Shahrazad and her Arabian Night tales made me a lover of story with her “…and then what happened?” And C.P. Cavafy made me a lover of poetry.

I mark the last day of April as poetry month with one of my most favorite poems. I love journeys and the poem, Ithaka, written by the Greek poet, Constantine Peter Cavafy captures for me what a journey can be—one filled with passions, adventures, and awakenings. Let the poem transport you as the best of poetry does.  An interesting note —Cavafy,was born on April 29, 1863 and died on the same date in 1933 in Alexandria (Egypt).

Ithaka, by Constantine Peter Cavafy

Hope your journey is long,

Full of adventure, full of awakening.

Do not fear the monsters of the old

You will not meet them in your travels

If your thoughts are exalted and remain high'

If authentic passions stirs your mind, body and spirit.

You will not encounter fearful monsters ,

If you don't carry them within your soul,

If your soul doesn't set them up in front of you..

Hope your road is a long one.

May there be many summer mornings when,

with what pleasure, what joy,

you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;

may you stop at Phoenician trading stations

to buy fine things,

mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,

sensual perfume of every kind-

as many sensual perfumes as you can;

and may you visit many Egyptian cities

to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.

Arriving there is what you're destined for.

But don't hurry the journey at all.

Better if it lasts for years,

so you're old by the time you reach the island,

wealthy with all you've gained on the way,

not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.

Without her you wouldn't have set out.

She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.

Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,

you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

“Only the rarest kind of best in anything can be good enough for the young.”

Walter de la Mare (4/25/1873-1956) was an English poet, short story writer and novelist, probably best remembered for his works for children and "The Listeners". His children's book A Penny a Day won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1962. But I think of him as the person who taught me something very valuable when it comes to children and books—he said,  “Only the rarest kind of best in anything can be good enough for the young.”

Babytalk Magazine interviews Diane Frankenstein, award winning author of Reading Together

Diane offers advice on the importance of reading to young babies—what are the benefits and she offers some of her favorite books

Best practice for Literacy Volunteer: READ & TALK

An excerpt from a program I recently did for Literacy Volunteers:

If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a team of parents, educators, volunteers and caregivers, working together to make sure children acquire the early literacy skill they need to enter school and be successful learners. Children are made readers on the laps of their parents but when this is not the case, often the efforts of a literacy volunteer saves the day.  

Children who come to school with well-developed skills in finding meaning from books are clearly at an advantage. Someone in the home read to the children, answered their questions, and encouraged them to read and write. The National Research Council and Institute of Medicine (2000) says parents and other regular caregivers in children’s lives are the ‘active ingredients’ of environmental influence on children’s development.  However sad the case, many children don’t get the support they need at home and the role of a literacy volunteer is the bright and shinning ray of hope for those children.

We know that A child’s desire to learn to read comes from being read to and the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children. BUT being read to does not automatically lead to literacy. The real link seems to lie in the verbal interaction that occurs between adult and child during story reading. Talking with children had an even stronger effect on literacy learning than reading aloud to them. 

Unplug…your kids and yourself!

Screen Free Week, (formally TV Turn off, April 18-24, 2011) is the annual national celebration where children, families, schools, and communities turn off TV, video games, computers, and hand-held devices and turn on life.  Instead of relying on screens for entertainment, they play, read, daydream, explore nature, and enjoy spending time with family and friends.  

Children spend far too much time with screens: an astonishing average of 32 hours a week for preschoolers and even more for older children.  Time with screens is linked to poor school performance, childhood obesity, attention issues and other health and social problems.

Some information to inform your choices of how much screen time is good for children:

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics:
• The average child watches 3 hours of TV a day -- 2 hours of quality programming is the maximum recommended by the Academy.
• Active play time is needed to develop mental, physical and social skills.
 •Children who watch violence on TV are more likely to display aggressive behavior.
• Young children don't know the difference between programs and commercials.

A thought to ponder~

Geena Davis, an advocate for gender equality in children’s entertainment recently stated in the The WSJ “ A Blueprint for Change” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704415104576250900113069980.html “The more hours of television a girl watches, the fewer options she believes she has in life. And the more hours a boy watches, the more sexist his views become.”

I hope that your mini vacation from all those gadgets, like the best of vacations, present some different and new habits. A suggestion for a new habit—add the element of TALK with your children about the TV programs or videos etc they watch.   Here are some conversation starters.

~ Did you learn anything new?

~ What character would you like to be your friend? Why?

~ Is there a character you dislike?

~ How would “the story” be different if…?

~ What would you do in this situation?

~ What are you curious about at the end of “the story?”