Stone Marshall

Help children grow a love of reading with these tips

by Stone Marshall | Feb 24, 2015 | parent-news | 0 comments

Let’s face it, reading affects every area of our lives. If kids struggle with reading, it is highly likely they will struggle in other areas of their academic life too. Parents can influence kids to form better reading habits and help them become better readers. Check out these five tips to inspire your kids to love reading:

READ WITH YOUR KIDS: Parent involvement is the No. 1 predictor of early childhood reading success and future academic achievement. Kids learn from parental modeling. Starting a daily reading ritual for pre-kindergarten kids is vital for developing a child’s love for reading. Kids who own 100 or more books tend to be more ready to tackle academic challenges. Using books with popouts help stimulate imagination and make reading fun.

Before getting started, read the title and ask your child to make a prediction of what the story is about. Point to words and pictures as you read to helps kids make the correlation between the story and the illustrations. Read with enthusiasm and energy by changing pitch and intonation to punctuate the story and character’s voice.

Follow up each story by asking questions to ensure they understood the story and can relate it to another story or personal experience. The love of reading is partially developed by relating stories to real life.

SET TECHNOLOGY LIMITS: Set a predetermined amount of time for kids to plug in to technology (including TV) each day. Replace TV and gaming time with daily reading rituals by scheduling reading time for your kids each day. Reading on an e-reader is good, but be sure kids have an appreciation for traditional books too. Shared reading time with the family as well as individual reading time reinforces good reading habits. Reading with good comprehension sets kids up for success in all of their other subjects like social studies, math and science.

HELP KIDS CREATE A READING LIST: It’s important to keep your child’s reading level in mind when helping him choose a good book to read. Use your intuition when asking him questions about what he wants to learn about, who he’d like to meet or what he wants to be when he grows up. All of these things make a good list of things to read about.

For infants and toddlers, choose books with bright colorful pictures and familiar objects. Cardboard or washable fabrics prevent little hands from getting too excited and ripping pages. Books that appeal to their senses and explore different textures will be fast favorites. Poems and rhymes are fun for parents to recite over and over again.

Preschoolers love illustrations that are colorful and engaging. Short stories that have simple plots and actions to follow will hold their short attention spans. Stories that are about everyday life can help them explore their world and stories about how things work will help them learn new concepts. Characters that are about the same as age as your child will help him relate to the character and take an interest in the storyline.

Choosing books for young readers, up to age 11, take on a new dimension. They enjoy stories that take several days to read.

They also like to read more in-depth versions of their childhood favorites. They still enjoy illustrations and photos, especially in how-to books. By this time, your child may have developed favorite authors, so reading other books in a series by the same author is a good strategy.

Adolescents like to read books with characters that are facing similar teen related challenges in their lives. Novels that take them to faraway places and times can foster their love for science fiction or history. Biographies, folk tales and mythology can be good options too.

SET CONTENT GUIDELINES: It is totally fitting for parents to monitor what their kids read. Just like television and movies, it is reasonable to consider that parents wouldn’t want their kids to engage in books with vulgar language, sex, violence or drugs. It is also important to only allow kids to read material that is age appropriate.

SCREEN FOR LEARNING DISABILITIES LIKE DYSLEXIA: Kids who don’t like to read typically don’t have good reading skills. This could be because reading wasn’t part of their early childhood experience, therefore, they don’t appreciate the value reading could have in their lives. It is important for parents to delve deeper into the reasons their kids don’t like to read. If kids find reading boring, it could be that they only read school assignments that don’t tap into their interests. Finding books that are more in alignment with their hobbies or interest might help them enjoy reading more.

Some kids find reading difficult or tedious. That could be related to how they learned to read. Check in with his teacher and see if there are learning disabilities like dyslexia involved or if a tutor could help get them up to speed. Poor reading skills can lead to kids falling behind in school and not liking school. Kids like to know that things are relevant to their lives and some kids haven’t made the correlation between books and real life.

Finding books that tie into their hobbies, interests or aspirations can help improve their interest in reading.

Reading opens up new worlds for kids. Stories can take their imaginations to foreign lands and spark an interest in travel, culture and adventure. Reading biographies can provide positive role models and inspire kids to excel in sports, academics and service. Give your kids the gift of reading by making it fun and exciting.

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Minecraft Book: A Blocky Version Of The Bible

by Stone Marshall | Feb 23, 2015 | Minecraft News | 1 comment

It is no secret that a book on Minecraft is getting produced and it is going to get launched tomorrow. Online retailer Amazon has already listed the Blockopedia on its website and indicated the release date to be 24 February this year.

Blockopedia is written by Alex Wiltshire, who is famous for being the editor of Edge Magazine and for being an expert gamer. Like the name of the book, Blockopedia is actually an encyclopaedia for the award winning, open-world sandbox title, Minecraft.

Blockopedia basically covers everything one needs to know about Minecraft. It goes into detail like giving away the properties of every texture, city and elements in the game. Furthermore, Blockopedia also offers players tips on how to make the most of Minecraft.

Even so, it is still unsure on how much the Blockopedia will cost when launched. We’ll update this accordingly when Blockopedia make its debut tomorrow.

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“Why not give Potter a chance?”

by Stone Marshall | Feb 23, 2015 | Awesome Book News | 0 comments

Is the ‘Spiderman’ cast announced yet?!….oohh….i was talking about this with one of my friends…………

Tom: “Why can’t they choose actors who the world actually accepted as superheroes…”

Me: ” ….what about ‘Harry Potter’….?”

Tom: “……..ya why not something like that?!!??!!…..”

