The Adventure of H2O is a fun and adventurous fiction pictured book that introduces challenges and excitement of growth through the story of metamorphosis of a water droplet in the water cycle. The book shows children that overcoming daily challenges is a part of growing. Book tells young readers about the science behind formation of rain.
Name of the main character lets children effortlessly remember the chemical formula of water. Amazing colorful pictures captivate without taking away the focus from the story line. They just make book more memorable and enjoyable.
The idea of the book came to me on a gloomy rainy day when my baby girl told me she hated rain! I tried to explain her the benefits of rain and how vital rain is for our planet! But she continued saying that she hated rain. Knowing her loves for stories I tried to think about a story that she would like. That's how the adventure of a droplet was born.
The main character's name is H2O, he's a curious and smart droplet who has passion to grow. During his journey of growing he faced challenges that he worked to overcome. Finally he became a big raindrop and fell back to the ocean that was waiting for him.
Often times, we spent lots of money on flashcards, DVDs claiming, pricey toys to teach our children letters, recognize sounds and finally read! But taking in to action some simple steps, it makes your child reading journey more fun, exciting and it's good for your budget too. Now, here are the tips:
Read up to 20 mins. every night (duration depends on the kid's age and patience)
It's better start with her/his favorite books. I recommend a short rhythmic story.
Put your finger under each word during the reading and let your child see the words.
Sounding some of the letters out while you are reading aloud! For example: h/a/t and then put them together, hat.
When teaching letters and the sounds, incorporate as many senses as possible. As mentioned before for younger kids it's good idea to touch the letters, like foaming letters or you can make out of paper.
Introduce your child with the author and illustrator of the book and ask questions before, during, and after reading. Not ask too much because they are more interested to know what's happened in the rest of the story.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
May 31, second session of the book club.
For the second session I designed the following creative game
for children between 3-8 ages: cross-out words with Dr. Seuss. Hoping that everyone
in the audience likes Dr. Seuss, I chose one of my favorite books of his, The
Green Eggs and Ham. I created charts with random words from the book. Every
participant got a paper with a different chart. While I was reading the book,
participants had to find and cross out the words that I was reading. The
winner had to find and cross out all words in the chart. The goal of the game
was to make the children quickly recognize words.
You can find a sample working sheet below:
Not
If
Say
Ham
Rain
Eat
Green
Like
Me
Them
With
Sam
On
Do
Eggs
Train
Let
Anywhere
The second game –that turned out to be our favorite—was I
spy a letter with the young children. While some of them were super active trying
to catch the letters, Jessie, the youngest reader, less than one year old, was carefully
listening to the sounds of the letters.
As you probably know, children learn basic skills at an early age. All children learn differently and at different pace. Some children may be able to pick up some skills better than the others, and some children may take longer to learn those same skills. In this club, parents will learn what they need to do in order to help their child begin to read. Students might have problems reading because they lack specific skills necessary for proficient reading. Besides schools/teachers, we as parents also have our part to help the kids through their reading journey. Putting a few simple strategies into action will make a significant difference in helping children develop into good readers and writers. Books give vision, intellect, and information which make life choices easier. What’s better goal for a book club than help the young readers to recognize the letters, the sounds and start reading! In this club we are inculcating passion for reading. We also learn strategies for making reading fun and interactive. Join the club and take your part in this adventurous journey with your child to the world of reading.
First session:
Today is April 26, 2013. It’s the first day of book club. The club name is Reading Jourey. It was long time that I was dreaming to have my own book club to talk and share reading experience with moms who has newborns, toddlers and preschoolers. Anna and I got started from morning to decorate the walls with big colorful foamy Alphabet letters. She is a good helper and she is excited about the club. We brought downstairs some of her picture books and easy reader books. And now it’s time for fun. All the new readers are babies today! We started on time at 3 pm and finished before 4 pm. I introduced myself and told mothers about Anna’s and my reading journey since she was newborn. Then it was Anna’s turn to point the letters and make their sounds. I picked up colorful foamy letter "O" and gave to little Jessie to touch the letter and feel the roundness. Then Kahlan’s mom and I showed her a beautiful book with bold colors while Jessie’s mom was reading Jessie’s favorite Dr. Seuss’ book. By the way, she was listening quietly. Little Kahlan seemed tired because she is only 4 months. Her eyes seemed too curious to explore something else. While everybody was busy with reading I shared some age-appropriate techniques that worked for me and tried to practice them during the session:
1. Read aloud for the baby for 15 minutes every day.
2. Have the big colorful foamy alphabet. It’s easy to point to this big letters and babies love bid bold colored things.
3. Let the baby touch the letters to feel the shapes of the letters.
4. Sing the alphabet song to the baby.
5. Read a word like “cat” while pointing to the cat’s picture in the book.
6. Make reading more fun by interacting, adding sounds.
Anna’s and my own reading
journey both go back to days when she was newborn baby. I was reading to her every
day. I always loved books and reading, although that love started quite late,
when I turned 13. I wish I had been introduced to books earlier in my life.
However during my childhood years there were few children’s books in Iran. It
was the time when Iran was fighting bloody war with Iraq. War lasted 8 years
and those years were practically void of cultural events I could attend and
only books available to me were school textbooks.
I was still in the middle
school when one of my classmates brought a book to me. It was one of Leo Tolstoy’s
masterpieces, “Anna Karenina.” I was surprised to finish reading it in just few
days. It was my first experience and I fell in in love with books. It was such
an exciting time! Honestly, I even started getting better grades in school
after that. I found my favorite writers with whom I could share my thoughts and
feelings. I was still teenage but I loved to read the world’s big writers: Fyodor
Dostoyevsky, Mark Twain, Anatole France, Alexander Dumas, John Steinbeck,
Ernest Hemingway and many more…
But subconsciously there
was still something missing. I found it when Anna (my baby girl) was born. It
turned out I was missing children’s literature that I did not have access to in
my childhood. True, I was reading great literature in my teenage years, but it
was not the same as reading age-appropriate literature as one grows up. It is very important to read children’s books
during childhood because it helps to develop child’s imagination. Since I
started reading for my child I was thrilled to read every single children’s
book I could get hold of. I believe in
some way, I was trying to fill the gap in my own education. Most of the time, we
ended our shopping in a book store, where Anna and I were hanging around children’s
section for very long. Reading children books was—and still is—a delightful
and funny activity.
After a while we
realized that Anna has the same passion for books and we can help her to read
all by herself. Besides daily reading activities, we were playing with letters,
singing songs, making rhymes, touching letters in her foamy alphabet carpet to feed
her tactile sense. Anna started to recognize all 26 letters when she was only
13 months. We were very enthusiastic that our method seemed to work. Finally
she started reading a whole book all by herself when she was 3 years and 4
months. I will never forget the happy moment when my husband told me that Anna read
him Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax at the story time!
