Children’s Books Are Written For A Purpose

When you have little ones, they do not understand that there is are certain morals and values written into each story. They understand that there is an adventure or a tea party.
As your children get older, the stories that you read to them, they understand the stories, but the meanings may not be clear. You need to take this opportunity to explain what the story’s moral value is in a way that they can understand.

When you start reading to your children early in life, you are giving them an advantage over children that are not read to. You want your children to have a love of reading, not to be obsessed with. There are times when a child will replace real life with a character in a book. The book becomes their life.





You as parents have a role to play to ensure that your child do not end up like the latter. Below are some tips on how kids should go about reading children’s books.

Like everything else in your child’s life, reading time should be a set amount of time at the same time everyday. You should encourage your child to read, even nurture their desire to read, but limit them to a specific amount of reading time per day.

Make sure that your child interacts as he or she normally does, if you see any changes, you need to adjust their reading time.

Children love to hear stories. Toddlers in particular are fascinated with stories of wild adventures of flying dinosaurs. As they grow and learn to read for themselves, you may feel that that they can read to themselves giving you a little more free time. Experts feel that when you continue reading with your children, you are creating quality time with them.

Children can sense when you are stressed and usually will leave you alone when you are at your highest stress level. It is recommended that you pick a certain time every day to read to them. This also sends the message that no matter how busy you are you always have time for them.
When your child is learning to read, your reading time becomes more special. Encourage your child to read. Help him or her to sound out the words and you will reach a whole new level of fun with your children. You will see and hear the satisfaction they will feel when they read their first book to you.

Reading to your children is a rewarding experience. Children who are read to on a regular basis do better in school and are overall well rounded.

By Paul Heitman

Reading To Your Child - It's Never Too Soon to Begin

Parents often ask me "how can I support my child as he learns to read?" I tell them there are several ways you can help your child. First and foremost, read to them! "When do we start reading to them?" It is never too early to begin reading to your child. In utero, a baby responds to its mother's voice. The cadence and timbre of your voice can calm and settle a baby. Once he is born his eyes will begin to associate your reading voice with the book in your hand. Know that as an infant, the content of what you are reading (it can be a work journal or a mystery novel) isn't important, it is the rhythm and tone of your voice that the child responds to. Simply read aloud the books, letters, and articles you are already reading.




As your child begins to reach out for books as you read and begins to babble, imitating your voice, you can encourage your child by getting basic picture books like Pat the Bunny and Good Night Moon that he can look at and enjoy. At older ages, let your children see you read. Children between the ages of two and five years of age look at the adults in their world as role models. They imitate your words and your actions.

Also, don’t limit your child’s reading experience. Read poems and literature to them. Poems offer an almost musical quality to the written word. Some of Robert Frost’s poems have been beautifully illustrated and can be found in the children’s section at your library or book store. Literature is not just a story, but a story told in a certain style, crafted with carefully selected words. Children’s literature such as Charlotte’s Web or The Trumpet of the Swan by EB White captures the child and allows her to be transported into a different place or time, using the words of the author to paint a picture in her mind.

In my Montessori class, I love the mid day relaxing time in which I read a “chapter book” to the children. The first time I do this the children often say “Laura, you forgot to show the picture!” It is with this statement that the book is put aside as we create the images that are missing; I tell the children this book does not have many pictures and I ask them what it is they would like to see. In response, I get a description of the people and places created by the children. It is with their imagination that the story comes to life.

Children’s books have come a long way since many of us were children. I have many books to share with the children in my class, and the illustrations are beautiful and the content meaningful. The books you read with your child should support your child as he or she grows. Books on visiting the doctor’s office help a child know what to expect. Books can instill the social graces we wish our child to express. Jamie Lee Curtis has a series of books that deal with self esteem and self expression. Age appropriate books can be found that will help your child with toilet training, moving to a new home, or even understanding why Grandma is losing her memory. Children who have heard their favorite books hundreds of times often recite a book verbatim. They will exclaim “I’m reading!” Acknowledge them for this and let them know how much you admire someone who can read.

When a child is intrigued by books he naturally has the desire to learn the skills required to explore them on his own. It is vital that we follow the child’s lead and offer him the tools when he expresses this interest. Don’t make a child wait for an arbitrary time, such as the day in first grade when reading is taught, for them to learn to read. In my years teaching 2 to 6 year olds, I have had many children show a strong desire to learn to read and accomplish this task on their own time—often well before the scheduled date of a school curriculum! But in order for that to happen, the child must be encouraged and excited about the possibilities opened by reading!
Children are at a very young age, typically two or three years old, when they are most eager to develop their language by learning new words and expanding their communication skills.

Because they are in the first steps of learning the language, it seems logical to offer the child the smallest unit of our language, the letter. When a child learns the sound that is associated with the letters his speech becomes clearer, he is better able to articulate and communicate. Soon, he learns how to build words, then phrases, then sentences. This first manifests itself through spoken language but with the right materials the child can follow this same path in a written format. Using the individual letters of a moveable alphabet, the child can take the first step—a single letter—and build on that to create words, phrases, and sentences.

Finally, after constructing his own words and sentences from the sounds he has learned he makes the next step to reading words that someone else has written. While the words a child can recognize by sight from a favorite book are helpful, and often the first “reading” a child does, the key to really learning to read is understanding the written language at the most basic level and building from there. Reading is an exchange between two humans, the writer and the reader. It is a gift that should be given to every child. We must take full advantage of the child’s interest in language that is so prevalent in the preschool child. It is never too soon to start enticing your child to read!

By Laura Morris

Stay on Top of Kid Trends

Major providers of toys, safety products, and children’s clothing must always stay closely attuned to the needs of the market. The boom in children’s apparel is a relatively new phenomena that is likely to change many times before settling into a mainstream norm, so retailers have their work cut out for them in keeping up with all of the new innovations in design and display. This is especially true for those trying to compete in the children’s clothing market.





In the year to come, it is expected that kid’s wear will continue to follow the adult fashion industry in design, especially for the growing “tween” demographic. Hip hugger jeans and cute spaghetti strap tops will continue to invade the market while ruffles and lace will remain common for the younger kid, spring and summer apparel. For the infant category, bib tops and raglan sleeves will continue in popularity. Baby girl’s apparel will still be decorated with lace and broderie with floral or butterfly patterns and boys will sport the nautical style stripes of red, white, and blue.

Jackets and coats are always essential to the kid’s retail department. Boys are going for biker and bomber jackets made from cotton, leather, or jersey knit. Girls will be scene in the popular pea coat design, but instead of that scratchy wool, they will be made from soft, thick woven cotton. For the bottoms, all jeans and pants are still going to be made from soft denims or cottons while showing off a new rugged/fashionable look, much like their parent’s jeans.

Though children’s clothes are increasingly becoming more fashionable, the emphasis on comfort will never leave the industry. Light and airy fabrics will always be used to keep kids cool on the playground and around the house on hot days. Safety is always number one in the children’s clothing world.

The standard for displaying all of the coming children’s retail trends is very high. The appropriate childrens clothing hangers must be used in order to compete with the new kid’s retail giants. Proper displays are simply expected, and as children’s clothing becomes more important to parents everywhere, their desire to properly hang their children’s clothes in their own homes will grow. Parents are spending more on their kid’s clothes these days than they are on their own, so display and hanging fixtures need to be held to the same standard.

Regularly reading children’s fashion publications and considering the competition should be a part of every kid retailer’s job. There is an amazing amount of profit to be made in this industry if you continue to do research. Staying up on these trends will always pay off.

By Ron Maier Jr.

Reading Skills

In order to understand the text clearly and learn new vocabulary quickly it would be useful to remember the core four exercises to be done before, during and after reading. All of them are aimed to help good comprehension of the text and learn new words quickly. They are: finding cause effects, making conclusions, putting broken text in order and context clues (which is very effective for new vocabulary learning).




Finding cause effects is the exercise to be used during the text reading. While you are reading you can find sentence pairs which works on cause-effect model. Try to find some actions described in text and ask the question of why these actions have to take place. If there is no a clear statement leading to these actions, re-read the previous paragraph or sentence and try to understand their context which help you make your conclusion of reasons. For example, if one of characters makes conversation with another you can ask the question: Why are they talking about that? Try to find in the text the causes of choosing this topic for conversation. If the author does not give the clear reason try to find the reason by your own using the previous context.

Making conclusions requires good analytical skills. Thus, you should develop analysis before making conclusions. Good exercises for developing analyzing skills would be simple everyday conversations when you use ‘why’ and ‘because’ as much as possible. Here developing cause-effect model would be very useful. Start with analyzing your own problems, achievements, needs, interests etc. Try to fix the cause-effect chain. The skilled analyzer would manage to find at least twelve chain links for any cause-effect model! Use analyzing skills to make conclusion for each paragraph you have just read. Then, make your own conclusion for the whole text. Give your own evaluation for each action and conversation it will help make the final conclusion in brief.

Putting broken text in order is very effective exercise to understand the text. This skill would also be very useful to develop speaking and writing. Sequence exercises can be involved while teaching children to comprehend reading. Children like different charades and they would enjoy finding the first sentence, then the sentence which would come next and so on. It would be funny to mistakenly put the sentences in incorrect order where they cannot understand what they reading! Do not break the whole text. Put each three-four sentences in incorrect order. This exercise is better to be done before reading, it would intrigue readers and make them get interested in knowing the text.

Context clues exercise is one of the models used for new vocabulary learning. Comparing with new words listing, listening, watching and reading context clues can be adapted by any reader irrespective of his/her abilities and psychology. Moreover, finding context clues is the most effective way to remember new words quickly. It is proved humans remember things better if they can link these things with some action, gesture, environment, glance etc. Guessing the meaning of the new word using the other words which come before and after this word could also develop analyzing skills.

