Stacey Loscalzo

Jan 04

An Ounce of Prevention…

by Stacey

I’ve been thinking a lot about my chosen profession these days. I spent the beginning of last year dreaming big. I sat down and imagined my ideal job. I focused on my passion for bringing good books to children and thought about how I could spend my day devoted to this mission. I put together this website and blog. I began to develop parent presentations and children’s classes. I was energized  by the work.

Just this morning I was talking to the owner of my favorite children’s book store, Books, Bytes and Beyond. We were discussing the challenge of convincing parents that reading to their young child now will not only grow a happy and successful reader but also potentially prevent any reading difficulties later in life. We talked about how people often appear so willing to pay for tutors and remedial interventions but may be more hesitant to buy new books or to attend lectures about literacy.

I drew the analogy of prevention and remediation in healthcare. It has certainly become the case in our country that we are willing to spend money on curing diseases that could be prevented. If only we put this same money in to prevention. In a similar way, parents would be wise to spend money on books and spend time on reading. These simple and relatively inexpensive,  preventive acts could save parents thousands of dollars on tutors as their children grow.

The other day, I caught my daughters in a reading moment that goes to prove that an ounce of prevention is time and money well spent. The girls had pulled the curtains, built a fort and turned on flashlights. My older daughter then spent the next half hour reading to her younger sister by flashlight. These are two girls that love to read and to listen to stories. These are girls that love school and love to learn.

Would they be this way if I had not read to them constantly from the time they were born until today?  Maybe. But I’m glad I didn’t take the chance.

3 Comments

  1. This is the challenge I have posted on my blog for 2011:
    Let’s make things happen this year. We have the power to encourage social reading and help our children find books that they enjoy. We have the power to read books with our kids and talk about our favorite parts. We have the power to read with each other no matter where we live and share books on our blog. We have the power to recommend books to each other and socialize through reading. We have the power to show our children that reading is part of our lives. We have the power to share with our friends the books we love to read.

    Happy New Year Book Blog Friends!

    We look forward to another year of BookBlogFun.

    ~ Lauri Chandler

  2. One of my favorite things to do in my classroom was to read aloud. I taught middle school and loved to promote reading aloud (to students and parents) as something that should continue as long as possible.

    We read novels in language arts, used historical fiction in social studies, and picture books in both.

    And this morning I found my two guys reading together under a blanket.

  3. beth says:

    I love catching my kids reading. One boy likes to read good books, and the other is a confirmed bookworm who would prefer to spend his school days with his head under his desk reading a book.

    It’s nice to have your child’s “reading problems” being getting him to turn off the light and go to sleep, or to put the books away when appropriate 🙂

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