Embracing My Journey ~ Living with passion & purpose!

One Child at a Time – Cathy Puett Miller, Guest Blogger

In the journey of life, everyone has the opportunity to touch a child.  It may be our own or children in our social interactions, in the neighborhood, in our world.  And each of those children longs for the connecting power of another human being reading and talking with them (no matter what their age).

There is something each of us can do to contribute to that TODAY.  Go to that one child, your local school or library, or your local United Way. Give just an hour a week (that’s less than 10 minutes a day) to sharing a delicious, delightful book.   If you can’t do that alone, or it seems a bit intimidating, team with someone else or a group.  Together, we can start a revolution!

Feel a bit lost?  Here are a few ways to start. Find out if your community has:

a RIF program (http://www.rif.org/get-involved/volunteer/default.mspx),

an Everybody Wins! Power Lunch Program (http://www.everybodywins.org)

or a Reading is for Everyone^® volunteer-based tutoring initiative (http://www.readingisforeveryone.org/pdfs/staff/staff_k-6_price.pdf).

If they don’t, start one.  College students can work with their university to start Jumpstart in their area (http://www.readfortherecord.org/site/PageServer?pagename=WhoWeAre_Home).  Resources are there.

Just today, I saw comments from Geoffrey Canada, President of the Harlem Children’s Zone which indicated he believed we are at a crisis point (http://crosscut.com/2010/02/12/education/19589).  Regardless of the level you choose to contribute at, do something, anything.  We have to start one child, one adult at a time.

Once you find the right place for you, here are few tips for sharing books or stories with kids of all ages:

1)       Talk to them about their interests and find books that relate to that passion.  It doesn’t have to be an academic subject; magazines on muscle cars or a how-to book on make-up is as acceptable as a story about a puppy.

2)       Pre-read the book yourself if at all possible.  You’ll see natural places to stop and ask a question or two (not a drill — just what I call a “thinking, wondering, pondering” moment)

3)       Dedicate yourself to showing that person that reading is not just a school thing; it is a tool for life.  Make a commitment and, before you know it, you’ll be in love with that chosen child.

4)       Have limited literacy yourself?  Although I expect that’s not a big issue with many of you reading online, there are people in our communities who think they have nothing to contribute, just because of their own limitations.  A third grade reading level sounds great to a kindergarten child.

Speaking of revolutions, why not join mine?  You can do it in plenty of ways.

1)       Make that contact to start reading with a child within 7 days of your reading of this blog.

2)       Take a moment to write a comment on this blog to encourage others and share your expertise as a reader

3)       Share this challenge with a friend, and celebrate your own good work!

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Bio:  Cathy Puett Miller is a national literacy consultant and author of Anytime Reading Readiness (a handbook for parents or other interested parties interacting with 3-6 year old children), Before They Read (a guidebook for preschool and kindergarten teachers) and an ebook-format annotated list of resources entitled Powerful Picture Books: 180 Ideas for Promoting Content Learning.  Learn more at http://www.readingisforeveryone.org.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 15th, 2010 at 11:39 am and is filed under 40 Days of Amazing People. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.