Jewelry vs Books? Stop Your Yelling and Put Blame Where It Belongs!

Reflection time is always a healthy method for keeping things “real.” It helps us put blame where it belongs. Wouldn’t you agree with me? Regardless, let me tell you how I feel.

STOP! Stop yelling at your children after you’ve received progress reports, report cards and test results when you’ve suddenly noticed poor grades/scores.  Begin asking yourselves what part you played in their academic development. How did you massage their growth, or the lack of?

How often did you:

Read to your children?
Have your children read to you?
Use “rich dollar” words according to their age and functional development and a bit beyond?
Stop to explain the meaning of words when they asked –  Mommy, Daddy what does _________ mean?

Well, I’m just trying to be honest within my heart about how I feel. No one has to believe or share the same thoughts that I have, but there is a time when we have to come to terms with “the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

So here goes:

(Shown below in a photo with my Mom who is my assistant, most days)

[image error]Twice I’ve paid $50.00 for vendor tables for a particular event and twice I merely made what I put into the table. Usually I’m not too disappointed when I don’t break even because I’ve always felt that even if I sold one book, I was one book closer to sharing my story/work with a child, a parent, or even a teacher for that matter.

But on this second day, I sat from my authors table watching the traffic come and go, I wondered why the crowd swamped the vendor tables where jewelry (mainly handmade costume jewelry) was so elegantly draped and adorned from one end of the tables to the other. Now, I must tell you that I’m not against jewelry and I wear lots of costume jewelry too, I might add, but I had books; an array children’s books, and my author’s table was just as beautiful, colorful and adorned as theirs (well that’s my personal opinion).

As I spoke to several of the ladies and a few gentlemen many shared that they had children, but instead of purchasing books as gifts for stocking stuffers, they chose jewelry,  and not for their children, but for themselves, their wives or significant other. Of course, this is definitely their choice, but I have to wonder why people put so much emphasis on jewelry and not books for their children. I had to ask myself, “Why aren’t books important to these people?”[image error] 

According to University of Michigan Health System (2012) a child’s reading skills are important to their success in school and work. Reading can be a fun and imaginative activity for children, which opens doors to all kinds of new worlds for them.

As an educator who has been in the field for 31 years, I’ve seen and often seen reading statistics about educational deficits and gaps for certain subgroups. Although I am bothered by such stats, I can’t save every child. I’ve given birth to only one, and Lord knows I do what I can so that she doesn’t add to these troubling statistics.

Now, I know that there is a digital divide within some socio-economic groups, and some parents can’t afford computers, but dictionaries are not very expensive and believe it or not — that’s what I had to use growing up, so it can’t hurt, right? I know that Encyclopedias are antiquated, and then again every possible thing can be located on a computer, but I haven’t forgotten everyone doesn’t own a computer, so what about the neighborhood library? Can you get there?

Parents, our children are not little trees that are planted and somehow before we know it they’ve grown to become huge ones that have depended on nature taking its course for survival. We must tend to our children and nourish their education if we want the best possible educational outcomes and hope for them to attend fine colleges. You must do the following – Read, Read, and Read to them!

Reading helps with:

Fluency rate

Builds vocabulary

Comprehension

Word Attack Skills

Spelling

Language Development

Stronger Thinking Skills

Literacy

And so much more

Imagine a child equipped with these. Imagine where your child could go in life.

Don’t take my word for it. Research has identified five early reading skills that are essential.

Phonemic awareness- being able to hear, identify, and play with individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words
Phonics – being able to connect the letters of written language with the sounds of spoken language
Vocabulary – the words kids need to know to communicate effectively
Reading comprehension – being able to understand and get meaning from what has been read
Fluency (oral reading) – being able to read text accurately and quickly (University of Michigan Health System, 2012).

Performing these habits does take persistence, organization and will power. You must have a system, plan of action and be ready and willing to take time out of your schedule, deny yourself from things that you want to do at times, and work with your children. It has to become a part of your family life, and I strongly believe that both parents should help.

According to University of Michigan Health System (2012) you can make reading a part of your lifestyle by simply doing these things:

Turn off the tube. Limit your family’s television viewing time
Teach by example. If you have books, newspapers and magazines around your house and your child sees you reading, then your child will learn that you value reading.
Read together. Reading with your child is a great activity. It not only teaches your child that reading is important to you, but it also offers a chance to talk about the book, and often other issues will come up. Books open up the lines of communication between parent and child.
Hit the library. Try finding library books about current issues or interests in your family’s or child’s life, and then reading them together (University of Michigan Health System, 2012).

If I’m “preaching to the choir” here, please take time to forward this message to families that you have concerns for and care about.

I love reading with my daughter. From her library of books, she chooses two at a time.

Book 1 – We read together. My daughter reads one page and I read the next until the book has been completed.

Book 2 – My daughter is allowed to just sit back and listen to me read to her. She can stop and ask questions and I’ll stop at times to ensure that she’s listening.  I’ll ask her questions about the sections that I’ve read.

I read to my child because it is important to me for her to hear the inflections in my voice. She notices how I stop at periods and have excitement in my voice when there is an exclamation point. Another reason I do this is for shared time with her.

What do you do? After reading this blog, and if you do not read to your children are you willing to have a reading system with your children? Have I given you a few things to reflect upon? It’s time to do a bit of soul searching, wouldn’t you say so?

Stop blaming the school, and the teacher. Put the blame where it belongs. Stop yelling at your child and scold yourself.

NOW, put that jewelry back and pick up a book instead!

Need some help – A few resources? Take a look at books from various authors who comprise work from an array of genres that you may be interested in:

Pinterest Boards for Selected Twitter Group

http://pinterest.com/twittergroup/sel...

I sincerely hope that this has helped at least one family.

Reference:

University of Michigan Health System (2012). Reading, Literacy and Your Child. Retrieved November 22, 2012, from http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/to....