The other night, our little girls begged me to repeat the story I had recounted the night before. I preferred to hear my husband tell it, so I turned the spotlight on him. Less than a minute after he began, our three-year-old suggested her Meow-Meow “read” it instead. He obligingly held her favorite stuffed animal in front of his mouth and switched to his kitty voice, which sounds surprisingly like Julia Child, kicked up an octave—maybe two. I wish I could adequately describe the belly laughs, giggles, and wiping of eyes that ensued. Oh, how our storytime was transformed by that little fluffy kitten.

That gleeful experience reminded me of a sweet poem by Kenn Nesbitt. I had read it to our kids a few months ago, from One Minute till Bedtime: 60-Second Poems to Send You off to Sleep.¹ It presents a peek into the special relationship a child can have with a stuffed animal.

Have I Told You?

Ted, have I told you
you’re cushy and cozy?
You’re comfy to cuddle
and hold when I’m dozy.
I love how you nuzzle,
so fuzzy and snug.
There’s no one I’d rather
have here for a hug.
So read me a page
and I’ll read one to you.
We’ll sing till we’re sleepy
and then, when we’re through,
we’ll tuck in our covers,
we’ll shut off the light,
and drift off to dreamland
together tonight.

I’m sure you have witnessed a child attached to a stuffed animal and the great imaginative play it inspires. More recently, we have found ways to harness that connection to help children increase their desire to read. In 2007, a library in Pennsylvania created an adorable program where children drop off their stuffed animals for a sleepover. Volunteers pose the animals reading around the library, then take photos. The animals line up in the morning with the books they selected to check out with their human.

I absolutely love this idea for its creativity and whimsicality. What’s more, the outcome of this event is equally amazing. A 2017 study from Japan revealed that this stuffed animal sleepover program “increased the number of children who read to the stuffed animals, and suggested that continuing to engage children in the make-believe world of their toys might be one method of sustaining their interest in early reading.”²

So use your child’s fluffy friends to your advantage! Position them as if they are reading a picture book at a small table. Have them sit atop a pile of books. Stand them up as though they are perusing your home library. This will show your little one that their friend wants to read. And they may naturally begin to read together. If not, you might want to encourage your child to read aloud to the stuffed animal. This activity can help eliminate performance anxiety. 

Parents can also check out books that have the same main character as their child’s lovey, then enjoy a fun interactive reading all together. Or in reverse, you may select toys that appear as characters in picture books and present both to your children to use as their imagination dictates. However you choose to do it, pairing reading with a toy or stuffed animal can revolutionize your reading time. The result? 

“When parents read to their children, it is a passive form of reading for the child. But when children read to their stuffed animals, it is a more spontaneous, self-directed form of reading, helping them develop into more active readers.”³

What an amazing benefit! And isn’t it just the sweetest thing? I would love to see photos of your children reading to their stuffed animals. Post it to #readingwithfluffyfriends and prepare yourself for cuteness overload.

Photo Credit: cottonbro from Pexels

¹ Nesbitt, K., & Niemann, C. (2016). One minute Till bedtime: 60-Second poems to send you off to sleep. Little, Brown and Company.

² Okazaki, Yoshihiro, and Yuki Yamada. “The Stuffed Animal Sleepover: Enhancement of Reading and the Duration of the Effect.” Define_me, www.cell.com/heliyon/fulltext/S2405-8440(16)30746-0.

³ “Sleepovers with Stuffed Animals Help Children Learn to Read.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 28 Feb. 2017, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170228084213.htm.

Most people have found Post-It Notes to be useful for jotting down grocery or to-do lists, reminders, and notes for friends or family members. But if you haven’t discovered the power of using sticky notes as bookmarks, you are in for a treat! There are so many reasons I love using them this way, and I hope at least one of them simplifies and streamlines reading for you and your child.

They Keep Your Spot

Regular bookmarks sometimes get pulled out of doing their job by thoughtless toddlers. Or older children mysteriously misplace your entire bookmark collection. If those aren’t issues in your house, gravity most certainly is. Just when you think your place is safely held, books inevitably fall while being shuffled around and you’re left to helplessly watch your bookmark flutter to the floor. Not so with the ingenious sticky strip designed to cling to your page.

Unlike other bookmarks, sticky notes may be used upside down, sideways, or folded. And if you cut a small square notch in the corner, not only will the Post-It Note help you find the last page you read, it can pinpoint the last sentence, nay, the exact word your eyes last beheld. It saves you time and frustration not having to reread an entire page to find your spot again. 

You Can Write on Them

Traditional bookmarks are laminated or decorated with artwork, making it difficult to take notes on. But reading and writing go hand-in-hand. Thus, the Post-It Note is an invaluable tool for readers. If we had our children recording new vocabulary words as they found them, questions regarding the text, or page numbers to show you their favorite parts of a book, reading would become much more interactive, rewarding, and educational. You could even send your child on a scavenger hunt! Write several words down on a sticky note and have your child look for them as they read a book. All they need to do is write the page number on which they find each word. 

