A Fabulous Reading Find!

Take a Look, It's in a Book, A reading Rainbow Book!   I have been feeling so guilty.  I don't read to my kids enough. I read to them but not enough. I suspect it will never be enough. With so many having a difficult time with reading I am always reading everything to them.  This has really taken the pleasure out of cuddle reading baby books with the little ones.  I know that reading to them will drastically help them all with their reading. 

The last few weeks have been fantastic with reading improvement.  I have been searching for something to build on that.  Looking for something to help keep reading fun, so that the desire stays with them.   I found that there are a few Reading Rainbow episodes on Amazon the other day.  It is only one episode per season.  I thought they were just trying to get you to buy the entire seasons.  We watched a few but they did not keep the kids attention.  I think the graphics are just too old. 

 

At Mom's Night Out this week two of us were talking about how much I have loved the Immersion Reading available on some books on the Kindle.  As you know we got each child their own kindle this school year.  At times I am a little sad because there are not as many of the learning apps out there.  This can be a very expensive option.  You first buy the book from Kindle, then you also purchase the audio version from Audible.  I have found that the Books + Audio can get pretty pricy.  Spending a money of books isn't a bad thing to spend money on.  I just can't afford getting it for each child over and over again. 

 

That is when another mom mentioned how much she has loved the Reading Rainbow app.  I almost let it go without asking more about it.  What a huge mistake that would have been.  Thank you so much Mrs. Julie C.  As it turns out RR has a beautiful app for the Kindle and one for the Ipad.  Either version is wonderful.  The app is free but that will leave you limited.  The paid content has been a God Send.   For a nominal fee you can become a member and then have access to so many books and videos.  I like the set up as well. Readers and Nonreaders alike will enjoy this set up.  It brings books to life and can read to the children if they just click an icon.  My two year olds are hooked.  My only issue is that memberships are limited to 5 family identities.  This is probably only an issue for a family as big as mine.  Engaging, fun yet functional.  I can't describe it well.  Just download the app and it will show up.  Click here for the website. (although you must purchase membership through the app.)  The site describes what is available much better than I did, but as LeVar says, "Don't take my word for it!" but go check it out for yourself. 

 

My sincere thanks to LeVar Burton and the Reading Rainbow Team.  You have helped me insure that my children will love reading.  The T-Family Kindle Method just keeps getting better and better. 

Summer Reading Program

This is great find for a summer reading enhancer program.  This is simple, easy to use and takes only 30 minutes a day.  I got my copy for FREE on my Kindle.  I thought it looked interesting so I downloaded it, I mean the price was right.  You can get it too on your Kindle, click here.  To be honest it will take some work for mom, making copies and being prepared.  The book gives enough poems with lessons plans to fill 8 weeks.  The poems are all by Bruce Lansky and are really cute.  Amy Buswell has added the reading stuff and it is so fun.  More Poems can be found at the Giggle Poetry Website.  This is the full title of the book:  Giggle Poetry Reading Lessons: A Successful Reading-Fluency Program Parents and Teachers Can Use to Dramatically Improve Reading Skills and Scores.  I share this in case you are looking for something fun and schoolish to fill your summer days, try this - the price is right.

What a great book!

Tom Playfair is a book that at first I never thought I would get through. It was very hard to "get into" Fr. Finn's style of writing but it worth every effort.


Father wrote this book in 1890 for the young boys of his boarding school.
 

"One of the greatest things in the world is to get the right book into the hands of the right boy or girl. No one can indulge in reading to any extent without being largely influenced for better or worse."

Fr. Francis J. Finn, S.J.

It took me and my younger kiddos several months to get into this book.  The style of writing is very difficult.  The language of the time is different and hard to read, I often had to break and explain.  I wondered if it was worth it and thought about putting the book up.  I spoke with a few other moms that I suspected had purchased the books for their own sons.  Everyone said that their kids liked the story.  Non of the adults that I spoke with had read the book.  Others loved the book so we kept going reading only a little at a time.  Then we hit the middle of the book.  I was struggling to keep the attention of the kiddos.  Then the story took off.

 I think this is a great book for anyone especially those about to receive their first Holy Communion.  I recommend reading it aloud to a child younger than 12.  The old wording can be tricky.  Wow . . . we laughed, we cried and surprisingly we grew strong in our faith.  Father Finn wrote with a black and white love of the soul.  Wrong is wrong, right is right, heaven is heaven but hell is hell.  We finished this book wanting heaven and loving God.  I can't wait to start the next book.  I hope it is just as good.

Update: Summer Reading - think outside the box

What a weird school year we had last year.  My Sugar is quick to point out that as odd as it was for us loosing so many friends in a few weeks of each other, just imagine how "weird" it would be to be one of those families!  She is watching her best friend Kat become a perfect daughter in her mother's memory without her guidence but still confidant of her love.  We planned to take a break this summer.  We plan to get back to book work soon.  I was going for July 1st but decided to push most of it off until August.  The month of July is not going unmarritted though. I wanted to push independant reading from the high school crowd.  Those three all struggle with verying degrees of reading issues.  After all the work we accomplished this spring I knew that they were all reading.  The only way to work on getting them to grade level is practice, practice, practice. 

