Getting the Most from Your 20-MINUTE Reading Time

When leaving the school where I volunteer tutor, on their electrical sign out front, it said, "Read 20 minutes a day." From my viewpoint sitting in the car, it looked like it said, "Read 2D minutes a day."

I thought about that a minute. When we read, it IS in 2D. A flat page. But, it's important to work with your children and get them to lift the words off of a 2D page and magically turn it into a 3D image in their mind. It's better when children are little to read slower and allow the kids to imagine a bit about what they are reading. Ask them questions about the scenes they are reading; "What color do you think that is; how big is the whatever, or how high did it fly. You get the idea.

See what happens if you pause and let your child interject his/her ideas into the story. I believe it will help not only with their imagination and enjoyment of it, but also with their comprehension; and in the future, their writing abilities.

Play Games Where Light Reading is Required

My husband and I are out here in Indianapolis with our son. Last night his friend came over and brought a game; Apples to Apples. It was fun and easy. But, it made me think that another great way to mix reading and fun is to play games that require some light reading for your kids. If you know of any such games, please comment on them. I will also keep my eyes open when I get to a store.

One game I do know of that children like to do are "Word Searches." If you can't find a simple enough one, it's easy to make your own.

Another one you can make yourself is what I am just making up right now, but there probably is a similar thing you can buy. I'm going to call it "Silly Sentences." Make your own word strips with a "noun," a "verb," an "article," and an "adjective." Write up several and have them choose one of each to make a "Teeny, Tiny Story."

Refresher on the above terms:
Noun: a person, place or thing - (teacher, school, book, etc.) Also any names of people or places
Verb: an action word (walk, dance, study, etc.)
Article: "a" and "the"
Adjective: anything that describes something - (colors, sizes, hard or soft, light or dark, etc.)

Sample story: The purple giant danced!
(for the verbs, can use all forms - dance; danced; dancing)

To make even more interesting stories for this game, you may want to add "prepositions."
Preposition: over, under, by, in, out, on, off. To know if it's a preposition, imagine a box and think where you could put a toy in relation to this box, and that word is a preposition!

Now, if we played with prepositions, our story above could be made longer by adding a preposition and another adjective and noun.

The purple giant danced in the tall, gray, rocky cave!

Above, all three descriptive words are adjectives: tall, gray and rocky. Your little ones are not too young to learn some of these English terms as they are learning how to read. Not all of them at once, of course. I would start with nouns, they are the easiest to identify.

Doreese

Song "To Believe" Will Lift Your Spirits!

This is not anything directly about learning how to read, but I found it to be such a touching and moving message through song that the whole world n eeds to hear. It brings some hope to all of us no matter what circumstances weare in or what things we are trying to teach our children. It helps us look at the bigger picture of the world, and why we are spending so much time nurturing and teaching our little ones to be good, honest, caring people.

This song, "To Believe," will lift your spirits and give you courage to go out there and continue doing what you do day after day. I LOVE this little girl and her sweet personality and talents. Enjoy!

Doreese

http://video.staged.com/preacher/jackie_evancho_to_believe

"Toddler Learning Alphabet" Video Continues to Spread!

I just wanted to thank all of you for continuing to talk up the See abc's reading program.

This little video of my grandson has just reached over 1,500 views!!! I let you know when it got to 1,000, and then have been waiting for this next milestone to tell you how excited I am about it still being circulated! You can visit our youtube channel for more short tutorials on handwriting and beginning reading.

www.youtube.com/user/seeabcs

See abc's® - How Toddlers Learn the Alphabet

www.youtube.com

Doreese

Unusual Place to Practice Reading!

My little 5-year old granddaughter brought her sister's ipod into the kitchen to play some songs. She was reading all of the titles as they came up. I said, "Wow! I didn't know you could read such big words!" A few seconds later she said, "It's because of you reading with me."

I wanted to yell, "Wahoo!" because I now know that the extra time I spend with her in my "See abc's" reading books on top of her Kindergarten homework is really making a difference for her! But, it was wonderful to have her validate it to herself.

Doreese

Pre-K; Start See abc's Reading Program RIGHT NOW!!!

See abc's Reading Program I shared this a while ago, but felt it was worthy of re-emphasizing the need to begin early. Because, if you have a child that is entering Kindergarten next fall, you should begin RIGHT NOW to make it a point to read every single day! Of course there will be those days where it will not be possible. But, if you will make it your goal to read 20-30 minutes a day with your pre-k child, you should be able to finish the entire See abc's reading program before Kindergarten starts. This is the ideal way to do it. And, it's not that hard!

Now read what Chris Nethercott has to say about her son:

"I taught my son to read before Kindergarten using Doreese Severe's See ABC's reading program. He took off and has enjoyed reading ever since. This year, in 1st grade, my son is reading at a 3.4 grade level and is the top reader in his class. He's in his own reading group because he is so far ahead! When his teacher asked how he is doing so well, I passed on the See ABCs sampler to her. Thanks for a ...great program Doreese! I am now working with my 4 year old getting her ready for school too! I'm sold on this teaching method!" - Chris Nethercott

Way to go to Oliver and his mother Chris for helping him! How would you like to have your very own reading class?! People worry that if their child learns to read early, they are going to be too smart and get bored. Not the case! They just keep getting smarter and smarter!!! This was way back on Nov. 19, 2011. I need to check in with her again and see how things are progressing.

Doreese

How Do I Reinforce My Child's Reading Progress?

Here's a simple, but huge self-esteem building tip when reading with your beginning reader.

As a child is learning how to read, they struggle, struggle through each word and sentence and it is difficult for them to put the greatness of the accomplishment they have just made in perspective; when to themselves, they are only hearing halted, choppy words and sentences. So, after they have finished, say, "Now I will read back to you what you have just read so that you can hear what a great job you have just done!" Add some expression to it, then follow it up with a big compliment for them having read such a cool story!

You will be amazed at how this one, simple thing will make them see that they are truly making progress, and becoming a great reader! Often, they even completely miss the main message of what they are reading, but when you read it back to them with some excitement in your voice, they will think, "Wow! Is that really what I just read? I'm doing better than I thought. And, that really was a neat story!"

If all they get out of their reading time with you are a bunch of choppy words and sentences, then, yes, they will not think reading is very fun, or that they are any good at it. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

Doreese