Yesterday, my kids and I walked to our neighborhood library. Honestly, the books selected were not on any reading list, but were "just right" books that were of great interest to each of the kids. We got lucky-this time.
My seven-year-old son is in a bit of a Star Wars phase. He's reading as many Star Wars books as he can find on the shelves. Considering the popularity of the topic, and the fact that he's never seen the movies, it's a schema building thing for him. He has to learn about the characters, plot, setting and their interrelatedness to keep up with his friends who caught onto this Star Wars phase much sooner!
For my five-year-old daughter, it was princess books (for me to read to her) and those with few words on the page (for her to read to herself). She knows about 20 words and is just starting to read. One of her loves is to hear a book a few times and then read it to herself once it’s memorized. This is the beginning stages of reading and I foster this behavior. Asking her to touch the words as she reads them is the step I encourage her to take so she can learn one-to-one correspondence (the word I see, say, and touch are all the same and have meaning). She left the library with her arms full- excited and ready to try out her reading skills.
While motivating my son to choose and read books can feel like torture at times, the kids didn’t need any extra help other than reaching them off of the higher shelves. Fortunately, they just “lucked” into books on this trip to the library. (Yes, that does happen on occasion!) I did, however, check out some of the links posted on the Summer Reading Book List Links to choose a couple of titles to read aloud to each child- because you’re never too old to be read to. To me Summer Reading is not only about the kids picking books up and reading to themselves, but it’s also about parents/guardians reading to them. Reading and talking about books creates a common bond that just can’t be topped.
What books did you or your child pick?