It’s mid-summer and whether you’re an urban dweller or down home country folk, you’ve probably got a few veggies growing. When you planted the seeds or transplanted the baby starter plants, you had high hopes for their success. You anticipated the tiny rows of seedlings or you watched for blossoms on those tender tomato plants.

It’s the same way with growing vigorous, healthy readers. You’ve sowed the seeds of reading by reading aloud, using your local library and setting a good example to your kids by allowing them to see you reading for enjoyment. You’re encouraging lots of summer reading and now you’re looking for continued growth in skills and understanding.

Homegrown Readers was originally a series of articles written to encourage parents to say and do the right things for their young learners. The articles encouraged parents to understand the complexity of the reading process, to understand reading readiness and ways to plant the right attitudes and habits in children. They exposed parents to strategies that good readers use when they have trouble reading and prompts to give children to help them solve the reading problem themselves.

Now that the articles are compiled into a book, I want to encourage you to buy a copy to use as a resource as your young children learn to read both this summer and on into the school year. It’s not a curriculum– not meant to be a lesson, but rather it’s a resource based on research to help you, the parent, be a competent teacher in your own home.

Homegrown Readers is filled with lists of excellent books to use at each reading level and it’s rich with links to author, illustrator and reading websites to make reading fun and interesting. It speaks to the problem some kids have when they become discouraged with their own reading skills. And if you’re interested in getting together with other parents to compare notes and encourage one another, the book has a list of key ideas from each chapter and discussion questions.

Sometimes all you need to grow healthy plants is the right nourishment. Maybe Homegrown Readers is just the thing to boost your children’s reading health.

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