 Dr. Rita Forsythe, host of books, books, books, where we discuss reading, writing, and everything in between and beyond. I'm coming to you from Maui through the live streaming network, ThinkTech OIE. Our topic today is reading to our cakey, and we're joined by an expert in the field, Joanne Laird. Joanne was a teacher in Northern California before moving to Maui, where she found her encore career as the library lady. She's the program director for the non-profit organization Read Aloud America. Welcome, Joanne. Thank you. Welcome. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you and to everybody. Let's start by talking about the who, what, and where reading aloud might take place. Want me to go ahead and start? Yes, please. All right. So, reading aloud, we are looking at having an adult, parent, caregiver, any adult read aloud to a child. Doesn't have to be their own child. It can be any child. There are lots of reasons why adults or caregivers or anybody should be reading aloud to kids, and we have 12 reasons why we feel at Read Aloud America that reading aloud is beneficial. On the first one, and we're going to have that first slide go up, children and adults love being read aloud, too. Believe it or not, why do you think audio books are so popular? You can drive around in your car and listen to an adult read you a book. But kids love being read, too. Even middle school and high school kids, I ran a leadership program here on Maui and the last night of the program, 80 high school kids on the floor at the Longhouse at Kat Malahia listening to a bedtime story. Just totally enraptured. They love it. And in my job as the library leader, I read aloud to every class that comes in, and then they get to check out books. So they love it. We know that both adults and kids love being read aloud, too. If you are a parent, it strengthens the bond between you and your child. Another story, because you know, I love stories. I read aloud to my daughter. I was a single mom while my daughter was growing up, and I read aloud to her every night. I was tired. I was teaching, and I was grading papers. But every night, we made sure that we had time to have me sit on her bed and read aloud a story to her. She loved good night moon. I could probably recite that forward backwards and sideways, but that was the one thing that brought us together every night. And in this time of so many screen devices, now, few minutes, five, 10, 15 minutes with you and your child, or you and the child that you are raising, that bond will never go away. So that's one of the reasons to read aloud. Another one creates an interest in books. I can now tell you how delighted the students at Kihei Elementary were so excited to come back to school and come in the library and check out a book. They go, Mrs. Laird, it was okay when you read to us online, and we saw the pages, and you read that. Now, can we check out books? When can we check out books? Will you be open at recess? Will you be open at lunch? They missed that. And so that just being read to creates that interest in them wanting to get a book in their hands. And one of the places where kids can go, if their school library is not available for them to check out books, is the Hawaii State Library system. Totally free. We call it the best deal in town. Every child can get their own library card. They can go in. The hours are open now, more than they ever were. And you can check out a book, and it costs absolutely nothing. And believe it or not, having a book in their hand is much better than a video game. And so they like it. And again, my students are 730 kids at Kihei School, and they all can't wait every two weeks to come into the library and check out a book. It creates an interest. Going on, reading aloud motivates both children and adults to read on their own, just like I shared with you about the kids at Kihei School. They want to read. They love when I read a lot of story to them. It's so exciting to them to hear and see the pictures. And of course, I read in voices because that always makes it exciting. And then they're ready to go. Same thing with adults. I'm a voracious reader. I know, Rita, you are too. And I never needed motivation, but even the younger ones, the little ones, the little, little ones, the ones that can't even understand one word on a site reading on the page, it will get them interested in learning how to read. The one thing I want to share with parents and adults is going to number five on the slide, building the vocabulary. Now, here's the deal. I do not teach reading. I share the joy and the love of being read aloud too. And as an adult, when an adult is reading aloud to a child, my recommendation, and we at Read Aloud America say, don't test the kids, don't ask them, what did you, okay, what was the main idea of this chapter? No, no, no, no, no, no, you don't want to do that. They get that at school. They get that when I read aloud to them at school because they're in school, but at night before bed, which is the best time to read aloud, you just read and the child hears your voice and they hear the words and they start making connections. Even a little two and three year old, when you're reading a story about the enormous crocodile, they'll understand what enormous is, they'll see the picture, they'll hear your voice, but you don't have to ask them, now what does enormous mean? You don't want to do that. Reading aloud is just for fun. They can do a lot at school, learning