【国外亲子英语经验】《父母，是孩子最重要的启蒙老师》（Parents, the most important teachers）

Schools are getting serious about reading and the way that may play out concerns me.

The 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress, an exam administered every two years, showed that average scores for fourth and eighth grade reading barely improved.

As a result of this and other studies, new teaching standards are requiring that more time is devoted to studying complex books to increase student’s analytical understanding. That’s certainly not a bad idea, but I worry about allocating less time to reading for pleasure.

That is most certainly what creates lifelong readers — the ones who can’t pull their noses out of a mystery, or won’t stop reading the cereal box at breakfast, or beg for “just one more” story at night, or grow up loving to read because of early joys.

What will happen if “prescribed reading” limits their choices?

Parents are the answer. Actually, they always have been.

They are children’s first and most important teachers. But are they reading to their children these days?

Last year a kindergarten teacher told me that, when she took her child to the pediatrician, she faced the wait by reading aloud. Suddenly she realized she didn’t hear any other parents’ voices and looked up to see the other little patients playing solo while their parents texted.

As an elementary school parent, I was changed forever by a conversation I had with Nancy Margolin, an extremely thoughtful children’s librarian.

“How many books did you read to your children every night before they went to school?” she asked me one day.

“At least two," I told her, “but sometimes ten or so when I had a pile I needed to review.”

“That means you read your children 5,000 books before they came to school,” she pointed out. “What about children who haven’t been read to? How can they ever make up for that lack?”

I knew what she was talking about, teaching writing in classrooms I can easily pick out students who have been read to—they respond thoughtfully to books, their expressive skills are strong, they can draw parallels to other things they’ve read, enjoy word play, tend to be more imaginative and have a better critical sense of stories. Hmmm…sounds kind of like the list that the new curriculum is trying to create.

As school begins, I recommend new beginnings for the whole family.

Start with a trip to the library, choosing some read alouds to celebrate International Literacy Day today (Sept. 8).

I’ll never forget hearing Jim Trelease speak when I was raising young children. He revealed a huge secret most parents don’t think about. Parents benefit as much, or more than their children.

Trelease, the foremost read-aloud preacher, reminded his audience that you can always mow your grass, or unload your dishwasher, but cuddling up with your child and a book, that’s a limited-time offer! Reading aloud is one certain way to slow down the fast pace of life and connect instantly with your children.

To get you started, I’m suggesting nine sure-fire rules for choosing books you’ll love to share and recommend current titles to go with them.

1. Start Early—Rhythm and Rhyme are two early friends.

Books are amazing mood changers. Rhythm and rhyme can stop a temper tantrum, or help your child wind down for bed. A new board book is Karen Beaumont’s “I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More!” (Houghton, ages 0-5) You can start by singing and looking at the bright illustrations in this story of a child who’s unabashedly in love with art! This is a jolly book to sing to babies, later, as toddlers they’ll find more fun joining in.

2. Find characters you can fall in love with.

I lost track of all of the characters who assumed a larger-than-life presence in our home; they were as real as my children’s other friends. One of the most endearing heroes makes his fourth appearance in Eric Litwin’s Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons (Harper, ages 3-6). Pete is an eccentric cat who has a positive world view.

When he loses his four groovy buttons, does he cry? “Goodness no! Because buttons come and buttons go,” proclaims the refrain children love to repeat. This is a numbers concept book, a lesson on optimism, a playful art book by Eric Litwin and a series that doesn’t fail.

3. Seek out books with dramatic potential.

Even a parent who’s a tone-deaf singer will get kudos for lively reading of dramatic books; your child will appreciate all inflections, tone changes and accents. Kelly Bingham’s Z is for Moose (Greenwillow, ages 4-6) is an unusual alphabet book that stars Moose, an animal whose anger amps up with his desperate need for an appearance in the alphabetic line-up. Zebra, who wears umpire-style stripes, directs the alphabet’s unveiling and finally by Z provides a happy resolution. Readers will want to go back through the pages, re-read and re-examine the clever illustrations.

4. Don’t forget how non-fiction can fascinate.

One of the fastest-growing, most exciting genres for children is non-fiction. Testing consistently points to children’s difficulty in comprehending factual readings, so they need practice. Children love learning about the world and parents who seek out engaging non-fiction, won’t be sorry. Case in point? Nic Bishop’s Snakes (Scholastic, ages 7 and up).

