Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, my parents instilled in me a love of learning and reading from a young age. My parents always believed that even daily routines and activities are teachable moments. I can recall them helping me to read the cookie selections at the corner Italian bakery (which was something I was eager to learn) to phonetically sounding out the names of streets that were posted on the corner of the sidewalks.
I have fond memories of the RIF program in my elementary school. Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) is the oldest and largest children’s and family nonprofit literacy organization in the United States. All RIF programs combine the following three essential elements to foster children’s literacy: Reading Motivation, Family and Community Involvement, and The Excitement of Choosing Free Books to Keep. The RIF program in my school encouraged all students to go to the library (the school or neighborhood libraries), choose a book, and the opportunity to keep it. Many of my childhood books still have the RIF sticker with my name inside the front cover.
Now as a mother to three boys–a teen and toddler identical twin boys–I try to continue in my parent’s footsteps with learning and reading. In our home, as parents we require our teen to read for at least 30 minutes daily and give an explanation about what he read–characters, setting, main theme, and supporting facts–for reading comprehension. The teen is a fan of comic and science books so we try to find books that are of interest to him and he would enjoy reading, in addition to his school materials.
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| Teen (in hat) and cousins at the 2010 Free Comic Book Day at Action Games & Comics Shop |
With having toddler identical twin boys, daily life is never dull. A parent has to get creative about learning when having two energetic twin boys. The twins love to sing about anything–they will just makeup words and harmonize with each other. Throughout the day, we will sing the ABC’s, colors, numbers, animals, objects to reinforce memorization, identification, and repetition. Since we read to them at bedtime and have a story time during the day, the twins like to “read” aloud. They try to identify objects within the pages of a book, create words for what they believe is occurring within the story, and literally celebrate anything they correctly recognize.
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| Twins creating their own reading “chairs” |
To help our children achieve their goals and stay involved, we try to have family dinners nightly. It’s a designated time away from electronics, cell phones, gaming systems, and anything that can cause a distraction. Research clearly indicates that parents & children who eat together as a family have happier & healthier children, are better students in school, decrease the chance of children abusing illegal substances, and lessen family tensions. For families with multiples, where the stress of raising more than one child the same age can be very high, family dinners are essential for communication and keeping update on each child. Family dinners allow a time to re-connect and create healthy habits.
As I raise my own children, I hope to give them an appreciation of learning and reading to pass on to their own children as my parents did for me.
I grew up in Maine and we had the RIF program in our school too. I remember those stickers inside the books very well. Great post & adorable boys!
Love the pictures and the support Pine-Sol is giving RIF.
Hi!
I work for Reading Is Fundamental and we’d like to thank you for supporting children’s literacy through our new partnership with Pine-Sol. If you’re readers are interested in learning more about Reading Is Fundamental, please direct them our website at http://www.rif.org and for fun reading tips, games, and activities for children please direct them to http://www.rif.org/readingplanet and http://www.leadingtoreading.org.