Week 5: An Opportunity to Give Your Children a Gift That Will Last a Lifetime

Dear Parents,

How are you doing?  I am up in the predawn hours enjoying a moment of quiet, sipping my coffee.  Predawn it all seems like a bad dream.  Looking out the window into the darkness makes it feel like nothing has changed. But, wow, how much has changed.  This is week five and it seems I am strangely adapting into this new norm.  This norm of seeing no one and yet have no personal time or space.  This norm of virtual conversations.  This norm of spending all my time within the confines of my home.  This norm of rationing food and planning how to waste nothing.  I said it five weeks ago and I continue to remind myself … we are in this for the long haul.

Some states have already announced they will not return to school this year and many are indicating that it is a likely outcome.  Most districts have launched online learning.  Some students are taking well to this new arrangement and other are resisting.  Some students have good days and bad days.  They not be able to articulate why they don’t want to join the online learning, but we need to listen to them.  This is a huge change and they are still trying to make sense of what is happening around them.  We need to give them time to feel comfortable and allow them to have some sense of control.  So what are we to do to support our kids at home during this time?

I have been talking with a lot of parents about what we can do, real but achievable things, to support our children at home.  For me, the priority is to help your child build a reading life.  Research demonstrates that the best way to become a proficient reader is by reading.  Reading for meaningful, purposeful reasons.  This is the perfect opportunity to support your child in not only academically growing as a reader but developing the habits and dispositions of a life-long reader.

Begin by modeling your reading life, What is currently on your nightstand? What has made reading difficult/easier for you during this pandemic?  Where do you like to read? How are you finding books to read? Who do you talk to about what you are reading? What are all the different types of texts you are reading right now? Readers read a variety of texts — easy, difficult, long, short, fun, digital, audio, and practical. Readers belong to book clubs and know how to find out what other readers are enjoying. Readers find time and create habits to make reading a part of their lives.

We need to be “caught” reading by our children. We need to read to them and with them even when they no longer need us to read to them. We need to share our habits, our secret pleasures, as readers. Schedule time to read in a special spot together.  Listen to an audiobook while you fold the laundry or cook together.  Snuggle up in a cozy spot and read alongside your child while they are reading independently.  Plan a night where everyone reads at dinner – bring your own book (this could be a magazine, newspaper, cookbook etc.).  Watch the class read aloud or a digital read aloud on the television screen together at night or in the morning.  Go for a walk, find an interesting spot, and read. Pack a picnic and your book. Join the #bookaday challenge as a family.  Keep a stack of all the books you read as a family or take a photo of each book cover you read (you can just save them or find a fun way to display what you are reading).  Honor a range of texts – kids can read catalogues, mail, recipes, game directions, Lego directions, notes for family members, stories written by peers and family members, articles – you name it and they can read it.

These are challenging times and they hold an opportunity for us to help our children develop the dispositions of a lifelong reader.  Lilan Katz, a professor of early childhood education, reminds us that “dispositions are caught not taught.” The best place for our children to “catch” the love of reading is at home with us.  If we find a way, through the exhaustion, to read with our children and in front of our children, we will be giving them a gift that will last a lifetime. 

So, breathe, read, and remember you’ve got this!