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Helping kids understand 7 billion people

According to UN calculations, the world’s population is expected to reach 7 billion sometime today, October 31, 2011.

That’s an incredible number, one that’s hard for even adults to wrap their heads around. But what about kids? When I told my boys about this milestone, I could see they were struggling a bit to grasp the enormity of it.

So I pulled out a fantastic book I bought a few years ago, that is just perfect for the occasion.

if the world were villageIn ‘If the World Were a Village‘, author David Smith invites young readers to imagine the world as a global village of 100 people, with each person representing 62,000,000 people in the real world. Since its publication, the population has already grown enough so that today, each person in Smith’s village would have to represent 70,000,000 people! But that does not take away from the book’s value in any way…

Smith discusses nationalities, languages, ages, religions, food, air and water, schooling and literacy, money and possessions, and electricity, in ways and numbers that kids can grasp. It finishes with a view of our village in the future, as well as resources on teaching children about the earth’s population.

Some stats that surprised my kids (and even me, if I’m completely honest!)

  • Of the 100 people in our global village, only 30 people have enough to eat. 50 are hungry all or some of the time, and 20 are severely undernourished. This is despite the fact that there is enough food to feed everyone: it is jut not divided equally…
  • 32 of our villagers breathe air that is unhealthy because of pollution.
  • Of the […]
By |October 31st, 2011|Reviews, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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My kid’s got the Assigned Reading Blues

Assigned Reading AnxietyMy kids are finishing up their mid-term break this weekend, and it’s been great fun for them. They’ve had fabulous outings with grandparents, play dates with friends, and chilling-out time with us at the cottage.

My younger guy, however, has had a little black cloud hanging over his head for most of the week because he had 2 pretty major reading assignments, one in English, and one in French, due when he goes back this week.

You know about my passion for getting kids to read, and how important I know it is. But I have a problem with this kind of assigned reading, when kids almost can’t help but associate reading with feelings of negativity, and almost despair.

Neither one of these books were books of his choice, and neither are they what one would call a classic. I would feel a bit better about it had one of these been the case. For their French assignment, they were given a few minutes in the school library to pick a book off the shelves, and THAT was what they had to read. Make the wrong choice, as my son appears to have done, and it’s simply too bad. It’s back to school in 2 days, and he’s struggling to get through 180 boring pages. And believe me, he is counting every page and minute.

His English assignment was slightly better, in that they had to choose from the Classic Starts collection, so at least he read something worthwhile (Robin Hood).

I would much prefer the teachers had asked them to do a set amount of reading per day, with books of their choices, rather than […]

By |October 30th, 2011|Reluctant readers, Uncategorized|2 Comments
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Top 10 reading reward programs for summer 2011

Keep your kids reading this summer, and prevent summer loss, with these 10 great reading incentive programs:

  1. Barnes & Noble Summer Reading ProgramBarnes & Noble Summer Reading

    2. Kids must read any eight books this summer and record them in the Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Imagination’s Destination Journal. They then bring their completed journal to a Barnes & Noble store between May 24th and September 6th, 2011, and choose a free book from the book list
    featured on the back of the journal.

  2. Half-Price Books: Feed Your Brain

    3. Half Price Books Feed Your Brain

    For kids 14 and under. Get a Feed Your Brain Reading Log  and set a goal to read each day for at least 15 minutes or more throughout June and July. Grown-ups may read aloud for kids who are still learning.
    Kids add up minutes and have their parents or guardians initial at the end of each week. If kids read 600 minutes or more, they can turn in their reading log at Half Price Books July 25 – August 7 to receive $5 Back-to-School Bucks summer reading reward. One top reader per age group will receive a $20 HPB Gift Card.

  3. PBS Kids Raising ReadersPBS KIDS Raising Readers

    4. A free 6-week program to help children discover the joys of reading. You’ll receive: A daily email with fun activities to build reading skills, tricks and advice from your Challenge coach, great book suggestions for kids of all ages, tips from other parents taking the challenge, and a chance to […]

By |May 28th, 2011|Reading Rewards, Uncategorized|2 Comments
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Featured User Series: Meet Marissa!

I am so excited to introduce you to Marissa, my very first Reading-Rewards.com member who was in no way related to me! I still remember the email notification I received letting me know I had had my first RR registration. Let me just tell you, my family certainly remembers… :-)

Nearly 18 months and over 4,000 users later, Marissa has come out as one of my ‘best read’ members, with 279 books read, and 53 reviews. Marissa is not even 9 years old yet!!! I’m thrilled to see that she continues to use the site for her reading log.