how to read, but our focus and my focus and what I would like to share with you today is to read aloud for the joy of being read aloud too. It does stretch the child's attention span. We recommend that you read aloud 10 to 15 minutes, one on one. Now if you have five kids, now you don't wind them all up there and say, okay, mom's going to read aloud to you, now you all listen, they're not, excuse me, they're doing your high kid, they're going to roll their eyes, okay, and the little one is going to go on and do one on one, one on one, 10 to 15 minutes per child, one, two, three nights a week, whatever you can fit into your busy schedule, that is your time with your child so that they get that contact with you and I call that they get the power of your voice. Another real, real story. I have a daughter who is 42 years old now that, you know, most of my parents at my school aren't even that age, but my daughter's 42 and as I shared with you, I read aloud to her every night and she says, I talked to her once a week on the phone and she says, mommy, you know, when I'm having a bad day, I just close my eyes and I listen to you in my head reading to me, good night, room. You see, that is the power that your voice has to that child and that is something they will remember forever, far longer than a movie or a video game. So again, the power of the adult's voice reading aloud close to the child will never go away. So that's the attention span one. Going on, number seven, it's a subtle way to teach morals and values. Now, when I read aloud to students at school, I always talk about the moral of the story, but as I recommended to you, don't ask your children, no, what was the moral of this story now that we finish it. If they want to talk about it, fine, they'll get it. They'll get it, but you don't have to ask them any questions, but it does subtly teach those morals and values. It can change negative thinking into positive attitudes. At Read aloud America, we ask all of our teachers and our students to evaluate our programs at the end, and we ask them to had it changed anything. 79% of the teachers since 2011, since we started taking data said students report 50% of 79% of their students report a more positive attitude towards school, and it has improved the home to school relationship. So there are changes in attitudes and values by having parents or an adult read aloud to kids. And we know it stimulates the imagination. You can get lost in a book. I mean, when I'm reading a story, and it's like 1130 at night, I know I have to go to bed because I have to get up and go to work in the morning, but you can get lost in a story. And we know that the imagination goes forever. It improves listening and speaking abilities. We know that it's been proven fact that listening comprehension is three years ahead of reading comprehension. So when that little two-year-old hears about the enormous crocodile, he or she's going to figure out what enormous means before they even can see or understand the word. And then last, it exposes children and adults to a wealth of new ideas and experiences. That's why I love reading aloud to my students at my school. At every grade level from kindergarten through fifth grade, I always read picture books to them because I can do a picture book in 15 minutes before they go check one out. But you at home, adults, let the children select the book. Don't shove a book and say, I'm going to read you this book tonight. You're going to like it. No, no, no, no, no. Let them pick. That's why going to the public library or bringing home a book from the school library, that's the one that you should think about reading aloud. And remember, don't ask them any questions. Just let them listen to the power of your voice. Oh, I love your 12 points. I wonder, you know, it makes me think about when we were all in lockdown, my little grandson, who was at the time five years old, living in Seattle and I couldn't get to him to read aloud, we would open up FaceTime or a Zoom meeting and I would read aloud to him that way. And the look in his face, just how they come down and they just enjoy the sound of your voice. Just like you said. Exactly. And there are, I'm going to recommend there are two links. If you like, if you can't get a hold of an actual book, Storyline Online and Books, the O-O-K-S have actual animated books that are in print on the screen. And that's what I used to read virtually to my students last year when we were in lockdown. I would turn off their narration and they would see the pages turning. And some of the pages were even animated. And I would read aloud from those platforms. And if you can't get an actual book in your hand, those two platforms, again, it is reading aloud. It's not a video game. It's an actual book. Storyline Online is free. And they actually have movie and TV stars reading the stories. But I turned off their voice and I read. That's a great resource. Yeah. So Joanne, you're the program director for Read Aloud America. Can you tell us more about that program? Well, Read Aloud America was started way back in the early, mid 90s by Jed Gaines. He was our founder and president. And we started small and got very, very, very big and ended up being in 12 schools on three islands. We would present an evening. And it is an evening family literacy program. Now, needless to say, that did go away with COVID. We were in smack dab in the middle of programs in March 2020 when we had to not be able to have