reading Archives - Dad of Divas

Helping your child read with Readability!

September 14, 2021 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

My Take on Readability

What I loved about this app is that Readability really allows your child to read books/passages that are at a level that they are at. The book highlights the words you are supposed to be reading aloud and as it listens to your words it will help you along too. For example, if you cannot read a specific word a message will pop up prompting you to ask for help by clicking on the speaker button and it will allow your child to hear what they are supposed to be reading.

On top of this, there is a HUGE array of books and passages that your child will be able to select from. Each lesson is set for 30 minutes and it allows your child to really get into a myriad of topics while still pushing them to enhance their reading and reading comprehension.

For the price you really get a ton that will help your child get to the next level of reading with Readability!

About Readability

Readability is the only learning app of its kind to help improve reading and comprehension in young and struggling readers, making it unlike anything else on the market. Readability brings together Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, Advanced Speech Recognition, Comprehension with Interactive Voice-based Questions & Answers, Fun Content, Real-Time Performance Tracking, and Gamification within one mobile app to help young children become strong readers.

Practicing pace and pronunciation through reading aloud helps kids build the foundation needed to become excellent readers. With Readability, they’ll also learn a variety of reading skills including accuracy, fluency, speed, decoding, and comprehension. In addition, their confidence will blossom and so will their passion for reading.

Tips for parents (From Readability)

Designate a regular time and place for reading.
Readability works best in a quiet environment or with headphones.
Learning to read is challenging! Gentle encouragement and positive feedback are key.
Encourage your child to speak with a strong voice towards the device.
Encourage your child to speak clearly by enunciating syllables as well as long and short vowel sounds.

CLICK HERE to check out Readability for yourself!

All Kids Have Said At Least Once – Put Me In The Story!

January 2, 2016 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

Lemony Snicket was recently interviewed by the Chicago Tribune about these personalized books, which might be an interesting read for you – it gives a nice backstory of how these books came together.

For the first time ever, Lemony Snicket’s All The Wrong Questions series is available in a personalized format on Put Me In The Story!

Each book in the series, including the new release, “Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights?”, explores the mysterious origins of Lemony Snicket and his early misadventures.

“Who Could That Be at This Hour?” – Book 1

“When Did You See Her Last?” – Book 2

“Shouldn’t You Be In School?” – Book 3

“Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights?” – Book 4 (released 9/29/2015)

The personalized editions present the series as an associate’s training guide, and include:

Personalized covers with the reader’s name and initials cleverly integrated in the front and back cover art
Reader’s initial designed into the opening artwork page
Photo of the reader included on a character portrait page
Unique customized letters and interactive messages to the reader from Lemony Snicket
Two of the reader’s friends’ names incorporated in the letters and messages
Dedication page for the gift giver to write a personalized message to the reader

As you can see in the picture, these books are so cool. My daughters are both Lemony Snicket fans, so being able to have a chance to be a part of some of the newest stories that have been released and with these books you can.

The process was so easy. By following a simple format of questions we were able to create the books for our girls. You get to choose what you want to say, what friends or family members to include with them and even a picture that you can include in the book too. The process makes the book personal and a great way to connect with your kids on a new level.

In giving my kids their books they were so intrigued! They loved to see their names on the front covers but then even more inside of the book too. They were amazed to see their own pictures in the book too. This company does such a nice job creating the books and you get a book that you can keep for many years to come.

Best yet though the folks over at Put Me In The Story have a ton of other books that you can choose from for your own kids. So if your kids are not Lemony Snicket fans like mine are, you can find books for any book lover on their site and you can make the book their own in so few steps!

If you have never checked out Put Me In The Story before, you should, you will be so impressed as I have been and right now you can even save 10% just for signing up for their mailing list!

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Prevent Summer Brain Drain & Prepare For School With Scholastic

August 17, 2015 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

I received free items as a part of the Scholastic Summer Reading team as compensation for this post.

It is almost time for my girls to go back to school and with that comes the excitement of learning their new teacher, transitioning to a new classroom, seeing friends again and heading back into the soccer season. As you can guess as parents we are also excited about the new opportunities for them and for allowing them to get back into the daily routine that school can bring.

There still are a few weeks left until they have their first day of school and with that in mind, they are busily getting their last reading record totals in for the Scholastic Reading Challenge .

We have read a lot this summer and I thought I would share 5 of them with you in a fun way with 5-word book reviews!

