In Memory of my Father (Dec. 1928 - Mar. 1997)

Happy Birthday, Dad. I miss you every day.

Just to let you know... I created a Kumon scholarship fund in your and Mom's names. I wanted to honor you and your commitment to childhood education. This fund will allow children whose families are not financially able to participate in the Kumon program, the opportunity to enroll in and benefit from our services. We already have three worthy (and grateful) participants!

I know this makes you happy. I also know that you and mom are smiling upon me in my successes and (and supporting me in my challenges) in regard to my Japanese-based (thanks Mom) self-owned, educational business (thanks Dad)!

I would not be the woman I am without you.

Quietly, tearfully, lovingly, and respectfully~

~~~Anne

October is National Book Month - Be a Reading Role Model

The latest word from educators is that reading aloud to kids may help them in school and later in life. That’s because children who are read aloud to often become readers themselves.

Experts say reading aloud makes reading more fun for kids and, therefore, something they’re more likely to do on their own.

The more a person reads, the better he or she becomes at it—and students who read the most tend to stay in school longer and achieve more.

I strongly encourage families to read together as much as possible. Here are some tips for parents to become reading role models:

Make it a family thing. Set aside time to read at lease one night a week as a family. It can be after dinner or homework or right before bedtime. Join your local library and make family trips on a regular basis. Talk with your children about their books so that they will see you’re interested.

Make your home reading ready. Create a reading area in your house that has comfy furniture, good lighting, and most importantly books. Stock this area with books that your family will enjoy, such as how-to books, mysteries, comedies or fairytales. You’ll be surprised how often you and your children read when the materials are immediately available.

Do it together. In addition to reading as a family, invite your children to read with you. Show them how we use reading in our everyday lives by asking them to read the back of the cereal box, street signs, or the synopsis of their favorite movie on DVD. These simple activities work anywhere and will show your children that reading is an essential life skill.

Read on the go. Next time you take a family road trip, encourage your children to open a book along the way. If your children get carsick or are too young to read on their own, audio books are a safe and educational alternative for everyone. This will ensure a quiet and entertaining trip for the entire family.

Do you need help selecting books that appeal to your child’s interests or reading ability? Kumon offers a free Recommended Reading List, which includes a range of 350 titles for any reading level. Parents can select books to read aloud to children that help build pre-literacy skills. Students can find books on anything from sports to science or adventure books. Ask your local Kumon Instructor for a copy, leave your request as a comment on this post, or e-mail me at barksmommy@gmail.com.

Hugs and blessings~
~~~Anne

Let's Get Back to Worksheets!

Let's Get Back to Worksheets!
By Bill Costello : BIO 22 Sep 2009

The U.S. is falling behind the world in math. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, "We are lagging the rest of the world, and we are lagging it in pretty substantial ways."

A special analysis put out by the National Center for Education Statistics found that the math performance of U.S. high schoolers was in the bottom quarter of the countries that participated in the most recent Program for International Student Assessment.

Results of the 2009 ACT and SAT show that U.S. students are no better in math this year than they were last year. Math performance has improved in other countries while it has remained stagnant in the U.S.

These findings are disturbing in an increasingly global economy where careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are becoming progressively more important for nations to compete internationally.

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the proportion of students obtaining STEM degrees from U.S. universities has dropped from 32 percent to 27 percent over the past decade. At the same time, the percentage of non-U.S. students earning these degrees from U.S. universities has increased dramatically.

In The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Friedman argues that getting more Americans to pursue careers in STEM fields is critical to the future of our nation's economy. Friedman is not alone in his opinion.

The National Science Foundation reports that non-U.S. graduates from U.S. universities accounted for more than half of the doctorate recipients in physics (58 percent), computer sciences (65 percent), engineering (68 percent), and mathematics (57 percent). The most numerous of these non-U.S. graduates were from China, India, and South Korea. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that over 40 percent of non-U.S. doctoral degree recipients intended to leave the U.S.

Not only are we losing ground to non-U.S. citizens at our own universities, but we're also falling behind other nations. The U.S. is no longer the leader in STEM education. In absolute numbers, Japan and China are producing more graduates. Our rate of STEM to non-STEM graduates is roughly 17 percent while the international average is nearly 26 percent. We're not even keeping pace with some developing countries.