Reading SkillsBy Sharon White

What You Need To Know About Reading

Every day there is so much to read, right from storybooks, to study books, journals, magazines, e-magazines, advertising material, newspapers….. and so much to read about - science, art, history, politics, the list goes on. Reading is a source of information and entertainment.
At the most basic level, it is important to know how to read. It will help in your daily life. Reading makes so many simple activities become easier, like buying products, going from one place to another, reading important labels, paying taxes and asking for credit. It helps you function better and contributes to a better job. Those who can read also tend to improve things around them. This is one key reason for developing the literacy levels of any country.
Some read to increase knowledge, some for the sheer joy of it. Some to while away the time, some to look important. Some read to go to sleep, some to stay awake! They may read newspapers, magazines, biographical accounts, travelogues, debates, fiction, whatever.The subjects could be as varied as a person’s interest.

With the popularity of television and the Internet, it was felt reading would become obsolete, but today there is more reading material being produced than ever before. Reading opens up the mind, helps one understand people, the environment, the world, the universe. Reading is good as it stimulates the brain. We have to make sense of the words, comprehend their meaning and understand the nuances. We may even have to visualize ideas while reading.

Children should be encouraged to read. It has been found that such children learn to gather information quickly and on their own. They learn languages more efficiently, and often score better in school. Psychiatrists and doctors say that reading helps children learn to think in a logical way. Reading builds up a longer attention span and helps in developing abstract ideas, unbiased truths and constant thinking.

Teach children to read when they are young by exposing them all kinds of books. Picture books, with simple stories shown to them when they are small will help them love books. Read to them as they look at the pictures. Give them a wide choice of books, use library facilities to borrow books to read. Look for books on the Internet, buy books whenever you can, watch out for slashed or discount prices to pick books up. Make reading a part of their lives, and you will be enriching them forever.

By Damian Sofsian

Five Stages of Reading Development

Learning to read doesn’t just happen. It has to be taught through systematic, organized instruction. Reading is a skill which is built upon through stages and is an ongoing process.

If a stage of reading development has not been learned, students will flounder in their reading ability, which also affects their writing skills. It is imperative that teachers make certain students fully understand each stage of the reading/writing process before they move on to the next level.





Jean Chall, world renowned reading expert and psychologist for fifty years, and past professor emeritus at Harvard University cites her five stages of reading development below:

Stage 0:

Pre-reading Stage: Unsystematic accumulation of understandings about reading between pre-school and kindergarten.

Stage 1:

Initial Reading or Decoding Stage (grades 1-2; Ages 6-7 ) Student’s central task is learning arbitrary letters and associating them with corresponding parts of spoken words. Learner acquires knowledge about reading. Phonics.

Stage 2:

Confirmation, Fluency, Ungluing from Print, Automaticity Stage (grades 2-3; Ages 7-8) Consolidation of what was learned in Stage 1. Requires reading many easy and familiar books for developmental reading. Gradual increase in functional and recreational reading. Common use of the basal readers. Functional reading important - content area texts - here’s where we fail in our attempts to prepare our students. Range of possible recreational reading increases.

Stage 3:

Reading for Learning the New Stage: A First Step (Grades 4-8; ages 9-13) Readers need to bring prior knowledge to their reading. Children acquire facts.

Stage 4:

Multiple Viewpoints Stage: (High School; Ages 14-18) Should include instruction in reading/study skills, and reading strategies for success.

Stage 5:

Construction & Reconstruction Stage: College ; Ages 18 & up) Adult literacy should stress acquisition of skills useful to the participants and the ability to apply those skills.

These are the stair steps of reading development. They are built upon and climbed, as students grow in their literacy development. Sometimes students get stuck in one of the stages. It's my job as a literacy specialist to "unstick" them so they can move on to the next phase and beyond, empowering them to become enthuiastic readers and writers.

Copyright © 2006 by Pamela Beers. All rights reserved.

Pamela Beers is a freelance writer, educator, and horse trainer. Her work as a literacy specialist, using Jeanne Chall's stages of reading, has changed reluctant readers into enthusiastic readers by making sure each student understands the skills needed in each of the five reading stages.

This article is written in memory of Jeanne Chall whose teachings are immeasureable.

Visit Pamela's website for more information on education.
http://www.pamelabeers.com
http://pamelabeers.com/blog.html

By Pamela Beers

Expanding Your Child's Vocabulary Promotes Skilled Reading

Learning to read is not like climbing a mountain. You do not simply lead your child over a peak and they then become a skilled reader.

Instead there are a series of skills and building blocks that children gradually acquire and then continue to build on for years before they become truly proficient readers.




One of those essential skills is vocabulary. Vocabulary refers to the words we must know to communicate effectively by listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Vocabulary plays an important part in learning to read. Children use words in their oral vocabulary to make sense of the words they see in print. Vocabulary is also important in reading comprehension. Readers cannot understand what they are reading unless they know what most of the words mean.
While vocabulary is essential to reading children begin building their vocabulary long before they begin learning to read and continue building their vocabulary long after they have mastered the basics of reading. In fact, for most people, vocabulary building continues as a lifelong endeavor.

Children can be taught vocabulary both indirectly and directly. Children learn the meanings of most words indirectly, through everyday experiences with oral and written language. We teach children the meaning of words as we talk to them and explain the world around them. We expand vocabulary through reading to our children and eventually our children will add to their vocabulary by reading extensively on their own.

Children learn vocabulary directly when they are explicitly taught both individual words and word-learning strategies.

It is useful to teach children specific words before reading because it helps both vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. Repeatedly exposing children to vocabulary words in a variety of contexts brings greater depth to their understanding of the word as well as recognition. It is also important that children learn how to use dictionaries and other reference aids to learn word meanings and to deepen knowledge of word meanings.

Children who are learning to expand their reading vocabulary also must learn how to use information about word parts (such as affixes, base words, word roots) to figure out the meanings of words in text through structural analysis or how to use context clues to determine word meanings.

If you want to expand your child's vocabulary there are two additional strategies you can employ. First, don't talk down to them. Use the same vocabulary you would use with an adult. They will learn some words from simple contextual clues you provide but they will also ask what a word means offering you the chance to add that word to their vocabulary. The second strategy is to expand your own vocabulary. Making learning new words (and adding them to conversation) a game or fun activity for the whole family.

The more books and conversation are a part of your child's life then the more their vocabulary will continue to grow.

By Deanna Mascle

ProProfs Launches Free Flashcards Feature With Over 1 Million Cards

Los Angeles, CA, June, 2007. Proprofs.com (http://www.proprofs.com/flashcards), the leader in free online learning resources, announces the launch of ProProfs Flashcards (http://www.proprofs.com/flashcards/), with one of the largest educational flashcard database of its kind. ProProfs Flashcards is a free, community-oriented service aimed at providing students and educators with ability to study, find and export flashcards by either selecting from exhaustive library covering a wide variety of subjects or by creating their own.

As Sameer Bhatia, president and founder of ProProfs, explains, "Flashcards are an effective, proven tool to help students register information. ProProfs Flashcards allow us to better provide students and educators with the necessary tools for learning success on the web." As Mr. Bhatia points out, flashcards are often used by students who want to study components of a subject area at crunch time. Proprofs Flashcards permits students to study on their time and at their pace.

Part of the appeal of ProProfs Flashcards to students is the extensive collection of existing flashcards covering a variety of subjects ranging from chemistry to computer science. ProProfs Flashcards library is among the largest flashcard libraries on the web, offering over 1,000,000 (1 million) flash cards free of charge organized into over 10,000 sets. The extensive set was created by a combination of various methods ranging from user contributions (during a 5 month beta release), to flashcards created by subject matter experts and those acquired by direct purchase from other third party sources and then tagged and offered in a suitable form.

Flashcard sets can also be created and edited by users, meaning that instructors can create flashcard sets from which their students can study. Continued user submissions and updates ensure that the free ProProfs Flashcards library will continue to be accurate, up-to-date and one of the most extensive free library available. Students can vote, rank and comment on cards creating an educational social network. The personalized experience of ProProfs Flashcards allows students to create their own sets and personalize the user interface, which is user-customizable, down to font size and page colors. Cards can also be embedded & directly accessed from class webpage or personal home page. One student reports, I spent a few hours entering my chemistry notes onto the flashcards system so that other students do not have to search around for good notes. All sets can also be "tagged," or given keywords that users can enter when searching for the cards they need most. Tagging allows for a more specific categorization of sets of cards and improves usability.

ProProfs Flashcards offers students and instructors the unique opportunity to study, share, and improve flashcards with the e-learning community. With feature-rich tools and a large variety of cards, ProProfs Flashcards can continue to provide students with the learning resources they need to succeed.

To take the flash cards virtual tour visit http://www.proprofs.com/flashcards/tour.php

For more information visit: flash cards

Preparing Your Child Cognitively to Read

The ultimate goal of reading instruction is to enable children to understand what they read, so reading instruction has to be about more than simply matching letters and sounds -- it also has to be about connecting words and meaning.

It is clear from research on emerging literacy that learning to read is a relatively lengthy process that begins very early in development and clearly before children enter formal schooling.

Children who receive stimulating literacy experiences from birth onward appear to have an edge when it comes to vocabulary development, understanding the goals of reading, and developing an awareness of print and literacy concepts.

Children who are read to frequently at very young ages become exposed in interesting and exciting ways to the sounds of our language, to the concept of rhyming, and to other word and language play activities that serve to provide the foundation for the development of phoneme awareness.




As children are exposed to literacy activities at young ages, they begin to recognize and discriminate letters. Without a doubt, children who have learned to recognize and print most letters as preschoolers will have less to learn upon school entry. The learning of letter names is also important because the names of many letters contain the sounds they most often represent, thus orienting youngsters early to the alphabetic principle or how letters and sounds connect.

The earlier you begin working on language with your child -- simply speaking to your child, reading to your child, and then listening and responding to your child's communications -- the better off your child will be when the time comes to learn to ready.

