Creative Ways to Make Reading Fun All Summer Long!
Make reading with your child a priority over the summer months.
Make reading with your child a priority over the summer months.
Last night, CLiF staff, board members, past grantees and volunteers joined more than 50 folks from the Monadnock region of New Hampshire at the Mariposa Museum & World Cultures Center in Peterborough, NH to celebrate literacy and learn more about CLiF’s work promoting a love of reading and writing across the region. We all had … Continued
CLiF runs more than 500 literacy events, gives away $550,000 in children’s books, and serves thousands of children each year to nurture a love of reading and writing among low-income, at-risk, and rural kids (up to age 12) in Vermont and Hampshire. But how do we do it? With a little elbow grease and a … Continued
After children have mastered pre-reading skills, the instructional focus shifts to vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency.
What do shipwrecks, flying pigs, and talking fruit have in common? There were all featured in story submissions for the Vermont PBS Kids’ annual Writing Contest, which I had the pleasure of judging last week. Last Friday, I joined nine other writers, librarians, and members of educational non-profits at Vermont’s PBS headquarters in Colchester to … Continued
Have you had a mentor who influenced your life? I’ve had quite a few, some through formal mentorship programs, but most have happened organically with a friend or colleague I respect who shares their experience and advice with me and acts as a sounding board when I need it. I consider my fellow writing group members … Continued
When is the appropriate time to start working on reading skills?
What do you get when you add 130 teachers, principals, librarians and superintendents from 37 elementary schools throughout two states together for an intensive, jam-packed literacy conference? One inspiring day and a whole lot of ideas for promoting literacy to take home to your school, library, and community! That’s exactly what happened yesterday at CLiF’s fifth … Continued
“Be like a duck,” actor Michael Caine once said. “Calm on the surface, but paddling like the dickens underneath.” That sounds a lot like CLiF: our small staff and team of volunteers and presenters always keep smiles on their faces while labelling and packing hundreds of books for giveaways each week, telling stories and giving … Continued
The most fundamental definition of reading is being able to interpret written symbols and understand printed material.
Did you know it’s Read Across America Day? It’s also World Book Day, and the beginning of National Reading Month. I know, all these “holidays” can get a little overwhelming and even feel a bit arbitrary. It seems like, just about any day you pick, you can find somebody somewhere declaring it “National Popcorn Day” (January 19) … Continued
My favorite part of CLiF events is always helping kids choose their own books to take home. But the CLiF event I went to last week was a little different. There were no kids. It wasn’t in a school, daycare center, or library. We were in the New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord … Continued
The old adage goes “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” The same is true of reading and writing. Give a child a book and they might be entertained for a few hours, especially if that child had the chance … Continued
Reading specialists want parents to prepare their children for school by sharing a love for reading, the attitude that reading is important, and the expectation that all children can become successful readers.
Williamstown Elementary School students giggled and shouted “Ewwwww!” as author/illustrator Jason Chin told them about salty iguana snot. Behind him a slideshow showed photographs of the salty, snotty creatures sunbathing in the Galapagos Islands, images from his research trip there for his children’s book Island: A Story of the Galapagos. Then, laughter erupted as he told … Continued
This week I returned to the CLiF office after an inspiring, invigorating, and exhausting ten-day residency at the Bennington Writing Seminars. This was the first of five residencies I will participate in during a two-year pursuit of a Master’s degree in Fiction from Bennington College. BWS is a low-residency MFA program that combines intensive on-campus … Continued
You are your child’s first teacher, and your challenge is to help your child become a successful reader.
It’s probably no surprise that the CLiF Staff loves to read. After all, our mission is to share our love of reading and writing with low-income, at-risk, and rural kids in Vermont and New Hampshire. So of course, we read a lot. We read with our kids; we read by ourselves; and sometimes, we read … Continued
CLiF has served over 350,000 children since 1998.