Reading Incentives; Early Childhood Literacy Resources; "Books, Babies and Libraries"

News October 19, 2007 (mp3 file: 6.22 MB, 6:38 min.)
Reading Incentives; Early Childhood Literacy Resources; "Books, Babies and Libraries"

At the top of the ‘cast today: reading incentives.

Earlier this week I received a catalog from Heifer International, an organization that gives animals, such as heifers, goats, pigs, llamas and chickens, to needy families in the U.S. and throughout the world. They also provide training in animal management and, in the spirit of passing it on and growing the gift, families give offspring of the animals to other families, or perhaps of a percentage of production goes to a local orphanage.

What does this have to do with reading incentives? As I read stories about the individuals, families and villages that have benefited from Heifer’s program a recurrent theme was children who are now able to afford to go to school, and to buy the pencils and paper needed. One girl, whose widowed mother sold the milk from a goat she had received described her first day of school, and said it was the happiest day of her life. A young man whose mother had died now has a heifer and sale of the milk enabled him to send his younger siblings to school. (Heifer does a tremendous job of telling their story, and we could take some cues from them, but that’s another subject.) I began to look through the “Get involved” section of the website and found “Read to Feed,” and this is where reading incentives come in. As a fundraiser, they suggest that children find sponsors for their reading—sections of reading, or minutes, or whatever—and the money they raise goes toward buying a heifer or goat or llama…..Libraries give t-shirts and pencils and other incentives to encourage kids to read; why not a different sort of incentive, one that helps others? Heifer has curriculum for 3^rd and 4^th grade, so it would make a good collaborative project with the school. Teens might do it, also—they are perhaps more aware of their global citizenship than some of us in earlier generations, and they are looking for ways to serve the community and make a difference. Maybe you would choose another cause, a local organization or charity instead of Heifer. But what a great opportunity to participate in the increasingly global community of ours, and “pass it on.” --Karen

Links from today's podcast:

Heifer International
Read to Feed
Early Childhood Literacy website

Book reviewed by Marcia:
Books, babies and libraries: serving infants, toddlers, their parents and their caregivers, by Ellin Greene. ALA, c1991.