It all started with a question from a little boy; a question about an iconic landmark that most adults recognize easily. Author Carole P. Roman fondly remembers the day she and her grandson were spending time together on a family trip to Las Vegas. As a curious four-year old, Carole’s grandson spotted a replica of the...
Guest post from author/illustrator, Aram Kim I sometimes sit on the park bench in the big playground in my neighborhood. In the afternoon, the playground is dynamic with children playing, running, screaming, laughing and talking. Though it is a natural scene for me by now, I am still amazed by the wonderful diversity of the children...
First Global Challenge, an international competition, brought teen-agers from over 150 countries around the world to Washington, D.C. this summer. Students collaborated across countries and borders to build robots which would reduce water contamination. A keynote speaker observed that in the future there would be many opportunities for budding scientists from around the world to work together for peaceful purposes.
This is the world that we need to prepare our children for. Regardless of their career choices or where they may live, it is more probable than ever that they will be communicating and working with people from diverse language and cultural backgrounds.
Let’s give them an early start learning a foreign language. One can learn a language at any age, but children who start early have more years to become truly proficient and to have a marketable skill.
{guest post from Myron Campbell-Founder of the Differences Foundation}
Since I became an author, I seem to get the same questions and statements thrown my way…the main one being, “How did you become an author?” Or “What you are doing for the kids that not too many African American males are doing.”
I get these two the most, however, there are more. As I mention every time I speak to a group of people I never saw myself as an author. When I created my children’s book series The Adventures of Melvin Walker it happened by mistake. Honestly, it was the man upstairs plans for this to happen. These were stories I told my children at night before bed. We would pick up every night right where we left off the day before.
One night my wife says, “you should put your recorder on and record yourself.” I was a little hesitate at doing that. I didn’t want to sound crazy. So, I took her advice and recorded myself. Fifteen minutes later what I recorded ended up being the first 3 pages of my first book Melvin Goes To The Ballpark.
Imagine children without a single book to call their own.
Imagine no one reading to a child.
Imagine parents unable to read to a child
Reality is today childhood literacy is in crisis.
Reality is that three out of four, fourth graders, fail to read at grade level.
Reality by reinforcing a child’s sense of self-worth, confidence, and exposing them to stories about children who look like them, share similar families, encourages them to develop the love of reading.