Little Promises lesson: Curl up next to a friend with a good book

Marilee Reyes

For The New Era

One of the best things a child can learn is that they can curl up with a good book just about anywhere.

It’s one lesson being proven time and again at the Little Promises Children’s Program. Every morning, students from the upper levels join their pre-school and kindergarten counterparts for a mentor reading session in the school gymnasium.

According to school director Anita Hutchins, the program has been very successful and one the kids look forward to. On any given day there can be up to 70 youngsters involved in the program.

Stretched out on mats on the gym floor, secluded in a corner of the stage, perched on top of a piece of indoor gym equipment, they sit with heads bent over a book, perusing the colorful and entertaining pages, the older ones reading to the younger ones, and now and then the other way around.

With wacky rhymes and silly words, Dr. Seuss seems to be the author of choice for most of the kids. “Green Eggs and Ham” and “The Cat In The Hat” don’t even get to gather dust in the book case. One child will return a book to the case and minutes later another child pulls the book out of its slot and plunks down to read with a partner.

David Guy McMullen, 5, and Justin Hilburn, 12, are parked in a quiet corner on the stage, checking out Seuss’s “Fox In Sox” on a recent July morning. It’s just one of three or four they will read that day. David says he likes all of the Dr. Seuss books.

Justin modestly explains that he’s been a “really good reader” since kindergarten and he enjoys sharing the books with David while they read and talk about the story and the pictures. Both boys like to ride dirt bikes, play sports and run around, but the time spent reading is a lot of fun, too.

With a very serious face, David says he knows a lot of the words in the book, too. He’ll start kindergarten next month and Justin is entering the seventh grade. The difference in their ages doesn’t matter when they are buried between the pages.

Across the room, on a corner of one of the mats, Braden Green, 7, and Blake Anderson, 9, are deep into “Inside, Outside, Upside Down” by The Berenstains, a husband/wife franchise that has cranked out an endless line of books to help children learn and understand new growth experiences. Braden says he also likes Dr. Seuss’s “Green Eggs and Ham” and “I’ll Teach My Dog 100 Words” by Michael Frith. He says he “really” likes the last one and reads it a lot.

Like Justin and David, they enjoy doing typical kid things such as skateboard, ride bikes and play with their pets — for Justin that means sand geckos. But when it comes to books, that’s a pretty good time too. After all, there’s a lot of neat stuff in those pages.

“It definitely gives them an appreciation for reading,” said Hutchins.

According to Hutchins the mentor reading program was initiated at the beginning of the summer under the direction of the O.K.(Older Kids) teachers Dawn Valloni and Tami Woorley, and the kindergarten/pre-school teachers Amanda Coffey and Lindsay Armstrong.

Valloni pointed out a chart on the wall that maintains a tally of how many books have been read during the summer. The goal line reads “Yeah – We did it!” Valloni said that at the end of the 10 weeks of the reading activity the children will have a pizza party and they are all looking forward to that.

Hutchins founded the school 23 years ago and has served as director since then. It was a privately owned school until a few years ago when she said she was starting to consider retirement. A board was formed and it’s now a non-profit operation, but she says the support from the community and parents still make it a special place to be,

“It’s all about the kids and we take it seriously that we are training them to be responsible, good citizens,” said Hutchins. With a smile as proud as any mother might display when talking about an accomplished child, she said that for the past 13 years Sweet Home High School has had either a valedictorian or a salutatorian who had got their start at Little Promises.

If things run true to form, perhaps one day Justin, Braden or one of the other youngsters sprawled out on the gymnasium floor with book in hand will also be added to that tally.

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