Feed Your Brain! Summer Reading Program

We all know that the more kids are read to, the better readers they will be! Why not make this summer a time to dedicate to reading with your child at least 15 minutes a day? Here’s an extra incentive — Half Price Books’ annual Feed Your Brain Summer Reading Program starts up on June 1, 2009. Download their reading log, and keep track of how many minutes your child reads or is read to each day. Turn in your child’s completed log weekly through July 31, and your child will receive a $3 gift card to Half Price Books each week! If you can convince your little one to save those gift cards, he/she will have quite a stockpile at the end of the summer. If the cards are just burning a hole in his/her pocket, you may want to consider heading toward the kids’ section of the store to see which of the hundreds of books appeal to your child. If you’re new to shopping at Half Price Books, you’ll be amazed at their prices — $3 can go a long way!

To get you started, stop by Half Price Books this long holiday weekend to enjoy an extra 20% off EVERYTHING. Thursday – Monday, May 21 – 25 is a great time to pick up that first book to kick off your summer of reading.

Find a Half Price Books near you.

Table of Contents: guide to the good stuff

Recently I’ve noticed that many of our favorite children’s book collections have been reprinted as compilations. Not only do these larger books save shelf space, they also provide a great new tool… a table of contents! This is the section of a book that most people tend to overlook, but it is actually a fabulous place to stop and spend some time with your child.

Rather than just flipping through the book to find your child’s choice of bedtime story, take the time to read through the table of contents together. Explain that the table of contents is like a map for the book — it helps you figure out where you want to go, and tells you how to get there.

One of our favorites is “A Treasury of Curious George” by Margret and H.A. Rey. Every time we read this book, we open to the table of contents and figure out what story to read. This book is a great one to use for introducing how to use the table of contents because it not only lists the titles of the stories, but also has a small illustration to go with each.

After choosing the story, ask your child to read the number that is next to the story title in the table of contents. This is a great opportunity to work on number recognition, especially in this book since there are over 100 pages in it. Explain that that number is the page number for the story. Show your child how the number listed next to the title matches the page number you need to find in the book; you can liken it to a treasure map, with the story of choice being the treasure!

Ask your child to find the chosen story in the book by using the page numbers, and not just flipping haphazardly through the book. This will eventually help your child to compare numbers when searching for the right page. You can guide your child through the thought process of, “Is the number I’m looking for smaller than or bigger than (less than or greater than) the number on the page in my hand?”

The possibilities for learning are endless! And to think, most people tend to flip right past the table of contents to get to the “good stuff!”

Making the connection: animals are real

To us adults, the connection between the illustrations of animals in books and the real thing – i.e. they really exist – is completely obvious. However, I ask you to put yourself in the shoes of a child who has never seen anything beyond a cat or dog in “real life.” This may be exactly where a 1-year-old child fits in. The next time you head to the zoo, petting farm, museum, or any other place you know you’re going to see animals beyond the domesticated ones you may have at home, bring along one of your child’s favorite animal books. Pretty much any of the Eric Carle books are great for this. I know a 1-year-old who is crazy about Eric Carle’s “From Head to Toe” book — the one with a gorilla on the cover.  This is a great book to take to the zoo so that your little one can make the connection between his colorful illustrations and the real animals in front of his or her eyes. I can only imagine the wonder a child might experience the first time he or she makes the connection between that gorilla, elephant, monkey, crocodile, or penguin. And, to make this approach work, you have to remember to put that book in your child’s hands and spend the time to show him or her the page that matches up with each of the “real life” animals you visit. Go ahead, make the “ooh! ooh!” sound for the gorilla as you thump your chest, point to the illustration in the book, and point to the real gorilla who is sitting eye-to-eye in front of you at the zoo… You know you want to!