President Obama has acknowledged that other countries--especially Asian countries--are performing better in math than the U.S. How does he plan to prevent us from falling farther behind?

In the U.S., we used to focus on basic computation skills when we taught students traditional math. Ever since the U.S. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics developed standards for school math in 1989, many U.S. schools starting teaching reform math.

Recently, I visited schools in Japan and Taiwan. I found they're teaching math the way we used to teach it; they're focusing on basic computation skills.

Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea--all top performers in math--are also focusing on the basics. Even the cram schools, which are prevalent in Asia, focus on the basics.

The largest and most established cram school in Asia is Kumon. I visited their head office in Tokyo to interview public relations executives Mayu Katata and Shinichiro Iwasaki about the Kumon method. In a nutshell, they focus on using worksheets to help students master basic computation skills.

Traditional math emphasizes basic computation skills and algorithms that lead to the correct answer while reform math places more value on the thinking process that leads to any answer.
Both of these skills are needed. However, the major problem with reform math is that it puts the cart before the horse by trying to teach students abstract concepts of math before they have built strong foundational skills. With traditional math, students often work individually on worksheets. With reform math, they often work in groups cutting, pasting, and coloring.

Sure, worksheets and algorithms are boring compared to gluing stuff and explaining how you came up with an answer that may not even be correct, but which method will better prepare our students to compete in an increasingly global economy?

America, let's get back to worksheets.

Bill Costello, training director of Making Minds Matter, teaches parents and teachers the best strategies for educating boys. He can be reached at www.makingmindsmatter.com or trainer@makingmindsmatter.com.

Good Works Can Lead to Good Grades

(NAPSI)-According to a recent study, community service can help young students make the grade. American students who volunteer in their community or are motivated to volunteer are more likely to earn above-average grades in school.

That's one reason parents who are eager to help their children have a successful school year may consider helping them volunteer in the community. Sixty percent of more than 1,000 American parents surveyed by Ipsos Public Affairs for Kumon Math and Reading Centers indicated that their children who are performing at an above-average level in school are already volunteering, are interested in community service or are encouraged to volunteer.

Ninety-eight percent of parents of children who perform at an above-average level at school and participate in volunteer activities agree that their child's community involvement helps them succeed both in and out of the classroom. Moreover, 80 percent of those parents believe that their children's educational experiences inspire them to become more involved in volunteering and charitable acts.

These young volunteers are not only experiencing success in school; they are inspiring others to join their efforts. More than a third of parents whose children volunteer said they were inspired to become more involved in the community because of their child's efforts.

"Volunteering offers children the chance to see that they can make a difference in their community," said Dr. Mary Mokris, educational specialist with Kumon Math and Reading Centers. "That empowers them to take ownership of their life and their education so that they can give more back."

She believes today's children are becoming role models for their parents and peers, demonstrating how to get involved and make a difference. Added Mokris, "It's inspiring but not surprising to see the connection between education and social responsibility."

To learn about volunteer opportunities, Dr. Mokris and Kumon suggest visiting your city hall, library or school.

More information is available online at www.kumon.com or by calling (800) ABC-MATH.

Kumon Student Makes History!

POWAY, Calif. - (Business Wire) Pomerado Elementary School student Sansar Yogi, 9, makes history as the youngest student in North America to graduate from Kumon’s Math and Reading programs. Kumon is the world’s largest after-school math and reading program with centers in 46 countries. The curriculum includes thousands of worksheets covering pre-school to advanced high school material.

Sansar completed Kumon worksheets every day in addition to his school work. He mastered differential calculus, indefinite/definite integrals and differential equations in the final level of the math program and studied great works of literature from Shakespeare to T.S. Eliot, as well as interpretation and critique of literature in the reading program. Sansar’s passion for learning new things motivated him to work through the entire math and reading curriculum in just three years.

“It is a great achievement for a young child to have the skill, capability and dedication to achieve this goal, and to do so takes great effort,” said Hideki Kusuzawa, president of Kumon North America. “Every child can achieve their full potential through independent learning like Sansar.”
“Sansar was different from the other kids,” said his instructor Saeko Jalbuna, of the Kumon Center in Poway. “He has the ability to concentrate and persevere through challenging problems without becoming frustrated.”

Although Sansar is the youngest completer in North America, he is not the only one in his family to complete both the Kumon Math and Reading program. His older sister Sara, 12, finished the reading program last August and the math program in June.