Me: “….What about Dumbledore……he will be the best one…no competition you know…….hehehaha…”

Athough I was joking……then it dawned upon me how cool the idea really is…!!!…

No….no…not Dumbledore….hehehe…..but why not ‘Daniel Radcliffe’??!!!

I could’nt find anyone else appropriate………what do u think, eh?

And then i search in the internet….well u know…there are many rumours…on it…including Radcliffe taken for the ‘Webslinger’ role by ‘Sony’..i mean can you believe that??!

Daniel Radcliffe.

Daniel Jacob Radcliffe, born on 23 July, 1989, is an English actor who rose to prominance as the title charector in thd ‘Harry Potter’ film’s. He made his acting debut at 10 years of age in BBC’s television film ‘ David Copperfield’. At age of 11, he was cast for ‘Harry Potter’ and starred in the series for ten years until it’s release in 2011. He has won several awards, especially from MTv for the ‘best actor’. – Wikipedia.

This is all i have got to tell you……i believe that radcliffe has enough experience in the ‘superhero world’ to star for ‘Spiderman’……he looks perfect in the suit tooo!!!….i could’nt find anyone else so perfect….but still…i have no right. I just suggested him because i’m a ‘Hardcore Harry Potter fan’…..i know you guyz out there would contradict me saying that spiderman deserves a more better candidate, but still i have the right to say my opinions , have’nt I ?

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Guys Read program reminds boys it’s cool to read

by Stone Marshall | Feb 22, 2015 | parent-news | 0 comments

FAIRBANKS — Cool guys read. If anyone claims differently, ask for a footnote.

Longtime Fairbanks resident Greg Hill is one of the coolest guys, and he’s on a mission to invite every boy attending school in Fairbanks North Star Borough to join the club. Hill, who before retirement was the executive director of Noel Wien Public Library, is the creator and coordinator of Guys Read — a program that aims to get fourth-grade boys interested in reading.

Hill works with men from all around the borough, each of whom has his own set of interests and talents, to come serve as reading role models to fourth-grade students.

From radio hosts to engineers, from firefighters to social media curators and from current high school star athletes to police chiefs, Guys Read connects these volunteers with schools to show students that adults with some of the best and most interesting jobs available think reading still is in vogue.

Adult readers volunteer their lunch hour for several days over a three week period, during which time they visit one of the borough’s public elementary schools and read an engaging age-appropriate book to the fourth-grade students. The books usually take the form of comic books or heavily illustrated novels — something that can engage students both through the narration of their reading travel guide and the pictures projected on a nearby wall.

Students gather in a library or common room, where they get the dinner-and-a-show treatment, eating their lunches while taking in the story read by their volunteers.

Explaining the purpose of using comic books and illustrated books for the program, Hill references British author Neil Gaiman, who once referred, as others have, to comic books and fiction in general as a gateway drug to literacy.

Students, economically boys disadvantaged in particular, often lose interest and fall behind the reading curve in fourth grade. It’s a phenomenon so well researched it even has its own monicker: “the fourth-grade slump.” So Hill’s program focuses its efforts there, at that integral point of reading interest.

Guys Read runs for one three-week period each school year. This year’s iteration, the program’s ninth, wrapped up on Friday.

Steve Dutra, the chief at North Pole Police Department, volunteered with Guys Read for the first time this year. He says he hasn’t specifically asked the boys what they think about the reading, but their enjoyment is obvious from they way they get engaged.

At home, Dutra reads to his daughter, in fourth grade, and his son, in fifth grade.

“I wasn’t much of a reader as a kid, and I have absolute passion about my children reading,” he said. “We read every night. That’s kind of our time together.”

Dutra’s son just barely missed the chance to experience the Guys Read program with his father as one of the readers, but that’s OK, Dutra said, because his son gets to read with him every night already.

Since Guys Read Alaska first began nine years ago, it has expanded to other Alaska regions outside the Interior, spawning programs in Barrow, Nome and elsewhere.

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A good read for parents raising boys

by Stone Marshall | Feb 22, 2015 | parent-news | 0 comments

Sometime in the mid-1960s, I began to take an interest in boys. However, the boys in my class did not reciprocate that interest.

I complained to my mother about this deficit in the male of the species. She assured me things would pick up eventually. “Boys,” Mom said, “take longer to mature than girls.” I expect I rolled my eyes.

Last month, my local children’s librarian (a mature boy) introduced me to the book “Raising Boy Readers,” with more than 300 recommended boy-friendly books, by Michael Sullivan.

I have to give Mom points. Somehow, without ever having read a single scientific study, she understood the truth about the differences in the maturity rates between boys and girls.

But the science behind the facts, as revealed by Sullivan, is both compelling and enlightening.

Did you know that, on average, girls’ brains reach their full adult size by age 11? But boys’ brains achieve this growth around age 14. (page 2).

Sullivan calls this phenomenon “brain-lag.” This brain-lag is responsible for the gaps in verbal and written language skills often seen between girls and boys.

Boys catch up to girls eventually, but not until they are 15 years old. Sullivan writes “It isn’t that boys don’t read as well as girls; they simply read at a different time ”

The chances are then that, whatever standardized tests may indicate, most fourth-grade boys aren’t behind in their truly appropriate reading levels, just in that pseudo-appropriate reading level set by the powers that be.

What a relief! Still, the pseudo-level (and resulting bogus grade) may leave boys discouraged and turned off to reading.

This is an outcome adults can change, according to Sullivan, by giving boys reading-for-pleasure time.

In “Raising Boy Readers,” Sullivan lists 300 books from which to choose.

Get Sullivan’s book. Or ask your own children’s librarians for suggestions. They would love to help you. Sometimes they’re even boys.

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