Studies show a strong connection between early language development and reading. Language and reading require the same types of sound analysis. The better babies are at distinguishing the building blocks of speech at six months, the better they will be at more complex language skills at two and three years old, and the easier it will be for them at four and five years old to grasp the idea of how sounds link to letters.

However preparing your child to become a reader needs to go beyond this to cognitive readiness.

Cognitive readiness is essentially making sure your child has the essential foundations for reading. This includes the development and understanding of language, such as vocabulary, sentence structure, and grammar; but also includes background knowledge and experience.
For example, a child can easily make the transition from seeing the neighbor's cat to the parent connecting the word "cat" with the animal. Then later when the child is learning the alphabet and connecting sounds with various letters the cat is again brought into play. Finally, when it is time to begin reading text the child is already well on her way to understanding the written word "cat" through her experience of seeing and hearing it.

However children need help learning these concepts. A child will not learn the names, sounds, and shapes of letters simply by being around adults who like to read and who engage in reading. Children learn these concepts when adults take the time and effort to share experiences with oral and written language.

Preparing your child to read must take a step beyond this as well. Children's cognitive skills and knowledge are frequently thought of as core ingredients in the recipe for success in school. Children's language/literacy refers to both their oral communication (language) and understanding of the written word (literacy). The concept of general knowledge refers to children's conceptions and understandings of the world around them.

As children enter kindergarten for the first time, they differ in their cognitive skills and knowledge. Studies of first-time kindergartners indicate that children's reading, mathematics, and general knowledge are related to their age as they enter kindergarten, the level of their mother's education, their family type, the primary language spoken in the home, and their race/ethnicity.

The undisputed purpose of learning to read is to comprehend. Even before children can read for themselves, it can help them to build vital background knowledge by having adults read to them interactively and frequently. This means not only is the book or story shared with the child -- but then the reader and the child discuss the book and the world, characters, and events it introduces. It is important for parents who want to build their child's cognitive readiness to actually choose of variety of texts that will expand what their children know about the world around them. Further, comprehension is enhanced through discussion of the text which in turn might lead to seeking out further text on this or related subjects. Effective instruction will help the reader actively relate his or her own knowledge or experience to the ideas written in the text, and then remember the ideas that he or she has come to understand.

Helping your child become cognitively ready for reading will also include giving your child diverse experiences in the world and with events and people so they can make connections between the real world and their reading. This does not have to mean extensive travel or expensive outings. Many times simply taking children to various events and places within your community can provide experience with people of different ages and ethnic backgrounds, for example.

Ultimately, children's ability to understand what they are reading is inextricably linked to their background knowledge. Very young children who are provided opportunities to learn, think, and talk about new areas of knowledge will gain much from the reading process. With understanding comes the clear desire to read more and to read frequently, ensuring that reading practice takes place.

Some things you can do to help cognitively prepare your child for reading:

• Read new stories and reread old stories every day.
  
• Help extend their experience with the words, language, and ideas in books by interactively reading to them every day.
  
• Relate information in books to other events of interest to children, such as holidays, pets, siblings, and games. Engage children in discussion of the topics.
  
• In both stories and informational texts, encourage wondering. For example, "What will happen next?" or "Have you ever seen someone do that?"
  
• Point out how titles and headings as well as text when you are reading.

By Deanna Mascle

Parents and Children Working Together

When parents help their children learn to read, they help open the door to a new world. As a parent, you can begin an endless learning chain: You read to your children, they develop a love of stories and poems, they want to read on their own, they practice reading, and finally they read for their own information or pleasure. They become readers, and their world is forever expanded and enriched.

This newsletter focuses primarily on what you can do to help children up to 10 years of age. During these years you can lay the foundation for you child to become a lifelong reader.
There is no need to worry about the amount of time you need to devote, it is the quality of time that counts. Just be consistent—give as much time as you can each day to help your child. The activities suggested are designed to fit into busy schedules.




Helping your child become a reader is an adventure you will not want to miss. The benefits to your child are immeasurable, and in the process you will find your world becoming richer as well.

Why?

Do you ever get tired of hearing that same old question? But Why? Just remember, the best way for children to learn is to ask questions. Every child has a natural curiosity and their very own imagination. As a parent, or caregiver, you can awaken your children to the joy of learning by encouraging their imagination and curiosity.

For instance: Picking up toys does not have to be a chore that you dread, instead make it into a game of sorting; - sorting is a major function in math and science; let your child help you cook a meal—cooking involves not only math and science but good heath as well, tell stories together—storytelling is the basis for reading and writing. By doing things together, you will show that learning is fun and important. You will be encouraging your child to study, learn, and stay in school.

Where to Begin

There is no more important activity for preparing your child to succeed as a reader than reading aloud together. Fill your story times with a variety of books. Be consistent, be patient, and watch the magic work.

At just a few months of age, an infant can look at pictures, listen to your voice, and point to objects on cardboard pages. Guide your child be pointing to the pictures, and saying the names of the objects. By drawing attention to pictures and associating the words with both pictures and the real-world objects, your child will learn the importance of language. Child learn to love the sound of language before they even notice the existence of printed words on a page. Reading books aloud to children stimulates their imagination and expands their understanding of the world. It helps them develop language and listening skills and prepares them to understand the written word. When the rhythm and melody of language become a part of a child’s life, learning to read will be as natural as learning to walk and talk.

Even after children learn to read by themselves, it is still important for you to read aloud together. By reading stories that are on their interest, level, but beyond their reading level, you can stretch young readers’ understanding and motivate them to improve their skills.

The Joy of Reading

Children learn from example. The best example you can give is to show your child your love of reading. You can do this by not only reading to your child, but by letting your child see you read.
We can help our children find the tools they need to succeed in life. Having access to information through the printed word is an absolute necessity. Knowledge is power, and books are full of it. But reading is more than just a practical tool. Through books we can enrich our minds, we can also relax and enjoy some precious leisure moments.

With your help, your children can begin a lifelong relationship with the printed word, so they grow into adults who read easily and frequently whether for business, knowledge, or pleasure.
In the words of Aristotle, ‘happiness is self contentedness helping to make children deeply and quietly glad that they are who they are, and give them a priceless legacy; the strength to meet life’s stresses and the courage to become committed, responsible, productive, creative, and fully human adults...Helping a child is the greatest gift you can five in the language of the human heart. It spells love in the most profound way.”

A time to remember

Many children begin to recognize words on a page between the ages of 4—7. In today’s world this may begin by recognition of a logo, a favorite cereal box, or the cover of their favorite bed time story book. Think back to a time when you were young. What do you remember recognizing?

You can help remove part of the mystery without worrying about a lot of theory. Just read the stories and poems and let them work their wonders. There is no better way to prepare your child for that moment when reading starts to ‘click,’ even if it is years down the road.
When the time comes that your child wants to read you the story, from the pictures, by all means let them, even if the story is not being told as per the written page. This is just the beginning of their desire to read to you. You can help your child’s transition by:
• Pointing to the print as you read aloud.
• Words on a page have meaning, and that is what we learn to read.
• Follow the words with your finger as you read.

The above is an example of hieroglyphics. Can you imagine how you would feel if you were trying to translate an entire book of these symbols? That’s how children feel. But with a little patience, understanding and game playing it is certain to build confidence.

It is no secret that activities at home are important supplements to the classroom. There are things that parents and caregivers can give a child at home that the classrooms can not give. Memories of good time spent together to treasure, the stories that made them laugh and cry, sharing these times with someone they love and the way that it was taught to them to pass on to their own children. By reading aloud together, by being examples, and by doing other activities, parents are in a unique position to help children enjoy reading and see the value of it.
Keeping the fun in learning

It is important to keep reading time with your child fun and keep the tone and pace as lively as possible. Most children at some point will become distracted or just plain stubborn. It is in their nature to try and assert their own independence. If at this time you force the issue of having to sit still and read they are likely to rebel, leaving you frustrated and them seeing that learning is a chore not a fun activity. It is best if you let your child set the pace and do something different. They will come back to it when they are ready. Being a parent can sometimes be compared to a trainer. It takes patience, confidence, and playfulness in your approach to get the desired results. Children love to learn but at times they need a little breathing room. This way their interest will always be renewed.

It is important to try and keep to a schedule for reading with your child. This helps give your child a solid of organization and a time too look forward to each day. One of the best times is at bed time. This not only encourages the child to get ready for bed but helps to relax them, preparing them for a peaceful sleep. If you have more than one child, it is important to try and give each a reading time alone. However, it is also a big benefit to read together and allow the older child to participate in the reading to a younger child. This not only encourages the older child to read but helps show the younger child that it is possible to make sense of the jungle of words on a page. Encourage your child to ask questions about things they don’t understand, as well as give them the opportunity to voice what they think will happen next. Talking about Stories

Talking to your child about a story if often a good idea, however, don’t over-do it by feeling the need to discuss every story. Sometime a child needs a day or two to think about that you have read, then come back and ask questions about it or mention something that they remember. By allowing your child to voice their opinion on upcoming events in the story will also encourage them to think about what you are reading and promote reading comprehension. Another way to enhance the message that reading is fun for everyone, is to invite others to join the story time, for time to time. This will give your child other opinions to think about a variety of storytelling routines.

Remember to make reading with your child enjoyable, and increase writing, talking, and listening to boost your child’s love of language.

By Debbie Long

Helping Students With Reading Problems

Reading is a difficult process. The brain must be doing several things at once in order to make sense out of the written word. Many things can go wrong when a student is learning to read. Kids who struggle with reading struggle with life. If there is just one skill you can spend time on to help a student succeed in school and life, it would be reading.




The biggest mistake most people make is to try to teach a student to read in the same method they were taught or by using traditional methods. Well, guess what? If these methods worked, then the student would be reading and reading well. So, to start with, please understand that different methods must be used to help a struggling reader. A combination of brain, visual, visual memory, auditory, and tactile decoding training is a method that works to help students learn to read, especially when traditional methods have failed.