They Help You Work Smarter, Not Harder

I didn’t realize until college how life-changing sticky notes could be. If while reading a book I struggled to keep new characters straight, I would write a list or chart of their names and what I knew about them. I would refer to that sticky bookmark instead of having to flip back through all the pages to figure out who had just done what. Sometimes we cram so much in our heads at once, it can’t help but spill out. Catching that detailed information on a sticky note ensures it will be there when we need it most.

Can you imagine how this could help a student in middle or high school thrive in their literature class? Instead of getting to the end of a book and having to go back through to figure out the theme or find certain quotes to support it, your child could be finding these key elements during the process of reading. Taking notes (with page numbers) on their Post-It Note bookmark or leaving sticky notes throughout the book with comments and thoughts written on them will undoubtedly make writing book reports easier and more meaningful. This type of activity allows for more careful reading, deeper comprehension, and increased enjoyment as students search for hidden nuggets like foreshadowing, analogy, or irony.

Lastly, I have even seen visual learners map out ideas on different colored sticky notes, then affix them to a desk or wall in an arrangement that makes sense to them. In this same manner, breaking down a story into its literary elements could be a game changer for our struggling readers. This would make it possible for them to see the story in a new format, one that is easier to comprehend.

I wish to publicly thank the inventor and the manufacturer of Post-It Notes for designing such a versatile and useful tool for reading and learning. And I hope you and your children enjoy trying out sticky notes as bookmarks. Let me know what you think of these ideas in the comments!

Photo by AbsolutVision on Unsplash

As an English teacher and book lover, I always imagined that my children would approach reading the same way I do. When they showed some affinity for it, I was thrilled. As they got a bit older, they began checking out longer, thicker books that were probably beyond their reading level. My husband and I cautioned them about this, but were secretly proud of their choices. That is, until we found bookmarks traveling through pages as if by magic. The kids claimed to have finished 200 to 300 page books in just a few days when we hardly saw them reading at all. We tried to call their bluff, but they were adamant. 

They told us they read faster in their heads than they did aloud. But there was no possible way they could read that much faster. The only thing that made sense was that they were skimming, not reading. And on occasion, they would reluctantly confess. They explained that they picked through the books to find the exciting or funny parts, but they couldn’t see what was wrong with that.

We had discussions with our kids about how important it was to read a book from cover to cover, and every sentence in between. If they didn’t, they would miss out on key details, plot twists, and other literary elements and devices that would help them understand the stories on a deeper level. I was concerned that they would have difficulty in their English classes as they progressed through school. And I didn’t want my kids struggling, especially when I had devoted so much of my life to literature.

However, they continued to read in their own special way, no matter what we said or how we tried to work with and motivate them. Eventually, we learned a better way. Instead of resuming the argument, we tried to understand what was really going on. We educated ourselves further on how the ADHD brain works. Naturally, it’s very different from the neurotypical brain. 

My children are able to read aloud fluently and accurately, but sometimes have difficulty comprehending what they’ve read. That’s reasonable, considering they admit to skimming and skipping around in their books. But the following quote explains why they might be doing this.

“Many students with ADHD can fall behind while reading, missing phrases in the text, skipping over words or sentences, losing track of where they are on the page, missing details and connections. This is especially evident when passages are long and complex. Boredom and fatigue can take over and attention can quickly wander elsewhere.” ¹

Essentially, they have to fight hard to cover any ground in their reading. No, it’s not because of laziness or apathy. It’s due to the way their brain is wired. And yes, there are great ways to help youth with ADHD have an easier time comprehending what they read. But there are a couple other things we’ve learned as parents that we find most valuable. First, when we don’t think or operate in the same manner, we cannot expect them to read the same way we do. Along with some coaching and helpful strategies, they need freedom to use the approach that works best for them. That is the only way they can develop a love of reading, which is the ultimate goal. Second, it is rather remarkable that our kids can skip and skim so much and get the amount they do out of a text. As a detail-oriented person, I certainly couldn’t do that. 

I have told my children that while their brains may not work as most people’s do, they have some pretty amazing superpowers. They are inventive, creative, curious thinkers. They can hyperfocus on something to the extent that everything else seems to disappear, making it possible to pick up new knowledge and talents rather quickly. They have limitless energy and charisma, the likes of which many of us only dream of. They can be direct, bold, and handle multiple things going on at once. I am beyond excited to see what they end up doing with all of these gifts. And when those thick books come and go over the course of a few days, I am so happy our kids keep deciding to pick them up.

¹ Low, K. (2020, September 25). Reading comprehension challenges for children with adhd. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/adhd-and-reading-comprehension-20806. 

Photo by Fabiola Peñalba on Unsplash