“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
― Dr. Seuss in “I Can Read with my Eyes Shut!”
We are celebrating reading and Dr. Seuss at the Training Institute! A lot of you reading this will have fond memories of either having a Dr. Seuss book read to you or of reading one to your own children. Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) was born on March 2, 1904. During his life he published 46 children’s books full of imagination and rhymes. In May 1954 a report came out which concluded that children were not learning to read because their books were boring. William Ellsworth Spaulding, the then director of the education division at Houghton Mifflin, challenged Geisel to “bring back a book children can’t put down.” Nine months later, Geisel completed what many consider his finest children’s book, “The Cat in the Hat.” With its easy to read vocabulary it has been enjoyed by many beginning readers throughout the years. In fact Dr. Seuss’s books still outsell many of the newly published children’s books today.
While we celebrate the literary contributions of Dr. Seuss, we are also busy preparing a NEW training module for home visitors on how they can help parents help their children become successful readers. We know that reading doesn’t begin in kindergarten – it begins at home. A child’s first experiences with literacy are shaped by the literacy they see in their home, so improving family literacy is an important goal. Home visitors can impact the literacy skills of children in a number of ways. We can’t wait to share techniques with home visitors for promoting strategies to get parents reading to their children!
It is important for someone to be reading to every child and for children to have access to developmentally appropriate books. Watch for our new training in the next month that will help home visitors encourage parents to READ, READ, READ to their child!