

<div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px;">Quote:</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="99%"><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset;">
<div>Originally Posted by <strong>midwifetx</strong></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">The Reading Mother<br><br>
I had a Mother who read to me<br>
Sagas of pirates who scoured the sea,<br>
Cutlasses clenched in their yellow teeth,<br>
"Prisoners" stowed in the hold beneath.<br><br>
I had a Mother who read me plays<br>
Of ancient and gallant and golden days;<br>
Stories of Marmion and Ivanhoe,<br>
Which every boy has a right to know.<br><br>
I had a Mother who read me tales<br>
Of Gelert the hound of the hills of Wales--<br>
True to his trust til his tragic death,<br>
Faithfulness blent with his final breath.<br><br>
I had a Mother who read me things<br>
The wholesome life to the boy heart brings--<br>
Stories that stir with an upward touch.<br>
Oh, that each Mother of boys were such!<br><br>
You may have tangible wealth untold;<br>
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.<br>
Richer than I you can never be--<br>
I had a Mother who read to me.<br><br>
~Gillian Strickland~<br></div>
</td>
</tr></table></div>
That made me cry! <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/happytears.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="happytears">: I think I'll print it out so I can read it when I'm feeling like rushing through that bedtime reading because I'm tired and frustrated with DS 's bouncing all over <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/dizzy.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Dizzy">:<br><br>
I don't think it's overblown at all. Even within the homeschool community (locally) I find that I read to my kids much more then most, and I don't feel we read huge amounts. DD always laughs when we pass the school who has a big sign about reading 20minutes a day to your child. *ONLY 20 minutes mom! We read for hours!* <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/love.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="love"><br><br>
There are so many kids who don't get read to, DH was one of them. He is certainly not un-intelligent, but he does struggle with reading fluency and he hates to read <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/greensad.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="greensad"> This makes him <i>feel</i> stupid, which breaks my heart. This is so important!

 

[Jennifer3141]

<div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px;">Quote:</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="99%"><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset;">
<div>Originally Posted by <strong>3momkmb</strong></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">DD always laughs when we pass the school who has a big sign about reading 20minutes a day to your child. *ONLY 20 minutes mom! We read for hours!* <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/love.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="love"></div>
</td>
</tr></table></div>
That is so neat!!!

 

[3momkmb]

<div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px;">Quote:</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="99%"><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset;">
<div>Originally Posted by <strong>Pandora114</strong></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">I can't read to my DD <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/bag.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Bag">: Not because I can't read, but she wont sit still, she wont pay attention, she'll keep turning and trying to rip the pages...even if I do a formal type story time like thing with her and keep her away from the book..she just gets up and goes...<br></div>
</td>
</tr></table></div>
My DS never sits still and he appears to be paying no attention to me at all, but he is listening. Our story time usually consists of him rolling all over the floor, playing with cars or jumping on the bed. However, if I read something funny he'll laugh and he really does remember what I've read to him. I wouldn't worry about trying to get her to sit still.<br><br>
If she wants to turn pages could she have her own book?