Raising Children to Love Reading

By day, I’m an early childhood educator in my in-home family childcare program. Currently, I teach 5 children, ages 1 to 4 ½. Our days are filled with many educational, hands-on activities to help them to develop and grow.

One of our favorite daily activities is reading. I have shelves and baskets of books. I have boxes of books tucked away because there’s no room for them. I have books stacked in totes to use with specific lessons.

We have our morning reading time after our circle time. During that time, we read books that are specific to our learning theme for that month. Then, once we finish lunch and settle down for naptime, we read different books that help us to learn empathy, manners, imagination, or just plain how to have fun. Once naptime ends, we have quiet reading time while I prepare their snack.

Books have been a mainstay in my house for as long as I can remember. One of my earliest memories as a child is my mom reading us Bible stories before bed. Those planted seeds encouraged me to grow in God’s love and grace and helped me to love reading. I loved Nancy Drew mysteries, most everything written by the beloved Beverly Cleary, tween angsty books by Judy Blume, and then First Love by Silhouette novels when I was a teen.

Because of one particular book, I became a writer. Without that lifelong love of reading, I may have chosen a different career path. Granted, that particular book may not have been appropriate for a sixteen-year-old girl, but it sparked a passion to create the same happily ever after heart sigh I experienced upon completing that novel.

When my husband and I learned we were pregnant with our first child, one of our baby purchases was a set of children’s books. I read to my boys when they were infants.

When our oldest was a toddler, he didn’t have a favorite blanket or stuffed animal at bedtime—he chose books. He grabbed a few board books and climbed into his big boy bed. His love of reading continued through school where he won reading awards and participated in programs like Battle of the Books.

Our youngest son loved being read to, but in his early elementary years, we learned he had a reading comprehension issue. Thankfully, he had gentle reading specialists who encouraged him to overcome that difficulty. In third grade, he read his first book from cover to cover—Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone. In addition to being well written, that series will always stay close to my heart because it enabled my son to do something he hadn’t done before—escape into the pages of a novel and understand what he was reading.

Raising children to love reading begins from early childhood. Studies have proven many benefits to reading to children including improved receptive and expressive language—the words they understand and the words they speak, positive bonding experiences with caregivers, calming to a child’s active body, improved thinking skills, etc. The list of benefits is too long to list in this post, but I think you get the idea.

Most county libraries have awesome reading programs for children. Many early education programs offer free books to families. Different communities participate in book programs. Books make great gifts for birthdays and holidays. Dollar stores offer great books at low prices.

Reading opens doors to a child’s imagination and invites him on a journey that will encourage positive development and growth for the rest of his life. 

Your Turn: What was your favorite book as a child? What is your favorite childhood reading memory? How has reading to your children or a child you know impacted him or her?

Naming the Hero in The Christmas Child

Linda Goodnight here. Most of my characters come to me with a name, but when I began writing THE CHRISTMAS CHILD, the reticent hero wouldn’t tell me a thing! So, knowing I have brilliant readers, I hopped onto Facebook and ask for help. The hero was a seasoned undercover agent with a wounded spirit, cynical and aloof, but a good man at the core. That’s all the info I knew and all my helpers needed to come with some terrific ideas. Over the period of several days and lots of cool names that I kept for future reference, a consensus formed around the name Kade McKendrick. Perfect, I thought, for this particular hero.


So, a year later, THE CHRISTMAS CHILD, book four in the Redemption River series, is finally on the shelves. If you helped with Kade’s name, thank you! If you weren’t in on the name game, I hope you’ll check him out just the same and let me know what you think.

Thanks, friends!

Read an excerpt

One quick question: Does it bother you to see Christmas books and items this early? Or are you one of those who can’t wait to get started?

Plotting, planning....

Wasn't Lisa's post on characterization interesting?  I really enjoyed reading about her process, because all of us find different approaches to the writing of our stories,  our process often evolves over time, and it's fun to hear about what works for other people.  Her post on characters also made me think about my initial steps in finding the right story idea. 

We just returned from a trip to California--a business trip for my husband, but just relaxation for me.   One of the first questions people ask when they find out that I'm a writer  is, "Where do you get your ideas?"  as if that must be the hardest part of the business.  That question came up at least a half-dozen times while we were traveling!  But believe me, ideas are everywhere--in the newspapers (I love USA Today and the new, newsy format of the Wall Street Journal!), in inadvertently overheard conversations in an airport or the chatter of a friendly cab driver--- in myriad, everyday encounters.  Out of the blue situations can make a writer start to think,  "Hmmmm..... what if...." 

A cab driver told me that he was a street child in Mexico who repeatedly ran away from every orphanage, then he grew up, eventually immigrated to the USA and became a citizen, married and had eight daughters and a son.  Could there be a story  in some aspect of his life or, the life of one of  his children?  Can you think of dramatic fictional elements that could be added to make it a page turner?

An intriguing idea is only that, until one delves deep into the goals and motivation a character might have in a given situation, and the possible internal and external conflicts that could really draw a reader into the story. And then (at least for the writer who loves plotting) comes the process of working out a plausible progression of increasingly intense scenes presenting greater and greater physical or emotional risks for the main characters as they pursue their goals. I love brainstorming all by myself, coming up with long lists of things that could happen.   Some writers like to fly into the mist and don't like to do  all of that specific planning, but either way, developing a story is an exciting adventure!

Have you ever thought of writing a story?  What would you like to write?

If you are a writer already, what would you like to write that's totally different from what you've been doing?

Have  you ever read a story and wish you could change the plot?  If you could, would you change Gone with the Wind, or one of your favorite classics? 

Roxanne Rustand

www.roxannerustand.com

Heroes and other delights

Linda Goodnight here. Someone recently challenged me to make a list of fiction books that lingered in my mind long after I’d closed the covers. Fun challenge for a book person, so away I went.

When I completed the list, I started wondering why those particular books stuck while others fall through the sieve of memory and disappear. As a writer, I figure there’s a valuable lesson to be learned, so I examined the list carefully and discovered ONE single factor they all had in common. Here’s my list:

Abbie’s Outlaw -Victoria Bylin (Probably my all-time fav.)
Cheasapeake Bay series – Nora Roberts
Sands of Time and Stephanie - Susan May Warren
Desperado and Jackson Rule-Sharon Sala
Fireside – Susan Wiggs
The Gamble, Morning Glory, and Hummingbird–Lavyrle Spencer
Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
The Notebook – Nicolas Sparks

While I had to look up the titles for some of these, and their plots may be fuzzy, the reason I remember every one of them is the hero. Not the story. Not the female lead. The hero. The strong, protective, sacrificial hero.

Is it just me who is so affected by the male lead in a book? An inquiring mind needs to know!

So, here’s your challenge. (You knew I’d say that!) Quickly generate your own list of 5 or so fiction novels and think about what element - storyline, hero, or heroine - stands out most in each one. Which element appears most often on your list? Please share your list and your results for my very unscientific (but fun!) straw poll.