You Can Help Your Child Travel the World Summer reading provides HUGE benefits for children of all ages, especially for the practice and the self-selection that it provides. Research indicates these two factors are the best predictors of good reading and writing skills. 1 May 2026 Gini Musmanno Comprehension, Education, Fluency, Independent Reading, Parent, Summer Reading No Comments Permalink Read Post
Reading Incentives During my first week as a reading specialist at primary level, I encountered a first-grade teacher who used some very unusual incentives for his reading class. Bob, the only male in our primary school, had a sly grin when I asked him how he motivated his first graders. 1 Apr 2026 Gini Musmanno Education, Fluency, Independent Reading, Summer Reading, Uncategorized No Comments Permalink Read Post
How Old is Too Old... for Picture Books? As a lover of children’s literature, I believe that NO age is too old to enjoy and appreciate children’s books, even, or especially, picture books. Here’s why. I originally expected to teach primary students when I became a reading specialist, but I was placed in an intermediate level building, teaching fifth and sixth grade struggling readers. By that time, my love affair with children’s literature was in the bewitching period, so I began to enthusiastically share the picture books I was encountering as I visited my favorite children’s bookstore on Saturday mornings. (See my previous post: Falling in Love …with Children’s Literature) Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening (by Robert Frost, illustrated by Susan Jeffers) was the first book I shared with my students, and Hiawatha (by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, illustrated, again, by Susan Jeffers) was the second. I suppose they were a fallback to my previous life as an English teacher, but I loved these picture books, and so did my struggling, high-poverty students. With children, loving books can be contagious, if you show enough love! When I heard that... 1 Mar 2026 Gini Musmanno Education, Independent Reading, Learning Lessons From Students, Summer Reading No Comments Permalink Read Post
Beloved Books for Children I have made a list of my most beloved children’s books, those I saved well past my retirement. The Age of Downsizing has come upon me. It is both depressing and liberating. Why did I buy so much STUFF? I don’t know about the STUFF, but I know why I bought all those children’s books. I wrote about my love affair with children’s books in a previous post: Falling in Love with Children’s Literature My new young neighbors just had their second child, and it seems the perfect gift—a very big box of my most beloved books (used), including Tomie dePaola’s Nursery Rhymes. Previously, I wrote a post about the importance of nursery rhymes in The Best Baby Gift Here’s a list of my most favorite books to read with preschool and primary level children. I hope you’ll give one... 1 Feb 2026 Gini Musmanno Education, Independent Reading, Parent No Comments Permalink Read Post
