I am pleased to share about our newest program on “Can Do” Street, “Read Along with Grandma Jean.” The program is about helping young children, and children who have English as a second language develop their reading skills, and come to enjoy reading.

Stories are narrated, and, as Grandma Jean tells the story, each word is highlighted as she says it. Each story can also be read without using the narration and highlighting features. Stories are started by choosing the play icon and stopped by choosing the stop icon. If you stop the story before the end of the story, the story will begin where you stopped it. Just choose the play icon once again.

Read Along with Grandma Jean comes from my experiences as a volunteer reading coach for children in kindergarten through 2nd grade, and as a certified TESOL instructor, working with children having English as a second language.

Read Along with Grandma Jean is about helping children with vocabulary building, word recognition, pronunciation, comprehension, and developing the ability and confidence to read and enjoy the process of reading.

The Program begins with six stories that feature the “Can Do” characters . More stories will be added over the coming months. Each of the six stories has a story line designed to catch and hold the interest of a young child.

The first Read Along with Grandma Jean stories are:

Hector+ Ants =Trouble – Hector decides to take ants to an indoor picnic

Why Do Grandmas Have Wrinkles – The “Can Dos” ask Grandma Hattie about wrinkles

Maria is a Flat Leaver – Maria makes plans with Nellie and then goes off with Wendy instead.

Kathy Fell Asleep in Class Again – Why did Kathy fall asleep in class this time?

The Way it Was – The “Can Dos” are amazed at what life was like when Grandpa Dooley was growing up.

Telling the Truth – Miss Pat tells a story about what can happen if you get to be known as a kid who doesn’t tell the truth.

Read Along with Grandma Jean can be accessed on a computer or downloaded to a hand-held device. You can get to the Read Along with Grandma Jean Program from the “Can Do” Street home page, http://www.candostreet.com then choose the green awning that says, “Read Along with Grandma Jean Audio Children’s Stories.”

Best regards,

Jean Campbell, Creator, “Can Do” Street

Dear Readers,

The children’s blog, that went up on Sept 21st, is about storytelling. 

Storytelling has almost become a lost art for many children. Yet, encouraging children to tell stories is the natural first step to transitioning them to writing stories. Simply put, good writing content comes from good storytelling. Coupled with good grammar, punctuation, and spelling a child can be a confident writer who enjoys, rather than dreads,  the writing process.

During the next few children’s blogs, the “Can Do” kids will be introduced to the art of oral and written storytelling by Storyteller Bill Wood, who began telling stories, writing stories, and putting on plays as a young boy. Now a senior, long involved in community theater, he is once again writing for children and producing children’s theater.

In the blog on the 26th, children will review a familiar children’s story that’s a bit on the scary side . They will see that the story can be made less scary, even funny, and still carry a learning lesson.

From time to time, I would like to use the children’s blog to continue encouraging children to practice storytelling.

As grandmas and grandpas,  moms and dads, aunts and uncles, teachers and coaches of young children, you all  have stories you can share.  I am inviting all who are reading this blog  to send me a story you have written,  or that was told to you as a young child, and now you tell to your children .

Once a month, we will pick a story for publication on the children’s site. Full credit will be given to the author of the story. Please send your story to me, jeanc@candostreet.com.

Let’s make writing interesting and fun by sharing our gift of storytelling! Let’s start sharing our stories!

All the best,

Jean