All the Lost Things – Bringing Things Home Benefits Others
No Yeti Yet – Fuzzy, White But Not Expected
Mina’s White Canvas – Get Inside & Create Art
Lego Star Wars: Galactic Freedom Fighters Activity Book – Activities For Any Star Wars Fan
The Big Texas Steakhouse Cookbook – Get Your Steak On Now!

PREVENT THE SUMMER BRAIN DRAIN

The dog days of summer have begun! And with them comes “brain drain” season, when endless summer activities and distractions take the place of reading time. Scholastic’s Maggie McGuire has 5 easy tips for making reading a priority for your child, like setting a weekly minutes goal, reserving special time to read together as a family, and celebrating reading accomplishments. It’s not too late to get your kids reading.

As a parent though I have been spending some time going through all of the Scholastic resources that Fill their website, as there are a ton to get kids ready for the school year. You can learn everything from what to expect during that grade to homework help to even information on school involvement and school life. The resources are based grade by grade and easily accessible to all. If you have never checked this out, you should, as there is a ton of great content there that can help your kids get ready for school like it has helped my daughters too!

I also wanted to make sure you had seen that Energizer is having a great instant win game. Anytime you purchase Energizer batteries you have the ability to enter in a special code in their Energizer Instant Win Game. There is some very cool prizes in this so if you have, or are buying batteries, make it Energizer for your own chance to win!

ABOUT THE ENERGIZER INSTANT WIN GAME

Energizer® and Scholastic are partnering to create the “Power the Possibilities” campaign which gives moms the tools they need to unlock their child’s talents, fuel their ambitions and set them up for future success. Parents can buy any specially marked pack of Energizer® brand batteries to scratch for a chance to win one of thousands of prizes that will power discovery and learning.

Prizes include a family trip to New York City, a Scholastic Study Corner Makeover, a tablet with Scholastic apps, a library of Scholastic books and more! Everyone who plays can also download free digital stories for their family.

FIND OUT MORE

Learn more about the Energizer® Instant Win Game

Follow @Scholastic on Twitter

Like the Energizer® Bunny on Facebook

#SummerReading

PREVENT THE SUMMER BRAIN DRAIN

YouTube link:

http://bit.ly/SummerBrainDrain

Embed code:

SCHOLASTIC READING RESOURCES

Scholastic has joined together with ENERGIZER® to power the 2015 Summer Reading Challenge and encourage families to find innovative ways to discover the power and joy of reading. It’s not too late to take part! Now through September 4^th, visit Scholastic.com/Summer. Click the links below for a sampling of the fun resources you’ll find with Scholastic:

Unlock Original Short Stories from favorite Scholastic authors!

Find Parenting Resources including Summer Reading printables, activity sheets, booklists and more!

Play the Innovation Machine Game – a fun and creative writing game and contest!

Visit “Videos in the Stacks” to receive reading tips for parents from Scholastic’s Maggie McGuire!

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“Power Up & Read” with the Energizer Bunny® and Scholastic!

July 29, 2015 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

As most of you know I have been taking part in the SCHOLASTIC SUMMER READING CHALLENGE this summer thanks to Scholastic and Energizer. As a part of this, I was lucky enough to have a blast these past few weeks to “Power Up & Read” with the Energizer Bunny® with my girls and I wanted to share with you the experiences and fun that we had.

Week 1 – We took the Energizer Bunny Plush outside with a favorite Scholastic book, and shared a photo of your our outdoor reading adventure.

Week 2 – I lit up nighttime reading with the Magic School Bus Electricity Kit, powered by Energizer batteries!

Week 3 – Share where you take your Energizer Bunny to read this week!

As you can see we had quite the few weeks, and all were fun in the passion of reading together as a family! What could be better!

INTRODUCING #MONDAYMINUTESGOAL

In an effort to log as many minutes as possible through the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge AND to break the world record for summer reading, Scholastic is setting special weekly goals for young readers. Every Monday we’ll be announcing a #MondayMinutesGoal, the number of minutes for kids to read together in one week (by the following Monday).

Whether your child or student is reading independently aloud or together with you, let’s share their success and keep the momentum going! Here’s how:

– Have your child log his/her minutes on the SRC website or on a paper log/piece of paper

– Take a picture of him/her proudly displaying their minutes

– Share it on social using #MondayMinutesGoal and #SummerReading!

