Reading Makes You Feel Good

I'm particularly inspired after coming back from an Early Literacy conference to share some early literacy information with you. The keynote speaker was Todd Parr, the author of Reading Makes You Feel Good and about 33 other books. I highly recommend his books for your little ones. They are fun, colorful, easy to read, and kids love the illustrations that look like they could have made themselves. His books are very encouraging and emphasize feeling good about yourself. He ends every book with a little note to his readers and always signs it "Love, Todd."

For those of you who don't know, early literacy skills are skills that kids need to develop before they learn to read. No need to sit down with flash cards or anything like that; in fact, PLEASE, I beg you, don't sit down with flashcards to teach your kids early literacy skills.

One early literacy skill, print motivation, is the simple thing of loving books. There are several ways you can help your children develop print motivation. Find books about topics that interest them; don't read them a book they show no interest in even if it was your favorite book as a kid. Ask them questions about the pictures and the words to encourage their participation and engagement. Take them to story times at the library. Don't force them to read when they don't feel like it; try to find times when both of you are in a good mood to share books together.

"Love, Holly"