Reading and Education

I was at an Usborne Books At Home Open House last night.  The UBAH Consultant asked a very interesting question:  "What country's children are the best readers."  (I am paraphrasing, can't remember the exact quote.)

There were all sorts of guesses and Asian countries were mentioned several times (just a little note:  the US was not even mentioned - and since we live here, I think that is really sad).  Do you want to know what her answer was?


Drum roll please.......................


Finland!


Are you surprised?  I was.  (O.k.  Did the flag give it away?)  Well, that took place last night and then this morning I ran across this article here about the success of Finland's schools.  The whole article is very interesting, but this is one of my favorite parts...


"There are no mandated standardized tests in Finland, apart from one exam at the end of students’ senior year in high school. There are no rankings, no comparisons or competition between students, schools or regions. Finland’s schools are publicly funded. The people in the government agencies running them, from national officials to local authorities, are educators, not business people, military leaders or career politicians. Every school has the same national goals and draws from the same pool of university-trained educators. The result is that a Finnish child has a good shot at getting the same quality education no matter whether he or she lives in a rural village or a university town. The differences between weakest and strongest students are the smallest in the world, according to the most recent survey by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). “Equality is the most important word in Finnish education. All political parties on the right and left agree on this,” said Olli Luukkainen, president of Finland’s powerful teachers union."


Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html#ixzz20ylVUmd7


I have often thought that people try to run things that they know nothing about.  For years I wondered why government tries so hard to control education (they are politicians - they should stick to politics, educators should stick to education, etc.)  In a simplified example, would you want a non-French speaking person to teach you and/or your child French before you go on a trip to France?  Not the best idea right?  You look for someone qualified, a French teacher/instructor, a friend who lived in France for awhile and is fluent in French.  Or best yet:  a native born, lived in France his whole life, person to teach your French.  And if you can get someone who lived in the exact area that you will be visiting is even better.

Now, I will get off my soap box (because I could go on and on about it).  I just thought the article was very interesting.  The fact that I had never heard about Finland's successful school system before yesterday and in less than 12 hours I have seen/heard about it twice caught my attention and I thought was worth mentioning.

Please go to this link and read the rest of the article.  It talks about how the drop out rate is substantially lower than the US and they spend less per child on education than the US and yet still more children go on to higher learning after High School than the US.  They say that they prepare children to learn how to learn, not to take tests.  That is one MAJOR problem that I have with our school systems here.  Our teachers teach to the test (I'm not blaming the teachers because it comes from higher up, much higher up and trickles down).  It is a real pet-peeve of mine.  I cannot stand that my children are being taught to take standardized tests and are not being taught.  This is the main reason that I have considered home-schooling.

I do not currently home-school because I think there are other benefits to the school system, but those are quickly disappearing.

Finland, I salute you on your education system and what you are doing for your children!!!!!!!

Free & Bargain Kindle Books

Read

Now I know that I've told you how much I love books and that I am resistant to e-readers, well I've found some links that might change my mind.  As much as I love books, I love to read more (when I was younger - I read anything I could get my hands on...the backs of shampoo bottles, telephone books - don't laugh, there's valuable information in there that's more than just phone numbers - and countless other things).

Well, a friend alerted me to these websites (you can also find them on Facebook) and I find it very exciting.  I will never be without something to read.

Pixel of Ink
Pixel of Ink - Young Edition
Power Reads
Inspired Reads
Dining Downloads

Just a little FYI - my son has a Kindle Fire and I do not own an e-reader, but you can download a free e-reader here for your computer from Amazon.  Which I have done.

Reading for Boys

I love to read!  I love books!  Yes, I am old school.  I am not into the Kindle, Nook or any e-readers (yet).  My son, Champ, has a Kindle Fire and I mess around with it a bit, but I love the look and feel of books, I even love the smell of books, I love the sound of the pages being turned.  I like how if I hold a thinner, smaller book - it is lighter, if I hold a thicker, bigger book - it is heavier.  I just simply love books.

When I was younger (way back in the day), we had 4 major television networks (ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS).  Cartoons were only on Saturday until noon, with an occasional after school special during the week. At night we only could watch prime time television until about 8:00 and then the adult television shows came on and we had to go to bed.  And if the President was on - he was on every single channel.  We also didn't have gaming systems (hand-held/personal or otherwise), there was no such thing as the internet.

What we (my brother and I or my friends and I) did was play outside and read books.  There is nothing that I like better than curling up with a good book on a rainy day.  Snow days from school were awesome!  We played outside until lunch time (we were about frozen by then anyway) and then we came in and ate a good lunch and had hot chocolate - later we made snow cream - and then I would read and read and read and...well you get the picture.

I always had a book in my hand, I took one with me wherever I went (remember - no personal gaming systems back then or DVD players in the car) and if I got a minute or two I would read.

I wanted to pass down my love of reading to my children.  I think it is an excellent past time.  I feel that if children can read and comprehend what they are reading they will be able to do anything!  I read to my children when they were little hoping they would like to read.  My oldest, Lee, loves to read!  He reminds me of me, he takes a book with him at all times - very seldom do you see him without a book in his hand or at least nearby.

My second son, Champ, not so much.  I try to encourage reading and I know that Champ likes to earn money (he saves it very well too) so I told my boys that I would pay them a penny a page to read an age appropriate book.  Lee took it and ran with it (get paid to do something that I already like to do?), Champ had rather do physical labor than read.  I gave them each a spiral notebook (in the fall when school supplies are on sale they are 10 - 15 cents each), inside the front cover of the notebook I glued an envelope (flap side out).  They are to record the date they completed the book, title and author of the book and the # of pages.  When they have read a book or two they leave their reading log on the counter and I mark pd. beside the # of pages and I put the money in the envelope.  (I think when they are older they might find it interesting to see what they were reading when they were younger.)

Anthony (now finishing up his first grade year) was excited about this too.  Last year, when he began to read I set him up  a reading log too.  His first few books were 10 pages or less, so I waited until we had at least a dollar before I paid him.  Now Rance is excited about starting Kindergarten this fall so that he can learn to read!

A local publication had an article entitled 'Helping Boys Love Books.'  It had some great suggestions in the article and it also had some suggestions for books and websites that were about books and/or authors for children and middle-school aged boys. 

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
Dead End In Norvelt by Jack Gantos
Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton
Traction Man is Here! by Mini Grey
The Library of Doom Series by Michael Dahl
Guys Read Edited by John Scieszka (and here too)
Happy Pig Day! by Mo Willems (and here too)

Hope this helps your boy(s) to love to read.  I know we are going to look up these books this summer (only 10 days of school left - YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

Toe Art

I am NOT an artist, so the post title may not be completely accurate. Anyway, Anthony has to bring Kindergarten readers home. Books that are 8 pages long with words and sentence structure that he has been studying. His teacher asks that the children read each book a minimum of two times (more if they need it).

Anthony read it to me once and did fine, but he didn't want to read it a second time - he wanted to go play. Since he was hurrying up, he started making mistakes. I had a pen in my hand and as a joke, I took the pen and made a mark on his toe when he made a mistake. I told him that I would make 1 mark for every mistake he made (which turned into faces).

He realized that these were marks of mistakes and began to make an effort again. What you see above is the final result. (He missed 10 out of 133 words - not bad for a Kindergartener).



After we were done and they were no longer marks for mistakes, he asked me to draw a different face on each toe (angry, silly, jealous - which I didn't do b/c I had no idea how, etc.). This is the end result of that.

How do you motivate your children?

Story Sack

This is something that you can do with/for your kids. I have been wanting to do this for awhile, but I just haven't made the time to do it. This is great for moms, but it would be really great for the classroom (all you teachers that have centers, here's an idea - and if you are already doing it, let me know your tricks and how it is going). I think it would even make a great Birthday or Christmas gift to a child.

A Story Sack is where you take a favorite book and put it in a "sack." You don't have to get too technical, the sack could be a manilla envelope, a gallon size ziploc bag, a plain canvas bag (from Hobby Lobby or somewhere), or if you want to get technical you can make a 'sack'. If you have an item (manilla envelope or canvas bag), decorate it to go with the book. **The idea here is to get children interested in reading and families interesting in reading together.** So make this apealing as you can.

Also, in the sack put things that relate to the book. It could be a coloring page, it could be something mentioned in the book, whatever. Just don't let it end with the book, let the fun continue. You could also have/make a snack that ties in with the book.

When I get around to doing this, this is what I want to do. My favortie children's book is 'Llama Llama Red Pajama.' So I would read this story near bedtime, have the boys get on their red PJ's, print some coloring pictures of llamas (I'm sure I can google some) and have them color them while I read the story (or just after). I could put buttons on the "red" canvas bag to make it look like PJ's, etc.

There are so many more creative people than I am. I would love to see what you do with this. If you do or have done this, send me pictures and I will post them.

Here are just a few sites to get you started...

Story Sack Ideas
Lets Create A Story Sack
Literacy Changes Lives
A Child's Place
Story Sack Corner

Remember Have Fun, spend quality time together as a family and get your child(ren) interested in reading. Who knows, you might enjoy it too.