FIND OUT MORE

Find more Scholastic Resources to keep your kids reading all summer long!

Learn more about the Energizer® Instant Win Game

Follow @Scholastic on Twitter

Like the Energizer® Bunny on Facebook

#SummerReading

ABOUT THE SCHOLASTIC SUMMER READING CHALLENGE

Now in its 9^th year, the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge is a free online reading program dedicated to stopping the “summer slide” by encouraging kids to read throughout the summer months when school is out. This year’s challenge theme is “Power Up & Read,” powered by ENERGIZER®.

ABOUT THE SCHOLASTIC – ENERGIZER® PARTNERSHIP

This year’s challenge theme is “Power Up & Read,” encouraging kids to read all summer long and unlock 12 original short stories by bestselling children’s authors as kids reach reading milestones. Scholastic has joined together with ENERGIZER® to power the Summer Reading Challenge and encourage families to find innovative ways to discover the power and joy of reading. Parents can sign up kids beginning May 4, 2015 and runs through September 4, 2015.

Giveaway

How would you like to win an Innovation Book Pack Including:

The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Extreme Science Careers
Extreme Experiments
Plus Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge materials including reading logs, pledges, bookmarks, and more!

All you need to do is fill out the below form to be entered. The contest will run for one week and will end on August 5, 2015.

Scholastic Power Up & Read Prize Pack

Winner must be a resident of the U.S.

Winners are chosen at random, if you want all your chances counted, make sure you leave individual comments, not all of them in one!

Winner has 48 hours to contact me or another name will be chosen.

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The 2nd Amazon Summer Reading Contest Has Started!

July 22, 2015 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

Amazon’s second summer reading contest — “Capture Their Love of Reading…Again!” — has begun and runs through Monday, August 3rd.

To enter you simply enter the contest by visiting www.kindlesummerreading.com and sharing a picture of their children reading for a chance to win a Kindle and Fire device prize pack for the whole family.

The Grand Prize includes something for each family member to enjoy, such as: Amazon’s newly relaunched Kindle Paperwhite, two Kindle Voyages Amazon’s most advanced eeader ever, three kindle covers, Amazon’s Fire HD Kids Edition tablet designed specifically for kids with a 2-year worry-free guarantee, a pair of kid’s headphones, a Fire TV for when families want to catch up on their latest shows, a Fire phone to stay in contact with each other and a $500 Amazon Gift Card to treat yourself to anything on Amazon.com (full details on prize pack below signature).

Grand Prize

Kindle Paperwhite, Fire HD 7 tablet, Fire HD Kids Edition tablet, two Kindle Voyage devices, Amazon Fire TV Amazon Fire TV, Fire Phone, three Kindle covers, one Fire HD 7 tablet cover, one pair of kid’s headphones, and a $500 Amazon.com Gift Card

First Prize Winners (2)

Two first prize winners will each receive a $200 Amazon.com Gift Card

Having Fun With The Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge

June 22, 2015 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

You all know that my family and I are BIG readers. We love to get into a good book, and get lost in the story and the characters in general. That is why we love to take part in the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge. With it now being in its’ 9th year, the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge is a free online reading program dedicated to stopping the “summer slide” by encouraging kids to read throughout the summer months when school is out. This year’s challenge theme is “Power Up & Read,” powered by ENERGIZER®.

We are parents that continually try and provide learning opportunities for our kids, whether in or outside of books. Why do we do this? We do not want our kids to fall prey to what is called “summer slide,” or the common loss of skills due to being out of school, when they do not read over the summer. As educators ourselves, we have read the research that shows that teachers spend four to six weeks re-teaching materials to students because of the “summer slide” (Alexander et. al, 2007), and we definitely did not want our own kids to be part of these statistics. So we find that summer is the perfect time for our kids to discover the power of choice. We let our kids ry out as many and as variant topics of books as they can think of. You see, according to the Kids & Family Reading Report, 5^th edition, 91% of kids (ages 6-17) say that their favorite books are the ones they pick out themselves, so we indulge this and allow them to explore and see the world in different ways and the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge helps us in this pursuit.

So How does it work?
- Starting May 4, 2015 – September 4, 2015, kids can log their reading minutes (online and via mobile) as they read to break last year’s world record of 304,749,861 minutes.
- Parents can sign-up their kids at www.scholastic.com/summer. It’s FREE!
- Kids can also enter monthly sweepstakes to win fabulous prizes, and earn digital rewards when they complete weekly reading challenges.

