Posted on: Thursday, December 9, 2004
Story time helps parenting
By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer
Through the Motheread/Fatheread program, parents learn a lot of read-aloud techniques, but they also learn a bit about parenting.
Aimed at parents interested in improving their own reading skills to better help their children learn, the eight-week program teaches parents not only how to engage their children in the story, but also how to help children better analyze the tale and relate it to their own lives.
The parents take turns reading a story aloud with a facilitator, then discuss the book's themes and connections to real-life situations.
Parents then take the book home to read to their children and report back at the next session about how it went.
Kuhio Elementary School principal Evelyn Hao, who has had the program at the school for two years, said: "When the parents come, they not only talk about the story line, they talk about a lot of great analysis and they talk about their own lives. A lot of parenting issues come up."
Parent Christie Diaz said she has always read to her daughter, but since attending the program, "I'm asking more questions so I can see if she caught on."
The program's format also has helped her understand what teachers expect in reading responses. "It makes it easy to write out book reports," she said.
Another positive aspect of the program was meeting other parents, she said.
Participation in the program varies from year to year, but this year Motheread/Fatheread was offered in 19 or 20 schools statewide, thanks to Keikilani Meyer and Robert Chang, the facilitators from the Hawai'i Council for the Humanities, a nonprofit that offers the program for free, and some of the people they have trained.
According to Chang, the program officer, if enough schools are interested in the program, the council may bring in a Mainland expert to train school representatives to run the sessions themselves.
For more information, call Chang at 732-5402 or (800) 424-1301 from the Neighbor Islands.
Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.
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| READING TIPS
The Hawai'i Council for the Humanities offered these tips for parents reading aloud to children: • One good children's book can stand alone. When your child brings you a pile of books and says, "Read me a story," select one to read together. Read through it slowly and dramatically; spend time looking at the pictures and asking questions. • At the beginning of story time, tell your child the name of the book and briefly what it's about. • To help your child understand the meaning of the story, choose a word that's related to it (example: fear or imagination). Explain what the word means and discuss times you both may have felt that way. • Keep your child close to you during story-sharing time. Encourage him or her to touch the book. • As you read, occasionally move your finger from left to right, following the words so your child gets a sense of how words are placed on the page. From time to time, point to a character who is speaking. Children will often enjoy and understand a whole story, but may not be clear about the details. Help by pointing out who's speaking or what's happening. • Use your voice as a way to hold your child's attention. For example, growl with a word like "gruff" or change your voice to suit a character. Doing this may feel silly at first, but children love it. • Keep a good pace without rushing through the story. If you go too fast, your child may feel that you're bored or that you don't find the story interesting. • When it seems appropriate, stop and let your children say important words or phrases. This activity emphasizes the power of words and includes the child as a reader. • Encourage physical dramatization of what's being read. For example, if a character is flying, you and your child can flap your arms. • Briefly review the story when you finish reading. Talking about what happened in the book really sets the characters and events in the child's mind. • When possible, help your child connect different books by actions or themes. • Whenever possible, replace the name of the child in the story with the name of your child. Children love to hear stories about people like themselves who live in the same place as they do or who have the same name. |