As Sara completed the program, Sansar gained the extra motivation and encouragement from his family to finish the program. “My dad taught me what I needed to know and more,” said Sansar. “My mother encouraged me to keep going and my sister supported me.”
Last year, only 1,141 out of more than 250,000 students in North America graduated Kumon’s Math and Reading programs. Sansar is one of 669 graduates in North America this year but is the first to graduate before middle school.

Sansar and Sara’s mother, Manita said, “It’s a really exciting time for our family. I’m really proud of my children for tackling an enormous challenge all on their own.” Their father, Gopal, echoed these sentiments, “Sansar and Sara truly surprised us! We never thought our children would master these advanced levels at such a young age.”

Sansar leaves the Kumon program with words of encouragement for current and future Kumon students, “Even though it may be hard to finish the program, the benefits of completing the program will greatly help you in school.”

In addition to his academic interests, Sansar is a first degree black belt in Tae-Kwon-Do. He also enjoys watching movies and reading books in the ‘Magic Tree House’ series. Sara enjoys running long distance on the track and field team and tutoring after school.

Sansar hopes to one day become a college math professor or work as an engineer for NASA, while his sister Sara aspires to be a pediatric surgeon.

As for how Sansar celebrated his completion of the Kumon Math and Reading program, “We held a big party, and I had a four-day sleepover with my friends,” grinned Sansar, remembering the event.

About Kumon Math and Reading Centers
Kumon [Koo-mon] is an after-school math and reading program that unlocks the potential of children by motivating them to achieve more on their own. Founded in Japan in 1958, the learning method uses a systematic individualized approach that helps children develop a solid command of math and reading skills. Through daily practice and mastery of materials, students increase confidence, improve concentration and develop better study skills. Kumon has 26,000 centers in 46 countries and more than four million students studying worldwide.

Tips for a Successful School Year

New backpacks. Clean shoes. Notebooks with pristine covers. New teachers and friendly faces. All of these things are all part of the anticipation children have when they think about the start of a new school year. As summer winds down and children begin trading in their swimsuits and sleep-overs for school buses and homework, there are several strategies parents can use to ease any stress that might occur during the back-to-school season.

A successful school year can depend on how smoothly a child transitions from summer vacation. Here are some tips for helping your child make a smooth transition:

1. Focus on the Positives. Talk to your children about their summer accomplishments. Recogize the skills they practiced, no matter how large or small. Did they learn to swim? Did they read a whole book (or maybe many books)? Did they go the whole summer without losing their house key or cell phone? Maybe your teen began babysitting this summer... Skills such as perseverance, time-management, responsibility, and independence will help them will help them succeed in school.
2. Ask your child to write a short story about his or her summer experiences. This will give your child practice writing before the first day back in the classroom, and it is also a nice way to reminisce about quality time spent together. Pictures are an added bonus!
3. Set up a study area for your child. It should be quiet and free of distractions. Make sure the area has "study supplies" (pens, paper, markers, dictionary, thesaurus, etc.).
4. Establish a consistent homework routine at the very beginning of the school year. Help your child develop organizational skills by writing down his appointments, assignments, and activities, and by helping him break big assignments into small, manageable parts. Being organized is a key to being a successful student. Schedule daily homework time in your house so it becomes a part of your family's routine. This also helps children to see that homework is a priority in your home.
5. Meet your child's teachers. Keep the communication open. Discuss goal setting with both your child and the teacher. This partnership of parent-teacher-child will be very effective in the development of healthy homework habits which will, in turn, help children have a successful school year.
6. Give your child genuine and frequent praise. Praise your child's progress, and don't focus on perfection. Let them know that you believe in them, you think they are special, and you have confidence in them. Let your child know that you recognize and value their efforts, not just their final accomplishments.

Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

Fathers Play Key Role in Children’s Education

Survey Finds Dads Active in Academics

Teaneck, N.J. (June 10, 2009) – Fathers believe helping their children excel in school is one of their primary roles according to a recent survey by Ipsos Public Affairs for Kumon Math and Reading Centers. As America prepares to celebrate Father’s Day on June 21st, the survey finds today’s dads are more active in their children’s academic development compared to their own fathers.

