Smart Woman: A Bonding Experience

<b>Reading Program:</b> Motheread is a program for parents designed to improve family lives through reading. Parents are encouraged to read to their children even before they are born. It is currently

Thursday, January 6th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Reading Program: Motheread is a program for parents designed to improve family lives through reading. Parents are encouraged to read to their children even before they are born. It is currently offered 16 states across the U-S. The program includes classes that bring parents together with specially trained teachers to read and talk about the images and ideas conveyed in childrenâ€™s stories. After these classes, parents are prepared to read the books to their children and discuss the issues raised. Parents become better role models and children become better readers.

The programâ€™s primary goals are to:

 Teach children to read
 Improve the relationship between the child and parent
 Improve the listening, speaking and reading skills of the parent
 Bring families closer together
 Give children a sense of security

Reading Strategies: Motheread organizers believe the everyday usefulness of the story is important. Michelle says, â€œWe read the story and the story varies with each time we read it because we canâ€™t remember what we said the last time.â€ Parents who fell intimidated by reading are encouraged to create stories. Nancye Gaj, Motheread founder, says, â€œThe ways that children learn to interact with the world are primarily through the way they can use the language.â€ She says parents should pay attention to how many words the child knows, how confident they feel to express themselves, how much they understand what people say to them and how much they can make sense of the whole world around them.

For more information, contact:

Nancye Gaj
Motheread
3924 Browning Place, Suite 7
Raleigh, NC 27609
(919) 781-2088
E-mail: motheread@earthlink.net