One of the truly joyful parts of working at the United Way, is the opportunity to take part in Norman Reads. Norman Reads is a program of Success By 6 that partners businesses with child care centers. Each businesses promises to send someone to read at the child care center at least once a week.
UWN is partnered up with Kidopolis. So every Thursday at 11 a.m., one of us heads over with some books and reads. Last week I took two books to Kidopolis, “Stellaluna” and “Who Took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar“.
I asked the children which one they wanted to read first. They picked ”Stellaluna.” Stellaluna is story about a baby bat who get lost from her mother. A mama bird takes her in, but only if she’ll act like a bird and not a bat. That means no hanging by her feet, eating bugs and sleeping at night. Eventually Stellaluna finds her mother again and everyone lives happily ever after. While reading this book, we discussed bats and what they ate (mangos) and if any of the kids could see at night. (one of them said yes)
Next came “Who Took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar.” This book is a mystery. Skunk’s cookies are missing and he is following the clues to find who took them. Many of the animals we pass along the way say it wasn’t them because they eat something else… mouse eats cheese, raven eats worms, snake ate an antelope last week.
My favorite part was when we got to beaver. Of course beaver didn’t take the cookies, he eats sticks. This is when one of the children told me she tried to eat a stick once, but she spit it out because it had dirt on it. I started laughing, then also told her she probably shouldn’t eat any more sticks.
That’s when I remembered… reading to children isn’t only good for them, it’s good for me too. The interactions I have when reading always make me smile. Many times it’s the highlight of my week.
If you want to take part in the Norman Reads program, shoot Success By 6 an email. We’ll find a spot for you to make a difference.
*Post written by Jed Dembowski, United Way of Norman staff