To start with, use brain integration activities to help balance the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Phonics is a left brain activity, and many right brain dominant students have a terrible time learning to read with traditional phonics based methods. Also, students with reading problems should do vision and auditory exercises to strengthen these learning systems.

Now that the brain and learning systems are primed for optimal learning, the student needs decoding practice. Most poor readers look at the first syllable or two of a word and start sounding it out. However, for some reason, this is as far as they can get, and from there they start guessing. For instance, the word dignity may be read as digital by the student. This is not an accurate method to read and causes a lot of problems, especially with comprehension.

In order to remedy this situation, the student is to sound out a decoding unit that is in color, since the right side of the brain is attracted to color. The decoding unit is placed within a larger word. There is also a picture to represent the decoding unit, once again because the right side of the brain works in pictures. For example, the decoding unit ar would have a picture of a car for the picture. Then the student reads a list of words with the ar sound imbedded within them. The words might be far, dark, remark, etc. The ar would be in color while the rest of the word is in black. The student has a picture and a color to help remember the sound.

Next, the student reads nonsense words with the ar sound. These might be something like lar, smar, cark, etc. This time there is no color or picture. The student uses a highlighter to go over the sounds while reading the nonsense words. As the student moves the marker over the letters, he reads the sounds. Once again, the color activates the right side of the brain while the student is forced to stay on the sound that he is looking at. This prevents looking at the word as a whole and guessing. (Right brain dominant students look at the whole of something as well as pictures and colors.)

Another option used with great success is to have the student pull down a coin or tile at every sound read. This involves another tactile operation while reading and also forces the student to look at sounds as he reads instead of the whole word and a mental picture that might go with it, often one that is incorrect.

The next step is to dictate the real words the student learned and have the student write them down on paper or in a gooey substance. This not only helps with spelling, but it will give you a good idea if the student has mastered the decoding unit. You would call out the words far, dark, remark, etc. and have the student write them. If the decoding unit was learned, the student will recall the unit and spell it correctly.

If the student learns one decoding unit per day, it will only take about 15 minutes per day. There are more than 52 known decoding units that can be used. Kids who have struggled with reading are raising test scores and grades, usually within six weeks. This read, touch, and write method works when all other methods have failed.

By Lisa Harp

When Should You Start to Teach Reading Skills?

Introducing letters can be ongoing, pointing them out when food packages show certain letters dominantly. Point to the letter, say the letter, say the name or brand of the food. As in other posts under this title, labeling different items in the house is a good way to gain recognition. Also, another method I like is to have mystery words. Either use, magnetic letters, and spell a word on the refrigerator for you child to figure out, or use a mystery word box that they draw a card out of to figure out. You can use an incentive chart to keep track of how many they sound out, or just make a big deal of it. Ring a bell, blow a whistle, or pop bubble wrap, or let the child make the noise, but just reserve it for a celebration of a word.

I like to put the ABC’s up on the walls of their room. I usually make them about 6” high in both the upper, and lower case. Make them out of construction paper, and cover with contact, or laminate. The upper, and lower case A will be one color, the upper and lower case B another, and continue to alternate different colors for each set of letters through Z. The best height to post them is about your eye level. That keeps them from just being taken off the wall. Also, if you hold your child in your arms, take their finger, and trace the letters as you say the name, the sound, and an example of a word, they will learn a multitude of things at one time. My only caution is this: they will also learn to stay up from nap, or bedtime just a little longer to do their letters. Sometimes they will also stand in their crib saying their letters and sounds.

There are many games or aids you can make to help your child read, here is a brief description of a few. The main thing is that it is fun. Don’t make it regimented, or a required time length to do it. You can make a word wheel: two circles out of poster board, connect one on top of the other with a brad, the inner circle has a notch, the bottom circle has “ad”, the top circle has different consonants such m. s, p etc. When the top circle is turned, it makes different words that end with “ad”. A word ring is words written on 3x5 cards that are cut in strips. The words can be words they can sound out, or sight words. A hole is punched, and reinforced, and put on a shower ring, (the metal kind). This can than be hooked on a belt loop. It is especially popular with little boys. Commercially, the best items I have found for teaching reading are DVD’s produced by Rock n Learn. You can find an entire range of learning products made by this company. They have videos in rock, rap, and country, teaching reading, math, foreign language, and a variety of other subjects. Starting at preschool, on up. These productions are educationally sound, and appeal to children. My grandchildren beg for them. What a trick, they are learning too! Another commercially produced line of toys are made by the Leap Frog company. I haven’t found any that I have been disappointed in. I started with the Phonics Leap Pad, which is not a book form, but a talking toy that you press a letter.

The following is an example of how easy it is to start a baby on the road to reading:

Five year old Brandon came home from kindergarten, proudly announcing that he was learning vowel sounds. I was sitting in the family room, trying to calm his fussy baby sister, who was 3 ½ months old. She suffered from colic. I told him I had just read in the baby book that at 4 months babies started cooing vowel sounds. He adored his baby sister, and said. “Let’s teach her.” Although I knew we were not talking about exactly the same thing, I thought it could not hurt. I would try anything to get her to stop crying, and maybe he would learn the sounds of his letters better.

So, we started. I laid the baby flat on my lap so her face could see mine. Then I started to say the name of each alphabet letter and the sound it makes. To my amazement, little Amber stopped crying, and was fascinated by hearing the sounds, and seeing my lips, and having my eyes fixed on her. Some of the sounds she thought were downright funny. All the usual colic soothers, the jiggling, patting, singing, and nursery rhymes didn’t work, but the sounds of the letters did. It worked many times after that, and I continued doing it through the preschool years at random times. Also, by the time she was about 6 months old she started to beat me to the sound or the letter sometimes. Since Amber was the only baby I had ever taught the sounds of the letters, I was anxious to see if my grandchildren would react in the same way, and learn the sounds. The answer is yes, yes, yes! My oldest grandchild is 5 now, and in kindergarten. Sounds of the letters are so easy for him… he is surprised they teach it.

Don’t stress over teaching reading. It can be fun to see the delight in the child’s eyes with new knowledge, and confidence. Don’t make it a competition with other mother’s or children. Some children are more excited and more apt to want to do certain aspects of reading. It comes in time. Also, some children never want to tell you what they know when quizzed, but spurt it out when it is their own idea.

By Kathleen Couch

Online Reading Training: Here To Help

Life is all about knowing the basics and being good at them. Cleaning, cooking, ironing, each has their own set of rules or guidelines. You boil in water not oil, clean windows with an old newspaper rather than a piece of cloth, and need specific temperatures for different materials. It's the same with reading and writing; these are skills we carry with us for a very long time. Why not learn them properly while you can? This is why reading training is important, and online reading training especially moreso.




Children benefit the most from learning how to read and write at an early age. They sooner they master the basics, the sooner they can face their growing up years with literacy and confidence. But while it sounds simple enough to teach children about reading, there is nothing simple about it at all. Teaching a child anything can be hard, especially if you have to worry about getting it right. This is why online reading training exists; to serve as a guide for both you and your child in his or her first steps in the written world.

A parent has the advantage of choosing the pace of the child's education online, something that is especially helpful if both parents work and have limited time with their child. It is also important to remember that while phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension are valuable, the key is to make your son or daughter enjoy the experience. Spend time with them and take them to the library. Let them pick out the books they'd like to read, then sit with them while they do so. Read them bedtime stories to further stimulate their interest in books. Even word games can be a great help; things like Scrabble for kids for example. The ways are numerous, and all with the same goal. Mix and match these and more and see what appeals to your child.
If training starts before the child reaches the age of ten, there is a good chance that he will not suffer in school and might even be ahead of his class. There is not a parent that doesn't want that for their child. There is no reason to wait, and every reason to hurry.

If online reading training is not enough to help your child, be it because of special circumstances or merely a lack in time, it would be in your best interest to find a tutor who would be willing to take over in teaching the basics.

By Trevor Mulholland

Phonemic Awareness Assessments Identify A Weak Cognitive Skill Necessary For Learning

A phonemic awareness assessment can help your child identify a weak cognitive skill which is necessary for learning. Weak cognitive skills are a large factor in the majority of learning disabilities which affect people from all walks of life. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and analyze discreet sounds. It is the cognitive skill that allows us to connect speech sounds to the letters in words. There are various stages that your children will go through in their learning development, and you can notice if they lack phonemic awareness during each of these stages. If you notice any of the risk factors which indicate a lack of phonemic awareness in your child you are highly encouraged to schedule a complete phonemic awareness assessment at a qualified learning training center.




Students as young as Pre-K to Kindergarten age can lack phonemic awareness. Warning signs to watch for include a difficulty recognizing rhymes, trouble remembering names of friends or classmates, and a difficulty with the development of normal speech. At the end of first grade the warning signs to watch for include those mentioned above and if your child has difficulty with spelling common words, reading aloud, sounding out words, blending sounds, and trouble applying the mechanics of sounds within words to reading and spelling.

At the end of second grade you will continue to see warning signs that will indicate weak phonemic awareness skills. If you find that your child has difficulty recalling simple facts and details it is important to get them tested. Other factors affecting your child at the end of second grade may be a difficulty spelling previously studied and commonly seen words, difficulty reading aloud, and difficulty using phonics to sound out words.

By the age of five, phonemic awareness is typically established in around 80% of children. The other 20% will continue to show warning signs past the age of nine and into the teen years, and beyond. The common signs to watch out for are a history of reading and spelling struggles, a dislike of reading, not wanting to read aloud, or having to spend extra time doing homework. If you see any of these symptoms in your child schedule a complete cognitive skills assessment. A phonemic awareness assessment will be included in this overall assessment at a quality learning training center. This test will also indicate any other weak cognitive skills that may become, or already are a problem for your child. By running this test you will help avoid future learning disabilities, ensuring your child healthy learning for the rest of their life. The learning training center will map out a plan for strengthening this cognitive skill.