What’s new this year for kids?
- Kids can unlock 12 original short stories (exclusively for this year’s challenge) from favorite children’s authors and access never-before-seen videos from the authors! Each of the authors has written a unique short story using the same opening sentence, which is, “I glanced over my shoulder to make sure that no one had followed me into the shadowy library, then took a deep breath and opened the glowing book…”
- The authors include Blue Balliett, Patrik Henry Bass, Varian Johnson, Gordon Korman, Michael Northtrop, Maggie Stiefvater and Jackson Pierce, Roland Smith, R.L. Stine, Tui T. Sutherland, Lauren Tarshis, Wendy Wan-Long Shang and Jude Watson.
- Each story has a “read along” audio component, inviting kids of all ages and reading levels to enjoy these highly engaging stories.
  - They can play the new “innovation machine” game, an interactive creative writing game, and enter its contest to win prizes.
  - Kids can log minutes on-the-go to earn digital rewards and badges as they hit reading milestones.

What’s new this year for parents?
- The parents site features new, daily tips for parents called “The Daily Digest.”
- Parents can enter weekly sweepstakes to win a “Power Up & Read Kit” and watch videos about summer reading activities to keep you “innovative” all summer long. The prize pack includes: Scholastic tote bag, water bottle, a copy of Reading Unbound by Jeffrey Wilhelm and Michael Smith, $10 gift certificate to Scholastic Store Online, Energizer® brand batteries, Scholastic books, and more.
- Parents can download free resources, including printables and booklists for kids of all ages.

FIND OUT MORE *please include*

Find more Scholastic Resources to keep your kids reading all summer long!

Learn more about the Energizer® Instant Win Game

Follow @Scholastic on Twitter

Like the Energizer® Bunny on Facebook

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Get Ready for Summer Reading With Scholastic!

May 14, 2015 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

This summer Scholastic is partnering up with Energizer to really make reading come alive with their Power Up & Read campaign. Any of you that have followed me for any period of time knows how much my whole family reads and summer is a time when we continue to do this, sometimes even more-so.

This is especially true as I know that as a parent I do not want to have my kids lose any ground between the end of one school year and the next.

With J-Mom being a librarian, we are always looking for a good book, and the kids are already making lists for the books that they are hoping to read throughout the summer. SOme of the ones on my eldests’ list include Harry Potter & Percy Jackson series’ of books. My youngest is liking Meg Mackintosh and Geronimo Stilton books lately so I know that she will voraciously be reading those among others.

Reading is so fundamental to academic, personal and professional success in general and with that in mind, as a parent, I feel so strongly that all kids should be provided with the structure to read on a daily basis, and this is what we do throughout the year, both in and outside of the school year!

I highly encourage all parents to Power Up & Read with their kids this summer and have some fun getting lost in a great book!

ABOUT THE SCHOLASTIC – ENERGIZER® PARTNERSHIP

This year’s challenge theme is “Power Up & Read,” encouraging kids to read all summer long and unlock 12 original short stories by bestselling children’s authors as kids reach reading milestones. Scholastic has joined together with ENERGIZER® to power the Summer Reading Challenge and encourage families to find innovative ways to discover the power and joy of reading. Parents can sign up kids beginning May 4, 2015 and runs through September 4, 2015.

ABOUT THE ENERGIZER INSTANT WIN GAME

Energizer® and Scholastic are partnering to create the “Power the Possibilities” campaign which gives moms the tools they need to unlock their child’s talents, fuel their ambitions and set them up for future success. Starting May 4, 2015, parents can buy any specially marked pack of Energizer® brand batteries to scratch for a chance to win one of thousands of prizes that will power discovery and learning.

Here are Five Great Tips for Parents When It Comes to Summer Reading!

Resources from Scholastic Parents:

– Keep your kids reading all summer long!

FIND OUT MORE

Find more Scholastic Resources to keep your kids reading all summer long!

Learn more about the Energizer® Instant Win Game

Follow @Scholastic on Twitter

Like the Energizer® Bunny on Facebook

#SummerReading

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Tuesday Talking – Being Literate

May 5, 2015 by dadofdivas 6 Comments

This is the next of the Tuesday Talking posts, and today we are talking about being literate. Let’s talk about it!