these evening family programs. But we would bring the parents in and the kids, kids could not come alone. They had to come with a family member or they could rent a parent, which means they could come with a friend's parent. But they got checked in. We had music going, usually Hawaiian music, even no matter where they were, we always played Hawaiian music because then you can't go wrong with Hawaiian music. And then we have a book swap table and we would give them coupons, kids could get a book. And then we would start the evening, 20 minutes of razzmatazz. I would throw out frisbees and footballs. And with any time a kid answered a trivia question, right? They got a frisbee or a football, then they could come up and get a free book. And then that was the first 20 minutes. I asked, who's ready to hear a great story. And of course, the kids are all excited. And we would send the kids out by age level, starting with the oldest to a classroom where they were read aloud to by a volunteer reader. We provided all the books. And at the end of that read aloud time, they also got a free book they could select. In the meantime, I had the adults. And the adults were with me for 40 minutes. Other kids were with being read aloud to. And I talked about the importance of reading aloud. And I would weave in reading aloud with their school values, some of the things the school was teaching. I would give them recommendations of things. And then I would read aloud to them, or I would bring in a guest reader to read aloud to them and to watch the faces of the parents during this time, especially the guys, because they thought, you know, oh, that lady is going to ask me a question and make me, you know, no questions. What we say to the kids and the parents, there are no tests, there are no book reports. There's no checking for understanding. None of that. You're not at school. You're here to have fun with reading. And I told the parents that from the very beginning, I'm here to entertain you and educate you, but entertain you. And to watch, especially the, I'm sorry, put them in, you know, all but when I start reading aloud to them, and I would always get a book that had some passion, you know, they just, it was like somebody just let all the tension out. And they loved it. And I would always leave them hanging so that they would, and then I would continue the book at the next program. Then everybody would come back. And it was pizza dinner time. You see, if you feed them, they will come. And so we bring all the kids back. They come back with their new book that they got to pick in this session. And I always told the parents, now that's the book you want to read aloud to your kids tonight. Pick a kid that's going to get you to read to them. And they were all ready. The kids got their books. They had pizza dinner, and then we would have grand prize drawings. And if they went to a session, they got their name in a bucket. The parents got their name in a bucket. If they filled out a quick evaluation, they got their name in another bucket. If they went to the live public library and checked out a book. And so we had all kinds of drawings. And then the evening was over before eight o'clock. So if family evening literacy program, we would draw between 400 and 700 people a night. Our largest one on Maui was Pukukui at 950 people in there. And they fed them all in 20 minutes. We're very good about time. So that's the evening. Of course, right now, we're kind of on hold. We're ready to go back to the schools that we had to leave whenever it's okay to bring groups together. We would like to be this spring, but maybe next fall. But we're doing a newsletter, a parent newsletter. And I'm welcome to share that newsletter with any of our viewers. And I'm sure Rita will figure out how to get my email address out. We do have an email address that we can put on the screen here. Right. We do a parent newsletter. I do a parent newsletter once a month. And yes. And so every month, there's got a theme. There's got books that are recommended by age level and easy craft activities that parents can do that they don't have to go out and buy a lot of stuff. Things that don't require a screen. And also, one of the things we have in that newsletter and on our website is the family reading list 14 pages by age level of recommended books by age level. And so if you're if you're stuck and you don't know what to read to your kid and they don't have a book at home, that reading list is fantastic. And we update that every year. Sorry. When I was a school principal, elementary school principal, that was the biggest question I would get all the time is what's the best readability level for my child? Where can I find those books? So maybe you could repeat that again, because I think that's really important. Yes, we have every year and a family reading list. And it's by 25 books by age level, starting with infants, 25 books that you can read aloud to infants that we recommend. These are that great readability. We have a lot of people that look at these books before, before we decide to put them on the list, infants. And then we go to pre K and kinder, a whole list for them. And then first and second graders, a whole list for them. Now remember, this is not books that they can read. This is books we recommend you read to your child. And then we all go all the way into the adults, good reads for adults. And of course, that's to read to yourself if you want. And we have books for