A recent educational survey of more than 1,000 American parents with children ages five to 15 found that 50 percent of dads say they are the ones who most motivate their children to do their homework, indicating that dads feel they are as likely as moms to help with schoolwork. This is quite different from previous generations. Only nine percent of these same parents chose their own father when asked who motivated them to complete their homework when they were growing up.

“In a world of dual income families it is inspiring to see fathers taking a leading role along with mothers in their children’s education,” says Dr. Mary Mokris, education specialist for Kumon Math and Reading Centers. “Fathers are actively addressing their children’s academic needs all year round.”

Kumon Math and Reading Centers shares other dad highlights from the survey:

• Fathers who volunteer with their children spend an average of 2.78 hours per week volunteering together.


• More than eight in ten dads feel confident helping their children with math, history, geography or science homework.


• Ninety-eight percent of dads personally help their children when he or she experiences a problem with homework.


• Three out of four dads are aware of summer learning opportunities for their children.


• Six out of ten dads enroll their children in an organized learning program for at least one week over the summer.


• More than 30 percent of dads enroll their children in supplemental education programs such as tutoring or summer camp to keep their skills sharp during the summer.
  
  

Kumon, the world’s largest after-school math and reading program, was founded more than fifty years ago by Toru Kumon, a math teacher and father, who wanted to help his son do better in math.

About Kumon Math and Reading Centers:
Kumon [k -mŏn] is an after-school math and reading program that helps children fulfill their potential by motivating them to achieve more on their own. The learning method uses a systematic and individualized approach that helps children develop a solid command of math and reading skills. Through daily practice and mastery of materials, students increase confidence, improve concentration and develop better study skills. Kumon has 26,000 Centers in 46 countries and more than four million students studying worldwide. For more information, please visit http://www.kumon.com/.

About the Survey: The survey was fielded April 3– 9, 2009 via the Ipsos North-American I-Say Panel, a household consumer panel that has been pre-staged and pre-screened. A total of 1,039 American parents with children between the ages of five and 15, inclusive, were interviewed online.

Happy Fathers Day!

Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

Breaking the Reading Code

This is the Junior Kumon room at my

Kumon Math & Reading Center in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

Have you ever wondered why reading is so easy for some children, yet so difficult for others? Breaking the reading code is the key to unraveling the mystery of learning to read. To decipher the code, students must first transform letters to sounds, and then blend the sounds together to form words. This is not an easy process. Yet as complex as it is, this process happens rather effortlessly for the majority of children during kindergarten or first grade.

Once children break the code, they become emergent readers, ready and eager to learn to read. These are the students who take off like reading rockets and smoothly transition through the rest of the stages of reading, eventually becoming successful readers. Ideally, this transition occurs before students enter fourth grade where they begin to use their skilled reading ability to learn all school subjects, including math and science.

For children who have difficulty breaking the reading code, however, learning to read can be an agonizing ordeal. The bad news is that as these children wrestle with learning how to read, they fall farther and farther behind their classmates. The good news, however, is that these struggling readers can be taught to read. Scientific research has provided us with the knowledge of what works best in teaching children to read, and Kumon’s Reading Program—starting with it's beginning levels—has put this knowledge into practice.

There are two parts to the reading puzzle that children need to master in order to break the reading code.

• Part one requires the ability to recognize that words are made up of small sounds. We call this phonemic awareness. For example, the word cat is made up of a hard /c/ sound, a short /a/ sound, and the /t/ sound.


• Part two requires the ability to link these sounds to letters of the alphabet. We call this alphabetic principle. For example, the hard /c/ sound is represented by the letter c, the short /a/ sound is represented by the letter a, and the /t/ sound is represented by the letter t.

The purpose of developing phonemic awareness in students is to give them these linguistic insights upon which the alphabetic principle depends. By understanding that words are made up of a sequence of sounds, students easily learn the sounds that go with letters. For example, when the sound /d/ is recognized as the sound heard in doll, dog, and day, students quickly learn that the sound of the letter d is /d/. When the sound /h/ is recognized as the sound heard in house, hat, hen, and heavy, they understand that /h/ is the sound of the letter h.

Phonemic awareness is the ultimate difference between those who catch on to reading very quickly and those who do not. Simply put, struggling readers lack phonemic awareness. Trying to memorize which sounds go with what letters and which words begin with what sounds, will not help these students learn to read if they have not mastered this skill. Fortunately, phonemic awareness can be developed if it is taught explicitly and systematically for approximately 15 minutes per day over the course of one school year.