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Organize and Promote Reading With One Step Ahead #DadChat

February 14, 2015 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

About the Bookshelf

Encourage a love of reading, with One Step Ahead’s kid-friendly sling bookshelf! It displays books face front, attracting young readers, and the soft, polyester oxford shelves give little hands easy access. One Step Ahead anchored the shelves so they won’t shift and staggered their depth to hold all size books. Plus, they also added two roomy storage bins! 29 1/4″L x 13″W x 31″H. For 18 months and up. Imported. Designed by OneStepAhead!

My Take on the Bookshelf

With my wife being a librarian, this was a perfect addition to our home as we have tons of books and our kids are always reading. The Bookshelf was sturdy and allows kids to have their books set up in a fun way so that they can easily find and display them. We also really enjoyed the pull out areas at the bottom of the bookshelf as we ended up using this for some of the extras that my youngest likes to “collect.” That being said we are definitely getting a bit more organized and Diva PJ’s room is looking much better too. My thanks to One Step Ahead for putting together a great bookshelf for a reasonable price that was easy to construct too, as I am not the handiest of people, but this one was not too difficult and even I could handle it.

On a different note, I would add that I could easily see this as a great addition to any elementary classroom too as teachers could easily add books to their classroom reading centers, display them easily and provide kids with easy access to reading too!
Giveaway

How would you like to win this for yourself or for your family? All you need to do is fill out the below form to be entered. The contest will run for one week and will end on February 16, 2015.

Winner must be a resident of the U.S.

One Step Ahead Bookshelf Giveaway

Winners are chosen at random, if you want all your chances counted, make sure you leave individual comments, not all of them in one!

Winner has 48 hours to contact me or another name will be chosen.

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Read Under the Stars With #SummerReading & @Scholastic

July 15, 2014 by dadofdivas 2 Comments

This year’s Summer Reading theme is Reading Under the Stars, and is powered by EVEREADY®, the maker of batteries and flashlights, to encourage families to discover new and fun ways to explore reading outside this summer.

Now in its 8th year, the Summer Reading Challenge program is dedicated to stopping the “Summer Slide” and getting kids to read throughout the summer months when school is out.

Starting May 5, 2014, kids can log their reading minutes (online and on smartphones) as they Read for the World Record, enter sweepstakes to win fabulous prizes, and earn digital rewards when they complete weekly reading challenges.

This year’s Summer Reading Challenge theme is “Reading Under the Stars” (powered by EVEREADY®). Throughout the summer, kids will read around the galaxy and unlock star constellations as they log reading minutes.

In 2013, Scholastic inspired more than 130,000 kids from 4,200 schools in all 50 States and 31 countries to set a new record for summer reading of 176 million-plus minutes!

Our Experience In Having a Reading Under the Stars Party!

For my wife and I, it is so important for kids to catch the reading bug! Both my wife and I have always been BIG readers and with my wife being a past teacher and a current librarian, our kids were definitely going to be raised around books. My kids grew up being read to, and they now are moving quickly into independent reading.

Over the past year my oldest daughter last year in third year continues to read well, but her teacher kept telling us that her goal for Diva-J was to get her to a point where she truly loved reading, and she wanted to read, just for the love of reading. Over the year we never really saw much movement toward this goal, but as we moved into the summer we challenged her to get back into reading and set a goal for herself. Well….her goal was to read The Series of Unfortunate Events Books this summer. This was a BIG goal as there were 13 books, but we encouraged her and I think getting actively involved in things like the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge as well as another similar reading club through our local library helped with this goal.

I was amazed though, she started getting into the books and started sailing through them. When I say sailing through them, I mean like reading more than one of the books in a day and reading for hours at a time. She became animated and excited about reading and let me tell you, nothing makes me feel better than to see this excitement.

We partnered her excitement with a fun night reading under the stars. Thanks to the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge as well as some great Eveready Flashlights that were sent for our party, we got the tent out, invited over a few of the girls’ friends and had a reading party. This was a fun event, with popcorn, drinks and lots of books. While it was not too dark, at least at first seeing that the sun does not go down until after 9PM, we still had a ton of fun and we read a lot together.

I am really interested in seeing where this passion for books will lead my daughter. I am hoping that she will find another book series after this that she will want to read next… so for now we are keeping our eyes open!

I encourage all of you to take the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge too and get your kids excited about reading and finding their own passion in the worlds that books can open for them!

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