The Invisible Toolbox

How one activity can lead to lifelong benefits for your child: “Parents, teachers, and all who love children will be inspired.” —Amy Dickinson, New York Times bestselling author of Strangers Tend to Tell Me Things

Longtime elementary school teacher Kim Jocelyn Dickson believes every child begins kindergarten with a lunchbox in one hand and an “invisible toolbox” in the other. In this book, she shares with parents the single most important thing they can do to foster their child’s future learning potential and nurture the parent-child bond that is the foundation for a child’s motivation to learn. Drawing on both neuroscientific research and her own experience as an educator, she concludes that the simple act of reading aloud has a far-reaching impact that few of us fully understand—and our recent, nearly universal saturation in technology has further clouded its importance.In The Invisible Toolbox, parents, educators, and early literacy advocates will discover: • Ten priceless tools that fill their child’s toolbox when they read aloud to their child
• Tools parents can give themselves to foster these gifts in their children
• Practical tips for how and what to read aloud to children through their developmental stages
• Dos and don’ts and recommended resources that round out all the practical tools a parent will need to prepare their child for kindergarten and beyond
• How parents can build their own toolboxes so they can help their children build theirs