To further emphasize the importance of strong phonemic awareness skills the Institute of Health and Child Development discovered that 88% of reading difficulties were a result of weak phonemic awareness. This was found during a ten-year study from 1985 to 1995. Make sure you get your child tested if you notice any of the warning signs and struggles listed above. Their future depends on your action.

By Ken Gibson

PBS Kids to the Rescue

PBS has been a leader in providing quality programs for children for nearly forty years, including classics such as Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, Reading Rainbow and many more. Most of the children’s programs not only teach valuable skills, such as reading and math, but they include some inside jokes for the grownups, making it enjoyable for all.




Some of the newer shows are quickly becoming classics in their own right. Here are some of the more recent additions to the PBS Kids line up that will be sure to be future favorites.

Between the Lions – Following in the footsteps of The Electric Company, Between the Lions helps kids learn to read, with phonics lessons hidden in song and silliness. This often “punny” show focuses on a pride of librarian lions and a menagerie of other puppets. Segments such as “Gawain’s Word” (where two knights “blend on” and make a new word as they joust), “Cliff Hanger” and “Sam Spud” spoof popular movies, giving the parents a chuckle while the kids learn.

Jakers! The Adventure of Piggly Winks – This delightful computer animated series is a gem. There aren’t as many episodes of Jakers! as some of the other shows on PBS, so some stations only carry it occasionally. Each episode begins with Grandpa Piggly Winks spending time with his grandchildren, telling them stories of his childhood. Then the audience is treated to his flashbacks of his imagination-filled adventures with his friends on a farm in Ireland. Each episode also has a segment, featuring real grandparents.

Cyberchase – For years, most of the PBS Kids shows focused on reading skills, but then they introduced Cyberchase. This show taps into the popularity of the internet and teaches about math and logic. It follows the adventures of three young people who are pulled into “Cyberspace” to battle The Hacker (voiced by Christopher Lloyd), to keep him from taking over “Cyberspace”. Each episode also features a live segment where the lesson learned during the cartoon is reinforced in “real world” situations.

In addition to the shows, the PBS Kids’ website offers the opportunity to explore through games based on their favorite shows. It also has great parent resources to help encourage young learners.

By Adriana Copaceanu

What You Get from Online Spelling Tests

Today’s technology has been very beneficial to every child’s learning. The education technology in today’s time has immensely helped develop an advanced way of teaching and learning through the use of the Internet.

Compared from the past, a child has so much to learn, with the new gadgets like the flash Ram, free education websites, educational software, recorded lectures from digital voice prompts and informative search engines like the Google.

With the existence of the Internet, learning and educating are delivered in the simplest and most convenient way. Online education has provided a different approach to a kid's learning. Through the Internet, your kid can do his homework, make online spelling test and can be lectured using voice prompts.

Personal computers are very essential to kids nowadays. Assessment tests are often done through online testing sites for kids. About 75 percent of American children falling under the ages 3 to 17 use personal computers at their own homes to take assessment exams and complete school assignments according. This was according to the statistics gathered by the United States Consensus Bureau.

For parents, it is important to teach kids at an early age. There are many gadgets out in the market that can get kids into a good start. There is the so called LeapFrog’s Leapster Learning Game System that allows kids to learn letters, spelling, music, numbers, and phonics. It is only available at $60 that is perfect for kids under the ages 3 to 5 years old.

You may also find educational links that offer tutorials and informative materials that have organized and well documented subject matters for any grade level students. Even lesson plans are already prepared according to the standard curriculum of the states education department.
One benefit for high school students who are preparing and reviewing for their tests such as the SAT, they may find links that give practice tests in preparation for the exam. This is a way students can assess themselves and see what areas they need to review more and concentrate about.

Online spelling tests are also offered to kids who may want to start an early learning with vocabulary and grammar. This is a great way to introduce kids to spelling and the use of the dictionary. Practice online spelling tests also help you assess your kids on how good i their spelling skills are and word mastery.

There are also those online spelling tests which are more complicated and are required for job seekers out there especially in data entry positions or clerical slots. Online spelling tests will help you to be prepared and confident during interviews. Typing skills can also be a factor but the mastery and accuracy on words plays a huge factor for most assessments.

This is when you need online spelling tests to improve on your spelling and vocabulary accuracy. This will brush up your spelling by practicing typing accurate the words in the spelling lists. Once you have gained mastery on the words and with the right grammar, it is still important to practice repeatedly and expand on more difficult words to master and spell consistently.

By Dave Poon

Teaching Spelling to Your Kids

Once you see that your child is already good in reading and writing, this could be the perfect time to prepare him with his spelling skills. The way your kid would learn spelling words correctly can be taught using specific pre-learning skills. It is important to practice your child and make him become a competitive reader and confident in spelling words correctly.




At the same time, teaching your child correct spelling should also be followed by teaching him with correct writing. If your child is having a hard time in forming simple words, make an extra effort to teach him how to spell.

You may enroll your child to a spelling program. However, you need to make sure that he has sufficient decoding skills. That means that your kid should be able to read 120 to 200 words per minute using a reading material that is matched according to his age bracket.

Your child’s name is generally the first thing he would learn how to write and spell correctly. Start teaching your child writing his name at an early age. Do this by allowing him to write his name more often. In this way, your child can easily improve in distinguishing alphabet characters.

You can determine his efficiency by counting the numbers of letters or small simple words he wrote. If your child has not met the criteria on the spelling and writing proficiency, you should take time and give extra effort in improving his spelling skills.

Teach your child to spell phonetically simple words. Your child's ability to spell correctly would depend on his ability to say the words that make up phonetically simple words. Make sure that he has enough knowledge on phonics and that he can pronounce each sound or word combinations in a phonetically simple word. After which, he should learn how to write the letters that constitute a certain word that he hears.

Teach him how to spell words that have vowel sounds made up of sound combinations. Simple spelled words that have vowel-like sounds with letter combinations consisting of letter “ee” can be introduced to his lists of words.

Another way of teaching your kid is by introducing words that have rhyming sounds that are also spelled with the same sound combinations. You may introduce four letter words that are included in this class such as tree, free, tear, gear, seal and many more.

Teach your kid to spell morphographs. They are words that may have root words, prefixes or suffixes. When the words are used in spelling, even a limited number of morphographs can create thousands of words. Using these words can teach your child to analyze and identify words. By identifying a word would also enhance his spelling skills.

There are many ways to teach your child to spell words correctly. Start with the basic and do not push him to what he cannot yet do. Always remember to be patient and take extra time to pay attention to your kid's spelling lessons. Prepare your child early so that he would not have a hard time learning simple words he can spell and eventually explore more complicated words in the future.

By Dave Poon

How to Teach Our Very Youngest at Home

Every parent today is aware of the value of reading aloud to their toddler or preschooler. But did you know that there is a lot more you, as a parent, can do to get your young child ready for all the years of schooling that lie ahead? That there are tips, techniques, and products that can help you assure your child a successful experience in school and in learning? I'd like to share some of these techniques which accelerate thinking and learning in very young children.

First, when you read to your child from a picture book, after you've read the book a couple of times and your child is familiar with the pictures, it is time to get him to focus on relationship between the words you are speaking and the black "squiggles" he sees on the page. So after the second or third reading, when you read the book aloud, run your finger under the words as you read them. This helps the child become aware of the words you are speaking and the symbols he sees on the page. After many readings of the same book, he or she will become aware that for every bunch of symbols on the page, the same sounds are coming out of your mouth. When you go on to another book, she will notice that even in this other book, the symbol that looks like "a" produces the same sound from your mouth. Thus, you have made the connection in the child's brain between a particular symbol and a particular sound. This, of course, is most easily noticed in very short words like "a" and "the". But, with time and repetition, you will find your child beating you to the next word in the story and recognizing those words in newspaper headlines and other written material he finds around the house.

Second, when you teach your young child the alphabet, rather than teaching the letter names, especially with consonants, teach the letter sounds. Then it will be easier for the child to see how the sounds, rather than the letter names, combine into words. This is the basis of phonics.
Third, when it comes to numbers, teach numeric values first rather than the names of the numbers. Show the child different groups of two things together, say two apples, two spoons, two shoes. Then show him groups of three, etc. This makes more sense, especially once the child knows the names of all these objects...the nouns. She then knows that a shoe is a shoe and a spoon is a spoon, so what is the only commonality between the two shoes and the two spoons? That there are two of them. A child who understands numeric value...that is what two represents, what three represents, etc., ...will have a much easier time with mathematic operations because he can visualize the quantity rather than just the numeric symbol when you say "two". Then, it makes perfect sense that "two" plus "two" equals "four".

There are many so-called learning toys and products on the market today for young children, but many of these teach a child to parrot rather than to think. If you are interested in books and software that are both very effective learning tools yet FUN for a child to use, and that also incorporate the ideas mentioned above and many other proven strategies to stimulate critical and logical thinking, please go to http://www.inspirethinking.com for some of the very best of what's available for preschoolers today. All products come with a moneyback guarantee.

By Linda Popolano

Where Is Our Gift of Reading?

All of us receive and give gifts during our life while on mother earth. Some of these gifts become old and torn, others are no longer relevant in our lives as we grow older and some, which we receive are given to others on Christmas or other holidays and occasions. But one gift given to me by my mother and grandmother is still retained. Which is the gift of reading on a regular or consistent basis.




Forward

The reality that more impressions are received from reading than from all other sources combined, is more relevant to me today, than it was in my younger years. I obviously dreamed or thought that all of my fellow human beings also read on a regular basis, that is until a National Endowment for the Arts Survey in 2004 was revisited in light of recent studies which indicate a national decline in math skills, the inability to find well known counties on a map of the world, what seems to be a general decline of ethics or morality in business and with respect to our elderly, defenseless children and so forth.

