If a book is good for you to read at 5, it is good to read at 50.
December 9, 2013
A recent article in the WSJ drew attention to gorwn-ups reading Children’s books. I don’t think it is any secret that a good book for children is a good book at any age —as C.S. Lewis said: If a book is good for you to read at 5, it is good to read at 50. But there is a big benefit when children and adults together engage in reading a book. When parents talk with children about a book they are part of a reading relationship.
The currency of a reading relationship is love, affection and tenderness and become part of a child’s emotional DNA. A reading relationship fosters the emotional connections children need to thrive and forever changes the experience of reading. Parents who read and talk about a story with children feel more connected to their children and more satisfied in their role as a parent. Reading is not simply the interaction of the child with a book. Intimacy and closeness are communicated while you are talking about a book and are the heart of the Reading Relationship, which every child deserves to experience.
If readers bring books to life, conversations that happen inside a reading relationship bring readers to life.
Chicken soup comes in all different guises
November 27, 2013
I am thankful to all the authors who have enriched my life with their wisdom, humor and compassion. So much I who I am and what I do comes from the books I have met in my life. Thanksgiving celebrates our capacity to be thankful usually with a culinary feast but I believe that chicken […]
Lincoln and Winnie the Pooh knew that Winston Churchill was right: Short words are best, and the old words, when short are best of all.
November 19, 2013
Referring to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address as a sound bite might sound blasphemous but in fact it has the hall marks of a well written sound bite: short, sweet, to the point and delivered in just over two minutes. In just over 2 minutes, Lincoln reiterated the principles of human equality. Lincoln’s carefully crafted address, secondary […]
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: The most important three-minute speech ever delivered.
November 19, 2013
President Lincoln delivered the 272 word Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863 on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” It might sound irreverent to refer to the […]
Play is the work of childhood.
November 7, 2013
A mind at play is the source of our most creative thoughts and overuse of technology can make it difficult for the mind to play. Children need time and space to be—to play, to daydream, to imagine, and to create. Too much data coming in with technology compromises the very activities that allow us to […]
