It’s September, the flux month when the jet stream pushes crisp and frost on heavenly currents to make us stop and feel fresh breezes, taste chilly mornings and enjoy sweaterweather.  September forces deeper, slower breaths.  We sip and gulp air like fine wine and craft beer, with eyes closed and blushed skin.  The leaves rustle and shiver, curtains billow and old haunted radiators start clanking because supers don’t want lawsuits or frozen pipes due to temperamental weather or senior citizens who just can’t maintain their heat core or, if in Gotham City - New York City - you hit the magic number 55. *  Winds whisper, trees shed and bare their skin, leaves blush brightly and kids squeal in delight.  September paints the golden hour on every box of the calendar for 61 days.  School bells ring, autumn birds sing, wind chimes ting a ling.

It’s time to shake the cobwebs and learn again. September by some is considered to be “Read a Book Month”, September 28 is “Read a Child a Book You Like Day.  Either way September is for…observing, discerning, returning and learning.

For the grown-ups: what’s on your Tsundoku?  Please share below in the comments section.  I appreciate your ideas.  My Tsundoku is:

For your child:  if you would like a good read, I invite you to take out of your bookshelf, “Talk About the Monster,” written by…yes you guessed it, yours truly, Mistofer Christopher.  Sometimes the return to school comes with butterflies 🦋 and jitters, but this story was written just for this purpose - taking jitters and making them little critters, and as one mom told me in describing my story: “If you can name it, you can tame it.”

What are the benefits of reading to children?  In addition to bonding with your child and creating many pleasant memories, it stimulates development of the little brain, builds language, literacy and social skills.  It propels students forward in their primary and secondary education and throughout life.  It gives parents the opportunities to slow down, have a pleasant safe dialogue between parents and children, between children and children and other adults. 

The Ohio State University conducted a study entitled: “When Children Are Not Read to at Home: The Million Word Gap”.  Please click on the link to access the whole study. Researchers discovered that a child who read only one book a day will still hear about 290,000 more words by the time they are 5 years old than those who aren’t read to at home.

The study was conducted in the following manner:  First the 100 most circulated books for both board books (targets infants and toddlers) and picture books (targets preschoolers) were identified.  Then a random selection of 30 books from both lists was made and the number of words in each book counted.  Board Books – 140 words approximately, Picture Books - 228 word average.  Next, numbers calculating an approximation of how many words children would hear by the time they turn 5 was made:

• Never read to - 4,662 words.

• 1-2 times per week - 63,570 words.

• 3-5 times per week - 169,520 words.

• Daily - 96,660 words.

• Five books a day - 1,483,300 words.

What would you do with a million words?  What could you describe, what could you feel, what could you experience?

Since I never did like “Green Eggs and Ham”, I figured out that from that book I can express: “You let me be!”  “I could not.”  “I will not.” “I will.”

“From Where the Wild Things Are” I learned mischief, rumpus, private and terrible.  What would you do with such words at age 5?  Write them in a sentence in the comments below.

Here are some tips to make reading enjoyable.

1. Make reading books an adventure from visiting a bookstore and/or a library.

2. Find a special space, nook, corner to read with your child in your home.

3. After selecting a book together, invite your child to read with you. Before turning the page, engage your child by asking them to predict what will happen next.

4. Electrify the story by pantomiming movements or noises, or make voices and accents up as they happen in the story.

5. Discuss the pictures and the expression on characters faces. Ask: “What is this person/creatuee feeling? Perhaps use an emotion chart. When a child can express how others feel it can help children relate to themselves, express their own emotions and strengthen their vocabulary and language.

So, for this glorious month of September, back to school and learning, take out your favorite children’s book and read it with your child!

Your Turn

How many or which one(s) of Scholastic top 100 children’s books of all time have you read?

Here are ten of the ones that I have read.

1. Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

2. Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak

3. Green Eggs and Ham - Dr. Seuss

4. Frog and Toad Are Friends - Arnold Lobel

5. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery

6. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

7. Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein

8. The Little Engine That Could - Watty Piper

9. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - Robert C O’Brien

10. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - Judy Blume

Mistofer Christopher is a Blogger, Home School Teacher, and the author of the Children’s Book:, App, and Sing-A-Long Song Talk About The Monster.

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