military families. We have books in Olelo, Hawaiian, that we we have a list for that. And then we have a whole page of websites that you can go to to get even more information, more, more recommendations. So every year that list comes out. That's great. And I know you mentioned our public library, and I think they're still doing the read aloud to children at the public library. Do you know, you know, I understand that they they are re instituting that. I'm not sure which ones are an art, but Maka Wao used to do it a lot. And, and, but you know, I'm sure on Oahu, they have so many public libraries. I'm sure story times are there. I'm sure you have to do is to go to the Hawaii state library system, and it'll be there. I guess I need a token child to get into. Okay, so I have a personal question for you. How did you go from retirement to a whole new encore career? Well, you know, I my husband and I retired early, very early when we were in our 55 very early in because we wanted to travel and we and we knew we were going to move to Maui from Northern California. We wanted to be warm. I didn't want to wear shoes. So we moved to Maui. We did a lot of traveling. And then things got a little we had some situations with my husband's mobility. And, and so I started missing we couldn't travel as much. And I started missing kids. And in I'm in Rotary and in Rotary, we always do things with students. And so I started working with students at key elementary with a Rotary club. And then I said, Well, I think I'll just go be a substitute teacher, you know, couple days a week. Keep my hands. And I walked in in the principal at that time, seven years ago, she says to when I have a reading resource position open 17 hours a week, it's perfect. Can you start tomorrow? And I said, Oh, okay. So seven years later, here we are. And I love this job. I love being with the kids. I've been off for two and a half weeks. And I'm, I'm ready to go back and start reading aloud to these, these wonderful kids. And that's how come I, I don't say flunking retirement. I say it's a time for career. Because I did miss the kids and the kids love it. They come in, they're happy and make the kids happy and make the teachers happy because they get a half hour off. Mrs. Laird's got their kids and and I'm reading them stories and they're checking out books. So yeah, it's the best of all worlds. It's the best job in the world. All those years of education. I visited you in the Kihei elementary school library a month ago. And oh, I got my kid fixed too. I miss those smiling faces and miss those children. Right. It's they're, they're great. And as an educator, I mean, I've been in education way long time now. And so I just realized I had my 47th school picture taken this year. So we have a couple of minutes left. Can I ask you what you're reading? What's on your bedside table right now? I love what's called cozy mysteries. Now my husband goes in for all the murder mysteries, you know, and all that stuff. I don't do the blood and guts gore. Cozy mysteries also always have a little bit of a humor in them. So there's a huge amount of cozy mysteries that are out there. But I especially like Toby Neal. And she did a whole series of the lay crime series, which is about a detective female detective here on Maui 12 books. And then she wrote two memoirs of her growing up. And I just finished reading open road where she and her husband went on a two month trip to national parks. And so I mean, I like all kinds of reading. I just finished open road. And I understand you're having Toby Neal on one of your programs in the future. Yes. Yes. Elaine Galant, our other host for books, books, books, will have Toby on a guest as a guest in two weeks. Yeah. And I'm reading, I just finished freckled yesterday about her growing up here on Maui. So what a great lady. And she has been a guest reader at at my program. Oh my goodness. So yeah, so she's been a guest reader and and and then her sister Bonnie in freckles, who still lives on Maui was a guest reader for me. And when we did a program on Hannah, because Toby was off island, but Bonnie read from read aloud from freckled to the parents at Hannah. And that was a big hit. So she I love her. I've known her since before she started writing when she was actually a school psychologist. And so to be able to see her evolving into an amazing published author, it's it's great. She's a homegrown girl. And in fact, I think I heard her say that when she was a school psychologist, she was dealing with a fallout from some buddy's murder. Yes. And that's how she got her start in writing. Yes, exactly. Write a lot about Maui. Yes, all of her books, the main character, Leigh Tixara is start is on Maui. And so she starts, she started actually Leigh started on the big island and then moved back home to Maui. And the 12 books in the series take it through that whole string and riveting books and Toby's an amazing writer. Yeah. Yes. And that's what I like to read. Well, that's all the time we have today. I want to thank you, Joanne, for being my special guest. You were so much fun. And I want to thank our broadcast engineer, our floor manager, and in particular, Jake Fidel, our executive producer who puts it all together, a special mahalo to our much needed sponsors. And thank you for joining us. Excuse me. Books, books, books, we'll be back in two weeks with my friend and host Elaine Galant. I'll see you next month. Until then, read, write and create your world.