Strong Girls – Female Protagonists

“Strong Girls” is a continuation from a post I wrote last year about Gender Stereotypes: “Like a Girl”. If you haven’t already read it, or if you need a refresher, you can click the link to read it. Coincidentally, just as I have been thinking about this topic and how we should teach our boys

Raising Lifelong Readers

There’s no doubt about it that kids who read are better off in so many ways. Reading: makes them smarter teaches them empathy helps them learn about their world around them exercises their brains improves their concentration enhances their vocabulary and language skills develops their imagination and stimulates their curiosity helps them do well in

The Accelerated Reader Programme

It’s been a while since I read that article in Education by Numbers that stated: mindlessly reading book after book does not benefit children very much it is comprehension that is the key to learning gains In fact, a voracious reader who understands less than 65% of the content in the books he reads is no better

Raising Strong Readers

Reading makes children smarter. It is also one of the keys to raising a successful child. But raising strong readers in a world that is becoming increasingly distracted by technology is challenging. Lacking vital literacy skills holds a person back at every stage of their life. As a child they won’t be able to succeed

Scribd – Read Without Limits

Listening to audio books in the car is something we have done since the boys were little. We started with CDs and moved on to audiobook apps when we discovered how handy and economical it was to have a library of books on my smart phone. Then our Tales2Go membership expired and I went searching for other audiobook apps to

Reading Questions – What to Ask Your Children When You Read Together

We know it’s important to generate rich discussions during reading time with the children. It helps them to gain a deeper understanding of the book and to develop their critical thinking skills. If you’re anything like me, you probably struggle to think up questions to ask. The following questions were on an handy cheat-sheet that

Age-Appropriate Books for Children

There’s a big difference between what a child can read and what is age-appropriate for them. Just because a child is able to decode the words in a book doesn’t mean that they can read that book. There may be ideas presented in the story that are too complicated for them to understand, or it

Reciprocal Reading – How to Support Your Child with Reading

Reading with children is important and this is something parents are encouraged to do quite often to support the children at school. In the early years, it’s just about learning to read and understanding the reading code. As the children advance into upper primary, they start moving into something called Reciprocal Reading. What is Reciprocal

Talk for Writing – How to Support Your Child with Reading and Writing

The Word Gap The Word Gap refers to the startling findings from the groundbreaking study by University of Kansas researchers Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, titled “The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3“. By 3 years of age, there is a 30 million word gap between children from the wealthiest and poorest families.

How to Instill a Love for Reading in Your Child

On Tuesday, I was invited to speak at the Popular Bookfest 2017 at the KLCC Convention Center with Michelled Lim-Chua, author of The Mindful Mom, on the topic: How to Instill a Love for Reading in Your Child These are some of the highlights from our discussion. Why Reading? “A nation that does not read much