Bishop’s amazing photographs entices right away as a snake on the cover peers directly at readers. Bishop’s striking photos accent the beauty, movements, environments and essence of many breeds of snakes. The text is packed with information, all of it clearly, descriptively presented to make these magnificent creatures understandable.

5. Search for stories with role models.

It’s easier to launch discussion about emotions, morals and thoughts with a story. Characters can be positive or negative role models. Many can put a little distance on behavior you want to change. Others serve as inspiration for character traits you want to build. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer (Dial ages 6-9) is a picture book based on the true story of a curious young boy from Malawi who dreams of understanding how machines work, despite drought and other difficulties.

When school falls out of his family’s economic range, he studies books in the library and organizes his village to build a windmill that brings them water, electricity and the means to feed themselves. A multimedia collage accents the magic of the reality and the power of his vision.

6. Get books that generate great conversations.

A book can be an incredibly quick path to meaningful communication. Difficult topics become accessible when a book serves as the vehicle. Michael Kaplan’s Betty Bunny, for example, can ignite a great discussion about needs and wants. In Betty Bunny Wants Everything (Dial, ages 4-7) her frazzled parents try to deal with her greed as she tosses one toy after another into a shopping cart. The author presents this common situation with exaggerated humor and a winning character who prides herself on being “a handful.”

Chuck Close’s Face Book (Abrams, ages 6-10) is an autobiography with oodles of conversation starters for a slightly older child. Close begins with a perfect kid-hook, telling “how art saved his life-not once but twice.” And then he sets up an engaging format by asking readers to imagine “if you could interview an artist like Chuck Close, what would you ask?” Questions are kid-centered and the answers are too. And mid-book, Close offers an interlude where fourteen self-portraits employing different techniques are set up in a flip-page format—perfect for an engaging discussion about art.

7. Look for books that promote laughter.

Stress, an easy condition of life today, has a literary answer. Find books that let you giggle together. Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri’s fourth collaboration, Those Darn Squirrels Fly South (Clarion, ages 6-9) is a silly story starring a wacky group of squirrels who are sure to surprise and set you snickering.

In this, their third adventure, the zany crew decides to follow the bird south to sunny beaches, leaving their friend Old Man Fookwire lonely enough to drive his 1957 car down to Santa Vaca at twelve miles per hour. Not only are the words playful, but the illustrations are good for a lot of grins.

And for older readers, Gail Carson Levine, well-known for her fairy tale novels like Ella Enchanted, enters the realm of poetry. With her tongue-in-cheek and barbed-pen in-hand, she creates forty-plus poems in Forgive Me, I meant to do it: False Apology Poems (HarperCollins, ages 8 to ancients!) Her departure point? William Carlos Williams’ poem “This is Just to Say,” a poem that starts with his plea to his wife, asking forgiveness for eating plums and ends with the zinger, “They were delicious/so sweet/and so cold.”

Levine mines fairy tales for ironic takes on Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin, ravages rhymes like Itsy Bitsy Spider for poetic playfulness and satirizes sibling struggles. (In one, a brother sands off Barbie’s face because her beauty is only “skin deep.”)

8. Buy books that become family treasures.

Books are expensive and our country is privileged to have one of the few free library systems in the world. If you’re reading often, you’ll need lots of replenishment. But if a book becomes a treasure, it’s worth owning. Some of the greatest treasures in our library are the books purchased at author signings. Jody Fickes Shapiro, a California bookstore owner, once taught me the power of pasting pictures of my children in the front, creating an amazing historical record of our literary forays, and it helped them own the stories in their own special way.

The most important books are those you create. It’s well-worth purchasing a notebook to record your children’s thoughts, actions, and precious words. You can help them create their own heirloom by aiding them in recording their own ideas. Sara Pennypacker’s well-loved heroine helps with that in Clementine’s All About You Journal (Hyperion, ages 7-9). This bound volume is a blend of writing prompts and blank pages waiting for your child’s individual secrets and thoughts to fill it.

9. Keep reading to your independent readers.

You didn’t stop talking to your children when they could speak, why would you stop reading aloud? Just as you challenged them with language, you can whet their literary appetites by sharing novels together that they might not be able to read alone. Look for ones with dramatic potential and chapters that keep you wondering. Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage (Dial, ages 9 and up) has an intriguing heroine, Mo LoBeau, who longs for her mother. At the same time, she loves the couple that fished her out of a flood. This debut novel places an unforgettable heroine in the colorful setting of Tupelo Landing, NC. Its sparkling fresh imagery and fast-moving plot is spiked with several mysteries, cliffhangers and twists.