Library Visits
Children Need Good Literature
The fact that kids need good literature is not a new one. Just look at the number of awards available in the United States alone to reward authors for superb children’s literature. The long list of such awards includes the Newbery Medal, Caldecott Medal, Coretta Scott King Award, and Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal. With such an extraordinary effort made to celebrate good children’s literature, there must be something important about it.
I know how short the attention span of a child can be yet how thrilling it is to watch a child’s imagination partake in an exciting adventure story. However, why should a child read good literature rather than watch an “educational” television show or an entertaining children’s movie? The answer lies in the benefits of reading to your child.
Research continues to support that reading benefits children of all ages in a number of ways. Reading helps to build your child’s vocabulary, develop his imagination, and improve his ability to communicate. In fact, there is a direct relationship between how many words an infant hears in a day and his language skills, and even his intelligence quotient. Reading is crucial in exposing your baby or young child to a variety of words. The images and colors in children picture books and illustrated books are also stimulating of the imagination. This is part of the reason why I spent a whole year interviewing illustrators after writing the first book in my series, Danny the Dragon—I knew from reading to my own children just how much children appreciate art in children’s literature.
So the next time you’re shopping for the kids at Wal-Mart, think twice before you get them another DVD, remember the pleasure you get from curling up with a good book, and pick out some high-quality children’s literature instead.
Helpful Tips to Encourage Learning in Your Children
First of all, read to your children! Studies show that reading to your child can begin before the age of six months, as soon as they’re able to enjoy the images and pictures inside of their books. Children have varying attention spans and you should keep in mind not to push too far past these limits and not to force them to read, as children tend to dislike things they are forced to do when it’s not on their own determinism. You can read to your child or have them read you, or take turns.
Play board games to stimulate an interest in learning. Not only are they tons of fun, but they help your child develop his reading skills and practice following rules.
A family day at the museum, library, or other stimulating place will encourage your child to be interested in his environment and take a hands-on approach to learning. Ask your child questions about the artwork he sees at museums, such as “Why do you think the painter chose this color?”
Volunteer at your child’s school whenever possible. You can go along on field trips, help decorate for class parties, or read to the class. This will show that you care about your child’s schooling enough to go to his school yourself.
Finally, make sit-down dinners a regular part of your family’s evening, turning off the TV and cell phones so you can sit and talk without distractions. Take advantage of this time to show a genuine interest in your child’s schooling and in academic subjects in general. Ask him lots of questions, tell him funny anecdotes about when you were in school, or tell him what you thought of the book he’s reading in his literature class when you read it in high school yourself. This gets across the important message that learning is important, one of the most valuable lessons you’ll teach your child and which will help ensure his success in all his future endeavors.
Literacy Statistics Need To Be Confronted by Parents
First, the most important thing you can do to ensure the literacy of your own child is being involved. Research on the effects of parental involvement shows a consistent, positive relationship between parents’ participation in their children’s education and their children’s academic performance.
Reading to children and also homeschooling are a couple of ways for parents to increase their involvement and improve their children’s ability to read. Reading to children should be done as early as six months of age, as soon as babies develop an interest in the pictures and illustrations in books. Keep in mind that every child has a different attention span.
You can volunteer at libraries and schools, in already-established programs or programs of your own, by reading to children the books they cherish and by helping them to read these books on their own. Even just an hour or two a week of your time can go a long way in helping improve the literacy of children in your own community.
In the end, there should be a long-term solution to the literacy problem implemented in our schools, but there’s no sense in waiting on the sidelines and expecting your local schools to take care of the problem. In the meantime, be proactive and raise awareness. With your efforts and the efforts of those around you, the literacy situation will be confronted. However, without your help, this victory over illiteracy is not guaranteed.
Library Visits with the Kids—Some Helpful Tips
There’s nothing like good, old-fashioned visits to the library to get your kids interested in reading and encouraging them to become avid readers themselves.
You can start bringing your children to the library as early as infancy—around six months of age, or when they start to become interested in looking at the pictures in books. Make sure your baby is well-fed and well-rested before your trip so he’ll be able to enjoy himself and you’ll find it easy to keep his attention on the books you’ll show him. For infants and toddlers who are still interested in putting any and all objects in their mouths, board books are thick and strong enough to sustain the chewing and saliva of your baby’s mouth. Spend some time reading to your baby in the library and walk your baby around to look at all the books.
Libraries these days tend to allow you to check out a very large number of books. Our local library lets us check out fifty books at a time! Bring a colorful, fun bag to carry the books home with that you check out. Since many other babies have touched and put their mouths on the board books you’ve checked out, when you get home, take some organic, baby-friendly sanitizing wipes and wipe the books down. Then, read often to your baby from the selection of books you’ve bought.
As for older children, take them to the library when they’re also well-fed and well-rested so that they don’t get cranky. Show them your own favorite children’s books and let them pick out books that they’re interested in, too. You can take turns reading to them and having them read to you. Have them check out a pre-determined number of books and enjoy them with your child during story time before bed or any other time you want to read with them at home.
Each child has a different attention span. Never force a child to read or listen when they don’t want to. Oftentimes you’ll find that they’re tired or hungry, and you yourself don’t like doing things when you’re tired or hungry either, do you? Letting a child read and be read to on his own determinism helps him to have a positive association with reading.
