Tweet Summer Reading
I saw Carol Rasco’s post about United We Serve during one of those everyone-else-is-still-sleeping moments that Moms live for. Now back to the computer, I’m happy to see that it’s already being re-tweeted. If you’d like something a little meatier than 140 characters, keep reading. From Carol:
In a video released June 17, President Obama officially announced UNITED WE SERVE, a summer initiative encouraging all Americans to create meaningful change in their communities by engaging in service. Reading with children is part of this initiative due to the serious loss in reading skills experienced by many children over the summer months.
United We Serve will kick off officially on June 22 at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service and will run through the new National Day of Service and Remembrance on September 11. All the tools for participating in this initiative can be found on The Corporation for National and Community Service’s website, Serve.gov.
When you visit the United We Serve website, you can register a project or look for a volunteer opportunity in your community. Type in “literacy” or “reading” and you’ll find lots of places you can help … and the website will also let you pick a time that works for you (anytime, today, this weekend, this month).
If you haven’t joined RIF’s US Airways Read with Kids Challenge, there is still time and hours logged during the last eight days (22-30 June) will be reported as part of the United We Serve Campaign.
Don’t want something “that big” or formal? Try these ideas …
- Grab your calendar and schedule reading appointments. Make time to read with your child.
- Call a couple of moms and arrange a reading playdate. Let an adult (or babysitter or older sibling) read a couple books with younger kids.
- Create an instant book club. It can be a family club or a couple of neighborhood kids. It can be everyone reading the same book or people reading aloud a couple pages of from a favorite.
Reading with a child doesn’t have to be big or fancy, it is as easy as sitting together and opening a book.
Thank you for this great post; we are collecting posts we see and making sure the Corporation for National and Community Service is aware of all the great coverage the initiative is receiving. Thanks again for the great ideas you share!
Carol – It was a great start to my Friday morning. I should have known it would be “well on its way” by the time I got back to my computer!
Starting Monday, if Catherine balks at wanting to read (rare, but it happens), I’ll just say I’m doing what the President asked!