How To Raise A Happy Genius

What Is It?

Read Write Count is a great initiative which aims to encourage parents to integrate the learning and practicing of reading, writing, counting and maths into everyday family life in fun and practical ways. Through this, they hope to improve the academic skills of children as they begin their formal academic education, and so their overall achievements in life. The information on this site is provided in the form of articles, videos, photo stories and case studies from other parents, making it a very useful resource for ideas of how to make the continued development of reading, writing, counting and maths skills an integral part of your parent-child relationship.

Why Is It Useful?

Children learn basic academic skills best not from teachers in schools (although they undoubtedly have an important role to play), but from seeing these skills being used by their parents and other adults in their everyday life. This means that the more that reading, writing, counting and maths is integrated into their home life, especially if it is done in fun and interesting ways, the quicker they will grasp these core life skills. Read Write Count provides advice to parents on how best to do this, including some great suggestions for lots of fun activities which allow these skills to be practiced at home or when out and about. There is no doubt that this is the best way for kids to learn any core life skill, and this approach is something which is very much in keeping with the How To Raise A Happy Genius philosophy. As this website is based in Scotland, information is provided in both English and Gaelic, but you will find it useful no matter where in the world you are based.

Who Is Behind It?

Read Write Count is a collaboration between the Scottish Government, Education Scotland and the Scottish Book Trust. These organisations provide packs to every child in Scotland in primaries one, two and three with books and other educational materials, but the information provided on the website is useful for parents no matter where they are in the world.

Five Pages Worth Checking Out On This Website:

To help you get an understanding of the type of information provided by Read Write Count, here are links to five articles which provide useful suggestions for integrating the development of basic academic skills into everyday family life:

1. Make A Meal: This suggestion highlights all the ways that reading can be integrated into the simple act of making a family meal, and it has the added benefit of getting children involved in cooking from as early an age as possible (which is always a good idea).
2. Getting a Letter Through the Door: Junk mail is a pervasive nuisance in modern society, but instead of putting it straight in the recycling, why not let your child use it to practice their reading skills?
3. At The Shops: Shopping provides many opportunities to let your child practice their basic academic skills, but this one suggests letting your children help find items from your shopping list. Again, this has the added benefit that your child will be learning about the practicalities of everyday shopping at the same time, which is, in itself, a core life skill that kids need to master to become happy and independent adults.
4. Chilling with a Magazine: Despite the advent of digital technology, many of us still have old magazines and newspapers lying around the house. This article provides suggestions of how you can use them to help your child develop their writing skills.
5. Shop Till You Read Write Count: This is a video that shows how you can integrate many aspects of basic academic skills into a shopping trip, ranging from writing lists and finding items to counting out money to pay for it. This is traditionally how many children would have learned these skills, but somehow in the last few decades this important aspect of practical education seems to have disappeared from the lives of too many children.

About The Author: This post was written by Colin Drysdale, the creator of How To Raise A Happy Genius.