Make sure to check out a book or two yourself, and read it between library trips and finishing it before you return it. This will set a positive example for your children to follow.
With the above tips, you’ll be on your way to raising children who are avid, proficient readers with a bright future ahead of them, while establishing a family tradition everyone will be talking about for years to come!
Danny The Dragon Contest Winner- NOVEMBER!
I had the wonderful pleasure of visiting many schools this month as well as received MANY pictures submitted to the site and to my e mail at info@dannythedragon.com.
We have another winner for the November gift basket! Here she is:
- Paulina- 3rd Grade Winner- NOVEMBER
- A New Friend For Danny
Here is what our wonderful 3rd grade winner, Paulina has to say:
Dear Ms. Turbin,
I am Paulina Kapuscinska and I go to 3rd grade at Highland Lakes Elementry
School in Palm Harbor. I like to make arts, crafts, and drawings. I had fun
making the picture of the dragon in the library because I like dragons and
dinosaurs. I liked the book about Danny the Dragon a lot. I also have a
favorite stuffed animal dinosaor that I go to sleep with.
I am really happy that I had a chance to win the contest.
Thank you,
Paulina
A 4-year Old Boy Comments on Danny the Dragon!
Here’s a fun message from a mom that had attended a book reading of Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy with her 2 young boys:
“Morning Tina,
I was driving the boys to school this morning and Bodhi (my 4 yr-old) said, “mommy, did you know that dinosaurs don’t have boots?” Then about a minute later he said, “not like Danny the Dragon; he does have boots. Dragons does have boots”. Love it!”
Author Tina Turbin in the St. Petersburg Times
The Danny the Dragon East Coast Book Tour these past few months proved to be a terrific success! I assure you that we don’t plan to take a break, as there’s many more Danny the Dragon events to come for the month of November. Take a look at the press coverage from one of our highly successful book readings at the Palm Harbor Library:
“Author to entertain: Local author Tina Turbin will present a story and craft activity for children ages 3 through 8 centered around her children’s book series, Danny the Dragon, at 2 p.m. at the Palm Harbor Library, 2330 Nebraska Ave. No registration necessary. Call (727) 784-3332, ext. 3018.”
Tina and Danny Brighten Children’s Lives in Palm Harbor
I have a lovely message that I would like to share. To receive messages such as the one that follows is such a joy for me, and really does make the readings and presentations that I deliver that much more special.
A mother that attended a Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy reading at the Palm Harbor Library in Pinellas County, FL, sent in the following message:
“I met you today at the Palm Harbor Library during your reading of Danny the Dragon. First off, I’d just like to tell you how much my children enjoyed the story – my older son, Donovan, immediately requested that we go on your website when we got home so he could see Danny again. I really enjoyed it as well – the kind and polite way the characters spoke to each other was refreshing. I really can’t tell you how much I appreciated that you complimented Donovan on his drawings after the story and told him that he’s an artist. He’s a bit of a perfectionist and gets down on himself if he doesn’t think what he’s done is up to his standards and there is only so much he believes when I tell him that I love something that he has done. Hearing it come from you really boosted his confidence and he made sure to tell his dad tonight that you thought he was good. We also saw some of your artwork on your website and he said “She’s the best artist in the whole world” so he definitely respects your opinion!
I signed up for your newsletter so I hope that that will include any information about other readings that you will be doing but, if not, please let me know if you will be presenting in any of the Pasco or Hillsborough County libraries. My mother works at the Palm Harbor Library and we attended with her but we actually live in Wesley Chapel and I know my kids would love to hear you read the story again.”
Danny The Dragon and Me- Cupcake Parties Are Fun!
Boy oh boy, Danny has me busy folks. There is so much happening and such wonderful people reaching out to us to come to schools, events, hospitals and venues. My books are spreading out there and landing in some lovely venues for sale. Thank you everyone!
I am heading to Los Angeles right after my very popular Halloween Cupcake Party Danny and I are hosting with a terrific team a children and parent bakers. I only have 100% Gluten-Free Parties! Pamela’s Products, is sponsoring this event in support of my efforts and my interest to help Dr. Peter Green at the Celiac Disease Center. This amazing man correctly diagnosed about 2500 celiac patients last year alone and the year before and the year before that…. Need I say more?
All of this will be filmed on October 24th, Saturday. Check your Tampa, St Pete .and Clearwater newspapers, check the internet and check out http://is.gd/4pYn1 for specifics. ( Los Angeles cupcake party will be announced before the end of this year too!) I invite you to join in the fun and support my this Cause.
Please contact me via the contact page if you are interested.Id love to have you join. We have limited spaces available but I was told this week-end we can take a few more kids and moms, since I really want to bake and decorate a load of gluten free cup-cakes for everyone to take home. Yummy!
Thank you Everyone for your support and good wishes, Tina Turbin and Danny
What do you think of Danny on YouTube?
Danny the Dragon has a home on YouTube, including a beautiful video of various images from our 2009 Book Tour to schools, hospitals and libraries.
Many more videos to come, but in the meantime, please visit the following link and drop us a comment (and a 5-star vote!) so that we know what you think of the video!
