Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention

BUDDY, the Lhasa CAN LISTEN VERY WELL!

The longer I live, the simpler some things become. Bet you have not heard that too often from too many of your "elders"! (It is very true that many things become harder and the days seem shorter and energy is less.)

The other day, I found out that our granddaughter, Kyla was doing very well in school but is having trouble with reading.

As you might know, I have been a student of purebred dogs - and dogs generally - for about 39 years now. I have been seeing news on children reading to dogs to improve their reading skills.

Dogs are not judgmental and in fact, most of them are very sympathetic to their human's needs.

So, it was only minutes before I thought of writing some simple pieces for Kyla to read to her dog, Shiloh. Shiloh is a Labrador Retriever which makes her one of my favorite breeds for children. Labradors are fairly big but generally, they love children and are very patient with them.

When a child reads to their dog, the dog will just sit and listen. When a child reads to an adult, the adult often corrects them as they go. When a child reads in a classroom, well, now we are talking major scarey. All those people listening: it is like adults feel when they have to give a speech.

I thought about it and then took it one step further. I think there are lots of children who are trying to learn to read and it does not come easily. It is a major struggle. So, I thought,

"Hey, I could perhaps make it easier by doing a special blog for children to go to and read to their dogs." Most will likely print out the simple story and I envision their "Rover" listening to it over and over until the child is ready to read it to an adult.

I practice a little with our Buddy, but I can tell you that every dog I have had would sit down with me and listen while I talked or told a story. The right dog paired with a child will pay rapt attention to his or her young master.

This is a new and experimental project to me. I would appreciate your productive input and ideas you may have.

Happy reading, children and if you can read even some of this, you are on your way to being confident in your reading.

Reading skills help us every day in everything we do!

Happy Reading!

Link to Children's Reading Blog "Reading To Rover" is in the right column on this page or go to

http://Read-To-Rover.blogspot.com