How can struggling readers learn this skill? The development of the reading readiness skills of phonemic awareness, followed by the alphabetic principle, begins in Kumon's early Reading Program. Children can be taught phonemic awareness by first drawing their attention to rhymes and then making their own rhymes. For instance, by rhyming words such as cat, hat, pat, and mat, they quickly learn to recognize the sound of /at/, and they learn that by changing the beginning sounds of rhyming words, they can make new words. When they learn to do this, they can be taught to substitute the ending and finally the middle sounds of rhyming words to form new words. For example, if they change the /t/ in cat to /p/, the new word is cap.

Next, children need to learn to play games with words. They can be taught to blend sounds together to make words. For example, if a child blends the sounds /m/, /a/, /p/ together, the word map is formed. A child also needs to be taught to take a word apart by breaking it into its different sounds.

Although it is not easy for struggling readers to master these skills, it is possible with daily practice. For students who learn to attend to the structure of language, the alphabetic principle will make sense and they will rapidly develop the phonetic skills necessary for reading, thus breaking the reading code. Once accomplished, struggling readers and beginning readers will all grow into successful readers!

Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

What kind of learner is my child? Tips on determining your child's learning style.

Think for a minute about how your child learns. Parents often focus on what their child learns in school, but sometimes they need to ask, what is our child's learning style?

Learning styles are linked to one or more of our senses. In general, each of us can be put in one of four categories of learning: Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic and Tactile.

• The Visual Learner learns best when he is "shown" how to do something. He thrives on written directions.
• The Auditory Learner retains more information from what he hears rather than reads.
• The Kinesthetic Learner expresses herself through movement and often has trouble sitting still.
• The Tactile Learner needs to feel and manipulate objects. This person needs hands-on experience in order to learn best.

Successful learning happens when we make a connection between what we are attempting to learn, and our personal strengths. When the connection is made, learning is easy. When it isn't, difficulty follows and students have trouble paying attention, completing assignments, or taking tests.

At home, parents can use individual techniques for the different learning styles. For example, if your child is having trouble preparing for a spelling test, here are some tips that might help:

• A visual learner can write and re-write the spelling list, so she can see how the letters look when they come together on the page.
• An auditory learner can make an audio recording of himself spelling out the words on the list so he can replay them and spell along with the recording.
• A kinesthetic learner can use her body to form the letters, can put the words on objects, or can recite the spelling of words while jumping rope.
• A tactile learner can use magnetic letters to spell out the words on the refrigerator or form the letters in clay or sand.

It is important for parents to understand how their children learn best. Although most of us use a blend of learning styles, we usually rely more heavily on one style than the others. Sometimes what may look like a learning disability, may really be a learning difference.

Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

Make Math Fun with Math Games!

Keeping our children excited about learning over the summer makes back-to-school season so much easier. If we can make learning fun, kids view it as a reward, rather than a chore.

At my Kumon Center, I often use a deck of cards to conduct oral "fact checks". I simply take a deck of cards and remove the face cards. Here are some of our activities:

• To practice simple Addition and Multiplication - In Kumon, we focus on mastering concepts in linear, bite-sized pieces. Therefore, we master "plus one" before moving on to "plus two" and so forth. For these students (let's say a child mastering "plus three"), every card I flip over would be "plus three". If they are able to give me the sum without hesitation, they keep the cards. If not, I get the cards. Whoever has the most cards in the end, wins the game. The same concept can be used to practice multiplication tables. (Note: Once basic facts are memorized, two cards can be flipped over and added or multiplied. This mixes things up a bit and makes it more challenging.)


• Subtraction: Same concept, but be sure to remove all cards "lower" than the core number. This is not where we want to introduce the concept of negative numbers!

Other fun family games to teach numeracy and math skills:

• To teach Number Sense, play War. Click here for rules. You can modify this game to grow with your child by giving each player a full deck of cards and having each player flip over two cards. The winner would be the player with the highest sum (for addition) or product (for multiplication).


• Play Dominos. Click here for rules. I love Dominos!


• Play Math Bingo. Click here for free printable bingo cards and a call list. Fast, fun, and easy!


• Play Twister with a Math Twist: Put numbers in the circles on Twister mat. Call out an equation instead of a color. Cool, right?

