Pages

Recent Posts

Archives

Sponsors

Jun
10

Broccoli Versus Books – Eat You Kid’s Books

By childrensgst

We all know that reading is excellent for children, like eating your vegetables. Sometimes, they don’t want to do either. Oh no! not broccoli! Or worse yet, having to read a book about broccoli. So, are vegetables really excellent for you? Is reading really excellent for you? Of course, children do get some nutritional value from vegetables, but I am not so sure about soggy peas.

But, we (all of us) do learn a lot from reading—it does indeed improve vocabulary and give us a solid foundation for excellent communication skills. We can also learn much about the world in general and perhaps make us more savvy consumers. Have you every noticed that those phishing scams and the Nigerian advance fee fraud letters, have nearly comical grammar? I occasionally get a “hotmail alert” in my inbox… upon examination; you find typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors. I feel confident that MSN would proofread their messages, as would Bank of America, Western Union and a host of others. Thanks to some reading expertise, most of us can catch these errors and hopefully recognize the message for what it is… some barely literate scammer wanting to take your money. By the way, in case you are wondering how they do this—often their message attempt to prey upon our greed and claim to have millions of dollars (or Euros) and will gladly share a part with you. Really, they are probably sitting in an internet café in Lagos, hoping to lead you along and then when some “problem” occurs let you know that in order to send you your share, he must pay an official say $50. After a while there are more and more fees… the average scam is around $1200—they try to lead you along. You can READ more about this process at www.scamarama.com — Lot’s of humor at their expense but under the circumstances, which only seems honest.

Ok, my point?? If you are an experienced reader, you can 1) easily spot the terrible grammar, but 2) most importantly, you have become somewhat “street smart” from reading about these types of things.

So what can books do? Feel free to add to the list:
• Entertain
• Educate
• Enlighten
• Expand one’s world…yes there is life outside Walla Walla Washington,
• Etc.

What if you have a reluctant reader? Many things can help. I would recommend, having reading time with you (parent) doing the reading. It is not only a fantastic bonding activity, but also sends that message that reading is not just a school activity. You might even take turns reading an age appropriate book—or read the first part of the tale and leave them the book to end on their own. What do they want to read? What you want them to read? Not likely? Nothing? What are they interested in? There are truckloads of children’s books to choose from… check the library, local bookstore or on line (here’s a plug for Lunchpail Books ).

Maybe something fun? Jokes, riddles, fun Poems like Shel Silverstein (“Where the Sidewalk Ends”; “Light in the Attic”. Etc.) Graphic Novels? (Age appropriate of course). To improve my knowledge and comprehension of conversational Spanish, I picked up a volume of Condorito—a well loved comic strip in Latin America. It made it fun—in order to “get” the joke, I had to know the words—worked well.

Perhaps, something…ahem… more adolescent? “Walter, the Farting Dog”, “The Gas We Pass” and so forth. While most Moms may find this juvenile or even disgusting—the adolescent in us (and I reckon perhaps the adolescent boys the most) find this topic riveting. I am working on a book, “There’s Poo On My Shoe”(POMS)… Pretty basic—introducing contractions in this book, that way older readers may find it cool and less juvenile. Not sure if teachers will like it… my daughter, who is a teacher, felt that if she were to read POMS out loud that every time she read the word “poo” the class would giggle and it may be hard to get through the tale without losing control of the class. On the other hand, normally reluctant readers may really delight in reading such an “irreverent” subject on their own.

If gas and other gastrointestinal topics are not for you, you may wish to find tales that have some anticipatory elements—in other words, “got to turn the page, to see what happens next!”

Anyway, see what works for you and your family… leave a comment here with your thoughts… all are welcome.

Warm Regards,
Johnnie Lunchpail
http://www.lunchpailbooks.com

Fetch vital info about the topic of working with children – make sure to study the web site. The times have come when proper information is really only one click of your mouse, use this chance.

A Childrens Book Blog

Categories : Buy Kids Books

Leave a Reply

Security Code: