PAYDAY LOAN AUSTRALIA

It’s July and summer is in full swing. Yet, with all the great indoor and outdoor activities to do this time of year, parents will often hear their children say, “I’m bored!” So what can parents and their kids do together to add some quality time and excitement to their summer? Start a Family Book Club! Benefits of a Family Book Club.

Parents know that reading is crucial to their kids’ success in school and beyond. During the summer, television, video games, and day camps are just a few of the forces that pull kids away from reading regularly. Still, parents are the best role models for their children’s reading success and starting a Family Book Club is a creative and fun way for them to incorporate reading into their children’s summer routine.

So what are the benefits of a Family Book Club?

* A book club affords families a chance to socialize and spend time together
* Book selections can help families open up and talk about issues and controversial topics that otherwise would be difficult to approach in everyday conversations
* Book discussions allows parents and kids to express their true feelings and opinions, as well as have an opportunity to be listened to
* Shared reading of a book gives parents a chance to model good reading while monitoring their child’s comprehension and reading skills
* Book discussions can help with a child’s communication skills by having them expand their comments beyond those - “yes,” “no,” “it was a good book” - answers. As a result, kids become more comfortable with public speaking when they are allowed to share their opinions about the books they’ve read.

Planning, Preparing, and Presenting

To start a Family Book Club, parents need to:

* Consider their child’s age, reading level, and gender.
* Set a goal for the club. The goals can be social, educational, or both. Social goals consist of planned activities, crafts, or outings inspired by the selected book. Educational goals may include introducing the child to genres he or she has not read before.
* Select a day of the week and time for the book discussion. Consider meeting monthly if one or two books are chosen and discussed. Meeting consistently is important to the club’s success. With regards to time, consider two hour meetings to allow for in-depth discussions and snacks. Clubs with young readers should limit their meetings to no more than one hour.
* Select a book (or books) for the club. Remember that the book chosen should reflect the goals set for the club.

Some excellent books to refer to for help with your club’s reading selections:

* 100 Best Books for Children: A Parent’s Guide to Making the Right Choices for Your Young Reader, Toddler to Preteen by Anita Silvey
* 500 Great Books for Teens by Anita Silvey
* Black Books Galore’s Guide to Great African American Children’s Books by Donna Rand & Toni Trent Parker
* Great Books for High School Kids: A Teacher’s Guide to Books That Can Change Teens’ Lives by Rick Ayers and Amy Crawford
* The New York Times Parent’s Guide to the Best Books for Children: 3rd Edition Revised and Updated (New York Times Parent’s Guide to the Best Books for Children) by Eden Ross Lipson

The Internet is also an excellent resource for locating books to read with your club. Some top sites to visit are:

* The Book Hive - www.bookhive.org
* GRITS Kidz Book Club - www.gritskidz.com
* Kids Reads - www.kidsreads.com
* Reading Rockets - www.readingrockets.org
* Teen Reads - www.teenreads.com

Consider using an online database to look for book topics that will excite your children all summer long. Two databases that are searchable by topics, concepts, and skills are:

* The Database of Award Winning Children’s Literature - www.dawcl.com
* Children’s Literature - www.childrenslit.com

Launch Your Family Book Club Present the selected book or books. Begin each book discussion with some background information about the author and/or the book’s topic. Then work through a list of prepared discussion questions allowing family members to share their responses and ask questions as well. Always start with the positive aspects of the book first before accentuating the negatives; this will keep the mood of your book discussion enjoyable for all.

For kids, summer is a time to relax and not worry about schoolwork. For parents, summer means finding the right activities to keep their kids’ minds stimulated while they’re on their school vacation. A Family Book Club is the ideal compromise for all involved for kids and their parents will enjoy coming together to socialize and share their love of reading.

by Marlive Harris

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 7:21 pm and is filed under Family . 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.