Online FREE math game links:

• For K-8 children, Funbrain.com has a ton of "brain games" (number games and word games) as well as web books. Some of the games I tried were Math Baseball, Grammar Gorillas, and Planet Zug, which is a grade-by-grade vocabulary building game.

• Primarygames.com is another great family-friendly site for learning games. In the math category, there are a few versions of Sudoku, Math Lines, Arithmatiles, What Time Is It?, Simon Says, and (my favorite) MATH MAN, which is like PacMan, but uses sums of equations for power. It just does't get any cooler than that!

• There's also funschool which has a 34 fun and free math games. Games start with pre-school concepts to square roots and powers. I'd reccomend "Math Poppers" for 2nd graders who will be entering 3rd grade in the fall. "Math Poppers" reinforces addition and subtraction skills while introducing children to the multiplacation tables.

Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

How to Fight Summer Brain Drain

For many schoolchildren, the price paid for “fun in the sun” over the summer school break is significant learning loss. In order to counteract this, parents need to provide opportunities for their children to continue to read and do math during the summer months. One way to prevent summer learning loss is to enroll in a supplemental education program (like KUMON!) and make math and reading practice a part of the daily summer routine.

While students need to have fun during the summer, using their academic skills for even a short period of time each day will prevent them from the summer learning loss that plagues so many of their classmates. Here are some suggestions to help create a learning environment that is part of your child’s summer routine:

1. Read for pleasure during the summer – favorite authors, easy-to-read books, magazines, plays, poetry.

2. Read books for the upcoming school year (ask your child’s teacher for suggestions.)

3. Write plays and stories and share them with friends and family.

4. Visit the library weekly and make friends with the librarian, who has a wealth of information to share about books. (Most libraries also offer summer reading programs for children.)

5. Get activity books and do age-appropriate brain teasers, crossword puzzles, or Suduko.

6. Be creative with math. Write equations/problems on big surfaces using finger paints, dry erase markers, or washable chalk.

7. Be a role model for learning. Let your child “catch” you reading; note how you use math throughout the day—in cooking, balancing the checkbook, figuring out gas mileage—and encourage your children to calculate along with you.

8. Create projects: have your child help plan your vacation time, whether it be a day trip or a two-week holiday; research and read books about the destination; use resources, such as the library, the internet; figure out how much the trips would cost, including gas, entertainment, hotels, food, and directions.

Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

Tips to Help Children Develop Strong Reading Habits

(NAPSI)-Getting a child to read can be challenging, but a recent survey found that 96 percent of U.S. and Canadian parents recognize the importance of having strong reading skills for school and as an adult.

"As U.S. literacy rates worsen, parents need to make daily reading a priority for themselves and their children. Our society cannot afford a generation that doesn't enjoy reading," says Dr. Mary Mokris, education specialist for Kumon Math and Reading Centers.

The survey for Kumon, conducted by Harris Interactive, found that activities such as playing outside, watching a movie and eating together were more important to today's families than reading together.

"Spending as little as 15 minutes a day reading together helps children of any age improve literacy, analytical and lifelong learning skills while fostering a love for the English language," said Mokris, who offers the following tips to promote literacy at home:

1) Bring reading home-Create a reading area in your house that has comfortable furniture, good lighting and, most importantly, magazines, newspapers and books your children will enjoy.

2) Start a parent-child book club-Parents can learn more about their child's interests and children will get more comfortable reading and sharing in front of peers.

3) Read the book, watch the movie and discuss-It gives children and adults an opportunity to discuss the content, dilemmas and moral implications of the story. This combination sharpens both comprehension and decoding abilities, two of the most important skills for learning.

4) Physical reading-Make reading a part of your outdoor playtime. Read to your child and ask him to act out what he has just heard. Older children can read a play and then perform it.

5) Read and explore-Have each family member choose an area attraction that he or she would like to visit. Have older children read about the area and play tour guide for the day.

Need help selecting books that appeal to your child's interests or reading ability? Kumon Math and Reading Centers offers a free Recommended Reading List, which includes a range of 350 titles for any reading level. You can stop by a Kumon Center for a copy.

For Kumon locations, visit http://www.kumon.com/ or call (800) ABC-MATH.

Reading can be a family affair when parents look for books that the whole family can enjoy reading together.

Hugs and Blessings~
~~~Anne