NEA Survey

While the reasons for a decline in reading are not spelled out in the NEA study and we are left to ponder this decline which is across gender, ethnicity, age and education lines, we can none the less evaluate the decline based upon our own experience by exploring some of the major obstacles to reading on a regular or consistent basis.
Obstacles To Regular or Consistent Reading

Not Reading To Someone

Few pictures will invoke fonder memories of reading or being read too, than a picture of a child in a grandfather's lap, looking up as if to grasp and understand every word uttered, while the grandfather smiles as he reads, in enjoyment a story or nursery rhyme which was read to him as a child, by an adult.

The value of reading to our children was called into question by Jean Piaget, whose research showed children are not ready to learn until the age of six or seven; teaching styles were thought to be the problem and rote was replaced by phonics; brain science was becoming of age and baby speak or talk gained greater acceptance as fact rather than fancy; Sesame Street came to television and our very young associated a visual presentation to learning subject or object; and in our quest for material objects and just getting by, our children were literally forced to find books as a companion to replace the lack of parenting.

While we can either agree or disagree with any or all of what has been presented so far, none of us would discount a value of Lent, which to we Catholics is giving up something like cigarettes, but apply this objective in reverse, by doing something of value we do not do at present, like read. To ourselves, to our children, to an audience and in the process develop diction, self-confidence and a feeling of self worth as a parent and world citizen.

Lack of Oral Tradition

Another picture, which comes to our minds at birthdays and other occasions, is that of a loved one who took the time with children and other adults to recall a mind-boggling story, which we can remember even in our later years. Remember this dear reader. Prior to 900 A.D. the world read aloud until Seymour Simon, the scribe made a discovery, white spaces; Gutenberg elevated manuscript culture to an art form; Sputnik gave us ecology which became an art form; and electronic media forged ahead in western culture, while oral traditions dominate eastern culture, not because books, television or electronic media are not readily available and every society realizes the value of listening to an oral presentation, coupled with visually following along, while reinforcing this process with recital. So why not eliminate an obstacle to reading by revisiting or renewal of oral traditions. Just remember this picture of your grandfather with you sitting on his knee long after he has left mother earth and do what your heart says for you to do.

Drudgery Not Pleasure

A man in the mid 1600s named Antonio di Marco Magliabechi confessed that he could read, comprehend and memorize entire volumes at a rapid rate, yet when we were reading Dick and Jane in the first grade it took hours, the reading list in high school and college took weeks to complete, leaving very little time for actual study or going to the movie show and then we realized the problem. We just read too slowly, did not remember very much of what we had read, what we did remember was not retained from reading until test time. Reading became drudgery not a pleasure, until Evelyn Wood burst upon the scene with a few discoveries, which firmly established speed-reading. Reading at last became a pleasure. While our readers may agree or disagree with what has been written, is there any one of us who would not gladly trade our current reading or not reading habit for one in which we can triple reading speed with the same comprehension or better?

Conclusions

While there are many more obstacles to our friend, reading, this short list is at least an excellent start. Now having said that and written this paper, I must contemplate the reaction to having a published something to read, which just may benefit non- readers who have not been exposed to the value of reading on a regular and continuing basis. Perhaps you dear reader could help by engaging in our oral traditions by telling someone about this article, and then let them read the article and both of you reinforcing by discussion what has been learned. Who really knows, if you give a child or adult the gift of reading, the gift may be the greatest gift given or received. Now let your mind wander and ponder the how and why.

By Denny Lancaster

Five Stages of Reading Development

Learning to read doesn’t just happen. It has to be taught through systematic, organized instruction. Reading is a skill which is built upon through stages and is an ongoing process.
If a stage of reading development has not been learned, students will flounder in their reading ability, which also affects their writing skills. It is imperative that teachers make certain students fully understand each stage of the reading/writing process before they move on to the next level.




Jean Chall, world renowned reading expert and psychologist for fifty years, and past professor emeritus at Harvard University cites her five stages of reading development below:

Stage 0:
Pre-reading Stage: Unsystematic accumulation of understandings about reading between pre-school and kindergarten.

Stage 1:
Initial Reading or Decoding Stage (grades 1-2; Ages 6-7 ) Student’s central task is learning arbitrary letters and associating them with corresponding parts of spoken words. Learner acquires knowledge about reading. Phonics.

Stage 2:
Confirmation, Fluency, Ungluing from Print, Automaticity Stage (grades 2-3; Ages 7-8) Consolidation of what was learned in Stage 1. Requires reading many easy and familiar books for developmental reading. Gradual increase in functional and recreational reading. Common use of the basal readers. Functional reading important - content area texts - here’s where we fail in our attempts to prepare our students. Range of possible recreational reading increases.

Stage 3:
Reading for Learning the New Stage: A First Step (Grades 4-8; ages 9-13) Readers need to bring prior knowledge to their reading. Children acquire facts.

Stage 4:
Multiple Viewpoints Stage: (High School; Ages 14-18) Should include instruction in reading/study skills, and reading strategies for success.

Stage 5:
Construction & Reconstruction Stage: College ; Ages 18 & up) Adult literacy should stress acquisition of skills useful to the participants and the ability to apply those skills.

These are the stair steps of reading development. They are built upon and climbed, as students grow in their literacy development. Sometimes students get stuck in one of the stages. It's my job as a literacy specialist to "unstick" them so they can move on to the next phase and beyond, empowering them to become enthuiastic readers and writers.

By Pamela Beers

A Reading Program for Your Child or Yourself

Could your child benefit from a reading program? Do they struggle in school due to lack of skills? Or do you just want them to get a little bit of a head start on their reading skills? Maybe you are interested in a speed reading program for yourself. Whatever the reason you have for looking into additional reading helps; there are a multitude of resources available to you.

1. Tutoring is probably the most expensive option for a reading program that you can get. Whether you get a private tutor or go to a tutoring center, it will cost quite a bit of money. However, it will probably be money that is well-spent. If your child is struggling, the one on one attention and additional assessments could make all the difference in their future reading success. This type of reading program is generally used by children or teenagers. Some even offer guarantees of success.
   
2. A home based reading program is something that you may have seen advertised on TV, in a magazine, or even online. They can be used for young children who are just learning to read, or they can be speed reading courses for teens and adults. Often they include items such as computer programs and games, books, flash cards, videos, and lessons. They may seem to be a bit expensive, but if they work then they are well worth the cost. This is good reading program for those parents and students who are more self-motivated.
   
3. An online reading program can be anything from a simple computer game to practice phonics and naming letters and sounds, to a whole online reading program to teach speed reading. You will find some that are completely free and others that charge a regular subscription rate. This is an excellent way for children to strengthen skills they are just learning in a fun and entertaining way. For speed reading, some courses promise success in just a few hours or days.
   
4. Check for free community resources. Many libraries and bookstores offer programs to readers of all ages. You can read for time or you may be asked to read a certain number of books and then you can be given a prize or entered in drawings. This is a common practice over summer vacation. It is a fun way to keep kids and adults reading while school is out so that those skills are not lost.

By Eriani Doyel

Learn With Music

We all feel it – the pressure to fit in all of those extra-curricular activities for our children. We drive halfway to the moon and back and yet still need to keep the fridge stocked and provide for a stimulating environment to support our children’s education.

I finally found my secret tool! Kindergarten teachers know it, homeschoolers know it, even monks in the middle ages used it for memorization – and now we know it! Educational songs with curriculum ranging from math facts, phonics, geography and even history. My children just sing along, have fun and don’t even know they are learning facts that will help them later in school. And all I have to do is press play on our CD player. We listen in the car and at home.




Songs that teach are a natural way to learn. Music is fun! Everyone loves music. It is something the whole family can listen to together. Parents and children can sing along - even dance. My own proof is that I can still remember many skip counting songs I heard as a child. And what about the alphabet? Quick - what letter comes before P? Did you just sing part of the alphabet song to find it? Advertisers know the power of learning through music; they use it when they create their jingles. They know that when we remember those catchy tunes we also remember their product.

The power of music is far reaching. Rhythm and music make it easy to remember facts and music can help you memorize them faster. Current neurological research validates that music helps in retention. Researchers have also drawn connections between learning and the arts. For example, a study at Columbia University confirmed that children exposed to the arts develop many important life skills associated with success. Music is even used successfully in therapy for stroke and Alzheimer's patients.

Educational music adds variety to any curriculum. Many of the music CDs we’ve found have visual booklets to follow along or free worksheets to download from the internet. It’s the perfect way to get the repetition you need to teach what normally would be boring memorization facts.
There are other benefits as well. Learning with music can be especially beneficial for a child who is an auditory learner. Listening to music is something children can do besides watching hours of television and playing computer games. Music can be played in the background during activities like drawing or doing chores. Listeners develop an appreciation for music. Listening and learning together brings families closer and even Mom and Dad can learn something too.

So why not use music to help us learn? It’s enjoyable, pleasant and easy to use. Learning new topics will help give your child a head start on new topics at school and boost their confidence. Music with a purpose fits so well in our busy lifestyles. There is googols to learn and all you have to do is listen!

By Susan Jarema

The Benefits of Music for Your Child

As I sit here writing, I can hear in the background my children humming and singing while they play. My four year old son is trying to make up his own rhyming lyrics to a melody he’s made up on the piano and my six year old daughter is reading the lyrics for a song she is practicing for a concert.




Music has had such an impact on our lives. And I know it comes in most part from the simple task of playing children’s music during our day. Together we listen, sing along, dance and even read the lyrics.

For babies and young children music is a wonderful way to learn language and new vocabulary. And they love it. I have never met a young child that doesn’t love music.

Listening to music with your children can create a stimulating atmosphere for your home. Different music can be used to evoke different moods and can be used to create different environments in your home.

