Tag: reading

Tips To Choose Your Next Book

November 14, 2024Megan HerrenAdvice

Avid readers are always seeking new material to whet their literary appetites. Reading can be an immensely enjoyable activity, and one with notable benefits. According to Basmo, a reading tracker app, a couple hundred thousand books are published each year. The sheer volume of material to choose from can make it challenging to find a good book.

Readers can pursue many avenues to find new books. The following are just a few ways to find the next book you won’t want to put down.

Visit the Library

With so much content at your fingertips, it may be tempting to turn to the internet to find a new read. Instead, go back to where many people first fall in love with reading. The local library has many great offerings and personnel who can help you find something that will prove a good match.

Visit a Local Bookstore

If you’d rather purchase a book, your local bookstore is an ideal place to get feedback on books. Whether it’s a chain store or an independent retailer, many bookstores employ individuals who are book lovers themselves. Ask for recommendations.

Try an App

Options like Whichbook enable you to find your next book based on various qualifiers, such as emotion, geography or type of character.

Go with a Classic

Browse a list of classics and find books that you haven’t read yet or even ones you may want to reread now that you are older. There are reasons these books have withstood the test of time.

Ask Family and Friends

Query the people in your life who love to read and find out what they are reading. You may be introduced to an author that you weren’t familiar with or a book series that is right up your alley.

Join a Book Club

A book club will expose you to a rotation of new books for as long as you are a member. Since books tend to be suggested by members each go-round, you won’t fall in the trap of only choosing one genre or “safe” titles that you are used to.

Go with Authors’ Recommendations

If you like a particular author, research who he or she is reading. Some authors recommend others in the industry. While some of these recommendations may be for compensation or publicity, many are legitimate suggestions.

Let Your Reading History Dictate

Reading services like Amazon’s Kindle will recommend new titles based on your reading habits; otherwise, search for “books like (name title)” online to discover books that have a similar theme or style.

Reading is a popular pastime that can strengthen the brain and relax the body. There are many ways to find new books to read to keep one’s library fully stocked.

Resolve to Read More and Reap the Benefits

January 30, 2020MBEhleAdvice

It may be tempting to curl up on the couch and turn on the television to unwind, but research indicates that reading is one of the best workouts for the brain. The World Health Organization says that doctors diagnose nearly 10 million new cases of dementia each year. With so many people understandably concerned about any and all cognitive issues related to aging, the search is continually on to find ways to strengthen the mind’s muscle. It may be as simple as picking up a book.

People make New Year’s resolutions to improve their lives, and reading more can be a great way to do just that. According to the online health and wellness resource The Healthy (www.thehealthy.com), reading has been associated with language reception in the left temporal cortex of the brain. When this part of the brain processes written material, neurons begin working hard to transmit information. Research conducted by Stanford University indicated that MRI scans of people who are deep into a Jane Austen novel showed an increase in blood flowing to areas of the brain that control both cognitive and executive function.

When the brain is working efficiently, it may be less prone to some of the issues that can cause a decline in memory and brain function. Research published in the journal Neurology found frequent brain exercise through reading lowered mental decline by 32 percent. Of course, the benefits of reading extend beyond the physical. Literary fiction can help people be more empathetic. Getting lost in a book and the characters’ stories makes others more relatable. Reading has the potential to help a person understand what people are thinking, offers research published in the journal Science.

Picking up a good book also can help a person gain knowledge of new cultures, ideas and history and even improve vocabulary. Picking up a newspaper or magazine, joining a book club or reading with children are just a few of the many ways to improve the mind through reading.

Tips to Prevent Summer Brain Drain

July 12, 2018MBEhleAdvice, Music, Outdoors, Projects, School, Summer

Studies show that summer brain drain can be a formidable force, setting kids’ progress back over the long break from the classroom. But you can help kids avoid losing their academic mojo. Here’s how.

Take a Hike

Not all learning has to happen indoors or while sitting still. Take a family nature walk and ask kids to pay special attention to the plant and animal species you encounter on your journey, as well as any special rock formations or other geological features you see, taking notes and photographs as you go. Once back home, do some research about the most interesting things that you saw.

