Model For Your Reader

No, no one needs to waste away to 100 lbs. and start walking the runway...haha.

What I thought about today was all the different ways my boys see and hear reading modelled in their lives.

Every Sunday, after pancakes are made, Scott and I sit down and read the paper. It is something we enjoy, and the boys see that. They pick up the comic sections once in a while -- but Matt is usually the only one who really gets it...he's starting to like my friend Stephan's strip "Pearls Before Swine" (which has a great deal of sarcasm, so there is a lot of inferential thinking to do -- thanks Stephan!)

Anyway, there are many times they see us pick up books, manuals, lists, magazines, and newspapers...there are also times we actually model by reading portions of different material so they can hear how they are read.

Back to the comics...you know, as a good reader, that you have to make the voices in your head, and how often the words need to be emphasized with either a tone or volume change. There are also times to pause...but the punctuation in comics is either omitted due to the speech bubbles, or the illustration signals how to inflect your voice. Kids sometimes don't get that...so read it to them, and then have them echo it back. That's good fluency practice, it will help with how they understand it, not to mention it is something you can do together.

Remember...they mimic what they see and hear (sometimes I wish they didn't -- especially the "let's get out the door we're late" episodes).

If you want them to become good readers who enjoy it, try to spend time yourself doing it, and showing them how it's done.

Happy Birthday Scott! I am the luckiest woman in the world. I thank God every day for bringing you into the world 44 years ago today...xoxo