I contacted Marissa to ask her a few questions:

Do you have an all-time favorite book? What sort of book do you generally enjoy?

Marissa: I don’t have an all-time favorite book.  I like adventure books and stories about girls.

Where is your favorite place to read? When you do usually read?

Marissa: I like to read in my bedroom.  I usually read before I go to bed.

Do you enjoy using the Reading Rewards website? What do you like about it? Could you tell us what would make it better?

Marissa: Yes I love the Reading Rewards website!  I like it because you earn time to play games and reward miles for prizes.  I also like that I can track all the books I have read and print them out to keep track of them.  Thank you for such a great reading tool!

You’re welcome Marissa! You have no idea how much it means to me that you continue to use the site, and more importantly, that you still enjoy it!

Here is a list of books Marissa has reviewed, pulled directly from her Reading-Rewards.com profile. Impressive, I am sure you’ll agree!

By |May 27th, 2011|Reading Rewards, Uncategorized|2 Comments
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How to run a great Summer Reading Program

How far would you go to get kids reading over the summer?

Mrs. Stoudenmire, a principal at Deerfield Windsor Lower School, in Georgia, has pledged to either kiss a pig, be in a human sundae or get dunked in a dunking booth if students read at least 250,000 minutes over the course of the summer.

Kathy Baker, Directory of Media Centers at Deerfield Windsor, recently found out about the Reading Rewards website, and set up a group for her 300+ students to use to help keep track of their summer reading. Between May 26 and  August 11, kids will log their daily reading minutes using the online reading log, and be able to share book reviews and keep track of what (and how much!) everybody is reading over the summer. Weekly mini games on the site add a little competitive incentive: the more they read, the better their chances of winning!

Kathy has this to say about the program:

“This is our first summer reading program where we have a goal and we are keeping up with the minutes the students are reading. We were so excited to find a way that the students could easily log their reading minutes online as they work towards our goal of 250,000 minutes over the summer. (This would have been a lot to add up if they had kept paper logs!) We love that the students will be able to share what they are reading with other students. What a great way for the kids to keep up with their classmates over the summer while getting them fired up about reading!”

Deerfield Windsor School is just one of many […]

By |May 19th, 2011|Reading Rewards, Uncategorized|1 Comment
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Featured User Series: Meet Gabriele

Welcome to the second post in our ‘Featured User’ series! I would like to introduce you to Gabriele, 10 1/2 years old, who has been a Reading Rewards member since September, 2010.

Gabriele has logged over 131 reading hours on our site (well done!!), and has reviewed 24 books. Great job!

We asked Gabriele to answer a couple of questions about RR:

Do you have an all-time favorite book? What sort of book do you generally enjoy?

A difficult question. My favourite books would be the Lord of the Rings series. The author, J.R.R. Tolkien, is one of the only authors capable of making me get lost in his spectacular imagination and uncomparable creativity.  Directly below him is Rick Riordan and Michael Scott. (Authors of Percy Jackson and Nicholas Flamel series).

As for what book topics I enjoy reading they would be fantasy, magic, , battles and friendship. A good example of an author who writes these kinds of books would be Christopher Paolini (the Inheritance series).

Where is your favorite place to read? When you do usually read?

Gabriele: My English teacher, Miss Layal allows the class to “silent read” for about 5-15 minutes. I read whenever I have the chance to.

Do you enjoy using the Reading Rewards website? What do you like about it? Could you tell us what would make it better?

Gabriele: Reading Rewards is extremely useful!!!  I can finally log in reading time without using paper and pencil. A brilliant idea! Children can earn rewards with the simple cost of reading!!!

You could improve Reading Rewards to its full extent by letting the kids chat […]

By |May 18th, 2011|Reviews, Uncategorized|3 Comments
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10 fantastic reading incentives that won’t cost you a penny!

I couldn’t resist, I had to take a look. What sort of incentives have parents and teachers been setting up on Reading Rewards? Kids log reading time, and earn ‘RR’ Miles by doing so (1 for every reading minute logged, up to a maximum of 90/day). Teachers and parents can then add custom rewards to kids’ very own RR Store. Once kids have earned enough RR Miles, they can ‘purchase’ their rewards. Kids love it!

So today, I checked it out. Lo and behold, the RR Store is full of wonderful ideas! What’s more, a lot of the rewards that teachers and parents set up don’t cost a cent. You know the saying ‘The best things in life are free’? Well, in this case, it’s true!

