Reading Round-up, 5 May 2008

A Lifetime of Learning in 11 Weeks.  Listen to this Wonder  Year’s Radio podcast to get some great ideas to keep kids learning — and having fun. Christina’s guest host is Annette Yen from Relaxed Homeschooling, who has some great ideas to make learning a family affair this summer. No, you don’t have to be a home schooler (or even have a structured learning plan) to benefit.

A Summer Bookmark. You’ll also want to head over to A Year of Reading, to get a list of summer-reading resources. For those who don’t know this blog, A Year of Reading is a blog written by two teachers.  Who better to know how to keep kids moving forward?

Another Summer Bookmark. Be sure to keep Learning Beyond the Classroom handy this summer. The International Reading Association and National Council of Teachers of English created readwritehink.org as a resource of language-arts-related material for teachers (K to 12). Learning Beyond the Classroom offers a lot of the same information — materials, activities, books — but its for parents and non-teachers (such as camp counselors). Visit the site and you’ll find ‘s a set of companion pages to find activities and instruction based on your child’s age.  Our thanks to Jen Robinson at Jen Robinson’s Book Page for the lead. Read her full post (with the press release) here.

Keep Reading to Them! Thanks to Wizards Wireless for the lead to this article in the Kentucky Post about inmates in a Western Kentucky detention center who record children’s books to connect with their children.

A New Review Outlet.  Last week, Dewey (The Hidden Side of a Leaf) launched a new weekly forum for bloggers. It’s called Weekly Geek and its easy to join in. There will be a new theme every week, and the “entry” fee is just your willingness to participate and contribute to the conversation.   Learn more about the feature and get all your questions answered here. Thanks to The Well Read Child for letting the kidlit blog world know about this new venture. BTW – This week’s theme is about comparing books you’ve read.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words. I don’t think we say it often enough: literacy isn’t just about putting letters into a sequence and memorizing that sequence (read: word). It’s also about exploring language. That’s what makes wordless books so wonderful. Jill over at The Well Read Child just wrote a review of Wave by Suzy Lee. Here is the place to read her review of this book … perfectly timed for summer. This line from her review made me want to find this book: “I have to tell you that this wordless book nearly rendered me speechless the first time I flipped through it.”

You’re a Winner! Here’s a youth writing contest that I had forgotten about! Kids Can Publish University has free monthly contests that rewards winners with a published byline. KCPU promotes literacy and a love of writing and illustrating. Source: “Leading Kids on the ‘Write Track’,” by John Micklos, Reading Today Daily, International Reading Association blog, posted 5/1/2008.

More Proof that Reading is Critical to Learning. A May 1, 2008 article by Loise Ash in Reading Today Daily tells us about a program where kids spend the first two hours of each day working on reading.  Source: “Two Hours of Reading, Writing, Leads to Literacy Gains,” by Louise Ash, Reading Today Daily, International Reading Association blog, posted 5/1/2008.