“How to Teach a Child to Read” Activities for Grandparents and Their Grandchildren

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Barnes and Noble has some great news for all of us in the Sandwich Generation who are caring for elderly parents and having fun with reading activities for grandparents and their grandchildren.

My senior mom and I popped into our local store yesterday and discovered they started the 2010 Barnes and Noble Summer Reading Program. Reading programs are great because we can often participate in these with our grandchildren – even the ones who live a long distance away providing they also have a Barnes and Noble locally (sadly, my long distance ones do not). If they are already doing it with their parents, we can help. If the parents haven’t had a chance to start this, we can have fun with them all on our own.

We just have to pick up one of the forms at a local Barnes and Noble, have the grandkids read any eight books, enter the name of the books and the locations they read about onto the form, and when done, turn it into a Barnes and Noble store. Then they will each get to pick a free book from the list on the form, which includes one of the Frog and Toad books. How fun is that! (One caveat, the small print does state, "while supplies last," so it might be wise to get going on this project soon. :))

I asked my sales lady and she said it was fine for me to read the books to my grandkids and they could each add any books we read together to their own passport. We made a fun start yesterday with the first chapter in another book from The Boxcar Children Mystery Book series by Gertrude Chandler Warner, all about a missing cabin in Yosemite, as well as the entire book, Three Men in the Fiery Furnace, from Arch Books . For those looking into how to teach a child to read, reading out loud together is an excellent step, making this a terrific summer educational opportunity, along with a fun way to spend time together. 

Not only that, we can also combine it with spiritual activities for grandparents and their grandchildren, depending on the books we select. My grandkids and I used Three Men in the Fiery Furnace as a launching point for talking about the love we are learning about in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 and 13. They agreed the king and his minions definitely did NOT exhibit any example of Love that is patient and kind!  And they definitely needed to work on their anger issues. Very appropriate for this week’s, Love…it is not easily angered.

That’s not the only good news though. Barnes and Noble is also (as of June 24, 2010) having a summer clearance sale.  We found quite a few kids books for 50% off the lowest price and my senior mom was downright gleeful at some of her favorite mystery writers’ audio books marked down 40%.  

Another piece of good news is that they have released their own book reader, the Nook, as an iPhone app – the B&N eReader. The sales lady said it also works on the computer. So, just like with the Kindle, if your budget is tight or you have too many gizmos already, you can still read many books, including kids books, easily for a discounted price using one of these great apps. Perfect for trips and activities out and about this summer for grandparents and their grandchildren. In fact, you can get their Free eReader software, download now. by clicking on this link.  

Talk about great granny-nanny  and pappy multi-tasking opportunities with fun books!  That’s definitely good news for the Sandwich Generation in anyone’s book.