Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Brainstorming 101


Ok, we all have a brain. We all use our brain independently daily but when you connect your brain to another person or persons.....the explosion of creativity, imagination and pure fun appear. It is a wonderful exercise to sit down with your kids and ask them what they think about reading. Why do we read? Is it fun to read? What are you reading now? What would you like to read in the future? Do you feel pressure to read? What do YOU think about books, illustrations, and your ability as a reader? All these questions are very important and relevant to the exercise I am going to suggest to you.
There is a website called: http://www.wordle.net. Go there and start the explosion process. You can brainstorm with your kids all the words that come to their minds when they think about the concept of reading. When you design your wordle you simply go to design and type in a list of words that describe that word. Be sure to let your child control most of the words while you pipe up if there is a gap. If your child is not a committed reader and experiencing some trouble be sure to include those words like: hard, complicated, scary, difficult etc. When you brainstormed a list of reading words then design your wordle. Be sure to push the RANDOM button which enables you to choose different colours and styles of the wordle you wish to choose as your own design. When your child picks the perfect one....publish it....print it and hang it on the fridge or on your child's bedroom wall. This is a great way to have your child describe to you his/her feelings regarding the art and skill of reading, document them and display them so you can be encouraged to talk about the results. Have a great day and read on.

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