Spoiled-Rotten Readers
Let’s offer ourselves the freedom to quit reading any book that doesn’t meet our expectations and choose something that better meets our selfish needs. And let’s extend this permission to children as they build their own relationship with books and reading.
Culture is Everything
When a family has a culture of reading—when family members choose to read books together with engaging content and rich vocabulary—they send a message to their children that books and reading matter.
Baby Book Talks
Infant language becomes dramatically more powerful when books are added to their lives. The language found in books is much richer and more elaborate than the typical language shared around the house or during meals.
Hooray for Summer Slide!
While kids are eager for time off during the summer, many parents and teachers (school administrators, too) are filled with concern, fearful of the “summer slide.”
Children Need Time to Relax With Books
Relaxed daily reading of personally mesmerizing books is what initiates and builds the habit of reading and with that, the promise of self-enriching lifelong learning.
Access to Relevant Books Leads to Lifelong Reading
We want to ensure that kids everywhere have enough books to support a natural development of their early literacy.
One Language or Two or More?
When children navigate from one language to another, they develop the facility to be comfortable in encounters with those outside of their home communities.
Kids Taught to Choose Books Choose Reading for Life
Encouraging and then allowing kids to choose what they read puts them at the center of their literacy learning lives, which is right where we hope they will forever choose to be.
Words That Matter
Magic happens when kids are encouraged to use words to express kindness to others.
Check It Out
When it comes to checking out books, digital options offer infinite possibilities.
The Primacy of “Mother Language”
An individual’s mother language is the most comprehensive path to the full understanding of other people and their values.
Never Ever Too Early
Language growth and brain development have a process of opportunity that completes its work around the age of 6 years, so start reading to new readers now, regardless of age and/or level of brain development.
When Reading a Book Isn’t Reading the Words
Hearing a book read aloud in a language they know exposes children to what fluent reading sounds like, helping to engage them in learning to read…
How Parents Can Help Kids Plug In to Good Reads, Rest, and Play
Research and data helps support the principles we stand on here at Unite for Literacy.
Digital Libraries are Like Love
Like love, which is utterly fulfilling and limitless, there is no downside to digital libraries and to the books they freely provide for us all.
The Optimum Number of Books
One hundred (100) is the optimum number of books in a young child’s home relative to them growing up to be a proficient, avid reader.
Early Literacy Must Not Wait for Preschool Enrollment
Preschool includes early literacy “lessons,” but take a small step back from that and it becomes immediately clear that it is not early enough.
Teaching Children to Choose
One of the challenges for children in growing from emergent readers into lifelong, avid, joyful readers is figuring out how to find books they will love when there are so many from which to choose.
How to Grow a Book Garden
Just like you can grow a vegetable garden, you can grow a Book Garden…that yields a “crop” of books that is continually refreshed.
The Gift of Literacy
Gifting a book that is well suited to its recipient is natural for book-loving adults to do…Children can benefit from watching us select a special book and learning our motive behind the gift.