Friday, January 23, 2015

Celebrate NATIONAL READING DAY with Your Family


January 23rd has been designated National Reading Day to celebrate and encourage reading by children. Whether it is a parent reading to a preschooler or an elementary school aged child reading on their own, most medical and educational experts contend that children should be reading or read to every day because it helps develop vocabulary and communications skills that are vital for both learning and social interactions.  For our family, I read each night a bed time story to our kids before they go to sleep.  During the preschool years every night I'd read Dr. Seuss's ABC plus one other story from our home library of children's books to mix things up.  Now that my twins are in kindergarten, I've given Dr. Seuss' ABC a rest but we still read a book every night.  Lately, my daughter's favorite bed time story is CORDUROY by Don Freeman and my son's is HAVE YOU SEEN MY DRAGON? by Steve Light.  Here are a few other of our favorite bed time reading books:

PETE THE CAT & HIS FOUR GROOVY BUTTONS by James Dean

llama llama red pajama by Anna Dewdney

DUCK @ THE DOOR by Jackie Urbanovic

IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE by Laura Joffe Numeroff

BEDTIME MATH by Laura Overdeck

A nice way to celebrate National Reading Day is to mark the occasion by creating a list of some of the books you'd like to read in 2015 and then enjoy reading them throughout the rest of the year.



In recognition of National Reading Day and the Blu-ray/DVD release of the movie The Book of Life on January 27, 2015 our friends at Fox Home Entertainment generously provided my kids with some art supplies so they could create their own books telling stories about our family's adventures and traditions.  So my 6 year old twins spent some time today writing and drawing about our family.  After looking over their books, I do have to say I look pretty darn impressive as a stick figure. Seriously though they really did a nice job with their books as my son wrote about his favorite family trip memories to the beach, zoo, and Disney World while my daughter's story focused on traditions like carving pumpkins at Halloween, going to the Thanksgiving Day parade, Easter egg hunts at grandma and grandpas and watching Detroit Tigers games with her daddy.


Fox Home Entertainment also included in our kids' National Reading Day gift bags some nice The Book of Life themed notepads created by PinholePress.com for them to sketch in and a gift card so our family could make our own customized photo books through this website. Between now and Valentine's Day (February 14, 2015) get 10% off all Pinhole Press products when you use the code: BOOKOFLIFE.

Adventures, family, and traditions are all themes in The Book of Life.  The movie tells the story of Manolo, a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart, as he embarks on an adventure that spans three fantastic worlds where he must face his greatest fears and realize what is most important - family and loved ones.

For more suggestions on reading selections for children, check out the Library of Congress' Kids Section  www.read.gov/kids.  Like the worlds pictured in the movie The Book of Life, when you read books fantastical places are opened up to your imagination so have fun exploring!  Happy National Reading Day everyone.



#BookofLifeReading

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