When my children were babies, I used to play calm classical music before bedtime. Even now we play classical music when they do art (or when I need a some peace and quiet). At other times we use livelier music to encourage creative movement, development of rhythm, dancing and singing along with. I don’t think we could survive a long car ride without one of our favorite cds.

I have also found music very beneficial for their education. Through music, children (and adults alike) are able to more easily memorize facts. Songs can be used to learn phonics rules, math facts, lifestyle skills and so much more. We now try to find music that teaches about topics the kids are interested in. And I find myself having the opportunity to relearn many subjects including Spanish.

Early exposure to a variety of musical styles can help develop a life long appreciation of music. When your children are young, you as the parent have the opportunity to influence positively the music that the family purchases. You can introduce many different styles and topics before their peers take over in later years.

The greatest benefit of music is that it allows us as a family to spend quality time together. Music is an entertaining alternative to television. With music playing in the background we can still have conversations, read or do other activities. For some strange reason my children seem to quarrel less when their music is playing. We’ll often sing along to lively songs while we fold the laundry and tidy up. Music can be played while we bake cookies or craft. Unlike excessive television which can sometimes distract from our time together, music is something that we can all share together, enhances our home life and promotes family time.

Nowadays there are so many exceptional children’s artists and variety of albums to choose from. It can almost be overwhelming. Fortunately, the internet now allows us the luxury of being able to easily search for music, learn about the artist, read reviews and listen to samples of their work. The following select websites listed below will give you a great start. Good luck, have fun together and allow your child to grow up loving music!

By Susan Jarema

Meeting National Standards with Integrated Curriculum, Differentiated Learning

In trying to implement the "No Child Left Behind" Act, schools are scrambling to standardize their curriculum and upgrade their instruction to make sure students can pass achievement tests mandated by the Act. In order to fit all the instruction and other demands of childhood education into the day, many schools have resorted to "teaching to the test," shortening lunch period, and cutting back on or even eliminating recess.




There are better ways to provide the instruction that students need without relying on boring drills or lengthening an already demanding school day. For years, savvy teachers have been integrating the curriculum - using high-quality children's literature to teach phonics and other basic reading skills; combining reading and art lessons with history, social studies, science, and math; and relying on the concepts of multiple intelligences theory and differentiated learning to reach every child.

The availability of high-quality children's literature has never been greater. Children's book publishers are providing rich collections of compelling stories that reflect the increasingly diverse world of today's primary and middle school students. Educational publishers are also offering colorfully illustrated, engaging books and periodicals on a wide variety of subjects designed to meet today's national curriculum standards.

For years dedicated teachers have known about and used multiple intelligences theory in their classrooms. Harvard graduate school professor Howard Gardner proposed in his 1983 book Frames of Mind that human beings learn by use of seven different intelligences - verbal, logical-mathematical, musical, visual-spatial, tactile kinesthetic, and inter- and intrapersonal. He later suggested that more intelligences exist, among them naturalistic intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and something he referred to as "existential" intelligence. Teachers quickly latched onto this concept to provide a variety of learning experiences in their classrooms involving these intelligences.

In addition, they've geared their teaching methods to children functioning at a variety of developmental and intellectual levels. The combination of multiple intelligences theory and individualized learning opportunities has in recent years been formalized as differentiated or differential learning. Differentiated learning allows for targeted instruction that will teach children the basics needed to meet state and national requirements while providing support for slower learners and enrichment for learners at all levels. A wealth of materials for both multiple intelligences theory and differentiated learning is available to help teachers structure a supportive classroom environment for all their students.

The demands of the "No Child Left Behind" Act don't have to result in developmentally inappropriate expectations or rigid scheduling for our children. Schools can use many creative, child-friendly techniques that will help students of all ages meet learning standards while retaining their carefree, fun-loving kid status.


By Aldene Fredenburg

Growing Socialization in Home Education

Let me mention the subject of Home Schooling. What thought immediately comes to mind? There have always been many views of home schooling. There are varieties of opinions ranging from great parents to troublemakers. Most of the negative thoughts of home schooling are based on rumors and preconceived ideas. Out of all thoughts about home schooling, socialization is one of the first things that come to mind. The most debated topic among home schoolers and non-home schoolers is this issue of adequate socialization for home schooled children. Some think that home schoolers do not get enough socialization. They feel since the children are home for school this makes the child become socially deprived. Home schooled children are not socially deprived.

As a home schooling parent, and from my personal experience my children are more social at times than I am. Many studies support the home school academic benefit, but what about social aspect? Are home schoolers missing proper socialization? Is there a right solution for the socialization problem? Is there a socialization problem at all? With the growth of home schoolers seen recently are we bound to have future generations of socially deprived misfits?
What is home schooling anyway? Why is the choice a debated topic? Is it just a passing trend? Home schooling is home education. This educational decision is a parents' choice and right to teach his or her children one on one at home. This option is legal in all fifty states. Home schooling options have grown greatly due to many accredited curriculum providers targeting the large growing market of home schooling. These curriculum companies are providing parents with easy, different and even customized options for home schooling.

Home schooling just trend right? No. In 1999, the National Center for Education Statistics reported an estimated 850,000 students nationwide were being home schooled (10). The numbers are estimated to grow due to the popularity and the knowledge of home school benefits being explored. More parents are taking the home school route for the safety and academic achievements of their children. Home education is nothing new; it has been around for years. According to Home4schoolgear.com the famous Artist Leonardo Di Vinci, and Inventors Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison and few presidents of prestigious colleges were home educated along with many other famous trailblazers (Home4schoolgear.com). Only in recent years has home education been media news. Home schooling as shown its solid foundation in successful results through time. Still there are those that have debated the choice of home education.

Home education has grown so much that most cities have home school groups for support, courses, activities and much more. There is also Home School Legal Defense Association to support families with home school legal issues. There are home schooling magazines, clothing and more. Will the growth of home schooling have an effect on public schools? Some feel that home schooling directly effects the public schools. There have been arguments that home schooling can have an effect on public schools in positive or a negative ways.

Paul T. Hill, author of “How Home Schooling Will Change Public Education” says, “Home schooling limits public school enrollments, therefore it reduces the money provided to school districts. Home schooling also reduces growth in public schools, and decreases the pressure for new buildings and staffs”(Hill). The concern of money for public schools has been a raising issue for years. Home schooling does not have a major effect on it. The problem of public school money issues is caused by a number of factors other than home schooling. There have been various news reports of public school officials misusing the money, and the debates to cut unnecessary cost and create better options for public schools. From a concerned parents’ point of view the issue of money in public schools is not a brow raising reason to choose public schooling. For the quality of education provided at home government, money is no comparison.
Socialization is one highly debated topic for home schoolers. As a home schooling parent, I often answer socialization questions. “You can’t mention home education without the s’ word coming up,” says Doug Phillips, director of Federal Relations at the National Center for Home Education (3). People usually question the socialization because they do not under stand how home school works. Many feel that home schoolers do not socialize with their peers so they become “weird” or sociably immature. Although the stereotypes are heard and believed, parents are still choosing to home school their children for reasons reflecting the quality of socialization in public schools, such as peer pressure, violence, sexual harassment and many other problems.

David Wagner says, “In the seventies, Christians home schooled because secular values being promoted in schools. In the eighties, parents home schooled for no particular religious belief. Others are trying to drop out of the prevailing culture”(3). We chose to home school our children because of the poor quality of public schools in the area we lived in. We also saw frequent news reports of school incidents involving violence and even sexual acts. We saw the advantage of instilling morals and values with the use of home education that was not available in public schools. We liked the academic freedom of choice to including subjects forbidden at the public schools.

While socialization was a factor, our decision to home school was not based only on creating a social safe haven for our children, but rather allowing them to excel academically and having the advantage of academic freedom. Despite the reasons for home schooling, it is the parents’ deliberate choice to remove their child from public school social settings as they see fit. Considering that thought, Dennis Helming, an education writer, believes the most miss the point of whether the protection of children from bad influences can cause a backlash to rebellion (3).
I have found this false among home schooling teenagers. All of the home schooled teenagers I have observed and interacted with are pleasant and responsible. They see the danger in rebellion, and choose not to indulge in it. Home schooling parents also do not hide what they are protecting their children from; rather they take the approach to show them what they are keeping them from. Children naturally wanting to be safe, if given a choice usually end up choosing not to be around things that cause them harm such as peer pressure and violence. Aimee Howd, a home schooled child and author of Confessions of a home-schooled kid says, “Home schooling was once considered a choice for the antisocial but home school achievers are challenging the old stereotypes”(3).

Yes, most home schooled children do spend a lot of time at home, however it does not mean the door is barred shut and the child is forbidden to see anyone. As home schooling parents having the natural need to enjoy adult communication, that is not a desired option! The socialization provided to home schoolers is broader than the public schools can allow. While public schooled children are confined to their peers, a teacher and a classroom home schooled children are traveling and learning by visiting museums, and other educational centers.

Simply going to the grocery store is a lesson in teaching social manners, mathematics, nutrition, and more. Most home schooled children are involved in different activities and community groups. Randal Rockney, author of The Home Schooling Debate: Why Some Parents Choose It, Others Oppose It reports that 90 percent of home schooled children spent more than 20 percent per month in organized community activities (3). I have found that many including my own children are in various different extra curricular groups, which also is a supplement to education.

For instance during the school year our local home schooling group has a coop called Masters Lyceum this is a program with a variety of classes from ballet to science. Every Friday morning, we get dressed and head off to school like the public schooled children. Many children and parents participate in the coop. Children have their own class schedule for each semester. The Masters Lyceum is used as a time for our children get together to learn, to be a part of a group, and learn from other adults. During the summer our children are enrolled in a number of community fun programs like any other child.