I wanted to push them but not school them.  My goal was for them to realize that reading can be fun and take you places.  I don't love reading but I love learning.  I read a lot in that endeavor.  How can I encourage that in my children?

Goobers is an almost 16 year old girl that enjoys her time with her family.  She is now life guarding and spending time Pooker, Bear and Sugar.  They play so much together.  She was the one I was most worried about because she is out of the house so much for work.  How can I push her over the summer?  Well apparently I don't have to.  Pooker has a stack of books that she is pushing on her.  I drove by the pool a few days back when it was raining and found that she had one of those books and was reading away.  She also was able to download audio versions of a few of the books and put them on her ipod.  This giver her the ability to read and yet not get stumped by words that she is unfamiliar with.  

Bear is 14 (soon to be 15) year old high school sophomore.  He is very close to his sisters.  He loves to be the clown and get the laughs.  He also likes to fiddle with picture taking and electronic film editing.  So this young man that appears to struggle with reading a simple book can spend hours pouring over "how to" manuals to figure things out.  I know he is reading but he needs to practice to get to age level.  I keep buying all kinds of stories that I think might intrigue him.  Often I would stick with a more simple reading level because I just thought that he needed that.  This was embarrassing him, because he knew he needed to be reading better. 

We finally broke down and got dad his Kindle for his birthday.  This was something that surprised Jason and I.  Bear picked up his Kindle and continued to play with it.  New technology has always been fun for Bear so he was enjoying playing with this new gadget.  Then Bear asked his dad if there might be any books out there for him available on the Kindle.  Bear and his dad spent a few hours looking.  They agreed on one and dad downloaded his book, then dad made an offer.  "If you finish this book within a week, I will consider getting you your own Kindle."  Talk about motivation. 

This is what is working for Bear.
  #1  No one can tell what age lever he is reading.  He feels cool because he is using a knew device which takes away that barrier he was creating in himself. 
#2   The version we have includes an audio chip.  If you are struggling with a work it will read it too you.  (I don't mind this because it is still very computer sounding so it isn't like you want it to read the entire story for you.) 
#3  Bear is one that loved holding things over his sisters.  I guess he is a typical boy in that respect.  He is so motivated because he has permission to use dad's cool new toy and no one else does. 
Goobers pointed out that she was able to use a Kindle Ap for her ipod touch.

Sugar.  She is my precious 13 year old.  She will be starting high school this year.  She is smart but sometimes slow or lazy in doing her work.  Other times she is s speed demon and doesn't spend time getting the details.  Her reading issues were solved by a friend's birthday party.  Two of the girls at this party were talking about a set of books.  The mom spend some of the party time talking with me about how cool this serious of books are for her daughter.  This friend of Sugars is a great reader so I was worried that she would not be able to read them no matter how great they appeared to be.  She got one of the books and showed me.  It didn't look too hard plus it has other aspects that draw the child in.  Sugar loves on line games and this serious of books were connected to an online game.  Perfect.

I went straight home, signed into our Amazon account and ordered all of the 39 Clues books.  This needs its own post.  Here I can say that I am very happy at how Sugar is reading.  This series is doing the trick at inspiring interest.  Yeah!  3 highschool aged kiddos struggling with reading now showing signs of success.  I pray that each of you with learning issue children find what works.  No matter what it is do what works.  Don't beat yourself up over the latest "program" no working.

 I got these three started in reading by giving them phones for texting.  I know it sounds silly and we set many rules.  (No texting at the table and complete words must be used.)  It got them started and now we are moving forward.  It might seem like small steps to those with children without reading issues but to those with children with reading issues you will share in my joy of this post and hopefully you will be inspired to not lose hope.   Keep the strength and encouragement to try anything that you child is interested in to inspire a reader.  Don't be afraid to resort to the latest technology to inspire your little ones to succeed.  I don't encourage using everything out there just what works.  Always keep them safe by using rules and constant supervision.

Phonogram Cards

I have used almost every reading tool, game, and book out there with my wonderful children. The kids are dyslexic and I have kept searching for the perfect solution. Hours and hours we have spent trying the best new program out there.

The Riggs Institute offered me one of those programs. Their stuff is a tad expensive but I believe their program is solid. I agree with their approach. I think that the research is solid.

What I didn't love was that it is another phonogram set. It is hard for some young ones to have the skills to write the letter the way the program requires. It is another intense program. It isn't a quick fix, by any stretch of the means. I used the cards in a very simple manner, and they worked for us.

What I love about these cards is that they teach handwriting while they teach the sounds. I think this is so important. It really does help the dyslexic learning. It is a great way to help the child "touch" the letters. It is so important for some of these kiddos to connect the physical action with the sounds. Children leave these cards with beautiful handwriting.