Here is my top 10 list of favorite reading incentives, pulled directly from the RR Store:

  1. Tickle session, 100 RR Miles

    2. For 100 RR Miles (100 reading minutes), this girl can buy a 5 minute tickle session with dad. Cute!

    Now personally, you could never pay me enough to indulge in a tickle session, it is the absolute worst thing you do to me. Seriously, you even come near me with your fingers in ‘tickle’ position, and I will go crazy. Just try it, and see for yourself, if you dare. But hey, this young girl obviously loves it, to each their own!

  2. Snuggle time with mom, 30 RR Miles

    3. In our house, we call them ‘cuddle sessions’. My boys, ages 10 and 12, will actually fight over who gets one. They literally want me IN THEIR BED, stroking their […]

By |May 13th, 2011|Reading Rewards, Reluctant readers, Uncategorized|4 Comments
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Reading Rewards Featured User Series: Meet Talitha!

Reading-Rewards.com was launched just over a year ago, and since then we have had just over 4,000 members join. We’re very excited! More than just an online reading log, Reading Rewards also encourages our young members to rate and review their books. These reviews can then be shared with other members, and help kids find great book recommendations.

I’ve wanted to profile some of our users for a while. I love reading their reviews: they often put a lot of time and effort into them, and I hope you enjoy them!

In this first of our ‘Featured User’ series, I would like to introduce you to Talitha, 13 years old, who has been a Reading Rewards member since April, 2010!

Talitha has logged over 246 reading hours on our site (well done!!), and has reviewed 47 books. That is quite an impressive reading list, I’m sure you’ll agree!

We asked Talitha to answer a couple of questions about RR and her reading habits:

Do you have an all-time favorite book? What sort of book do you generally enjoy?

Talitha: I like the Rangers Apprentice books. I enjoy adventure books.

Where is your favorite place to read? When you do usually read?

Talitha: My Bed. I read whenever I can, or when my mom doesn’t catch me :D .

Do you enjoy using the Reading Rewards website? What do you like about it? Could you tell us what would make it better?

Talitha: Yes. I like trying to get ahead of all my friends on the reading levels. I think that when you ask someone to be your friend you should be able to send them a message or something with the request.

Here is a list of Talitha’s book reviews, pulled directly from […]

By |May 12th, 2011|Book recommendations, Reviews, Uncategorized|1 Comment
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Why I raid my kids’ bookshelves

I’ve spent so much time lately researching reading picks for my kids, stocking their bookshelves with all sorts of award-winning and popular titles, that when it finally comes time to reading myself, I often end up reading one of the books I’ve carefully chosen for…. my boys.

I was almost ashamed to admit how lost I got in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy. I bought and read all three in a single week. I’ve since read many more great YA titles, with a To-Read list that is growing daily.

Not only do I find them completely engrossing, and wonderful to fall into at the end of a long day, I have also recently realized how helpful it is to my older son to know I have read a book he might have questions about or is struggling with.

He’s recently picked up The Hunger Games, and while he is still only early on in the story, he had a number of questions about the plot that I would not have been able to help with had I not read it myself. Not only was I able to help him through some of the more difficult concepts, but because I had read it and he knew I had enjoyed it, he kept stopping his reading to discuss the storyline. It was so wonderful not only to be reading side by side, but also to be sharing and exchanging different thoughts about a book.

As for my younger guy, he struggles a bit with his book reports. He has a few of them due several times throughout the year, and when I’ve read his books myself, I’m better able to […]

By |April 28th, 2011|Uncategorized|0 Comments
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The book remembers

Yesterday was International Children’s Book Day. For over forty years, this day has been celebrated “to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children’s books.” Sponsored by The International Board on Books for Young People, this year’s theme is “The Book Remembers.”

“The book remembers the time in which it was written”

One could read history books to learn about life in a different time, but what better than a book to let you know, really let you feel, what life was really like.

I may have learned about pioneers and earlier settlers from school books. But what brought their lives to life? My childhood passion for Laura Ingalls Wilder’s novels, reading about the Big Woods, The House on the Prairie, and more.

I devoured those books! I loved reading about all her adventures and her family’s trials and tribulations in those early days. And a teacher at 16! I couldn’t imagine it.

The book remembers, even after we’ve forgotten.

Are there any books or stories you have read that ‘remembered’ something, maybe an event, a different time, something that, had it not been preserved in a book, may have been forgotten?

By |April 3rd, 2011|Uncategorized|0 Comments
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