Is Your Home a Place Of Learning?

By: Connie LeGrand/News Channel 7 | News Channel 7
Published: November 06, 2007

November is National Literacy Month.

According to the South Carolina kids count 2006 report, the Palmetto State ranks "uncompetitive", or 47th on the wellbeing of children.

On it’s website Greenville Literacy Association reports:

South Carolina has the lowest high school graduation rate in the nation.

SAT scores rank among the poorest in the country.

20 percent of adults over 25 years of age in Greenville County are considered to be level 1 literacy—at or below the fifth grade level.

13.6 percent of adults in Greenville County lack a high school diploma.

6.9 percent have fewer than nine years of school.

http://www.greenvilleliteracy.org/index.php?id=436

Is Your Home a Place of Learning?

7 Tips from “The Parent Institute”:

Yes or No?

I have a place to display my children’s work?

We limit the amount of television our children watch? (Students who watch no more than 10 hours of television a week do best in school.)

We have regular family reading time. (Setting aside 30 minute a day for reading… may be the most important thing you do to help your child succeed.)

We eat together as a family at least three times a week. (Family meals give children a chance to share what they’ve learned.)

We have regular routines for bedtime. (Children have a strong need for routines and repetition.)

Does your child’s room have at least one map in it? (Maps make inexpensive room decorations and they’re a great way for your child to learn geography.)

My children have regular responsibilities around the house.

Here are some other fun activities to promote reading from “The Parent Institute”:

-          If you have extra snapshots lying around, have your child use them to illustrate a family story
-          Have a goofy dinner theme… Take one of your child’s favorite books and serve a dish the character would eat.
-     Make sure she reads the book, before she sees the movie.