Raising Readers

I'm sure if you've been on Pintrest any time in the past...forever, you've seen beautiful reading corners set up with blankets and pillows, and canopies. Sometimes, there are even tents or special lamps. There's usually a place to store books so that kids can easily grab one and comfortably sit down and read. A quick search and you'll find a million different ways to put together your own special corner for your kids to have a magazine cover reading spot. I look at these and think of how beautiful they are. And then I think about how little my girls would use it for actual reading. I am 1000000% sure they would end up turning it into a castle. Or a cave. Or some fairy land where they have to defeat bad guys to save the world from total devastation. I'm sure these kinds of reading corners work well in some homes. I'm sure they work fabulously in classrooms. I just don't think they're for us. Instead, I want to share with you the top 5 reading &q

I suppose as a book lady, it's pretty easy for me to spout off the importance of reading. But how should you respond when presented with reading myths? I've come up with a list of five common myths I've been told by several people, and I want to reassure everyone there is nothing too big to not make reading a part of your daily life! MYTH #5 Reading can only be done through books. Yes, books are AMAZING tools! But you know what else you can read? Anything else with words. Literally. Anything. Else. With. Words. If your child feels a little turned off by the thought of a book for some reason, they don't have to miss out on reading all together. Read the back of cereal boxes together. Or street signs. Or menus. Or birthday cards. Write notes back and forth to each other. Take the pressure off of your child from the necessity to read a book and shift their attention to something else. I promise there is something tangible in their lives they can read,

I recently read that 35% of teachers make it a habit to read to their students. Thirty-five percent. Let that number sink in for a minute. Less than half of our teachers are reading out loud to their students daily. Now, I am not saying that teachers are lazy. I am not saying they lack doing good in the classroom. I am not saying they are doing less than they should. In fact, every teacher I've had the pleasure to work with has been an amazing hard working professional who delivers their hearts to their students, teaching them skills to succeed as leaders. What I AM saying is that our teachers have too much pressure on them. Our schools run on test scores, which are then observed by the state as the deciding factor for programs, funds, and support. And when teachers feel their jobs are on the line by those scores, they might start focusing "teaching to the tests" instead of teaching to the hearts. I don't have any answers on battling this, but I do recogniz

Once upon a time there was a book lady who decided she wanted to occupy another tiny part in the interwebs and so she grabbed a hold of the blogosphere and said "Hello, blogosphere! I think you and I should be friends!" Sometimes, you just need to Do. The. Thing. And right now? Blogging is The. Thing. that needs doing. So what should you expect? As with most things in the world, I'm not 100% sure. And that's A-Okay because finding out is half the fun (or, maybe most the fun, only time will tell) All I know is that right now, I *think* it'll be part mommy-ing, part reflections, part figuring out social media, and of course, lots of books, reading, and literature. Brought Cuddle Bear's Book of Hugs and the cuddliest Cuddle Bear into my kindergartener's classroom! I can tell you what it's NOT going to be: perfectly refined and edited material. Because as much as I'd like to give you perfectly refined and perfectly edited material to read,