Make Music

Music education is important for budding minds, and learning music at home in summer can be easy and affordable. Stock your household with a portable keyboard designed for students in mind. For example, the CT-X700 boasts a high-quality sound system, as well as features that are perfect for student musicians, like a six-track recorder, a library of 100 built-in songs, and the Step-Up Lesson system, which allows students to learn the songs with the display showing proper fingering and notation. Its USB-MIDI port connects to any Mac, PC, Android or iOS device with no drivers or installation needed. The included music rest is designed to support tablets, and the built-in smartphone shelf holds your device as you use the keyboard with favorite music apps.

Read Outdoors

Summer is the perfect opportunity for students to delve deep into what interests them most. Make a day of it. First stop: the library or bookstore, where kids can find reading materials dealing with their favorite topics. Then, pack a picnic lunch and find a shady spot in a local park or your own backyard, to read outdoors. At the end of the day, everyone can discuss what he or she read.

Math Fun

Make math more fun with a free, all-in-one web-based mathematics resource like Classpad.net, that allows users to draw geometry figures freehand and input calculations as they would on real scratch paper. Geared for K-12+ mathematics students, the app is designed to be equally usable by keyboard/mouse and touchscreen-based platforms, so that students can keep up their math skills wherever their summer adventures take them.

Take a Vacation

Going somewhere new and interesting? In advance of your trip, have kids spend some time learning about the history and culture of your destination. If you’re going abroad, they can even learn some basics of a foreign language.

To keep minds active all summer long, be sure to combine learning and fun.

How To Keep Kids Engaged Over Summer Break

July 20, 2017MBEhleSeasonal, Summer

Reading is a great way for students to keep their brains sharp during prolonged school breaks. Children in North America will spend, on average, more than 900 hours attending school in a given year. The average school year in the United States lasts 1,016 hours, the equivalent of 42 continuous days. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, many developed countries begin their academic years in September and end them in June. Some, like Australia, feature four terms with two-week breaks in between each term. Others go to school for most of the year – with various holiday breaks in between – and then get the bulk of their time off during the summer.

As much time as kids spend in school, there will be times when they are left to their own devices, and during these times it’s easy for them to forgot classroom lessons. Sometimes called “summer learning loss” or “summer slide,” this forgetfulness sees many students fail to retain all of their lessons over prolonged breaks from school. Studies indicate that students score lower on standardized tests at the end of the summer compared to their performance on the same tests at the beginning of summer. Anywhere from between one to three month’s worth of educational achievement can dissipate during prolonged breaks from the classroom. To help ensure that those hard-earned lessons are not so easily forgotten, parents can help children remain intellectually engaged in various ways over school breaks.

Stick To A Schedule

Try to maintain a schedule similar to school, with children waking at the same time each day and going to bed at similar hours. This will make it much easier to get back into a routine when a new school year begins.

Encourage Reading

Set aside time for reading each day. All it generally takes is 15 to 30 minutes of reading per day for kids to remember their vocabulary lessons and maintain their fluency and comprehension skills. Children may enjoy picking their own books rather than having a required reading list.
Keep a math book handy

On long car trips or rainy days, children can do a few math problems to keep their skills sharp. This will help keep learning loss to a minimum. Math workbooks may be available at bookstores, or parents can look online or ask a teacher for a summer to-do packet.

Plan Educational Trips

Vacations and day trips can be fun, entertaining and educational all at the same time. Science centers, museums and living history locations can bring to life information learned in the classroom, even on family vacations.

Learn At Camp

Many children attend camp for a portion of their school breaks. Look for camps that do not simply babysit children, but engage them through enrichment activities.

Take A Class

Children and families can learn together by exploring new skills. Enroll in something educational and enjoyable, such as a music or dance class, a STEM seminar or something else that engages the mind and body. This gives everyone a chance to learn something new and have a great time together as a family.
Parents and educators can reduce lesson loss over school breaks by encouraging families to remain intellectually engaged in any way they can.