I swiped a GREAT book from my son’s fifth grade classroom.

The teacher has a semi-circle table all set up with multiple copies of various social studies books for the kids. I enjoy perusing this table every time I am in the classroom.

And one day last week I found a great one! It is called Immigrant Kids by Russell Freedman. It is so incredible. It is about immigration into the United States for the average family at the around 1900. It is full of wonderful, in your face, reality-of-how-hard-it-all-was photographs! I realize that last sentence was chock full of grammatical errors, but, I don’t mind because this book is so good and I just want to get my point across, even if it means grammatical errors – like run-on sentences!

I have heard so often about how people came to the “New World” in search of a better life. There was promise and hope and opportunity here in America. Things would be different. Things would be better.

Things were HARD! And this book shows and tells us all about it.

I’d love to tell you more about the book or how I feel about it or my take on it, but, I am getting very sleepy! I am, yet again, up past my bedtime!

So you just need to go find the book – look on Amazon, eBay, or go to your local library. Just check this book out!

Really!

GO READ A BOOK!

I finally got these pictures of my sweet son at his first showing at the ’art gallery’ (read: the public library).

This first one is a shot of him outside at the library’s sign, kind of a cool pic.

outside library

And this one is ‘the artist with his work’.

artist with his work

Yep, yep – that’s my boy! My sweet little artist!

GO READ A BOOK!

I ran across a great blog by two moms this morning – and it is, in fact, called…Two Moms In A Blog.

The blog is by Heather and Crystal, who have a lot of great stuff to share for moms and families.

And the post that really piqued my interest was about, you guessed it! Education!

Crystal found some really great products recently to get all our little bookworms busy, and keep them happy, as well!

Read all about it here:

Bright Minds Mind Benders – just for teens?

And please don’t forget to:

GO READ A BOOK!

Well, this week the kiddos in Texas all have more state testing (TAKS) that they are taking.

Yesterday, my third and sixth grader took math and reading, respectively.

I am actually a bit worried about my third grader and her math test – not just her, really. Quite a few of the kiddos in her class were having trouble grasping the word problems that will surely be on the test. In fact, on the benchmark a few weeks ago, the majority of the class scored in the 70′s.

I feel fully confident in bringing her up to speed at home, and over the summer. I am not worried that she is going to drastically fall behind in her schooling.

No, actually my worry is focused a bit more ‘on the homefront’. When she scored a 97 on the reading test, I was so happy for her. And the reason I was so happy for her was that she was going to get to tell her brothers, specifically the 6th grader, that she got a 97, missing only one problem.

You see, these boys, specifically the 6th grader, love to torment her, as any good brother must. She is frequently bombarded with questions way above her comprehension level and mocked upon not knowing the answers. I actually once heard the sixth grader say to her, “I bet you don’t even know the square root of pi”!!

Yeah, because every good third grader knows the square root of pi! Heck, I’m probably not even spelling it correctly!

So on the glorious day we received her test score, I couldn’t wait for them all to pile into the minivan and be enlightened with the news!

And oh, how ANTICLIMACTIC it was! Would you like to know what Mr. Sixth Grader said to sweet little Miss Third Grader?

*cue snotty voice*

“When I was in third grade, I got a 100 on the TAKS!”

ugh.

I will definitely have to lecture him, perhaps adding in the threat of losing video games, before these test scores come in. Life – and school – are hard enough without the humans in your house giving you grief over what they perceive to be your failures!

Sheesh!

GO READ A BOOK!

I am reading the most wonderful book that was loaned to me by one of my daughter’s third grade teachers. I am going to have to return it soon, and I know I won’t get it all finished, so I guess I will be making a ‘trip’ over to Amazon. The book is called The Read Aloud Handbook and it was written by Jim Trelease. It also includes a giant treasury of great read-aloud books. I am so amazed by this book already, only a little way into it, that I think I might have to re-focus my whole website/personal mission to get kids reading! We need to be reading aloud to our kiddos! Now that my kids are older, we rarely read aloud to them, I have to admit. Well, that is going to change!

I also found a great article online about this very subject:

10 Reasons to read to your child

By: Dawn Holland RN

We all know that learning to read is important, but as parents what do we do to facilitate this milestone? Reading to your child has many benefits one of which is simply having time to snuggle together.Here are 10 reasons to read to your child.

1. When you read to your child, he/she will learn that reading is important to you, therefore reading will become important to him/her.

2. The more your child hears sounds, the better he/she will process these sounds into words. When a child is preschool/kindergarten age the listening word starts to become the written word.

3. Reading has a calming effect on a restless or fussy baby. Who doesn’t want an easy way to calm a fussy baby?

4. Reading is a wonderful before bed routine. Studies have shown that a child will thrive in an atmosphere in which routines are present.

5. Reading will help to develop your child’s imagination. Have you ever gotten lost in a good book? Your child can do the same while you are reading to him/her.

6. Reading will foster your child’s ability to listen and pay attention. With all the problems we here about concerning attention spans this is a great way to avoid that.

7. Reading to a young child will teach him/her the correct way to hold a book and turn the pages.

8. Reading to your child will develop in him/her the desire to become a reader.

9. Teachers will thank you

10. When a child is read a personalized story book, he/she will be able to recognize his/her name in print at an early age.

Isn’t it exciting to think that you can have such and effect on your child’s ability to read just by reading to him/her? You have the power to develop a life long joy of reading and learning in your child. WOW! Just read.

Article by:

Dawn Holland is a WAHM of 3 boys and an RN with 12 years of maternal infant and pediatric nursing. She is also a Certified Breastfeeding counselor. Dawn owns Books from the Hearth, an online bookstore and gift shop specializing in personalized children’s books and personalized baby gifts. www.BooksFromTheHearth.com

So let’s all get reading to our kiddos!

GO READ A BOOK!