Adventures Of Sammy

What a disappointment! I picked up this book at the library, flipped it open to a page with a boy sitting down stating that he had a dream about animals and wondered if they dreamed, too. I thought this very profound, thought provoking and the title made me believe I’d be teaching my son about the animals found at a zoo.

Zoo taught nothing I’d want to pass on to my son. After reading the first two pages aloud to him I realized the rest I would read silently. After the father told off the son, told jokes no one laughed at and got angry at the man selling zoo passes just because there was traffic and a line up I merely shook my head. Later that day, out of curiousity as to how a book like this could be printed and sold to children I continued silently reading.

Calling animals stupid, miserable, and constant fighting is not something I want to encourage so I took this back to the library and was tempted to tell them to take it off their shelves.

Thank you for reading,

Sarah Butland

No matter how young or old your child is or children are, it’s important and easy to instill the skill of literacy into their repertoire. There are five simple tasks that I encourage you to merge into your every day life that will guarantee your child’s success.

The number one and most important is to read yourself. Whether it’s the daily newspaper, a good mystery or a text book – reading is contagious and will be something your children will do simply to be just like you. At young ages people learn through mimicking so why not have them mimic something that will last a lifetime? Take an hour out of your TV watching tonight, every night, and pick up something to read; out loud or to yourself reading will change your life.

A few other things in combination would be a matter of paying a regular visit to your local library. Take a bus, drive yourself, encourage your neighbours and carpool, however you need to get there please do. While there you’ll be able to get your child his/her own library card, have access to thousands if not hundreds of thousands of books at no cost and then you can keep up on their events. Who knows when you’ll be able to meet your child’s favourite author or play a game that will be so fun you and your kids will want to pass it on to everyone you know.

And last, but certainly not least, start reading out loud to your child as soon as you can. Don’t dwell on the years lost but savour the days you have now when you can sit and read together.

Simple, right? Absolutely and not out of any one’s budget. So why aren’t you doing it? I am!