Last week I started answering this grandmother's concern:
Dear Gaila,
My grandchildren live in Israel and are second generation Israelis. Their English is abominable. Their reading and writing almost non-existent. My children don't seem to realize what a loss it is. I don't want to push the issue with them, but are there things I can do as a grandmother to help my grandchildren?
Doting Grandmother
Dear Fellow Grandparents,
First off – salutation to Shalhevets' grandfather! He reads them their nighttime story on a regular basis! He skypes during his lunch hour - when it is their bedtime. He connects with his grandchildren on a regular basis while managing to help with their English! Thank you Ilana for reminding me of what your wonderful father in law does.
I want to share with you another tool to improve reading with minimum work. This is a FANTASTIC, very simple program called Great Leaps. Kenneth Campbell, a dedicated educator, developed this program after years of research, and it can improve reading levels by 2 or even 3 years within a few months!
All it requires is 7 minutes of work on a daily basis. The program uses phonics, chunking and simple funny stories. From experience, kids love the charts that allow them to see their guaranteed progress on a daily basis. Watch this video below for more about Great Leaps:
Anyone can do Great Leaps with their child. But who could be better than loving grandparents? And what could be better than spending 7 minutes every day on reading with your grandchildren?
I have seen it work miracles with my own children, and more students than I can count. One year A.H.A.V.A. received a grant which enabled us to use this with an entire elementary school. Normally, there are 20% of non-readers in a grade. That year every single child in the fourth grade class was reading at level by the end of the year!
Get ready to make great leaps with your grandchild!
Gaila
Gaila has almost 40 year of experience teaching and runs A.H.A.V.A., a non-profit to promote English literacy. Would you like to ask Gaila a question? Email us at ahava.org@gmail.com or send us a message. Look out for more Dear Gaila columns