Reading Interactively With Your Child by Isolating Specific Words in the Story

March 17, 2015 by lbp Leave a Comment

Labyrinth_front cover We have suggested ways for you to read interactively with your child: Here are a few more ideas. Have you ever noticed when reading a Lima Bear Story, like The Labyrinth, that certain words are written in a different way from the rest of the words? The reason for this is to draw attention to the word, usually a more challenging word, so that the child will notice it and ask about it. You can use these special words as an opportunity to “extend the learning.”

**First read the book all the way through with your child

**Go through the book again but this time, have your child point out the words that different from the rest.

**Ask your child to identify how the word is different:

**Is the word bigger or smaller?

**Is it a different color?

**Ask your child to guess why she thinks the word is different

** Have your child say the special words in the story in the way he thinks the author intended for them to be read.

**Talk about how the words could be said differently to express different emotions

**Ask your child to try come up with different word that could be used that would have a similar meaning

In The Labyrinth, some of the special words are “cheered,” “twists and turns,” and “glowed.” You can see what we mean by “special words” from this small sample. They are bit more descriptive, a bit more challenging, a bit more cool. Please share any ways that you have discovered to “extend the learning” as you read interactively with your child!

Creating an Original Story With Your Child Can Be the Perfect Cure for the Winter Blues

February 18, 2015 by lbp Leave a Comment

Snowstorm

Story-telling with your child can be the perfect cure for the winter blues

This winter try something different with your children to cure the winter blues. Instead of simply reading to them from the books on their shelf, why not come up with your own story? Storytelling is a time-honored tradition, handed down from generation to generation. In some cases, handed-down stories turn into beautifully written-down tales, decades later as in case of the Lima Bear Stories.

You too, can create stories either on your own or with the help of your family. The result will not only be entertaining but a source of family memories as palpable as any family vacation photo album.

How to get started in creating your own family stories

To get started in creating your family story-telling memories keep these tips in mind:

Do not be intimidated; anything you have to share is going to be interesting to your children.
Use what is important to you. If you are super clean, for example, create a character who learns the hard way why cleaning up is important.
Use humor. Goofy=Happy Children
Create catchy character names. Catchy names make the story come alive and easily remembered.

Have the family join in with pieces of the story

Another way to create terrific tales is to let the story unravel by having your family add the content along with you. For example, why not turn the television off on a cold winter’s night and simply start a story much like the old children’s game “whisper down the lane?” Start with a funny scene using material that is obvious to you. Let each family member add to the story and take the story over for a while.

Enjoy as you witness the creative juices flowing. Each family member gets a chance to add and embellish until finally a completed story is created. After you get to the end of the story see if family members can repeat the story back. Did the story change? Try the story again using the new embellishments to see if the changes may become permanent changes.

Examples of story beginnings to get you started

One of the hardest tasks in creating any story is coming up with a beginning to the story. Below are some ideas of story-starters to get you on your story-telling way:

Is a holiday near or around a corner? Make your story a holiday tale.
Put a twist on a famous fairy tale. If the writers of Shrek and Enchanted can do it, you can too!
Use a topic from the news. A young hero story, for example.
A famous writer instructor once said “write what you know,” in this case, “tell what you know.” Use what interests you: a football story, a yoga story, a story about your favorite animal, etc.
Tell a story based, loosely or closely on a relative who your children may have never met – what a wonderful way to teach them about someone special who is actually a part of them.

No matter what you decided to base your story on or how you choose to create it, remember that by storytelling you are sharing not only time with your child but a part of yourself. Enjoy making your very own story-telling memories! Let us know your successes!

Reading to Your Child Is Fantastic But Do You Know Why?

January 22, 2015 by lbp Leave a Comment

Why Reading Your Child Is a Good Thing to Do

We know that you intuitively know that reading to your child is a good thing. Here at Lima Bear Press we love to share ideas for HOW to read interactively with your child, thereby increasing the learning. But do you know the reasons WHY reading aloud to your child is so important? The United Through Reading organization outlines a few of the many benefits of reading aloud to your child.

UnitedThroughReading.org tells us that:

Reading aloud with children is a powerful educational tool which:

Nurtures the self-esteem of children
Instills the joy of reading at an early age
Strengthens the bond children need with their families while preparing them for academic success
Plus, research shows that reading aloud to children appears to be the single most important activity for building earliest emergent reading skills

A Child’s Self-esteem Can be Increased When a Parent Reads Aloud to Him/Her

We know that YOU did not need a reason to read with your child but it nice to know the wonderful benefits that can result when you do. One of the most intriguing benefits to reading aloud to your child is the building of self-esteem. It makes sense, though, that a child’s self-esteem can be increased when a parent reads a loud to him. Think about it for a second. Not only is the child learning vocabulary and language skills, he is also recognizing that time spent with him is time well spent. How powerful is that? She learns about behaviors and how to respond to situations which can be a huge ego boost to a youngster in social situations. He is armed with new skills that he can pull out and use at will. Can you think of more way a child’s self-esteem may be increased?