Jason Boog's Blog: Born Reading, page 2

Kids Making Movies

Looking for a quick winter activity with housebound kids?

When it’s time to turn off the TV, kids can make their own movie!

It’s a powerful form of storytelling, a way to make sure a kid’s favorite story never ends. All you need is a smartphone, stuffed animals, or action figures.

Recently, my daughter spent many hours playing on the iMovie app with her cousins. They used a collection of dolls and stuffed animals as the primary actors.

The smartphone or tablet app has intuitive tools that ki...

Playing Pokémon Go Together

Have you triedPokémon Gowith the kid in your life?

I loved playing the popular app with my almost 6-year-old daughter. The game turns your real life neighborhood into a digital map filled with creatures to discover.

We walked around our neighborhood, photographed digital creatures in the bushes, captured Pokémonand met other kids playing the game.Best of all, we shared my smartphone for a couple hours–a truly rare experience.

Instead of criticizing kids for obsessing over apps like Pokémon G...

Professor Astro Cat’s Solar System

Does the kid in your lifedream about visiting the stars?

For the second year in the row, I served as a book app judge for the Cybils Awards–the annual Children’s and Young Adults Bloggers Literary Awards that celebrate the best books and apps.

The winning app wasProfessor Astro Cat’s Solar System, an interactive science textbook about our space neighborhood.

Even though this app was a bit beyond my five-year-old daughter’s educational range, we both had fun using it together.The simple sound...

Sanjay’s Super Team Inspiration

Did the kid in your life love Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur?

The filmincluded “Sanjay’s Super Team,” abrief animated movie that told the story of a boy learning to appreciate his father’s religious traditions.

The animated short ended withan epic superhero-style mythological battle inside thekid’s imagination, and all the art wasliterally inspired by“The Little Book of Hindu Deities” by Sanjay Patel.

The author of the book also directed the Pixar short, so the book makes the perfect companion to...

Creative Galaxy Inspiration

When was the last time you visited an art supply store with a kid?Even though smartphones and tablets help kids make creative projects, it is important to keepreal life art around the house as well.

You can also tryCreative Galaxy, a kid’s TV show created by Amazon Studios.The show follows the adventures of an alien who flies between different planets, learning about different styles of art.

While watching, kids learn about action paintingandPointillism. But even better,the show always inspir...

Electric Company Collaboration

The primaryadvice I give parents in Born Reading: Bringing Up Bookworms in a Digital Age is deceptivelysimple: “Share a book, app, eBook, audiobook, or any kind of literary experience. Don’t let your kid spend too much time alone with a device.”

It can be really difficult to find apps to play with your child, since the VAST MAJORITY of app designers only create apps for solo play.

My daughter and I loved playing withThe Electric Company Party Game: Lost on Prankster Planet (you can download i...

Creating Talk Time

How much “talk time” do you spend while readingwith the kids in your life?The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) just released “How To Advise Families on Media Use,”a set of helpful guidelines for doctors, parents and caregivers.

The new paperstressed how kids learn best through interactive experiences: “Neuroscience research shows that very young children learn best via two-way communication. ‘Talk time’ between caregiver and child remains critical for language development.”

Reading is the...

Why Kids Need Nonfiction

When was the last time you read a nonfiction book with the kids in your life?

As schools around the country adjust to new Common Core standards, children will spend dramaticallymore timewithnonfictionreading, or “informational texts.”

If you are interested in learning more about informational texts, I will tackleCommon Core standards and nonfiction books duringa free webinar thisweek, if you are interested in joining us.

Informationalreadingcan includehistory, social studies, science, and te...

How To Beat Math Anxiety

Do you have scary memories of math? If you suffer from math anxiety (and I most certainly do), you need to work hard not to pass on this fearto your kids.

While researching my book, I turned to Laura Overdeck and her excellent Bedtime Math books for support.

Overdeck worried that most math workbooks and textbooks can be too dull for kids. So she wrote math problems tackling topics kids love, like candy, flamingos or ninjas.

We use her book every week (at bedtime and other times as well), ada...

Drawing Contest Craft

How can you keep kids reading once the book is closed?

I’ve never been much of an artist, but I created a simple game I call “Drawing Contest” to keep reading experience going in our house.Basically, my daughter and I take one of our favorite books and try to draw a picture of the main character.

It all started with this “Let’s Draw Arthur” lesson from author Marc Brown.

The beloved book and TV character is surprisingly easy to draw, and it gave my daughter lots of creative confidence.

I add...