babble » blogs » Strollerderby
Strollerderby
Worried your kids will lose newly learned reading skills over summer break? Target and Search Institute, a Minneapolis nonprofit, have partnered up to provide parents and kids with creative reading tips to last the whole summer long.
Just click on the Play + Learn tab on Target’s Facebook page to find new creative tips through the month of July.
Here are a few to get you started:
It’s been well-documented that children who are read to on a regular basis become better readers themselves and do better in school. But new research indicates that if you want your child to be highly educated, don’t just read the books, collect the books. Continue reading »
We love the Newbury and Caldecott awards–but when kids vote themselves on the books they love, you get two things: books your own kids are almost bound to enjoy themselves, and proof positive that kids care–ferociously–about books, literature and reading. If you think extreme popularity removes a book or its author from the “literature” category, then you won’t like the choice of the 115,000 kids who voted online for Author of the Year (but, with 39 New York Times bestsellers to his credit, I’ll bet you’ve read one of his books)–but I disagree: in my mind, anything that immerses you in its pages is a literary experience.
For the Author of the Year (plus the best book choices for K-2, 3-4th graders, 5-6th graders and teens), read on.
For almost 20 years, The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has been collecting data on books for children that have drawn formal complaints and requests for removal from public libraries and schools. These books are those that readers, usually parents and teachers, find inappropriate for their target audience.
Last year, the OIF, which is charged with educating librarians and the general public about the importance of intellectual freedom in libraries, received 460 reports of complaints. This number likely represents only about 25% of the complaints that actually occurred, as many go unreported.
The list of challenged books includes lots of familiar titles old and new. Did any of your kid’s favorites make the Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2009? Continue reading »
I remember watching an old movie with my father — I think it starred Jimmy Stewart — about an FBI agent and thinking, as agents slipped into phone booths during a manhunt at a ballgame, about how different the world was given the technological advances we’d seen since the movie was made. No longer are secret agents searching out payphones; even the most humdrum Walter Mitty type has a relatively powerful cell phone. But do such devices really have a place in education? There are those who believe the answer is a decisive “yes”.
As much as schools emphasize reading (we’re into the blessedly final week of Readers are Leaders over here) and parents are told to read to kids from the time they can open their little newborn eyes, kids don’t spend a whole lot of time reading on their own when given the choice to do other things.
According to this Washington Post story, only 25 minutes of kids’ 7.5 hours of entertainment a day were usually spent reading a book, based on a Kaiser Family Foundation study. Department of Education statistics found that 24 percent of 13-year-olds and 17-year-olds say they never or hardly ever read a book for fun on their own, up from 8 and 9 percent respectively in 1984.
Despite all that, sales of children’s books have remained healthy Continue reading »
Probably, you remember being taught to read. Methods vary: children are taught reading by phonics, by memorization of sight words, by Montessori techniques. But pretty much all of us are painstakingly led down the path to literacy by teachers, parents, librarians, and any other adult involved in our early development.
In a new blog at Psychology Today, Peter Gray argues that kids can’t really be taught to read. They learn when they’re ready, in the way that works for them.
Lori Garcia 
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
0