Rockney also says, “Children tend to be less segregated by age when involved in home schooling activities.” (3). My children are around children of all ages. It allows them to mature in their communication. My children have friends in various grades, which allow them to socialize on different levels. They learn social boundaries by being around a mixed group of children. Nancy Gibbs, author of Home Sweet School: Seeking Excellence, Isolation, Or Just Extra “Family Time,” says, “ Home School parents agree that the socialization in public schools is not all healthy, it may be competitive, intimidating and violent (4).

I personally do not think that public school socialization is all bad, but I do think that the majority of socialization in public school is improper and stressful for children and therefore unhealthy. When a child comes home crying about the treats of bullies, it causes an entire home to be effected in some way. It is potentially disastrous in the future. We have seen this as one of the causes in the increase of violence in public schools. Who can ever forget the traumatic event of Columbine? There are tons of talk shows with disturbed adults confronting their childhood bullies. This is not the socialization I want my children to experience.

Despite personal debatable views, let us look at the research conducted on home schoolers. Most research studies conducted for finding out if home schoolers are socially equal to non-home schoolers have had different methods, yet similar conclusions. Very few recently conclude differently. In 1984, Tisard and Huges studied 4 year olds at home and in public schools. They stated that home schooled children could not learn how to get along with other children, to be a member of a group, to separate from their families and to relate and communicate with strange adults (Van Galen 6). Our home schooling coop alone proves this statement untrue. This provides all of the educational needs that Tisard and Huges argued that home schooling parents could not provide.

It seems that times have changed, in a 1992 study on home school socialization was reported in a 299-page thesis written by Larry Edward Shyers. Dr. Shyers measured the self-esteem of 70 home schooled children, compared it with 70 traditionally schooled children, and found no significant difference in the groups. Dr. Shyers looked at how home schooled children treated other children by direct observation, using a “blind” procedure, found that home-schooled children had significantly fewer problem behaviors than traditionally schooled children did when playing in mixed groups of children did. Dr. Shyers concluded that contact with adults, rather than contact with other children, is most important in developing social skills in children.
This is not surprising because our children are more likely to be in a social setting with a mixed group than those public schooled children are. They in the “real world” environment on more frequent bases than their public schooled peers. Thomas Smedley completed a similar experimental design. His study evaluated communication skills, socialization, and daily living skills. Smedley found that the home-schooled children were more mature scoring in the 84th percentile, while the public school children scored in the 27th percentile (Bunday 9). While home schooled children are home they learn daily living skills more often than public schooled children do. Larger families have the children in the family all coordinate to work together and learn life skills and communication skills. It is an advantage to a child being taught one on one to grasp communication, daily life skills and socialization.

Brian D. Ray, Ph.D., produces another research finding in a book he wrote. The findings in this book concluded that the negative critics have claimed that home schooling makes weak adults have no solid foundational facts. The book reports that the adults who were home schooled were much more civically involved in the United States. Adults who were home educated express viewpoints or beliefs that is about as strong as that of the general public (10). Adults who were home schooled have the same socialization status or higher than those there were not home schooled. We have seen this proven in our listing of famous adults and other trailblazers in our society. They could not make a difference in our world without being strong adults.

We have heard from the researchers, and personal opinions from parents, but what about the children? In an article written by Lisa Russell, she tells of her public schooled days “I found the phonics and reading lessons to be incredibly boring. Luckily, the girl behind me felt the same way. We would chat back and forth. We were both asked to stay in at recess, and sit quietly in our desks for the entire 25 minutes, because "We are not here to socialize, young ladies." Those words were repeated by just about every teacher I've ever had. If we're not there to socialize, then why were we there? If schools weren't made for socializing, then why on earth would anyone assume that home schoolers were missing out?” (Russell)

I remember myself as being a talker in class. That was my whole reason for going to school! I was told that we were not in school to socialize repeatedly also. These words are repeated in public schools often. Children in public school being told this begin to socialize out of disobedience. Is this proper socialization to teach a child? No. This is not, simply because in the class setting the teacher demands respect, which causes some to rebel and secretly socialize by whispering, or notes to each other. This can cause resentment for teachers and authority among students in the class. This problem could eventually snowball into disrespecting adults and any authority.

From my own personal experience with secretly communicating with my peers, it takes away from listening in class, and puts the priorities out to order for attending public school. Lisa asks the appropriate question in defense of home schoolers missing out. I do not think home schoolers are missing out simply because their day is not a typical day which involves freely socializing on different levels and not just their peers. This then teaches home schoolers to be responsible and mature. Children cannot learn to be responsible and mature while rebelling against their teacher to socialize in a classroom setting. Another young fifteen-year-old home schooled girl named Teresa expresses, “Many people are curious about the average day of a home schooler and are surprised to find out isn't an “average day”.

My family chose homeschooling is to avoid the dull routines that schools create. I usually have lessons with my mom in the morning, take care of my siblings, spend time with other home schoolers in the area, and read. Most importantly, my day belongs to me. I have a quote on my wall in my room, “Learning involves everyone everyday. Learning and living are not separate activities. Learning cannot be contained in place or time” (Teresa). This fifteen-year-old is a good representation of home schoolers. Most of them do not have a regular 8-3 schedule like public school kids. Each home school environment is different. Their days incorporate more of in the real world, more than just a classroom full of peers. It involves many different activities, which allows them to experience more and learn in different ways.

The quote she has on her wall is very true. You can not avoid or confine learning. You can not possibly teach a child everything that is needed to survive in a classroom setting. Yes you can learn academics, but life lessons that you will use as an adult are usually learned while interacting with family outside of a classroom. Socializing with friends is a part of her day because that is natural and a child needs that. It however is not all of her day because sitting a classroom full of children will not teach socialization. I asked my children what they liked about being home schooled and they expressed that they liked the flexibility and not being confined to a classroom.

They explained to me that you could not eat breakfast in a public school at your desk like you could in home schooling. Being twins my daughters liked the fact that they are not forced to separate in to different classes if they are not ready for it and they can be with their little brother. They enjoy teaching their little brother what they have learned. This gives them a sense of importance and responsibility. They did not once say once that they are lacking time with their friends. They have ample time with friends during the week with the Masters Lyceum, church, and other activities.

In my conclusion, I will end with a story posted on an Internet message board, at http://www.homeschoolchristian.com: Posted By: Cat. Date: Tuesday, 3 October 2000, at 9:58 a.m.

This is a scene from a local park about a year and a half ago...(a local park back home!) 2 moms were sitting on a bench not too far from me. They were discussing the "homeschool movement" and how they couldn't see the benefits of homeschooling because of the "S" factor--I WILL NOT say that word! They went on and on about how homeschooled kids wouldn't be able to come to the park and play. They went on and on about how you can identify a homeschooled kid because they tend to be withdrawn...the whole time watching my 3 homeschooled children play quite nicely with their 5 children. Tag, races, pushing each other on the swing. I was soaking it all up. Never once did I say a word.

When it was time to leave, one of the moms thanked my kids for playing so nicely with their kids and asked, "Where do you go to school?" I knew it was our time to shine...Kristin said, "Oh, we homeschool." and turned to walk away, leaving that mom staring at me--because she KNEW I had heard their whole conversation. I nodded and said, "Have a nice day."

Talk about a PRICELESS moment! (Cat)

In my own personal experience, that I have seen home schoolers do not lack socialization. Researching studies support this conclusion. I feel that socialization among home schoolers is potentially more advanced than those isolated to a social settings in public schools. There is a time for socialization and a time not to socialize. Home schooling has provided an opportunity to show my children proper socialization skills for life. Home schooling has many myths; socialization being one that is exposed. Home schoolers will continue to prove the stereotypes wrong.

Works Cited

Bunday, Karl M. Learn in Freedom! Research on Home schooling Socialization Socialization: A Great Reason Not to Go to School.1999. 29 May 2004 .

Cat.“ "Socialization" Stories” Homeschooledchristian.com 3 Oct 2000, 7 June 2004 .

“Famous Home schoolers” Famous People who were Homeschooled. 2004. Home4schoolgear.com 29 May. 2004 .

Gibbs, Nancy. “Home sweet school: seeking excellence, isolation, or just extra “family time,” more and more parents are doing the teaching themselves.” Time 144:18 (1994) 62+.

Expanded Academic ASAP Infotrac. U of Missouri., St.Louis. 27 May 2004 .
Hill, Paul T. “How Home Schooling Will Change Public Education” Hoover Digest, Summer 2000. 28 May 2004 .

“Home schooling in the United States 1999.” 2 Oct 2001 National Center for Education Statistics. 29 May 2004

Howd, Aimee. “Confessions of a home-schooled kid.” Insight on the News 14.33 (1998): 18+. Expanded Academic ASAP. Infotrac. U of Missouri., St.Louis. 27 May 2004 .

Ray, Brian D., Ph.D. Home Educated and Now Adults: Their Community and Civic Involvement, Views About Homeschooling, and Other Traits. Nashville: Broadman & Holman: 2003.

Rockney, Randal. “The home schooling debate: why some parents choose it, others oppose it.” Insight on the News 18:2 (2002): 3+. Expanded Academic ASAP. Infotrac. U of Missouri., St.Louis. 27 May 2004 .

Robertson, Brian. “Is home schooling in a class of its own?” Insight on the News 10.42 (1994): 6+. Expanded Academic ASAP. Infotrac. U of Missouri., St.Louis. 27 May 2004 .

Russell, Lisa. “No Thank You, We Don't Believe in Socialization!” TnHomeEd.com 29 May 2004 .
Theresa, “Homeschool Girl” In focus TeenWire.com 21 Sept 2001, 7 June 2004 .

Van Galen, Jane , ed Homeschooling: Political, Historical, and Pedagoical Perpsectives. Norwood: Ablex Publishing, 1991.

About the Author: Tawanna is a Home Schooling mother of identical Twin girls. She is a freelance graphic designer, and writes articles on homeschooling and graphic, and web design.

Visit her sites at http://www.tsmiles.com and http://www.geocities.com/homeschooledmultiples/

By Tawanna McDonald